The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute NBRRI, has donated laboratory equipment to six Nigerian Universities.
The Laboratory equipment received by the six universities, one in each geo-political zone is aimed at strengthening the engineering and building-related departments of the universities.
Speaking at the handing-over ceremony, the Director General of NIBRRI, Professor Samson Duna said the intervention became necessary to save the recurring decay of the civil engineering laboratories in the Nigerian Universities.
Professor Duna said; “Stakeholders identified recurring decay in civil engineering laboratories in the Universities and the effects it posed to engineering graduates. The stakeholders were unanimous in the suggestion that NBRRI should take the bold steps to remedy the situation through intervention and provisions of State-of-the-Art construction materials and testing equipment and distribute them amongst the Universities.”
The DG stated that the compressive machine received by the universities helps in measuring the strength of items, like the concrete in a building which will help to guide against building collapse.
“Every building has what we call “grade”, which is the quality of concrete, that machine will give you the value of the quality of concrete, and if the quality of concrete is high, it means the resistance of the concrete is high. We want our building to have high-resistance concrete. So the machine is like an assessor that tell you if the material is good or bad for construction purposes,” he said.
Professor Duna explained that some Universities had benefitted when the programme started in the year 2020.
He said; “After the maiden donation, NBRRI went further to install and trained the staff and students on the usage of the equipment donated.”
The DG added that its Partners: Tectonics Engineering and Consults limited would be conveying the machines to the universities for installation and training of staff on its use.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation, Mr James Sule challenged the academic institutions to make the utmost use and maintenance of the equipment.
“As we celebrate this milestone, let us not forget the responsibilities that come with this, it is incumbent on the academic institutions and the students to make the most of these resources utilizing them, to push to boundaries of knowledge, seek sustainable solutions overwhelming our nation,” he said.
Describing the intervention as a crucial step, the Former DG NBRRI, Professor Danladi Matawalle further suggested that a follow-up monitoring team be set up to ensure the equipment keeps working properly.
“There is also the need to include Polytechnics in the scheme since they produce the technologists and technicians that man the laboratories in the Universities,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the benefitting Universities, the Vice Chancellor, Usman Dan Fodio University, Professor Lawal Bilbis commended the efforts of NBRRI in seeing that the equipments are not just delivered, but installed and train staff on usage.
The benefitting Universities; include the Federal University of Technology Akure, the University of Abuja, the University of Calabar, Nnamdi Azikwe University Awka, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, and Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
