A Professor of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy at the University of Ibadan (UI), Professor Michael Ayodele Odeniyi, has called on the government to reinstate true academic and administrative autonomy to Nigerian universities without undermining critical funding.
He made the call while delivering the 543rd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan (UI) on behalf of the Faculty of Pharmacy.
Professor Odeniyi noted that in recent times, there has been an assault on the curriculum development process and the ability to ensure the quality of the students’ intakes.
He lamented that the universities’ academic autonomy to determine the direction of their academic programmes is being undermined, while the ability to recruit good quality staff and students is assailed.
He also called for the government to boost and invest in excipient development and production from locally available polymers while awaiting the take off of petrochemical industries.
He said the government could also encourage local production through the imposition of taxes and tariffs on imported excipients.
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According to Professor Odeniyi, previous attempts at import substitution and local production failed because of inconsistent government policies and policy somersaults.
He said there was an urgent need to remedy this in order to ensure a measure of drug independence and health security.
He stated that records made available by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council showed that over three trillion naira has been spent in the last six years to import pharmaceutical products into the country.
Professor Odeniyi said a significant volume of these are excipients, which can be readily obtained locally.
The inaugural lecturer stated that there was a need for long-term planning and a robust national policy on drug production that will survive the vagaries of changes in government.
The inaugural lecture was entitled “Whatever You Bind on Earth: New and Old Polymers in Pharmaceutical Engineering”
