By Ifeanyi Uwagwu/Paul Egede
Former Acting Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Dr Chris Maiyaki, has charged the University of Delta, Agbor (UNIDEL) to position itself as a beacon of excellence through robust research, innovation and creative thinking.
Maiyaki gave the charge while delivering the 5th Founder’s Day Lecture of the university in Delta State, where he urged the institution to deliberately entrench a strong research culture as the foundation for sustainable growth and global relevance. Speaking on the theme, “Creative Minds, Shaping the Future Through Research and Innovation,” he emphasised that research remains the soul of the modern university and warned that institutions that merely teach without generating new knowledge risk intellectual stagnation.
Addressing principal officers, staff, students and guests, the former NUC boss stressed that universities exist not only to transmit knowledge but to create it.
“Teaching disseminates knowledge. Research generates knowledge,” he said. “A university that teaches without researching risks intellectual stagnation. A university that researches without teaching risks social isolation. The ideal university integrates both.”
He described research as society thinking about itself in a structured and disciplined manner, noting that in a rapidly evolving world shaped by artificial intelligence, biotechnology, climate change and digital economies, nations are no longer limited by lack of natural resources but by lack of imagination.
“Land, oil, population and infrastructure no longer determine destiny. Ideas do. And universities are the places where those ideas are either born, incubated or quietly buried,” he declared.
Tracing the evolution of UNIDEL, Maiyaki recalled its origins as a College of Education established in 1980 with a mandate to train teachers before it transitioned into a full-fledged university in 2021. He commended former Governor Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa for the bold decision to upgrade the institution, describing it as a visionary move that transformed aspiration into institutional reality.
He also acknowledged the support of the current Visitor, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, and the leadership of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Stella Chiemeke, for strengthening the university’s academic and infrastructural base and expanding its faculties.
According to him, the fifth anniversary celebration should serve as a moment of recalibration rather than a mere ceremony, insisting that the future belongs to institutions courageous enough to rethink, redesign and take intellectual risks.
Maiyaki maintained that creativity is not confined to the arts but is an essential competence across all fields. He described creative minds as those that challenge assumptions, ask difficult questions and convert problems into opportunities. Universities, he said, must become crucibles for such minds by promoting interdisciplinary engagement, open intellectual dialogue and experimentation.
For UNIDEL to truly become a beacon of excellence, he noted, it must invest deliberately in laboratories and infrastructure, strengthen faculty development, encourage student-led research and build partnerships with industry, government and international institutions.
Beyond physical facilities, however, he stressed that sustained excellence depends on cultivating a culture of inquiry rooted in real societal challenges. He urged the institution to channel its research efforts toward addressing pressing issues in Delta State and Nigeria, including agricultural modernisation, environmental sustainability in the Niger Delta, healthcare improvement, rural electrification and youth unemployment.
On innovation, Maiyaki explained that while research discovers, innovation applies, describing it as the process of translating ideas into social, economic and technological value. He insisted that Nigerian universities must evolve into innovation hubs where academia collaborates with industry and communities to produce practical solutions.
He observed that although Nigeria possesses a youthful population and abundant resources, its vast potential can only be unlocked through innovation-driven development anchored on credible research.
Concluding his lecture, Maiyaki reiterated his charge that UNIDEL must rise to the challenge of excellence by becoming a laboratory of transformative ideas, a center of ethical scholarship, and a catalyst for regional and national development.
“The theme is not a slogan; it is a mandate,” he said, urging the university community to commit itself fully to creativity, research, and innovation as it charts its future trajectory.
