By Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo
THE Chief Executive Officer of the National Metallurgical Development Centre Jos Plateau State, Professor Linus Asuquo, has said that Akwa Ibom state’s unemployment rate will continue to remain high if the government fails to invest in science and technology.
Asuquo who had served as a Commissioner for Science & Technology under the administration of Victor Attah regretted that the Science Park project initiated by Attah to launch the State into ICT technology was abandoned by successive governments.

He spoke in Uyo on Monday as the guest lecturer at a Colloquium organised by the Uyo Book Club in honour of Obong Victor Attah’s 85th birthday celebration with the theme” The Vision of Attah on Science & Technology”,

He stressed that if the Science Park project was developed by the state government Akwa Ibom would have been a cynosure of all eyes and a Dubai in Nigeria.

His words: “If all the policies in Science and Technology were implemented by successive governments after Victor Attah, Akwa Ibom would have become the “Dubai” of our time in Nigeria.

“Akwa Ibom’s unemployment rate will continue to remain high if we don’t invest in Science and Technology. As we speak now equipment worth over N2billion has rotted away at the Science Park.

“This is a monumental waste to the government. The place has decayed and the government is not doing anything to sustain the vision of Obong Attah in terms of Science and Technology”

In his remarks, the birthday celebrator Victor Attah advised that if the leaders continued to build on the existing infrastructure the State would make progress.

The octogenarian noted that he was out of office but not out of ideas needed to develop the state and appealed to Governor Umo Eno led- administration to revisit the Science Park project.
He expressed disappointment that the Science Park as well as a Research and Development (R & D) model of the University of Technology his administration initiated were aborted.

“I hear that we went to Kigali in Rwanda to go and look at a science park but where is our own? It’s gone. We didn’t build it. Unfortunately, we cannot see these things becoming critical for us. But they are.

“I want to appeal to this government and subsequent governments to get the science park going. Yes, the federal government has given us a University of Technology but you can still go back to the Research and Development model of the University of Technology.

“…Continuity is the answer. If we abort everything that the previous person did for whatever reason we won’t make progress. I can’t see any reason why the Science Park and University of Technology were aborted”, the ex-governor said.

In his opening remarks, the Founder of Uyo Book Club, Dr. Udeme Nana while enumerating the various achievements of former governor Attah, stressed that the State Government should set aside every 20th November as a public holiday to honour him ( Attah).

He recalled how Attah struggled to improve on the revenue the state receives from the federation account stressing, “In fighting for that right for the abrogation of onshore/offshore oil dichotomy he faced many obstacles”