Solution to Africa’s problems in Science, Technology, Research application – DTCA boss

By Ogundele Olanrewaju

Amb. Rabiu Dagari, the Director General, Directorate of Technical Cooperation of Africa (DTCA) says solution to Africa’s problems lies in the application of Science, Technology and Research.

Dagari, a former ambassador of Nigeria to Venezuela, said this on Tuesday during a visit to Pan African University of Life and Earth Sciences Institute, (PAULESI), University of Ibadan.

“Africa is known to have a large population engaged in agriculture but, unfortunately, it is rural agriculture.

“And the production level is such that we have no food and cash crops to be self-sufficient.

“That is why Africa spends a lot of money importing food from other continents; and that shouldn’t be.

“It is only through the application of science, technology and researches that have been conducted all across Africa that we would be able to raise the level of productivity to an extent that it would reduce the amount of money we spend importing food into Africa.

“Agriculture is a very important sector that should form the basis of our industrialisation.

“I don’t think there is any country that has made it without having a solid agricultural sector feeding itself, without having to import.

“China has over 1.3 billion people but they are not importing food.

“They grow most of their food by mobilising their population, train them and improving their seed quality; so you have high yielding crops that are resistant to pests.

“So that is the way for Africa to go; without doing that, we will continue to languish and then use our hard earned foreign exchange to import food from abroad.”

Dagari said his visit to Ibadan to meet with PAULESI and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) was to seek collaboration that could move the African continent forward in terms of deployment of cutting edge research in agriculture to farmers.

“We know that IITA has done a lot of research and we want to see how we can take from the shelves what they have researched into and see how it can be taken to the end users, the farmers.

“Perhaps inculcating the agric extension workers, using the various ministries of agriculture in the States; PAULESI is into such research.

“We want to midwife the project by putting all the institutes and research agencies together and see if they can work together with the government and the State governments all across Africa,” Dagari said.

In her remarks, Director of PAULESI, Prof. Titilayo Akinlabi appreciated the Director General of DTCA for the hand of fellowship and support given to the institute.

She said that the support the institute desired was to fulfill its mandate.

She noted that this was part of the mandate the African Union Commission and the Assembly of Heads of States gave when they started the Pan African University.

“That is- to have a University that would be able to conduct cutting edge research that would be able to proffer solutions to Africa’s problems.

“And also conduct research that would be able to speak to the AU agenda 2063 regarding having good quality education, good health services delivery and quality food and food security and to eradicate diseases in all of Africa.

“We require setting up ofresearch laboratories and having equipment for students to be able to conduct researches that would proffer solutions to the problem we are currently having on the African continent.

“We need infrastructure to set up a central laboratory where we will then be able to increase the visibility of the institute.”

Akinlabi highlighted the need for collaboration with DTCA in other areas such as hosting of a research chair in a thematic area of the institute and funding annual lectures.

Meanwhile, the DG, DTCA also paid a courtesy visit to the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Adebola Ekanola in his office.

The Acting VC was represented by Prof. Kayode Adebowale who congratulated Amb. Dagari on his appointment.

The VC, while receiving Dagari, sought collaboration with DTCA to uplift the education sector to restore it to the glorious days.

“The challenge in the education sector are paucity of funding and proliferation of private universities.

“These are some of the banes of development in the sector,” Ekanola said.

In his remarks, Dagari reiterated the need for Africans to proffer solutions to their challenges through Science, Technology and Innovation, especially in the agriculture sector.

“This will reduce the pressure on our foreign exchange earnings and so make the funds available to cater for other sectors such as education and health,” Dagari said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event featured a tour, by Amb. Dagari and the management staff of PAULESI, of the newly constructed building facilitated by the Federal Government through the 2012 Tetfund special intervention project. (NAN)