BNW

NIGERIA'S TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT

by

Amuzie Nwachukwu

Since the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo came into power on May 29, 1999, Nigerians are still waiting, looking to see the direction the present government is going towards revamping the country's economy. Government needs to match words with action on policy pronouncements if any meaningful improvement is to be seen in revamping the economy and leading the country into technological development.

The government needs to stand behind their policies, both domestic and foreign, despite the wishes of the large government middle enduring bureaucracy that has been seeped in corruption for decades regardless of who heads the government. You cannot with any confidence predict a single future event for Nigeria with an attached time to that event.

What can we look at as an example of a nation that was once where Nigeria and West Africa are now and have been in the past 100 years? Today rising nations, Japan, Korea, China, India, Brazil, Philippines, etc. seem in part to have dissimilar backgrounds from that seen in Nigeria. Surely China, Korea and Japan had first rank world status in the past and are now just coming out of a long cycle transient low, and thus cannot readily be looked to for an example.

Brazil is becoming a powerful nation with a broad economic base and military production capability, perhaps, number three behind Canada in the Americas. It has had great poverty, dictators, and much commercial and governmental corruption, and continues to carry such burdens. I think its escaping from its past may be due to the rise of a middle class and the in-country production of technically educated people; not a preponderance of endlessly talking social scientists as seen in Nigeria's British based educational system. Its blessing of a large population and a wide variety of natural resources has also made the difference for it when looking at other nations in South America.

India was like Nigeria under the British rule, yet I sense its progress is due in part to the development of technically educated people within and by in-country universities. If those in the USA see any consistent presence of foreign students in their technical universities. It is Indians and Chinese. They have the heavy and broad industrial base like Brazil, but somehow they have also entered the nuclear community. There is a developing middle class in India; in fact it may be as large as that in Brazil. Which is ahead or growing more quickly, India or Brazil? The Americans are ill equipped to judge that, outside of those few that look at such things in universities and governmental organizations like the CIA. However, those who may have that insight as to what makes India and Brazil different, what is the basis of their success, and where are they relative to each other.

Perhaps both India and Brazil might be looked to by Nigeria for lessons on how they grew to what they are today. Nigeria similarly enjoys the advantage of a large population and a broad natural resource base. My sense is to grow like Brazil and India, Nigeria our beloved country must press on three major fronts:

1. Respect for Technical Education: Create a respected place for technical and engineering, nation building, educational disciplines. Presently, polytechnics are viewed as inferior to social science driven universities. The development of Nigeria's natural resources by our people and the provision of an infrastructure (roads, electricity, communications, water, etc.) so that we may have a road to first world status is dependent on a home-grown army of these skilled people. This technical army must begin on two fronts with one being large number of students sent to the US for technical schooling (funded by oil revenues) with a tie that assures that they return to practice in Nigeria. There must at the same time is developed a wide spread community of schools that teach pre engineering, pre medical, pre agriculture, pre economic skills, and the like. These schools may be best staffed by some part of the graduates coming back from the US-BASED education. If the present social science elites are placed in charge, this effort will be but a stillborn and it will take decades more to come to be.

2. Foster a Middle Class: Grow a middle class which will in time have an impact on the corruption of leadership, both past military and civilian rulers that have drained the very blood of the nation for the largess of a few. That middle class will demand economic and political stability. It will demand a decent infrastructure. It will be a major element in creating a nationalistic feeling that will wish for the success of the nation versus the success of the one or his family or village. This middle class will be based on government workers, the technical trades noted above to drive industry and infrastructure, the staffs of educational institutions, those technical and business people developing natural resources and lastly a massive number of people in trade, both domestic and most importantly international.

3. Promote Two Way Trades: The expansion of trade is key to the growth of the country. Its entry into oil was a step backward in almost every other business area in the past 2-3 decades. Predictable economic and trade rules are needed for the rest of the world to seriously look to Nigeria for trade and investment. The street level and middle government officials can continue to steal from their own people who have no choice, but they have to give up openly and otherwise stealing from anyone and everyone that comes to Nigeria to do trade. Once a safe trade environment comes to be, the traders will naturally come from the West. Within Nigeria the need is to broaden the base of those that can effectively trade with the West. Presently, most knowledge in this area is kept by a few and few of them are Nigerians. Britain and France assured control of their empires in the past by keeping the mechanics of trade secret from those they controlled. I sense those that trade with Nigeria (Britain, Germany, Italy, France and India) continue to do that. They have the upper hand. Nigeria needs to take on trade knowledge, to have real insight into its foreign markets. One key to this are those 1000's of Nigerians that now live in those first world trading nations, those few Nigerians born that understand both worlds and have the skill and desire to work with their homeland. An assembly of these people by Internet links is perhaps the fastest and the most likely to reach this end. Nigeria needs to offer economic incentives to promote this lift by emigrated Nigerians. Presently, most attempts by such Nigerians to open trade with their own homeland are sadly met by outlandish robbery by Nigerian officials at the ports of entry. The idea that to rob a fellow Nigeria is fair as long as he is not from one's own family or village has to stop. Another key to Nigerian trade is to foster exports. These must come from natural resources and more importantly items created with the advantageous low wage scale in Nigeria. Items that require hand work and elementary machines must be pressed first. Clothing, furniture, and reassembled building components are just a few items on this list. Observe what India and Brazil exported 10 years ago. That is where the start is. Agriculture must be the basis for the first surge in exported natural resources for this same base is needed to sustain the feeding of the nation.

Lastly, government must match word with action in their anti-corruption crusade. This they should do by prosecuting those funds to have stolen money from government treasuries. It is not enough for government to setup a probe panel; they should equally look into the outcome and the recommendations of the panels and punish those indicted by the probe panels. Nigerians I believe will like to see this happens with this present administration. If the rest of the world will believe in the government of the day, the said government should present a positive picture of transparency and good governance. For example, instead of a government official going to the press to tell Nigerians that they know those who are engaged in petrol bunkering, the government should arrest and prosecute such people. Government officials should trade softly in opulence. There will surely be a day of reckoning for those who have ruled in any capacity in this country. It is a known fact today that world leaders are remembered mostly for the good legacy they left behind them. Our blessed country Nigeria should mourn no more.