Nigeria on Fast Track to Devt - Obasanjo
From Josephine Lohor and Julcit Onigbogi in Abuja
President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday, expressed delight that Nigeria was on the "fast track" to development using data gathered from space.
He also noted that with Nigeria launching Nigeria Sat-1, "through remote using, there is no excuse not to be able to count ourselves accurately".
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on, "Satellite Remote Sensing (Nigeria Sat-1) and GIS: A Solution to Sustainable National Development Challenges" organised by the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Obasanjo reiterated his personal commitment to the project.
He also expressed hope that with the advantage of remote sensing some past problems can now be solved in the areas of environment, irrigation, minerals, tourism and census.
"We are using science and technology to do what we need to do in our socio-economic environment and we must use the most effective tool in the development of Nigeria," he said.
Noting the frustration of the Federal Government over the launch of the project, Obasanjo said,
"When we started Nigerians and foreigners wondered what Nigeria is doing in space as we have a lot of problems here on ground. Why do we leave the ones here and go and go up, is it escapism? But after going on a tour of the facility and seeing the satellite being monitored you realise it is even a little bit late, well better late than never."
In his welcome address, Minister for Science and Technology, Prof. Turner Isoun, described the satellite project as a reliable and adequate geospatial information to wealth and sustainable national development. "It is common knowledge in many developed countries that over 80% of such credible, real time, constant and cost effective information are derived from satellite data.
"By the achievement of launching the satellite Nigeria has not only registered her footprint in space but also her name as a satellite data provider. To date Nigeria Sat-1 has captured images of the entire country and different parts of the world and demonstrating good commercial value," Isoun said.
The minister acknowledged that experts from various disciplines, establishments, and institutions, including the private sector, have been mobilised and financially supported to carry out various studies using images from Nigeria Sat-1.
He said the purpose of the 3-day workshop is to further sensitise stakeholders and users of satellite images on the utilization of Nigeria Sat-1 data in various areas of socio-economic activities and sustainable national development particularly in the areas of agriculture, solid mineral development, water resources development, health delivery, defence and security, tourism, demographic survey, transportation and disaster management.
The Director-General of NASRDA, Professor Boroffice, thanked the President for the political support to the agency's projects and the challenges of a communication Satellite, noting that more than 10 companies had already submitted bids for the project.
He also thanked Nigerians for their patriotic support to Sat-1 and the Satellite and foreign partners and experts for the work done on the data generated from the Satellite, adding that the earlier international criticism of the project had given way to international optimism and support.
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