Nigeria and the wayforward - Ben Bruce's strategic plan.

I noted in the conclusion of my crtique of Ben Murry Bruce's book of Commonsense Revolution, that the book is somehow faulty, though has some commonsense in it. Now, i want to put my constructive criticism outside and elaborate on the good part of the book that made my appeal. Just in the spirit of moving Nigeria forward.

Ben spoke extensively on many ways Nigeria can move farward. But the part that struck and upgraded my thinking faculty was his strong analysis of EDUCATION as a strong instrument for sustainable development. He did not choose the word education, rather "WE NEED MORE BRAIN INFRASTRUCTURE"

However, his conceptualisation of education and its intended effects differs from my own, though complementary. His major argument is that, education is a major instrument for fighting insecurity and not gun. Now, taking an insignificant walk out of our general perception of education in Nigeria, as an acquisition of knowledge in order to get a good job and live a comfortable life. Education has been a very vital and strong instrument for national development, especially in the area of science and technology. At this point, i define modernization and development as the ability to master science and technology. This my definition simply tells you that all developed countries of the word have mastered science and technology. Just mention any of them in contrary. In other words, any country claiming to be developed without science and technology is underdeveloped just like Nigeria and Africa. You will therefore, agree with me that these two are not just read in theories but learnt in practice.

My little inquring about many developed countries shows that, these countres spent 'sooooo' much money in educating their citizens to master science and technology. A good example is China. The summary of China model of development is that, the government of China at point assembled a very small number of its researchers and engineers to study and digest the western technologies and then develop China's own. Is this not marvelous? This is the spirit of a country that wants to develop. Let me not go far.

In Nigeria, year in- year - out, we have group of engineers finishing with first class from our prestigous univeristies, and end up scampering for a few empolyment spaces meant for economists, accountants, business adms. Political scientists etc. Recently, Unilag produced the highest first class students from engineering (41). What next??

We have many talented-scientifically inclined citizens. Some without formal education, but have constructed aircrafts, houses, cars, electricity, and many more. But, these people are barely noticed. The only people we notice are the breadseller (Olajumoke) that even Mr Ruben Abatti wrote special articule for her; the fight of Olamide and Don Jazz, Davido and his babymama (Ruben also wrote about it) and many more insignificant events.

I therefore, suggest that our government should focus more on our educational-technological advancement, and one way we can achieve that is to copy from China, by assembling some of our researchers and engineers, send them to the west to study and digest the western technologies. Like Ben Bruce also suggested, we should find a way to assemble back our people who have excelled in abroad to help Nigeria. Personally, i do not support the so called #5000 stipend, because it has absolutely nothing to contribute to our developemt. We must look beyond giving our children in public schools 3square meal. We must seriously encourage team research. Invest heavely in our scientists and engineers. We have to stop praying for Nigeria, but ask the government to do the needful. Nations develop by strategy and plan and not by prayer.

Ochuba Polycarp #trying to see things differently#