TheCable

Ogbonnaya Onu, the minister of science and technology, says his goal is to be the best minister that Nigeria has ever produced.

Onu, who spoke late Wednesday at a reception organised in his honour by a group known as Concerned Ebonyi State Indigenes, pledged to work assiduously to emerge as the best minister the country ever produced.

“One assurance that I will always give you and I have said it repeatedly, is that as your son, I will never do something that you will be ashamed of,” he said.

“It is better for me to leave politics than for me to do something for my own selfish interest that will make you to be ashamed of your son.

“I will continue to act in a way that Nigerians will know that Ebonyi state is truly the Salt of the Nation.

“I want to assure you that I will make sure that I will be the best minister Nigeria ever had.”

Onu said no nation had ever attained greatness without science and technology.

“I want you to go home with these words: no nation from the beginning of time has ever become great without embracing science and technology,” he said.

“The US is the greatest power in the world; the largest economy, the strongest military and the US has the highest diplomatic potential that she has used in the maintenance of peace all over the world.

“But the US was able, is able and will continue to do so, so long as it is leading in science and technology.”

Onu said Nigeria had the potential to be one of the 10 leading economies but pointed out that: “we cannot do it without science and technology”.

Recalling how he started the ‘Technology Village Project’ in Abia in order to place Nigeria on the spotlight, Onu regretted that the project was disrupted as a result of military intervention.

“Science and technology will take Nigeria to a height unimagined today; we will do our best to be the instruments that Nigeria will use to get to that height. And I need your prayers; I need your support,” he said