A former Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Prof. Mohammad Sani Haruna, said only technical education can help Nigeria to overcome its security and economic challenges.
He said it is possible to save the Naira from continue depreciation when the nation returns to manufacturing with local raw materials.
He said it was time for the nation to adopt the Asian Tiger model to attain industrial development.
Haruna made the submissions in a paper at the maiden convocation of the Federal Polytechnic, Daura, Katsina State.
He said: “The technical education is as important in our national life today next to only food security and the nation security.
“In fact, technical education is part of the solution to our security challenges and economic woes.
“The others include qualitative leadership and unity.
“As a nation, we are now at crossroads to get it right; and consistently so because development in cutting edge technologies better known as frontier technologies have shown tendencies to widen the socio-economic gaps between the advanced and developing nations in one hand; and between the third world and developing countries on the other hand.
“These technologies include artificial intelligence; robotics; the internet of things (IoT); big data; block chain; additive manufacturing; autonomous vehicles; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); gene editing; 5G network; and the recent innovation of the high-efficient solar cell that can produce a thousand times more power than silicon based solar cells.
“Despite the opportunities and high potentials of sustainable development brought about by these elements of the fourth industrial revolution, they risk increasing the inequalities by escalating and creating new digital divides between ‘the technology haves and the have nots’.
“This means we can remain only consumer nations for generations after generations and perhaps until the end of time.”
Haruna cited examples of many countries with technological breakthrough with limited resources.
He said: “Indeed, countries without natural resources even with regular disasters and extreme weather conditions are among the developed nations due to deployment of science, technology, and innovation.
“For instance, Japan experiences an average of six earthquakes per annum.
“They also annually experience typhoons, floods, landslides, had the most devasting tsunami among others.
“Yet they import raw materials from elsewhere and with value addition generate more profits due to know-how than the country of origin of these raw materials.
“And in the case of Nigeria, we export crude oil and other commodity and import the finished products in trade deficit because our imports outshine our exports.
” Technical and Vocational Education Training has been recognised as instrumental towards making extraordinary contributions to industries and technological work environment.”
Haruna also recommended the adoption of Asian Tiger model technology to enable the nation to attain industrial economy.
He added: “The future of Nigeria and Nigerians cannot be left at the mercy of fluctuating chances and what I call gambling with the most critical aspects of our survival.
“The country can be rescued from economic vicissitude by emulating and adopting the Asian Tigers and the Tiger Cubs.
“Only home grown science and technology innovations build on sound human capacity through technical education can lead to sustainable industrial economy.
“Developed and developing nations such as Japan, China, Singapore, Germany, United States of America, and the Tiger Cubs (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines) have attained tremendous heights in terms of Industrialization because of consistent but substantial investment in TVET in all economic ramification of their citizens.
On the depreciation of the Naira, Haruna said the only way to avert the slide is a return to manufacturing with local tools and local raw materials.
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He said: “The point is we cannot save the Naira from continue depreciation until we return to manufacturing with local raw material, produce major components and machine tools, manpower development and processes.
“This is only achievable if we overhaul educational system which prioritise technical education to meet, the demand of our socio-economic endeavour.”
