By Malam Suleiman Musa
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On 30 July 2026, Channels Television anchor Seun Akinbaloye interviewed the Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Mr. Halilu Suleiman. It was an interview that ought to have provided Nigerians with clarity about the direction, achievements and financial stewardship of an institution created to drive Nigeria’s technological and industrial transformation. Instead, the interview raised more questions than it answered.
For an agency with such an enormous mandate, and with billions of naira passing through its institutional machinery, Nigerians deserve more than broad claims about innovation, national security and commercialisation. They deserve measurable results, verifiable figures and transparent accounts of what has been achieved with public resources.
NASENI was established to promote indigenous technology, engineering innovation, local manufacturing, research commercialisation and industrial transformation. It was conceived as an important instrument for economic diversification, technological independence and industrial development.
In a country where millions of young people remain unemployed or underemployed, an institution of this nature should also be a major engine of productive employment and opportunities for young Nigerians.
During the interview, Halilu identified national security and data sovereignty as major areas of concentration of his administration. There is certainly a relationship between technological capacity, national security and data sovereignty. No serious nation can afford to be technologically dependent in critical sectors.
But there is an important distinction between what is desirable for national development and what falls within an agency’s statutory mandate.
NASENI’s central responsibility is science and engineering infrastructure: applied research, technological development, engineering innovation, local manufacturing, technology transfer and the commercialisation of research outputs. If national security and data sovereignty are now to become central pillars of NASENI’s operations, what will NITDA be doing?
Commercialization without numbers
Halilu repeatedly emphasised the commercialisation of technology as a major achievement of his administration. Commercialisation is, undoubtedly, one of the most important measures by which a technology agency should be judged. But commercialisation cannot remain a slogan.
How many technologies have actually been commercialised? How many companies have acquired NASENI-developed technologies? How much revenue has been generated? How much has been paid into the Federation Account? What royalties have been received? What products are currently being manufactured at scale? How many jobs have been created?
These are not hostile questions. They are basic accountability questions.
If NASENI has successfully commercialised technologies over the past three years, Nigerians should be able to see the numbers in its audited financial statements and annual reports.
Follow the Money
This becomes particularly important in light of ongoing demands for disclosure concerning NASENI’s finances.
A Gani Fawehinmi Impact Awardee- President Aigbokhan, Esq has challenged the agency over its alleged failure to disclose records concerning foreign investments and statutory allocations. The demands which is now a law suit extend to records relating to FAAC allocations and deductions, approvals, transfers, borrowing arrangements, expenditure schedules, procurement records and audited financial statements from 2023 to date.
These records should not be treated as private institutional property. Where public funds are involved, transparency is not a favour granted by an agency; it is an essential component of democratic accountability.
The controversy has been further amplified by the Registered Trustees of Unemployed Youths of Nigeria (RTUYN), which has raised concerns over alleged financial irregularities involving NASENI and called for an independent forensic audit.
The organisation alleges that statutory deductions from FAAC and company tax between 2023 and 2026, amounting to more than ₦900 billion and associated with NASENI, were allegedly borrowed by the Federal Government and deployed for purposes unrelated to NASENI’s statutory mandate, including alleged partisan political purposes.
These are serious allegations. They must not be dismissed merely because they are politically uncomfortable. Equally, they should not be treated as proven facts without independent verification.
There is a straightforward way to resolve the controversy: open the books.
Publish the allocations, the deductions, the approvals, and the bizarre borrowing arrangements.
Halilu should also publish the expenditure schedules, the procurement records, and the audited accounts. Let the figures speak.
The Problem with Historical Claims
Perhaps the most striking moment in the interview was Halilu’s claim that the NASENI Centre of Excellence was established during his leadership.
That claim requires correction. The NASENI Centre of Excellence programme predates the present administration. Indeed, the establishment of NASENI Centres of Excellence dates back to the earlier history of the agency, including the 2006 period.
This is not a trivial historical error. Public institutions are built through institutional continuity. Every administration inherits programmes, infrastructure, research, personnel and investments made by previous administrations. To attribute an institution established years earlier to a current administration is to erase institutional history and, potentially, to mislead the public about what an administration has actually created.
Leadership should be measured by what was inherited, what was improved, what was completed, what was commercialised and what was newly created.
That is how serious public-sector performance is assessed.
Nigeria Can Learn from South Africa
Nigeria’s technological ambitions also become clearer when compared with what other African countries have built.
South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) provides an instructive example. The CSIR has developed a strong ecosystem around applied scientific and technological research, engineering, industrial application and partnerships with government and the private sector.
Its model demonstrates an important principle: a public research institution does not have to depend exclusively on government subventions. It can generate substantial income through research contracts, technology partnerships and commercial engagements while continuing to fulfil its public mandate.
For 2024/2025, CSIR reported revenue of approximately R3.540 billion. Of this, about R697.1 million came from parliamentary or statutory funding, while approximately R2.196 billion came from contract income. Other government grants accounted for about R644.9 million, with additional income from royalties and other sources.
The lesson is not that NASENI must copy CSIR mechanically. The lesson is that a technology agency can combine public funding with research contracts, commercialisation, intellectual property, industrial partnerships and measurable economic returns.
That is the kind of ecosystem Nigeria should be building.
CSIR’s work also demonstrates what an applied science institution can contribute to national priorities. It has been involved in South Africa’s emerging green-hydrogen economy and has undertaken sophisticated scientific and data-modelling work with applications extending to public governance, including predictive modelling associated with national and provincial elections.
This is what happens when science is deliberately connected to industry, government and real-world problems.
Where Is NASENI’s Industrial Impact?
Nigeria has enormous scientific talent. It has universities, research institutions, engineers, technology entrepreneurs and millions of young people capable of creating extraordinary things.
What is missing is a sufficiently effective bridge between research and production. That bridge is precisely where NASENI should be strongest.
NASENI should be accelerating artificial intelligence, renewable and clean energy technologies, advanced manufacturing, agricultural technology, engineering systems, local production and industrial innovation.
The critical question, therefore, is not whether NASENI has signed agreements, launched programmes or commissioned facilities.
The question is what is Nigeria producing today that it could not produce three years ago because of NASENI?
How many technologies moved from laboratory to factory?, how many imported products have been replaced by locally manufactured alternatives?, how many young Nigerians have secured sustainable employment because of NASENI’s interventions?
Also, how much internally generated revenue has commercialisation produced?, how much intellectual property has been created and monetised?, how many Nigerian companies have grown because of NASENI’s technology-transfer programmes?
And, ultimately, how much value has the Nigerian taxpayer received for the money invested in the agency?
Publicity Is Not Performance
The problem with many Nigerian public institutions is that publicity has gradually become a substitute for performance.
A press release is not an industrial plant. A memorandum of understanding is not a commercialised technology. A commissioned building is not technological transformation.
A prototype is not mass production. And a claim made on television is not evidence.
Evidence is found in audited accounts, procurement records, production figures, patents, licences, royalties, factories, jobs, exports, local-content statistics and measurable economic outcomes.
NASENI must therefore resist the temptation to measure itself by the volume of announcements surrounding its activities. Its success should be measured by the extent to which Nigerian science and engineering have been converted into Nigerian products, Nigerian industries and Nigerian jobs.
The Interview Should Lead to More Questions, Not Fewer
Seun Akinbaloye’s interview has therefore inadvertently opened a much larger national conversation. What exactly has NASENI received since 2023?, what has it spent?, what has it borrowed?, what has it transferred?, wWhat has it procured?, what has it commercialised?, what has it earned?
Other questions arising include; what has it returned to the Nigerian economy?, and where are the audited records?
These questions become even more important where there are competing narratives about statutory allocations, deductions, borrowing and expenditure.
The solution is not propaganda from either side. It is documentation. If the allegations are wrong, the records will disprove them. If the allegations are correct, the records will expose the problem. Either way, Nigerians deserve the records.
NASENI Must Open the Books
Nigeria cannot continue to treat its principal technology and industrialisation institutions as opaque bureaucracies whose activities are known primarily through speeches, ceremonies and media appearances.
A country seeking technological sovereignty must first establish financial and institutional accountability within the agencies responsible for delivering that sovereignty.
NASENI cannot credibly champion data sovereignty while withholding information that citizens are legally entitled to access. It cannot convincingly preach technology commercialisation without publishing the revenue generated from that commercialisation.
It cannot claim industrial transformation without demonstrating industrial output.
And it cannot ask Nigerians to trust its stewardship of public resources while resisting legitimate demands for financial records. The appropriate response to scrutiny is not defensiveness. It is disclosure.
Halilu’s interview should therefore not end the conversation. It should begin it. Nigeria does not need another technology agency that merely talks about the future. Nigeria needs a NASENI that can show, in audited figures and tangible industrial output, how it is building that future.
Malam Suleiman Musa
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Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACIarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria.
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