Samuel Bello, Abuja
Concerned by irregularities that have greeted elections in Nigeria, the Federal Government has launched plans to manufacture indigenous technology that would make subsequent polls transparent.
Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, stated this yesterday at a world press conference on his reappointment to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Onu lamented that human errors have caused irregularities in the exercise, and urged political actors to embrace technology that enhances clean and transparent elections.
He said, “In our journey to build a great nation, we must protect our democracy. Our elections must be simple, clean, transparent and devoid of violence.
“This way, we will elect only those who represent the will of the people. We have seen that most of the irregularities in elections can be traced to human errors and factors.
“Hence, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology will develop an appropriate technology to give our nation clean and transparent elections where violence will have no place at all.”
The minister, while fielding questions from journalists, expressed concerns about how the nation’s moribund manufacturing plant has not been effectively utilised to enhance production of local materials.
Onu said his ministry was making efforts that would ensure effective use of the plant, owned by National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI).
The minister, who did not disclose the name of the private firms the country would hand over the plant to, stated that, apart from making efforts to produce transformers, it would still guide and demand from the firms to make use of local materials to produce power through solar energy.
“NASENI has a manufacturing plant facility. I went there in Karshi. It can be expanded. So, we want the private sector to come in and intensify our own research here in the ministry. We would give every support to NASENI so that they can do research in a way that we can produce solar cells.”