Policy somersault has been linked to the lack of progress Nigeria has experienced since its independence in 1960.
A Professor of Development Economics at the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Samuel Olasupo Akano, gave the assertion on Thursday at the institution’s 5th inaugural lecture.
In his lecture entitled: Trade, Technological Innovation and
Development, Akano said one of the major problems that have militated against the development of science and technology in the country is the highly volatile policy environment.
According to him, Nigeria’s technological underdevelopment cannot meaningfully be attributed to economic factors, but largely a question of official attitudes and policy.
He said that the country has one of the largest concentration of skilled professionals, in virtually all fields, in the Southern
Hemisphere, adding that this huge stock of human capital has, to a large extent, been the result of large government expenditure on capacity building before and after political independence.
Said he: “Local and overseas training of Nigerians was designed to fill gaps created as a result of the process of decolonisation and departure of foreign professionals. However, government official policy since independence has consistently discriminated against the use of Nigerian professionals, especially in the area of science,
engineering and technology which requires a wide range of practical exposure and learning by doing.”
“This was the first wrong-turn on Nigeria’s road to technological development, as the country, since independence thus became a giant experimental laboratory for all sorts of foreign experts most of whom use the Nigerian landscape to gain valuable industrial experience”.
On the other hand, Akano submitted that the nation’s engineers and technologists, maligned as theoreticians, are marginalized in their own country and scorned as lacking in industrial experience.
“Official policy on reward and incentive systems reinforced this prejudice and the result has been the exodus of Nigerian professionals to foreign countries that are prepared to pay competitive rates for their services but contributed nothing to their education and training”.
Akano, who is also foundation Dean, Faculty of Social Science in the university, pointed out that with the redress of all policy errors, the country would then start investing heavily on the educational development of its people, instead of promoting the interest of foreigners at the expense of citizens’ welfare.
“Nigeria’s educational base has to be strengthened not only through all-round general (formal) education, but also through investment in specialised technical skills. Sustained investment in education of Nigerians is the condition that will lay solid groundwork for the nation’s technological development”.
