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Apart from the shock therapy of
currency devaluation that makes a country the eternal patient of
economic soothsayers, scuttling from private lenders to money
lending institutions for more, there are three roads that make for a
financially self-sufficient country without the need for internal
borrowing and external indebtedness. These roads are the following
(i)
Emulation
(ii)
Innovation
(iii)
Original Ideas (Inventions and Discoveries)
Of these three, the surest are
innovation and original ideas. However what puts a country in the
roll call of the powerful are original creations covering the entire
gamut of knowledge and awareness.
Since what balances the budget
does not necessarily produce a balanced people, we shall need to
relate to (i iii) not only from the standpoint of the
contributions of scientific research and technology to the gross
national product but also from the emotionally balancing effect of
literature and performances. In what follows we shall confine our
treatment to research and technology. As our first step, let's try
to explore (i-iii) above.
Emulation
and Technology
When an
electronic machine is bought, the drawings of the logic gates are
supplied. Emulation begins with opening the machine to relate the
drawings to the components. Go to market and procure the stipulated
capacitance, resistance, transistors and others that are shown on
the drawings and connect them with lead as stipulated. You will end
up with the copy of the same machine. With this done, change the
cover. There you are!
Innovation
Creative Innovation and Technology
Now we have a
photocopy machine. You want a photocopy machine that can open pages
and photocopy. You build a page opening robot called Pagener (from
page (ope)ner. Pagener could be attached to the existing photocopy
machines. What you get is a pagener and photocopy machine in one.You
can now buy many photocopy machines and build them up with your
pagener. Or you can sell the license of your patent to one of the
manufacturers of photocopy machines. This is creative innovation.
Every machine can be upgraded with a new machine or component(s).
Original
Creations Basic Research and Technology
There are two
roads to completely new, therefore original ideas in mathematics,
natural and social sciences. One is to stand on the shoulders of
giants as Newton counsels. One studies their lives and works for
inspiration. Another road is trying to describe a physical
phenomenon by mathematizing it. This is the road of Descartes,
Newton and Leibniz. It is this road that led to the creation of
calculus by Newton and/or Leibniz. Inside mathematics there is an
additional third road. This normally happens with an inner tension,
a state of dissatisfaction with the mainstream rigidity and the
parotting of the beaten path. Most new ideas in mathematics come
while trying to solve the insoluble (non-solvable) problems in
mathematics or through solving them. Paradoxically these problems
originate from mathematical ideas which when created, started
without any paradox to becloud their firmament but develop to a
point where problems surface from within them which cannot be solved
using the same mathematical ideas. Such problems show the limits of
such mathematical ideas and so call for the creation of new
mathematics. That's the road that led to the birth of Transfigural
Mathematics. Examples of original ideas in physics are Newtonian
mechanics, relativity and quantum mechananics. In biology it's
twentieth century acme is the Double Helix.
Models
of Breakthroughs around the World
The Japanese Model Catch up and take the
lead
Emulation, Innovation
and Original Ideas
After the
United States, Japan is the world's largest economy. The Japanese
make up 2.6% of the worlds population that lives on 0.1 % of its
inhabitable area yet produce 10 per cent of world economic
production. How is this possible? Japan, during the Meiji period
focused its attention on emulating western technology such as
trains, steel production, and textiles. Taxes levied on agriculture
by Meiji leaders were used to fund the development of these new
industries. After World War II Japanese industries used this same
strategic industrial policy to develop the high-tech, steel, and car
industries that skyrocket Japan to the world's economic power.
Lucien
Ellington in Learning from the Japanese Economy provides the
politico-historical context that nurtured such a development. "In
the early 1870s, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, Japan's new
political leadership faced the problem of Western imperialism.
Japan's oligarchs quickly decided to build both a strong economy and
a strong military. Meiji leaders systematically studied various
economic models and made the deliberate decision to adopt a
Prussian-style government-directed capitalism where the government
plays a significant role in determining what is produced and
allocates capital through control of the financial system. Free
trade is considered harmful much of the time. The legal framework is
considered subservient to state interests and, most importantly, the
economy is viewed as existing to serve the interests of the nation,
not the individual. The Japanese rejected the Anglo-American
laissez-faire model in which the market largely determines what
products are produced, and banks and the stock market allocate
capital. Free-trade is considered highly desirable. Business and
government are viewed as separate entities, and the legal framework
(or rules of the economic game) is considered important. Above all,
the economy is viewed as serving the individual not the state.
Through great state assistance to a few industries, Japan had
become, even before World War II, a world leader in aluminum, ship
building, and rayon. While Japan's defeat in World War II meant a
radical de-emphasis of the military, the Japanese continued to
pursue the goal of economic strength. After the war, the Japanese
government continued its practice of promoting and protecting
particular industries and discouraging foreign and even domestic
competition. These policies were achieved first through tariffs and
later through so-called informal trade barriers such as
environmental or consumer production regulations written in a way
that excluded foreign or even aspiring domestic firms from entering
new markets."
Having started
with economic policies that shield domestic industries from the
cut-throat competition of foreign companies, the Japanese miracle is
also attributed to the long political stability led by the Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) and the general devotion of the Japanese
people in the form of individual sacrifices and community efforts
for their company or community they belong under the general saying
"catch up and take the lead" coupled as it were with the spirit of
competition encouraged at school. Thereafter Japan embarks on the
promotion of talents in all sectors. Within a short time, cameras
which were once mapped on the Western types are replaced by
Japanese-conceived, designed and produced cameras. The country
cannot be stopped now. At this stage original ideas have translated
into design and manufacturing of automobiles, heavy-duty and
precision machines and other machines and gadgets at prices that are
internationally competitive. Japan has arrived. To attain this
economic pinnacle, Japan sent her daughters and sons all over the
world to immerse in the rich intellectual pool and come back to make
the nation great. They did.
The
Chinese Model
Innovation and Original
Ideas
Even if its system of government is frowned upon by the free world,
China's innovative and creative abilities have catalpulted the
country and its people from a purely agricultural economy to a
high-flying technological power. Some of the stringent stipulations
of controlled economy have been relaxed to allow for individual
initiative and competition between the local industries and foreign
companies.
n The Enigma of China's Economic 'Miracle' Orville Schell writes,
"In 1989, China rose from the ashes of the Tiananmen Square
Massacre. In the early 1990's, it weathered the implosion of the
Japanese economic miracle, and maintained a steady course through
the Asian economic crisis later in the decade. In 2003, it came
through the SARS epidemic with banners flying. Now it seems to have
repelled US efforts to force it into revaluing its currency. Anyone
who has visited China's large cities over the past few years must be
impressed by the energy, pace, and scale of development. The sheer
number of projects--from highways, ports, railroads, and airports to
skyscrapers, housing developments, telecom infrastructure, and
industrial parks--leaves even skeptics gasping in awe."
Like Japan, Chinese students and academics have been to and are to
be found in thousands in the United States and Europe with some
sprinkles of them in other parts of the world. At home or abroad
they are contributing to the scientific and technological progress
of their country. They are behind what makes China tick.
Indian,
Pakistan
and Nuclear Technology
Innovation
and Contributions to Original Ideas
India produces
one of the greatest mathematicians of all times. His name is
Ramanujan. The country also produces great physicists. At least I
know two of them by name. A particle in quantum mechanics is even
named after one of them. The name of the particle is boson after the
Indian theoretical physicist, Bose. Pakistan produced the great
Abdus Salam, a theoretical physicist and also a Nobel Prize
laureate. His International Centre for Theoretical Phyiscs in
Trieste, Italy, was named after him, when he bowed out to join the
Immortals. Through innovation rather on original idea, India is
producing supercomputers which, according to the information of the
author, are being sold to Germany. All over the world but mostly in
United States and UK, you can find Indian and Pakistani students and
researchers. Little wonder that the two become nuclear powers
without the need to steal or borrow, using as it were, indigenous
talents. Nigeria has the human resource potential too. And even if
they are not encouraged, Nigeria also has original contributors to
the world's rich intellectual pool.
United
States
Innovation
and Original Ideas
Most of the
ideas that take the United States to the forefront in technology
from semiconductor with its basis in quantum mechanics (Heisenberg,
Bohr, Dirac) to computer, remember Alan Turing, originated from
original ideas in physics in Europe. Newton and Leibniz are two of
my other witnesses in mathematics. United States is the ablest
country under the sun for translating original ideas into practical
usage. Thus however deep the foundation of an original idea in
mathematics and the sciences may be these could be translated into
technology and other areas of practical significance in the United
States. But the DNA and Genome! That's made in United States with
technology that booms with it, biotechnology. And what about
information technology? Bill Gates, IBM, Intel and Motorola have the
answers. National Science Foundation constitutes the interface
between people with ideas and government fundings.
Europe
Original
Ideas and Innovation
Europe, of all
the continents of the world, has made the largest contributions to
original ideas in mathematics and the sciences so far. Europe, but
for its huge bureaucratic apparata that clogs the translation of
basic research into engineering and technology would have given
United States and Japan a tough time. Private initiatives as in
United States plays an important role here and government funding of
basic research and engineering and technology related projects is
rising, the economic difficulties of some European governments
notwithstanding. Germany and United Kingdom, two countries that I
know better than others in Europe have funding agencies for basic
research and its spinoffs in engineering and technology.
Wealth
Creation and Original Ideas
What makes a
nation great, in the final analysis, is not what is deposited in the
bowel of the earth but the creations of the human mind. Even the
recovery of mineral resources need the investment of the intellect.
However, even though it is the investment of the intellectual
resources that makes a people great, all the same, the abundance of
mineral resources as it is the lot of Africa to have creates the
opportunity for investing in basic research and promotion of
indigenous talents that will outlive the mineral deposits.
Which
way
Africa?
Africa has the
human resources to make it an intellectual superstar, shining like
the sun on its sky from Algeria to South Africa, from Nigeria to
Kenya. The continent's central problem is lack of confidence, indeed
the inability to dare. Coupled with this are lopsided priorities.
What can one say now? The books are inundated with what is wrong
with the continent that should be put right when what Africa needs
are solutions and not complaints about colonialism and
neo-colonialism, the past from which a lot should be learnt but are
never an alibi for systems that in most cases do not work,
godfathered as they were, by mismanagement, conspicuous consumption
and ego trip.
The question
remains all the same. Which way to progress that is meaningful and
durable and not just a ghost that parades in its name only to
disappear, like the dew, with the coming of the sun, the grim
realities of economics? The answer lies in choosing or inventing the
right model of economic growth. To this we shall come very soon.
Nigeria
and Human Resources in Diaspora
Oil has been
around in Nigeria for how many years now? The country is rich but
most of the people are poor. The reason for this is traceable to the
neglect of the human resources at home and abroad witness the
incessant closures of Nigerian universities, the beggar's pittance
for lecturership and lack of research centres and the sleepwalking
of the few that bear the name.
Brain
Drain, Brain Gain and Age of Information
In this age of
world wide web, an age when it takes the twinkle of an eye for
messages from one corner of the world to reach the others, distance
is no longer a barrier to serving one's country. In fact the
Internet has blunted the bite of brain drain.
The federal
government of Nigeria is calling on the Nigerian academics in
diaspora to come back home and serve the country. This is good. The
problem is that not everybody can pick up her or his bag and head
for home now or in the immediate future. What can the government do
to transform the rich human resources of the country abroad to the
gains of the people at home?
The answer is
simple. The federal government creates a databank that is internet
accessible. The databank is composed of sections for professions,
businesses, suggestions. Any professional who has something special
to offer puts in something about herself on himself there. The same
applies to groups of persons or companies, whether already existing
or are about to be set up. There are people who are internet shy and
who even with computers tied to their beds in the privacy of their
homes would cuddle it until they reach the button for the internet
at which point they freeze. For this people the federal government
should send forms to the various branches of Nigerian Academics in
Diapora for them to fill. Such forms should be filled and sent
directly to Ministry for Academic and Diaspora Affairs or any other
relevant ministry.
Since we are
talking about basic research, the translation of it or parts thereof
into engineering and technology, engineering and technology, the
central question is, "What can I do to uplift Nigeria
mathematically, scientifically and technologically?" Entries into
the databank by persons, groups and companies should be answers to
this question.
Medical
doctors who are established abroad could be made to serve the
country too. Nigerian Diaspora Medical Corps (NIDMEC) could be
created for Nigerian medical practitioners who cannot come back and
settle in Nigeria to come to the country every year and spend three
months in Nigerian hospitals, medical centres and village clinics
under the umbrella of Federal Ministry of Health.
What
Should be
Nigeria's
Economic Model?
Nigeria needs
the creators of original ideas. Original ideas, by which we mean
basic creations in mathematics and the sciences, cannot be bought.
This calls for the promotion of indigenous talents.
Perfect
Country, Balanced People
Absolute
perfection is the preserve of the Divine. Any human perfection is
therefore relative. For this reason no country nor people is
perfect. Thus when talking about perfect country, this is meant to
be a stage that the dreams of the people for their country is
fulfilled. Even this stage is still not prefect. Geometrically it is
a stage in the realm of infinity in which every point that is
reached defines a relative infinity. And since there is no end to
the dream of paradise any human perfection is relative perfection, a
chapter in an ongoing story. Relating this to our subject matter we
can say that no country is perfect nor a people balanced with the
pressing of the button that sets everything in motion. Science and
technology may help to balance the budget but the balancing of the
person - the unity of heart and head requires the flow of emotions
into reasoning and reasoning into emotions. Thus even for its
relative perfection, a county needs its literature, arts, music and
performances as it needs its social and natural sciences. And of
course, it does need too the river between them all, that is
mathematics. For what is our gain if we can make the friend of the
stars beyond and cannot make this world a beautiful place to live in
with love, with care, the central needs of peoples everywhere and
the fruits of the heart that is bread eternal.
Be
the Giant on Which Others Stand
In this
article I have tried to do what the Nigerian government expects of
Nigerian academics in Diaspora provide ideas for discussion on how
to make Nigeria a powerful, progressive and peaceful country. I am
in Germany and so still belongs to the bracket of 'brain drain'.
Even though I didnt come to spend the rest of my life abroad all
the same I am writing this as service to Nigeria from abroad which
also shows that brain drain can be brain gain afterall.
It is a shame
for a country like Nigeria, blessed with rich human resources and
with the oil still flowing in barrels of millions to be going around
the world with cups and caps asking for loans and doles.
I shall take
my first step to conclusion with the remarks by a Canadian
geophysicist friend-member of our international Inclusionality Group
which draws its membership from our philososphical scientific group
and comprising people from different backgrounds around the world,
Ted Lumley. He wrote, "As Feynmann [the great American physicist]
says, there is no requirement that a new idea has to agree with the
established line of thinking, in spite of Newton's comment that 'if
i have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants'.
New paradigms are not conceived by standing on the shoulders of 'the
state of the art' views, and constraining ideas to compliance with
the existing views of experts is a recipe for sub-optimization and
paradigmatic entrapment. It is the shape of the holes in the
collective mindspace that determines the utility of a new idea, not
a group of crony experts and sycophants collaboratively building
idea pyramids to ever greater heights."
Permit me to
lend Nigeria and Africa the Motto of The Matran School,
"Create-Formulate-Cultivate." So, addressing Africa through Nigeria
I would say, Be the Giant on which Others Stand.
Conclusion
Nigeria's
Miracle Economic Model
To become a
great nation, Nigeria has to go her own way. This requires the
investment of creativity. Whatever model the country chooses to
effect economic miracle it should not forget to include the
following:
I. Educational
policy that promotes original thinking and critical questioning of
authorities instead of the traditional cram-delivering,
quote-confirming parotting posture of
things.
II. Socio-economic
environment that encourages and where necessary funds individual
initiatives at the academic and professional levels and in business.
III. Promotion
of promoters of culture literature, arts and performances that
obliterates the possible emergence of a one-dimensional society.
IV. Funding organisations/centres
for basic research, engineering and technology
V. Atmosphere,
conditions and constitution guaranteeing political stability without
which no long-term plans could be made thus making a mockery of
development plans
In the final
analysis, what puts a nation on the everest of growth and makes it
an economic miracle that can survive the crucible of economic
upheavals are original ideas, yes original creations. Ability to
translate such ideas into practical uses determines the leader of
the market. Thus while the possession of original ideas makes the
king, the translation of such ideas into applications in
engineering, architecture, arts, technology and even literature make
the crown. Every creator needs the two for completeness. This is the
road to greatness. This road is intellectual richness that a person
or a people need for other economic benefits to follow.
Nigeria should
make hay now by transforming her Brain Drain to Brain Gain. Catch
them fast. Connect with your rich human resources abroad and link
them with those at home. And then wait and see how your tree
produces the fruits of knowledge, the fruits that ripen ever so
beautifully with time and fall to produce more of their kind and
continue to do so long after the oil rigs have stopped and the wells
have dried up, covered by sands on which children play their oranges
and the hens of the village doze away. And now, time will no longer
tell. The world will welcome you, Nigeria, to the high table at
last.
Lere Shakunle is the founder of Transfigural Mathematics,
Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of the Journal of Transfigural Mathematics
- an international journal of mathematics, sciences, literature and
arts - and Director/Founder of the Matran School, an international
school for interdisciplinary creativity. Before coming to the
Federal Republic of Germany in 1978 to do mathematics and physics,
he worked as a journalist with the Radio Nigeria, Nigerian
Television Service, Daily Times, Student Magazine and African Spark.
He is a member of Nigerian Academicians in Diaspora, Germany. Lere
lives in Berlin with his wife and children.
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