Lekan Sote
On February 24, 1985, military Head of State Muhammadu Buhari, visited the Federal Institute of Industrial Research at Oshodi, in Lagos, and pledged on page 45 of their Visitors’ Book: “When the economy picks up, funds shall be made available to improve facilities for Research & Development.” But bad people overthrew him, and eclipsed that intention.
Executive Order No: 5, with its longish title, “For Planning and Execution of Projects, Promotion of Nigerian Content in Contracts, and Science, Engineering and Technology,” is probably his attempt to fulfil the promise as a democratically elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Executive Order No: 5, signed by President Buhari on February 2, 2018, recognises that the “entrenching (of) Science, Technology and Innovation in everyday life is key to achieving (Nigeria’s) development goals.”
This Executive Order intends to “increase the quantum of values created in (the) Nigerian economy, through increased Nigerian content in public procurement,” and “promote the ‘Made in Nigeria Goods Campaign’… (to) drive national competitiveness, productivity and economic activities in all sectors (of Nigeria’s) economy.”
Sections (5)(2)(a,b), and (5)(5) of Executive Order No: 5 request the Federal Government to establish Centres for Acquisition of Technology in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, promote Research & Development in all sectors of the economy, and provide intervention funds to improve existing training in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Minister for Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, who has a doctorate in Chemical Engineering, disclosed, at a recent World Press Conference held at FIIRO that, “The National Economic Recovery Plan (of) 2017-2020, has recognised that Science and Technology will drive productivity and economic activities in all sectors.”
Onu expects that Executive Order No: 5 “will (help) create wealth, reduce poverty, and provide employment for our teeming youths… Nigeria will be self-reliant, producing, locally, many of the things she needs, and exporting the excess to other countries.”
He adds: “So long as science, technology, and innovation, are deeply deployed in nation-building, the future of Nigeria is very bright.” The scientist in Dr. Onu will readily agree that the creativity in science is the key to Nigeria’s economic emancipation.
The strong nexus between science, technology, civilization, and economy, has influenced the demarcation of history into Stone, Iron, Bronze, Agrarian, Industrial, and Information Ages. It is therefore good political and economic sense for Nigeria to adopt STI as a matter of urgency.
Former American President Barack Obama once observed that the wealth of nations is no longer in the primary resources that lay in the soil, but in the head of the citizens. Nigeria must migrate from a resource based economy to one that adds value to primary resources before exchange.
An exemplar is in the Japanese economy that has almost nil iron ore, but makes some of the best ocean going vessels in the world, after China and South Korea. Also, Israel, tucked within crags and desert weather, leads in agricultural technology.
However, the objective of Order No: 5 that government should purchase the services and goods of local professionals and manufacturers, to support the drive for local content, can only be sustained if the educational infrastructure, and the agencies that maintain standards, are up to par.
Nigeria cannot indulge producers of low quality goods and services and survive in a global economy. Legend says that former Secretary-General Leonid Brezhnev of the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics wore high quality Italian leather shoes, and drank French cognac, to challenge local Soviet manufacturers.
Managers of Nigeria’s educational system must find ways to gain student interest in mathematics, science, and technology. The lack of concerted efforts to steer students’ interests towards these relevant areas has led Nigerian youths to find expression in music and reality shows.
If Nigeria intends to discontinue exporting primary products in exchange for imported processed goods as currently obtains in the exchange of crude petroleum for imported petroleum products, government must invest in the development and growth of science and technology education.
As somebody has observed, Nigeria cannot control the prices of the primary commodities that it sells in the international market. The best way to explain this is in the Federal Government’s assumption of a bearish benchmark for the price of crude when preparing Nigeria’s annual budgets.
It will be interesting to see how the Buhari Administration plans to position science and technology in the centre of economic planning and social development. Its contribution to a turnaround from a slow, to a fast, pace in the inclusion of local Nigerian content – of personnel, knowledge, equipment, and technology – will be a great leap indeed.
Imagine the significant reduction in expatriates working in the oil fields, and the huge reduction in foreign counterpart salaries and allowances paid to expatriate staff. This saving can appreciably redirect the petronaira, currently repatriated abroad, to acquiring new infrastructure and industrial equipment to power the economy.
However, there must be intense network and cooperation between the government, its research agencies, (like FIIRO), and the organised private sector players, (like the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Manufacturers, and Agriculture).
Somebody pointed out that America’s military-industrial complex script played out well in the collaboration between the military and private sector researchers – like Lucent Technologies, (former Bell Laboratories) – in developing the Global Services of Mobile telephone, or GSM.
It is no longer news that the production of both the equipment and the services of GSM is now completely anchored in the private sector, just as the waterproof Velcro bag that was developed by America’s military researchers.
While mooting the establishment of a Science & Technology Development Bank, government must urgently develop the venture capitalism option, whereby cash-munificent economic entities can invest, and assume the risks, for new products. After all, Nigeria is talking about a market-driven economy these days.
Government must also protect the intellectual property rights of researchers who develop innovative ways of doing things. The sorry experience of Nollywood movie producers and Nigerian musicians in the hands of pirates is not going to encourage investment of time and resources in creative research and development.
Government must encourage its public enlightenment machinery, like the Ministry of Information, National Orientation Agency, Nigerian Television Authority, and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, to sensitise Nigerians to the role that science and technology can play in national economic planning and development. Also, the private sector media and Nigerian Academy of Science must weigh in.
Though the minister disclosed that a desk officer has been assigned to implement Executive Order No: 5, there should be no delay in inaugurating the robustly inter-ministerial Presidential Monitoring and Evaluation Council that appropriately has the President as Chairman. The job of this council, as stated in Section 12(1)(c), of the Order, is to “monitor the implementations of this Executive Order.”
Some observers, the incurable sceptics, who fear that this laudable initiative may be lost to political expediency by subsequent governments, have wisely suggested that Executive Order No: 5 must be backed by law. It is comforting that this government is already travelling that route.
To get the best from every node in the web of Nigeria’s framework for a creative science and technology driven economy, the media must commit to promptly report both good, and poor, quality jobs.
Twitter @lekansote1
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