Being Address of The Director General of Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, DICON, Major Victor Okwudili Ezugwu On The Occasion of the Signing Ceremony of the Memorandum Of Understanding Between Greenfield University (GFU), Kaduna and Defence Industries Incorporation of Nigeria, DICON which was held on Wednesday, 15 July 2020
At the Senate Building of GFU
Engr. chief Simon Ifediora Nwakacha,your amiable wife , Mrs Joy Nwakacha,members Senate and other members of Governing councils of Greenfield university.
Let me start by appreciating God Almighty who made this day possible for Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria,DICON and Greenfield University,GNU, to consummate this Memorandum of Understanding between the two great institutions.
While one the institutions is an emerging citadel of excellence in the academia, the other is the only defence industry corporation that the country has.
When academic and defence experts meets together, you guess what the results would be .We are very grateful to Engr, Chief Nwacha for inviting us to this great institution to formalise our MOU .
For us in DICON,we are open to a lot of result oriented relationship in terms of having a collaboration that would lead to improved defence production in Nigeria .
I am championing the local content defence in Nigeria and I am happy that this MOU is coming at a time when we are looking inward to look for partners and stakeholders that would help us in innovation and production of defence related equipments and raw materials and other support locally within Nigeria .
We have had a tour of your facilities, and am better informed about the prospects that lies for us in DICON if we partner with your institution.
Let me make this very clear that despite the fact this University is just on the threshold of stamping its authority in the academics of Kaduna State, we have seen the resilient spirit and the doggedness of the founder and members of the Council and Senate of this University to make a difference and we are all happy and looking forward to a healthy working relationship between Defence Industries corporation and Greenfield University.
Let me appreciate you for a very solid start, once a foundation of any project is solid and good, you can be rest assured that the journey is going to be a blast .
I am happy because of the work we see today , there is very high hope and prospect that the tomorrow of this institution especially the relationship you are going to have with DICON would be wonderful .
Now, this MOU is all about mutual assistance, taking advantages of strength of each of us and helping us address our weaknesses.
There is something we call SWOT Analysis -that is to analyze the strength,weaknesses and opportunities and threats that abound in a relationship between business or academics and nongovernmental establishments .
Engr.Chief Nwakacha, sir, I want to tell you that DICON will avail you all the opportunities and all the strengths that we have to help your university to grow .
While DICON was established in 1964, precisely 1st of August ,this institution just got Presidential approval in 2019.
I can assure that we will open all our doors and Windows to fast track the process of making this ( Greenfield university) institution a great institute.
The greatest gift we can give yo you is our Research and Development Centre , where I know that we have some array of laboratories, very well established chemical laboratory, mechanical laboratory .
We have our metallurgical testing laboratory because we deal with a lot of solid materials that would require physical sciences, and engineering department.
So we are going to open up these laboratories for you so that even if you don’t have a laboratory here ( in Greenfield University), I can assure that you that you have a laboratory in what we have in DICON.
We have a material testing laboratory, all the diagnosis you re going to do on all the materials -why materials fails, why materials succeeds , the strength of materials, anything you want to do here (GNU) and you can’t afford it ,please , we have one of the best in Nigeria in DICON and it would be avail to you .
Everything we do here and everything we produce in DICON, we have established an intellectual property and technology transfer of office in DICON which has been approved by the body in charge of it in Abuja.
So when ever we go in to, collaboration and production with you we have the patency and you can be rest assured that we have a patent policy already that is going to cover this MOU.
Whatever we produce, whatever comes out of this MOU,we are going to make sure that is very mutual.
I assure you that we shall share the benefits together .
We have a material testing laboratory, all the diagnosis you re going to do on all the materials -why materials fails, why materials succeeds , the strength of materials, anything you want to do here (GNU) and you can’t afford it ,please , we have one of the best in Nigeria in DICON and it would be avail to you .
We have a Researched and Development Training Institute which is in the threshold of being established.
Last week, the Senate Committee on Defence visited us at DIC to see how the DICON Act could be reviewed for good at the National Assembly and they have promised us they would fast track the enabling laws to enable the DICON ACT to flow in this 9th Assembly and when that happens, the benefit of it to the MOU is that we are going to offer our training institute for capacity building for both your staff and student
And based on the MOU, definitely, what would have cost others maybe cost others one thousand naira would just cost you two hundred naira .
We are able and willing to support you grow this ( GNU) institution because of the good things we have seen in this institution today .
Furthermore, are also going to avail you our heat and surface treatment factory ; that is where we treat all the metals up to 1500℅ and it is the best you can have anywhere for now.
Since we revitalized it and energized it, it can handle everything you want to do practically that has do with heat and surface treatment of metals or any materials.
Also we would open our doors for you to use our facilities for the benefit of engineering students here and we at DICON have a very great fundry. our fundry capacity can be enhanced .We have just revived our foundry factory and this foundry can give you everything that you need to make you to establish your engineering faculty.
I must confess that Nigeria needs to grow industrially .We are lacking behind in industrial development, we are aware of that .
Part of our mandate is to grow Nigeria economy, grow Nigerian academics by availing them the use of this facilities .
But this MOU stands you out even when we have queues ,because we have an MOU with you, we will give you precedence in everything we are doing.So you can be rest assured we shall be there for you .
Still opening our doors to you as the result of this MOU we can be if help to you , you be of help to us also in manpower development.
You may need to assist us in developing our manpower that is why the Director of Human Resources is here with us so that in terms of training, we can use your resource persons and we also have number of resource persons you can also use to build capacity for both staff and students here .
These are areas where the MOU has not covered, and I am happy to note that it would be of great benefit to both DICON and for you if we do very well .
Finally, the issue of equipment support is one area that I think, even if it is not covered by this MOU, I am telling you as Director General ,DICON. That we have array of sophisticated equipments for those of them that are mobile we can avail them to you to use for the purpose of teaching your students because in the future, the products of this
University shall be needed at the Defence Industies corporation so we can have a well established organization.
We have special antiquated vehicles -forklifts, trailers,cranes have them in DICON and they are serviceable.
Part of the relationship is that anything that is worth doing is worth doing well . I don’t like to whitewash anything I do ,so these facilities that we have , if you need them, put up a request and we shall avail them to you .
If you have a vehicle to come and pick them fine by us
Lastly, by the time you hit the ground running, DICON will institute an endowment fund here for the best student who can research on anything that has to do with military equipment production .
This endowment is going to be credited with the sum of N200,000 which would be given to the student and it is going to be an annual thing.
I am going to make sure that this endowment foundation is encased in DICON so that even when I am not there, it would continue
Furthermore, the aim of the foundation is to encourage students to work hard so that their intellectuals, strengths that they have should be channeled into the Defence Industries in Nigeria .
Please, be rest assured that these are practical ways that we need to encourage students of Greenfield university and our encouragement is very sincere and very practical .
On this note let me appreciate you sir once more for inviting us to come here and sign this MOU.
Let us thank God that at the end of this signing ceremony that God will help us so we have grace to move forward for the nation is yearning for development in a way that we have never looked for it before .
The covid-19 situation have to us that as Nigerians our destiny is in our hands ..running to China, running America, running to Spain will not help us .
We have to stay here in Nigeria developing our capacity that will help us .
Thank you very much
