Prof. Peter Odjugo, Director of Research and Training, Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), speaks on developments at the agency’s Regional Training Centre (RTC) Oshodi – Lagos, and on other issues

We’ve just gone round the WMO-NiMet Regional Training Centre with officials of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) who are on inspection visit with the view to accrediting these courses; National Diploma in Meteorology, and National Diploma in Climate Change Sciences.
Are you optimistic that the facilities at NiMet’s Regional Training Centre, Oshodi-Lagos, and all the other resources that the NBTE team may have inspected will meet their standards and requirements?

Without second-guessing the outcome of the accreditation, I mean, they’ve not submitted their reports. Yes, I’m very optimistic that we will meet the standards because I’ve seen the NBTE checklist. We did it before, so I know what they want. And we prepared everything that they want to see and they want to know. So, for that reason, I’m 100% sure that we are going to be accredited.

What exactly do you hope to achieve from the visit of the NBTE team?

What we hope to achieve is that we are going to get a pass letter. They call it a pass letter. This is a letter authorizing NiMet to start the monotechnic programs – the National Diploma (ND) in Meteorology and the National Diploma (ND) in Climate Change Sciences.

Where will the students come from? Are they going to be NiMeT staff or can students apply from outside of NiMeT?

Both NiMeT staff/studentsband non-NiMeT students can apply. This shall be processed through JAMB. Those who passed JAMB are the ones that we are going to admit. You must also possess the requisite GCE O’levels qualifications too. We specified the admission requirements for the two courses, ND Climate Change Sciences and ND Meteorology.

Some may think that putting all these together is easy but we all know that it’s not. How supportive has the DG/CEO of NIMET Prof. Charles Anosike been since you took over as Director of Research and Training in terms of helping the Directorate of Research and Training to get some of the resources that they require to do their work?

Let me use the word fantastic. The DG/CEO has been so good to my Directorate and the other Directorates too. The other Directors are even jealous now that it appears as if almost everything is going to the Directorate of Research and Training.

Since inception, the DG/CEO has shown interest in the RTC Oshodi. He said that he wants RTC-Oshodi to be the training hub for NiMeT in the entire country. And he made it clear that the resources will be provided.

And since we started, he has not failed. He always asks, are we in line? Is there anything that is lacking? Just let me know. And that is why I’ve been putting all the other Directors under pressure, and they have been helping too.

The DG/CEO is interested in the place and even wants to make it bigger than just being a Monotechnic. So that plan is on. In terms of support, I’ve never gotten this type of support since I’ve been in NiMeT.

Kudos to the DG/CEO, to yourself and to all the other Directors. At the end of the day, it’s teamwork. How would you describe the RTC when you came ? Describe the state of things when you arrived?

Things were horribly bad. The facilities were so bad in the entire meteorological enclosure. Only three instruments were working. Manual rain gauge, then one of the thermometers and two of the soil thermometers. All others were not working.

When I got to the hostels, the facilities were so bad. The tank was leaking at Ake hostel etc. The overhead tank at Anuforom hostel was very small and all the stands were so bad. But as we speak, all have been fixed. All. The enclosure that we have now is nothing less than 80% World Meteorological Organization (WMO) standard.

Once we put in the two automatic instruments that we plan to, then it is world standard. And you know, if you don’t have all the infrastructure, it will be difficult for us to teach.

For the hostels, the DG/CEO has been able to provide all that are required that were not there. The beds, the mattresses, the lighting system, just name them. They are all there now. And the students are very happy. Yesterday, I was with one of our Directors. The Director of Corporate Services was here. When the sport facilities were brought in, the students were jubilating that they have enough to play and not only for academic work sessions.

The DG/CEO promised to still improve the infrastructure so that nothing is lacking. Go to the classrooms. We don’t have the chairs we had in the classrooms in the past. If you see what we had before, a dog will not sit on them. But now if you go to some of the classrooms, we started renovating them. We brought in new tables, chairs etc. You will see them when I take you around.

Contracts have been awarded for the other facilities. And within the next two weeks to one month, all the classrooms will be ready. We have new chairs and tables. Just look to the left in my office. You can see these are new projectors. The ones we had before were not working. These are new standard projectors that can project from even the back of a big hall and will project everything clearly.

This is WMO standard that we are implementing. One projector is already fixed. The rest will be fixed once the stands have been done. That’s why you see RTC engraving on all of them.

If you see to your right, these are some of the instruments that they have installed. They have not installed others which are here too. The contractor is working on installing them. Once that one is done, we will take the other one and install them in the enclosures.

On a final note, I don’t want to say that you are Oliver Twist. What other areas would you wish that the management or the DG/CEO also comes in to support RTC within the context of available resources?

Number one is the solar system in Anuforom hostel. Very important. Then number two, we need the ICT upgrade, that is internet so that the ICT can keep running and we can use it to support other programs. Then elevating the staff offices and since the National Diploma programs are coming, we need a new hostel and some new classrooms that will accommodate them. I think these are key things that we need. We move students from here to the airport for on the job training. So we need a bus to move them. We also go to different institutions, fieldwork and to other places. That is why the operational vehicles are really very important.