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By Emmanuel Elebeke
In Nigeria, various administrations have come and gone without making much impact on the science and technology sector.
No wonder, in 2012, the country came up with a new National Policy with onerous, ambitious and altruistic mission. For government, the new policy was necessary to rescue future generations from poverty and deprivation.
In the policy, Federal Government expressed optimism that Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) remains the key tool that would help Nigeria achieve the transformation the country desires. But ever since the presentation of the new policy, government has been lukewarm in the implementation of the second phase.
A report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, tagged Science Report Towards 2030, An overview of global trends, urged Nigeria to look inwards by harnessing the immense talents wasting in the country.
The report encouraged Nigeria to commit more funds into research and dévelopment so as to grow the science, technology and innovation STI sector of the economy in order to pull the economy out of recession.
According to UNESCO, most African countries are convinced that STI can help them to foster more inclusive growth and sustainable development in the years to come. In fact, this reflected in national and sub-regional development plans to 2020-2030. ‘‘Many African countries now have STI policies and several have raised their financial commitment to R&D substantially in the past few years. Some are energetically promoting private sector R&D, such as through technology incubation hubs, dedicated funds and technology parks,’’ said the report.
Also, the report questioned the status of the 1 per cent GDP allocation approved by the Federal Executive Council in 2011 to fund research and development fun wondering how the gouvernement wants to achève sustainable growth without disbursing such funds that would enable scientists develop the local industries..
Nigeria had in 2007, devoted 0.22 per cent of her GDP to R&D, which is considered to be too poor for a country that wants to achieve SDGs by 2030. In the report, it was indicated that the average for sub-Saharan Africa in 2012 was 0.41 per cent of GDP as against 0.22 per cent of Nigeria.
Of the 0.22 per cent, Nigeria was found to have invested one-third of the research expenditure in natural sciences, one-quarter in engineering, 18 per cent in engineering, 11 per cent in social sciences, 10 per cent in medical and health sciences, 3 per cent in humanities.
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