Prof. Ita Bassey Ewa, the Minister of Science and Technology on Friday, urged the media to provide proper and consistent reportage of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) issues.

Ewa, represented by Dr Gloria Elemo, the Director-General, Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), gave the advice in Lagos during a workshop for media practitioners on science and technology reporting.

The workshop was organised by the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP).

He said that proper and consistent communication of STI issues would positively affect national development.

According to him, there is need to strengthen linkages, partnerships and networks with media practitioners as critical stakeholders.

"This partnership is critical toward effectively stimulating, documenting, translating and communicating science, technology and innovation to the public.

"The Nigerian public has been critical about the contributions of STI to national development.

"This can easily be attributed to the various partnership challenges as well as inadequate reportage of events and development in the sector," he said.

Ewa said that being aware of the challenge, the ministry had launched a new STI national policy.

According to him, the need to popularise and inculcate STI culture in Nigerians for rapid socio-economic transformation has been included in the STI national policy.

The minister said that the policy would create awareness in the society on the relevance of STI culture for the improvement of quality of life.

Mr Umar Bindir, the Director-General of NOTAP, said that countries that had made progress reported and promoted positive angles of their technologies.

Bindir urged the Science and Technology reporters to project what the country was doing right to the public and the world at large.

He said that technology must be allowed to play its role in the development of the country.

According to him, the country cannot move to the next level if it continues to do the same thing in the same manner.

He said that Nigeria as a gross consumer of foreign technology had made other countries to dictate their technologies to it.