Nigeria needs 'science thinking'

Omolola, left, on graduation day in 2007, and right, recently.

Martha Omolola is a Year 2 Computer Science student of Bowen University, Iwo, Nigeria. Prior to entering secondary school in October 2007, her parents had to help the school decide the calling for which she should be prepared in line with the school’s tradition.

Omolola had graduated from Crystal Nursery/Primary School, Omole Phase II in Lagos, a fairly well-rounded student, and one of the top three in her class. At school, she had enjoyed Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, Elementary Science, English, and all other subjects except Fine Art. At home she had been exposed to reading wide for her age. All pointed to an aptitude for almost any course of study that caught her fancy, her parents thought.

Omolola’s father, a journalist, dreams of his three children pursuing science-based courses because he knows science is large enough to accommodate all comers. This is unlike what most Nigerians and, unfortunately, the government of Nigeria seem to think and profess—that Nollywood and sports will save the economy. Although government mouths industrialization and job creation all the time, the amount of time and money unwisely invested in entertainment, Nollywood, FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games etc. betrays its preoccupation.

Wande, Omolola’s older brother, who has a flair for Fine Art, had agreed to ‘packaging’ for Computer Engineering, which he is now studying at Babcock University, Nigeria, while the baby of the family, Dotun, who is in his fourth year in high school, has opted for Automobile Engineering.

Asked what might interest her as a profession, Omolola said she would like to play soccer. She had spent the evenings of her last two years in elementary school doing just that with the boys in the compound of her home. She had also watched a lot of soccer—World Cup, African Cup of Nations, English Premiership League, women’s soccer tournaments etc. etc. However, told that football would end for her at about the age of 30 years if she came out to be so good as to make a living from it, she now opted for acting.

“No, you have to study something first. Most of the actors you see in the movies have professions other than acting; you can’t just be an actress,” her father persisted. He remembered his lawyer brother, who is Omolola’s favourite uncle. Oh, this must be the clincher, he thought: “What about becoming a lawyer like Uncle Bimbo.” “No,” she said with a tone of finality.

Before the conversation with daddy, Omolola had adamantly wrestled with her mother over Pharmacy, Medicine, Architecture, and a host of other professions. Unknown to her parents at the time, she was only responding to the world around her, a world full of football, hip-hop music, home movies, dancing competitions, stand-up comedy, as well as reality and game shows on television. Her world was full of almost everything but the most fundamental of callings—Science and Technology (S&T).

To be born in Nigeria at the time of Omolola and her cohorts is to grow up with the impression that the only things that matter in life revolve around sports and showbiz. Thus, many children grow up feeling that they could only be great in music, football or show business because, although they may know a few engineers, doctors, architects and other professionals, they would know plenty of entertainers, sportsmen, bankers, and pastors. Thus, they are mostly disinclined to see the sciences as worthy areas of endeavour because their role models are the celebrities they see on television and hear on radio—actors and actresses like Olu Jacobs, Richard Mofe Damijo, Joke Sylva, Onyeka Onwenu, Genevieve Nnaji; hip-hop acts like Tuface Idibia, Dbanj, 9ice, Asha; and sports celebrities like J. J. Okocha, Vincent Enyeama, Peter Odemwingie, Usain Bolt, David Beckam, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Venus and Serena Williams, Messi, Martha, etc. etc. More so because they are heavily promoted by corporate entities, particularly communications companies, for their marketing needs. Somehow, even the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has been heavily involved in promoting sports by bringing in high-earning foreigners such as Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand one year, and the Williams sisters another year. Their normal and endorsement earnings, and prize monies just whet the appetite in poverty-stricken Nigeria.

Star Quest television show, a search for new musical talents, has been on network television for more than 10 years now, sponsored by Nigeria Breweries PLC. Occasionally foreign stars come into town through Star Quest, in addition to an endless broadcast of their videos and songs by the electronic media. Every year, a number of the stars, foreign and local, are sponsored on a national tour by the communications company, MTN Nigeria. Television and radio, which are about the strongest influences in children’s lives, are today awash with entertainment, sports and all manner of reality shows.

These days, every major supermarket in Lagos and Abuja has some youths loitering around with CDs they claim contain their songs. As you approach or leave, they offer you one CD as a gift and then ask you to support their effort. Usually, the CD contains nothing; when it does contain something, it  may be worthless. Is this executive begging or a manifestation of the belief that the only way out is music?

This seems to be happening because children are unfortunate enough to be fed with heavy doses of entertainment and sports, and their exponents and proponents, but little or nothing of the other callings that are possible, particularly those that are S&T-based. Worse, many parents, particularly the poor and not-too-rich are encouraging their children into showbiz and sports because they, too, have come to see sports and showbiz as the only way out of poverty. Also, many of the home movies actually glorify juju (i.e. black magic) rather unwittingly and to the detriment of science. Any wonder that education, particularly science, is suffering?

Unwittingly, the impressionable are being told the lie that the sciences are peripheral in life. The consequence is that, without proper parental guidance, many children will grow up not knowing that there can be fulfilment in Law, Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, Pharmacy, Computer Science, Architecture etc. Or that they can achieve greatness and be acclaimed as scientists. Yet, life itself is science. Many fail to realize that although we hear the names of media celebrities more often, the richest people in the world and those who affect our lives most profoundly are scientists or investors in science. Check out Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Carlos Slim, and even Aliko Dangote; none sells sports. Even those rich men and women funding sports — they make money from somewhere, usually something science-related, and later invest it in sports.

Bedrock of Globalization

The bedrock of most modern pursuits is S&T, or at least without S&T they cannot be what they are. For instance, what would the English Premiership League or the other soccer leagues of Europe be without the science of telecasting, the space science and technology that make the incredible revenues possible because they are accessible worldwide? Where would home movies be without the possibility of putting them on CDs or DVDs, and seeing them on television, which today depends a lot on space science? Where would humanity be today without mobile phone technology and the other spin-offs of space science, or the large volumes of goods that are moved by sea, or the possibility of fast travel by air? How would globalization have been possible without S&T?

Also, the Nigerian society is near-saturated with comedy shows and award events that are broadcast live or eventually get broadcast on television. A number of television stations monitored over a seven day period recently broadcast four local award ceremonies, all but one of which were on or around showbiz and the so-called celebrities. The odd one was on banking. Not too long before that, there had been an award ceremony, which was also mostly on business and politics. Around the same period, there had been the US Grammy Awards, which was available on satellite TV and was adequately covered by the Nigerian media and local impresarios. On the other hand, the only recognition for scientists and science-based professionals in Nigeria are two awards: the National Merit Awards, an all-comers affair and, thankfully, the annual science award organized by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited.

The situation has not always been like this. In the 1980s and early 1990s, there were overt and not-so-overt attempts to promote S&T. The mass media covered the sciences fairly well, with some having dedicated space (or time) for S&T issues and people. Government had fairly vibrant programmes on science, including an annual National Science and Technology Fair (NASTECH). In 1991, the African Science Monitor (ASM), a monthly science magazine established by the now deceased business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola, appeared on the scene and trudged on for a few years. However, it actually started suffering fortune changes when Chief Abiola went into politics in 1992. ASM became comatose when he was detained, but long before Chief Abiola died in detention in 1998, the last nail in ASM’s coffin had been driven in. The coffin was lowered into the grave with him.

Chief Abiola himself was eloquent testimony to how it should be: he was first a businessman who used his resources to support education and sports for much of his life. Sports stakeholders conferred on him the title, Pillar of Sports in Africa. In his latter days, he realized that science was missing from the mix, so he invested in ASM, whose editorial board was made up of renowned scientists from all over Nigeria. Unfortunately, it was also the time he went into politics.

Chief Moshood Abiola

Somehow, all the efforts at promoting the sciences crumbled under the weight of political and economic instability, which caused serious distress in the mass media. However, while the mass media have bounced back and all areas of coverage—Sports, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Health etc.—are booming again, very little has been done for S&T. In other words, there is haphazard coverage of S&T even though it is the bedrock of all.

The point of this treatise is that it is high time the media returned to promoting S&T in a way that will attract national focus to the sciences, and encourage young people into science. While the benefits of S&T to the nation go without saying, the benefits to an exponent medium include:

1. The medium will capture the Nigerian scientific market and population, which in 1990 was estimated to be around 20,000. This is expected to translate into an increased share of the market, which may be marginal in the short run, but will become substantial in the long run as scientists turn to a medium that has something for them as their preferred medium; and

2. The medium will capture a sizable share of the S&T advertising market.

Rationale

It has been established that the Nigerian economy has suffered vicissitudes over time because of its over-dependence on petroleum, and the nation’s inability to bring S&T to bear on national development aspirations. Yet, Nigeria is so richly endowed that its economy could easily be one of the top 10 (not 20) in the world. Besides mismanagement, corruption, and the setbacks caused by political instability over the years, Nigeria’s inability to drink from the fountain of S&T is the greatest problem. In other words, S&T is the missing link in the chain that should pull Nigeria out of underdevelopment and poverty.

Despite the well known and documented possibilities of S&T in the development of nations, Nigeria lags behind in terms of investment in S&T and utilization of the products of research & development (R&D). For instance, between the Federal Ministry of Science & Technology (FMST), and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), there are more than 30 research institutions that have been trudging on through the years despite:

· under-funding;

· under-utilization of capacity and staff potentials;

· under-utilization of products and processes developed;

· poor patronage by government and the private sector; and

· poor communication with the outside world.

In spite of their precarious situation, some of the research institutes have succeeded in developing products and processes but have been unable to commercialize them due to a combination of poor funding and patronage compounded by poor communication and poor relations with the outside world. For instance, the Leather Research Institute, Zaria, in the late 1990s developed a process for replacing the Neem tree, which is not locally available, as the main raw material in paper production, with Bagaruwa, a local plant.  However, despite the huge potentials as an R&D success and for saving foreign exchange, the development has remained on the shelf.

Also in the 1990s, Project Development Agency (PRODA), Enugu, developed an automobile, which was seen as a huge step towards a made-in-Nigeria automobile; there has been little or no progress on the development.

Although rapidly industrializing nations such as Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, India and Indonesia were around the same level of development as Nigeria in the 1960s, they have since shot ahead in terms of industrial and economic development. They are far more industrialized today because, although they also have their bouts with corruption and, or, political instability, they have not allowed their R&D efforts to be stifled. Those efforts are yielding dividends in terms of their ability to be self-reliant, produce for export, and benefit from outsourcing from the West.

India today is a major power in IT software development in addition to having a huge capacity to manufacture heavy equipment—railway transportation components, including locomotives, agricultural equipment, and automobiles. Its Tata trucks and buses are patronized for military and civil uses in Nigeria.

Brazil is the world’s leading bio-fuels producer in addition to its well known capabilities in the production of automobiles, particularly high capacity buses and, lately, state-of-the-art airplanes. Because of its investment in R&D, Argentina is self-reliant in many areas, and has export capability in agriculture, particularly meat and corned beef. Thailand and Indonesia and some other Asian nations are major exporters of all manner of consumer products to Nigeria. Imports from these countries include rice, biscuits, soap, detergent, shampoo, toys, condoms, medicaments etc. etc.

Mass Media

As in the campaign for independence and the return of democratic rule, Nigeria’s mass media have a role in bringing S&T to the consciousness of the people and government in the first instance. Secondly, the media have a role in promoting science in much the same way they have been promoting business, sports, and showbiz. There is need for robust coverage and outright promotion of science and scientists.