Ilorin
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) has concluded arrangements to establish Regional Centres of Excellence in Meteorological Research in the six geo-political zones of the country with the University of Ilorin hosting that of the North-Central.
The Director General of NIMET, Prof. Abubakar Sanni Mashi, disclosed at the weekend while commissioning the Surface Meteorological Station (equipment for weather data collection).
Duaglobalnews gathered that the equipment was donated by the Agency to the Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Ilorin.
The online media reports that the event also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NIMET and the University of Ilorin.
Mashi said that the gesture was part of the Agency’s contribution to the development of education in the country.
He said though universities were primarily charged with the responsibility of promoting humanity, they could not do so meaningfully without adequate attention to the weather.
According to the Director- General, Nigeria has only 54 weather observatory stations, out of the expected 9,300, pointing out that this has prompted the Agency to partner with universities through the National University Commission (NUC).
Mashi, who described weather as a critical element affecting everybody, said that every University was supposed to have a standard weather station.
He said that there was no Department in the University that would not benefit from the newly commissioned weather station.
The director-general promised that the agency would continue to support the University of Ilorin, not just in funding the station but also providing the complementary infrastructure required in the laboratories.
Earlier in his address, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, stated that the equipment was a great blessing to the institution.
He optimism that the gesture would “definitely enhance the teaching and research endeavours of not only the Department of Geography and Environmental Management but also many other related Departments and Units in the University.”
Abdulkareem said that insufficiency of funds had retarded the capacities and activities in laboratory, field and classroom components of the training given to students in the area of meteorology as well as in the capacities for cutting-edge research.
He, thanked the Agency saying, “the intervention we have got from your Agency, and which we are opening to the public today is therefore an appreciable assistance and motivation.”
Going memory lane, the Vice-Chancellor recalled that, the relationship between the institution and the Agency dated back to 2010 when the Department of Physics signed an MoU with the Agency.
He noted that since then, the relationship had been growing in leaps and bounds.
“It has, therefore, culminated into the concrete benefits we are commissioning here today, ”he said.
