Chuks Sunday, Minna.
The Governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu has urged participants at the recently concluded meeting of the National Council on Science and Technology to engender positive impact through the implementation of science and technology and innovation policy at the grassroot.
Aliyu, who was the special guest of honour at the event in Minna, decried the country’s continued reliance on western nations and called for a refocus and well articulated policy on science,technology and innovation system with implementable programmes.
The event held under the theme “Science,Technology and Innovation Policy in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges in its Implementation at the Grassroots.”
Earlier, the Supervising Minister of Science and Technology and Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson, inaugurated the forum of States Commissioners of Science and Technology with a call to the states and federal to collaborate on issues of policies as well as design and implementation of STI programmes of national importance.
She stressed the need to encourage the exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences between states and the federal and across the 36 states and FCT for the sake of creating a common pool of STI competencies, capacities and expert database that could be optimized to enhance the competitive standing of Nigeria.
The minister noted that such a platform for advocating and operationalizing the partnership could bring the public, private sectors and the academia to facilitate continuous research, development and industrial application of science and technology at both the federal and state levels.
“I strongly believe that the objectives of the Transformation Agenda of the present Administration will be fully realized with Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) as a key focus,” she said.
Adding that, “The main thrust of the revised STI Policy is to synergize efforts of all stakeholders in public and private sectors, most especially via the Triple Helix Approach on Innovation to promote linkages and interactions between Government, Industry and Research Institutions/Universities. This informed why the inauguration of this Forum is crucial at this stage,” Johnson added.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, charged the participants and the Honourable Commissioners Forum to provide a platform that would ensure implementation and cascading of all resolutions on ST&I developmental activities at the State and Local Government levels, giving assurance of the unflinching support and cooperation of the ministry.
