By Emmanuel Elebeke

Director General of NOTAP, Dr. Umar Baba Bindir

Last week, the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP organized a three days workshop in partnership with Islamic Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) to brainstorm on future of technology in Nigeria, for sustainable development entitled “Technology Foresight”. At the end of the programme, a communique was expected to guide the agency on how to come up with blue print on how to fast-track grow in the industry. Vanguard Hi-Tech cornered the Chief cornered the the Director General of NOTAP, Dr. Umar Baba Bindir, who is the chief convener of the event to highlight the objective of the workshop. enjoy the excerpts:

For the sake of ordinary man in the street, what is technology foresight all about?

Technology foresight just like the word foresight, is looking at the future. Therefore, technology foresight is all about technology for the future. The event was found fitting because we realized that today Nigeria is acquiring technology for various purposes from all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, research institutions. We think that is not enough for Nigeria. Nigeria has to go and acquire technology from outside, as you can see that technology that is being used by Julius Berger, Nigeria breweries, PZ, Nestle Foods, and all the multinationals in Nigeria are all foreign.

It is all these put together that made Nigerian economy tick. If we continue like this, we will be nearing 100 percent of the technology required in the oil and gas, within the ICT supply chain, for banks and so on. This make Nigeria big and these technologies are changing.

Right now, with minimal contribution to the technology of certain industries, we are waiting for the future, such that the technology that we hope for lies in the future. So what we are saying is that we need to look at where we are now and the future so that we can prepare a plan whereby Nigeria is acquiring and utilizing her own technology, for her own economy in the future. That is what the programme is all about.

How do you intend to actualize this objective?

We intend to involve all the stakeholders across the country. This is why you will see people even from the university present at this workshop, so that they can understand better, in terms of modifying their own efforts according the curriculum, how they will teach the students in the future in terms forging and recapturing them. Also, at end of the programme, they are expected to understand better in terms of the resources of the future, setting of laboratories where they will be acquiring technology for the future. This is why the universities are here. The private sector is also here. They can be able to understand the linkage, the academia and the industry of the future. Many research institutions are equally here, so that they can understand this is how to do it in their laboratories, workshops. The PHD holders are not left out also with their findings and there programmes for the future. This is the beginning of the framework that we are coming up with for what we are going to do in the next five years, and how we plan to do it, who our partners are going to be, what we will concentrate upon and the main emphasis that will drive the whole idea. This is how we can get there. The first thing is to brainstorm on what we are tackling. The next is to produce a plan and then we follow that plan immediately.

Who and who participated in this event?

In this programme, NOTAP is partnering with some international partners, scientific, education and cultural organizations, similar to UNECO. Their head quarters is in Morocco and we have partnered ship with them have actually come up with regional workshop. So, this is a programme involving international community,.all the agencies in the federal ministry of science and technology are involved,. All scientific organizations within the universities in Nigeria are also involved. All the universities are equally involved, certainly the public sector, the governance in terms of the ministries are not left out. It is a very holistic and implementation strategy for Vision 2020 20.

Expectations at the end of this programme?

At the end of this programme, we plan to have a communique. This will decide what has to be done after all these brain storming exercise, as an indication that this event had taken place. We intend to send the communique to all the universities and the participating agencies. The conclusion of the communique will defind what we are going to do in future. Next is that we are going to conduct what is called the technology needs assessment plan. That is where we are going to look at what will be the technology in Agriculture, health, energy, education etc. all these are going to happen after which the next level will be where we will get the funding. All the international communities are going to be involved because we do not have the capacity to do it. So, raising the capacity is part of the programme too. We will also organize another workshop, whereby we are going to train people on how to articulate research proposals. For these we are going to get international funding , so that we can be able to do this.

Any assurance that all these efforts will not go the usual way of poor implementation?

Technology foresight is new and as a matter fact, we do not have the past as far as technology foresight is concerned .. If you are talking on the traditional rabbling activities whereby you end up with the conclusion that some policies are not executed, I know a lot of people will say Nigerians are good at articulating plans but they are bad implementors and let me tell my opinion. My opinion is that anything you cannot implement, was not packaged well. So, you are even a bad planner. If you can’t implement, you are a terrible planner. I believe myself and has never being known as a bad planner in the last 11 years I have been in NOTAP. The practicality of the whole thing is that most of these activities require reform. I fully understand that government does not support the recurrent projects such as doing conference, visiting , doing culvert etc but these are critical activities. I also have got a techniques to source fund to implement my programme. But I will ensure that everything is done in the most transparent manner and openness and I think I have got credibility and peoples’ confidence, even internationally. In this programme, I actually contributed 10 percent, while 90 percent of the money came from outside.

Why has Nigeria been lagging behind in terms of technology advancement?

There are a lot of reasons. Nigeria requires a very practicable policy on national science, engineering technology innovation. As we speak, the cost of refining what we have before requires practicable approach. Practicable in the sense that it is based on data, information and contribution of experts as we are doing now. That Nigeria can’t avoid. When the policy is there, Nigeria cannot avoid the fact that it requires the critical mass and highly skilled man power to drive things from the beginning to the end. You need practical engineers, practical scientists, practical medical people, practical researchers. That means, our education system has to change in the revolutionary manner. Our universities have to be good. This Nigeria must understand, that we can’t have 108 universities and only five of them can be found in the top 100 ranked universities in Africa. That is not good enough. We have to change. We have to have up to 20 of them ranked, so that by any standard in Africa, Nigeria should have at least 10 among the top 20 ranked universities in the continent. That has to happen. Right now, this has not taken place and unless our universities are good. And the goodness of the universities should be automatic. you do not need to tell people that you are good. You will see people running from Ghana, South Africa and other countries to seek admission in our local universities as we see our people now running to Harvard, Malaysia, MIT for studies. It is so because their institutions are good and ours are not good. If they must be good, wee need to make some changes so that they will be good.

Is that all that is required to bring about the radical changes?

Research and development is the most innovative and conceptual strategy that every country that must developed must do. Nigeria is not different . We must do research and development because they are essential. We need high quality people that must be motivated, we need very expensive laboratories and equipments, we need very expensive equipments in workshops, we have to make things comfortable and responsive to modern realities. These countries that have made progress ensured that they got funding in what we call “national research fund.” Nigeria does not have that, and this Nigeria must have. I’m happy that the honourable minister is in the project to ensure that Nigeria has that. If we are serious that we want to work, and ensure that we acquire technology to cater for these 155 million people, there is no cutting corners in acquiring technology and technology does not just come like that. It does not rain, that is why you see power supply in the state it is today in Nigeria, it is a technology factor. We have the fund, we have the rivers but we do not have power. It so because we do not have the skill and what it takes to harness these things. One of the major ingredients for survival these days is information and communication technology. Nigeria must make sure that ICT is privately acquired and applied in Nigeria. Every primary school in Nigeria must have internet facility that is not difficult too connect, all public places too must have internet. We should see Nigerians where ever they may be should open their computers and have access to internet, sending mails, downloading data. This is the only way to go. These are the fundamental things we have identified that we must do.

Can our universities ever attract foreigners again?

Yes, I said earlier, every body in the world requires good education because if you have a good education, that is the seed you have planted for future survival. God education can’t happen without good teachers, who are well paid and schools well motivated. Researchers have to be encouraged too. They are the ones producing software manufacturers, handsets and man power all over the world. To have these people in one place, and ensure that people are learning, we need laboratories that are of world class standards, so that every student who comes have got access to computing, laboratory, and access to practicalizing it. And these must happen in a conducive environment. Hostels should be one student to one room. this is a fantastic environment, where they can feel comfortable to study and innovate. What do we have today? Our universities have poor teaching infrastructure, the workshops are bad, the laboratories are terrible. Therefore, the teachers are weak. so, no body want to go and waste his time their.

Science and technology have no secret. If the universities are good, students are good, and sound the economic will improve and poverty will decrease. There is no how we can achieve these when the intellectual capacity is weak. It must be developed. Even with over 80 million active mobile phone subscribers in Nigeria today, the technology is still foreign, the softwares being used all over the country are all foreign.

The responsibility is that of everybody. The strategy is not to blame but to ensure that irrespective of where you are, whether in public or private sector, you try to protect the interest of the Nigerian project, whereby if are expected to pay tax you do that, do your work conscientiously and shun corruption. All of us are responsible. The vision 2020 20 is not about the leaders but about Nigeria changing for better. If we must be among the top 20 economies in the world, it means that in the next nine years our roads must be good, steady power must be there, unemployment will be low, infrastructure must be right and our schools mist improve to world standard. That is the only way we can leapfrog from our present status.