As part of its incremental development
of nuclear power, the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, NAEC, has scaled
up the process with the signing of Memoranda of Understanding with six
universities, one in each geopolitical zone, for manpower development.
The latest of the educational
institutions to benefit from the programme is the University of Abuja
whose vice chancellor, Professor Michael Adikwu, and NAEC’s DG, Dr.
Erepamo Osaisai, endorsed the document empowering them to collaborate.
The other universities involved are
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria;
University of Port Harcourt; University of Maiduguri and Federal
University of Technology, Owerri.
Under the agreement, Osaisai said,
students of University of Abuja would be allowed to go to China for
nuclear studies for between six months and one year. He said Nigeria was
working towards using highly enriched uranium for different
developmental purposes.
In addition, the university and NAEC
also agreed to exchange information in capacity building, enriching the
contents of existing programmes in the physical sciences and
engineering, as well as curriculum development in nuclear science and
engineering.
Other areas of cooperation are the
implementation of the approved curricula by way of structured university
degree programmes and establishment, development and operation of a
network of physical facilities and devising appropriate mechanisms for
sharing and effective utilisation of the resources.
Staff development and exchange
programmes; and conducting research and development activities for the
purpose of manpower development are also part of the package.
Hailing the partnership, the vice
chancellor of University of Abuja, Prof. Adikwu, lamented that the bane
of Nigeria was the desire by most people to want to go solo, saying
collaborations such as that between his institution and NAEC were the
way most great countries attained their level of development.
He said he had already told his
engineering staff to draw up a curriculum in nuclear engineering, and
hoped that with the MoU, things would move faster.
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