AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROF. (MRS.) RUQAYYATU RUFA’I, OON ON THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE BOOK: INCULCATING THE TENETS OF GREAT SCIENTISTS; ON WEDNESDAY 31ST OCTOBER, 2012 AT CHELSEA HOTEL, ADETOKUNBO ADEMOLA CRESCENT, WUSE II, ABUJA.

PROTOCOL:

It gives me great pleasure to be with you and be part of the launch of the book “INCULCATING THE TENETS OF GREAT SCIENTISTS”, authored by Mr. Chigozie Ubani, a young Nigerian Scientist who is also championing a cause in popularization and education of science in Nigeria.

The book is the author’s effort in motivating and inspiring our young people towards pursuing careers in Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM). It encapsulates the STM principles, concepts and conventions that made great scientists to stand out as much better than their peers.

Also, the book serves as a tool to challenge our Young Scientists towards contributing their quota to the development of Science education programme that will lead to an improvement in infrastructure, human capital, wealth creation, and global competitiveness for Nigeria.

I am sure that students while reading this book will have their understanding of Science, Technology and Mathematics fine-tuned and at the same time, be envisioned to pursue bold research areas in Science and Technology.

Accordingly, the Federal Ministry of Education has initiated the READ CAMPAIGN in order to challenge Nigerians to embrace reading culture in order to stimulate creativity, productivity and make life more meaningful.

Furthermore, the Federal Government in 2010 approved the launch of the National Book Development Fund with a view to reviewing and promoting the culture of scholarly publications in the country with an initial seed grant of N2 billion. The Government intention is to encourage academic publications by scholars instead of simply spending money to buy books and journals from other nations. Besides, these initiatives is to enhance the capacities of our students and researchers, as they will have access to fresh ideas, and also make Nigerian books to be visible worldwide and cited internationally.

In fact, the ideas expressed by the author in this book are in consonance with the objectives of Mr. President’s Transformation Agenda in the education sector, and thus, my ministry will encourage our public Secondary and Tertiary Institutions, as well as our Parastatals to stock their libraries with this novel book.

I wish to conclude by appreciating you all for your presence at this auspicious event and crave your indulgence in congratulating Mr. Chigozie Ubani on this notable work. I pray that the Almighty God will spare his life to be more useful to our great country.

Thank you.