Researchers urge government to implement research outcomes for national development
By Cyriacus Nnaji:
A team of researchers from the Lagos State University of Education (LASUED) Oto/Ijaniki, has called on the government to implement research outcomes for national development.
This was the consensus at the National Research Fund (NRF 2023) Grant Dissemination Programme of TEDFund sponsored research on “Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba Proverbs, using colouring books and interactive animations for Junior Primary School.”
At the event which took place at the ASUU Secretariat of the institution on the 14th of August, 2025, the speaker said the usual practice whereby results of research outcomes are abandoned should be discontinued so that society can benefit from such great efforts.
Prof. Joy Odewunmi, Department of English, College of Language and Communication Art Education, gave overview of the grant dissemination programme.
She said, “The idea behind the research is that we wanted to make our language attractive for everyone, especially for the younger ones, because we believe in catching them young and we believe that since proverbs are witty sayings, there are pretty something you can grab from it. When a child learns to talk in proverbs, that child learns and loves the language immediately.
“Sometimes something happens and you said ‘a toad does not run in day time for nothing, something is pursuing it or it is pursuing something.’ I will tell you proverbs are witty sayings that if we speak it to our children at home they will like the language, it is beautiful, you can say it in pigin English, it can be said in our indigenous languages, and when your children watch your mouth, how you say it, they become interested.”
Prof Odewunmi corrected the impression that proverbs can be used by the elders alone. ‘People say that proverbs are for elders, no. Let us change that narrative, let us begin to say, our people used to say, not our elders used to say. It limits it, so if I am not an elder, I cannot say proverbs, is that what it means?”
Speaking on the way forward, she said, “Part of the dissemination is we called the press, and we urge you to disseminate the information properly, and we have published the outcoms in two international and one national journals, that is part of the dissemination. Again TEDFund has a way of disseminating this on a wider margin.”
On what was done in the book to also drive the culture of the people, she responded “If you go through the colouring books, you will discover that everything was culturally based, the dressing, the the Hausa colouring books depicted the Hausa wears, the Igbo, the Yoruba, depicted theirs, because if you lose your language, you lose your culture.”
Dr (Mrs) Dom-Anyanwu Ngozi, a lecturer in the Department of Nigerian Languages (Igbo Unit)
LASUED, speaking on the challenges the team encountered while carrying out the research, said, “Really when you are called upon to carry out a research, there must be some negativities, indeed we faced a lot of challenges, one, timing, sometimes you move out, the researchers would not be there, the respondents you want to use would not be there or ready to respond. Two, the children being what they are, you call them, they would be running up and down, maybe, that day, you would not achieve anything tangible, you have to come back again. And then financially, actually, we were sponsored, yes, but things are very expensive in the market today, when the grant was approved, the cost of things in Nigeria were not as high as they are now, so I think it affected it a little.”
He said that even though the team did not gain financially, they were happy they achieved their target and Gaines knowledge. “Some people when they get a grant of this nature, they would gain something, but for us, we didn’t gain anything, but we are happy that we gain knowledge, and we achieved what we wanted to achieve.”
Prof Oladayo Akanmu, from the Department of Nigerian Languages, LASUED, speaking on how the government can optimise the outcome of the research for informed educational policy in the country, he said, “Let me say first and foremost, Government, they are trying their best. Over the years, I think, the Lagos State Government has tried, when it comes to the issue of indigenous languages, I was part of the effort that now made Yoruba compulsory in all the tertiary institutions, not only tertiary institutions, in Lagos State. All tertiary institutions in Lagos State, they now offer Yoruba at the level of General Studies. So we have to praise them for that effort. And just like Oliver Twist, from the research we have presented, Government can still do more, it is not everytime that the outcome of research of this nature is presented and it is forgotten, we need to at least take the recommendations very serious, and work on it.”
He decried a situation where outcomes of research of this magnitude is dumped and wasted. “The usual practice in the past is that when we have a research of this nature, the stakeholders, they don’t always work on it, and this is the problem with us in this part of the world. In advanced countries, they take research very very serious, in fact, they spend much more money on research because they know that it would lead to development. So we can only appeal to government to, from what we have done today, at least look into our recommendations, and in their policies, make it work.”
