How Great Is Nigeria In Technology?

Fred Nwaozor

A childhood friend of mine – who is incidentally a Nigerian presently residing in Japan – upon his last visit to Nigeria penultimate year, profusely greeted my presence with series of lamentations. The bosom pal, who often goes by the sobriquet ‘Jet’, disclosed to me that he was severely pained over the way and manner the Nigerian society was still wallowing in ignorance and ‘self-deceit’ as regards tech-driven issues. He had been a vocal type right from our secondary school days. According to the returnee, on a sojourn though, it was seriously lamentable for a country that calls herself the Africa’s giant to be discussing how to produce “a mere pencil for four good years”, yet still finds it very difficult to come up with a prototype let alone a market sample.

He said when he was viewing the Science and Technology Minister on the Television while in Tokyo, as he was frantically and enthusiastically selling and boasting about the proposal, he didn’t hesitate to weep for Nigeria. He hastily added, “And now, they are promising production of solar cells, after failed pencil production.” I was hitherto keenly interested in his stories pertaining to the country’s technological move thus far, not until a point where he unequivocally described Nigeria as a “nation with visionless leaders”, hence I abruptly lost attention therein. Permit me to assert that Mr. Jet’s frank description of the country might not be mistaken if we must call a spade, a spade. But owing to my unrelenting patriotic nature, I acted the way I did, which ostensibly didn’t augur well for his stance. Nevertheless, my patriotic features wouldn’t stop me from thinking as a realist afterwards. What else would you expect to hear from a man who has spent a reasonable period in Japan, over eleven years if I’m not mistaken, than to look into the eyes of an average Nigerian and tell him or her that the country isn’t progressing, technology wise?

Come to think of it; we are talking about Japan that ordinarily ought, or deserve, to be rated as the king of tech across the globe. Even someone (returnee) from a nearby Ghana or thereabouts might still be tempted to toe the line of Mr. Jet, because the said West-African nation that initially dependent on Nigeria regarding power supply can currently boast of uninterruptible electricity to a reasonable extent. Yes, there’s absolutely no doubt enthusing that Nigeria is a great country, but how greatly has she thus far fared in the area of technology? This is a candid and succinct question we must genuinely attend to if, as a people, we are truly determined to arrive at a definite destination. If the gospel truth must be told in regard to the above enquiry, anyone who truly understands the situation here would boldly assert that Nigeria is nowhere to be found on the world map whenever tech-driven matters are being discussed. This is the reason the concerned authorities are requested to sit up with a view to addressing the ugly and pathetic circumstance without further ado by facing the realities squarely at all cost, solely in the overall interest of the citizenry. Facing the facts as expected would enable the relevant quarters to henceforth jettison every parameter or iota of temptation that would make the governments at all levels to continue to dwell on retrogressive issues when progressive ones are seriously needed.

For us as a nation to get it right, we are required to commence from the education sector. The area in question is presently bearing a deplorable and pitiable physiognomy, yet virtually no tangible step is being taken towards alleviating the obvious plight of the sector. Nigeria has conspicuously grown of age that, by now, she’s meant to holistically realize that no existing nation becomes great, particularly in the field of technology, without duly embracing education. At her present age, she shouldn’t be reminded of the inevitable impact of education on a country’s quest for development and innovations. Nigeria is unarguably not getting any younger, hence the compelling need for her to hold the bull by the horn in her apparent quest to reach the next level. It’s therefore high time she started doing the needful for the benefit of all. The current administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari, not unlike the past ones, has laid so much emphasis on technology. It ought to be told, without equivocations, that the people are losing patience with regard to the numerous promises of the government in terms of technology. In the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-7) held in Japan between 28th and 31st August, 2019, President Buhari stated, “Our administration has identified important sectors that are key drivers to the diversification of the economy. “These include power, transportation, infrastructure, maritime/ shipping, agro-processing, mining, manufacturing, petrochemicals, food processing and textiles, among others. We consider these sectors as priority areas that will drive our economic agenda.”

Time has really come to start walking the talking. It’s imperative to acknowledge that this lofty agenda as presented in Tokyo cannot be well achieved without prioritizing technology, which depends majorly on researches. It’s indeed a shame that an average university in Nigeria, that’s supposed to be a research-oriented institution, can barely boast of the needed facilities to thrive in the area of creation of patents let alone commercializing them. The country can at the moment hardly boast of functional technical colleges across the federation, yet the leaders keep ‘informing’ the world that they are doing the right things. These colleges used to be viable in the past, and tremendously helped in grooming our young ones in skills acquisition in various fields ranging from automobile, electrical/electronic services, sculpturing, wood work, to painting, and what have you.

It’s noteworthy that on a regular basis, the Nigeria’s budget allocates about merely 9 per cent to the education sector, contrary to the 20% stipulation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). We need to restore the lost glory of the country’s educational system by placing it as a priority. A hub needs to be created by the governments towards enabling the youth to aptly thrive in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), which is gradually dominating the global space, thereby making it look like just a village. ICT – popularly known as IT – has obviously come to stay, thus must be fully embraced by all and sundry.

The fact remains that the required talents as regards technology, or technically-inclined issues, are abound in Nigeria. All the government needs to do is to create an enabling environment to allow the talented ones to wholly develop and sell their patents. The country can’t be technologically great when the needful is being swept under the carpet on a daily basis. The concerned leaders must, therefore, be very courageous in their quest to get it right. Think about it.