On Nigeria’s declining research culture

It is most likely that all 26 research institutes in Nigeria under the aegis of the Joint Research and Allied Institutions Sector Union (JORAISU) are still on strike as you read this piece. This is very unfortunate as one has not heard about any meaningful intervention on the matter by the FG since 2017. The strike which started 4 months ago, has an adverse effect on the nation’s economy. Why are the researchers on a “total and indefinite strike”? It is due to poor funding of research institutes and failure of the FG to stand by the terms of an agreement reached in 2011 between it and the workers, they say.
Before these research institutes went on strike, many of them had been ghosts of their once vibrant selves. This is due to Nigeria’s inability to imbibe the culture of using scientific means to solve industrial, medical and management problems. Today, the tragedy is that the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, is shut at a time when epidemics of various descriptions such as Yellow Fever, and Lassa fever are affecting people in some states.
Due to Nigeria’s ineffectiveness in medical research, the country could not provide a cure for the Ebola Virus epidemic that hit the country in 2014. It was Canada which had no Ebola patient that stole the show in the international arena by providing the drug that was discovered by its scientists working at a national microbiology laboratory. Regrettably, Nigeria had no lesson to learn from its neglect of R&D. Our policy makers have barely accepted that a nation which aspires to sustain its national development efforts must grow and groom its science, technology and innovation capability.
Nigeria, like many other less developed countries in Africa and beyond, has relied for too long on theories which advocate that economic development purely depends on monetary and fiscal policies. And have therefore ignored the vital role of Research and Development (R&D) for sustainable national development. Why? Policy makers have forgotten that the world is a global village, and Nigeria must be a major player in the global power matrix. Thus, the FG must de-emphasize over-dependence on crude oil to industrial, agricultural and solid mineral sectors as R&D cuts across all sectors of our national economy.
Although, development economists have argued that the only way to go is to embark on industrial production. Thank goodness that these suggestions have just been embraced by those in the government. But how can a nation of over 180 million people be regarded as a producer of goods and services when electricity supply is epileptic and below par? The solution lies in the will and determination of the FG to provide necessary infrastructure. Besides, Nigerian policy makers have made most people believe that the nation’s economic survival lies in the theoretical manipulations of intangibles such as exchange rate, interest rates, and foreign exchange reserves among others, as against production of tangibles such as machines, plants, machine tools, ships, cars, and other equipment used in manufacturing, mining and utilities.
Simply put, those in government have concentrated their efforts on the theoretical aspects of economics, and in most instances, ignored the practical aspect of economics which is production with the application of technology. The development of technological capability is not merely the function of economic conditions alone but arises from the total situation within the society. This includes but not limited to natural resources, historical background, education, human resources, industrial development strategy and culture. Cultural factors such as religion, belief and value system, social structures, national outlook and psychology, and modes of behavior are fundamental in bringing about social, economic and technological changes that gave rise to an industrial era.
The neglect of the cultural dimension to economic development in general, and technological capability in particular, is made worse by the current wave of political correctness in Nigeria. That is why the nation’s past efforts with developing plans, rolling plans, austerity measures, industrial visions, economic strategies, transformation agendas, regulated, deregulated and guided deregulated economy amongst others, sweeping across Nigeria did not yield any appreciable result.
The reverse is the case with industrialized nations in Asia which adopted a technology-driven national development strategy that is founded in R&D. Today, they have emerged as Asian Tigers. The Asian Tigers are industrialized nations blessed with leaders who possess the vision and strategies seasoned with honesty, transparency and accountability to put their nations on the paths of sustainable national development.
Science and technology are vehicles for transforming a society from backwardness to modernity; and from being a non-industrialized nation to an industrialized nation. That Nigeria cannot accurately count its people shows that the nation according to Pius Okigbo, has not learnt the language of the new age which is technology and its grammar which is science. Nigeria is failing woefully in the achievement of intellectual and material progress because instead of accepting science and technology as a way of life, its peoples have remained fundamentally gullible and animistic.
Modern science, technology and industrialization have not been determined internally in Nigeria. They have been forced upon Nigeria from without. That is why most Nigerians are still puzzled by science, technology and industry. These are yet to become integral components of the value system of the modern Nigerian society. Nigeria can only succeed in overcoming underdevelopment by adapting its culture to modern industrial realities and borrowing extensively from the cultures at the forefront of techno-economic development. This writer strongly believes that Mr President should intervene to stop continued closure of research institutions in Nigeria. A public affairs analyst have stated that there is idle funds scanning the horizon for grantees at the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). “Why not free some of the money to fund researches in our research institutes”? Nigeria must improve its R&D culture because it is the inevitable catalyst for sustainable growth of the nation.

MA Johnson