UNILAG Attracted N4bn Research Grant Under Sacked VC, Ogundipe – Report

The sacked Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof Toyin Ogundipe has said that within the first two years that he presided over the affairs of the School, the sum of N4bn was received as Research Grant from various tertiary institutions.

The embattled VC said this in a report he presented to the University Governing Council dated November 2019.

Ogundipe was sacked by the Council last week over allegations of financial misappropriation.

The Chairman, Governing Council of the University of Lagos, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, had insisted that due process was followed in the removal of the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Toyin Ogundipe.

On his part, Ogundipe had maintained that he remained the VC, adding that he had also briefed his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, to file a legal action against the council.

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Universities in Nigeria, CVC, through its Secretary-General, Prof Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, had also said that due process was breached in the removal of the VC.

In the presentation seen by THE WHISTLER on Sunday, the sacked VC said under his watch, the Institution leveraged on the excellence of all members of staff by encouraging and assisting them to pay more attention to research and innovation.

The members of staff, according to him, attracted about N4bn in research grants to the university within his first two years in office.

Giving a breakdown of how the N4bn Research Grant was attracted, he said that $131,146 came in from University of Washington for virtual reality technology and mobile data collection to improve newborn health care delivery; $18,439.92 from New York University School of Medicine to accelerate leukocyte APOL1 transcription; $6,627 from
Northwestern University for
iCARE project and $49,664.00 from Northwestern University

Also, he said $1,000 was donated by Dorcas Cancer Foundation for assessment of psychological distress of patients of children with cancer; $217,110 from
Northwestern University; $40,582 from Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health; $24,232.52.00 from
CDC Foundation while €19,410 was donated by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility for digitization of Species of Odonta (Damsel Flies) of Southern Nigeria.

Similarly, Ogundipe explained in the report that the sum of N33,460,270.80 was given by Catholic Relief Services to strengthen malaria case management in public health facilities; £4,000 from Royal Society of Chemistry; €89,946 from Network of African Science Academics for standardizing city-level data-gathering towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 11 in Africa; while N2,130,000 came in from Kaiser Foundation for Social Development for informal economy and sustainable competitiveness of Artisans among others.

He said, “In addition to these research grants attracted by our faculty members, the University itself through the Central Research Committee funded over 33 research proposals from members of staff with over N84m.

“Over 40 proposal from the University of Lagos were shortlisted to submit full papers to TETFund in the ongoing 2019 National Research Fund grant.

“No doubt we have witnessed a great renaissance in research culture in the University in the last two years.

“This is indeed a product of our commitment to create the much needed environment for academics to use their ingenuity and creative thinking in solving societal problems through research.

“Let me mention that our Research and Innovation Office is currently being restructured to help academic staff harness their enormous research potentials.

“This will allow the Research Administrators focus on the administrative aspect of research grant management while the academic staff will concentrate on the research itself. This gives the researchers ample time to focus on the work to be done.”

In the area of entrepreneurship and innovation, he said the drive by the University Management was yielding positive results.

He said for instance that the Centre has attracted a total of N349.2m and $855,277 in training and capacity building for Staff and Students of the University in the last two years.

On staff welfare, he said the staff home ownership remained a critical agenda for the members of staff of the University.

He added, “We have had series of meetings with Family Homes, an initiative of the Federal Government, to provide homes for staff from Grade 9 and below.

“A number of our staff already signified interest in the scheme and work is in progress to ensure fast allocation.

“We are also working with Family Homes to provide more accommodation on campus to augment the shortage of accommodation for staff and students.

“We hope staff will be able to fund this home ownership scheme from the UNILAG Microfinance Bank which would soon commence operations.

“The Microfinance Bank will provide small loans to staff at low interest rates. We are still engaging the Lagos State Government to help our staff acquire landed property for housing scheme in Lagos State.”

He said this engagements would help to ensure that members of staff of the university have a home to retire to in future.