GENERAL Sam Momah (re-tired) was Nigeria’s former Minister of Science and Technology.  A military man, first class civil engineer, author, Momah has a doctorate degree in Strategic Studies.  In this chat with Vanguard in his office at Abuja recently, he says for Nigeria to move forward technologically and otherwise, her research policy must be people-oriented, have a mass appeal and must be of maximum benefit to the maximum number of people. Excerpts:

By EBELE ORAKPO
ALTHOUGH General Sam
Momah said he did not carry out any research per se in the field of science, but as Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology (1995 to 1999), he greatly encouraged a lot of research efforts.

How we operated: “While I was in the Ministry of Science and Technology, I tried to emphasise on the need to have a research policy that is people-oriented, has a mass appeal, and of maximum benefit to the maximum number of people.

So I encouraged my staff, the directors, particularly the one at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research (NIPR) then, Prof. Charles Wambebe. He was working on sickle cell anaemia and did achieve a lot of results that were all tested abroad and found to be very potent for the cure of sickle cell anaemia.

Mass production
“When I was there, I refused to retire Wambebe though he was due for retirement having spent up to eight years. ‘I said this man is very useful to the country and for this research he has carried out, there was need to pursue the mass production of the items because many countries abroad were anxious to go into partnership with us for mass production of the items.

But unfortunately, as soon as I left, they retired him and that was the end of that very wonderful achievement. This is one of the things I know that if it had been pursued, by now, the patent would have been ours and we would have been able to go very far. I don’t know how far the ministry has gone about it but whatever it is, I hope the effort was sustained.”

Other areas of research:
Housing: “There are other areas we had researched particularly in the effort of making Nigerians build their own houses. I had this Nigerian Building Research Institute and the aim was to start using red bricks to build our houses instead of using sandcrete blocks.

We made sure we had offices in most of the big towns in Nigeria at that time and we built a model  brick house in each state capital and I believe so much that we can save more than 60 per cent of the cost of building if we go for red bricks rather than sandcrete blocks.

We have the red soil here and it will also offer employment to millions of Nigerians because what we will do is just train them on how to make the blocks and how to erect them and you will find that it will be like China where people build their own houses.

They get together and collectively put up their own houses on weekends. That was the idea I had. That too is something I wish we should pursue and get to the logical conclusion because until something becomes effectively in use by the people, the effort is lost.”

Biotechnology: “In biotechnology, we tried to see how we could do some seed multiplication, ie to cross-fertilise seeds so that we can have a better breed. So the Biotechnology centre was doing that. These are the ones I can remember. There are myriads of them. It’s been a very long time so I cannot remember them all,” he said.

The four Ps of the ministry
“Back then, I used to give research targets to my parastatals; that was one thing I did. I would go to each parastatal and say ‘this is your target. Within so and so time, I want this achieved.’ That really helped a lot because if you don’t give them targets, they will keep beating about the bush so I used to give them target because essentially, unless we push them in a particular direction, they will not move.

I used to motivate them with what I called the four Ps of the ministry – Punctuality, Probity, Patriotism and Productivity. Once you come to work on time, half the achievement is made. Then with patriotism, you will be able to produce and when you produce, of course, there must be probity so with all these, I was able to energise the staff of the ministry and get their psyche to be production-oriented and I think we had a swell time.

I was able to move the ministry forward. I congratulate all those who are there now and hope they will keep the flag flying,” he said.