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Friday, April 26, 2013

OPINION: Should FG Ban Military Boots Importation?


The Minister of Science and Technology presented his scorecard to the PDP.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Bassey Ewa, on Tuesday identified lack of patronage of Nigerian-made goods by Nigerians as the major challenge of his ministry.
Consequently, he pleaded with the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to ban the importation of military boots into the country to enable the locally-produced ones to thrive.
While briefing the leadership of the party at its national headquarters in Abuja, on his ministry’s performance, Mr. Ewa urged the military to procure boots from a leather factory in Zaria, which, according to him, produces quality boots as substitute to the imported ones.
“We have the capacity to meet the demands; we have already started consultations but we are not saying that the government should stop total importation of shoes into the country,” the minister explained while responding to questions from the party leaders.
He told the party leaders, including the National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, that the ministry has been trying hard to domesticate technology in the country by taking same out of the universities to the local arena.
Mr. Ewa noted that his ministry’s policy “vividly articulates workable strategies for achieving the transformation agenda of the present administration.”
He added that the ministry is key to the government’s transformation agenda especially in the area of food sustainability.
The minster also disclosed that the ministry had launched its Satellite 2 which, he explained, has the capacity to capture and map out the country.
This, he said, would help states to train town planners to be equipped in response to the vagaries of climate change.
Earlier, Mr. Tukur explained that the party is interested in how cabinet members, who are the drivers of the government transformation agenda, are performing their duties and how their policies are impacting on Nigerians.
Source: Premium Times

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