Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology, has implored Nigerians not to give in to discouragement and despair amid present harsh economic realities they have been grappling with, assuring that the hardship would not last forever.
Onu who gave the advice at the weekend while delivering the 4th Convocation Lecture at the Nigerian Turkish Nile University, Abuja, said President Buhari led administration would deliver on its campaign promises to the citizenry.
He lamented that Nigerians are currently passing through excruciating pains and strangulating economic realities owing to the fact that the past administrations in the country failed to invest in science and technology to drive national development.
Onu said, “The price of crude oil had slumped and this exposed our vulnerability as a mono-product economy.
“This is so because no sufficient attention had been paid to science and technology. If we build roads today, they will certainly get bad tomorrow.
“We need to invest in science and technology so as to promote creativity and innovation which will help us produce new products and services that will provide a continuous stream of revenue to help us build more roads, bridges, railways, dams and look after the needs of our security and intelligence community.”
Onu who spoke on a topic entitled, “The Effect of the Emergence of All Progressives Congress (APC) on the Promotion of World Peace,” said the story of APC was one that all opposition political parties in different countries of the world need to embrace.
He said,” The opposition political parties, no matter how weak they may be individually, the story of APC gives them hope that if they could come together in a merger, they will muster the strength to defeat the governing political party.
“The opposition political parties should come together not as in alliance or a coalition but in a merger where they will give up their individual identities so as to become one political party.
“Coming together in a merger is like mixing sugar and water. They become one. It is only in tasting the new solution that its constituent parts can be detected,” he stated.
The minister further contended that the origin of many conflicts in many countries of the world could be linked to struggle for political power through illegitimate means.
Also speaking, Prof. Huseyi Sert, Vice-Chancellor of the Nigerian Turkish Nile University, said the university has made impressive strides since its establishment in 2009, as it has produced high quality human power for the country and the world at large.
