ON DEMOCRATIC IDEALS AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract
SincethebegginingofdemocracyinNigeriainrecent times,therehasbeenmoretalkondemocraticidealsand institutionsthanaction.Theimprovementand establishmentofacultureofscienceandtechnologyhas notbeeninourpolicticalpartiesmanifestosnorbeenour politicalculture.Moreover,inspiteofthevaunted idolizationofscienceandtechnologyanditsvisible benefitsandachievements,wedonotseemtoaccordit anditspracticersthenecessarysupportandrespectthey deserve.

DrUmaruAHMADU Departmentof Physics,Federal Universityof Technology, Minna,Nigeria u.ahmadu@yahoo.com

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May 29, 1999, and 2012 marked yet another watershed in the vicissitudes of Nigerias search for a sustainable democratic system. This however, did not come easy. It was the climax of both local and international orchestrated and wellarticulated campaign, characterized by a spate of bomb explosions, expulsion from commonwealth, cessation of international aids, etc., which had never been experienced before. Little wonder therefore that Nigerians recognised the birth of the third republic and subsequent ones as a hope for the realization of their aspirations, an aspiration that cuts across various institutions and associations every individual had something to hope for. Foremost in this new found hopefulness are the business and academic community across the board. Everybody was seething with excitement and looked forward to a prosperous future, and why not, after all, we were promised that democracy is the panacea for all our nagging problems and the basis for real development. Alas, the pernicious despondency that gripped the nation started ebbing away as the electorates soon realized that after almost thirteen concrete years there is little that could be showcased as real institutional revolution across many sectors and in particular, for the lives of the average Nigerian who lives on less than $2 a day. Naturally, people started thinking of what democracy really means, perhaps it has an African or rather Nigerian context as the so-called dividends of democracy have so far eluded us. Western countries bamboozled the democratic system of governance on our psyche and imposed it on the World, willy-nilly, whether we are ready or not as it is tied to our credit worthiness or any international assistance or aid; we are
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sanctioned or isolated if we prefer the contrary; sometimes a leader is forcibly toppled to enthrone a democratic one, though there are countries that are exceptions to this state of affairs, the so-called Sheikhdoms of the Middle East. Though the Arab spring has shaken them tremendously and they are now forced to make a rethink of the conservative principles they had hitherto enjoyed. Further, we are told by the West that some of the socalled dividends that come with democracy include, among others: the enthronement of due process of law; blossoming of the economy due to liberalization and prospective new investments, removal of subsidies on public utilities, privatization and commercialization of public enterprises and institutions and the development and nurturing of scientific institutions to name but a few. All these and more would lead to a stable and prosperous society, we are told. The West pursues these policies blindly without recourse to the nature of our plural society, the competition between ethnic groups and our level of development (we are largely in the agrarian, pre-industrial level), our literacy and the general socio-economic level which are pertinent to the stability of the institutions of democracy. One may ask whether the West discovered democracy in thirty or fifty years of their existence to have the audacity to latch it on developing countries with such unabated passion? We would be foolish though to say that we have to pass through all the difficult stages to arrive at democracy, but we ask that cant we practice democracy with the flavour which reflects the expediency of our situation taking cognisance of our history, culture and aspirations as nation without external intrusion? Certainly, it goes without saying that the

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ideals of democrasy are lofty and that it is just a way among many for seeking freedom but one that requires some nurturing and fine-tuning in other to succeed under different environmental contexts. With the World having imposed democracy on us and our subsequent implimentation of it, albeit in a higgledy-piggledy manner, it is our duty to make it work. When we compare our score cards on the so-called democratic dividends with those of Western countries you find that we hardly score anything. Of course it is not that our democracy has not achieved anything, it has, immensely: freedom of expression and association is pervasive; at one time students were encouraged to learn, due to one of the most poignant scholarship schemes ever to be implemented during the Obasanjo regime. However, the issue is of democratic ideals and institutions. Our foremost ideal is the economy, though it has grown in terms of revenue accruing to the Federal Goverment and the national and state budgets, it does not trickle down. Creation of jobs is still a far cry from the ideal, thousands, some would say millions of school leavers at all levels have no job. Adults who are retired civil servants have pension arrears running for years into billions of Naira, what with the current pension scandals which are unhelpful. Many ordinary adults sit at home and have no jobs. An important institution that has been neglected in our democratic pursuits and aspirations and which is most desirous of our concern and attention for which i am agitated to expouse, is the institutionalization of scientific development programmes in political the brouhaha and strategizing election enginering.
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Since the beginning of this dispensation, there has been no major policy change to the institutionalization of the fabric for socio-economic development of Nigeria. There was the Abacha eras vision 2010 committee which was very comprehensive in its terms and reach and which would have been truly the beginning, indeed the foundation for Nigerias scientific development. Then there came the Yaradua vision 20: 2020, another attempt to chart a course for our future, which is now, from all indications, going down the same path of oblivion. Without a particular vision for Nigeria that will direct human and material resources towards that goal, there is little hope for Nigeria. A vision of one kind or the other is necessary. Malaysias Mahathir Mohammed had a twenty-year vision for the development of his country, a country that started almost at the same level with Nigeria, perhaps we even had an edge, is today bubbling with largely indeginous high-tech scientific activity, and one of the fast-growing economies in the World. India is another country with comparatively fewer natural resources than Nigeria and a large population burden, yet today, it is nuclear power, a leader in computer software, in pharmacy, and you name it. This country had a vision and worked towards its implimentation, from Nehru down to president Atal Bihari Vajpaye. Indonesia, yet another country with almost twice Nigerias population and comparatively fewer natural resources, succeeded, even with a despised military dictatorship, to ultimately attain the present democracy after a violent revolution, which eventually made it to become one of the leading economies and centres of
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industrialization in the World. Many other similar examples can be found in Asian democracies. Naturally, one begins to wonder whether our politicians, their party manisfestos and indeed a section of educated Nigerian populace who had been running the country really appreciate the power of science as a veritable instrument for socio-economic growth and job creation, among others, before they can take the necessary steps. This is a country that is about 70% illiterate according to some estimates. The scientific literacy level? This should be certainly poorer. By this i mean the appreciation and understanding by the people of the science needed by all, according to the writer, Black. Many of our political office holders and other executives in institutions do not appreciate what it takes to do science, in terms of human, material resources and funding, consequently, they are prejudiced against science when it comes to speaking for science or its practitioners. Our legislators in particular, and the president, incidentally a scientist, must believe in the power of science to transform the economy and nurture socio-political development. A Professor Emeritus, F.M.A. Ukoli had once urged, in his book, that politicians and administrators should, my emphasis, acquire greater scientific understanding and literacy so that they can assess scientific needs, claims, projects According to experts, understanding and the appreciation of the methods of science would lead to leaders being favourably inclined toward it. Our educational institutions are the premier institutions for promoting science and therefore we need to go beyond our academic institutions to popularize science. In the opinion of another writer Paul, even the clergy should not be left out.
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There should be a continuing life-long education in scientific literacy of the clergy and the theologians, he asserted, in faith and science in an unjust world. This is because religious leaders have enormous influence over teeming population of masses. Indeed, the first foundation for nurturing science is the grassroots, as in the view of John D. Barrow, the system of belief with a culture determines whether or not it is fertile for the growth of science, in the world within the world. The question might be asked: under the democratic system we have science and technology committee, couldnt they take up the gauntlet and struggle with bills to promote science? One might reply that unless their colleagues believe that science is an instrument of national development, there is little they can do. They can only do as much. It must be realized that in as much as the veto power of the legislators is respected, the power to really actualize scientific policies or programmes lies mostly with the president. Nigeria is blessed with scientific manpower and all that is needed is for the president to give our scientists a national assignment, provide the materials and human resources needed and the enabling environment. This is one way Mr. President can test the proficiency and international acclaim of Nigerias scientists at home and abroad, and it is what China did with her Nuclear project, ditto India. It will also engender reverence from Nigerians as to the ability of their scientists, rather than the charlatans and theorists many see them to be.

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When former president Obasanjo visited America in the year 2000 it was revealed that more than 3,000 Nigerian professionals are leading in various fields, from Engineering to Medicine and the sciences. This was the basis for the formation of the Nigeria DIASPORA organization and the coming of people like Prof. Bath Nnaji, former minister of Power. If this pool of Nigerians and those from other parts of the world could be encouraged and harnessed, by providing a conducive environment and funds, to come back, there is no reason why the technological base of this country would not lie mostly on the pedestal of Nigerians to revive our moribund industries and sustain existing industries or build new ones. An action that will make us truly technologically independent to a large extent. There is no time for idolizing and fantasizing about democratic system of

governance. We should go beyond the show case of organizing elections through the
ballot system, free press, representation, etc. as the ultimate ideals of democracy that we have so far witnessed. Regrettably, these seem to be what our politicians are telling us, which is only a stage-managing aspect of democracy. We want institutionalization of democratic ideals, one of which is the implementation of the fundamental principle that scientific development is the means of achieving our national development plans and self-reliance and the appropriate action taken in order to actualize them. The American, Tocqueville has opined: it is the institutions of democracy that prepared the Americans to seek the practical results of science. We cannot afford to do otherwise, polemics retorics and idolization of democratic idelas alone wont
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do, they should be coupled with concrete action. Nigerian scientists must constitute themselves into a lobby group to seek for favourable legislation for science in terms of welfare, facilities and funding they need in other to make the neceassary impact on the country, this is compatible with the democratic process. In democracies around the World, leaders show their support for science through appointment of top scientists to high positions. For example, in 1996 according to Letvin, the then Russian president appointed a vice premier for science and education. A move which experts say was to show support for science. Presidents Jefferson and Benjamin of America were reported to have been actual practicers and strong advocates of science. It must be noted that support for science strengthens the support instruments of democracy through breakthrough research by scientists and indeed the ruling party itself. It also provides military strength, improved social comfort and creates jobs, among others, which are coveted indices of achievements by politicians. Science and politics work hand-in-hand. There are many democratic ideals which we should aspire to realize and for which we must start now. Achieving them in the short term seem to be a far cry, not least of which is due to the general level of appreciation of science and its potentials, among the populace. For instance, you hardly find any scientific agenda being peddled around by political parties seeking election during campaigns. They have a general education program, which most often than not, does not go beyond free education. In short, science does not feature at all in their manifestos. This is a true reflection of the nature of our society which although revels in the products of
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science, but does not deeem it fit or worthy to fund sicence to the level of productive capacity. We lack development that would lead to the right level of appreciation of scientific values. On the contrary, in Western democracies, parties have to display their science technology programmes in their manifestos to the electorates. Such a case had been reported in Australia by Sarma in the journal Nature, wher the political parties had to show the electorates whether their party would provide scholarship for certain researches, fund or close down a particular research, as the case may be, on the basis of which the electorates decide in the ballot box. As far as 1980, the OAU Lagos plan of action, and the World plan of action require member and African states to spend 10% of their GNP on science and technology, according to the National Policy on Science and Technology (NPST, 1990). However, up to 1985, according to Emeritus Professor, F.M.A. Ukoli, it was under 0.2%. Recall that the recent disagreement betwen the Federal Government and ASUU, indeed all previous negotiations, included the issue of government spending about 25% of the budget on education in general. Prof. Tom David West was reported in vanguard of October, 1998, that in 1989 for instance, the expenditure on universities and research institutes was 2.1% and 0.55% respectively, of the budget. The universities and research institutes indices are relevant because they are hubs of scientific activity. These are percentages of what had been budgeted to be spent, not GNP. We can surmise that with the above indices it is clear that even now our spending on science and technology falls far

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below the required level, in the face of these plans of action, though our spending had improved tremndously. On the contrary however, spending on science has been on the climb in virtually all democracies, virtually taking a greater chunk of the budget. According to Nathan writing in Nature, Japans spending on science is to increase by 11.9% across all ministries over the next five years. A Japanese official defending this spending said support for science is essential for Japans economic future. In America, our democratic model, as far as 1986, 20% of the budget was controlled by scientists and engineers, according to Holton, in his book the advancement of

science and its burdens. This is a necessary ingredient for reaping the fruits of the
democratic process. Our National Policy on Science and Technology (NPST, 1986) in order to realize our philosophy that science is an instrument of national development stipulated a bias ratio of 60:40 in favour of science /technology students for admission into universities and 80:20 in favour of science/technology students in polytechnics and universities of technology, to boost manpower. According to various researchers, this ratio in favour of science had never been met, infact, it stands at about 20 33 % as at 1987 for universities. Even at that, it has been observed that the scientific market had long been saturated: we are producing science graduates that have no institutions to absorb them. In 2007 for example, the then minister of education Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili revealed that 70% of graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions are unemployed, underemployed and unemployable.
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Shortly after, the then CBN governor Prof. Charles Soludo made a similar remark when he revealed that more than 60% of Nigerian graduates are unemployable, i.e., they do not have skills commensurate with their university degrees. The case of science, engineering and medicine should be worse as these are fileds in which its practioners are expected to have some skills. Most are therefore wasted. The mother institution which employs most science graduates are educational institutions. There are no adequate and relevant research institutes to cater for their various specializations. The economy is not growing in parallel with the rate of production of science/technology graduates. Therefore, scientists are found in all sorts of fields and it is easy to see that government has wasted money in training them as they could not find a relevant place to apply their skills. Should this ratio be realized, with the present state of affairs, it would be a greater wastage, and would create even greater unemployment. This sort of scenario happened in India in the early days of the Indian scienticization programme, as reported by Markherjee in 1970: in India there is an oversupply of university graduates, mostly in science with masters degrees, thousands of whom are unemployed because the present state of the economy does not have the means to absorb them Gladly, there has been a gradual realization of some of the problems facing the study of science in Nigeria as evident in recent speeches by top government functioanries, to the effect that there is need to encourage students to study science, an issue that had long been observed by those who have a stake in the field, for example, Prof. Jibril Aminu pointed it out in a paper in 1986. This is not
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unconnected with the thrust of my discussion, allied with the fact that the enabling environment has not been provided to the Nigerian scientist in all ramifications. The beginning of our wisdom is when we start treating our scientists as a special brand of people, which indeed they are. There should be no jealousy in this, being an issue of national survival and pride. In Russia one of the ways they had shown respect for their scientists, was by building for them a scientific village . There is also the teeting problem of co-operation between industry and scientific institutions in research and development whcih is still on the drawing board. The national policy on science and technology, 1986 had lamented this lack of relationship. We are also aware that it is not possible for the government to shoulder the responsibility for all research, especially basic, except for some special ones. Governments effort need to be complimented by associations, small enterprises, industrial and wealthy individuals. Surely the government is leading the way especially with effective and result-producing agricultural institutes and other energy research centres scattered around country. The government can take some of the heat off its head by legislating or persuading, as may be necessary, multinationals and industries in particular, to establish research centres locally or in our universities, just as the Tertiary Education Fund project came into being. Government must also encourage private individuals to fund research centres as endowments and foundations. This hopefully, would create jobs and provide an avenue for the utilization of our scientists.

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Although the present policy on science and technology need to be reviewed to be in conformity with our present reality and aspirations, it does not seem that the main problem is that of policy, rather the discrepancy between paper work, which is generally utopian and impeccable, and the practice. Any policy without an overall vision for Nigeria that would be rooted in the policy of science and technology or lacking in enthusiasm in its implementation and its enshrinement in the constitution as an immutably sacrosanct component, irrespective of succeeding political parties, is bound to fail. On the threshold of the 21st century therefore, our legislators have the burden to entrench long term scientific programmes to make Nigeria self-reliant and prosperous.

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