WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
65 years ago when Nigeria came into independence, the hope of a promising great nation was high; given the resource abundance of the nascent nation and the optimism of the pioneer leaders. We celebrated freedom and hope to move on transforming the most populous black nation in the continent to the envy of all nations. Unfortunately, today, more than six decades after, the nation is a complete opposite of what it could have become, a shadow of what real development means. Today, we have grown into a system that struggles aimlessly to disengage itself from dependency on others for survival, all to no avail.
The world isn’t what it was 60 years ago. The transformation has been massive, economically, educationally and technology wise. Nations over the decades have opened new front lines of growth and developments that continue to define relevances in international affairs and level of comfort of citizens. In those years, we have seen the evolution of the Asian giants into a global haven of comfort and an example in case studies for gigantic developments. We have seen what China has become, setting new paces that threatens even the perceived almighty United States of America. In all of these, it is very unfortunate that despite the abundant prospects of the Africa continent and the unique endowments of the Nigerian nation, we are as far behind in developmental capacity and not even ready with foundational responses that breed the kind of upward development the world is beginning to envisage, and already implementing.
We are today in a world experiencing rapid interplay of imagination, technology and innovation, to drive human progress and meet the needs of their citizens. Serious nations are busy cultivating the ability to imagine, create, and innovate to transform their economies, improve the quality of life of their citizens, and assert their influence on the global stage. Today, we see China breaking forth on all sides; creating new front lines of imaginations and eventually technologies that are redefining human capabilities to create comfort, national wealth and relevance. Today, we are seeing unimaginable transportation infrastructure that are redefining ease of movement of goods and persons. We are seeing manufacturing of complex systems with all robot manned labour; solving both the problem of access to and cost of energy for high level production, as much as raising the roof of efficiency that comes with increasing removal of human inputs.
Today, China just rolled out a 10G network, while other nations are still grasping with the accommodations of the 5G system. This is a nation seeing beyond the common, a nation that is seeing and implementing the possibility of increased reliability of communication systems, reduction in latency in real time communication appliances and guaranteeing efficiency. A nation that is set to permanently solve the problem of network insecurity, create faster speeds of up to 10 billion bits per second, 10 times faster than common traditional gigabit ethernet. This is a nation that has already seen the future of productivity, raising employees’ productivity, response times to customers and new levels of growth in the digital world.
With the news from China, we should all expect beyond the stated increased and rapid economic growth, more innovations, giant leap in education, and more importantly, the healthcare sector, through a more robust and fast remote consultations, telemedicine, and online learning platforms that require high-speed and low-latency connections.
This is the era of imaginations and transformation of imaginations into human creativities and innovations. The era of the envisioning of new possibilities, challenging existing norms and developing novel solutions to complex national and global challenges. These are what should preoccupy every serious nation as at this time, but unfortunately, Nigeria and Africa are left behind. Here, we are literally more interested in politics for control, power struggle without considerations for national wellness, wealth accumulation at the expense of the population for the interest of a few. Rather than building on what we have on ground, we kill them to maintain importation and to keep making money from being the middle men. Ajaokuta steel, the innate national bedrock of technological input, has been intentionally kept moribund. Functioning industries are being starved to death, research institutes relatively unfunded because they are not national priorities.
Where is our national technology blueprint? Do we not share the sentiment that technology is the key driver of modern society, transforming industries, improving lives, and creating new opportunities for growth and development? Are we blind to what China’s tech giants, like the Alibabas, Tencents, and Huaweis are playing in the country’s economic transformation? Where is our semblance of America’s Silicon Valley to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across our continent and more importantly in our nation? What are we doing as other nations are becoming fast advanced in fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and renewable energy? Aren’t ours not ending on papers without sincere commitments.?
It is about time we engaged in a shift in what our priorities are. It is about time we engaged in our abundant natural resources and huge population as instruments of innovation and translation of our many imaginations into practical solutions that drive our economic growth, social changes, and human well- being. We can transform our transportation system with a high speed rail network that reduces cost of transportation and lower duration of transportation simultaneously.. We can build, if we can imagine it, a significant advancement in medical research and technology that will lead to gross improvement of the lives of our people, as much as it will contribute immensely to our national economic development and global competitiveness in the sector.
This is about the time our leaders at all levels recognise the trend the country cannot afford to miss. They must realise the importance of the presence of our nation in the domain of nations growing with the new innovation and technology drives. We must join the league of nations craving for the capacity to imagine, create, and innovate for national development and global relevance. If today, we shift our focus to the full development of the nation’s steel power and capability, we will also begin to see the nation’s capacity to leverage on the availability of the raw materials to raise the banner of the electronic industry and manufacturing in the country. We will begin to see the country’s capacity to delve into self sufficiency in automobile production. That imaginations and responses will open our eyes to wasting solid minerals of immense value in most of these industries that were being stolen for personal interests before now.
This could become the only pathway to resolving the nation’s unemployment challenges. Taking our imagination to the next level of creative productivity that creates jobs in millions for our teeming population. China did that and has reduced its national employment drastically and has relatively ended poverty in the country. Our key to national comfort in the future is our realisation today, of the interconnectedness of imagination, technology and innovation. Accepting that this is the digital age and imaginations matters.
Nigeria must be present, embrace the reality of a new growth pathway to shape the future of our nation. Our leaders must be willing to invest in human development as the key to national development. The structure and operation blueprint of our institutions of learning must have to change to allow the students, the teeming youths the leeway to dream and imagine, a prospect to transform imagination to reality and a system to support all the way.
I will conclude by saying that the interplay of imagination, technology, and innovation is a vital driver of human progress. By investing in these areas, we can unlock Nigeria’s human potential, drive economic growth, and improve the quality of life for our citizens. As the world continues to evolve, it is essential that we join to prioritise imagination, technology, and innovation to remain competitive and relevant in the global economy.
Finally, our politicians must begin to see that the country deserves to breathe. That this nation deserves a touch at what it is capable of, and a place among the high echelon of serious community of nations. 250 million population is an asset we cannot allow to go to waste.
