January 25, 2018

University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) is seeking partnership with Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on training, Research and Development (R & D) to support the service in the discharge of its responsibilities.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Benjamin Ozumba, made the plan known when he paid a courtesy visit to the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, at NAF Headquarters, Abuja.

The Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF Headquarters, AVM Olatokunbo Adesanya, made the fact known in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

During the visit, Ozumba said the university decided to partner NAF because of its giant strides in R & D and the consistent display of professionalism in the discharge of its responsibility, Adesanya said.

He commended NAF for its efforts toward attaining self-reliance, adding that NAF was one of the government agencies that were in tune with the changes in the 21st Century.

According to him, the world has gone beyond the era of commodity driven economy to knowledge-based economy.

Ozumba commended the efforts of the current NAF leadership toward improving the knowledge base of its personnel through sustained R & D activities.

“Therefore, I reiterated the readiness and capability of the institution to collaborate with NAF in all aspects of R & D to ensure that the service continued to successfully accomplish its constitutional tasks.

“UNN has been consistently ranked Number one in the Google Scholarly Search in West Africa, for the past three years, a testimony of the university’s commitment to academic endeavours,” he said.

Ozumba said arrangement had been concluded by the university to establish a science park toward advancing technological knowledge.

He used the opportunity to invite NAF to be part of the institution’s Innovation Conference scheduled for February.

In his remarks, Abubakar said that NAF would also partner UNN in the area of aircraft maintenance, building technology and other relevant fields.

The CAS added that the service had identified the need to partner with academic institutions in Nigeria more than five years ago.

He said NAF had already signed a Memoranda of Understanding with 15 other Nigerian universities, adding that the partnerships had started yielding benefits, especially in the enhancement of NAF’s aircraft maintenance capacity.

Abubakar expressed the readiness of NAF to participate in the establishment of the science park at UNN and promised that NAF would be represented at the Innovation Conference.

Abubakar directed that a team of relevant NAF personnel from NAF Research and Development Centre and NAF Institute of Technology, Kaduna, be composed to visit UNN.

He explained that the visit would help identify specific areas of potential partnership between both organisations.