SCIENCE, technology and innovation rule the world. Their mastery has unleashed economic prosperity in many countries, guaranteeing a good life for citizens. The United States of America, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy, all members of the coveted G7 – the group of the most industrialised nations of the world – owe their global economic dominance to advances in STI. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are not too far behind the G7; China, specifically, has hit the super highway of economic success because of its use of STI to leverage production.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is not doing well in this sphere – no thanks to a melange of factors. No doubt, the lip service paid to education by our leaders over the years is critical here. But the situation is not helped by the attitude of our scientists, who seem not to have a deep craving for scientific enquiry anymore. The upshot is the country's growth and development backwardness. This is against the backdrop of the fact that over 20 research institutes dot Nigeria's landscape, and even more universities and polytechnics exist.
So grave is the situation that the President of Nigerian Academy of Science, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, in a recent media interview, challenged his professional colleagues to get in the groove through research that impact on the society. He seemingly queried the worth of a Nigerian scientist of today. One of his concerns was the country's dependence on less endowed West African neighbours for the production of vaccines used in the campaign against yellow fever and polio epidemics. He said, "I know for a fact that we can't manufacture reagents. But this wasn't the case in the 1980's. There is no reason why Nigeria should be depending on other countries for its vaccine. We had a vaccine manufacturing firm in Yaba, Lagos in 1994, which has gone under…It is lamentable that a country like Senegal is also one of the countries producing vaccines for us. If you look at scientific journals all over the world, what make the news are scientific discoveries, but what have Nigerian scientists done so far?… Presently, we have failed the country."
This is a most damning charge that should serve as a rude awakening. Tomori, a noted virologist, and immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Redeemer's University, Ogun State, is obviously in a vantage position to dissect the problems of the scientific fraternity. Nigerian scientists' failing was palpable in the Pfizer polio vaccine clinical trials in Kano State, in 1996, which resulted in the death of children. As a matter of fact, such an experiment could not have been carried out in climes where relevant institutions and professionals are conscientiously at work.
While the Tomori generation may have failed, it behoves him as president of our science academy to activate a pragmatic drive that will safeguard the nation's future in STI. At the behest of the Federal Government, an international advisory body for STI was empanelled by UNESCO in 2004, with the task of reviewing investment in science, industry, innovation, performance of government, academics, science and technological institutions. The body, which also had the United Nations Development Organisation, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and World Intellectual Property Organisation, was required to develop a funding template, upgrade capacity for local scientists and review STI in the light of global changes. At another summit – a donor conference for Nigeria in 2006 to fund multi-layer STI action – the then President Olusegun Obasanjo pledged to provide $5 billion for the National Science Foundation. From the turn of events, the promise was a mere political statement. This is food for thought for Tomori, since the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan is a scientist.
The country's enthusiasm or interest in science cannot be narrowed down to launching a satellite developed by another country into space. What serious-minded nations do is to develop robust, well-funded STI with set targets. Israel is a typical example with its six-year strategy that runs to 2017. The initiative entails 30 per cent increased funding for its universities and related research centres with the goal of wooing its scientists abroad back home. How this could be replicated here is a big challenge though, when, with just N1 billion each, the Federal Government is establishing some new universities.
Accreditation of science programmes in many universities by the National Universities Commission is dubiously obtained through hiring of equipment and academics from other institutions. These facilities disappear as soon as the exercise is over. Ironically, this charade is overseen by scientists. Facilities in older citadels of learning, such as the University of Ibadan, have become obsolete. A clear case is the Space Research Centre set up in 1959 at the university, one of the five best of its kind in the world then, but 50 years after, not a single space data could be obtained from there, according to a physicist.
However, as grim as the picture seems, the universalism of science affords Nigerian scientists engaged in serious research opportunity to secure grants and facilities internationally. Such first rate brains are still at home and even more among Nigerians in the Diaspora. For those at home, a rethink of strategy has become imperative. A situation where some are indifferent to paying dues of their professional bodies abroad, which incapacitates them from updating their skills, is a big setback for both the affected and the country. It is high time the country produced an Alexander Fleming, Edward Jenner and other inventors who used their creativity or genius to serve humanity.
