Bindir in his keynote to the two-day West African regional
workshop with the theme “Making Science and Technology Information More
Accessible for Africa’s Development,” while dwelling on “Global STI Trends in
Africa – The Role of Journalists” noted that media practitioners on the
continent of Africa have been given the arduous task of disseminating
information to enhance public awareness on the relevance of Science, Technology
and Innovation (STI).
This, he said, is expected to accelerate the regional
socio-economic development with their reportage.
Also, Dr. Bindir said that because of the peculiar
challenges facing African countries her media practitioners, especially those
covering scientific events on the continent could not effectively communicate
science and technology so as to achieve social change and sustainable
development.
As said by him, sustainable development in Africa has to be
science-led and driven by an unprecedented transfer of technology and
acquisition of knowledge.
In addition, he said that science journalists could set the
agenda for ensuring that every scientific endeavour leads to technology, every
technology leads to innovation and every innovation leads to a product.
Bindir further enjoined science media practitioners to
embellish their reports with accurate data; be strategic and innovative with
their reports in order to proffer solutions were necessary as part of the new
model for communicating science for the achievement of socio-economic
transformation.
According to him, Africa must not be associated with hunger
and starvation, disease and avoidable deaths, poverty and underdevelopment if
its rich endowments in human, material and natural resources were properly
harnessed for the benefits of the citizenry.
“This scenario demands that the science journalists should
think out of the box and communicate Science and Technology based on the
critical need for addressing issues such as job creation, disease control, food
security, crime control, entrepreneurship, energy, health service delivery,
housing, education, transportation, climate change and economic stability,” he
said.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he decried, were
unattainable by any African country by the year 2015.
The workshop was jointly organised for science journalists
by the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Scientific, Technical and
Research Commission (STRC) of the African Union Commission (AUC), at Abuja.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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