Guardian

IT may soon become an offence punishable by law for any government Ministry, Department, or Agency to go out of the country to purchase satellite images for use in the country.

Chairman Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Prof. Robert Ajayi Boroffice, made the appeal Tuesday during the oversight function of the committee to the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) in Abuja.

Boroffice in a statement signed by Head/Deputy Director, Media and Corporate Affairs of NASRDA, Felix Ale, expressed disappointment over the practice of some ministries and parastatals that continually spend huge sum of money to purchase satellite images outside Nigeria despite the fact that those images are readily available at the Nigeria Space Agency.

The Science and Technology committee chairman described such unholy practices as unpatriotic, fraudulent and against the noble objectives of the present administration.

He said, in India for example, it is a punishable offence to embark on any indigenous project without using satellite images of the Nation’s Space Agency.

The Story he said, was not different in some other Space fairing Nations across the globe including the United States of America where bilateral agreement with the government of the United States with contents of images can only receive the approval of government of United States if such images will be acquired from the United States owned satellites

Boroffice mentioned that Nigeria cannot be an exception saying anything contrary to patronizing the satellite images of the Nigeria Space Agency by government Ministries, Departments and Agencies is against the Act establishing the Space Agency which stipulates it as the “repository of all satellite data all over Nigeria’s territory and accordingly all collaborations and consultations in Space data related matters in Nigeria shall be carried out or undertaken by or with the Agency”.

The Senate committee on Science and Technology emphasized that with this Act, it becomes imperative that all Satellites images needed by any government establishment or organizations including higher resolutions not in the fleet of the Space Programme could be purchased as multi- license through the NASRDA.

He commended the Agency for its giant strides towards technological advancement, saying the achievements recorded so far by NASRDA have consolidated the position of Nigeria as a pride to the continent and indeed the giant of Africa.

Boroffice expressed implicit confidence in the leadership and capability of the Agency, given the crop of its competent engineers and  scientists, pointing out that as a member of disaster monitoring constellations, the National Space Research and Development Agency has made impacts and commendable contributions across the globe.

He called on Nigerians, particularly the stakeholders in the Science and Technology sector to support the Agency in the actualization of its noble goals and objectives, which he described as strategic to National development.

Director of Policy, Planning and Research in the Agency, Mrs. Augusta Ihenacho who stood in for the Agency’s Director – General thanked the Senate Committee on Science and Technology for the visit.

She appealed to the committee to assist the Agency in the area of fund allocation in pursuance of its various programmes and projects as contained in the Space Road map.

Ihenacho noted in particular the need for the committee to assist in the early completion of the Agency’s Assembly, Integration and Testing Centre (AIT) ,which according to her will assist NASRDA to design, manufacture and launch different categories of satellites in Nigeria.

She, however, assured that no stone will be left unturned by the Agency in the realization of its set objectives for the overall benefits of Nigerians.