The Ondo State
governor, Olusegun Mimiko, on Tuesday called for adequate funding of
the nation’s universities to attain scientific and technological
breakthrough, adding that the productivity of any university should not
be based on its size but on its impact on the economic, scientific, and
industrial breakthrough of the nation.
The governor, who
made the submission while playing host to members of the presidential
visitation panel to the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA)
at the Government House, noted that Nigeria does not need to rely on
foreign countries and expatriates to achieve results in all human
endeavours.
According to him, the nation is blessed with abundant human and natural resources to turn around her fortune.
He stated that most
of the world renowned scientists and professors of repute are citizens
of Nigeria who have made appreciable impacts on the socio-economic
development of most of the developed countries in the world.
Mr. Mimiko,
however, commended President Goodluck Jonathan for setting up the
visitation panel and described it as a panacea to solving some critical
challenges of the university.
“The more
investment we put in our university system, the better for this
country. We just have to invest more in this system. And for us, we
shall continue to collaborate with FUTA, especially in the area of
agriculture and other areas of development to solve the problem of the
country,” Mr. Mimiko said.
Earlier in his
speech, the chairman of the visitation panel, Saka Nuhu, said the panel
was constituted to assess the challenges facing the university in the
execution of its mission in the past six years.
