Last week this column produced an article titled: “Innovation Begets Innovation”. That article was to celebrate the 2023 World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development which took place on 4 March with the theme “Engineering Innovation for Sustainable Development”. A respected reader of the article called me on his mobile phone and engaged me in rigorous and intellectual debate on the rather “stochastic process” of the innovation endeavor.
He wanted to know what was responsible for our country’s poor performance in the 2022 Global Innovation Index ranking. What came to my mind was that nation’s aspiring for good performance in innovation must know the knowable and do the doable. And that is why this column is providing more insight on the subject.
Up till now, most developing nations still hold on to the model that successful innovation consists of a sequence of related steps namely, pure science, applied science, invention, development, prototype construction, production, marketing, sales and profit.
One can see that several governments’ Research and Development (R&D) staff, policy advisers especially in developing countries, judging by their science and technology policies still adhere to this model often to the neglect of other critical factors on the innovation process.
Nigeria for instance, has many universities, research institutions, polytechnics and colleges of education. As Powell points out in his thesis, Nigerian universities and colleges in those days generally provided high standards of education which should be an asset to the development of indigenous technological capabilities, since institutions of higher learning, education, research, and teaching are always very closely linked.
Not only are the patents registered in Nigeria particularly low, the largest proportion of such patents are owned by foreign firms and foreign nationals
Suffice to say that there are many tertiary institutions and governments today that are unaware that science and technology (S&T) policy is a different academic field, different from science and engineering taught in schools. Some policy makers understand this point while others don’t. Albeit, a complex interaction exists among government, industry and research institutions.
Nigeria over the past few decades has channelled massive flow of resources to the scientific endeavour. This is true because the number of research and tertiary institutions – public and private running sciences in Nigeria has increased from what it was in the 1980s.
But why has the amount of scientific research activities in these higher institutions of learning not improved the ranking of the country in innovation? Though research is costly and risky, inadequate funding of research is just one of the reasons. Another reason is the “selection environment” which must permit the spread and diffusion of technology. Again, a lot of empirical studies and descriptions of actual innovations placed emphasis on the role of the market in the innovation process in spite of market imperfections.
The role of science in the innovation endeavour is complex. If scientific pre-eminence goes hand in hand with technological leadership, then Japan, China and India would not have been able to challenge the West in some areas of high technology today. While questioning the proposition that scientific advance is a necessary requirement to technological innovation, where is technology in the innovation endeavour?
Price sees science and technology as belonging to two separate worlds. Whereas science is concerned with making intellectual progress, and understanding the laws of nature, technology focuses on using scientific knowledge to make nature obey man. Science, he theorised, is the search for truth while technology is the quest for efficiency and material progress.
Since it’s not the objective of this piece to differentiate between science and technology, the thesis by Price et al that: “Science without the by-play of technology becomes sterile, while technology without science becomes moribund” is important to note for those who want to separate the two rigidly. So, technology plays an important role in the innovation process.
The key question we must ask ourselves is whether Nigeria is achieving its technological objectives. To answer this question, we must first find out whether firms and technological institutions are making progress in generating technology. Second, we must look at the patent statistics, the number of scientists engaged in R&D and technology export may be used as proxies for technological progress.
Available reports show that Nigeria is not making significant technological progress. Why? Not only are the patents registered in Nigeria particularly low, the largest proportion of such patents are owned by foreign firms and foreign nationals. Also, because of weak R&D and underdeveloped machine building capabilities, the number of patents that are commercialised in Nigeria is low.
The case of a Nigerian, Ufot Ekong, trending on social media some time ago is worthy of consideration here. Ufot Ekong we were told graduated with first class in electrical and electronics engineering from a university in Japan. He was reported to have solved a mathematical equation that could not be solved in 30 years.
According to Ufot Ekong, “It is an electrical engineering problem involving mathematics and my entire research team is not allowed to discuss details of academic research, patents, and trade secrets as it regards electric vehicles.” That is the way it goes on matters relating to innovation in the international space. Innovation goes beyond having talents alone.
In addition, Ekong told a youth foundation that he and his team are constrained by a confidentiality agreement not to discuss details of such a project.
Undoubtedly, we need quality Nigerians who are young, talented, able, willing and ready to drive the innovation process.
“Certainly, no nation can ever be great without developing its young people to have a science mind, an engineering heart and a technological soul. History has shown on many occasions that science, engineering and technology are very pivotal to a country’s greatness. Most talented young people in Nigeria cannot see hope in the horizon, that is why they have entered the “japa” train in search of a good life globally. For how long will Nigeria train its talented young people for other countries to use? It is not surprising that the Nigerian economy has remained sluggish in spite of many economic plans and policies by various governments.”
We need our talents like Ufot Ekong in Nigeria as part of the innovation process. But we can’t blame the likes of Ufot Ekong who are out there performing miracles? These young ones are constantly scanning the globe to see where their talents would be rewarded. Talent goes to where it will be rewarded any day. And this is as true and very certain, as sunrise and sunset!
When one scans the Global Innovation Index 2022, it’s glaring that the countries that are doing well are those that do not joke with education of their citizens. Indefinite closure of public tertiary institutions in the author’s view, is a clandestine attack on education, industry, and a reprehensible effort tactically orchestrated by some powerful persons at starving the nation of quality manpower needed to develop our technological capability.
Although, Nigerians are known for their academic brilliance and exploitation when they cross the Atlantic to study overseas. The sponsor of the research endeavour from basics through to the development stage owns the patenting and trade rights to the innovation.
While Japan, China, and India, including many industrially advanced economies too numerous to mention in this article, are technology exporters, Nigeria and many African countries are importing technology. Experts have theorised that the national environment is responsible for shaping the evolution of firms.
Who is responsible for creating a conducive national environment? This columnist believes that the government must provide leadership in providing a conducive national environment and is supported by the private sector.
It is the national environment which Nelson and Winters referred to as “selection environment” which must be conducive for the generation and spread of innovation. Industrialization for instance, would be a mirage without adequate electricity supply in Nigeria. The argument here is that Nigeria can only daydream about industrial revolution if there is no stable and affordable electricity supply to the consumers.
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But it wouldn’t be out of place to state that there are general concerns about the effect of technology on man and its environment which have become issues of political concerns. The negatives of technology on man include environmental pollution, the use and abuse of drugs,suspected relationship between modern technology and unemployment including alienation of the worker from direct understanding and control of the social forces of production.
What this tells us is that modern production especially in the 4th Industrial revolution era will become too complex for only one group of professionals to fully comprehend and be able to proffer professional advice on it.
This sets the foundation for science and technology policy which is now concerned with making optimal decisions with regard to the allocation of resources devoted to science and technology. Optimal in the sense of spreading investable resources to maximise social gains to the society.
It has been proven by experts that the innovation process is inherently risky and costly. Therefore, only very few firms in developing nations are able and willing to bear this cost and risk. These are firms who see innovation as a survival strategy. And are convinced that its risks and costs are worth bearing.
The management of innovation must necessarily require not just the brilliance of an engineer or a scientist but the attention of professionals who have a clear understanding of the issues involved in the endeavour. The role of government is also key in the innovation process.
Government must create an enabling environment for innovation. Technology policy scholars are of the view that without government dynamic concern, it will be hard perhaps impossible for any nation to enhance its technological capabilities in today’s industrial competitive environment. Thank you.
