Nigerian varsities and vaccine production, By Rahma O. Oladosu
Since late 2019 when the killer pandemic of Coronavirus was discovered in the Chinese industrial city of Wuhan, the world has known no peace, but rancorous bedlam.
The statistics of persons across the world who paid the ‘supreme price’ after being infested with COVID-19, so far, is staggering.
Like in several other world nations, the Coronavirus, has not only killed hundreds of Nigerians, it also dealt severely with our economy, at a point.
Covid-19, it was that caused Nigeria to witness an economic recession, sometime in 2020. The handiwork of Coronavirus made many small-scale businesses to fold up, forcing many Nigerian workers to loss their jobs and other means of livelihood.
Who has forgotten how tertiary institutions, together with secondary and primary schools across the country, had their academic calendars distorted–after schools were shut for the entire 2020. May the soul of Mallam Abba Kyari continue to rest in peace.
But it was the ravaging Covid-19 that ‘killed’ the immediate-past Chief of Staff to Mr. President. The same ‘Coro’ has killed other prominent Nigerians, since it was discovered in the country, two years ago.
Yet, the country has made significant progress in the area of tackling the ‘deadly’ epidemic. Aside the procurement by federal government and the administering of various types of Covid vaccines on million citizens, Nigerian researchers in the countries’ universities are doing ‘fantastic’ job in developing ‘portent’ vaccines to counter the pandemic.
The University of Ilorin, it would be recalled flagged off of its ultra-modern Molecular Diagnostic and Research Laboratory, in June 2021. The project was sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
A statement by the Director of Corporate Affairs, University of Ilorin, Mr Kunle Akogun, (then) disclosed that the laboratory, commissioned by TETFund’s Executive Secretary, Professor Suleman Elias Bogoro, has already obtained the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) certification as a Public Health Laboratory for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and the surveillance of other infectious diseases like poliomyelitis, Lassa Fever and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.
Similarly, the federal government, while appreciating the challenges posed by Coronavirus in 2020, increased funding for tertiary education research by N4.5 billion.
It reportedly did so based on the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari through the National Research Fund (NRF) domiciled in TETFund.
The fund available for research-based activities was increased from N3 billion to 7.5 billion.
Prof. Bogoro, at the 2020 TETFund Board of Trustees Retreat in Abuja, noted that the latest approval makes the agency the largest holder of research grants in Nigeria.
Bogoro, (then) also disclosed the earlier approval of the establishment of six medical simulation research and clinical training facilities in six colleges of medicine in each geopolitical zone within the year.
This provides an opportunity for TETFund to see to the establishment of 12 COVID-19 and related infectious disease molecular laboratories, two in each geopolitical zone, making the fund the highest single provider of COVID-19 test centres in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the Nigerian Universities’ Scientists, under the aegis of COVID-19 Research Group, in October 2020, announced the discovery of a vaccine for the prevention of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Addressing a news conference at Adeleke University, Ede, in Osun, Dr Oladipo Kolawole, Leader of the team, said the vaccine was being developed locally in Africa for Africans.
Kolawole, a Specialist in Medical Virology, Immunology and Bioinformatics, at Adeleke University, Ede, however, said the vaccine would also work for other continents when unveiled.
Dr. Kolawole, said the group had been working extensively by exploring the SARS-CoV-2 genome from African countries to select the best possible potential vaccine candidates.
He said after trying out some selected processes of vaccine development, the researchers had been able to choose the best potential vaccine candidates for the SARS-CoV-2 and had made the possible latent vaccine constructs.
Another milestone achieved by TETFund, courtesy of her NRF, is the global certification of Nigerian universities as world-class centres of research and development. Only recently, three Nigerian universities received certification from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for advancement to the next stage of their research works.
The feat was achieved through the TETFund-funded NRF grant in respect of Vaccine production, drug development and gene sequencing.
There is every reason to applaud the strides of TETFund in not only investing massively in research and development, which few of the sterling results recorded have been highlighted above, but in her dogged commitment in remodeling Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
Hence, saying kudos to TETFund for her unparalleled efforts in transforming the fortunes of our tertiary education, won’t be too much for the asking.
Rahma Olamide Oladosu is a Staff Writer with the Economic Confidential
