Education

RESEARCHES AND ACADEMIC PAPERS: A TRAJECTORY OF EUPHEMISM AND CIRCUMLOCUTION IN NIGERIA.

By Dr. Abdulkareem Onakoya 

As an academic, l have severally engaged in the thought-blogging on how relevant and important our studies and report of findings are to our students and the larger society.

Researches and by extension published academic papers among other things are primarily meant to fill some lacuna found in the knowledge gap and serve as means of information for the government and other governmental agencies to provide better ‘life’ for the populace.

Problem-solving model is another benefit of research. In a world where opportunities are not readily available to sundry, challenges and issues must be sorted out by individuals for better discernment (Essien, 2021).

They gave practical and reliable information about organism to scientists on how best to channel their manifestations and support for the animals and plants in the ecosystem (Jagunmolu, 2022).

They also foster critical thinking and analytical skills through hand-on learning beyond the four walls. This makes formal education a useful tool while extending its scope and usefulness (Abegunde, 2021).

However, recent study in the UK by some experts in the De Montfort University, Leicester, UK has revealed that only about 15% of our theses, dissertations and long essays go beyond the book shelves, library and book stores.

The reason for this worrying deterioration in the academic parlance is the readiness of both ‘early-birds and leading researchers’ to do appropriately the needed actions on the fields and during report writings.

This exposure was made recently at a workshop organised by the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state, Nigeria on the 24th August, 2023.

As a participant at the workshop, my worries became more pronounced when Dr. Abiodun Egbetokun of the De Montfort University, UK expressed some displeasures over millions of dollars researchers and funding organisations spend to put the records straight yet again vis-a-vis the activities of research and academic papers.

It must be noted with accuracy that when paper publishing started in 1665, the first journal was the ‘Journal Des Scavas’ which was published on 5th January, 1665 in Paris followed by ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal society published in London 60 days after – 5th March, 1665.

The two documents were meant to serve some unique purposes. To trace the historical existence of man and also examine the philosophy behind our common livings and being (Green Joseph, 2020).

Since then, more than 2.98 trillion published academic papers have been released by various researchers and writers all in the bid to fill the knowledge gap and foster new frontiers in human discoveries and science (Dimitrije Curcic, 2023).

Furtherance to the above, he (Dimitrije) estimated about 64 million papers to have been published between 1996 and 2023. And a lot of growth in the number of publications have been recorded with full cognition.

He gave the statistics as follows;

“As of 2022, over 5.14 million academic papers are published per year including short surveys, reviews and conference proceedings”

“The number of published articles had increased by 2.06% in 2021, when over 5.03 million papers were published”.

He also submitted that;

“Since 2018, the number of articles published by year jumped by 22.78% starting from 4.18 million. The growth in published documents was exceptionally high during 2021 when 7.62% more articles were published compared to the previous year” (https://www.wordrated.com).

The Research Value  Chain (RVC) and relevance of academic papers have dwindled considerably over the years most particularly in this part of the world. The last rung of the ladder which suggests – Transformation to intelligence had since been swept under the carpet for a long period.

In Nigeria, ‘irrelevante and irrelevantere’ are not just growing in folds but getting to the peaks of doldrums.

As at 2022, Prof. Oyewusi Guruje of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria was acknowledged as the most published scholar in Nigeria with over 345 publications and 18657 total citations 15567 documents recording h-index of 62. He has widely published in best journals in the field of medicine.

Prof. Ganiyu Oboh of the Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology, Akure followed with 234 publications and 2767 total citations by 1765 documents recording h-index of 34 (Daily Trust, 9th November, 2022).

These erudite scholars and many others who have gone through the thicks and thins to publish their works would have been greatly rewarded had their studies gone through to the relevance stage and or used to benefit mankind. Most of these works especially in the social sciences are better of in earning academic rankings and promotions. What a waste !!!

Nigerian tertiary institutions through their academic and non-academic staff produce about 2,300 research projects and pubished academic papers annually. Only 2% have relevance and academic conjures in the polity (Olusoji, 202).

The Erstwhile Executive Chairman of TETfund in 2022, Prof. Elias Sulaiman Bogoro revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria releases about N5bn yearly to fund various researches of which no significant results come from it.

They have little or no developmental benefit to both education and science sectors in the country. The major reason attributed to this surge was the inability of the government to push the findings beyond the shelves and transform them into actions for the good of all.

After my PhD degree in 2019, I secured an appointment with a private research institute in Ibadan, Oyo state where I discovered a colossus waste of resources and efforts in our ivory towers to research abandonment.

The Foresight Institute of Research and Translation (www. firat.com), Ibadan founded by the Distinguished Prof. Adedeji Ahmed exposed me into why our studies must leave the shelves into the action field.

Though, very short indeed, the period left in me an instinct to the full knowledge of research beyond the academic affairs and rankings to the extent that after leaving the classrooms, Professors, Senior Academics and Early-bird lecturers would continually be relevant in the society.

The government must be proactive in a lot of things most particularly in the research industry. Great nations in the world make their institutions knowledge-banks where ideas and facts come from. They don’t hesitate to spend much more to retain the reservoirs.

In some cases, proper monitoring of the use(s) of funds meant for researches must be embarked upon by various funding organisations not limited to TETfund and the Federal Ministry of Education.

Our Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) as it relates to funding researches and Data Repository System (DRS) as it relates to empirical researches and other methods to bring sanity into the research industry must be called to play.

Individuals who are into one or two research activities are implored to invite diligence and goodness for posterity to judge.

Our actions today may hinder other thousands of genuine individual researchers who have passions and crave for the job. LET’S MAKE A RETHINK !!!

Dr. Abdulkareem Onakoya (PhD, FNIMC), Department of Political Science, Lagos State University of Education, Oto-Ijanikin (Epe Campus), Lagos, Nigeria, onakoyaa@lasued.edu.ng, Tel:- +2348026621805. 

 

 

 

editor

FACTUAL NG is a unique medium in the NEWS Community. We focus on facts and nothing more; hence if it is not fact, we don’t report it; that is why we are FACTUAL. You can count on us. Contact us: phone: 08086654574, 07065717515, 08055441309 email: thefactualng@gmail.com admin@factualng.com

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button