You may be thinking that this article is about the United Nations Climate Change COP 27 taking place in Egypt. The article is about a space startup in India. India is about to launch a private sector–driven rocket into space. As you read this article, India’s first privately built rocket, known as VIKRAM – S, is set for launch today November 15, 2022.
The maiden mission named “Prarambh,” which means “the beginning.” The space startup will carry payloads of two Indians and one foreign customers, according to reports from Skyspace Aerospace. This private sector-driven rocket will be launched from the Indian Space Research Organization’s launchpad at a place called Sriharikota.
The beauty of the project is that the payload to be flown was developed by students from India, the USA, Singapore and Indonesia on the sub-orbital flight onboard VIKRAM – S. With this mission, Skyroot becomes the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space. This heralds a new era for the space sector, which was opened up in 2020 to facilitate private sector participation.
Certainly, no nation can ever be great without developing its young people to have a science mind, an engineering heart and a technological soul
In India, students and lecturers are not at home as a result of industrial action like their counterparts in Nigeria. India has the third largest number of scientists and technologists but it is not regarded as a developed country. India has remained focused and consistent with her policy on industrialization. India, according to a World Economic Forum Report dated September 26, 2022, is the fifth largest economy in the world with a 7 percent growth forecast for the year.
This column presented an article on September 2, 2014, titled Limits of Wealth Without Science and Technology in which the columnist stated that: “Industrialized nations have accepted science and technology as a way of life, while oil-rich African nations are using monies realized from sale of oil and gas to procure capital goods from abroad at exorbitant costs. These oil-rich African nations are always spending funds derived from the sale of crude and gas oil to import all manner of finished products.
It is doubtful if African leaders have taken time to ask how and why their counterparts in other climes are making it while the countries they govern remain technologically underdeveloped. Some public intellectuals strongly believe that most oil-rich African nations are very comfortable with their technological backwardness. I disagree! However, these public intellectuals are of this view because most African leaders will always argue as to why science and technology may not be necessary to economic development.
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 good life globally. For how long will Nigeria train its talented young people for other economies to use? It is not surprising that the Nigerian economy has remained inert in spite of many economic plans and policies by various governments.
Some of the plans include the following: Development and Rolling Plans, Austerity Measures and Structural Adjustment Programme. All the belt-tightening agenda of the 1970s and 1980s, transformation agenda, empowerment programmes as well as well-articulated visions, missions, and strategies have not brought smiles on the faces of many Nigerians. Even political party manifestoes covering all sectors of the economy have not delivered millions of people from poverty.
To what extent will numerous economic policies take us when the nation has poor human development index (HDI) and it is technologically backward? The HDI, which measures long and healthy life, access to quality education and a descent standard of living of Nigerians, is average but just. In 2022, Nigeria ranks 163rd out of 191 countries. This is the rank in the last two consecutive years.
Besides the country’s low HDI, the reasons why most economic measures which have worked elsewhere have failed in Nigeria is because we have not made science, engineering and technology the hub of our development programmes. Some development experts have also argued that policy makers have not equally factored human behaviour on the various economic development policies, thus resulting in their failure.
Education is so critical to development that experts in international arenas talk about knowledge – based economies. Today, education which is the lifeblood of growth and the first step towards technological development is in shambles in Nigeria.
Nigeria has many universities, polytechnics, and technical colleges. There are also research institutes in the country all of which are funded by the Federal Government. All these efforts indicate that the nation is aware of the prominence of science, engineering and technology in economic development.
It is a pity that these institutions collectively are sluggish in driving our process of industrialization. Most of these institutions’ performance are below par because of alleged poor funding and lack of modern teaching facilities. In some cases, the personnel are not there. While lecturers are poorly renumerated for teaching.
If this ugly trend remains unchecked, it will affect national efforts towards economic development. The general attitude of the society must change as we all have a collective responsibility to encourage hard work. It is only when our institutions produce globally competitive young people that they can be part of the nation’s Nigerian Industrialization Plan. Otherwise, the Plan will merely be on paper as many of our talented young people will not be part of the process.
The inability of science, engineering and technology to industrialize our country is due to inadequate understanding of the complex interaction among scientific research, technology, industry and the society. It is this complex interaction that the Indian space startup have acknowledged and understood which resulted in a private sector-driven launch of a rocket into space.
The use of inconsistent policies and theories to stimulate wealth can be likened to medical myopia where a patient is not properly diagnosed. And when left untreated, the unfortunate patient may lose his or her eyes. The funds accruable from the sale of oil cannot bring about the desired wealth, generate employment and reduce inflation except we embrace science, engineering and technology. The power of nations is determined among other factors by science, engineering and technology. Thank you.
