FG postpones opening of new NIPRD laboratory

The health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu who visited the institute noted that they were ready for the president to commission the facility.Months after the institute began using its new offices earlier this year, facilities it needs are yet to reach the standards expected for Nigeria’s world-class centre for drug and food research.“This is the only national […]

The health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu who visited the institute noted that they were ready for the president to commission the facility.
Months after the institute began using its new offices earlier this year, facilities it needs are yet to reach the standards expected for Nigeria’s world-class centre for drug and food research.
“This is the only national institute we have. When you enter here, you should be shaking,” he complained of the absence of wow factor in the lab’s ambience. “The lab is one of the neatest places you can go in the world.”
NIPRD is currently researching diabetes treatment in some six local medicinal plants and has successfully produced Niprisan, a drug to manage sickle cell disorder.
During the inspection visit to assess NIPRD’s readiness for formal opening, Chukwu criticised the fitness of its laboratories, the absence of paper journals in its library and even choice of bookshelves and concluded it wasn’t prepared.
He raised issues with the institute’s lack of attention to basic details, likening it to the current rampage of cholera.
“Until we stop open defecation, we can’t stop cholera. Stopping it doesn’t need anybody to go to school; it just needs building toilets,” insisting on the basics.
A technical assessment is needed to estimate another feasible time for opening, he said.
“It will give us an idea when whatever is needed to be put in place will be done,” Chukwu concluded.
“There is no point rushing into commissioning,” admitted NIPRD director-general Prof Karniyus Gamaniel. “We are challenged but we will take it up.”
He said the institute could install its internet services in two weeks, stock its library with books and change the shelves.
“The challenge is most of us use online journals. Once the internet is in, there’s nothing you want that we cannot give you,” said Gamaniel.