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| Hon Dan Majang |
POWER
PLANT DISCOVERED IN PLATEAU STATE
By
Dickson Gupiya
10 May,
2018
A new plant in which its oil can be extracted
for power generation has been discovered in Plateau State, North Central
Nigeria. Speaking to African Drum in
his office today, the Honourable Commissioner, Ministry of Science and
Technology Plateau State Daniel Majang gave the name of the plant as Jethropher.
According to the Commissioner, when the
matured seed of the plant is crushed and boiled to a certain degree centigrade,
its oil will be separated from the water floating on top of it which can be
collected and used as aviation fuel, powering generators, vehicles and can even
serve as engine oil.
He added that after grounding, boiling and
sifting the oil from the seed of the plant, the end product can be used as
fertilizer. The Commissioner said that there are actually two types of
jethrophers in which the other type can be used mainly for manufacturing of
drugs. Danmajang added that the plant is at the technology incubation centre
located in Bukuru and further called on farmers and those in farming business
to take advantage of this plant and invest in its mass production in commercial
quantity adding that what the centre does is to incubate researches in any area
of human endeavour until a sponsor is found to promote it. “Right now, there
are lots of technologies that have been done and deposited at the centre. For
instance, somebody has made a bullet proof vest which is being incubated there
and needs to be mass produced but you need money to do that.” He said.
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| Jethropher Plant |
According
the commissioner, “the core mandate of this ministry is that it supervises the
activities going on at the Relevant Technology Board. If you go there, you will
see a lot of work has been done.
“It’s better imagine until you go there. The
Board constructs tri-cycles, hospital equipment, and teaches people building
technology, carpentry, mechanical engineering and home economics are all done
there. So, we supervise them even though they have a governing council which
was recently inaugurated.
“The ministry also has everything to do with
the production of science equipment. There is a science equipment production
centre located in the premises of GSS Laranto. What they do there is the
production of test tubes, bikers, and everything that has to do with laboratory equipment. As a matter of fact, they even do glass blowing there”
Commenting on the way and manner emphasis is
being laid on paper qualification while talent is relegated to the background
which pundits have observed that such development is detrimental to a
developing economy such as ours, the commissioner said, “Well, as a matter of
fact, the world is moving toward technology. Today, you can’t do without
science and technology. So, as a government, we are coming up with an agency.
The bill for establishing it has been passed by the Plateau State House of
Assembly which if signed into law, will take care of such issues.
“It is
called, Plateau Information Communication Technology Development Agency Bill
2018. Very soon, it will be assented to by the governor and it will take care
of all these issues. Apart from that, we are also trying to come up with a
policy that will coordinate all the artisans in the state so that we will be
able to put them in check and also know what they are doing”
Read full details of the interview in our hard
copy.
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