OS&T POUCY WEAKNESSES IN NIGERIA

We know from the experience of other countriesandoursthat, in practice, the standard of living, the welfare, thesecurity, and the self esteem of a community, rest completely on the magnitude of its productivity particularly in

terms

offood, shelter. clothing and social

services. In present day societies, high material production

at competi-tive, cost-effective rates, cannot

generally

beachieved by labour intensive

methods alone, but must also employ capital-intensive

processes which

apply

the superhuman forces, speeds,

accuracy,

and

repeatability of machines. This fact

has resulted in

each country,

including our own, making large investmentsin education, particularly scientific and technical education.in

scientific

research and

develop-ment

work, and in technology development.

The development and domestication of science and technology is therefore one of the primary functions of a progressive community.

The practical objective of

research

and development work is the generation of scientific knowledge and the application of it to the production of scientific and

technical

man-power, the development of materials processingsystems,

machinery

and equipment for general and

specialised

functions, and the application of these capabilities to the diverse production and services needs of the

society,

and the maintenance of its stability. Somethingmust therefore

be

anUu if a country has invested heavily in

the

development of science aDd technology, and yet remains economically poor and dependent.

In the case of Nigeria, we have, over the

years,

made compara-tively large investments in science and technology,interms of science

and technical

education, at the secondary level, colleges of Technology, Technical Teachers Colleges, Universities, Universities of Technology and Universities of Agriculturet as well as research

institutes.

At the same time, we vigorously pursued an

import-substitution

industrialisa..

tion strategyⁱ by which local industries were establishedto produce

.locally

those consumer goods which we regularly import in large

quantities. But after some

thirty

years of this practice, we have incurred huge foreign debts. which are mainly caused by a con-conmmitant dependence on iinportation for the required industrial machinery, the technical know-how, most of the industrial raw materials, and the spare-parts

far

^the

^machinery.

^To

^remedy

^this

situation, the policy ofbackward integration had emerged, by which

industries

mustsubstitute local raw materials for their

imported

ones.

While this principle is good and

necessary.

it hasneither arrested nor

reduced

our

foreign

exchangeoutflow. This is because, there

again.

we

are

attaching too much weight to

industrial raw materials. while

ignoringthemore important

factor,

which is thetechnology. -For usin this country, thetechnology ranksno less than natural raw materials.

In fact it ranks higher. because:

(a) To locallyproducehitherto importedraw materials huge amounts in foreign exchange must again be spent on the importation of the know-bow and the machinery for weaning and processing the local raw materials. whether the raw materials are of agricultural

or

mineralorigin. Therefore, the dependence on

importa-tion

for the raw material processing

equipMent

limits our successinthe

process.

(b)' The contribution of the raw material to the sale price of the manufactured end-product is usually comparatively small, inrelation to the contribution of the technologywhichis employedin the production. This is why industrialised countries buy ourcocoa,for an example, at acertainprice. and sell chocolate to us at several times the price of the cocoa. Thisis also whycountries which aredeficient in natural raw materials, but have,the technology^t such as Japan and Korea, havebuoyanteconomies. Itis the technology that gives to the

final product the so-called "value-added" worth. Therefore, our policy of local raw material sourcing can

only be

a significant economic

benefit when a backward integration of the

technology

itself is

arisen. Prominent among these problems are the excessive out-flow of our resources to other countries. low agricultural out-put due to the paucity of appropriate farm machineryand agriculturalinputs, such as fertilizer, chemicals and vaccines; wastage of agricultural produce due to very limited food processing and storage capabilities; low capacity utilization

in

existing industries due to dependenceon imports for their essential industrial raw

materials,

establish viable home-grown small-scale and medium-small-scale industries at affordable costs; the retrogression of our educational system due to a stale of dependency for the required laboratory, visual-aidand teachingequipment,workshopmachinery and tools, text-books and stationery: a population explosion which an easily available functional education and scientific enlightenment can arrest;

the poor state of our hospitals caused by the lack of equipment and drugs: inability to establish and easily maintain, completely on 'our own,the essential social mass-transportaUon, telecommanications, buildingmaterials and production: depreciation of the Nairaduetolow productivityand excessiveimport dependencehighintlatiOft and

mass-unemployment, environmental degradation for fire-wood, desertification causedby deforestation, soil erosion causedbypoor land management, etc. It is believedthat it is these national problems, which induce'in citizens a sense of hardship, insecurity and desperation, that are largely responsible for the now rampant social vices of armed robbery, bribery and corruption, drug abuse, indiscipline and revolt of the youth.

3.1 ENGINEERING INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAMME

In

recognition of the above

facts,

and of the country's need

^{to .} change the status quo, government decidedin 1990to

establish

and implement a viable engineeringinfrastruetur~developmeutprogramme in Nigeria. A National Committee consisting of ISO scientists,

engineers. administrators and other professionals, was inaugurated and mandated

to drawup

a blue-print for a programme for the

development of an engineering infrastructure in thecountry.

The report of the

National Committee

appeared

in early

1991,

Dans le document The influence of economic and development policies on science and technology in Africa (Page 98-102)