Nigeria unnecessarily lagging behind in development – Prof. Dike N. Kalu

P rofessor Dike N Kalu, author of Nigeria’s Adventures in

Technology, is Professor Emeritus at the University of

Texas Health Science Center, USA. In this chat with

Vanguard Learning during his recent visit to Nigeria, he

speaks on his book and says science/technology is

imperative to the nation's development.

Excerpts:

What motivated you to write Nigeria’s Adventures in

Technology ?

I have always been interested in technology. My field is in

science, and the fruit of science is technology. It is really

technology that makes science worthwhile because long

time ago, people discovered that they can use it to

develop their countries

It’s easy to notice that Nigeria has been unnecessarily

lagging behind in development and that she shares in

common with other developing or under-developed

countries, the inability to utilise the fruit of science which

is technology, to solve their developmental problems.

When we had independence in the 1960, we were

optimistic that subsequent administrations would use

science and technology to develop our country but it

seems that every year, we continue to lag behind in

development.

Should our curriculum be changed since we appear to

concentrate more on theory than on practical

application of science? For instance a graduate of

computer science recently confessed to me that she

never handled a computer until she graduated...

That is sad but it is not unique to Nigeria. It is unique to

people from underdeveloped circumstances. I have

worked in the US as a scientist for many years and have

seen all sorts.

A graduate student from a very poor area of the US once

came to do post-graduate work in our university and she

told us that she had never used a pipette before. She was

from a very underprivileged school and the programme

she came to do in our university was designed just to

help people from such unfortunate backgrounds. But

we were not expecting people that had never seen a

pipette, let alone use it!

You have to use a pipette accurately for anything that

requires its use in science to be meaningful; and here is a

person who is doing a PhD and had never seen a pipette!

Of course, she did not make it. So I am not really

surprised to hear about the unfortunate computer guy

that had never handled a computer because this is

common among people from underdeveloped

circumstances.

Advice to government:

I do not think our people are inferior in any way to people

I have seen in the Western countries. I have been away

from the country for over 50 years. I schooled with the

children of the Western world; I have taught the children

of the Western world, and I competed in research for a

long time with their scientists.

In all those activities, I did not see anything to make me

believe that these people are superior to us. In fact, over

200 years ago, one of their famous scientists said that

“science knows no country because knowledge belongs

to humanity and is the torch which illuminates the

world.” No one is endowed with superior intellect; it is

just a question of opportunities. Nigerians badly need to

be given the appropriate opportunity to practice science

and technology in their own country.

Sadly, our science is deteriorating in many quarters. For

many of us who are getting on in life, if you go back to

your secondary school, you will see that the standard of

science is lower than when you were there about 50

years ago. That is a sad commentary; so what I am

advocating in part in this book is that our leaders need to

go and revitalize our science. If they do, technology will

pick up because technology for the most part, is a

product of science. But if we do not revitalize our science

at the secondary and even elementary school level, we

will just be dreaming and deceiving ourselves when we

say we will use technology to advance development in

our country.

Technology transfer:

Someone asked, why can’t we just buy technology from

others? You can, but you shouldn’t because you need not

depend on other people to do for you what you can do

for yourself. Most foreign investors basically want your

money and to keep you as their perpetual customers.

They know that innovation is the only sure way to

progress, and you cannot innovate if you do not do the

basic work and research yourself.

We need to encourage our people appropriately in their

efforts to do research in our harsh environment. If we

don’t, there is no lack of charlatans ready to exploit the

fact that we lack technology.

What happens is that when news of an invention breaks

in Africa, the West may give awards to the inventor but

will not patronize his/her work which is eventually

overtaken by Western innovation. It is up to us to see to it

that we encourage indigenous appropriate technology.

Start something:

The bottom line is we should start and persevere with

worthwhile ideas and don’t try to start from the top or just

duplicate what others have already done. We are

obligated to start investigating issues that are beneficial

to us like adapting foreign technology to suit our

particular needs, making good water supply available to

all, sanitary disposal of wastes, using technology to fight

illiteracy, poor roads, treat the sick, ascertain the

nutritional value of our foods, learn the scientific basis of

our local therapeutics, bring electric light to our

neighbourhoods, combat the challenges of climate

change, look for alternative sources of energy to fossil

fuel, etc. We are bound to regret it if we continue to

ignore the necessity to improve science in our schools

and prepare ourselves appropriately so that we can

address these issues.