Still on the state of our university laboratories and the exodus of ultrabrilliant minds, by Professor Matawalli Ajagana Geidam
Every year, thousands of young Nigerians leave the country in search of graduate and postgraduate education abroad. The reasons for this mass exodus are often simplified into clichés: better pay, better opportunities, or simply the allure of a foreign degree. But if one listens closely to the stories of these students, a strikingly consistent answer emerges: laboratories. Not libraries. Not lecture halls, but laboratories.
The truth is brutally simple. Nigerian students excel abroad, often winning awards for groundbreaking research in Europe, North America, and Asia, not because they suddenly become smarter upon leaving the country, but because they finally encounter what they had been denied at home; well-equipped laboratories in environments where the electricity doesn’t fail every hour.
Nigeria is not short of intellectual firepower. Our universities are full of brilliant scientists men and women who can hold their own in biotechnology, nanotechnology, epidemiology, materials science, and countless other fields. What they lack are the tools.
A scientist without a functioning laboratory is like a surgeon without a scalpel. He can theorize, supervise, even publish in limited ways, but he cannot cut deep into the heart of scientific discovery. That is the tragedy of Nigeria’s current research landscape: a surplus of intellectual capacity shackled by a deficit of infrastructure.
Every year, nearly ₦1 trillion is allocated to public federal and state universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund) for “normal or academic interventions.” On paper, this sounds promising. But in practice, much of this money is spread too thin across institutions, often under the stewardship of administrators more attuned to bureaucracy than science.
The outcome? repeated basic laboratory equipment, lecture halls bereft of smart boards and ICT connections, empty laboratories, conference halls.
If the interventions are special, administrative blocks, students hostels, conference halls, sometimes even guest houses. Meanwhile, laboratories rot, fume hoods gather dust, and research equipment breaks down without spare parts or maintenance. The disconnect is glaring. We are funding appearances, not capacity.
TetFund, the only agency constructively contributing to the growth and development of tertiary education in Nigeria, more than the federal and state governments except (at the risk sounding toady, Borno and Yobe States, with more state built infrastructure than Tetfund tagged infrastructure, for offering vitually free University education at both BOSU and YSU, two fully accredited universities with the least registration fees nationwide, two states still offering foreign scholarships to hundreds, offering one free meal per day at many schools that are not boarding just to retain children of school going age in schools, the reasons are endless), that established the schools, and a product of ASUU struggles, has to facilitate the reverse of the exodus of Nigerian talents, it must rethink its strategy.
Instead of handing out blanket allocations to virtually every state and federal universities, polytechnics and COEs, TetFund should expand, commission panels of well-trained scholars preferably Nigerians with research experience in globally renowned universities to audit facilities across the country.
These panels should benchmark against the National Universities Commission (NUC) Basic Minimum Academic Standards, and then take decisive steps to close the gap. That means procuring equipment comparable to what one finds in the top 100 universities globally. It means training technical staff to operate and maintain these instruments. And it means developing a culture of sustainability so that Nigerian laboratories don’t turn into graveyards of abandoned machines.
This is not about spending more money. It is about spending wisely.
Nigeria doesn’t need dozens of underfunded, half-equipped laboratories scattered across its universities. That approach has already failed us. What we need are zonal research hubs: modern, standardized, and adequately funded. Such hubs could be rolled out zone by zone, even if it takes multiple budget cycles.
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Imagine one biotechnology hub in each geo-political zone, serving as the nerve center for DNA sequencing, advanced cell culture, and molecular diagnostics. Imagine a materials science hub in every region, equipped for nanotechnology research and advanced fabrication. With proper planning, a chemistry PhD student in Bauchi, Ibadan, or Owerri would not need a visa to conduct routine bench work that students in Germany or South Korea take for granted.
This hub approach, a similar project was earlier on Tetfunds drawing boards, builds economies of scale. Instead of buying twenty poorly maintained electron microscopes scattered across universities, Nigeria could maintain one or two world-class facilities per zone, staffed by dedicated professionals whose sole responsibility is to keep them running.
Some will argue: “Even if we buy the equipment, who will run it?” This is where human capital comes in. Nigeria is not lacking in scientists trained abroad who would gladly contribute if given the right environment. Thousands of Nigerians already work in research-intensive labs in the UK, US, Canada, and China. Some of them would return, at least on short sabbaticals, to train local researchers and technicians.
TetFund, with tons of unaccessed funds, can make this happen. By creating fellowships that sponsor visiting scientists especially Nigerians in the diaspora the hubs can ensure a continuous flow of expertise. Over time, this knowledge transfer will build a homegrown cadre of researchers who not only use the equipment but innovate with it.
What happens if we fail to act? The cost is already visible. Our best students leave and rarely return. Research that could have been conducted in Nigeria say, on local medicinal plants, disease outbreaks, or renewable energy materials is instead carried out abroad. When breakthroughs are made, Nigeria becomes a mere footnote, the source of raw data but never the seat of discovery.
Consider biotechnology. Nigeria is home to vast biodiversity, with thousands of plants waiting to be studied for pharmaceutical potential. Yet, much of this research is conducted in Europe or Asia, where Nigerian scholars must go to access the right labs. When a new compound is discovered, the patents are filed abroad, the royalties flow abroad, and Nigeria loses out.
The same story repeats in epidemiology, renewable energy, agriculture, and even climate research. We are outsourcing not just our students, but our future.
Of course, infrastructure alone is not enough. Universities must also be led by individuals who understand the vision and mission of higher education. Too often, the leadership of our institutions sometimes dominated by professors of the arts, social sciences, or management sciences lack the technical insight to prioritize laboratory investment.
This is not to dismiss those fields; they are essential to a well-rounded society. But when it comes to science and technology, Nigeria cannot afford leadership that sees laboratories as optional. Research infrastructure must be treated as a national security issue because in many ways, it is.
TetFund, working in partnership with the NUC, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), can take bold steps to address this crisis. Just as these bodies collaborate to design curricula, they can collaborate to design, standardize, and fund laboratories across the country.
The first step is legislative. TetFund’s establishing Act should be amended to explicitly empower it to compel universities to build and equip modern laboratories. The second step is standardization. Laboratory designs must be tested for efficacy, durability, and affordability, and then adopted nationwide. Adequate measures should be taken to prevent the repeat of the NBTE Skill G saga. The third step is accountability. Funds must be tied to measurable outcomes, working equipment, published research, patents, and innovations.
All these proposals are based on only the normal intervention component of the yearly well planned allocations. The other components, AST&D, Library intervention, Research grants, conference attendance, institutional journal and manuscript development, e.t.c.
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Imagine a Nigeria where postgraduate students no longer dream of flying abroad just to use a well calibrated functioning HPLC machine. Imagine a system where groundbreaking research on tropical diseases, renewable energy, or advanced materials is conducted right here at home. Imagine the ripple effects on industry, healthcare, and even foreign investment when Nigeria emerges as a regional hub for science and technology.
In an effort to remove the disconnect between what is taught in our classrooms and what the industry want (from our research results and from our graduates) NUC has reengineered university curriculum with direct impact on some 30% local contents, with Tetfund reenlightening and rekindling the interest of brilliant academics in conducting impactful, industry connectable researches for commercialisation.
In one highly impactful workshop early this year, Tetfund sponsored the retraining of some select tertiary education lecturers on the nitty gritty involved in intiating, conducting, processing, patenting, and commercialising hitherto wardrobe kept fianl year projects and postgraduate dissertations, presenting a glimmer of hope to those wanting to reap the fruit of education without leaving the four walls of the ivory towers.
This vision is within reach. It does not require miracles. It requires priorities.
Professor Matawalli Ajagana Geidam,
Director, Academic Planning Unit
Borno State University, Njimtilo, Maiduguri
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