By Innocent Onoh
After three years of staying in limbo, the Nigeria Liquefied and Natural Gas, NLNG, has finally found Nigerians qualified to cart away its 2017 Prize for Science. Five scientists have emerged as joint winners of the NLNG Prize for Science. The Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Prize, Professor Akpoveta Susu, made the announcement at a news conference organised by the NLNG in Lagos, last week.
Prof. Susu said the winners of the $100,000 prize, whose research works were selected from 27 entries were recognised for their innovative work in the field of malaria.
According to the Advisory Board Chairman, three of the scientists – Ikeoluwapo Ajayi, Ayodele Jegede and Bidemi Yusuf – were recognised as joint winners for their research work entitled, “Improving Home and Community Management of Malaria: Providing the Evidence Base. The fourth person, Mr. Olugbenga Mokuola, was cited for his work entitled, “Multifaceted Efforts at Malaria Control in Research: Management of Malaria of Various Grades.
The fifth scientist, Dr. Chukwuma Agubata, emerged as one of the joint winners for his work entitled, “Novel Lipid Microparticles for Effective Delivery of Artemether Antimalarial Drug using a Locally-Sourced Irvingia Fat from Nuts of Irvingia Gabonensis var Excelsa (Ogbono)”.
Prof. Susu declared, “We acknowledge the difficulties associated with scientific research in developing countries including Nigeria, where infrastructure deficit could deal a debilitating challenge to the efforts. Our hope is that the award of this prize would in its own little way provide a spark that would reinvigorate the passion of our budding scientists in finding solutions to our everyday issues.”
He said “the NLNG congratulated the winners for doing a great job and for achieving this feat in the midst of an impressive array of entries. This is indeed a call to do more so that the identified potentials could be realised”. Prof. Susu stated that while malaria was the focus of this year’s edition, innovations in the power sector had been adopted as the theme of the 2018 Prize.
The NLNG General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, who commended the judges’ assessment, said the winning entries had addressed salient issues and challenges facing malaria treatment and control in Nigeria. Dr. Eresia-Eke said, “This is a great milestone for the people of Nigeria and Africa. Firstly, we finally have a winner for the Science Prize and secondly, we have some commendable research works that have contributed significantly to the body of knowledge on the disease and even provide some interesting opportunities for local approach to defeating malaria. The hard work must not stop. The winners will need support to translate this to real benefits for Nigerians. We are calling on the government and corporate Nigeria to support this initiative and bring it to life.”
