Politics
PROF. Babatunde Salako, the Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), has called for the establishment of a medical research council to fund research works peculiar to Nigeria.
Salako made the call while speaking at the 2022 retreat organised by the institute in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said: ”Medical research councils all over the world are in charge of research and research funding for most of their countries to fund research in areas of priorities.
”Creating such a council requires that government must gives funding specifically for health research and look at areas of priorities, where we have challenges and ways to proffer solutions.
”The council, if put in place can work with the Federal Ministry of Health, on research priorities and policy for all medical institutions in the country.”
Salako said that NIMR was set up initially as a medical research council by the government , but was not given the power to fund health research in universities and other research institutions.
”We believe this is why our health indices have remained poor and our health system is not growing as much as we would have expected.
”We can create solutions to our own problem without waiting for donors from outside whose areas of interest may not be our area of challenge,",” he said.
On the retreat, the D-G said that it was initiated to review and evaluate the activities of the institute in the last one year and strategies for the coming year.
”Every year, we come to plan for next year based on strategic plan and to review our targets that we set out last year.
”We have continued to improve on the number of grants that we’ve been able to attract externally, while the internal grants are subject to the money we receive from government,” he said.
Speaking also, Dr Sylvia Adebajo, the Country Director of Maryland Global Initiatives Cooperation, and the guest speaker at the retreat, said that there was the need to recognise diversity in all sectors of the country.
Adebajo, who spoke on ‘Diversity and Inclusion in Modern Work place’, said that such recognition would enhance team work and promote productivity of staffers in any establishment.
”Inclusion and diversity go hand in hand in ensuring a condusive atmosphere in the work place.
”There is a need to include them and also ensure that there is inclusion and representation of all those areas within the work place,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) reports that a report of NIMR’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and NIMR Policy on Research Misconduct & Fraud were unveiled at the retreat.(NAN)
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Tags: Dr Sylvia Adebajo Prof. Babatunde Salako
