Oyo commissioner advocates geophysics for fighting Boko Haram, criminality

A professor of Solid Earth Geophysics, Adeniyi Olowofela has urged the military and other security agencies to adopt geophysical technologies in the fight against terrorism and all forms of criminality.

He said the adoption of such technologies will include using drones with thermographic characteristics to detect landmines, bombs, dangerous materials and elements underground and on the earth surface.

Olowofela gave this admonition while delivering the 56th inaugural lecture at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) titled, “The use of innocuous geo (physical) tools in discerning the bowel of the earth as a strategy for manpower development” at the school’s premises.

Olowofela had earlier in his speech lamented the dearth of Nigerian geophysicists to fully explore physical properties of the earth and its surrounding space environments like groundwater, metals and hydrocarbons.

Speaking, Olowofela, who is also Oyo Commissioner for Education Science and Technology, said the nation’s university system only boasted of about 2,000 geophysicists, which he noted was abysmally low.

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Noting that situation was not unconnected with the high cost of setting up geophysics research laboratories, Olowofela prayed for government’s intervention in order for the nation to exploit inherent benefits of adopting geophysics technologies for analysis of its earth properties.

“As of 2018, the total number of universities in Nigeria is 158 with less than 2,000 geophysicists in these institutions. For a population of over 170 million people, the intellectual warehouse of this subject is abysmally low.

“If we can be creative and ingenious in our approach, we shall be able to produce quality and adequate manpower (in Solid Earth Geophysics) in the country and open ways to financial prosperity,” Olowofela said.

Dignitaries at the event included: Vice-Chancellor, FUNAAB, Professor Kolawole Salako; Oyo Deputy Governor, Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo; members of Oyo state executive council; heads of tertiary institutions; students; politicians and traditional rulers.