We Can Produce Light Weapons – NASENI

The Executive Vice Chairman of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Prof. Mohammed Haruna has said with adequate funding, the agency is capable of implementing President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on locally made weapons and other technological innovations.

He said, with the directive issued by the president last Thursday that NASENI should explore ways of working with the Defence Industries Corporation, Kaduna to manufacture the light weapons it had designed, the implementation of the Agency’s statutory funding provisions should no longer be delayed.

After top officials of the agency led by the executive vice chairman had briefed him on the state of affairs of the agency, the president had also directed NASENI to collaborate with the Nigerian Governors’ forum to ensure that the agency’s solar producing facilities are henceforth used for electrification purposes in states.

The NASENI boss who told journalists at the weekend that the major challenges facing the agency was poor funding noted that all the agency required to overcome its funding challenges is the implementation of the provision as contained in NASENI Establishment Act.

He said the January 1992 Decree No. 33 (now cited as NASENI Establishment Act CAP N3 LFN 2004) which established the agency specifies that NASENI is to be receiving 1percent of what accrue to the Federation Account, to be increased to 2percent after 10 years.

Haruna said, “The second funding source specified in the Act is collection of levy of 1 quarter percent on income or turnover of commercial companies and firms with turnover of N4million naira and above (which the last Governing Board raised to N100 million) to be collected by Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS)on behalf of NASENI.

“Unfortunately, however, these and other funding provisions in NASENI Act have never been implemented since its establishment 23 years ago.

“NASENI needs these statutory funding mechanisms in order to fulfill its mission for Nigeria as the hub of engineering infrastructure and industrial economic development”.

Haruna further observed that the founding fathers of NASENI did not envisage an Agency that would be encumbered by the usual civil service bureaucratic decision making processes.

He sad, while effective research and development cannot be realized under such processes, the idea of establishing NASENI was a model after similar Agencies in fast growing economies in Asia, including those of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

He said “The governments in those countries gave such Agencies a high level autonomy to operate outside the civil service systems thereby enabling the Agencies to take decisions and implement such technology development oriented outcomes with the mind of competing with the rest of the world as required in terms of technology advancement.

“The world today runs on global competition as the twin sectors of technology and economy serve as wheels on which nations advance the socio-economic wellbeing of their citizens. Nigeria cannot afford to see things differently”.