Building capacity in Geoscience Education: The ExxonMobil example

The lofty ideas behind harnessing the prospect of Geoscience education in Nigeria is a vision that require massive investment as a result of the important role it plays in building capacity for the socio-economic growth and development of the nation.

It is against this backdrop that ExxonMobil Nigeria in the last eight years have invested massively in geosciences education in Nigerian universities with the sole aim of improving the quality of tertiary education in the country to internationally competitive level.

Prior to the intervention of ExxonMobil and its partners in geosciences education in Nigeria, universities in the country that offer geosciences as a course had to grapple with outdated equipment and other challenges that made teaching and learning difficult.

However when in 2007 the University Partnership Programme (UPP) was launch and the subsequent donation of equipment to universities, teaching and learning have greatly improved as 14 universities have so far benefited from this state of the art geoscience learning equipment .

According to the company, over N900 million have being committed to the UPP programme stressing that its long-term goal is to ensure that every public university in Nigeria offering geosciences benefits from the programme towards improving the quality of their studies.

Only recently six universities benefited from geosciences equipment. The universities are Akwa Ibom State University, Mkpat-Enin; Anambra State University, Ulli; University of Jos; Federal University of Technology, Akure; University of Ilorin; and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun.

They received analytical equipment consisting of six Logitech thin section making machines; 300 mosquito nets; 24 digital cameras and a cheque of N5.77 million to each university to pay for students’ logistics and lecturers’ field allowances.

Michael Udoh, general manager, Operations Technical Geoscience, ExxonMobil Nigeria while speaking at the handover ceremony in Abuja said the programme started with six universities, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Delta State University, Abraka; University of Ibadan; University of Benin; University of Calabar; and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. In 2011, he said two more universities were added to the programme, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Udoh observe that universities enrolled under the UPP programme are required to prepare a map of the area in their proximity for review and publication by the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA). “We are pleased with the progress made by these universities in this area, as 12 maps have been published by the NGSA, another four are under review, while another six are being drafted as a result of the various fieldwork trainings and analyses by these universities.”

He said the UPP is not the only way the company is contributing to the improvement of geosciences education in Nigeria, stressing that there is also the University Assistance Programme (UAP), launched in 2006 to build and equip geological laboratories in some Nigerian universities, as well as provide training for lecturers on some of the latest advances in geosciences.”

“Through the UPP and UAP, he said ExxonMobil Nigeria has invested over N3 billion into geosciences education in Nigerian universities and would continue to invest more in the future towards ensuring that Nigerian geosciences can stand on equal competitive footing with some of the best universities in the world in terms of the quality of their instruction and knowledge” he said.

“Ours is a long-term commitment to improving the quality of education in Nigeria, not just in the geosciences, but in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Since 2005, we have spent over N5 billion in undergraduate scholarships and annually commit substantial sums in awarding 13 postgraduate scholarships to some of the leading universities across the globe.

“We believe that given the desired level of instruction, equipment and support, Nigerians can truly transform our economy to its deserved status as one of the most vibrant and productive in the world and that the best STEM education is the surest way to that destination,” he added.

Ndubuisi Nwegbu, director general of NGSA pointed out that though the primary purpose of the UPP is to improve the quality of geosciences graduates from Nigerian universities, it has also created a platform that assists NGSA in fulfilling its mandate of generating, archiving and disseminating geoscience data and information to the public. The fundamental vehicle through which this is achieved is the geological maps.”

On his part, Julius Okojie, executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), commended ExxonMobil’s support for the Geosciences, noting that the equipment donated would further improve the quality of the programme in Nigerian universities, adding that “happy days are here again for Nigerian universities”.

He said the equipment would further improve the quality of geosciences education in the country, adding that the NUC would monitor the usage and ensure that they are properly maintained.

“We are particular about maintenance of equipment; we will continue to monitor them to ensure that not only do we use them effectively, but we want to complement this, government will always provide the counterpart funding.

we are also appealing to universities to spend money effectively, structures are not the problem in institutions, you can build a structure and not have equipment in them.

MacJohn Nwaobiala, permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, said ExxonMobil’s support for Geosciences through its social investment programmes portrays the organisation as a responsible firm that fulfills its corporate social responsibilities.

“Sustainable university education in Nigeria is a collective responsibility of the government and the private sector as demonstrated by EEPNL and its production partners”. He said

While congratulating the beneficiaries, he urged them to make optimum use of the equipment for the benefit of the Nigerian university system in the development of the geology programme, while also ensuring proper maintenance culture to enable the equipment endure.

KELECHI EWUZIE