Professor Karniyus S. Gamaniel (OON), PhD, FPSN, FPCPharm, whose appointment was approved by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR) as the new Director General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development has shown readiness to introduce a new lease of life at the Institute. In weighing the choice that would determine the fate of his administration and in line with government directives to that effect, the new Director–General has introduced a vibrant re-engineering process at NIPRD. The goal is to review the operational objectives of the Institute, change the research culture towards delivery, and make NIPRD a centre of excellence in phytomedicine development for the benefit of mankind.

To this end and to ensure full involvement of staff, Professor Gamaniel put together a two-day retreat of intense, open, frank and interactive session by the staff and Management in order to address the performance, significant achievements so far, problems, new strategies and the way forward for NIPRD. The retreat put a very bright spotlight on the frustrations of the Institute.

There were criticisms and analyses prepared by humanistically minded spokesmen from different departments and units of the Institute. The new DG came to grips with the issues. Winnowing out significant facts from verbal presentations, Professor Gamaniel urged the Research Fellows and workers to do away with relatively fixed habits of mind and maintain a spirit of team work and humor even in the face of exhaustion. He noted that disjointedness and lack of team work is a principal reason why the huge investment in human and equipment resources at NIPRD is not fully translating into significant outputs as it should be.