The federal government has unveiled a tertiary institution national laureate award with an annual prize pool of N365 million to reward outstanding academic work across the country.
Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education, in a statement on
Wednesday, said a special prize for medicine and medical innovation is named
after Stella Adadevoh, former lead physician and endocrinologist at First
Consultants Medical Centre in Lagos.
Alausa said her courage and professional sacrifice
contributed significantly to preventing the 2014 Ebola outbreak from becoming a
“national catastrophe” in the country.
The minister said the academic prize was established to
“recognise, reward and elevate outstanding academic research, innovation and
intellectual excellence” across Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
Alausa said the government has set up a committee to provide
strategic direction, governance and integrity required for the implementation
of the initiative.
“For many years, our national attention and reward systems
have not sufficiently celebrated the remarkable work taking place in our
universities and other tertiary institutions,” Alausa said.
“Across this country, young Nigerians and academics are
conducting research, developing solutions, creating new technologies and
generating ideas capable of addressing some of our most pressing developmental
challenges.
“As a Government, we believe that these young men and women
and our distinguished academics deserve to be seen, supported and celebrated.”
The minister said the prize is one of the initiatives of
President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in the education sector and is
being jointly implemented by the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank
(NERD) and the federal ministry of education.
He said the award would provide a national platform for
identifying and rewarding exceptional academic research with significant
potential for innovation, commercialisation, industrial application and
national development.
According to him, the N365 million annual prize pool will be
for different categories of outstanding academic work, including undergraduate
dissertations with strong commercial potential, exceptional master’s theses and
doctoral theses with clear industrial and developmental applications.
The minister said special prizes would also recognise
outstanding work in critical fields such as engineering and technology,
medicine and health sciences, arts and social sciences, agriculture, law and
teaching innovation.
He said some of the special prizes would honour
distinguished Nigerians whose lives symbolise exceptional service, courage and
contribution to the country.
“One of these will be the Dr. Stella Adadevoh Prize for
Medicine and Medical Innovation, in honour of the extraordinary physician whose
courage and professional sacrifice contributed significantly to preventing the
2014 Ebola outbreak from becoming a national catastrophe,” Alausa said.
“Her legacy demonstrates the transformative power of
knowledge, professionalism and service to humanity.”
The minister said the credibility of the prize would depend
fundamentally on the integrity of its selection process.
He said the process would be “transparent, competitive,
merit-driven and insulated from political, institutional or personal
influence”, adding that excellence must remain the determining factor.
The minister added that universities, polytechnics,
monotechnics and colleges of education are all allowed to be part of the award
competition, including privately owned institutions.
He, however, did not provide details on how eligible
students and researchers can participate in the awards.
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