When policies are formulated, no matter how lofty they may appear, if they are not practicable,
implementable and measurable, then, they will be useless for whatever
cause they were designed for. This is the submission of the Director
General/Chief Executive Officer (DG/CEO), the National Office for
Technology Acquisition and Promotion, (NOTAP), Prof. Umar B. Bindir.He also asserted that because Nigeria does not operate a functional education system, coupled with the absence of synergy amongst scholars, tertiary and research institutions, government and industry, this has turned out to be the bane of the country’s developmental policies. In pursuant of Nigeria’s quest to attain the status of a global giant and be able to proffer solutions to tackle most of her peculiar challenges, as well as those facing African and the world at large, its tertiary institutions must be innovative, technology and research-driven, he argues. In addition, her research institutions must be given a pride of place.
Speaking during a recent public presentation in Lagos, Bindir pointed out that because these essential factors have been missing in virtually every Nigerian education system, particularly, her tertiary institutions, this explains why the economy of our country with vast land, water and other natural resources in abundance, remains largely import-driven; with 60 – 70 percent of her citizens wallowing in abject poverty. Using rice importation as a case study, he maintained that Nigeria must be a producing country rather than consuming products from other nations.
His words: “Go and see the maps of Thailand and Vietnam. This is where we import rice from. We must be globally competitive by producing things other parts of the world would want to import too just like we are doing with Asian countries goods, products and services. Several overseas universities are working and marketing their technology while Nigerian universities are waiting for federal government budget.
“I did a study and realized that the science, engineering, technology and innovation policies of some countries such as the United States, China, Turkey, Taiwan etc are very practical, very measurable. They are based on synergy. So, we too, if we want to enter this particular group, we must produce policies that are practical, implementable and measurable.”
Entrepreneurial studies and provision of good research laboratories
He pointed out that positive transformations would be achievable only when Nigeria’s educational institutions are dynamically transformed. The educational curriculum must be tailored towards entrepreneurial studies, towards the production of employable and enterprising graduates. “When you google top 100 universities, you will see that no Nigerian university is listed.”
He enumerated what it would take Nigerian tertiary institutions to evolve as world-class institutions. “First, your building has to be nice. They must be such that people will love to come here and study. The lecturers must be motivated. Your laboratories must be good. The remuneration of all the workers including non-academic staff must be good. The roads here must be good.”
According to Prof. Bindir, another very vital ingredient for functional institutions necessary for the attainment of dynamic nation with a robust economy is to eschew the separatist mentality. “Here, we have excelled in operating in isolation. We hate partnership even at the national level. When this digital thing came out, National Population Commission budgeted nearly N100, 000,000 to do biometry. Then, INEC came, doing biometry, every cellular network is doing biometry. You want to open bank account, biometry, you want to get international passport, biometry; its biometry everywhere. In fact, half of your life, you’re doing biometry. Yet, Nigeria till today does not have a database of all Nigerians. Why? Because there is no partnership! . We’re not good at that. So, if you want to enter (the list of 20 best industrialized nations of the earth), we must also, start imbibing the spirit of cooperation and partnership.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
“In other countries where they have raw materials, they do research on them, they know how to add value, they know how to produce products and by extension, creating employment for their people and showcasing knowledge. But not us. We have crude, we’re importing kerosene. And we’re very happy about that. We have land, we’re importing rice and we’re very happy about that. If we’re to enter this 20-2020, we must see that our raw materials will not leave our shores.
“And I realized that the economy of those countries in the top 20 are driven by investment, research and development. Look at the GDP of South Korea. That is why you’re getting Samsung. That’s where you’re getting Hyundai; that’s why you see Kia getting better and better. Why? Because these countries are investing heavily and you can see they’re reaping the benefits. If you go to South Korea, at least, I go to that country every year, just to get back my sanity, anywhere you are in South Korea, you have internet access free of charge, the fastest in the world. You go to the airport, you open and you see like 16 networks, all Wi Fi free. The robustness of the opportunities of any nation can be mirrored through her education system. So also are her strengths, weaknesses and threats? What this simply means is that no nation can rise above its education.”
Promotion of local or indigenous technology
Speaking further, the technocrat explained that to properly understand the impediments on the pathway of our national growth, there is need to critically evaluate the structure of her tertiary and research institutions. “We have 129 universities in this country, 40 of them are federal government; 39 are state government-owned; 50 are private. Notwithstanding the pangs of strike, by any standard, Nigeria is the richest institutionalized country on the continent in terms of number. Look at our polytechnics, 125; 98 colleges of education; we have over 300 research institutions. In our economy, we have world-class industry participants – the Nestles, the PZs etc. If you look at publications in Africa, South of the Sahara, other than South Africa, Nigeria is the highest publisher. So, we have documentation of the work that we’re doing. Maybe because if you don’t publish, you don’t get promoted; and you know Nigerians like promotion, they therefore publish. Maybe some of this knowledge is irrelevant.
“If you go to technology, you will see that we are in space. Nigeria has launched communication satellite. With that technology, we should be able to apply it to agriculture, light and so on and so forth. We are into biotechnology. With sound technologies as we’re availed with, we should be able to change the face of small scale faming. With these, you should be able to change the kind of housing you have in the rural areas. But, in this country, even a PhD student does not have a room to himself. We are into renewable energy research that can power some of our lights. We are assembling and rolling out buses at Enugu. We have established plant at Abuja that we’re using to produce this sickle cell anaemia drug – the best in the world. We have so many traditional technologies, international visibility and awards. Our Dr Obazie invented something that is completely new and got a WIPO award. But, despite these, you find that still over 70 percent of our population is at the poverty level. And we have never attempted to conquer absolute poverty”.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
To bring about the much-desired dynamism in the overall sphere of Nigeria’s national life, Bindir hammered on the need for institutional synergy, boosting and promotion of local and traditional technology. “Why can’t one of the top-class polytechnics in Nigeria just decide that we’re going to have a national technology exhibition every year?,” he asked. “Today, for instance, it holds in Lokoja, next year, it’s in Bayelsa, then in Sokoto so that we could encourage even Ghanaians and other countries to come. But sadly, we’re not good in synergy and it’s not going to take us anywhere. It is when such things are happening that you will see technology where the patent of the product is from a school in Lagos, the branding is from Sokoto Polytechnic, the cap is from Kaduna Polytechnic, and thus, the synergy has produced a made-in-Nigeria product. Secondly, we have to change the way we talk. Be that as it may, our political leaders need help. For them, the easiest thing is, go and buy 100 KEKENAPEP, and you create 200 jobs and everybody is clapping for them. This will continue if we do not innovate to support our leaders.
“Again, we must learn to produce what I call the technology value chain. Most of the time we show that we know how to plant tomato and we stop there and just sell ordinary tomato. We don’t have the technology value chain. And to have the technology value chain; for tomato to be relevant, you must have this culture to farm; people should develop the culture of insect and pest control, harvesting, milling, sieving, preservation and then, you have the product. These cannot come from one institution.”
Technology transfer and the need for research synergy
On the much talked-about technology transfer, the NOTAP boss stated that while effort to grow home technologies and make them more viable and relevant is on, transfer of foreign technologies should not be isolated. He suggested that what should matter the most is how well such technology can be domesticated and adapted to suit local needs. “We have to gradually develop a visible and viable technology and innovation pattern. Don’t go chasing foreign companies out. They’re bringing their technology. We should create an environment to domesticate and absorb it. It will be nice to see a Nigerian university partner with Frisland Company on how to preserve milk.”
In Nigeria also, citadels of learning, research institutions and industry operate in isolation. This also, he identified as a militating factor in reaching the zenith of academic excellence needed for industrial revolution and national growth. “We have to think out of the box. I notice that, already, Nigerian has got clusters of institutions in one place. But, we just don’t notice. Look, I went to Rivers State. In one spot, there’s Eleme Petrochemicals. The refineries are there. The jetties importing products are there. The Onne oil and gas is there. The NAFCON fertilizer is there. All these have been existing together but we fail to even put a research institute in their midst. What we should do is to cordon that place and declare it as the first oil and gas technology park. And then, put a university in the middle. This is the only way we can absorb the technology and be able to go to the next level.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
“At Agbara in Ogun State, there is the richest spot that has multinational companies cluster in the same place. Nestle is there; Procter & Gamble is there, DuFil Douglas is there. But, we’re just consuming the products. Not even a research centre is in Agbara. What we should have done is, surround Agbara with research institutes or university and force that cluster to work with our institutions, so that the next generation’s intellectual property will become Nigeria’s. You go to Nnewi; you see the same kind of cluster. We have literarily left very low-level class there to showcase their entrepreneurship. But, we have not lifted it. No technical institution, no university, no polytechnic helping that cluster to move their skill and entrepreneurship to the next level. We should do that. In Kano, there’s an ICT (Information Communication and Telecommunication); fantastic building, furnished with everything for ICT. Till date, it has not taken off. We fail to come together to energize them.
“When you go to Zaria, it is a town that has the richest concentration of institutions of different flavour in the same place. You have Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; you have Shika Teaching Hospital; you have the Agriculture research; you have School of Transport, you have Aviation School, all in the same place but, not much is coming out of there. The cluster is there. But, because there is no synergy to work and produce products, in Zaria, there is poverty everywhere when there is knowledge all over the place. That should change. In Abuja, we realize that from the airport, coming to the stadium, that fantastic road that you see, five lanes each side, the space agency is there. The communication company is there. Abuja technology village is there, so many of them. But, we have not synergized, to make this synergy to manage it to become a knowledge value. That should happen.”
The need to evolve a technology for ponmo production
But for Bindir and his office, it is not just talk and no action. The team is pregnant with ideas that would produce change, and given the required support, would impact on all sectors of the economy. “So we came up with an agenda and this agenda we called the 777 agenda. We must continue to utilize the first seven years until every child in primary school, secondary school, university, even a street hawker is educated. That way, Nigeria will be a platform for transformation in the next seven years.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com
“The second seven is that we must also target and produce seven global products. I give you an example of ponmo. The very popular hides we consume locally, believe it or not, more than 30 million people eat this product every single day. But Nigeria does not have a single PhD holder in ponmo. You’re eating it and you haven’t got a clue what it is. When we go to doctor, he would tell us: ‘don’t eat sorghum, it will kill you. Don’t eat salt; it will kill you. Don’t touch fat; it will kill you!’
“Yet here in Nigeria, we have a food product with no salt, no fat, no sugar and we’re not getting the Chinese, the Japanese or the Americans to eat it. This is a multi-billion naira initiative. But you cannot brand it and market it. By now, there should have been a national research institute for ponmo technology, a research institute for ponmo, we should have invented an electronic gadget that when we shine it on the cow we see the ponmo coming out from this cow. We should have been producing machinery that cuts ponmo at half a millimetre size, so that when you put it in your mouth, it melts. By now, we should have been producing ponmo-grating, and turning it into powder in a way that can give something some ponmo flavour. These are ways that we can showcase what we’ve got to the world.
“If indeed, Nigeria desires to rank among the world’s top 20 economies by 2020, her tertiary institutions must operate curriculum that is tailored towards entrepreneurship to produce skilled graduates who are readily engaged in industry upon graduation. I followed Frisland Campina to their country, Holland. I entered their laboratories. You cannot believe it. In two laboratories, I saw over 5,000 PhDs. I screamed. Then, I went to Nestle Research Institute in Switzerland; there were over 7,000 PhDs in that place, with world-class equipment. And I said, no wonder you are doing all these things arrogantly.
“Then, I followed Bill Finger Berger – the providers of technology to Julius Berger – to their laboratories in Germany; I saw that there is an equipment they have invented that can bend a pipe of 500, 000 centimetre thick without changing the internal radius. That is how they make power stations, refineries. And they have 10,000 PhDs in one station. I opened my mouth. Then, I followed British American Tobacco, this tobacco you see people smoking, if you see the technology that produces it, the leaf, they have a laser-guided machine that identifies where the nerves are and removes them individually. They have 500 PhDs in one research institute.”
Understudying other countries’ technology
Another factor also identified as the bane of Nigeria’s institutional and economic advancement is what Bindir described as the sit-down-look posture. He asserted that Nigeria needs to do away with this if she seeks a pride of place among the envisaged G2O.
“This ‘siddon look’ posture where when we want a road, we just budget and give a foreign company; we want railway, we budget and give to the Chinese to execute, will take us nowhere. So, I propose that for each of these contracts, attach to them, 200 PhD students and three professors. If perhaps you attach somebody who is just a fresh graduate or a fresh HND holder, he’s not going to absorb anything. But, a professor who is well known, who has published papers in that field; push them into that company as a policy, let them work for three years. Then, let me see how we cannot absorb how to build railway tracts and stations.
“We have a new science technology and innovation policy. If we think that it is a matter of the Ministry of Science and Technology doing their own thing and Federal Ministry of Education doing their own thing, industries doing their own; it’s not going to help us. We propose that a national research and development fund be established. If an institution wants to develop its technology to the next level, it can. That is what other countries are doing. We also propose a national research development innovation council to be chaired by the President himself. We need leadership to energize us. I believe if we can adopt these measures, we will transform our country.”
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