Science community wants more funding for science, technology

Nigerian scientists and engineers have continued to clamour for more funding for science and technology to pave way for Nigeria’s development.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, a cross-section of scientists and engineers noted that science and technology had been relegated to the background of Nigeria’s developmental efforts.

Prof. Asuquo Thomas, Director General, Sheda Science and Technology Complex, said that the science and technology sector in Nigeria should get more funding to spur development of the nation.

``While we are aware that government has so many competing interests to take care of, we would have loved to see a situation where we are better funded.

``With such funds, we can have the requisite infrastructure in place to be able to practise our profession and contribute to the development of the country.''

Prof. Gabriel Ogunmola, a former President of the Nigerian Academy of Science, stressed that no nation had developed without science and technology to drive its economy.

Ogunmola lamented that science and technology had lacked the necessary funding to make make meaningful contributions to economic development, calling for adequate funding of the sector.

Prof. Peter Onwualu, Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council, said that apart from funding, a viable manufacturing sector was a pre-requisite to achieving the Vision 20:2020.

``One of the crucial imperatives is a robust manufacturing sector that can produce the needed goods and services required for knowledge-based productive economy as against a consumer import dependent economy. ’’

The RMRDC Director General said that local fabricators of machines were not getting adequate support in terms of funding and patronage.

``This will require investment in the neighbourhood of five trillion naira in the next five years.

 ``This will translate into more than 10,000 new industries, 10 million jobs and N20 trillion in terms of wealth creation in the next five years.''

Prof. Cleopas Angaye, Director General National Information Technology Development Agency, shared a similar view and called for the investment of one per cent GDP in developing ICT.

``If we can invest even one per cent of our GDP in the development of science and technology and information technology, we will grow and the transformation we are talking about will be very rapid,’’ Angaye said.

Prof. Olusegun Adewoye, Director-General, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, commended the President Jonathan for his transformation agenda and his promise to create jobs.

``We should as a scientific community, remind him every time that he promised to create jobs, we should not allow him to be distracted by politicians.''

Dr Willie Siyanbola, Director-General, National Centre for Technology Management, while expressing optimism in the passage of the National Science Technology and Innovation Policy, advocated more funding for the sector.

``We have invested so much in iron and steel, refineries, petrochemicals, fertiliser companies and cement but we find that the common denominator for all of these is failure, not because we don’t have engineers or scientists but because we do not understand how to manage those things.''