ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP

Keynote address delivered by Professor Nyerhovwo Tonukari at the Nigeria Library Association, Delta State Chapter, 2018 Annual Conference, Thursday 15th November 2018 at the Delta State Polytechnic Ogwashi-Uku.

ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP

INTRODUCTION

Today is a remarkable one for me as I am being given the honour and privilege to stand before great librarians and information scientists, reputable Nigerians who mean well for this great nation and have what it takes to make our country wonderful, blissful and enviable. I would like to thank and congratulate the chairman and organisers of this conference for the good work they are doing and choosing to address this salient and striking issue of insecurity plaguing our nation. I do not see myself as qualified to discuss the theme of this conference, but each of us can assume more responsibility for our actions which will ultimately improve unity and security.

Never in the history of Nigeria has it been in dire need of security and unity. The country has never been bedeviled and paralysed like what we see now. The very existence of Nigeria as a sovereign state is being threatened by the hideous acts of terrorists’ attacks, inhumane herdsmen, hypnotised and extremist militants, Boko Haram, and ruthless and unreasonable kidnappers. Our lives and activities are now curtailed, controlled and restricted because anybody can be kidnapped. The entire nation is held hostage by these criminals. None is safe anymore, but we cannot go on like this.

We all know the first and most paramount thing a nation can give to its citizens is security. If there is no security, there is no nation. A country’s national security is concerned with the well-being, welfare and interest of her citizens, preservation of her sovereignty and territory against external aggression. The Nigerian Constitution of 1999: Section 14 (2) (b) states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. The government has the responsibility of safeguarding lives and property of Nigerians against both internal and external threats.

There is no doubt that the development of any society also depends on the extent of the security of lives and property of the citizens. Insecurity can cripple the economy of a nation. A secured atmosphere will encourage intellectual minds and provide an environment for growth and infrastructural development. In a time like this, what do we do? But we should also ask why we find ourselves in this unfortunate situation. Whose fault is it? Let us do some soul-searching.

SOUL-SEARCHING

The 2017 per capita GDP of the United States is USD 60,000, Israel and the UK are about USD 40,000, Brazil and Malaysia about USD 10,000, South Africa is about 6,000, while Nigeria and India are slightly less than USD2000. Per capita GDP is simply a measure of the total output of a country divided by the number of people in that country. We may be better than few countries but with all our natural resources and so-called intelligence is this where we are supposed to be?

Most of us long for the day when Nigeria will become a developed country; when the economy will be much better and when poverty would have been relegated to the archives. But how do you expect such period of economic freedom, peace and joy to be realized when we all sit down and expect the “government” to solve all our problems and better our lives? The purpose of knowledge is to improve ourselves and the society, but are we educated elites here today who have at least university or polytechnic education happy with our lives and socioeconomic situation? So many things have gone wrong and we all have a lot to answer for. This clearly shows that we have been following the wrong path in our personal and national development. It is time we retrace our steps and reconsider most of what we do.

Now let us go back into near history of about 300 to 400 years ago. What we know of slavery is mostly what the Europeans and Americans wrote down with few undocumented and unconfirmed stories here and there. Truly, we have been very wicked to ourselves. Do you think some few Europeans had the gut to enter a village and carry the people away? The truth is that we were the ones selling our brothers and sisters as slaves. They were just waiting in their ships to buy the slaves. We were the ones that fomented stupid wars to displace people who were then picked up and sold. Has it ever occurred to you that many families even preferred slavery to the debauchery and hunger around them in precolonial times? Sorry that I am touching on nerves here, but I am telling you some true stories. Fast forward to the colonial times, the so-called British Empire soldiers were fellow Africans and some Asians that were trained by the colonialists. And do you think slavery was abolished to help us? Think again. Slavery was becoming unprofitable and the sheer number of slaves was turning into a security challenge in the Americas.

We are now in the 21^st century and many of you are happy that slavery is over. The slave ships are no longer coming, instead our youth are trekking across the hot dry Sahara to get to Europe through the Mediterranean. Poverty and lack of opportunities can drive anyone to undertake such dangerous venture. The vast majority of Nigerians today are faced with constant and a seemingly unending struggle like disinherited children who have been deprived of their rights. There are more horrors coming and we may have to suffer even more until we come to our senses. Our society will collapse unless we gear up, realise and fulfil our individual tasks. We need to think and focus more on what we can do to improve the society and economy.

What must first change most drastically is we ourselves because we have refused to learn to work together and think bigger. We have refused to share our knowledge and accept each other as human beings. We have become slaves of religion and tribe, and many are ready to carry out much atrocities as long as they receive commendation from their church or mosque or ethnic group. Religious fanaticism and dogmatism have turned so many into barbarians and bigots.

We all troop to worship every week with slave mentality because of fear of hell or expectations of blessings. For those who keep praying and begging for blessings, miracles and breakthrough while sticking to indolence and laziness, I wish them good luck. There is a great Law which ordains that the right to take lies in giving alone. Do you give humanity your time, talent and money as a necessary service in return? Most people are never willing to acknowledge that it is depended solely upon themselves to shape their lives differently!

DOING AWAY WITH INDOLENCE

Are we really that sluggish, indolent, unproductive and uncreative? I do not think so. But if we do not criticize, how else are we going to improve the society? Nevertheless, we must also proffer solutions.

Imagine the natural resources, blessings and beauty that Nigeria has been endowed with? Today, instead of making use of what nature has freely given to us to improve ourselves and the world, we are fighting over it. Besides, we have become so lazy that we just expect free money and we want everything to be free. Why won’t the government pay 30,000 naira as minimum wage when we all are so lazy to look for other activities that can pay ten and hundred times higher? What work do many even carry out daily to deserve the minimum wage? The socialist view, that everyone with similar qualification should be paid the same must be discarded. Salaries and promotion must be tied to productivity like it is in the private sector. Whatsoever a man sows, so also shall he reap.

The notion that government should do everything for us must be also discarded. It is the most unintelligent and stupid thing for the Nigerian government to start a new airline. Nigeria airways failed miserably. It is better to invest in the private airlines, motivate them but also regulate their activities very well. All our government steel companies failed, and all should be sold. The government has no business in establishing a telephone or refinery or electricity company. It does not just work. Just look around you? In a short span of less than 15 years, several private universities are doing better than many public universities. Imagine what will happen in 20 years! We are crying for jobs, yet there are so many new jobs that can be created if we change our policies and also our ways. I once advocated that a million direct and indirect jobs will be created in few years if private refineries are encouraged. With more encouragement, our private airlines will dominate the African sky. Also, the private universities should be encouraged with financial grants to expand and admit more students.

THE DIGITAL AGE

We are in the age of founders, the age of entrepreneurs. To make this age more interesting, there is a deluge of information out there for everyone to use. Innovation is the hallmark of entrepreneurship and key to success. Innovation leads to job creation.  Every good economy is anchored on innovation and information. So why are we not innovating? But why should we innovate when the government prefers to import fuel, the citizens choose to eat foreign rice, and the academics are encouraged to publish in foreign journals! It is disheartening to be in a society that discourages innovation.

The UK, a country with a third of the population of Nigeria publishes over 10,000 academic journals, while the whole of Africa of about 1.3 billion publishes just about 5000 research journals. Why are we so foolish to promote western companies and insist on faculty journals in Nigeria? Why don’t our universities also insist on publishing only in faculty journals in Europe and America? Nearly all the journals published in western countries are by established companies and associations, and are ranked by their content, editing and citations. How many faculty journals in Nigeria reject manuscripts? Nearly all Nigerian faculty journals lack indexing and digital object identifier (DOI). These journals are often poorly dissemination (only available in the faculty) and lack online presence. Is it not disheartening for Nigerian universities to reject a journal that is indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded just because it is published by a Nigerian company? Charity should begin at home.

Libraries and archives should be digitizing our hard copy research journals, books, and records so that they can be assessed online. The sheer speed of social media in disseminating information requires a new generation of librarians that can utilize new tools to achieve this purpose. Librarians need to package information into dedicated websites that will be interesting to specific groups. It is the responsibility of our library to disseminate trusted information (in times of so many fake news) in this digital age.

CONCLUSION

The choice is ours. We can start today by taking full responsibility of all that we do, rather than just sitting down waiting for the government to improve our life while praying our beggarly prayers. We will experience a sense of newness, which grows and becomes strong out of simplicity and humility, when we start to take responsibility for our actions. We will feel liberated when we start to give instead of always expecting to receive. We can start by really thanking God for all that we are, and the blessings showered on us already. Then, we should always seek the opportunity to serve humanity and improve the world starting with ourselves. There is no end to improvement and accomplishments.

If we strive to change for good and use the talents in us, happiness and economic progress will follow. Success and a good life are so easily attainable for those who are not only serious but also humble and willing to learn from nature. We must learn to work together. Everyone must use their knowledge and contribute their own fair share.

Ladies and gentlemen, great librarians, I thank you all very much for your attention and I hope your deliberation here today will be worthwhile and fruitful.

Thank you and God bless us all.

Professor Tonukari teaches biochemistry at the Delta State University Abraka and he is the founder of Academic Journals.

Keynote address delivered by Professor Nyerhovwo Tonukari at the 3rd South South Annual Zonal Conference of the Nigerian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Thursday 13th September 2018 at the University of Port Harcourt

Rethinking Research in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

I would like to start by asking why should the Federal Government still be happy in giving university lecturers grants for research? Where are the commercialized research outputs that warrant further research investments? But is the Federal Government funding research according to the expected level? Are we doing the kind of research that will bring development to Nigeria? What have we as biochemists contributed to the Nigerian economy in terms of development from our research? Again, what has the Federal Government received in return for its over 50 years of funding scientific research? What specific products or processes can we point to in Nigeria that resulted from research that we conducted? As scientists are we pleased that there is still poverty and hunger in Nigeria in spite of the vast knowledge that we boast of? How many biochemists are really contented with their current salaries as well as societal and economic conditions?  

CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS

I must confess that scientific research is much better now with TETFund funding some of our researches. Nevertheless, the low level of funding, for instance, one, two or three million naira research grants will not be enough to conduct any meaningful research. Hence, what we see in biochemistry journals is a lot of "effect of X on Y." Many of us have published these kinds of papers just for promotion and nothing else. Misplaced priorities and papers and award-chasing are now what characterize the typical Nigerian lecturer.

The TETFund 2016 Budget was N213.4b, with only a small part of this devoted to research while most went into capital expenditures and training. Nigeria’s total Federal Government 2018 budget of N9.12 trillion is less than the amount the United States spends for medical research alone. The 2018 budget for the USA National Institutes of Health (NIH) is $37 billion (about N11.5 trillion); National Science Foundation (NSF), $7.8 billion (about N2.5 trillion); and NASA, $20.7 billion (about N6.5 trillion). The USA budget for 2018 is S4.094 trillion which is about 1,250 trillion naira (not 10 times but a whopping 140 times Nigerian budget). The USA population is 325 million, while Nigeria is 186 million. What a difference!

Considering the state of our economy, our research must be linked to industries. Our institutions must partner with industries and source for research funding from them. For example, about 20% of the research funding at the National University of Seoul, South Korea is sourced from industries (http://www.useoul.edu/research/facts). When research is tied to economic results, significant funding will come from industries. Therefore, our institutions must learn to work hand-in-hand with industries to build the economy.

Why is the US economy thriving and its budget so huge? It is simply because it has so many companies that pay good taxes to the government. Even scientists including professors are encouraged with grants, cheap loans and venture capital to commercialize their research and start companies. Several biochemistry professors move between industry and academia. Hence research parks and business incubators dots areas with universities in several western countries. Instead of complaining and criticizing the government, we should endeavor to become part of the solution by conducting real research that will lead to job creation and new products. We must learn to work with those from other fields including engineers, agriculturists, economists and software developers to make our own versions of products and services that we now import. There are so much we import that we can easily make in Nigeria. Are we not ashamed that we import enzymes, vitamins, hormones and organic acids into Nigeria? Can we not practice some of what we teach by producing these biochemicals in Nigeria? On the contrary, we export so many assays like paternity tests abroad that we can easily carry out in Nigeria. We lose so much foreign exchange. If you are Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria, will you be happy with Nigerian biochemists? Many of us got the Federal Government postgraduate and now TETFund scholarships to study for our masters and PhDs. But, the question is, ‘what have we given back to Nigeria in appreciation?’

We import so much into Nigeria today, that it has become so embarrassing. Many industries are closing, and several service firms are folding up. So many things are wrong, and we lecturers and professors are part of the problem. How many of us have real industrial experience that qualifies us to teach industrial biochemistry? Why can we not engage our colleagues in industries to teach part of our industrial biochemistry courses with us? Do we really know what is currently happening in Nigerian and international industries or we are just teaching what is in the stale textbooks? Why are we so happy to quote foreign companies as the source of our chemicals and equipment? We should patronize indigenous companies and laboratories. How many of you have joined your local chamber of commerce and industry like I have done? There is no doubt that we need some encouragement like what China is giving to its industries if we are to have real strong companies in Nigeria. But we must not wait for such governmental encouragements. We must do what we can; we need to refocus some of our research into those areas that will lead to products and services that we can commercialize and profit from financially.

RETHINKING RESEARCH

But what should we really do? It is now time to rethink and refocus our research such that it will contribute meaningfully to the Nigerian economy. We must conduct investigations that will lead to products or processes that we can point to instead of chasing awards, papers and promotion. Commercialization of research output should be be given a priority. Researchers should be encouraged to pursue patents in addition to papers so that they can benefit financially from the research. Also, there is need to introduce challenge researches. Here, scientists, policy makers, industries and stakeholders will identify real problems that we need to tackle. TETFUND and other donor agencies will call for proposals and fund the ones that will lead to solution thereby creating products and services, and ultimately jobs.  

In addition, there is need for the establishment of strong research collaborations and consortiums. Instead of giving each individual researcher two million naira for research which will end up in a meaningless promotion-focused paper, scientists with different expertise should collaborate to solve specific problems or create products and services that will promote the economy and society. Meaningful grants of at least N500m should be given to consortium of a minimum of 10 collaborating scientists that come from different fields and universities (including research institutes) to solve specific problems or create some novel products. Such call for proposals should be made public and a national panel of experts should screen them and recommend the outstanding ones for funding.

Biochemists can work with agricultural biotechnologists to develop herbicide resistant cassava. Nigeria can easily triple its cassava production if we have herbicide resistant cassava that will save a lot of labour. I have published two reviews where I argued that cassava should be considered as white gold because it is the future of starch and it is going to serve as the substrate for several industries in Nigeria. As an optimist and futurist, I still stand by my prediction. Unlike before, we now have several molecular biologists in Nigeria. What does it take to develop a transgenic plant? Several universities and research institutes have most of the required equipment and several of us have the skills to conduct such experiments. All that is required is the boost; assemble the experts, provide the consumables and give them a deadline. Believe me, we can do this. We can improve most crops in Nigeria if the funding is provided. Nigerian molecular biologists are waiting for the call.

We have been producing alcohol from different raw materials in Nigeria since pre-historic times. And we have so many grains and tubers to use as substrates for alcohol production. Then why are we still importing industrial alcohol into Nigeria? I think some of us including engineers, microbiologists and economists should come up with proposals to establish mini-alcohol production plants from cassava and other tubers and grains in all parts of Nigeria. Imagine how many jobs that will be created!

Can we not produce better anti-malaria drugs and even work towards the eradication of malaria? Nigerians have been publishing papers on anti-malarial plants since the 1960s; yet there is no real commercial Nigerian made drugs in the market. We have investigated so many medicinal herbs from all parts of Nigeria. I am confident that with good funding and encouragement, we can produce combined anti-malarial drugs with better efficacy than the current artemisinin-based drugs that we now import. And what can we as biochemists contribute towards the total eradication of malaria? Now that is food for thought. I was involved in a research that was funded by the British Government in Kenya to the tune of 8 million pounds (approx. N3.7 billion). The group from 5 countries (UK, Nigeria, Japan, Cameroon and Kenya) involved biochemists (including myself), veterinary doctors, virologists, and bioinformaticists, as well as several research assistants. We ended sequencing the genome of a protozoa Theileria parva, constructed a gene expression library, and identified 6 antigens for vaccine against East Coast Fever disease that affects cattle in East and Southern Africa (Figures 1 to 3; Tables 1 and 2). Production of the vaccine was later contracted to a Canadian company because no such pharmaceutical companies exist in Africa. We also received a patent for the antigens and published over 12 articles later. We can also do big research in Nigeria with adequate funding.

Figure 1. The need for Theileria parva vaccine.

Table 1. Comparison of Theileria parva genome to those of Plasmodium falciparum and Cryptosporidium parvum.

Figure 2. Targeted gene approach using bioinformatic sequence prediction.

Figure 3. Random gene expression library screening approach.

Table 2. CD8 T-cell target Theileria parva antigens.

Authors: S.P. Graham, R. Pelle, Y. Honda, D. M. Mwangi,  M. Yamage,  E. J. Glew, N.J. Tonukari, E. P. De Villiers, T. Shah, R. Bishop, E. Abuya, E. Awino, J. Gachanja, A. E. Luyai, F. Mbwika, A. M. Muthiani, D. M. Ndegwa, M. Njahira, J. K. Nyanjui, F. O. Onono, J. Osaso, R. M. Saya, C. Wildmann, C. M. Fraser, I. Maudlin, M. J. Gardner, S. P. Morzaria, S. Loosmore, S. C. Gilbert, J. C. Audonnet, P. van der Bruggen, V. Nene, and E. L. Taracha. and Wallace D. Bulimo

DFID, UK and The Institute of Genome Research (TIGR) USA

 “Nigerian Government to import grass from Brazil” is the headline of a 2017 newspaper article. What a shame! We are all appalled by the problems facing crop farmers in some parts of Nigeria. Cows need to eat grass, but it is sickening to even imagine that we need to import grass to feed our cattle. The only solution to this problem is ranching and we as biochemists can contribute to the development of supplementary cattle feed that can be used by mini ranches. We have conducted several investigations and published several articles on animal feeds in Delta State University. My colleagues and I have identified an alpha-amylase from Aspergillus niger from cassava undergoing spoilage. The interesting thing is that this enzyme can be used to pre-treat and enrich cassava peels such that they can be included cheaply in poultry and pig feeds. We also sequenced and analyzed (in silico) the gene encoding the amylase. In addition to cassava peels, we investigated the inclusion of bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) stems that are thrown away as waste as well as elephant grass (Pennisetum purpereum) in feeds. These feeds were tested in poultry and pigs with very positive results, some of which have been published in research journals (Figures 4 to 7). We even produced and sold commercial quantities of poultry and pig feeds. We cannot publish all our results; that will be giving away proprietary information that needs to be patented. But we are very confident that we can easily produce very cheap supplementary feeds for cattle if the funding and market is available. There are other laboratories and groups in Nigerian universities that can also produce these supplementary feeds using local materials.

Figure 4. Partial nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid sequence of the putative amylase gene (CDF_Amyl) of Aspergillus sp.CSA35. The gene has four introns (non coding regions) and five exons (coding regions) denoted with lower case (italicized) and upper case letters, respectively.

Figure 5. Substrate specificity of α-amylases of Aspergillus spp. associated with cassava spoilage. CSA 25, 26 and 38, fungi from cassava tuber; CSA 27 and35, fungi from processed cassava (eba).

Figure 6. Weight gains (g) by the chicks. CPFG denotes cassava peels pretreated with fungus.

Figure 7. Effect of feed pretreatment on the average body weight gain (Kg) of experimental feeds. CPFG denotes cassava peels pretreated with fungus.

PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSION

The biochemistry curriculum as well as research dissemination should also be revisited. Have we ever involved the industries, laboratories and research institutes in drafting the biochemistry curriculum? The internet, open access and online education will jolt our profession like never before. Digital technology offers us rich, interactive learning environments. Most students now get more information for their project from Google Scholar and Wikipedia, than from their library. So, we better start including some bioinformatics, real computer programming and economics into our curriculum. And if you are happy downloading and using PDFs of published articles in your teaching and research, you should also strongly support and publish in open access journals that uploads such papers online for you to freely access.

In this era where politics and religion dominate the Nigerian psyche, we as biochemists and scientists must rise up to challenge the status quo and develop new industries and services. Unfortunately, most of us are in universities where we are easily burdened with criticisms if we

endeavor to do anything that is outside farming and religion. Due to lack of facilities and especially electricity and internet, several professors and lecturers have now turned to the church to become pastors, while others are taking up peasant farming to augment their inadequate salary. These are the two activities we lecturers can engage in with praise and accolades from colleagues and society and without arousing much criticisms and backlash. But if you dare venture outside these and make some good money from industry, be ready to suffer some unpalatable reactions.

Nevertheless, if we do not change, the future may not favour us as lecturers and also as a country. High throughput screening and bioinformatic software analyses will dominate biochemical research in the future. Are we ready for that? Most of the common assays are now being automated and carried out by robots in several laboratories and industries in western countries. Artificial intelligence and machine-based analyses will comb through billions of biochemical and genomic data to generate advanced molecules, transgenes and bio-drugs. Believe it or not, instead of expensive spectrophotometers, microscopes and PCR thermocyclers, our phones and laptops with cheaply attached accessories will be used to measure absorbance and record various parameters in the future. Many companies are racing to build a medical device that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample and you can breathe into it. It can analyze over 50 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease. It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medical tests very cheaply. Are we just going to sit back and buy these future assays and accessories from abroad or compete with them for a slice of the market?

We are all very intelligent and hardworking. We have studied those intricate biochemical pathways, complex genomic expressions and multifaceted signal transductions. Why can we not translate our unique knowledge to understanding the pathways of life and proffer unique solutions? We should sever ourselves from the old and look towards the future. We praise and readily accept articles published by the big companies in Europe and the United States, and we are doing nothing whatever to improve our local faculty and association journals. We call their journals international and score them higher during promotion exercises. Why are we not going to call our journals local and consider them inferior? How many of our faculty journals are indexed? How many of them have interactive and tracking websites? How many of our journals have diverse and international editors? How many of our association journals are attracting international authors? How many of our faculty journals have Google Scholar h5 ranking? How many of them have Crossref with digital object identifier (DOI)? How many of our association journals have digital preservation? We must improve our own journals to achieve global recognition. We must embrace and publish in Nigerian and African journals. We must support our local economy.

The Society of African Journal Editors (SAJE; africaneditors.org) has taken the initiative to work and promote African journals and provide benchmarks that will enable these journals effectively serve the global researchers especially those from the continent. I enjoin all editors and editorial board members to become members of SAJE so that together we can improve and promote African research journals.

As Robert Kennedy once said, “the future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, the future will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to their ideals.” The future belongs to the bold. I enjoin you all to be part of the future.

I thank you all for this opportunity to speak.

REFERENCES

Adebayo, J. O., and Krettli, A. U. (2011). Potential antimalarials from Nigerian plants: A review. Journal of                 Ethnopharmacology, 133(2), 289–302.

Avwioroko, O. J., and Tonukari, N. J. (2014). Isolation and molecular identification of Aspergillus species associated              with the spoilage of cassava in Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Science and Environment, 13(1), 55–68.

Avwioroko, O. J., Anigboro, A. A., and Tonukari, N. J. (2016). Biotechnological application of cassava-degrading    fungal (CDF) amylase in broiler feed formulation. Br. Biotechnology Journal, 10(1), 1–12.

Avwioroko, O. J., Anigboro, A. A., Unachukwu, N. N., and Tonukari, N. J. (2018). Isolation, identification and in     silico analysis of alpha-amylase gene of Aspergillus niger strain CSA35 obtained from cassava undergoing            spoilage. Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports, 14, 35–42.

Avwioroko, O. J., Tonukari, N. J., and Asagba, S. O. (2015). Biochemical characterization of crude α-amylase of      Aspergillus spp. associated with the spoilage of cassava (Manihot esculenta) tubers and processed products       in Nigeria. Advances in Biochemistry, 3(1), 15–23.

Ayoola, G. A., Coker, H. A., Adesegun, S. A., Adepoju-Bello, A. A., Obaweya, K., and Ezennia, E. C. (2008).           Phytochemical screening and antioxidant activities of some selected medicinal plants used for malaria     therapy in Southwestern Nigeria. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 7(3), 1019–1024.

Etkin, N. L. (1997). Antimalarial plants used by Hausa in northern Nigeria. Tropical Doctor 27(1), 12–16.

Graham, S. P., Pellé, R., Honda, Y., Mwangi, D. M., Tonukari, N. J., Yamage, M., Glew, E. J., … Taracha, E. L. N. (2006). Theileria parva candidate vaccine antigens recognized by immune bovine cytotoxic T lymphocytes.              Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103(9), 3286–­­3291.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Happy-New-Year.html?soid=1113093459610andaid=aawL6iSef80

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Idowu, O. A., Soniran, O. T., Ajana, O., and Aworinde, D. O. (2010). Ethnobotanical survey of antimalarial plants    used in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria. African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 4(2), 055–060.

Taracha, E., Glew, J., Graham, S., Mwangi, D., Honda, Y., Pelle, R., Tonukari, N. J., and Yamage M. (2005). East    Coast Fever vaccine based on CTL-specific schizont antigens. World Intellectual Property Organization,            Geneva PCT/US2004/030831. ttps://archive.org/stream/gov.uspto.patents.application.10564397/10564397-       2006-01-13-00001-FRPR_djvu.txt

Tonukari, N. J. (2010). Theileria parva apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) shares conserved sequences with           apicomplexan homologs. International Journal of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Research, 1(3), 36–        41.

Tonukari, N. J. (2010). Theileria parva genome and CTL candidate vaccine antigens: An overview. International      Journal of Genetics and Molecular Biology, 2(5), 72–77.

Tonukari, N. J., and Kangethe, R.T. (2009). Cloning and expression of Theileria parva T-complex 1 protein zeta        subunit ortholog. Journal of Cell and Animal Biology, 3(10), 183–187.

Tonukari, N. J., and Kangethe, R.T. (2009). Isolation of Theileria parva ring-infected erythrocyte surface antigen       (RESA) homolog. Journal of Cell and Animal Biology, 3(10), 179–182.

Tonukari, N. J., Oliseneku, E. E., Avwioroko, O. J., Aganbi, E., Orororo, O. C., and Anigboro, A. A. (2016). A novel               pig feed formulation containing Aspergillus niger CSA35 pretreated-cassava peels and its effect on growth        and selected biochemical parameters of pigs. African Journal of Biotechnology, 15(19), 776–785.

Tonukari, N. J. (2004). Cassava and the future of starch. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, 7(1), 5–8.

Tonukari, N. J., Tonukari, N. J., Ezedom, T., Enuma, C.C., Sakpa, S.O., Avwioroko, O.J., Eraga, L., and Odiyoma,   E., (2015). White gold: cassava as an industrial base. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6(7), 972.

Nyerhovwo Tonukari, PhD

Head, Department of Biochemistry

Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria

Editor, African Journal of Biotechnology

http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/AJB

Interim Secretary, Society of African Journal Editors

http://africaneditors.org/

Dear Authors,

 

I want to thank you all for making the African Journal of Biotechnology (AJB) a great success. We worked so hard to get it listed by Thomson ISI in 2007. The first Impact Factor was released in 2008. As you now know, there was no Impact Factor for AJB in the recently released list for 2011.

 

I want to assure you all that the Editor-In-Chief (Dr. George Ude) and I have taken all measures to address the issues raised by ISI and we are confident that we will be relisted. We are also making sure that suggestions from you and all co-editors are incorporated in the measures. Please continue to forward your ideas and suggestions to me or to the Chief Editor.

 

I want to mention that AJB is in the just released hi5-index by Google with a score of 14. Also, the quality of articles published in AJB is far higher than those published between 2002 and 2007. We are still receiving hundreds of manuscripts monthly.

 

You can help us by writing good articles especially reviews for publication in AJB. You can also assure your colleagues of the integrity of the journal. We are putting in our best to ensure that AJB remains the most prominent biological science journal from Africa.

 

Thank you for your good will and support of AJB.

 

 

Best regards,

 

NJ Tonukari, PhD