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Original Post By Favour Nnabugwu
Efforts by the Federal Government can be complemented by Nigerians to eradicate poverty in country by 2020, Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP, Dr. Umar Bindir has said.
Speaking at the 2014 Engineering Week and annual general meeting of Abuja branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, in Abuja, Bindir said the nation was blessed with most of the needed resources,
The NOTAP boss who stressed the importance of networking and generally harnessing and improving those inherent skills for the good of all, also outlined how the country can industrialise within the shortest possible time.
He called on the government to declare Agbara Industrial Layout in Ogun State, the petrochemical complex at Eleme, Rivers State, and other similar groups of technologically-driven set ups as industrial parks.
Explaining how the country can be rid of poverty, he said it is by using what we have to get what we need, and assured that all Nigerians could have three square meals daily, have access to quality healthcare and education, among others.
Bindir said since doctors were warning against fatty foods, the hide of cattle, commonly called ponmo, could be properly processed to the point that it would appeal to Japanese and other foreigners.
That way, he said, it would become a global franchise, one of the hallmarks of an industrialised nation. He also said Nigerians could beat the ebola virus without compromising our love for bush meat by domesticating the animals such as grasscutters.
According to him, “this was essential so as not to jeopardise the livelihood of hunters whose businesses are threatened by the hue and cry of avoiding bush meat following the ebola virus disease outbreak.
Every product that is not well-branded, well packaged, well managed and well marketed cannot sell,” he said.
“All I am saying is that in Africa, we have over 30 million people who are in love with bush meat and grasscutter is one of them.
Nigeria should not lose that kind of market and industry just because somebody has brought a disease that we have managed now to control. We have the techology to domesticate grasscutters. This means we can control the production of grasscutters or bush meat.”
Still on poverty, Bindir explained: “There are two levels of poverty – absolute poverty, meaning children having access to basic education, mothers having access to basic healthcare, people drinking clean water and living in decent houses.
“These are eradicable. What you can’t eradicate is not absolute poverty but relative poverty.”
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