Minister calls for closer working relationship between FG and state government

The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has called for a closer working relationship between the federal and state governments to facilitate the pace of development.

Ogbonnaya Onu made the call when he received in audience, the Executive Governor of Taraba, Mr Darius Ishaku, in his office in Abuja on Monday.

He stressed that the closer working relationship was very important considering the fact that states had ample land at their disposal for developmental projects.

“For developmental purposes, even if the federal government wants to carry out any project anywhere, it would require the cooperation and support of the state government,” he said.

Onu underscored the importance of such cooperation, adding that working together would fast-track and bring development to states at a greater pace.

According to him, the federal government only had land in Abuja, hence, the need for the cooperation.

He noted told the governor of the need to move the economy away from commodity to knowledge and innovation-based.

He assured Ishaku of the readiness of his ministry to move in and resuscitate the ministry’s biotechnology projects in the state which were vandalized by hoodlums during the #EndSARS period.

Earlier, Ishaku said the purpose of his visit was to seek assistance from the ministry to help resuscitate the ministry’s biotechnological projects carried out in the state which were destroyed during the #EndSARS.

He said the machines and devices installed by the ministry for rice milling, fish drying and others were vandalised during that period.

“When I resumed work in 2015, the biotechnological projects were doing very well until the #EndSARS protesters descended on the projects and brought down everything that was beautifully done.

“They rendered everything virtually useless and the technology machines based in Jalingo were helping us in a lot of ways as it greatly benefitted us,” he said.

Ishaku said the efforts of the state government alone would not suffice and called for collaboration between the ministry and the state.