Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has challenged universities in Nigeria to work aggressively to raise funds as well as to market their institutions, saying that no government in the world can fund universities to the extent that is required.
He threw the challenge on Tuesday at the opening of the Kessington Adebukunola Adebutu Foundation, KAAF, Auditorium, Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Ibadan.
The auditorium is a donation from a Nigerian philanthropist, Sir Kessington Adebutu.
Insisting that government budgeting would not provide the funding required for the optimal operation of universities in Nigeria, the Vice President said it has become necessary for tertiary institutions to engage in aggressive marketing to raise the funds they need.
“So, the best universities in the world are universities where there is aggressive fundraising.
“A whole department in some of the best universities, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, all the universities have very aggressive departments solely committed to marketing the university and fundraising.
“For example, I went to the University of Lagos; that’s my Alma Mata. But I also went to the London School of Economics, University of London.
“Every month, unfailingly, I get a letter from the London School of Economics, asking me to give money, even if it is 10 pounds.
“They are always aggressively marketing and I have been getting this letter since I left in 1981 unfailingly every month. I get no letter from the University of Lagos. Not one.
“Nobody has ever come to me to say you are an alumnus; come and donate, no. And I’m sure it is the same here at the University of Ibadan. There has to be aggressive marketing.
“No government in the world can ever fund universities to the extent that is required, no government. It has to be aggressively marketed.
“We have to have programmes that we are selling so that the university is making money. It is the private money that sustains universities.”
Ideas and solutions
Speaking on developments at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics of the University of Ibadan, Vice President Osinbajo said the work at the department is an important one because of the great challenges Nigeria has in human nutrition today.
According to him, his position as Chair of Nigeria’s Nutrition Council in the past three years has revealed the grave issues concerning nutrition in the country.
“In the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic, poverty has deepened and malnutrition and unhealthy dietary practices have created unique threats to health and productivity for a large segment of our population.
“A large number of children are undernourished—and malnourishment and food insecurity have just made it harder for children to learn and to gain the skills and knowledge that is required to succeed in the workplace.
“But worst is the mental and physical stunting that is irreversible. So, imagine a whole generation of adults who have arrested physical and mental health and the social and economic burden that places on communities and places on the nation.
“Imagine the implications of possibly 50% of our population being at risk of irreversible mental and physical stunting if we don’t get it right.
“So, I think the work of this foremost institution and this department is well cut out.”
Therapeutic food
Pointing out that the department has been engaged in research in public health nutrition and agricultural linkages, Vice President Osinbajo said Nigeria has the local capacity to produce therapeutic foods, otherwise known as Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) that are used to treat acute malnutrition.
“We have the potential to produce enough of that RUTF for the whole of Africa and the projections are that the price of ready-to-use therapeutic foods is going to increase; that with all the food chain problems we have all over the world, these prices are going to increase.
“So, there is a big market there; there is a big economic opportunity there and big research opportunities as well.”
Osinbajo said that KAAF Auditorium showed the convergence of two ideas, explaining that ideation, research and teaching met with philanthropy, especially in supporting development ideas in bringing the facility to fruition.
While commending Chief Adebutu for his generous donation, Osinbajo urged the Department of Human Nutrition and Dietetics to push for the setting up of a research grant by the philanthropist.
