The House of Representatives has expressed concern over the Federal Government’s claim to slash the budget of Science and Technology from N53 billion in the 2010 budget to a paltry N5 billion in the 2011 Appropriation bill.

House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, which raised the concern during the 2011 budget defence of the Ministry of Science and Technology and its agencies yesterday, said it was dismayed that the Federal Government had failed to accord the development of Science and Technology the attention it deserved in the 2011 budget.

Committee Chiarman, Ishaq Akinlade, said: “It took the National Assembly serious battles to raise the budget for capital development in the Science and Technology to N53 billion last year.

“It is lamentable that instead of improving on that feat, the executive arm of government reduced it from N53 billion to N5 billion, representing a drop over 10 times that of last year.

“For any country to move forward science and Technology must be taken seriously; for us to be like other countries we have to go back to the drawing board; this proposal is dead on arrival because allocation of N5 billion is too small; it is worrisome that the Federal Government is paying lip service to the issue of science development”, he said.

“The ministry has to go back; 20% of the entire national budget is not too big to be allocated for the development science and Technology”, he insisted.

“Last year the executive arm of government proposed N5b for capital projects in Science and Technology but we increased it to N53 billion; it is shocking that government is still bringing budget of N5b in this year’s budget’ he observed.

She said that there are many projects the ministry and its agencies have embarked on, but cannot continue because of paucity of funds.

She then pleaded that the Committee help sought for more funds over the N5.3 billion allotted the Ministry by the Ministry of Finance.