LASU Commissions Radiation Monitoring Facilities, ICT Centre

Akin Kekere- Ekun, the pro chancellor and chairman of the governing council of the Lagos State University, Ojo last week commissioned  the LASU radiation monitoring and protection service building and facilities put at over  N19 million  . Kekere-Ekun said the commissioning was a great occasion to the university and students and said in the effort to make the institution become a preferred university in the world that the state government decided to appoint a new board for the university adding that those that didn’t measure up to expectation were dropped and new ones appointed to feel their place.
In his keynote address, Prof. Shamsideen Elegba, director general /chief executive officer, Nigerian Regulatory Authority (NNRA) extolled the exemplary qualities in Akin Kekere-Ekun, chairman governing council of Lasu and Prof.  Lateef Akanni Hussain, vice chancellor and said the duo had forced Lasu into national reckoning by their recent achievement which he said was no mean feat.
Prof. Elegba said the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority has a board of governors with president as chairman and that the body is fully independent of any government department or agency responsible for the promotion and development of radiation practice that will be regulated. He said the agency regulates licensees and existing / potential users of radiation gadgets and equipment. Elegba noted that there are one hundred thousand radiation workers in the country and there is need to monitor these workers to ensure that their exposure to ionizing radiation does not exceed dose limits specified for individuals even as he also revealed that about 10 million x-ray exposures are performed in the country annually and emphasized it is mandatory by law for all radiation employers to monitor and document the radiation exposure of all their radiation workers.  He informed also that radiation workers on their own have a responsibility under the law to demand for appropriate protective equipment and radiation monitoring instruments. He said that Lasu was commissioning the building to monitor, measure and control levels of exposure to ionizing radiation, a service which he said would be very much in demand.
Prof. Lateef Hussain, vice chancellor , Lasu , had  in his welcome address  said that having  such facility on campus had been his vision for the university since 2005 and said that the university will cooperate with international agencies interested in the promotion of nuclear safety and radiation protection along with the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority in conducting radiation monitoring or surveillance of higher natural radioactivity areas  on request by establishments using ionizing equipment and radioactive sources as well as organizing training seminars, workshops, symposia in Nigeria  to train professionals and scholars in this important field to meet the nation’s growing environmental needs.
Coming on the heels of the commissioning of the radiation monitoring and protection service building was also the commissioning of the Lasu ICT Centre built and equipped by the university. Hussain emphasized the role of Information and Communication Technologies in the modern world and said that any university worth its salt must be propelled by ICT. He thanked Kekere-Ekun, pro chancellor and chairman of the university governing council and other members of the council for their support in realizing modest achievements in ICT on campus. Prof. Tunde Fatunde, chairman of ICT Lasu while conducting visitors round the complex said that the Local Cisco Academy which is now in the institution will take off in the next one two weeks.