Building a future for children: an urgency of now

The work of building a future for our children is an urgency of now and it has begun. We all need to do some introspection on our obligation to create a better future for those who would someday take our place, our children and our children’s children. As parents, what kind of Nigeria would we want our children to call home in the next 25 years? And as young people, what kind of Nigeria do you want to live in the next 15 years? Do you want a Nigeria that has sunk deeper into an abyss of poverty or one that attained prosperity?

In the wake of contemporary knowledge-based, technology-driven world economy, Nigeria is already faced with a serious epidemic of unemployment and a collective bankruptcy that affects more than half of all Nigerians because the effectiveness of our human resources in translating knowledge assets into industrial productivity that meets needs for goods and services, provides solutions to problems, generates wealth for individuals and communities and creates jobs in production processes and operation is very low. That accounts for Nigeria’s reliance on foreign supply for goods and services.

In the final analysis, if members of any community rely on foreign supply for goods and services, those who should have been involved in domestic processes and operations that should have locally produced such goods and services become unemployed. This is a reality evidenced by the epidemic proportions of unemployment Nigeria is already facing. For our dependence on foreign supply to meet local needs, the balance of trade and payment is tilted against Nigeria. The fact that no individual or community can spend more than they earn and stay afloat is already evident in the collective bankruptcy that afflicts more than half of all Nigerians.

Make no mistake about it, the deepening socio-economic challenges Nigeria is facing today stem from the singular key factor that our contemporary human resources are not effective in leveraging cutting-edge know-how. While we must rise to the pressing need for an effective response to our current socio-economic difficulties, we must also respond to the urgency of averting even more debilitating future socio-economic problems that the growing disinterest in science and technology among our children portends.

We are already facing hardship in Nigeria because we have not attained the desired paradigm shift from a commodity-based mineral resources-dependent economy to a knowledge-based technology-driven economy where leveraging advanced scientific knowledge into technology-driven industrial productivity delivers innovative products that meet local and international market demands and create wealth. If we fail to reverse the trend of growing disinterest in science and technology among our children, Nigeria would lag further behind in future development paradigms and would face more serious socio-economic hardship. Is that the kind of Nigeria you want for your children?

The kind of future we want for our children cannot come by wishful thinking, but at the expense of hard work and intellect. The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) under the leadership of Umar Bubar Bindir has since 2009 been drawing attention of Nigerians to the trend of growing disinterest in science and technology among children and the development problems it portends. NOTAP has since been partnering with private sector companies and has been committing intellectual resources in finding ways to raise interest of children in science and technology to ensure that Nigeria sustains the requisite techno-scientific knowledge base to stay relevant in the future world economy.

Today, we have a solid hope of collective success in positioning our children for future leadership in that future economy. We now have a foundation of optimism for the desired change. That is not a wish but an assurance we now have from the intellect, sweat and perseverance of men and women who have been working a public/private partnership platform for knowledge-based socioeconomic development created by NOTAP.

NOTAP’s public/private partnerships have given rise to a private sector-driven enterprise, Brain Wealth Projects. A statement on Brain Wealth Projects homepage, www.brainwealthprojects.com, says its existential commitment is to stimulate sustainable knowledge-based technology-driven socio-economic development of Nigerian communities through innovative programmes designed to advance the techno-scientific knowledge base on which future socio-economic development depends; to strengthen the competence and effectiveness of human resources in leveraging knowledge into demand-driven productivity that meets demands and creates wealth.

One such development programme, Science and Technology Knowledge Base Advancement Programme, designed to reverse the trend of growing disinterest in science and technology among children, has already delivered very effective products that meet the need and has created 10,000 job openings. That’s a desirable quick win that matches the audacity of Brain Wealth Projects in translating socio-economic development ideals into real benefits to individuals and communities.

Clerk J. Brandon