US-Based Scientist Proffers Solution To Nation's Poverty Streak
FOR Nigeria to overcome poverty and other challenges posed by the globalisation of the world economy, she has to bridge the technological gap between her and the developed world, a United States (US) based Nigerian scientists, Prof. Akintunde Akinwande, has said.
According to Akinwande, this is the option opened to the country. To do this, he continued, the country would have joined South East Asia countries to be successful.
Akinwande, while delivering a lecture in Lagos during the week at the 75th anniversary of the Government College, Ibadan (GCI), held that the country had no alternative than to join the globalisation trend the same way that the Asian tigers did.
In the lecture titled 'Globalisation: Can Nigeria play the game and win? The Nigerian Educational system and Economy in the Globalisation Era', the Massachusetts Institute of Technology world renowned professor of Electrical Engineering noted that the dismissal of the globalisation trend in Nigeria as one that promotes the interest of rich nations to the detriment of the poor ones, should, rather than dissuade Nigeria from embracing the trend, encourage it to participate in it.
He explained globalisation as a trend that depends solely on knowledge and the ability to apply it in production.
Akinwande noted that Nigeria, unlike the Asian countries that have embraced globalisation by building their economies, faced severe economic constraints due to the level of production that went on in the country.
Akinwande, therefore, called for urgent steps to be taken in the country to introduce a knowledge based economy that is steeped in technology and manufacturing to prevent the economic challenges already bugging the nation from widening in the next few decades.
According to him, countries of Asian, like Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and other newly industrialised nations have succeeded in leapfrogging to the forefront of technology, production and income due to their adaptation of technology and good macro-economic policies.
He further argued that in addition to good macro-economic policies, a central factor in the success of those countries had been their excellent educational system which he said, are almost comparable to what obtained in the West.
He maintained that for Nigeria and the rest of Africa to attain such successes in adding value and income growth, they have to have a well-educated workforce that is flexible, agile and able to adapt to new situations and innovate."
Akinwande strongly recommended that for Nigeria to bridge the poverty and technological gap between it and the rest of the world, the nation's education at all levels must be tailored to produce people who are well equipped in terms of what he called "extensive problem solving skills" instead of the prevalent situation where knowledge is based on the learning.
He also held that for the nation to truly develop it must be able to "encourage achievement and add value."
The well attended anniversary lecture which was organised by the Government College Ibadan Old Boys Association (GCIOBA) was chaired by an old boy of the institution, Chief Hope Harriman, who, in his remarks, called for a change of values in the country. He also decried the latest ranking of Nigeria as third most corrupt country in the world.
