Prof. Osita Agbu has urged the Federal Government to revitalise the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited to boost the country’s economy through industrialisation.

Agbu, of the Department of International Relations and Diplomacy, Faculty of Management and Social Sciences, Baze University, Abuja, gave the advice while delivering his inaugural lecture at the institution in Abuja.

The lecture was titled: “Technology and International Relations: Backward and Forward Linkages In Steel Development and Nigeria’s Foreign Relations.”

According to Agbu: “We cannot make progress if we don’t embrace science and technology.”

He said coming from Africa, where issues of primordialism and spiritualism hold sway, it was high time the country directed its attention to bringing the company back to life.

He said: “Look at other countries of the world that have industrialised and made progress, you see that there is a whole lot of attention on scientific issues that you don’t have to be living in the past.

“Yes, you can preserve your culture but you need to embrace the present and move into the future.”

Agbu said it was against this backdrop that he researched on the topic.

He said: “Almost everything of used value that can make a country develop or make a person to improve their civilisation comes from the use of the iron and steel industry.

“And that is why I took us back to the various industrial revolutions we have had, up to the fifth Industrial Revolution, to show the importance of the iron and steel industry in the development of mankind and the things that we use.

“It is people who can conquer their environment by use of technology and it is iron and steel that are able to make such progress and have industrialisation.

“If you are unable to do that, you are going to remain years behind.

“So that is why I focused on what we have on the ground: Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Industry.

“What are its various constraints and problems right from inception, the cold war politics around it, the coming of the company from the Soviet Union and what we have been able to achieve.

“And I have been monitoring that project for three decades, and without that project coming on stream, we cannot be able to lay the foundation for industrialisation in Nigeria.

“Yes, there are mini steel, but they are just a few; they can’t even satisfy the domestic market, not to talk of exportation.

“So, we really need to do something very drastic about the country being able to have control over the production of iron and steel.

“If we can do that and allow this to sip into other sectors of our economy, you will see what will happen to our economy.

“People will be engaged, people will be able to produce, the country will have greater influence among the comity of nations, etc.”

The professor said any country that wants to be industrialised must be organised and disciplined.

Agbu said it was unfortunate that Ajaokuta Steel Company had gulped about $8 billion to build since its inception and till date without much to show for it.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kathleen Okafor, in an interview, enumerated some of the takeaways from the lecture.

Okafor said: “This is telling us to disabuse our minds of political considerations when we are positioning investment institutions.

“We should also be concerned with short and long term benefits to the country.

“We should be aware of the presence of neocolonialism, where the super powers are not relenting in recolonising us in one way or the other; not recolonising us as a country geographically but our minds.

“We should also be able to think and implement.”

Okafor said issues of corruption that had stalled development should be tackled.

According to her, the impact on us is horrendous and it was high time we pursued development with a passion and aggression.

“In terms of technology, we need to upscale, we need people with integrity and those who are prepared to be heroes for industrialisation,” she said.

According to the VC, it is not only about the leaders but individuals are needed who have the right minds to champion development.

She added: “Education or research alone can’t take us there.

“When we research, we have to look at the future, we need to continue; feeding research outcomes to society, to the government for policy making and for implementation.”