Nigeria Will Soon Be Exporting Science And Technology Innovations – Mohammed

TRACKING___We are in the period of tackling challenges posed by the COVID-19. How has the pandemic change the narrative in the Minister of Science and Technology, especially in the area of innovation?

Essentially, I think it is an opportunity for our ministry at this moment of history. We are at a stage at a stage where the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the ministry to not only provide solutions, but also have a sustainable policy going forward in the event of furture occurrence. We have a lot of agencies here that are basically into research and development. So, what we did is to invite all of them and task them to rise to the occasion.

For instance, we tasked the Raw Material Development Agency to produce world class Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) for our frontline workers. We also directed them to ensure that such PPEs conform to World Health Organisation (WHO) standard. So we are not just looking at the domestic use. By the time we are able to satisfy the domestic needs we are considering exporting them to our African neighbours.

We have tasked SHETSCO, which we called the Science and Technology Park, to work and improve on the testing capacity of the country. What they do at the moment is to ensure they create rapid test kits within thirty minutes; we should be able to get quick results when one is tested for COVID-19. We are doing this in collaboration with the ministry of Health to ensure that health services and technology services are taken to the doorsteps of the common man at the grassroots. All they need to do is to have a consultant in hospitals interfacing and taking complaints from patients at the rural level. This will be able to fast track the accessibility of health services by the common man.

We have been able to ensure that we deliver homemade ventilators (electric and mobile) and they have been able to provide working septic tunnels, among a number of things we are doing in order to support Federal Government efforts in this pandemic fight. So COVID-19 has challenged us to bring out the best in us and I think we have risen to the challenge and we are doing our best from the ministry.

Usually, funding is always a problem in a moment like this. Are you facing any financial challenge at the moment?

Like any government agency at the moment, in view of the global fall in oil price and the fact that we have not done a number of businesses for the past two to three months because of lockdown, it has impacted in our ability to access fund. But in spite of that, we don’t want funding to be an issue. We have begun to look at ourselves internally within the limited resources. We have begun to be creative and innovative in such a manner that we are not hampered in terms of progress to bring solution this challenge.

So, by and large there are funding issues but we are still moving ahead in spite of that challenge and we have made tremendous progress. Like any other agency you could expect such challenge at the moment because of our continual reliance on a mono product for our revenue generation. This also challenges us to look inward and then begin to diversify and ensure that other sectors of the economy like manufacturing, agriculture, science and technology innovation are encouraged to begin to be productive and be creative in terms of job generation in terms of revenue generation and in terms of creating activities for the economy and contribute to our general GDP.

There is this fear now among many African countries of over-relying on China for manufacturing, which has stifled the growth of African countries in so many sectors. With lessons learnt from the COVID-19 challenge, Can Nigeria be free from import, whether from China or from the West, if the tempo is sustained in the next few years?

You see, no nation has achieved greatness without science, technology and innovations considering the fact that most great nations are built by science and research. President Muhammadu Buhari signed an executive order called executive order 005 which is essentially meant to domesticate and drag local content on whatever we do in terms of contract execution and in terms of our ability to grow industries.

So, whatever we do and whatever industries we set up must have local content. And even in terms of employment, the skills that are to be used in those companies must be run and handled by Nigerians, except that it is a skill that is extraordinarily special that we don’t have a professional in Nigeria. It is at that moment you can now invite an expatriate. These all are driving towards one direction: developing our capacity so that we can develop our industries and technology in such a manner that we will stop relying on other countries.

Again, we also have Science & Technology Innovation Road Maps 2030. This is also geared towards redirecting our energies towards STI as a country so that we don’t just get bulked by foreign technology unnecessarily.

Now you could see what is happening; when the whole world shut down and you need PPE’s or ventilators you have to go to America or China. So we have to look inward. This is a clarion call to all that the moment you rely on foreign countries for our simple consumable goods, for our health system, for our academic system and even our economic system then we won’t go anywhere. So, I can assure you that with the experience we have now, with the lesson we have learnt now, there is a significant redirection of our energies to homegrown STI that can stand the test of time globally. There is every assurance that we may no longer be relying on any other country in the near future.

As the minister of State, Science and Technology, what do you want to fulfill in the nearest future?

Keying in from the perspective of the National Space Technology Road Map for the country, I think the space technology is still a very complicated technology because these are things you do with the human exploration of the orbit and other galaxies. It is one area that even as a kid tickled my interest and at the moment there are a lot of activities in space right now. There are a lot of satellites that are in space being run by different countries and these satellites transmit information to their various home states.

At the moment we have a satellite that we launched which is in the orbit and is providing requisite information to Nigerian government in terms of weather, troops’ movement and movement of terrorists etc.

The challenge is that it was launched outside the country and it was launched in China. Now, my dream is to see that we have a homegrown space activity here. We have a home grown satellite shuttle launched from any of our shores in Nigeria, either from Badagry, Sapele Maiduguri or Katsina. We should have that spacecraft and to have that satellite launched, not only built by Nigerians but launched by Nigerians because we have a number of technical expertise in that area.

We have an institution called National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA; we have close to about 154 PhDs holders and Professors all geared towards space technology. We cannot have this kind of manpower and be seating idle. Barring any funding challenge I want us to have our homegrown satellite just like other countries have done. We need that for us to be in the league of nations that have launched their satellites. We are not launching for just fancy but also creating enormous avenue for information flow. It gives a lot of information in terms of weather focus, movement like I said, securities apparatus and so many things. So that is one thing that I hope to achieve before I leave. If I am not able to the next person that will take over from me will be able to launch it.

The continued exploration in the Niger-Delta has caused damage. The transfer from fuel to methanol will ensure that these abuses are taken care of. The environment will be less stressed. The gas flaring will be avoided because we will start from the gas flaring. And it will also be used for ordinary cooking stoves rather than using kerosene. And it is much more eco-friendly. So I think pursuing the methanol fuel execution in Nigeria and the transfer, the transition from petrol to methanol, is one area that I want to see what we can do as a ministry to achieve.

The last but not the least is that because of the background I came from, the state I came from, we are not so interested in sciences. So I am trying to see whether I can do a lot of advocacy to begin to encourage our school children to tilt towards sciences because that is the ultimate future. If you see I am doing talks in our schools, primary schools and secondary school. The essence is to arouse their interest towards sciences. Some of us missed the opportunity of being counseled; otherwise we would have been in sciences. Now that we have the chance of counseling others, I take that as one of my personal projects to ensure that I counsel people to focus on the sciences for the benefit of our country and our states and the future.

You mentioned Nasarawa State which prides itself as the home of solid minerals. As minister, how would you harness the resources of that state to boost its IGR and that of the entire nation?

Unfortunately, it is something within the space of techniques but I think the best option is to have an SPB from the state. The state will raise an SPB that acquires licenses and prospect on behalf of the people. The advantage is that the SPB is going to employ professionals as geologists, as researchers, as excavators, as extractors and people who will use some machines.

The SPB should be able to bring modern equipment that they will be able to do the extraction without risk to the worker. I think if they do that it will be able to bring out the best quality minerals resources. SPB can negotiate with Nigerian banks to get loans from them and they can also negotiate with Nigeria exploration council to ensure these minerals are given their due value and exported for revenue generation.

So I think there are huge opportunities in that sector. And the State can earn something from that.

Because of our experiences in the past when we have Nasarawa Mining Company Limited and the Nasarawa Investment Company Limited, their mindset is always that of typical civil servant. They are not business-minded. They are not seeing profit making as target. All they do they are just normal employee assignments, the come to work; they claim they are doing investment, the same mindset, they are not anything. So that is why an SPB that is independent, a non-liability company with professionals, will probably be the best to achieve this result so that from the beginning it is all about profit making. It will be in balance sheet and it will be clear that it is all about profit making. It will provide employment for Nasarawa indigenes as they are adding value to Nasarawa economy.

From 1999 to 2019 you have been in the government of Nasarawa State. How do you see the journey of the state so far?

Well, I am going to be very honest and say with all sense of modesty that we have lost opportunities and we have opportunities that came and we utilized them and made ample progress. With all sincerity, I think Nasarawa State had a better chance which we capitalized on from 2011 to 2019 during the Umaru Tanko Al-makura administration. We were in deficit in virtually everything by the time we came on board in 2011. We had no good roads. We had no good schools. We have a bulk civil service system, debt all over. They were unable to pay salaries. There were so many challenges when we came on board.

In 2011 we set out to fix those challenges. Unfortunately for us we were being taken backward by a very antagonistic opposition in the Assembly. The Assembly then was close to 80% PDP and about 20% CPC then. Virtually when we took our budget, there were so much abuse, so much sabotage. At every decision we take, at any policy we take there was always a drawback. They were really being able to slow us down from 2011 to 2015.

So we went back to our drawing board and said look, for us to succeed we need a successful cooperation, for us to succeed we need assembly that is friendly. So we went to drawing board we say look since this people are very antagonistic to us, and they never bother for anything good for the state, only their own interest we said we should fire them straight through the ballot. And that is why, God on our side we took all the bad eggs out.

So by the time we came back in 2015 with APC majority we were able to achieve what we did. We were able to build roads, were able to build schools, we were able to provide water in some places. Essentially, I think the basic foundation for infrastructure in Nasarawa State was laid by Tanko Al-makura. People ask why we need an airport. The airport is one window where we can do cargo business with the hope that it will generate small business around that hub to create some small businesses around the airport which will generate self-employment, with hope that farmers can bring in their farm produce for ‘cargoing’ to longer destination.

We thought that it will give us the opportunity to employ more hands in the airport system. For instance, we need guard handlers, we need people to provide aviation form, we need people to manage sometimes the arrival hall etc. People can survive in that kind of jobs. You know is not just about the elite it is also about the common man who will need it. Now, a lot of people want to come to Nasarawa to do business but it is very difficult for them to come by road. They are complaining of security and long winding road and very tiny. The airport gives us a chance for people to come to Lafia within a few minutes and go back.

I never understood how important that airport business is until I came to federal executive council. I realised that it is lot of business for people and the communities. So we are doing our best with the State government to see how federal government can intervene to sustain and upgrade of the airport. Now when we thought of doing this more services came. Nobody gave us the chance; they thought it is a waste of money.

Now, we have markets in Karu, Keffi, some in Lafia. The essence is to boost commerce, boost trade and to encourage buying and selling.

Generally, if you look what we did, with all sense of modesty I can say Tanko Al-makura laid the foundation for infrastructure in Nasarawa State. That is why he is being called the architect of modern Nasarawa. My prayer is that subsequent government will sustained such efforts so that we don’t go back to square one.

You are one of the political leaders in the state. If you have your way, what are the immediate things you would like to start with?

I think I will build on the foundation laid by Umaru Tank Al-makura to sustain those facilities that he provided. After doing that I will initiate programme geared towards commerce. Our people need to be empowered to go into trade, agriculture and also focus on education to ensure that our schools are given uplift, our teachers are being trained; education is further empowered to train our teachers because we need a lot of teachers, particularly sciences. My emphasis will go into sciences to encourage science teachers. I think that is just my few take at the moment.

How do we harness Science and Technology for IGR so that we further move away from oil?

You see, as a ministry our major focus is policy formulation to provide an enabling environment for science, technology and innovation to strive in the country. We are here to produce those ideas that we are turning out every day. So the essence is to ensure that those ideas are commercialized. That is why we try brining the linkage between the government researchers and the venture capitalist from the back. The venture capitalist looks at what you have researched after then see how he can finance it. Now when you finance it, you see how it can be commercialized for the common good.

Commercialization ensures that it is manufactured. Manufacture ensures that some people are employed in that process. Now once you do that or once you commercialize, it is to ensure that someone is selling it and someone somewhere is buying it. So you are creating a value chain. This in turn creates activities, employment, and wealth. So that is essentially what we do; to provide enabling ground for STI to prosper. There are number of ventures that have taken off by virtue of these policies. If you begin to look at them you will understand that STI is contributing so much to our GDP.

We in the ministry attract funding to further boost our research. I have been privilege to attend world Academics of Sciences and Islamic Development Bank conference where the essence is to bring the academia, policy makers and venture capitalists, so that once there are results of research findings then the government should push those research findings then the commercial venture capitalist should take it up and see how there is a synergy for production for commercialization. That is the only way nations get industrialized.

We support agriculture. One of the main sources of revenue to Nigerian economy in those days was cotton. If you look, cotton farmers have now refused to farm cotton because the seedling are not improved and the seedling gives them so much problems.

So what we did was for the national biotech agency to develop seedlings that is three times the yield of the usual seedlings. And then these seedlings also can resist any ant or termite. And it can be planted two times in a year, these are part of the improvement we are doing to support cotton farmers who will in turn support our textile industry so that we can generate employment for people in textile industry.

So these are part of what we do. So if we develop these seedlings it is not for us as ministry to go and farm them. No it is for our people, farmers who are into cotton farming that can invest in that aspect and we see how they can support our industries.

So essentially I think we are doing everything possible to support the economy and focusing on the need for our researchers to brining out research everyday.

How many projects have you attracted to Nasarawa State?

With the little opportunity we have, we have been able to get some projects to Nasarawa State. I think my first assignment in Nasarawa State was to commission the National Board for Technical Incubation Centre in Lafia. The essence is to begin to encourage our people who have skills at the level of State to begin to use that centre as an incubation centre to promote their trade and promote what we call some level of middle class entrepreneurship from that incubation centre. That has been my first assignment in Nasarawa. Of course, I followed the Vice President too when he went for medium and small scale enterprise promotion exhibition. I supported him because I understand that programme was to generate skills for our women and men to ensure that they access certain government facilities and services with ease. For instance we went there along with Cooperate Affairs Commission so that they can encourage instant company registration. We went with Bank of Industries so that they can encourage them to apply for instant loan, loans that can come to them to support their trade without many conditions that could slow their progress. We took a lot of agencies with us so that they can be accessible to the people there. These are agencies that ordinarily will require you to follow them to Abuja and apply for so many conditions.

The essence of that clinic is to ensure that these agencies are accessible to the people at a very, very easy way. I have been able to, within the context, give employment in the state to our youths. I don’t want to mention names but I know we have done a lot in that area. And we are still doing more. Given the opportunity again we are going to do so.