At last, the Natural History Museum of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) was on Friday, February 25, 2011 commissioned after forty years.The project, which was conceived by the management of the then University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University as an architectural masterpiece in 1971, became an abandoned project as a result of the paucity of funds.However, about three years ago, the Leventis Foundation took over the project and completed it as promised.At the commissioning of the project, were the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II, prominent traditional rulers in Yorubaland Chief John Agboola Odeyemi and Otunba Grace Titilayo LaoyeTomori, Osun State Deputy Governor who represented Mr. Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola at the occasion.According to the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Michael Oladimeji Faborode, the Natural History Museum was established as an institute in 1971 as a sub-unit under the then Department of Biological Sciences and in 1990/91 academic session, the Department of Archaeology in the university was merged with the museum, thus expanding the scope of activities to include Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology.Professor Faborode said, apart from the Institute Fundamental Afrique Noir in Dakar , Senegal , this museum is the only Natural History Museum in West Africa.The objectives of the project, according to the Vice-Chancellor, include the conduct of research into the vast natural and cultural history of Nigeria and to serve as a repository of natural and cultural objects in Nigeria as well as creating scientific awareness on natural and cultural resources of Nigeria through annotated exhibitions for public enlightenment in display of galleries.Other objectives include the preparation of data bases on natural history and cultural resources of Nigeria to facilitate an information retrieval system on them for use by the public, and the scientific community as a basis for sustainable development and to provide identification services on natural history and cultural objectives to user groups, especially pest control workers in Archaeology, Agriculture, Veterinary and Human Medicine.The museum is currently organised into six scientific sections comprising of Botany, Entomology, Zoology, Earth Sciences, Paleontology and Archaeology/Anthropology while a service section comprise of illustration, graphic, taxidermy and publications.Professor Faborode, while lamenting lack of space for the museum said that it was temporarily housed on the top floor in one of the buildings of the faculty of Agriculture Complex for more than thirty years.The construction of the permanent building, designed by James Cubitt Adenuga company, started in 1982 but was abandoned due to inadequate funds.The roof design of the building had won an international award but the architectural world had to wait for more than 26 years to see the design come alive, the Vice-Chancellor lamented.He continued, when the Museum building almost became an albatross, the University reactivated its fund seeking apparatus to break this jinx and it approached the Leventis Foundation for the possibility of completing the project.Today, we are celebrating a huge break- through; the problem of space has now been solved through the landmark donation by the Leventis Foundation. What we witness today is a defining moment for the Natural History Museum and indeed the Obafemi Awolowo University.The edifice, with its spacious hall for display of specimens, storage rooms, for study collections and Laboratories specially designed for the important work of preservation that goes on in a Museum, will now enable the Natural History Museum fulfill the vision of its founding fathers to rise and take its rightful place as a centre for excellence in the field of conservation and to serve as a primary driving force in conservation and custody of Nigerias very rich natural and cultural resources, he said.Professor Faborode, while expressing appreciation to Leventis Foundation for undertaking the project said that the university community, researchers, staff and students and the Nigerian society at large would benefit from the endowment.He also thanked Chief John Agboola Odeyemi for donating a field vehicle to the museum.The Leventis Foundation was represented at the commissioning by Dr. Anastasios Paul Leventis, the chairman of A.G. Leventis Foundation and Dr. Abimbola Adewumi; Nigeria Director of the Foundation.In a lecture titled Our Environment at Risk delivered at the commissioning, Dr. Leventis opined that the climatic change in the world as well as scientific development are having effect on human life, adding that this engenders a degree of economic progress and results in better standard of living, but had the effect of placing the finest and most advanced technologies into the hands of governments, institutions and individuals in many cases lacking the ethical insights, disciplines and economic foresight to apply them in discerning ways.He warned, Human individuals and societies, unless organised to understand the long term effects of their actions will usually opt for a short term route to economic well being, adding that the future of the world is therefore, dictated increasingly by economic distortions resulting mainly from humanitys apparent inability to manage constructively its scientific ingenuity.Dr. Leventis, who cited three examples to buttress his assertions, said that technology had given humanity the means to empty the oceans of fish adding that a recently published UN report on ecosystems and bio-diversity estimates that all of the worlds fisheries are likely to have collapsed within 50 years if the current trends are not reversed.Another issue was the exposure of land as a result of deforestation as an average of 150 million hectares of tropical rainforest was destroyed annually between 1990 and 2008 stressing that the resulting land degradation, loss of water shed protection and bio-diversity were ignored as was the fact that carbon emissions generated by this process were possibly the major contributor to global warming. The third example was the construction of dams around Lake Chad in the North Eastern part of Nigeria which had led to the exposure of 3,000 square kilometers of naturally flooded aquatic habitat.Dr. Leventis said that the Natural History Museum became relevant because natural history is the study of nature, and a record of how natural systems and organisms evolved. It is a fundamental function of any good university to participate in research that studies species and measures the short and long term effect of human activity on the environment as well as to train young scientists in the disciplines appropriate to this endeavour.To study change, one must have a starting point, a benchmark-and a good natural history museum will provide this. It is afterall, a well established fact that the circumstance and history of mammals, birds, reptiles, as well as the invertebrates, provide efficient indicators of the general state of our environment.The study of biological change, which will be based at your new Natural History Museum, is expected to involve measurement of the state of natural environment in Nigeria as well as the rates of destruction and habitat degradation. When these are projected into the future, it can provide a scientific template for policy development, he said.Dr. Leventis suggested that funding of research and huge investment in Agriculture could be ways of providing solutions to check environmental degradation.Said he, we are finding that making agriculture more responsive to ecological criteria, renders more profits in economic terms and is more sustainable, adding that farmers who produce their harvest with due regard to nature, with maintenance of soil fertility as a primary objective, reduce costs to themselves and to the environment.Also speaking at the commissioning, Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Titilayo Tomori, while commending Leventis Foundation for completing the project said his administration was ready to assist the university in whatever capacity.Said he, the door of our administration is wide open to the management of Obafemi Awolowo University and we are ready to assist the institution in whatever way they want us to. Our government is ready to support and improve the education of our citizens.The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade also commended Leventis Foundation for the support and training given to Nigerians since its arrival in the country many decades ago. Oba Sijuwade, who said that he was a product of Leventis Foundation training said that the organisation made me what I am today and I will be eternally grateful to them and that is why I personally come to witness the commissioning of the museum.
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