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The Policy Adviser to UNESCO, Prof. Folarin Osotimehim, has advised the Nigerian and technology strategy.
The Policy Adviser to UNESCO, Prof. Folarin Osotimehim, has advised the Nigerian and technology strategy.
Osotimehin gave the advice yesterday in Abuja in a lecture he delivered on
'The place of Science and Technology in Modern Military: Agenda for the Nigerian Armed Forces'' .
The lecture was part of activities to mark the graduation of course 13 participants of the National War College.
He said the military's strategy should be in harmony with the national science and technology (S&T) policy and strategy being developed by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
Osotimehin said such a strategy should include investment in training of military personnel in advanced S&T and in research and technology transfer techniques.
He said that consideration should be given to the adoption of South Africa's approach to the development of technology and human resources.
Osotimehin said the South African programme required students to spend half of their study time in an academic setting and the other half in an industrial one.
He said Nigeria's military could spend the non-academic portion of its grant-financed time in either one of the military's laboratories or in the laboratories of an appropriate defence contractor.
Osotimehin said part of the military's procurement policy would require 'off-shore vendors of high technology military systems to sub-contract elements of the work under a contract to Nigerian suppliers.''
In his address, the Commandant, National War College, Rear Admiral Amos Adedeji, said the lecture was important considering the present challenges of improved technology globally.
Adedeji said that the survival of the modern military was to a large extent dependent on a good science and technology base.
'It is also doubly important to us as a developing nation, because a sound technological base is the engine of growth for any nation and therefore vital to the growth of the armed forces,'' he said.
One of the highlights of the occasion was the presentation of two books ``The Regional Dimension of Peace Operations'' and ``The Military and Management of Internal Conflicts in Nigeria'' by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Alexander Ogomudia.