Prof. Oyeronke Olademo
By Olusola Hammed
A professor from the Religions Department at the University of Ilorin and the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Oyeronke Olademo has tasked Federal government through Federal Ministry of Education and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to set up a monitoring committee Unit that will monitor, regulate, coordinate and see to the research results and data generation for proper execution and implementation of research recommendation to form policy making.
Prof. Olademo made this call recently in her office while speaking with pressmen. She stated that Nigeria lacks credible data base for research results and stated that if there is a monitoring unit in the Federal Ministry of Education focusing on tertiary institutions to monitor researches and harvest the results for policy makers.
She also opined that TETFUND being the agency releasing money for researches have monitoring unit that will monitor datas generated from the researches they are funding. According to her, “the unit should monitor universities researches, collate their results, data generated probably every six months or annually, work on it and make recommendations there in available for policy makers for implementation”.
The Former Dar of Faculty of Arts further stressed that the University of Ilorin has a monitoring unit in Center for Research and In-house Training (CREDIT) that is readily available to access and monitor the data generated from researches of her staff members for possible implementation.
She also emphasized that the CREDIT unit should have an officer that will lias with the Federal Ministry of Education and TETFUND in monitoring the researches, data generating and make such available for policy makers for easy formulation and implementation.
Prof. Olademo who is presently leading of researchers on a special research into land crisis between Tsaragi and Shaare in Ifelodun Local government area of Kwara State stated that her team was on a mission to unravel the remotes causes and immediate solutions to the long time rivalry between the two neighboring towns.
She went further to inform journaluist that the research project was approved and funded by TETFUND with the topic “Resolving inter-ethnic crisis in Nigeria through internal mechanism: a case of Shaare- Tsaragi, Kwara State“
Prof. Olademo stated that in the course of their research, they have discovered that crisis was not unconnected with the border land resources and its uses which she opined that that both the state federal government had tried their possible best in the past to settle without success.
Olademo also disclosed that traditional rulers in both towns have now reached an agreement to put an end to the crisis. According to the erudite scholar she maintained that inhabitants of both towns are also ready to end their enmity. She told newsmen that her team had been to both Shaare and Tsaragi three times on different occasions and they had held seminars for the citizens of both towns separately and jointly with them on ways resolve the crisis. She also said the template her team is using is internal mechanism in solving the crisis.
According to her “if this can work out in Shaare-Tsaragi it can replicated in any parts of Kwara o Nigeria where they usually faced communal clashes and we don’t need to go and carry big books or go and bring foreigners to help solve our internal problems.
While stating the reason that prompt her and her team on such research topic and area, Prof. Olademo said “Center for Peace and Strategists Studies of the University of Ilorin been a center under the Faculty of Arts, it is part of their mandate to ensure peaceful co-existence of Kwara indigenes and Nigerians in general. Whatever the data we generated from our research will be presented to them to enrich the center academically”.
Whenever there is communal clashes the immediate environment, state and Nigeria at large suffers a lot in terms of economic and human lives that are always lost in such battles. If this Shaare-Tsaragi case can be settle amicably will be benefits Kwara State and Nigeria as whole will also gain.
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