A lecturer at Baze University, Abuja, Prof. Peter Ogedebe, has advised the Federal Government to formulate an effective policy on reward for inventors in science and technology to enhance national development.

Ogedebe, the Dean, Faculty of Computing and Applied Science in the university, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

He said government should come up with a policy that would encourage inventors to explore available opportunities for technological breakthroughs in science and technology.

“Government needs to lead by example. It should come up with a policy to encourage those who have invented or discovered new technological ways of doing things.

“Government should reward inventors just as it does to footballers who compete in one or two weeks tournament and get N5 million to N10 million or three houses each as rewards,’’ he said.

According to him, the kind of “easy rewards” given to sports men and women is discouraging many people from embarking on invention.

“This is because they would rather go and play football to earn dollars than waste their time on engineering or invention or what have you,’’ he said.

The don urged government to have a paradigm shift by encouraging Nigerians in their specialised areas in order to get the best out of them.

Ogedebe said that many people were no longer committed to hard-work because of poor incentives.

“For instance, how many of our primary school teachers are being remunerated properly?

“That is why many people would want to do something else in addition to the job they do thereby showing less commitment to their real jobs.

“So, if government can institute a reward system in all fields, things will change.

“If you challenge people and tell them that once you do this, you will be compensated, many people will come up with innovations,’’ Ogedebe said.

On Nigeria’s energy crises, he urged the federal government to integrate the artisanal oil refiners in the Niger Delta region into the formal oil and gas sector.

“There are many people producing oil in the South-South and government is clamping down on them.

“Why can’t we licence them? They are producing oil and nobody has accused them of producing fuel that is not up to standard.

“Let’s get those brains together, encourage them and licence them to refine crude oil,’’ he added. NAN

– Mar. 2, 2018 @ 16:32 GMT |