President Muhammadu Buhari has challenged Nigerian universities to develop COVID-19 vaccine that fits the Nigerian immune system to tackle the dreaded pandemic.
Naija News recalls that the first case of Coronavirus was confirmed in Nigeria on 27 February 2020, when an Italian citizen tested positive for the virus in Lagos State.
The pandemic has since spread its wings across States in the country and has claimed many lives.
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, while representing President Muhammadu Buhari at the 5th and 6th combined convocation of the Federal University Dutsin-Ma on Saturday, November 27, said the nation’s varsities were supposed to be centres for scientific and technological discoveries, inventions, values and character formation as well as drivers of societal development.
According to him, the development of the vaccine would fortify Nigerians’ immune systems against the virus.
While admonishing the universities to launch deep in their research making towards the development of the vaccine, President Buhari also urged the institutions to explore available opportunities, including research collaboration with allied industries and development partners to create other sources of revenue generation.
He further assured that his administration remained committed to tackling the challenges of sustainable funding for research, capacity building and employment creation.
According to him, “You all know that in the year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began its devastating effect on the education sub-sectors, leading to the destruction of universities’ academic activities.
“I therefore urge and encourage the universities to intensify their research to come up with a more potent vaccine to fortify our immune system against this dreaded virus.”
According to the President, such will support his economic diversification drive.
Speaking about the security system of the nation, Buhari said his government is committed and determined to combat and defeat all acts of criminality across the country for meaningful development to thrive.
“Our security is a collective responsibility, we must join hands with the government by providing security agents with useful information to enable proactive mitigation of any of these occurrences,” he added.
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Armaya’u Hamisu-Bichi, urged the federal government to dig trenches around the main campus of the institution because of the current security challenges in the country.
This article was originally published on Naija News