SCIENCE & TECH MINISTRY PARTNERS NLNG ON RESEARCH AND DEVT
The Ministry of Science and Technology has agreed to go into partnership with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) to promote Science and Research in Nigeria.
This partnership was entered into when an entourage from the NLNG led by the General Manager, External Relations, Siene Brown, visited the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa in his office in Abuja.
In his remarks, the minister said that Science and Technology was the pivot of development of a nation, even as he said that the ministry's programmes were aimed at charting the course of scientific and technological development of the nation through planned and guided research and development.
He said, 'The development of science and technology is vital towards real emancipation and self sustenance of a nation. The research institute under my ministry has shown great commitment in fulfilling the national science and technology needs of the country.
Their achievements and impact on the economy, especially in the sustenance of the private sector and national self reliance through the sourcing of industrial raw materials locally and building technological capacity thus evolving several programmes and strategies in pursuance of their mandates, are giant strides taken to attain scientific and technological development of the nation and the commercialisation of our R&D results.'
The minister emphasized that for Nigeria to fulfill its potential in the growth of science and technology, it intends to collaborate with researchers.
'We continue to encourage and promote interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in our institutes, Universities and industries,' she added.
He commended NLNG efforts in developing science and technology, stating that the organization had so far taken on a worthy cause in bringing the subject to the front burner.
According to him, 'The Nigerian price for Science which has been on for the past eight years aimed at bringing our scientists to recognition globally is a laudable achievement worthy of note by the science community.'
In her remarks, the leader of the delegation, Brown said that the Nigeria Price for Literature and Nigeria Price for Science, which started at $20,000, now $100,000, being funded by the company, was part of its corporate social responsibility to the nation.
She said: 'We started Nigeria Price for Literature and Nigeria Price for Science for $20,000 as part of our corporate social responsibility; today, the price for each of the prices, which is recognized worldwide, is valued at $100,000.'
She however lamented that there has been a continuous and consistent decline in both the registration and winning of the prices in Nigeria.
According to her, 'Nigeria has not quite woken up to imbibe the right culture to encourage reading. There was a point when we were overwhelmed by entrance but the story has changed today; it's dwindling and the results are getting poorer and poorer.
There has been no winner for three years, though not consecutively, 2005, 2007 and 2011 and yet it's still not looking good.'
She highlighted that the mission of the delegation was to fashion out ways to bring Nigeria back to the path of research and development.
Brown said: 'We've come to a point where we think we need to call all stakeholders together to look at what is happening to Science and Technology and hopefully begin to produce better materials and entry price for science and technology.'
According to her, 'We're hoping that we can come to a roundtable, with the ministry leading, to call the relevant persons in the universities and research centres to come together and look at science development in Nigeria.
'We'll like to see a turnaround in science and technology in Nigeria especially in the academic setting so that people can come up and win the prices because each year we don't win the price is ploughed back into the organisation.'