[size=16pt]They want to hijack my Stem Cell project, Dr Iloegbunam cries out[/size]


In his Enugu office, the Group Chairman of Stem Cell Transplantation Project for Africa, Dr Perry Iloegbunam is always looking for ways to propagate Stem Cell therapy in Nigeria. For over 10 years, the Stem Cell project has been dear to his heart. But today, he is no longer a happy man.

Iloegbunam who is also the National Chairman (Technical) of the National Committee on the Research and Application of Stem Cell Transplantation Technology in Nigeria (NACRASTIN) is angry over the attitude of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) on his pet project, Stem Cell.

In this interview with Daily Sun in Enugu, he lamented that some officials of the ministry and NABDA wanted to hijack the Stem Cell project from him. Excerpts:
Move to hijack our Stem Cell project
It is unfortunate that what we have laboured for over the years has been hijacked. I am talking about the hijack by some officials of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) in collaboration with their business partners of our Nigeria Stem Cell project, which we have laboured for over 10 years.

We have in the past raised the alarm on this, but nothing had come out of the ministry towards resolving the matter, instead they are perfecting, consolidating their plans, and looking the other way as if no Stem Cell project ever existed in Nigeria.
What the ministry is doing is very embarrassing, shocking, heart-breaking and most unfortunate; that a people that laboured to attract this type of noble project for their country would be subjected to this type of extreme devastating, dehumanizing, and psychological trauma. Elsewhere people who had done this kind of service to their father land would be given honours and awards, but in our own case what we have got are jungle and gutter treatment.

Beginning the project
When we first introduced Stem Cell technology in 2001 in Nigeria, we did not only receive unwarranted attacks by the medical professionals in virtually all the teaching hospitals and health institutions we visited, but were also tongue lashed as if we were introducing poison. However, many of these people in recent times have apologized to us for their conducts and blamed what they did on ignorance.

I must confess that we went through difficulties of unimaginable magnitude and faced a lot of challenges to get the Nigeria Stem Cell project to where it stands today. We were even treated as out-casts in our own country. Some even described the entire Stem Cell presentation as an impossibility and, therefore, a 419 setup.

Our challenge now
Today, after 10 years in the saddle, some government officials ganged up with their business partners to hijack the project. We distributed Stem Cell books and other printed materials on the subject matter to most of the teaching hospitals and health institutions free; organized conferences, seminars and workshops free to all participants; and indeed funded all meetings and operations of the NACRASTIN without any financial input from neither the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology nor the National Biotechnology Development Agency or from anywhere else.

But after 10 years on the project, the initiative is at the verge of being taken away by some powerful individuals who are out to serve their own interest instead of that of the majority of Nigerians. They are now behaving as if the Stem Cell project is their own brain child and to worsen the matter they have also arranged for some businessmen to midwife their relationship with the payment company abroad.

The parallel committee that was set up by the ministry is with a clear script to undermine STEMCETA. If not, what is the justification for the new committee? What is the name of the new committee? Who are members of the new committee? When was the new committee inaugurated? Why did they mislead us into spending hundreds of millions of naira when they have a different secret agenda? Why is the NACRASTIN file declared missing by the ministry officials? Why did NABDA not make public (to date)the successful result of the Stem Cell pilot scheme which the agency requested for, witnessed and acknowledged all reports emanating from the process since 2006? What is the superiority of their new committee to the existing one? Above all, where is the spirit of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) the government has been propagating?

Is it a ploy to encourage and attract investors and businessmen only for them to be thrown overboard?
We think that Nigerians should be told of what went wrong with the National Committee on the Research and Application of Stem Cell Transplantation Technology in Nigeria (NACRASTIN), which they inaugurated. It is very regrettable that some government officials would use government machinery to trample upon others as if we are in a banana state.This is injustice, and the situation calls for a probe.

One of the directors in the National Biotechnology Development Agency on behalf of his partners, has been mounting pressure on Prof. Dr. E. M. Molnar, one of the members of our foreign partners each time he visited Nigeria, to circumvent STEMCETA. Their over-riding interest in this project and their pranks is no longer comforting to STEMCETA. This is a jungle approach to things and government machinery cannot be used as such by her officials.

Deceiving the minister
The honourable minister that inaugurated the NACRASTIN worked very hard to ensure the take-off of the project. Same is to be said of the minister after her, Dr. Al-Hassan BakoZaku. The third minister was very brief and the present one is very new and may have fallen victim of a hatchet plan. They may have misled and rail-roaded the new honourable minister into a web they have been creating for years now.

Importance of Stem Cell
The importance of Stem Cell technology in the 21st Century medicine cannot be over-emphasized. It is indeed a therapy that will dominate the medicine of the 21st century; a therapy that will reduce to the barest minimum diseases suffered by human beings; a therapy that would be used for the treatment of every human diseased organ; a therapy for the treatment of incurable and untreatable diseases. For selfish interest, some group of persons had being frustrating and playing down the take-off of this noble project just to position themselves for the hijack, else Nigerians must not benefit from the wonders of the 21st Century medicine.

The National Committee on the Research and Application of Stem Cell Transplantation Technology in Nigeria, NACRASTIN, was inaugurated on the 27th June, 2008 by the then Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhere as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative with the understanding that since it is a private sector initiative by Stem Cell Transplantation Centre for Africa (STEMCETA), the position of chairmanship of the technical committee be allotted to STEMCETA while the honourable minister of Science and Technology retains the overall chairmanship position.

The U-turn
Surprisingly, soon after the inauguration, instead of pursuing the noble templates and objectives of the Committee, which will lead to full domestication of the technology in Nigeria, some staff of the National Biotechnology Development Agency and Federal Ministry of Science and Technology decided to work against the committee for their own selfish end.
The domestication of the therapy would have made Nigeria a hub of Stem Cell technology in Africa, attracting patients from all over the African Continent as well as providing her own citizens with superior treatments for the diseases they suffer from.

Our request

We want the honourable minister of Science and Technology to thoroughly investigate this matter with a view to putting the Stem Cell project back on track and funded.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2012/apr/04/national-04-04-2012-016.html

Like joke, like play now just watch.
Like Fela would say, "corner corner, passi passi, corner corner, passi passi. . ." before you know it, poof goes years of hard work, ingenius input and dreams!
This has happened countless times.
What baffles me is how people can actually take this forever.

He is not the first

That is Nigeria for you

Stem cell technology is a very delicate and intricate technology. It takes years of disciplined work to make any headway (ie ethically).
This man has tried to pioneer this effort in Nigeria. Guess how Nigeria is responding.

I cry for him.

hahaha the same thing have happened to a lot of people.

I don't know why we have rubbish leaders in Nigeria, despite the huge potentials in that country.

Instead of fighting ourselves on here - can't we all just come together and do something? We need to take our country back from these clowns - they're dream killers irrespective of their tribes.

simple solution: He should pack his bag and leave Nigeria.
Plenty country will accept and even invite him in just to do his research.
Stem cell research is still a huge research up here and everything it can provide is still a mystery to many.
Nwoke rather than crying, leave the country and come to a place that is progressing. Shikena!!!
Problem solved.

Another Dr. Abalaka in the making?

Capt.Barbosa:
Another Dr. Abalaka in the making?

So, why are powerful government officials trying to steal his dream company/project?
I am certain it is people like you that are dream killers in Nigeria.
One generation retires, another like you replaces it!

Iloegbunam (my enemy will not kill me), exactly what they are trying to do. Naija sucks with things like this.

yeye country!!!

pls lets spread this on the web. Things like this thrive because people murmur, keep quiet and let it pass.

@@@@

hmmm

i think he should get the fg attention as well #

my people stay strong!!

keep the knowledge intact!

yeye fools

Shut it! Why do you always talk like a tout? Blah blah blah! The other day a foool came up with an "invention" to produce electricity from nothing!

I call BS on that! Stem cell ko, stoopid cell ni.

Onlytruth:

So, why are powerful government officials trying to steal his dream company/project?
I am certain it is people like you that are dream killers in Nigeria.
One generation retires, another like you replaces it!

If this man believes in his efforts and future success, he shouldn't underestimate the wickedness and bad-belle he is up against. This is Nigeria, a dog-eat-dog jungle where you'll be eaten alive if you've laboured for or have something some grasping, lazy, reap-where-you-didn't-sow bastards are determined to covert. This is even more so if you don't have the right connections or if you're not from the right 'place'.

The man should ask for an immediate audience with the Minister of Health or Secretary to the Gov't, to enable him get the attention of the Presidency to assist with any fight against injustice he may be engaged in.

Stem cell research is the Holy Grail of biological engineering, and could be a potential gold mine if his efforts are proved successful.

a country that cannot suport any invention because of trabalism and nepotism.
Sir,kindly relocate to neighboring country and do your work.

GOD BLESS U

^^^It would be interesting to know just how many Nigerians are busy contributing to and developing other countries economies, because they didn't find the encouragement and enabling environment in Nigeria.

The man should go to Ghana.

PROUD-IGBO:
^^^It would be interesting to know just how many Nigerians are busy contributing to and developing other countries economies, because they didn't find the encouragement and enabling environment in Nigeria.

The man should go to Ghana.

I remember the guy that discovered cure to diabetes. His case is even worse. I cry for my country

The man is wasting his time , pack your bags and go find a conducive environment.

UBTH have recorded success in stem cell technology,this one dey there dey complain that they want to hijack his technology.robis

Any Igbo person who thinks good for Nigeria is a redundant fool. If I were this guy, Dr Perry Iloegbunam, I would have started a fake Stem Cell project I sell it to the goofy Nigeria.

I pray the cesspit called Nigeria disintegrates.

~Bluetooth:


UBTH have recorded success in stem cell technology,this one dey there dey complain that they want to hijack his technology.robis

What the hell is UBTH?

What a shame, i think he should use every means neccesary to fight and have back the fruits of his labour, including the use local,national and international media to expose them, name and shame them. Infact he should use his position by emailing/ writing to foreigne base medias too which could help to put whoever is involved in such plot to shame.

Dede1: Any Igbo person who thinks good for Nigeria is a redundant fool. If I were this guy, Dr Perry Iloegbunam, I would have started a fake Stem Cell project I sell it to the goofy Nigeria.

I pray the cesspit called Nigeria disintegrates.

You have started again, he is not the first person it would happen to. Also it has nothing to do with his ethnicity because it has happened to hausa and yorubas as well even edo/delta people have falling victim.

Americans are waiting for you sir

alj harem:

You have started again, he is not the first person it would happen to. Also it has nothing to do with his ethnicity because it has happened to hausa and yorubas as well even edo/delta people have falling victim.

The first person that comes to my mind and the first Nigerian to be given such treatment was Dr Njoku Obi of cholera vaccine. I would want a numskull such as you to list names but avoid obscure instances.

Is even better for our scientist and engineers move to a conducive environment to allow the unique talented brains to manifest and contribute to real world were real humans and educated animals live together in happiness, at list in western world they groom special dogs that guide blind people on the street, i mean what is the point wasting your GOD giving talent in a dead country call Nigeria their is no point is better you go out there hanest your talent contribute to a real society and get bigger things in return then if you want you can built a few hotels for these baboons in Nigeria, thats what they like most, were they can fucck school girls spreading HIV and looting is like the american scientist who invented that virus already knows that this is the easier way to reduce black population and it worked for them African population started from 80s declined by 30%.So that means even china have more population than the whole continent.............

Things like these is a lesson to others that doesn't see through the lens, colonialism did a lot of damage than good................

Why do ibos always find somebody to blame for their misfortunes ?

stem cells is something even country like Cuba invest a lot on that is why they have the best medical facilities in the world now look at cuba wetin dem get? people should stop acting shocking because this is why Africa and her big Aunty Nigerian have nothing,that is why the continent is poorest in the world

~Bluetooth:


Why do ibos always find somebody to blame for their misfortunes ?

Join us in the agitation for the disintegration of Nigeria so that you would not be bothered by the blame from Ndigbo. As long as the cesspit called Nigeria exists, you must have ear full of blames from Ndigbo. I suggest you shut up your putrid mouth and live with it.

My advice to him would be to go to countries like the United States, Canada or South Korea, because these countries value researchers. That is why I love the United States. This is a country that nurtures its biotech companies, because they know it will strengthen the nation. Nigeria does not value science. That can be seen in the responses in one of my threads. Nigerians in general seem to only worry about "get rich quick schemes," instead of expanding the human mind through research.

God bless America. It may have its problems, but I thank God that the government values science and research.