Royal Society of Chemistry donates books ‘worth N28m’ to UI

The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, has donated books in various areas of chemistry worth N28 million to the University of Ibadan.

Idowu Olayinka, vice-chancellor, University of Ibadan, announced this on Friday, saying the books will be useful to students.

He expressed appreciation to Adebola Adebiyi, the lecturer who facilitated the donation.

The VC also thanked Timothy Odiaka, the head of department, for providing funds for the shipment of the books.

“This (donation) is largely due to the immense contribution of Dr Adebola Adeyi to the development of the Royal Society of Chemistry as a member of her Water Science Forum Committee,” he said in a statement.

“The department paid N570,000 for the shipment of the books which reached Ibadan on Thursday, July 16, 2020 from Cambridge, England. We thank Dr Adeyi for using her network to attract donations to the university.”

Expressing her elation over the donation, Adeyi said it would go a long way in enhancing teaching, research and learning as the books cover all aspects of chemistry and other disciplines like pharmacy.

“I am elated by the arrival of the books donated to the Department of Chemistry of our great university, because we have been on it since 2017,” she said.

“This was not the first time the RSC would donate books to us; the first batch, which consist of 34 books, was shipped to Ibadan free. However, this batch is significant considering the number of books, 394.

“On behalf of staff and students of the Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, I want to sincerely appreciate the Royal Society of Chemistry for their immense efforts in enhancing science in Africa via some of their activities.

“These include celebrating the 150 years of the periodic table in 2019 (International Year of the Periodic Table); Gas Chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS); hands-on training across Africa and conference travel grants, among others, which I am fully involved in. I’m one of the trainers for the Nigeria hub for the GC-MS training since 2016.”