Sometimes when you hear certain things about Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions, you cannot help but weep for this country. You just keep asking yourself how things got so degenerated and why helps seem far away. That was exactly the anguish I suffered reading the story of the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Professor Emeka Obe, and his team that had to contribute N300,000 to fund a research project in the university.
Meanwhile, as Nigeria keeps operating its universities as kindergartens, universities in other countries are living up to their calling. Right now, universities in the US have deployed robots on their campuses to keep the COVID-19 virus from spreading among their students. Eight of such robots are reportedly processing about 6,000 coronavirus tests per day at Boston University, according to the University World News. Test results are obtained within 24 hours.
The University of Lagos recently said it would be making use of robots to improve its delivery lines and address the threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The former vice chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said the robots would be in the library, Senate Building and the Business School among others. The former VC said the robots could check one’s blood pressure and assist in looking for anybody at the Senate building, once the name of that person is mentioned. This is the point.