Nigeria can produce COVID-19 vaccine, says ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says Nigeria can produce vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19 if there is heavy investment in education at national and sub-national levels.

Abiodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president, who spoke in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun, after he led members of the association to donate 1,000 pieces of 125ml bottled hand sanitisers to the state government, said there is need to do more in the country’s educational sector.

According to him, heavy investment in education would have helped Nigeria in producing quality medical and behavioural scientists, who can spearhead search for vaccine to be used in treating the virus.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said heavy investment in education at national and sub-national levels would provide quality medical and behavioural scientists to produce vaccine for the treatment of COVID-19.

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— Official_ASUU (@ASUUNGR) April 25, 2020

He added that what Nigeria should learn from the pandemic is that investment in education would yield immeasurable dividends.

“For instance, conscious and determined investment in university education at national and sub-national levels would give our country quality medical scientists, behavioural scientists, creative scholars and other creams of informed citizens who can respond intelligently to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

He said, “For instance, conscious and determined investment in university education at national and sub-national levels would give our country quality medical scientists, behavioural scientists, creative scholars and other creams of informed citizens who can respond intelligently

— Official_ASUU (@ASUUNGR) April 25, 2020

“To achieve better results, we believe Nigerian governments at the federal and state levels need to work with public intellectuals and patriotic trade unions like ASUU.’’

This is coming against the backdrop of several claims by ASUU that the country’s educational sector had remained largely underfunded.

The academic body had earlier declared an indefinite strike to protest the federal government’s failure to meet the union’s demands aimed at rejigging the country’s education sector.