Nigerian Scholar Named Among World’s Top 2% Scientists Sends Urgent Message to Tinubu
- Dr Akeem Babatunde Dauda, a Katsina-based scholar named among the world’s top 2% scientists, shared insights on achieving academic excellence
- He explained that insecurity in northern Nigeria hinders research progress, stressing that violent conflict and sustained academic productivity cannot thrive together effectively
- Dr Dauda urged the Nigerian government to prioritise local innovation over imported technologies, insisting that true national development must grow from within
Katsina state - A Katsina-based don, Dr Akeem Babatunde Dauda, who was recently announced as one of the top 2% global scientists, has disclosed what it takes to be an international scholar despite working in a conflict zone.
Source: Twitter
Speaking with Legit.ng correspondent, Dr. Dauda expressed concerns over insecurity, which he said harms research and productivity, especially in the northern Nigeria.
Over 290 Nigerians make the list
Dr Akeem Dauda is one of 291 Nigerians named by the exercises jointly done by Stanford University and Elsevier, which highlighted the world’s most-cited scientists across 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields.
Dr Dauda (Associate Professor) is the Director of Linkage at the Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina state, where he teaches in the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
In a statement by the Directorate of Public Relations and Protocol, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Aminu Ado, described the honour as "a well-deserved achievement," noting that Dr. Dauda's consistent and outstanding academic track record over the years made the recognition unsurprising." The achievement, he said, also serves to bolster FUDMA's growing reputation as a centre for innovation and cutting-edge research.
Dr Dauda further stated that the report of the top 2% of most influential researchers in the world as recently released, was individual researchers’ cumulative productive efforts gathered over the years.
“Some of these things, too, are outputs of accumulated activities, not like one year. Negative impacts are enough to discourage and prevent it from happening. A man with a dream has to create an environment to make his dreams come true; it doesn’t have to be immediate."
Insecurity threatens academic growth in Northern Nigeria
Speaking on how insecurity threatens Northwestern Nigeria, Dr Dauda charged the government not to just talk, but to follow it up with sustainable action. He noted that the academics in the region need extra resilience to grow and develop, unlike their counterparts in the south.
“For those of us in the struggle zone, every effort should be put in place to improve the security situation, using whatever means. There are cases of students being kidnapped, and that would discourage even enrollment in such schools.”
“Sometimes we hear the shooting of guns at night due to insecurity. As academics, whatever you are doing will be suspended."
“The government should be deliberate in building the country from the inside. No country grows from outside, and you cannot grow a country without developing the intellectual capacity."
President Tinubu needs to look inward for local content
Dr Dauda reiterated that the government has over 200 Nigerians across different fields who have been named as the best in the world. He advised that the government can task these nationals not only to sustain raising the country’s flag in the global community but to serve as catalysts to implementing cross-disciplinary research that will help develop Nigeria.
Source: Twitter
His words:
“The first thing is the government should have an interest in recognising people achieving scholarship and academic achievements. If it is possible, bring them together to see how they can stimulate the entire country to increase in this aspect, so that then they can put together appropriate recommendations that can help the country grow."
“Of course, this will only happen when the system is enhanced, when there is an appropriate environment for development within the system, and that is when we can talk about this growth."
“But those who have an understanding of how some of these things work should be brought together under one umbrella. Then they can develop a framework to help the country in general.”
The Elsevier-Stanford University top 2% scholar called on President Bola Tinubu to limit its foreign search for technology and innovation, as Nigeria has an array of experts in the area who will develop content suitable to the local needs.
“The president was in Brazil not long ago talking about technology, the same thing we can develop in Nigeria, and can be well situated with our situation. If we bring in a new technology that is not localised, it will fail; we have been experiencing that.
Nigeria will allow importing livestock breeds from some African countries that have stabilised their own breed. If you bring the breed to Nigeria, it will fail cause there is no local environment to support such. So, development should come from within so that we can develop a system that can support our own needs. Every country develops its own system to support its own needs.”
"If we are importing a technology that was not designed for us originally, there is every chance that it will fail until we develop the local components of that technology."
Nigerian archaeologist wins $300k global history prize
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Dr. Abidemi Babatunde Babalola of Nigeria won the $300,000 Dan David Prize for proving glass bead production is indigenous to Africa.
He conducted decades of excavations at Ile-Ife, blending archaeological and scientific methods to establish Africa’s ancient technological capacity.
His recognition challenges assumptions, elevates African scholarship globally, and pushes for deeper investigation into indigenous African civilisations.
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Source: Legit.ng
