COVID-19 vaccines: Govt not encouraging local researchers – Onunka

The President, Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions, Dr. Nnamdi Onunka, and the Secretary, Dr. Theophilus Ndubuaku, speak on the challenges facing the country’s research institutes and why they are not championing research into COVID-19 vaccines in this interview with JUDE IDU. Excerpts….

What is your take on the incessant strikes by the academic and non-academic unions?

(Ndukaku)
In case you want to know, the question is all about government ineptitude and its problem with lack of funding the institutions of high learning. The problem is about money matter. Every problem in Nigeria is all about money matter and the failure of government to do the needful. Look at the issue of Boko Haram, we cannot even fight a battle, it is all about money matter.

The soldiers were not equipped to fight, and they complained about it. Look at the issue of COVID-19 and how it is being handled. While people were dying of hunger because of the lockdown, others were hoarding the palliative, and this made people to invade stores and warehouses. People are dying on daily bases; it is all about money matter.

So, the problem with Nigeria is that we have a country that God created to be the best nation in the world. I do not know whether you are aware, that there is no country across the world so blessed in terms of quantity and quality of natural resource like Nigeria. So, by God’s plan, Nigeria ought to be the richest country in the world. But have you ever asked why the country created to be the richest has become the poverty capital of the world? This is because we refused to convert the natural resources to wealth. It is also because people do not convert natural resources by prayers, but by actions.

We simply refused to convert the natural resources, God has given us to create wealth and that is why you are seeing these frequent quarrels between the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Federal Government. It boils down to lack of funding for the development of the nation’s institutions. It boils down to the fact that we have refused to follow the right track of developing this county.

So, we are saying that even if there is no money, that government should borrow to fund the research institutions. That even if they borrow to fund research in this country and if Nigeria fails to come tops, or does not change for better, that they should hold some of us responsible.

What are the things lacking in the research institutions?
(Ndukaku) We are saying that the research institutions in Nigeria have been abandoned, that the meagre amount of money budgeted and released does not get to the researchers? All the money they are appropriating, are spent on buying vehicles. If you visit the place, you will see thousands of vehicles packed, yet the researchers do not have one naira to publish papers or to do research.

May we know these people you alleged embezzled this money?
(Ndukaku) They are the people in charge, the people who run the institutes, the people appointed by government to oversee and manage the research institutions. You see I do not blame them because when you give somebody job and you do not control him; he will just run riot. Are you getting me? We have a condition of service that we want them to implement to checkmate the fraud that is going on in our research institutions. But from what we see, they are refusing to implement it.

Government had released the blueprint but those in charge, the chief executives have refused to implement it. That is why we are making our grievances known. For your information, this condition of service was negotiated over a period of 15 years. For a country that is serious about development, does that show seriousness? Even when we know that research is key to nation’s development, and you know when you try to open the door to your house without the key, it will not be possible.

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As we say research is key, to national development. The only way you can open the door for national development, is through the researchers whom the government has kept in limbo for 15 years. A lot of people have retired without any condition of service, so they may not have performed optimally. How can somebody you appointed as a chief executive say that he is not going to implement your decision? So, when the government does not have the political will to advise or give order to the people they appointed, then something is wrong.

What is your next line of action?
(Ndukaku) The institutions are already grounded because we have been on strike for one month and no research is going on. In this period of COVID- 19, it is a pity. And what does it take for one to say, if you do not implement what I handed down to you, then you will be sacked. So, it is the chief executive that is scuttling the implementation of the blueprint. He is so desperate to remain in charge of all the funds and you know why that condition of service, stipulates that there is going to be a committee set up to be monitoring funds coming and its expenditures, monitoring of projects. And another fact is that the committee has labour union members in it and that is the fear. So, they do not want the union members to be aware of the expenditure or be part of allocation of funds.

The condition of service stipulates that every researcher, must have fund for his research. Now, you see where the problems are coming from. Because in the past, it has not been the tradition of the management giving research grants to researchers. The new condition of service says every researcher must get funds for his research. We are not saying that we shall have all the money, but let the little that trickle in, go around and maybe, when research brings more funding, then we can start asking for more money.

We are very realistic, tell me why ASUU and NASU are complaining? Nigeria is not an industrialised nation. We produce virtually nothing and research about nothing. So, no foreign revenue except from oil exportation. Where is the money coming from? The country is poor. Can’t you see we are the poverty capital of the world? This is because there is nothing to give anyone. That is why we are calling on every Nigerian and the media to join us in this campaign, so that the research institutions will thrive and there will be productivity and even food. For instance, in agriculture, some crops mature in two months or three months, so, if you make the right inputs within one year, the effect will be felt.

Mr. President, is there any other thing you would like Nigerians to know about the challenges facing the sector?
(Onunka)
Further to what my colleague has said, let me give you a practical example. The Alex Ekwueme University in Ebonyi State, is hosting agric researchers now and that is where researchers go to exchange and cross fertilise ideas.

I can tell you, that this is where researchers present papers that are criticised; papers that will eventually metamorphose into journals and research papers. And from my own institute NRCI Umudike, only one person went to represent the entire institution. The person is there because he runs an externally funded research project. It is as bad as that.

Now tell me how a researcher, who is neither sponsored to a workshop nor his research supported be expected to produce conference papers for his promotion and how can that be done. That is what is leading to brain drain from research institutes to universities and in the larger society. And the only reason why the attention is given to the universities is that when they cough, attention is focused on them because their children are there and will be affected if the schools continue to be on strike. But for the research institute, the belief of the leadership is that we can go and die.

Research is not a thing we see the result today and tomorrow. It needs patience and time. But, our leaders have refused to accord us the rightful place even in the funding. As my colleague has enunciated, we have been in the fight for more than 15 years and I spent eight years as a Chief (grade level 14) because I did not have a PhD. We are crying not only for ourselves, but for the good of Nigeria and researchers. People should know why we are where we are today.

When are we expecting locally made vaccines from your union or individual members of the union?
(Ndukaku) Amid the controversy surrounding its operations and denial of funds, the academic union of research institutes said that capable Nigerians should have been among those having their names in the Guinness book of records but with the style of doing things here no one cares to listen to the plea for funds to get down to work.

As for COVID-19, the union did advise the federal government to embrace home-grown research and such was published 10 months ago on May 12, 2020. The Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI) rightly advised the Federal Government to advance home-grown research as its strategic and tangible contributions toward mitigation, prevention, and treatment of Coronavirus pandemic. And they cannot deny it. As the Secretary-General, I made this known in a statement, expressing worry over the gapping disconnect between the political managers of the pandemic and researchers. I told them that there was a need for the government to recognise the relevance of the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, among others, to the nation’s immediate need for testing, certification of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), treatment and research on Coronavirus. This is because NIMR has both the manpower and facility to coordinate all Coronavirus-related cure and therapeutic research geared towards acceptable medical processes and procedures.

For Nigeria to systematically approach the cure for COVID-19, it is germane to harness all leading researchers for a possible cure of the virus. This has become imminent, given the non-engagement and the seeming side-lining of NIMR despite its capacity to provide adequate mitigation programmes in the fight against Coronavirus.

It is our firm belief that as the mandate research agency for medical solutions, NIMR has the requisite capacity and research acumen to collaborate with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) leading in the research component on the fight against COVID-19. It is our view that NIMR, as a research-based institute, has the capacity to carry out expanded tests for Coronavirus, which both the federal and state governments will tap into to ensure adequate mitigation and treatment for COVID-19.

As of the time, NIMR was poised to coordinate an amalgam of indigenous Nigerian researchers in the medical, pharmaceutical, and herbal-pharmacology health field to spearhead a reliable and dependable treatment and therapy for Coronavirus. ASURI had also put most of the health-related institutes and researchers in Nigeria on standby to facilitate the smooth commencement of scientific tests and investigation of relevant treatment claims.

It is expected that our research team has the technical know-how to lead in the verification of the efficacy of any claim of Coronavirus cure by any medical researcher. ASURI called on the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to create an enabling platform for NIMR and ASURI to take the lead in testing, provision of test kits and PPEs and, most importantly, the research for COVID-19 cure.

We did it because this has become exigent given the commitment of the federal government to align its coronavirus mitigation with indigenous medical research.

You were initially appointed by the federal government as a member of the COVID-19 research committee, what happened after?
(Ndukaku) Yes, but after the announcement and the inauguration of the committee, things died down the normal way. We had already programmed all the research institutions for the effective outcome of the research. And we were so confident in the National Institutes for Medical Research’s efforts in COVID-19 vaccine development.

The efforts were targeted at developing vaccines locally. Because despite the myriad of vaccine, candidates currently being tested around the world, it is imperative that countries engage in vaccine design and development programmes for timely interventions in stemming infectious disease outbreaks and biosecurity. We therefore began the journey of vaccine design and development, using killed virus in human cell lines and recombinant multivalent peptide subunits approaches to provide immune protection against COVID-19 infection. Currently, the institute has grown the virus, which is under characterisation and preparation for laboratory animal studies.

More so, we have designed immunogenic and safe mono/multivalent SARS-CoV-2 virus protein subunits using predictive models, structural modelling and molecular dynamics simulations. 2) clone and express designed peptide subunits in bacterial expression systems. 3) Identify purified peptide subunit(s) with the most immunodominant effect and less toxicity. We are waiting to begin the expression process by having our clones synthesised.

The expected outcomes of this project are to: – (1) have purified immunogenic peptide subunits for SARS-CoV-2 by producing IgG and IgM antibody response in rabbits. (2) Show that the produced antibodies can neutralise live SARS-CoV-2 virus in tissue culture. (3) Provide pre-clinical safety profile/toxicological assessment of validated vaccine candidates. (4) Commence plans for phase I clinical trials.

It is intended that this project would have immense impacts in the areas of capacity development in making other types of vaccines, job creation via activation of research and manufacturing facilities, significant reduction in the gap between demand and supply vaccines in low-and middle-income countries, and potential vaccine market entry point for Nigeria in the vaccine global market of over US $ 25 billion.

But here we are, it is obvious that in Nigeria, we believe in capital flight while importing from foreign countries, instead of encouraging indigenous researchers to develop vaccines locally.