Buhari Wants Nigeria To Produce Another Wole Soyinka

President Muhammadu Buhari wants Nigeria to produce another Nobel Laureate of Wole Soyinka’s calibre in the science and technology sector.

According to Premium Times, President Buhari made his wish when he tasked the National Research and Innovation Council (NRIC) to deepen scientific research in Nigeria, with the hope of producing Nigerian Nobel laureates in sciences.

Some of Nigeria’s ministers at the National Research and Innovation Council (NRIC) meeting at the state house in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital on Thursday, January 7, 2016.

The ministers and President Muhammadu Buhari during National Research and Innovation Council (NRIC) meeting at the state house in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital on Thursday, January 7, 2016.

Soyinka remains Nigeria’s only Nobel laureate, having won the prestigious prize in literature in 1986 after which no Nigerian has repeated the feat.

President Buhari, during his first meeting of NRIC on Thursday, noted that Nigeria’s vision of becoming one of the world’s 20 largest economies by 2020 could only be attained when science, technology and innovation are fully integrated into the nation’s national socio-economic development process.

He said: “I am aware that Nigeria must accord high priority to science and technology if it must take its rightful place among the leading economies in the modern world,” the president said.

“It is my fervent hope that our research and innovation output should be measured by number of intellectual property such as patents granted and not only by the number of articles published in scholarly journals.

“By this action, Nigeria will become a centre of discoveries, inventions and innovation in all fields of science and technology. Before long we should be in a position to produce Nobel Laureates in the sciences.”