On Friday, 5th of March, 2021, the Committee of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences met with the Acting Vice Chancellor of the Institution Prof Babatunde Ekanola, at Tekena Tamuno Building to pay a courtesy call regarding the 56th Annual International Conference and Exhibition (Ibadan 2020/2021) of the society which will hold at the International Conference Centre of the University from 14th-19th of March, 2021.
The Society which was conceived on the 15th of January, 1961 in Kaduna held its inaugural meeting at Nsukka after a year of it’s conception while the first, second and third annual conferences were at Jos in 1963, Port Harcourt 1964 and Ibadan 1965 respectively.
It should be noted that the membership of the Society exceeds 6,000 in which members are practitioners and experts in fields such as geological survey, exploration, mining/drilling, processing and application of mineral, energy and water resources, environmental assessment, protection and conservation.
According to the Chairman of he Society, Professor Idowu Olayinka, “the cumulative output of members of the NMGS constitutes the dominant determinant of the socio-economic growth and development of the Nation”.
It is noteworthy that the Society's Patron is constitutionally the Head of State which automatically made the Rt. Honorable Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe the first Patron of the Society on the 17th of December, 1962.
The Annual Conference has been a major feature of the Calendar of NMGS which was only interrupted from 1965 till 1968 due to the National crisis and civil war.
The Ibadan Chapter which is the largest Chapter of the Society (Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo States) was granted the right to host the 2020 Annual Conference. However, the programme was postponed due to the Corona Virus Pandemic which the first case was reported in Nigeria on the 27th of February, 2020.
Thankfully, the postponed Conference will now hold as a Hybrid Conference whereby the physical attendance will be reduced to the barest minimum in order to follow the protocol specified by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
During the meeting, the Chairman of NMGS made three request to the host institution. According to him, “As the host institution, may I humbly make three requests from the Vice Chancellor. First, kindly help us host the President of our Society during his stay in Ibadan for the conference. Second, we would be greatly honored if you can host about 159 of our conference participants at an Icebreaker/Cocktail in the late afternoon of Sunday, 14th March, 2021 at the grounds of Ayo Banjo Manor (Vice Chancellor’s Lodge)”.
“Third, we are extending a special invitation to you to attend the opening ceremony of the conference which holds on Tuesday, 16th March, 2021”.
Before ending his speech, the Chairman congratulated the Vice Chancellor on the recent QS World Rankings for 2021 whereby the University of Ibadan happens to be the only institution in Nigeria that made the prestigious list.
He stated that the Society will continue to count on the usual support and understanding of the Institution.
Deevah
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