As the federal government and organised labour groups continued to trade words on the removal of oil subsidy, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Sen. Robert Boroffice, said that the Senate would be very objective in deliberating the issue in order to give Nigerians a good deal.
Sen. Boroffice, who also disclosed that over N900bn had been appropriated so far in 2011 for oil subsidy, said the figure would hit trillions of Naira before the end of the year.
Speaking to some journalists yesterday in Abuja during his facility tour to the solar panel manufacturing plant of the National Agency for Science, Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), at Karish, he said, “The Senate shall deliberate on the issue and come up with conclusions that would be favourable to the Nigerian masses.”
According to him, both the federal and state government had made up their mind that oil subsidy would be removed, saying the matter was being deliberated upon by the Senate.
“It has been referred to about three committees in the Senate to look into it before we come up with our own pronouncements. On the surface, it looks like it’s in the interest of Nigerians to remove the oil subsidy, but we have to look into it objectively, taking into consideration the possible effects of the removal of the oil subsidy. When the Senate concludes its findings, the public would be informed,” he said.
Sen. Boroffice, who decried the poor state of the refineries in Nigeria, stated that it was a major attribute to why Nigeria was now faced with the problem of oil subsidy.
“If we have our refineries here, and we back it up with science and technology, the 1.3 trillion which we are pouring into oil subsidy, which even the common man is not benefitting from it, can go into other areas of the economy,” Boroffice said.
While stating that the development of science and technology holds the key to the development of all sectors of the nation’s economy, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, emphasized the need to fund sector and also address energy challenges as the key to national development.
According to Borroffice, for President Jonathan’s transformation agenda to be realistic, the energy challenges facing the nation ought to be first addressed.
“One of the problems we have in Nigeria today is energy: unless we harness all the sources of energy that we have, this transformation agenda of Mr. President would just be a mirage,” he said.
Commending NASENI for establishing such a plant and for installing the state-of-the art equipment in the solar plant, he said that with an agency like NASENI producing solar panels for solar power, a number of the nation’s energy needs could be addressed.
“NASENI is contributing to the development of the economy of the country; eventually we hope that all these machineries here would be replicated locally, and pushed to the private sector. Science and technology was supposed to be the driving force of any economy, but the poor level of funding available to the sector is something that must be addressed,” he said.
“Government needs to review its policy on funding, allocation of resources to very important areas; and science and technology is very important because it is the engine room for growth in any economy.
“It is unfortunate that we are not committing enough funds to science and technology in Nigeria. Most countries commit as high as about two per cent of their GDP to science and technology research, development and innovation: what we commit is about 0.1 per cent, which is nothing to write home about.”