The newly elected Chairman of NABDA Branch of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), Dr. Adekunle Rowaiye, fielded questions from R&D Watch on the GMO controversy, the Akpa leadership and his vision for ASURI. He spoke to Staff Writer FRANKLYN EKEANYANWU.

R&D WATCH:

• Let’s start by you introducing yourself.
  

Dr. Rowaiye: I’m Dr. Adekunle Babajide Rowaiye. I’m an assistant director in the Department of the Medical Biotechnology at the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA). In January this year (2019), I was elected as the chairman of NABDA branch of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI).

• How long have you been at NABDA?
  

I’ve been in NABDA for seven and half years now, having joined in July 2011.

• What’s your discipline?
  

Primarily, I’m a veterinarian, veterinary medicine. My second degree was in biotechnology. My third degree, for which I’m awaiting result, is in pharmaceutical biotechnology. I’m a fellow of veterinary medicine, and that’s the highest cadre as a consultant veterinarian. So, I’m working in the Medical Department, where we are looking to see how we can advance our mandate, that is, the mandate of the agency, NABDA.

• There is this issue of a thin line between GMO and biotechnology. What is the line of distinction between the two?
  

There has been so much publicity about GMO, much of which is negative. Most of them are based on fear. What if? Before the GMO comes out, it’s a thorough technology, meticulously carried out. It’s like when you want to discover a drug, a product might not come out until about eight to ten years of research, and it must have gone through different stages of tests. It is basically safe. And what you are looking at is infinitesimal. The body has at least over 3.2 billion nucleotides in one cell, and what you want to tamper with is not more than hundred. Even if you don’t modify, nature and the environment itself is modifying.

There are diseases that never existed in the last hundred years; they are just coming up. In the last twenty years, we have heard of different things, including ebola. So these are mutations that come due to environmental factors. So, if nature and the environment by itself is genetically engineering organisms, I think we should do more to correct effects of these aberrations that we have. So, it’s important that we start up.

I know there are lots of issues that people are playing God. I won’t want to look at it that way. The Almighty Himself has given inspiration to man, and I believe that that’s why we have brains to think to be able to solve our problems. So, I think people that are coming up with these things are probably exercising unfounded fear, things that are not justifiable by science. I was listening to somebody on radio, and they say it is carcinogen, and I ask myself: what’s the discipline of this person that is talking? And I got to know that the person is not even a scientist, but because he belongs to the anti-GMO organization, he took a document and crammed it.
Before you declare something a carcinogen, it is a long process and we have a data base of carcinogens.

You don’t just declare something a carcinogen out of the blues. So if you look at the science of it, what is killing people now is more of the chemicals we are consuming. Imagine that more recently we hear of killer beans, because you want to preserve the beans, and you are using such chemicals. These are the issues. I think people should look at them. We are surrounded by radiations. Lifestyle is changing. The global effect of what is happening.

I’m a number one advocate of picking the DG from the system. For career officers, it gives you an opportunity to dream that one day, you will get to the apogee of your career and become the DG… When you bring in a DG from outside, it’s going to take that DG sometime to understand the system.

• Coming to NABDA, we have it on good account that bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide, among others, are being developed. What effect are they going to have on the economy?
  

That truth about it is that there are so many things we are blessed with, such as the bio-fertilizer, the bio-pesticide and so on. A scientist just picked some bacteria that seemed to be useless in nature, and says okay, what gene can these carry that can add more nutrient to the soil? What gene can this bacteria carry that can degrade chemical waste? And he engineers it. So, it’s a plus. When we begin to look at bio-economy, that’s big business for Nigeria because we are beginning to look inwards. Do you want to talk about cost of importation of fertilizers? Do you want to talk about cost of setting up these factories?

But once you begin to explore these bio-resources, we have animal bio-resources, plant bio-resources, microbial bio-resources. Out of the microbial bio-resources, we have fungi, we have the mushroom, we have the bacteria. So, what these people have done is to pick a micro and work on it and then upscale it, produce it en-masse and it’s giving value for the money. What appeared to be insignificant has suddenly become the cornerstone and these are areas we need to begin to focus on. And that’s the vision of this agency. And that’s why we have so many bio-resources around, and each of them has its own specialization, customized to fit with the needs of its own environment in which they are domiciled in.

See mushroom, for instance. We have so many species of mushroom, which used to be associated with poverty in those days. Now I know better; I know that it’s one of the greatest anti-cancer agents that we have. It is so powerful in boosting the immune system to fight against cancer. These things exist here, in our locality. And not only that, scientists have begun to look at these mushrooms as a vehicle for drug delivery. You can target a drug into these microbes, into mushrooms and then grow it, and harvest it. The possibilities are endless, as far as bio-technology is concerned.

• Much of these things are coming during the time of Prof. Akpa. It seems to add value to the fact of picking a DG within the system. How do you see this?
  

I’m a number one advocate of picking the DG from the system. For career officers, it gives you an opportunity to dream that one day, you will get to the apogee of your career and become the DG. It’s an encouragement and an incentive. When you bring in a DG from outside, it’s going to take that DG sometime to understand the system: it can’t be less than eight to nine months to understand what is happening. For an organization that has several centers of excellence, several bio-resource development centers.

So, it’s going to take time, the intricacies. Even if you understand the structure, you need to understand the work-culture, the dynamics, how human interest gravitates towards places of interest different focuses. We are all political, for a new DG, it will take time. But for someone that has been here for over fifteen years, you don’t need an introduction. For me, we need a home-grown solution for our problems.

• When we have a home-grown CEO, the person hits the ground running, now we have somebody who has been here for fifteen to sixteen years. In these six months, can you access this period?
  

Professor Akpa is laying a foundation. I have been into leadership at various stages, and I know when somebody will succeed. No matter how intelligent you are, you are more intelligent when you feed on the intelligence of others, and that’s a virtue Professor Akpa has. He listens. He picks up bits and pieces from what you are saying. Even if you look stupid, he doesn’t cut you, he doesn’t shut you down. He listens to you, he notes them down. Sometimes when you are talking to your DG, your DG is taking notes, because he’s a man that is learning.

He is very meticulous, he is analytical, and so, for me, that’s a good leader. What that person will bring is an inclusive government. If you are not sensitive to the plight of the people you’re leading, then your leadership will become a failure. Seven months is still too short, really, but what we have seen on ground, they are markers, indication that we’re building a good solid foundation.

I want to see Prof. Akpa lead NABDA to the next level. We have discussed several times, and I discovered he has noble ideas that can project us to the world. When we say NABDA, many people think we are saying NAFDAC. It’s NABDA. If Professor Akpa is allowed and encouraged to do the good work he has started, NABDA will become a household name in Nigeria and internationally.

The old NABDA was a burial ground for mental faculties but the good Lord will help us out because the story is changing

• You seem to be so much fascinated about the Akpa leadership. As the NABDA Branch chairman of ASURI, how will you be able to draw the lines?
  

First and foremost, I came to NABDA as a research scientist, so I am a researcher. This makes me a stakeholder in the system and this means when things are going well, it is for the good and growth of everyone. I have discovered leadership qualities in the Acting DG, which makes him worthy of being followed. You know it is not every leader that deserves being followed.

The union is a pressure group that fights for the welfare of its members and, by so doing, acts as a check on the management. These roles and more I swore to spearhead as chairman and I will do no less, no matter what. I am not a sycophant and I won’t be anybody’s lackey. I know and have what it takes to look management in the eyes when and if it derails, using the platform of the union.

• What do we look forward to, with you being in the saddle as the Comrade Chairman?
  

In as much as the welfare of researchers is uppermost in my heart, this is not going to be reduced to a bread-and-butter, aluta regime. As major stakeholders in the polity, we shall be very pro-active and be willing partners in seeing to it that NABDA delivers on mandate. In this case, we shall not leave all the thinking to management. We shall make valuable suggestions through proposals that will make the agency move forward.
Along this line, we took a stock of all Ph.D holders in the agency to form a think-tank and created a Forum of Masterminds. The old NABDA was a burial ground for mental faculties but the good Lord will help us out because the story is changing.