Onu optimistic of launching satellite in Nigeria soon

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu has expressed optimism that Ni­geria will in no distant time be able to manufacture its satel­lites and launch them in-coun­try.

Onu stated this during an in­spection of Nigeria’s Earth Re­ceiving Station at the National Space Research and Develop­ment Centre (NARSDA) in Abuja last Friday.

He stated that government will in the 2018 budget make provision to increase the work of the space research centre to achieve its set targets.

According to him, “The trust of President Muhammadu Bu­hari’s administration is for us to look inward. We can’t contin­ue to depend on other coun­tries and I am very happy that NARSDA is working in line with the directives that I gave. I am very impressed and the main reason for coming is to see the earth receiving station which completely indigenous.

“It is 100 percent designed, fabricated and now operated by Nigerian engineers and sci­entists. We look up to the fu­ture with so much joy that one day we will be able to attain the level which we aspire for our country and that is we should be able to manufacture our sat­ellite and then launch our sat­ellite in Nigeria.

“So this is the beginning and it is a very good beginning. It may look small but a very im­portant step that we are able to build our own earth receiving station. I am very happy”.

He said he was also im­pressed with some other equip­ment being locally manufac­tured to observe earth moisture and able to carry out early warning on possible flooding.

“I have seen other things they are doing, how we can as­sist NEMA in monitoring flood so that there can be an early warning system for our people. We don’t want Nigerians to die as a result of flooding or to lose a lot of their property. If there is early warning which is nation­wide, it will be easy for NEMA and other agencies of govern­ment to alert citizens so that we can be better prepared and get people evacuated especial­ly those in flood prone areas.

He said the government is working very hard by 2018 budget to make substantial provisions for Nigeria to be able to design and build satel­lites in the country.

He pointed out that space “is big business with many coun­tries making so much money in building satellites for oth­er countries. They make a lot of money launching satellites and we want to benefit from that and be able satellites for so many purposes”.

Also speaking to journalists, the Director General of NARS­DA, Prof. Saidu Mohammed explained that the “Nanosat­ellite is meant to give certain results and we are getting the telemetrics that is showing us all the environmental param­eters which it is designed for”.

Mohammed said the coun­try is still far behind its peers for it to be able design and build its space equipment in the country.

While stating that the coun­try has made tremendous effort in the last eight years in build­ing capacity for the space proj­ect, he however said it was not possible to meet the 2018 sat­ellite launch contained in the strategic roadmap for the proj­ect.

“In 2018, satellites are sup­posed to roll out of our facility but unfortunately, we are yet to complete the advance lab that will enable us to do that and like the Minister said the gov­ernment is working towards 2018 to provide the fund that will make get the lab ready that will enable us design and build satellites here in this country”, he explained.