House of Representatives’ Committee on Science Engineering has called for more budgetary allocation to aid efficiency of research at Sheda Science and Technology Complex (SHESTCO) in Abuja.

Commitee Chair, Inuwa Garba, who spoke during an oversight visit to SHESTCO yesterday, decried the state of the complex due to lack of proper funding.

Garba, explaining research is the bedrock of development, said Nigeria should not be left behind in science and technology.

The lawmaker noted the organisation is not living up to expectations due to government’s negligence for the facility.

‘’There is a lot of good investment in SHEDA but because of negligence, the organisation isn’t up to standard. This place needs government’s attention.

‘’We have gone round and seen departments in SHEDA but we are not impressed, because as a research institute, the government should make a robust and effective budget to aid efficiency.

‘’We see billions worth of investment here but nothing is happening. Is it because of lack of proper funding or other issues that we will go back and discuss with the other committees to see how we can partner the director general and management of SHEDA to see what the House can do to make this place work.

‘’Looking at the trend globally in science and technology,Nigeria should not be left behind… Without research, there won’t be development and without development there won’t be positive change.

‘’We need to identify the problems, and go back to the House to discuss and engage the ministry representing government.”

Director-General of SHESTCO, Prof Paul Onyenekwe, lamented that the organisation operates with less manpower.

Onyenekwe said they are collaborating with universities to tackle the lack of manpower, and called for more electricity to support equipment in the organisation.

‘’The key request from the committee is electric power, because we have equipment that we switch off and on which isn’t supposed to be because it affects the memory system…

‘’We have less manpower, the complex is only about 320 staff. The numbers that are technicians, researchers and technologists are just about 50 per cent, but what I have done is task the engineers and the technologist so if there is any equipment that is troubleshooting it will enable us know what is wrong.

‘’We are collaborating with universities to tackle lack of manpower, we can use some of their lecturers to design and work and apply for funds. TETFUND, one of the financiers of most university research, SHESTCO cannot source anything from there because it’s not a university but we can collaborate with universities to to get funding from them and we have started’’, he added.