Institute seeks more Chemists recognition

Mr Wilford Jwalshik, the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON) on Wednesday appealed to the Federal Government to prioritise the teaching and practice of chemistry in the country.

Jwalshik in Lagos said that the government needed to give more recognition to chemists, especially in the process of making decisions on issues that required their expertise.

He said that for Nigeria to meet up with other industrialised countries, the importance of chemistry could not be overlooked.

“Chemists are found in almost every sector of the economy playing very vital roles.

“They work in the food industry, cosmetic industry, textile industry and agricultural sector by giving information needed on soil analysis, assisting in fertiliser formulation, and also work as quality control personnel in organisations.

“Chemists also analyse the kind of gases in the atmosphere and that is why we say that everything in the world revolves around chemistry,” the ICCON boss said.

The registrar said that despite the importance of chemistry in the development of the economy, its teaching and practice in Nigeria had was grossly insufficient and plagued by poor infrastructure.

He said that as chemists, most of their works were conducted in the laboratory but due to low budgetary allocation, the institute had not been able to carry out many researches.

“We intended to establish a reference laboratory and because of that, we reached out to many universities and research institutes but found out that most of them are just mere structures with obsolete equipment.

“No nation develops without science and technology, and my assessment is that the sector can do with more funding from government.

“If you look at the budget allocation of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, it is one of the ministries with the lowest budget and that in itself discourages the study of science.”

He urged that the Federal Government allocate more funds to the ministry, so that better equipment could be bought and meaningful researches carried out for the benefit of the country.

The ICCON boss explained that presently, for chemists to carry out meaningful researches in Nigeria, samples were sent abroad for proper and adequate analysis.

Jwalshik said that as an institute, it had been able to identify that gap and was trying to establish a reference laboratory that would take care of some of these challenges with government assistance.