Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and former Delta State gubernatorial aspirant, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has called for the immediate shut down of Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) over non performance for over thirty years of existence.
Recall that while responding to questions from Senate panel mid last year, the Director-General of RMRDC, Professor Hussain Ibrahim listed kilishi as the only achievements of the research agency after thirty years of existence. Kilishi is meat suya delicacy that is common in the Northern part of Nigeria.
Reacting to questions from journalists at Asaba, Delta state about the achievement of the research agency, Onuesoke called for the immediate scrapping of the agency, stressing that it is disappointing that after voting millions of Naira on it, the only achievement it could boast of is the production of Kilishi.
“The problem of Nigeria is appointing incompetent people in positions of power just because they know someone. It is amazing that after thirty years of existence, a research agency is proud of mass production of kilishi (Suya Meat). This is shameful. Both the Director-General and his officials should be sacked and the research agency shut down immediately.
“As a Nigerian, I do not know if I should cry or laugh. With all the universities in Nigeria, this is the best we can do. The fact that the man has the audacity to present this to the national body shows how low a standard that our law makers are willing to accept,” Onuesoke disclosed.
Describing RMRDC as financial drain pipe, he said,” Every year hundreds of millions are paid as salary and research grants. See the class of people being paid. Research institute indeed! Just call it what it is, salary and contract institute.”
The PDP chieftain pointed out that what is happening in RMRDC is equally what is happening in Nigeria Space Agency, adding that both weather and communications satellites they claimed to have launched into obit are run by MTN internet and cull weather reports from weather websites.
He observed that years of continuous consumption of a highly toxic curtail of self deceit, nepotism, tribalism and religiosity have landed Nigerians on this rot.
Onuesoke stated that it is a pity that in these days when people are, among other things, utilizing Google maps instead of the compass; fighting wars with drones; doing their shopping on line; transacting business using the Bit Coin currency; obtaining degrees online; and companies including Tesla and Uber ramping up their testing of driverless cars, with a bid to start rolling them out into reality; instead, here in Nigeria, we are talking of “kilishi” as a research breakthrough.
