A lecturer with the ESUT Business School, Enugu, Prof. Fred Eze, has identified failure to practically apply research findings as part of the challenges militating against Nigeria’s development.
Eze, who is Director of ESUT Business School, lamented how research findings by scholars in various fields had been abandoned on the bookshelves, insisting that the country could not make progress without practical application of research findings.
He stated that countries that have advanced technologically followed application of research conducted by their scholars and urged the federal and state governments to encourage as well as support research efforts.
Stressing the need for governments to encourage grants for research, especially on specific areas that could improve the wellbeing of the people, he stated that approval of such grants by international agencies would limit the recipient to their own areas.
“We cannot treat research with levity and expect to develop as a nation. We should be able to conduct research that will benefit our environment and things relevant to our environment. That is the way to make progress, but right now, we are not doing so and this is one area we must work on to get things right,” he said.
Eze disclosed that the ESUT Business School was ready to conduct research in any field if grants were made available, stressing that it would like to research into areas of concerns to the Southeast and the entire country.
He stated that one area of interest, especially as it concerns the Southeast economy was why businesses in the zone do not outlive their initiators, assuring that the school was prepared to change the narrative.
“It is an area that we find challenging. We don’t come together in business, but in modern world, it takes more than one person to build a successful enterprise. We should be able to do a research that will impact the Southeast economy. There are other areas, but funding support is the problem,” he stressed.
On the prospects of the ESUT Business School, he stated that the state of the economy would continue to impact on it, stressing that the number of persons that could afford its programmes would depend on the economy.
He said the school, which relocated from Lagos to Enugu in 2005 following Nigerian Universities Commission’s (NUC) policy had continued to contribute to the manpower and economic needs of the country.
“We have impacted the business community with our products and quality. Our products are everywhere contributing to the development of the country. There was a disconnect when we moved from Lagos to Enugu, which hampered the mileage we could have covered, but we are back on track,” he added.
