Recently some Igbo youths posed the above question on a number of online platforms, especially Facebook. They unanimously answered the question is the affirmative. This has made it necessary for me to intervene to set the records straight.
PRODA?
Who can recall the precise mandate of PRODA at it's formation some fifty years ago? Many current commentators are not old enough to dabble into this matter.
Who can recall the precise mandate of PRODA at it's formation some fifty years ago? Many current commentators are not old enough to dabble into this matter.
Was PRODA set up to see to the technological advancement of greater Nigeria? . No! It was purely local.
There were so many proud Biafran scientists and engineers, still in their prime, eager to keep busy DOING SOMETHING. The government of then East Central State, headed by late Dr Ukpabi Asika strangely enough keyed into that hunger, despite the palpable paranoia at the federal capital inLagos. Hence PRODA.
The newly reunited nation, Nigeria, never indicated a recognition of a technological gap that needed filling. Recall that money was no object to development, according to Gen Gowon. PRODA was at best a local manifestation, barely tolerated by the Gowon and subsequent administrations. These same administrations demolished all traces of Biafran technological achievements, Uli and Uga Airports, functional refineries distributed down to the Biafran Army Brigade command level, etc.
I am almost 70 years old and I never imagined that I would live to see the day when Nigeria's very survival, regarding petroleum products, would hinge, not on the much touted intervention by the Dangote Group, but on the rag-tag operations in the swamps of the Niger Delta by unrepentant militants. At the rate we are going, we may yet forgive MASSOB and IPOB activist all their "sins", considering that they have killed nobody. It seems like the restructuring has already commenced.
It is conceivable, in the absence of any other documentary evidence, that as time went on, the potential for PRODA to engage in "untoward" R&D activities was identified. Hence PRODA was roped in under the suffocating embrace of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The rest is history.
In conclusion, no government(s) of the South-East states is responsible for the sorry state of PRODA. The current situation was by design. For some people, the war is not yet over. The nostalgia by the youth of the South-East regarding PRODA is on a very false premise.
PS:
It is with regret that the Nigerian Airforce has to go begging INNOSON for brake components for some of its aircrafts. Similarly the Nigerian Army has apparently ignored STEYR of Bauchi, PEUGEOT of Kaduna and VOLKSWAGEN OF NIGERIA in Lagos, etc while turning to the same INNOSON to design and produce Armoured Personnel Carriers. I just don't get. Some time ago, I had asked if indeed anything good can come out of Bethlehem. The story of PRODA is indeed part of a much larger epic tale.
It is with regret that the Nigerian Airforce has to go begging INNOSON for brake components for some of its aircrafts. Similarly the Nigerian Army has apparently ignored STEYR of Bauchi, PEUGEOT of Kaduna and VOLKSWAGEN OF NIGERIA in Lagos, etc while turning to the same INNOSON to design and produce Armoured Personnel Carriers. I just don't get. Some time ago, I had asked if indeed anything good can come out of Bethlehem. The story of PRODA is indeed part of a much larger epic tale.
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