Nigerian universities and need for research

Recently, the Vice Chancellor of Christopher University, Mowe, Ogun State, Professor Friday Ndubisi urged Nigerian   universities to be research inclined, so as to come up with solutions to the numerous crisis facing the country. He said time has come when Nigeria’s universities must produce intellectuals and this can only be achieved if they take to intellectual and result based research that would feed both the government and private sector with useful information for socio-economic development.
We cannot but agree with the university don on what role universities should play in the development agenda of the country. As the citadels of higher learning, Ivory towers must be consistent with generating ideas for making Nigeria a modern society in all ramifications.   Definitely, the place of universities as paramount players in a country that is increasingly driven by knowledge, information and ideas cannot be overemphasised. Before now, the traditional functions of universities are teaching and research. In their teaching activities, universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality.
We live in an age when knowledge is ever more vital to the society and economy, where rapidly circulating capital and people are being influenced by revolutionary communication technologies. It is therefore indisputable that knowledge is replacing other resources as the main driver of economic growth, and education has increasingly become the foundation for individual prosperity and social mobility. In the past three decades, higher education has moved from the periphery to the centre of governmental agendas.
Today, universities are seen as crucial national assets in addressing many policy priorities, and as sources of new knowledge and innovative thinking; providers of skilled personnel and credible credentials; contributors to innovation; attractors of international talent and business investment; agents of social justice and mobility; contributors to social and cultural vitality; and determinants of health and well-being. In a context where governments are principal funders of universities, it implies that a university can be like a pump which, when primed with public money, will gush forth the tangible effects of economic prosperity into which that money has been transformed.
It therefore assumes that the function of universities is to provide direct in-out benefits for society’s economic prosperity. This logic implies that invention in the university, largely in its science labs, leads to innovation and economic benefit. There is no disputing  the fact that universities have five main core areas of activities which are  repository of the knowledge of mankind; generation of new knowledge; transferring knowledge to the next generation; transferring knowledge to society and generating economic development.   Incidentally, Nigeria is still a traditional society with different demographical characteristics.
More than 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and more than 200,000 graduates are met with unemployment every year. It is therefore imperative that our universities focus on creating an entrepreneurial culture among their graduates with the aim of making them job creators, rather than job seekers. This can be attained through the establishment of effective business incubation centres while encouraging partnerships between industry and academia. Our universities would become more research oriented when they provide unique solutions to Nigeria’s mounting problems with a view of making the country capable of overcoming its handicaps.