In the midst of Nigeria’s economic challenges, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has issued an urgent plea to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in revitalizing the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO).
HEDA, in a statement, underscored the importance of maximizing productivity and advocated for relocating the Director-General’s office of the Institute from Abuja back to Lagos.
Established in 1953 as a pivotal research institution, FIIRO plays a crucial role in advancing industrialization by harnessing indigenous resources from Nigeria’s 774 local government areas to bolster the economy and modernize production techniques.
In a letter addressed to the President and signed by HEDA’s Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, the civil society group highlighted FIIRO’s historic achievements from its original Lagos headquarters in Oshodi. However, recent leadership has seen the institute struggle, marked by infrastructure decay and minimal output.
The letter stated, “Since the appointment of the current Director-General of FIIRO, Dr. Jummal A. Tutuwa, and the Board, the institute seems to have deviated from its mandate and experienced a decline in productivity. The institute’s environment in Lagos resembles an abandoned site with little activity to justify decades of investment.”
Suraju attributed this decline to the Director-General’s office being based in Abuja and a lack of effective management and operation of the institute. Consequently, infrastructure has deteriorated, and the institute has shown little output in recent years.
HEDA called on the President to instruct the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji, to revitalize FIIRO, ensuring maximum productivity and output.
