Onu plans new strategy for science, hosts ex-ministers

Onu plans new strategy for science, hosts ex-ministers

By Our Reporter  on December 18, 2015   COVER, National
From Magnus Eze, Abuja
Six former ministers who had presided over the Science and Technology Ministry yesterday condemned the continued neglect of the sector by successive administrations.
 At a meeting with the incumbent, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, in Abuja yesterday, they urged President Muhammadu Buhari to give science and technology the needed impetus to diversify the nation’s economy by making it the cornerstone for development.
 The former ministers, including Alhaji Abdulahi Ibrahim (SAN), Maj. Gen. Sam Momah (Rtd), Mrs. Paullen Tallen, Prof. Turner Isoun, Grace Ekpiwhre and Dr. Abdul Bulama, called for proper funding of the sector, stressing that this would help achieve the three-point programme of food, poverty alleviation and security, which are priorities of the present administration.
 They also decried proliferation of research institutes in the ministries, saying some of them serve the same purpose and urged government to set up a national council for the coordination of research findings.
 The former ministers in their separate remarks, commended the minister for the meeting and described it as first of its kind in the history of Nigeria.
 For Prof. Isoun, he said the ministry was prepared to play the leadership role of diversifying the economy if the President was determined to create wealth and jobs.
 Gen. Momah (Rtd) regretted that Nigerians seek political power which is transient instead of technological power.