(R) Prof. Samuel Olu Otubusin (FFS) delivering UNAAB’s 32nd Inaugural Lecture.
To his right, the Pro-Chancellor, Chief Olakunle Osayemi (in native attire), Principal Officers
and Deans. (Inset) a cross-section of Guests and well wishers
A University don and expert in Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, Prof. Samuel Otubusin, has decried the poor turn-over in the production of fish, despite the abundance of water in the country.
Otubusin, a Professor of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management frowned at the abysmal production level, while delivering the 32nd Inaugural Lecture of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB), titled, “Water, Water, Water Everywhere…An Enigma!”at the Julius Okojie Lecture Theatre Complex.
Reflecting on the nation’s fisheries potential during the Lecture, Otubusin, who quoted several authorities, especially Ita E. O, disclosed that Nigeria has an estimated surface area of 12.5 million hectares of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and major rivers.
Making reference to a previous study by the Federal Minister of Water Resources (2011), Chief Ando Obadiah, Professor Otubusin further revealed that Nigeria currently have over 200 dams with a combined storage capacity of 34 billion cubic metres.
He lamented the inability of the country to make judicious use of its 12.5 million hectares of water surface, as the nation still produce below a million metric tonnes of fish annually, at a lesser stretch of 800 hectares.
Describing the development as an eye-sore, Otubusin said, “It is evident that Nigeria has water, water, water, everywhere … yet not enough fish”, deposing that the trend “is ENIGMATIC”!
He pointed out that the title of his lecture was deliberately “used as an aphorism and intended to give a wake-up call to stakeholders, of the vast resources the nation is endowed with, regardless of which “we suffer in the midst of plenty”.
Prof. Otubusin articulated the aphorism to include the totality of the nation’s crude-oil production, national gas and solid minerals reserves, trained manpower and the vast water bodies that could be deployed for large-scale commercial food production, integrated livestock and fish culture.
Professor Otubusin of the Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, College of Environmental Resources (COLERM), identified corruption, mischief and intrigues, as major causes of decay in the aquaculture and fisheries sector of the nation’s economy.
While pointing the way forward, Professor Otubusin who is the University’s pioneer Professor of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, called for proper funding of institutions, such as UNAAB to achieve a meaningful “community-based implementation strategy of an integrated agriculture-livestock-cum fish culture water-based project”.
Besides, the Lecturer charged fish nutrition experts to collaborate with other experts, especially in Engineering to perfect the large scale production of efficient and affordable and available infrastructure, required for profitable commercial fish farming.
