Nigeria’s sci-tech pushed to background, says Prof Inyang

At a briefing at the Botswanan High Commission in Abuja, Inyang, a former vice chancellor of African University of Science and Technology, said though Nigeria has a lot more complexities than Botswana, with a total population of around 2 million, science and technology “should come to the forefront.”“Disrespect for intellectual thinking in Africa has set […]

At a briefing at the Botswanan High Commission in Abuja, Inyang, a former vice chancellor of African University of Science and Technology, said though Nigeria has a lot more complexities than Botswana, with a total population of around 2 million, science and technology “should come to the forefront.”
“Disrespect for intellectual thinking in Africa has set the continent back several decades,” he observed, adding that Nigeria could learn from Botswana because a country’s size did not determine primacy in science and technology.
Inyang suggested that Nigeria needed a critical mass of forward thinkers and stronger national vision to make science and technology work for it.
“The system has to get together and channel its national strength in the area of science and technology,” he noted, adding that government departments dealing with science and technology have to run well.
“They cannot just be another parastatal that has no deliverable, year in year out,” he observed.
His comments came as Botswana introduced its pan-African university to students in Nigeria in hope of deepening educational ties between both countries.
BIUST is Botswana’s second largest national project and targets at least 200 students from a total 3,000 the Nigerian government has earmarked for sponsorship to schools abroad with funding from the Petroleum Trust Development Fund.
The school project’s cumulative enrolment could exceed 7,500 bachelors, masters, diploma and doctorate degrees in five colleges by 2022, up from 390 this year – mostly in engineering, sciences, agriculture and information technology.
It also plans to set up a maximum 20 research centres at the rate of four each year.