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Saturday 2 June 2012

Jonathan commissions first locally-built warship in Lagos

President Goodluck Jonathan has said that if the nation must get out of the woods, it must stop the importation of some items, noting that in another 15 to 20 years, Nigeria should be thinking about starting a project that will take the country into the air. The president said this in Lagos on Friday Jonathan while inaugurating a three-metre locally-built warship of the Nigerian Navy, NNS Andoni, to mark the 56th anniversary of the Nigerian Navy in Lagos. According to him, Nigeria’s initial failure to embrace technology had contributed to the collapse of the firms. He said, “Today, I am particularly pleased because Nigeria at independence had Nigeria Airways, Nigeria Shipping Line and some other investments and they were doing well. But because there was no indigenous touch and we refused to embrace technology
then, they all died. We are told that some countries that were at the same level with us have built aircraft, choppers and so on. With the current repositioning of the country, we recommend the Nigerian content even in the oil industry. Already, a number of things are now being fabricated locally. “I was in Lagos recently to inaugurate one of such; equipment for drilling and marine are currently being built locally. This is the beginning of transformation. There cannot be transformation without a technological revolution in the nation; this is the beginning. “I believe that in another 15 to 20 years, we should be thinking about starting a project that will take Nigerians into the air.” This, he said, informed his administration’s decision to introduce a special scholarship scheme for first class graduates in Nigeria. This will allow them to enjoy more studies in any of the top 20 universities in the world. “We cannot continue to import everything. We must take advantage of the large market that we have. What we consume alone is enough to sustain an industry,” he said. Meanwhile, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Ola Ibrahim who described the building of the ship as a landmark for the Nigerian Navy said it was a result of diversified researches.

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