… As the Senate Sounds the Alarm for Improper Employment at NARSDA
… Urges ICPC to intensify investigation
The federal government says it is now more determined to put additional satellites into orbit to enhance the realization of its development agenda for space technology.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, made the promise at the 2020 edition of the Space Dialogue and National Media Conference on Space Science and Technology held at the Obasanjo Space Center, Airport Road, Lugbe, with the theme: Power of Space-Dependent Technologies in Driving Good Governance and Eliminating Corruption in the Post-COVID-19 Era.
The minister said that the administration strongly believes in the ability of science and technology in transforming the Nigerian economy from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy and has demonstrated the same through the much-needed supports provided. to the development of science and technology. ministry and its agencies in the country since its inception.
He said the administration has introduced five additional policies in the past five years and if implemented, especially Executive Order No. 005, Nigeria will achieve what China has achieved in the shortest time.
“We will ensure that additional satellites are put into orbit. I assure you that the ministry will continue to do its best to ensure that additional satellites are put into orbit that will help in the direction the nation is going.
“Without space science and technology, it will be very difficult for Nigeria to compete with the rest of the world. We must aspire to be the best in the world and this can be achieved.
“We are prepared to make NARSDA to compete with the best space agencies in the world.
“We have introduced five additional policies in the last five years and if they are implemented, especially EO 005, Nigeria will achieve what China has achieved in a short time.”
Dr. Onu, who admitted that NARSDA made a mistake in hiring staff, promised that the Ministry would ensure sanity in the agency for the optimal fulfillment of its mandate.
“I agreed with the mistakes made by NARSDA in recruiting, but we are determined to correct the mistakes made at NARSDA.”
In his message of goodwill, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, SEn. Ajayi Boroffice frowned at what he called an incorrect employment at NARSDA and asked the ICPC to thoroughly scrutinize the anomaly to allow the agency to achieve its stated goals.
Senator Ajayi said it was wrong for such a sensitive agency to have 80% support staff versus 70% engineers and scientists needed to conduct groundbreaking research and studies according to the
“The current space agency is really the shadow of what we thought it would be. The reason is because we have the wrong job.
“How can we bring people with religious Islamic studies to the space center? The space center means mixed application of personnel, employment. Where support personnel make up 80% of the workforce is wrong. We need engineers and scientists to make up 70%. % of the workforce But the case is the other way around.
‘‘ I learned that the ICPC is nearby, examining the employment documents. It is sad to have between 2 and 2.5 million employees. We have to reexamine ourselves and sanitize the space agency so that we can achieve the purpose for which it was created. “
He tasked the agency’s acting CEO, Dr. Francis Chizea, who said it was part of the agency’s dream in the beginning to vigorously pursue it and interpret it fruitfully.
“I challenge you with staff dedicated to making the agency’s dream and mandate come true. We can reorient NARSDA to what it should be. Right now, I don’t think I’m happy. The space agency has plummeted, the trajectory is disastrous. We have to get it right now.
“Thank God we have a president who believes in science and technology. We have to keep up to be in space. “
Additionally, he challenged agency staff to sit down and move the agency to where it should be, saying that 90% of human challenges can be solved in space if implemented.
Keynote speaker Leo Stan Ekeh said the challenge facing the space agency lies not in funding but in implementation.
He tasked the federal government to look forward to the future by investing more in space technology so that it can create the necessary job opportunities and wealth and also compete in global space.
According to him, space technology holds the key to empowering citizens and until the government establishes the structure and builds the culture, the benefits will continue to elude the country.
Ekeh also challenged the federal government to allocate a special fund for the construction of profitable satellites that would absorb many young entrepreneurs to become future billionaires.
Speaking of security, he chided security agencies for relying on physical combat, insisting that the war against insecurity cannot be won with guns and bullets, but rather with technology.
President Zinox lamented that Nigeria is the country in the world where tech people are not the richest, and posited that the only way for Nigeria to succeed in the post-COVID era is to harness space science and technology.
Earlier in his speech, the Acting Director of NARSDA said the dialogue was aimed at stimulating strong intellectual discourse on critical issues of national and global interests, particularly on the successful implementation of the Nigerian Space Agenda.
He reported that the agency now has seven activity centers of excellence and arranges research laboratories located in various geopolitical areas of the country for various important investigations that affect all facets of human life and strategic for national development.
“NARSA remains irrevocably committed to its determination to deploy the capabilities of space science and technology to enhance and enhance the lives of the common Nigerian and for the greatness of the country.”
“It has become clear that the use of certain emerging technologies, such as space-dependent technologies, provides the modern and basic approach to revolutionize the way operations are carried out locally and nationally in our environment.”
