From Magnus Eze, Abuja
Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu yesterday paid tribute to Ghana’s pioneer President, Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, saying he laid solid foundation for the country.
Delivering the 56th Anniversary Republic Day Lecture of Ghana with the theme: “Technology, the key to African development”, the minister recalled that Nkrumah had in a foreword to the country’s first development plan 1963-1970, declared that it was being based on science and technology.
Onu, who stated that President Nkrumah had recognised the relevance and the importance of science and technology to nation building, said no nation can achieve greatness without science, engineering and innovation.
He said that Africa is richly endowed with minerals, but blamed bad governance, especially long years of military rule for the backwardness of the continent.
He said “It is important that we should always remember that Africa had a rich past. Our ancestors were men and women of great vision, creativity, innovation and ingenuity. They mastered their environment and employed science and technology as instruments for development. They studied the stars, irrigated their farms and built a civilization whose impact is still felt today.”
Notwithstanding the glory of Africa’s ancient past, the minister lamented that the immediate past of Africa had been painful.
According to him, the African had unfortunately become the face of hunger, disease, Illiteracy, abject poverty, malnutrition, political instability, strife, disorder and the home of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
He however noted that things started to improve in the past fifteen years with the roots of democracy growing deeper in the political soil of Africa and conflict situations on the decline.
“Before the recent collapse of commodity prices in the world, Africa’s economy was growing faster than those of other regions of the world and at twice the rate of the 1990s.
“I can see a glorious future for Africa, if we deploy the tools of science, technology and innovation to the development of the Continent”, he stated.