The Polymer Institute of Ni­geria (PIN) has disclosed that with the pool of pro­fessionals in its fold and prop­er utilization of their knowledge and skills, there is hope for Nige­ria’s quest to diversify the econo­my through industrialization.

National President of the Inis­titute, Dr. Paul Mamza who dis­closed this during a visit to the Minister of Science and Technol­ogy, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu in Abu­ja, said there is urgent need to di­versify the economic base of the country.

According to him, “The Poly­mer scientists and engineers can play a pivotal role in re-defin­ing our hidden and non-exploit­ed potentials. Nigeria must move swiftly from a consumer-orient­ed society to a productive one and science and technology holds the key to open-up new vistas of pros­perity.

“With vast pool of professionals in our institute and proper utiliza­tion of their knowledge and skills, there is hope looming at the hori­zon”, he stated.

Mamza noted that “Nigeria is at cross-roads of history, the Nige­rian economy is in its doldrums, we are blessed with the abundance of both human and material re­sources yet we are languishing at the bottom third of all indices of human development inspite of having the 6th largest producer of crude and the 7th largest natu­ral gas reserve in the world”.

He said the institute desires to pursue the mandate of “enhanc­ing and promoting scientific and technological development in the area of plastics, paints, adhesives, elastomers, pigments and others had sent a bill to the National As­sembly for Chartering”.

Dr. Mamza explained that when the institute is chartered it will regulate the promotion, ad­vancement and development of all applications of polymer sci­ence, engineering and technolo­gy in the polymer and allied in­dustries in Nigeria.

“It will also ensure the profes­sional integrity of and status of of all persons engaged in polymer science, engineering and technol­ogy by prescribing standard of ex­perience and efficiency with the accreditation of manpower train­ing programmes in polymer and polymer-related areas”, he added.

In his response, Dr. Onu needs to take deliberate steps towards the industralisation of its econo­my in order to achieve food secu­rity, protect its people and create jobs for Nigerians.

Onu noted that with huge avail­ability of natural gas in the coun­try and diverse use of polymer, the institute would receive feder­al government support to exploit its potentials to the fullest.

The Minister charged them to make sure they explore to the full­est the potentials of polymer sci­ence and technology which is very important and is also the key to pursue rapid industrialization in Nigeria.

According to him, “It is only through industrialization that we would be in a position to produce the things we need, we would be in a stronger position to secure the nation, through industrial­ization and meet the needs of our people. Polymer will help the na­tion in all polymer related indus­tries and many of the products that we need for both Nigerians living in the urban or rural areas of the country”.

He called on the institute to ensure that “we produce enough to meet the needs of our people through industrialization. We would be in a position to guar­antee food security because that is the only way we can effectively and effectively produce food.

“It is extremely important that we industrialize,” he stressed. In Nigeria, we must be in a position to produce everything we need and polymer science and tech­nology is very important because there are so many polymer relat­ed industries; we have the raw ma­terials to explore efficiently the contribution of polymer to sci­ence and technology and to na­tion building,” Dr. Onu added. [Download]