Science has been defined in different ways by different people because it is so broad and has so many aspects. But all agree that science is basically knowledge of how the natural world works. This knowledge is acquired by experimentation and observation in the controlled environment of a laboratory. A scientist is therefore an individual engaged in the business of acquiring knowledge. In contrast, a technologist is involved in applying knowledge to provide practical tasks. A scientist can also be a technologist, and vice versa. Both are necessary in any society. It is obvious that science and technology are two words joined together by the conjunction “and”. They are often used together because, as we have seen, they are closely related.
In fact some treat science and technology as a singular word as I will do in this article. The popularity of the term science and technology derives from the fact that human civilization practically depends on it. I subscribe to the view that if one is aware of the power of science and technology in promoting development, one is obligated to continue to implore the Nigerian government and the public to do what most of the advanced nations have done for centuries, and that is, to translate science into productive technologies and use the latter to fuel the development of their country. Nehru, the late prime minister of India could not have put it more succinctly when he said: I do not see any way out of our vicious circle of poverty except by utilizing the new sources of power which science has put at our disposal. Initially, nature was studied by trial and error using natural ingenuity and very simple instruments and methods. Even though unsophisticated techniques were used in the early experiments, the conclusions that were drawn from them are still valid today because science utilizes very stringent methods and demands that scientists’ observations must be repeatable by anyone in any corner of our planet. In other words, experimental observations made by scientists are universal phenomena and can be treated as basic facts. Types of Scientific Research Man has an unquenchable innate curiosity and has continually tried to find out through scientific research how the natural world works. Scientific research can be classified under three headings: (a) basic or fundamental research, (b) applied research, and (c) developmental research. Basic research is the search for truth about nature for its own sake. The sole aim of basic research is to contribute to the pool of new knowledge and thereby provide a better understanding of the subject being studied. It is the search for truth for its own sake, and its intent is not to create or invent a product. Basic research is very expensive and is usually funded by the government. In contrast to basic research, applied research is usually carried out to address a specific problem and it leads to products or services or to solutions to important problems that face society. Applied research is usually funded and carried out by companies, the government, research institutes and the universities. In the process of carrying out applied research important new basic information about nature may be uncovered. So the distinction between basic and applied research cannot be made too rigid. Finally, research aimed at turning applied research discoveries into large-scale, marketable commercial concerns is developmental research. In Nigeria this quintessential continuum from basic to applied to developmental research is, as yet, practically nonexistent. The type of scientific research that a country should be doing can become a source of controversy. In some countries people are currently debating whether their government should be investing in basic or applied research. The controversy is because basic research, whose chief purpose is to add to the pool of new knowledge, is very expensive and so is funded primarily by the government and therefore by all the citizens of a country. While, in contrast, private for-profit commercial companies use basic research information to produce marketable products for the financial benefit of only a few people in the society namely, their share-holders. We should not join this debate at this time because we currently have a more pressing problem. Rather we should devote all our efforts to ensure that Nigeria invests adequately in the training of our children locally and in science so that they are in a position to fully appreciate science and technology and its capabilities. Our young children should be made to know quite early in school that science and technology plays a vital role in determining the efficacy of a country’s economy and the way people live. Most people know about or have used such technology as television, motor vehicle, telephone, iPad, printer, aeroplane, computer, the Internet, email and MRI used in diagnostic medicine. The list goes on. The point is that today technology is so ubiquitous that there is virtually no facet of our lives that is not impacted by the beneficial effects of technology whether we know it or not. In fact, Nigeria is on the way to addressing some of her developmental needs with the help of satellites which are fairly recent technologies with immense beneficial capabilities (Nigerian Satellites: The way to go. Vanguard, Feb 26, 2012). I applaud Nigeria’s decision makers for taking this progressive action. If all the technological devices we enumerated previously originated in Nigeria you can imagine what a salutary impact this would have on Nigerian economy and how we live. However, we acknowledge the fact that not all technologies or products of technological innovation necessarily generate beneficial effects. For instance, when President Jonathan announced his intension to use the technology of nuclear power to supplement Nigeria’s energy needs, we undertook to explain to Nigerians the horrendous consequences of nuclear power accidents as occurred in Japan after the tsunami of March 2011 (Nigeria’s First Nuclear Plant. Vanguard, Nov 24, 2011). Briefly, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan caused many world leaders to pause and rethink their nuclear ambitions. For instance, it prompted the German chancellor to immediately abandon plans for building new nuclear plants in her country and to shut down existing ones. The chancellor took these drastic actions because she marveled at the helplessness of an advanced country like Japan when confronted by a nuclear disaster. According to her she could not inflict on her people the potential for the type of humanitarian disaster imposed on Japan by the Fukushima nuclear accident. I shudder when I wonder how Nigeria would deal with such a calamity in view of her lack of the infrastructure to combat nuclear accidents. So although technology has become very pervasive and can be used to address many problems, a country must pick her technology of choice wisely. Among Nigeria’s numerous and persistent problems, one of the most pressing is her backwardness in science and technology. As a result Nigeria’s successive governments since political independence in 1960 all pledged increased commitment to use science and technology to enhance Nigeria’s development. Nigeria’s persistent impoverishment shows that in practice none of them succeeded. Consequently, it has been painful to remain only spectators as the advanced nations continue to employ science and technology to address their economic and social needs. What would be required to make science and technology thrive in Nigeria? Our findings, in an effort to answer this question, are surprisingly simple as shown below. First, money is a critical factor for stimulating science and technology. But most people agree that it is not the lack of money that has retarded science and technology in Nigeria since she is a relatively wealthy oil-producing country. Second, when we examined the foreign countries from where science and technology was transplanted to Nigeria, we found that these countries have been supporting these enterprises liberally for several hundred years, and that they firmly believe that science and technology is, in part, the basis for their advanced state of development and current high standard of living. Nigeria should emulate this belief in the power of science and technology by supporting and promoting science and technology in our schools. Finally, we identified trained manpower as the third factor required to make science and technology thrive in any country. Again Nigeria has, as it were, a head start here because she is well endowed with human resources with her population of about 160 million people, the largest in any African country. All she needs to do is to ensure that her manpower is adequately trained in science and technology. While our findings are not completely unexpected, the logical question that arises is, since Nigeria already has a surfeit of the main requirements for success, why has her science and technology continued to remain so unsatisfactory? It is possible that many highly placed Nigerians only pay lip-service to science and technology, and are really uncertain as to how these powerful enterprises could ensure a nation’s development or promote an individual’s well-being, or they would have been promoting it at all costs. If you are uncertain, then just look carefully at yourself and around you, and think about what you normally do every day all day and you’ll get an idea of the massive impact of western science and technology in basically every aspect of your life. Hopefully, you can now see why you must avidly advocate a successful science and technology program for Nigeria. The ruling elite in Nigeria, in particular, have a responsibility to sincerely buy into this. Additionally, in view of our conclusion that the lack of money cannot be blamed for the dearth of science and technology in Nigeria, we have to conclude that the sorry state of these enterprises in the country is the result of human failure. For example, it is quite feasible that successive administrations that have ruled Nigeria implemented policies that could not possibly promote the growth of science and technology in the Nigerian public. I submit that the neglect of education and scientific training in schools by successive administrations since political independence accounts for Nigeria’s backwardness in science and technology and its fall outs. Science and technology is the expression of man’s highest ingenuity and man’s ingenuity can only be expressed optimally in a suitable environment which shamefully is lacking in Nigeria today. Now, let’s pause and enquire about the key individuals that should play significant roles to ensure a successful science and technology enterprise in Nigeria. The most important manpower requirement for a successful national science and technology is the president who is also the chief executive of the country. I say the president because, as a money intensive enterprise science and technology requires a powerful and influential advocate in government since it is the government that allocates money for science and technology. However, the president has to be genuinely convinced that the use of science and technology is the only sure way to develop the country both socially and economically. The president is also crucial because he appoints the minister that oversees the country’s efforts in science and technology. Another manpower requirement for science and technology to thrive in Nigeria is the president of the country’s National Academy of Sciences. The importance of the National Academy of Sciences president lies in the fact that he is in a unique position to be able to provide the country’s president, irrespective of his background, useful information regarding the status of science and technology in the country because he is likely to have a wealth of ideas on the issue. While the Academy president should seek the ear of the country’s president, the latter should grant him a cordial audience as the Academy president could not have arrived at such an important position without knowing something about science and technology for development. The third manpower requirement for a successful science and technology in Nigeria is the people who actually carry out the work that becomes the nation’s science and technology – the professors, scientists, engineers, laboratory directors, technologists, other technical and support staff, and the educated laymen. All these individuals have one thing in common. They all need to be adequately trained. Adequate training in science and technology takes a long time and should start early in a child’s education. It is reasonable to begin early to expose our children to the culture of science and to show them how technology is used to address specific societal problems. Since the state of most of our schools is less than desirable, it goes without saying that Nigeria has a moral duty to upgrade our schools with well-equipped and up-to-date facilities that will promote education at the elementary, secondary, university and tertiary levels where the teaching of science should be encouraged and given the priority it deserves. By so doing Nigeria will sow the seeds for the technological revolution that the country badly needs. Although science and technology is presently impoverished in Nigeria, this needs not always be the case and the situation can be reversed. After all some of the present day modern societies that are now the bastions of science and prominent beneficiaries of its technological fallouts were not always in the forefront of the scientific research enterprise. And yet they have successfully incorporated science into their cultures and achieved their present high standard of living, in part by applying science and technology to meet their developmental and economic needs. For Nigeria to uplift herself successfully from her current state of underdevelopment, she too must make a deliberate effort to incorporate science into her culture and apply technology to raise the standard of living of her people. The ability to engage fruitfully in science and technology is not the birthright of any particular country or people, and yet too many people have the erroneous mentality that science and technology belongs to the advanced nations who are ordained to ration it out to developing nations as they see fit. Louis Pasteur (1822-1892), the father of Microbiology, knew all along that this is not the case. Nearly two hundred years ago he said: Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity and is the torch which illuminates the world. Question: Professor, I was surprised that you did not indict corruption in this article. Do you think that corruption plays a role in the backwardness of science and technology in Nigeria? Professor: That is a good question as it gives me the opportunity to state publicly and unequivocally that I totally abhor the endemic corruption that has infested Nigeria and the damage it has done to retard development in our society. There is no question in my mind that corruption will make it difficult not just for science and technology to thrive, but for any other developmental effort to have a chance of succeeding. So corruption per se in Nigeria warrants a special treatment, much more than this brief write-up can do. However, the question that has continued to intrigue me and which I have tried to address here albeit simply is, “suppose there was no corruption in Nigeria, would science and technology thrive in the country today”? My answer is an unqualified “No”. I say “No” for the following reason part of which I have mentioned previously: Science and technology is carried out by highly-trained individuals, and you need a lot of such people in order to be successful in it. As I already said, I believe that science and technology has failed to thrive in Nigeria mainly because successive Nigerian administrations since political independence have not given our schools and science education the type of support they need in order to be effective. As a result, we do not have enough indigenous educated manpower such as scientists, engineers, technologists et cetera that can grow our science and technology and make it as competitive as anyone’s, in spite of the fact that Nigeria is blessed with an abundant human resources and wealth from natural resources. The current state of Nigeria is a clear indication that science and technology cannot thrive in a country where most of the schools are sub-standard and have no laboratories or adequately trained science teachers. I pray that President Jonathan’s administration accepts the moral obligation to really promote science and technology in our schools so that Nigeria can begin to live up to her potential and use indigenous technology to promote the well-being of ALL Nigerians. This is a difficult but worthwhile task as one will find that in order to successfully meet Nigeria’s needs in science and technology one will also have to fight corruption at many levels.
Source: Vanguard
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