I wonder whatever happened to The Nigerian Institute for Horticultural Research, NIHORT, that The Raw Materials Research and Development Council, RMRDC should now be handing out tomato seeds to farmers. At this rate the Nigerian Road Research Institute may soon organise the introduction of new yam and potato cultivars while the National Root Crop Research Institute slumbers. I imagine that all readers have now gotten my drift.
Right from the days of late Mrs Maria Sokenu at RMRDC, at a time the current Minister of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu was a prolific writer on scientific and developmental issues, it was not known to have a mandate that overlapped with those of the other Federal government research institutes. Why now? Nigeria has so much work begging to be done that we cannot afford any duplication of efforts often attended by intra and inter ministerial squabbles. I will spare the readers battle stories on this score.
I recall that in my days as a fledgling (and ultimately failed) manufacturer, I could not get any help, not even information, from the relevant agencies. Even my group’s effort to collaborate with PRODA was a disastrous failure because the agency simply did not have in place a template for such collaboration. We were forced to repeat research work already done by PRODA. The silver lining was that my company overtook PRODA and in the years to come had the pleasure to offer PRODA technical advice on their demand! For readers still wondering what the encounter was all about, let me save you from your misery. It was Engineering Ceramics, an arcane discipline most educated people are not even aware of. However all that is now history. Our effort ultimately collapsed because my team was about a quarter century ahead of the thinkers (?) in governments of those days. With NEPA/PHCN, the government was our number one but very lousy customer. I doubt that much has changed since then, the Buy Nigeria mantra notwithstanding.
The above storyline however did not prevent the Federal Government from opening a brand-new front on Ceramics Development Research at FIIRO, Oshodi, in Lagos. We would have laughed over the matter, but this development was not in the least funny. The "researchers" at Oshodi were well known to us and knew full well that they were wasting their time and ours. And the people's money too.
It was in our interest then to be aware of the engineering capabilities available in our immediate and often wider neighbourhood. Many fabricators could not believe the things that we literally forced and taught them to make for us.
I personally cultivated many large enterprises that had better foothold in the supply chain of many raw materials, clays, quartz, feldspars, talc, diatomite, etc which we needed in rather small quantities, which made it unprofitable for the original suppliers to do business with us. We developed in house processing, an activity that we would not have had to engage in if we were in more advanced climes.
We knew and kept abreast with whoever had spare ballmill and furnace capacities. We made our own glazes for the high performance products that we made for the electrical power industry. Meanwhile we had access to the WAHUM Group which, with a line of several ballmills, makes vast quantities of glaze for its enamelware production lines. One can then imagine my alarm when the current Director General of FIIRO in a recent public presentation announced to the world at large that nobody makes glazes in Nigeria! Who or what will prevent this individual from becoming a Permanent Secretary tomorrow, to be better able to infest the whole ministry with ignorance. Only in Nigeria!
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