512th inaugural lecture: UI Don calls for systemic overhaul.
A Professor of Veterinary Public Health, Professor S. I. B. Cadmus has called on the management of the University of Ibadan to overhaul its systems to encourage serious research and academic excellence in the University.
He made the call while delivering the 512th inaugural lecture of the University. His lecture was entitled “On the trail of two enigmatic foes: the story of an enthusiast”.
Professor Cadmus stated that researchers must be consciously supported and not be made to suffer from unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks, which strangulate research and frustrate the researcher.
Specifically, Professor Cadmus said the University Grants management structure needs complete remodelling to facilitate grantsmanship and easy access to grant funds as soon as they are domiciled in the University.
Professor Cadmus also called on academicians not to see the University as a civil service centre but to change the narrative by providing innovative solutions to national and global issues.
The era of waiting on government to provide everything is over, he said. He urged academicians to show that they are intellectuals and not charlatans.
Professor Cadmus advised the ASUU to know that strategy is better than energy. He said ASUU needed to have a more inclusive and proactive engagement system that will harness different shades of opinion. ASUU should focus more on the welfare of members, ensuring a conducive environment for teaching and research to enable members to conduct innovative research and attract funding to the University, while leaving the University Council and the government with the challenge of funding tertiary education.
On his contribution to knowledge, Professor Cadmus said he studied and understood the epidemiology and related antics of Tuberculosis and Brucellosis in man and animals and had used the
” One Health” approach of encouraging collaboration between the human, veterinary, and other key public health and related professionals in a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multisectoral partnership. He had been engaged in several projects internationally and locally.
Professor Cadmus was also able to establish the Damien Foundation Genomics and Mycobacteria Research and Training Centre in UI to be a Centre of Excellence aimed at reducing the burden of infectious diseases in Africa.
Adejoke O. Akinpelu
Directorate of Public Communication,
University of Ibadan.
