harnessing science and technology research for sustainable national development
TRANSCRIPT
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HARNESSING SCIENCE ANDTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
RESULTS FOR SUSTAINABLE
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professor Oye Ibidapo-Obe FAS, FAEng.,FTWAS, OFR
President
The Nigerian Academy of Science &
Former Vice Chancellor
University of Lagos
Nigeria.
Text of the Presentation at 2010 Science and Technology SummitAugust 9-10, 2010 Abuja
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OUTLINE OF DISCOURSE
1. Introduction.2. The Nigerian Vision 20:2020.3. Science, Technology and Innovation.4. The Issues and Challenges.5. Conclusions.
1. Introduction
It is an accepted norm that knowledge is a sine-qua-non to National
Development since knowledge underpins human capacity resource generation
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which is primal to the functions, and perhaps the major raison de ter for the
establishment of these knowledge generators: research(including higher
educational) institutions as well as national academies. The output from these
research institutes and universities are usually research reports resulting to
refereed publications in journals, patents and prototypes. One of the major
challenges in the sector is to move these prototypes and inventions from the
laboratories to the market place.
A cursory analysis of Doctoral theses at the University of Lagos from 1970-
2008 indicates that out of a total of 745 PhDs graduated from the University;
366(49.1%) were in the Science and Technology area. Doctoral theses are
ordinarily expected to be innovative in new thoughts or in advancing new
efficiencies in the existing methodologies. The University of Lagos data shows
a minimum of 20-21 new innovations per annum from the University of Lagos.
It can therefore be estimated that some 2,500 new scientific research results
from the University System in Nigeria plus an additional 5,000 from the
myriads of research institutes. Although this figure is low in comparison to the
population; it however indicates that with the increasing level of funding in the
system, the capacity exist to generate more research results.
The current revolution in our world, which is the concurrence of information
and communications technology, is the soul of the evolution of knowledge
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societies or knowledge economy. A look at the plethora of new terms
prefixed by e-indicates the necessary need to be IT or e-compliant (e-mail,
e-learning, e-payment, e-government et. al.) in order to make progress on the
21st century.
Knowledge societies, driven by focused and well funded research institutions
with the human resource input from quality assured education system, are
ruling our world under several guises, associations and nomenclature(s) viz: G7,
G8, G8+5, G20, BRIC, World Economic Forum, etc. Nigerias global ranking
on the Knowledge Index is 66th position out of polled 75 countries and
classified in the group of lagging followers. The country is ranked 95th out of
129 on Global Competitiveness just ahead of the poorest of the poor countries
including Dominican Republic, Kenya, Gambia, Tanzania, Mali, Benin,
Cameroun and Zimbabwe. Nigeria should not be in that class of lagging
followers given the abundant human and natural resources as well as our
history. We therefore need to synergize our individual capacities with the sole
purpose to achieve international prominence.
In order to be a knowledge society and achieve the Vision 20:2020 objectives,
the 8 no. Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and the 7-point (shrunk to 2)
Agenda by 2011/2015, there must be fundamental changes in the way and
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manner we think and act! The Nigerian dream must be transformed through a
visioning process to reality and rebrand on best practices.
2. The Nigerian Vision 20:2020.
The Nigerian Vision 2020 is simply put the desire and aspiration of the country
to be one of the worlds 20 largest economies by the Year 2020[1].It was a
target confidently set by the government in 2006/2007. This target was a result
of the remarkable potentials of the country as assessed by independent
international non governmental agencies comparing Nigeria with the BRIC
(Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries. These potentials are in both human
and natural resources some of which include a population of 150 million with a
median age of 18.63 years growing at 2.37% per annum; a highly proven
resourceful people; the 8th largest exporter of petroleum and 6th largest
producer of Gas. The country also has some 34 different types of solid minerals
including Gold, Coal, Tin, Iron Ore et.al. It is also blessed with rich arable land
and a warm and friendly climate.
It was anticipated that the GDP growth will move from 3.5% in 2009 through
7% in 2015 to 13.5% in 2020 and that the poverty ratio (on $2 US/day) as a
percentage of the population would have reduced from 70% now to 30% in
2020 or so and that power supply and availability would move from 3000MW
through 6000MW to 50,000MW in 2020.
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These are the assumptions but there are several infrastructural, political as well
as the science, technology and innovations challenges that needs to be
surmounted. Several studies in the past 50 years or so have recognized that
significant investments in science and technology education and research lead to
innovations and value addition to people and natural resources. This synergy
has been achieved in Europe, North America, and Israel and more recently
responsible for the emergence of the Asian Tigers/BRIC countries [2, 5, and 6].
Individually, Nigerians are respected all over the world in terms of intellectual
ability and resourcefulness what apparently is lacking is a leadership that can
provide a positive (YES! WE CAN) attitude and the willingness to work
together as a family and nation (not as nationalities?) to achieve specific well-
defined objectives.
A key and perhaps central element in the National Vision and Goals strategy, be
it Vision 2010; Millennium Development Goals, NEEDS, Vision 20:2020 and
the 7-Point Agenda, is the need to strengthen STEM(Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics) Education as a public good. The Vision 2010
document provides a clear direction for the Education and Science and
Technology sectors through the improvement of science, engineering and
technology education training; it sought specifically to make education at
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primary and secondary levels compulsory and free by 2003 and 2009
respectively; to allocate not less than 26% of the national (Federal, State and
Local Governments) budget to education; to charge supplementary fees in
university to partially recover costs etc. Currently, work is going on the Vision
20:2020 implementation document and I doubt if but I hope that it would be
radically different from that of Vision 2010.
What all these point to is that we are not lacking in visions, but poor in the
resolve to implement the strategies. For example, we need the will to establish
the proposed National Research Foundation (NSF) so that it can create
innovation cluster(s) for research and development in universities and research
institutions. The recent efforts on World Bank Step-B Centre of Excellence and
the more recent ETF (Educational Task Fund) Research Funds are
commendable and should be encouraged.
3. Science, Technology and Innovation (STI)
It is important to reiterate that STI is beyond the traditional science disciplines
of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics, but incorporates the
appreciation and understanding of nature (humanities) as well. It is the
innovation aspect of Science and Technology that makes our life more
abundant. It is S&T that generates innovative products for the market place. The
1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics-Abdul Salam remarked that in the final
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analysis it is basically the mastery and utilization of modern science and
technology that distinguishes the south from the north. From a larger
perspective and in line with global trend of knowledge as the criteria for
national power and prominence; our Nelson Mandela mantra is Knowledge is
Power. No amount of raw materials endowment, if there are no value addition
will make our country prominent. We need to develop the capacity to add value
to the national mineral and other agricultural products through processing and
other scientific value addition in order to dictate the global price of those
commodities.
The metrics or measurable parameters for, the determination of knowledge
economies, that will lead to the achievement of NV 20-2020 include
population, GDP and GDP per capita, R&D expenditure as % of GDP, The
quantum and quality of Higher Education Institutions in Science, Engineering
and Allied Disciplines, the patents granted to residents per million of the
population, the receipts of the royalties and license fees per person, researchers
in R&D per million people, high tech experts as % of manufacturing experts as
well as the most critical issue of the level of electricity consumption per
capita[4]. It is perhaps appropriate to note the constraining effect of lack of
adequate electricity on the entire economy-for a population of 150 million and
in order to position us on the global scale and achieve the audacious NV 20-
2020-we need some 1000 watts per capita for a total output of 150,000MW.This
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as compared to our current capacity of below 4,000MW is far below par. The
medium term strategy is to speed up investments in renewable energy forms
(solar, wind, mini/micro hydro) especially for the rural population and that
perhaps the rural communities can be fed solely on renewable and thus be
separated from the national grid.
It is these knowledge based economies, that are advanced in substantially
meeting the stated metrics for national accelerated development, which will
result in enhanced and sustainable economic development, wealth creation and
growth in gross domestic product that are in the group of the 20 fastest growing
economies in the world.
It has been shown how the individual country-by-country performance driven
by science, technology and innovation (STI) led to the rapid economic and
technological expansion of Japan after the second world war; the specific key
STI role of Teknion University and the Weizmann Institute resulting in Israel
emergence as a world power as well as in the rapid economic and technological
developments in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, China and India.
Sound scientific knowledge is fundamental to addressing the critical issues of
economic transformation and globalization; reduction of unemployment,
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underemployment, poverty, hunger and disease, and the sustainable use of
natural resources facing the world today. The world is changing at a rapid pace
driven by science and technology, and the challenge of integrating science and
technology into development is getting increasingly complex. For example,
reflect on the controversies over the development of bio-fuels, embryonic stem-
cells, nuclear fuels, GM seedlings and in the use of nanoscience /nano-
technologies for remote dispensing of antidotes and similar drugs to patients
remotely are all the results of dedicated research outputs.
As for the case of bio-fuels, the question is whether the benefits of such fuels
will be able to compensate for decreased food production as the farmlands will
now be largely devoted to production of crops for biodiesel with subsequent
food shortages and thus increasing food prices. The new search is to use farm
wastes, jatropha curcas for bio-fuels. Each of the above situations can be
similarly analyzed with the attendant difficult economic and moral issues.
In the 21st Century; the accumulation of scientific knowledge and its
technological applications are accelerating at a dizzying rate, enabled in large
part by ever more powerful computers and lightning-fast communications such
that product life span is less than 12 months before obsolesce. The internet has
revolutionized the meaning of time and space such that as we have literally
conquered space whereas the precise knowledge of time is still work-in-
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progress. A great leap in medical science enabled by IT is the decoding and
manipulations of DNA.
The above discoveries were facilitated mainly by research institutions that have
an essential role to play in building the necessary S & T capacities. These must
therefore be the focus for the modernizing of forces of the society, for the
promotion of the values of science and technology and for mediating between
the political and industrial spheres of national life.
Developing economies, such as ours, can only fast-track and/or leap frog their
growth through targeted research and development. A practical way to do this is
to do what is generically referred to as reverse engineering. It is these research
institutions that must provide the road map to circumvent those road blocks to
indigenous technology enhancement necessary for driving innovation and
development of the nation. The nation must be prepared to invest heavily in the
research which must orchestrate the brain power of the faculty, take
responsibility for training new generation of talents and participate in the
transformation of the nations S&T base.
Science brings imagination on theoretical speculations as well as on practical
problems and critical decisions allowing people to analyze the present (and
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The Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) vision is to build a science,
technology and innovation system that will drive a competitive knowledge
economy towards 20-2020. In order to achieve the above; the 1st
strategy is to
build a competitive workforce that is science-based so as to ensure that the
increase in the share of manufacturing in GDP which is 4% in 2009 to 20% in
2015.The science based workforce will increase by 20% in 2015 and 50% in
2020.This will also result in productivity improvement of 25% by 2015 and
50% by 2020.The direct share of Science and Technology related services in
GDP must increase by 20% by 2015.
The 2nd strategy is to forge a national innovation system that encompasses all
existing and new STI institutions. To achieve this objective; 5% of research
and development (R&D) output should be patentable by 2015(50,000 patent
applications) and 20% by 2020(100,000 patent applications).Furthermore, 30%
of patentable R&D should be commercialized by 2015 and 50% by 2020.The
expected increase in public and private investments in R&D and innovation
activities should be about 1.6% of the GDP by 2010.
The 3rd strategy is to engender a culture of Science, Technology and Innovation
in Society through the improvement of emoluments of S&T professionals in the
public sector to be at par with those working in the oil, gas and financial sector.
To build up this manpower; both the public and the private sector should revert
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legislature leading to policy inconsistency and lack of sustaining continuity.
There is no availability of STI supporting infrastructure and underfunding of
research activities in Nigerian higher education and allied research institutions.
It is gratifying to note that this aspect is being partly addressed by the Education
Trust Fund (ETF).
Other identified challenges include the unfavorable legal framework in the
country that restricts the activities and perhaps scope of R&D institutions;
inadequate manpower; absence of motivation to study Science and Technology;
non identification of and support for national areas of comparative advantages;
non timely identification of competition and role models as well as lack of
linkages between R&D and manufacturing firms, non appreciation and
application of modern technology by the citizenry in addition to some inhibiting
cultural practices and superstition(as evidenced more glaringly in the health
sector).
The above even though S&T specific cannot be divorced from the general
national developmental challenges which in summary is the creeping lack of
confidence in the ability of government to provide human security in all facets
of human Endeavour.
The catalogue of these challenges point to the inevitable need to deploy science,
technology and innovation tools to combat and alleviate poverty [3] through
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food security, effective health management systems, appropriate education with
proper skills content, sufficient clean energy, uncompetitive national goods and
services in global and local markets, etc. The core values for research institutes
must include excellence, transparency, integrity, merit, and relevance.
Some best practices are evolving in these institutions as a result of the renewed
efforts to revitalize the quality of outcomes in view of several system
shortcomings, through the institutional accreditation process as well as the
repositioning for globally competitiveness.
5. Conclusions
The wealth of nations is now measured by the content and quality of knowledge
inherent and latent in that society. The world has moved from commodity-based
and military power ranking to knowledge economies/societies. Inherent in this
paradigm shift is Science, Technology and Innovation Science must be at the
heart of development!
In enthroning science as the key to inventing a better society; research
institutions, universities and the national science academy have essential roles
to play in building the capacity for high quality national research and
development in agriculture/ food security, engineering and health.
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not being used domestically to address local development objectives;
strengthening the capacity of local scientific and engineering institutions to
conduct research and development needed to adapt these technologies for local
use and to generate socially and economically relevant new technologies;
developing the technology transfer know how that will be required to move
inventions from laboratory to the market as well as helping local enterprises to
become more innovative. These are achievable goals that need to be critically
examined, implemented beyond rhetoric and monitored scientifically.
In conclusion, the myriads of science and technology research results available
in universities, polytechnics and research institutions need to be collated on a
continues basis by the Nigerian Academy of Science as well as that of
Engineering to be enabled by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
These results shall be marketed by the academies and supported by the various
parastatals in the Ministry.
6. References.
1. Nigeria Vision 2020-Economic Transformation Blueprint. National PlanningCommission, September 2009.
2. O.Ibidapo-Obe: Renewing the World Bank Strategy for Africa: Presentationof the Nigerian Perspective. World Bank Abuja. June 7 2010.3. Alfred Watkins: Science, Technology and Innovation Capacity BuildingPartnerships for Sustainable Development. Draft Document on Global ForumAction Plan. Washington DC. May 28, 2010.
4. O.Ibidapo-Obe: The Power Sector in Nigeria-Challenges and PossibleSolutions. The Nigerian Academy of Science Media Forum. March 10, 2009.
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5. Nosa O.Egiebor: Science and Technology capacity as a developmentchallenge in Africa. Brainstorming Meeting at AUST Abuja. June 4, 2010.
6. Cisse, Boubou: The position of AUST on the World Bank AAP tertiary
education, human capital formation and development. Abuja. May 4, 2010.
O. Ibidapo-Obe
August 9, 2010