THERESA ADEBOLA JOHN
The nation’s education system has for long been placing much emphasis on theoretical education and paper qualification to the detriment of investment in expensive practical education and development of hands-on capability, writes THERESA ADEBOLA JOHN
One interesting feature of the nation’s education system is that it is rich in college graduates. The country has been turning out and even exporting scientists since the first federal universities opened (University of Ibadan in 1948, University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1960, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1962, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1962, and University of Lagos in 1962). However there seems to have been much emphasis on theoretical education and paper qualification and a lack of investment in expensive practical education and development of hands-on capability. Even with the advent of Nigerian technical colleges, Nigerian graduates have not been the main contributors to the sophisticated technical and scientific needs of the country. Major and difficult technical jobs have been entrusted to foreign experts – British, American, French, Italian, German, Chinese, etc., even though the country’s universities have been turning out numerous science and technology graduates for half a century.
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There seems to be a high turnover of manpower for the country’s scientific and technical needs (more numbers produced than needed hence the comfortable brain drain syndrome) but many analysts feel that it is time to focus on promoting necessary brain power, developing the right brains for the right tasks, if the country would move out of poverty and inability to profit well from its own resources. It is not that Nigerian graduates lack intelligence or intellectual capability, but something in the educational system seems to be lacking such that learned theory is not well utilized for the material needs of the country. In other words, there is a lack of translation of education into economic benefits and quality service for the Nigerian populace. There may also be a lack of support for the application of science to ordinary life of Nigerians.
There is no doubt that the national wealth of Nigeria is enough for every citizen, even in the remotest villages, to comfortably have constant clean tap water, electricity, good roads and communications infrastructure including Internet communication, and of course plenty of good food and other components of good living. The average Nigerian life at this point is certainly not fair and there is a role that science can play to make life better for all Nigerians.
It is obvious that the country should focus now on developing science and technology with abundant investment in infrastructure for training and encouragement of relevant experts. The effort should not be just for producing needed experts but also for encouraging profitable research in all fields that can enable better use of national resources and improve conditions of life for Nigerians. Part of the reason why not much attention has been paid to science is probably that many Nigerians with voice, means, or power are distant from science and do not appreciate the scientific process and its needs or its relevance to Nigeria’s development and the comfort of Nigerians.
There is no doubt that biomedical science is a field that has exploded and opened up amazing frontiers in the past two decades in developed countries but perhaps has stayed stagnant in Nigeria and some other African nations. The scientist’s profession has its process and standards which do not depend on a particular country or environment. Such process and standards depend a lot on diligent administration and abundant funding as well as a clear vision of the role science plays in providing good living for a country’s citizens.
Rufus O Akinmulere, chief technologist at LASUCOM explains that in the 70’s there were a lot of equipment and reagents in the Nigerian universities and a lot of research and good work was going on in the science departments.
“In the mid 80’s things changed as old equipments were not replaced and needed reagents were not purchased because of lack of funds.” He attributes the present decline to past general maladministration of the country and the starving of universities of funding. Scientific research started experiencing inadequate funding after the government established more universities and also in the 90’s when student populations of existing universities increased at an alarming rate.” He further opined that there was apparently not enough preparation by the government for the expansion and proliferation of universities as the exercise seemed to be exceedingly politically determined.
In his own reaction, Mobolaji Olufemi Dada, a physician-scientist and a lecturer at the Haematology and Blood Transfusion Unit argues that ” many procedures and medical interventions are routinely overlooked because we lack infrastructure and trained personnel for them. For example, stem cell transplant is a procedure done 100% without complications in developed countries including South Africa and Egypt. Some of us have gone on training on our own and if such persons cannot use the skills they lose them.”
Dada lamented that too many cases are brought to the clinics at advanced stages of disease. “For example, it is rare that in civilized countries a person should present with stage 4 breast cancer. Unorthodox practices are not well controlled in Nigeria and they take over patients, collect a lot of money from them and release them when their disease has advanced to a stage beyond cure.”
Dada encouraged the setting up of modern infrastructure and the purchase of modern equipment. “If we have the right setting, experts from abroad will be willing visit us to train people here. But Government should protect every new health or research project from sycophants and money hustlers who only see such things as opportunities to make money and thus ruin the projects.”
Research findings are important to different stakeholders for different reasons. In biomedical science, knowledge is used for drug development, health care and prophylaxis. In our day, not only drugs are being produced from biomedical science but such beneficial products as antibodies, gene products, enzymes, stem cells and other cells, tissue products, organs for transplants, electronic pacemakers, monitors and other artificial equipments and implants.
Biomedical knowledge is also exploited for national defence and non-conventional uses. As health is desired by every person for good living, the products of biomedical science can fetch colossal profit for capitalists who invest in such. It is a source of social power, financial power, and military power. Little wonder then that the scientific process and outcomes are well guarded in some places and can generate intense competition, rivalries, and a fight for rights. Because of the potential for inhumane exploitation, abuses, and catastrophes, there is always a need for global, governmental, and ethical control and management of the scientific process and outcomes. This is not possible in an underdeveloped country, under distrusted governments, within irresponsible and unreliable structures, and in the hands of people who lack security consciousness. Therefore, for Nigeria to benefit from good science, the country needs to raise its consciousness to global interests, thus it will gain global trust, freedom, and access to global resources, opportunities, and sharing.
