Obasanjo made the call during the Eighth Brig.-Gen. Ogbonna Agu Annual Lecture and Awards Ceremony organised by the Nigerian Institution of Space Engineers (NISE) in Abuja.

The former president noted that many policies, particularly on space technology, remained unimplemented and unexecuted.

He said: “It is not enough to have good policies and Nigeria is not in short supply of good policies. In fact, go to our archives, it is a burial ground of unexecuted policies and therefore we are where we should not be.

“What I am trying to say is that it is not enough to have a policy. It is not enough to even have a good statement like the one my sister had made.

“We are not short of policies in this country. If you go to the archives, our archives are full of policies. But there are many dead policies, unimplemented policies and unexecuted policies.

“And therefore, we are where we should not have been. Those who have made progress have not done it on wishes but active to make progress.”

On his part, the Director-General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Dr. Mathew Adepoju, said the federal government had approved four new satellites for National Space and Satellite Programme.

He said: “Among these satellites, we have three optical satellites and we have one synthetic and partial random satellite.”