PROTOCOL:
I am greatly delighted, on behalf of Council and members of Nigerian Institute of Physics (NIP), to welcome you all to the 44th Annual Conference of the NIP. As you all are aware, this conference was to take place last year in November but the Council in its wisdom and after evaluating the eight long months of lockdown of our Universities occasioned by the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) took the decision to shift the conference to this year. We sincerely tender our apologies to our esteem guests and other very important persons who may have been negatively affected by this unavoidable postponement. Please permit me at this time to use this opportunity warmly welcome in our midst His Excellency, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, the Executive Governor of Lagos State. Lagos State is truly the centre and hot bed of the nation’s commerce. Lagos State is a mini Nigeria and the land of great opportunities. I am delighted that today the Executive Governor of Lagos State will be receiving NIP’s prestigious Excellent Award for his contributions in the development of Science and Technology and in particular the establishment of our host institution, LASUSTECH, which is a clear testimony to that. Physics is as an exact science. It is the soul and the king of the sciences. It is a discipline that explains humanity. Physics applications have yielded the production of virtually all the technological equipment and gadgets in use the world over. These applications are found in Medicine, Agriculture, Aviation, Weather and Weather Predictions, Energy, Environment etc. Any nation that neglects adequate funding of teaching, learning, research and other key engagements and activities involving physics does so at its perils. The Theme for this year’s conference, PHYSICS AS A TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS is quite apt considering the present state of global economic meltdown. Part of the unusually high rate of crime and criminality in present day Nigeria is traceable to high rate of unemployment. In tackling the nation’s infrastructural deficit, a study in 2013 by the Emerging Technologies At the last conference I mentioned that the Research Unit of the Research and Development Department of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) revealed that Nigerian’s Technological base has not yet been able to provide sustainable economic development for the nation. The steps taken by the Federal Government to address this deficit is the establishment of the National Integrated Infrastructural Master Plan (NIIMP). The NIIMP is expected to cost $3trillion and covers core infrastructures such as Energy, Housing and ICT. This plan is expected to run from 2013 to 2043. Physics should play a key role in each of these identified three core areas. I want to use this 2 medium to call on the Federal Government to empower the Nigerian Institute of Physics so that it facilitates the improvement of the study of physics at the basic levels and physics researches in these three identified areas at the tertiary levels. The theme of this year’s Conference, just like that of last year, was carefully chosen so that NIP will have a definite contribution in addressing the observed lacuna in the NIIMP document and other areas of our technological gaps. Please permit me now to thank all the sponsors of this year’s conference. I cannot forget particularly the financial assistance given to the LOC by Dr. Uzomba Nwaije, the CEO Finlab Incorporated. The recipients of NIP Award of Excellence are specifically recognized in this respect too. On behalf of the Council and members of the NIP, let me particularly thank the Vice Chancellor of this young but potentially great Technological University, Professor Olumuyiwa O. Odusanya, the University’s Management and Governing Council for creating the enabling environment for Nigerian physicists and other scientists to gather here. We acknowledge the VC’s financial support to the LOC. As I always did, I want to seize this opportunity to call on the federal and states governments including even the private sector to tap the huge skilled human resources that abound in the NIP. NIP members are found in the academia, Oil and gas industries, other Industries, Ministries Departments and Agencies as well as in the armed forces of Nigeria contributing their quota to national development. At the lower level, the Institute has been able to address the abysmal failure rate in physics at the Senior Secondary School Examination in some states. Am happy to note that more NIP State Chapters are keying into this very strategic area by organizing workshops for physics teachers at that level thereby assisting demystify the impression that physics is a difficult subject to learn. The NIP is presently opening up its frontiers for better service to the nation. Consequently, its two-acre land along the Airport road Abuja needs to be developed into the National Physics Centre (NPC). The NPC is planned to house a Multiple Purpose Conference Centre, Physics Library and Physics Research Laboratories, where cutting edge researches and workshops can be carried by our teeming members who have the expertise in some of the areas identified in the NIIMP Document. I call on our Distinguished Special Guests, Excellent Awardees and Fellows of NIP to please kindly partner with NIP to make the NPC a reality. Finally let me congratulate the newly inductees who are now entitled to use MNIP after their names. In similar vein, I now recognize and introduce our new Fellows, our new FNIPs. They are Dr. Anthony Chukwueke, Dr. Nwaije Uzomba, Prof. Adetola S. Oniku, Prof Babatunde Rabiu, Prof. Abubakar Alkasim, Prof Ochuko Anomohanran, Prof. Matoh D. Dogara, Prof Khalid N. Abdullahi, Prof. Geofrey E. Akpojotor, Prof. Casmir C. Z. Akaolisa, Dr. Abiodun S. Okedeyi, Prof (Mrs.) Chinyere Ada Madu. Prof. (Mrs.) Koki S. Fatima and Prof. Ndemikot Akpan. I wish us all a successful 44th Annual Conference
