Nigeria must consider separating education from science, technology —Prof Mabogunje

If Nigeria would experience economic growth and practical development, it must be ready to concentrate on a self-reliant and resilient economy through robust inventions and other intellectual property away from education. These were the words of the chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Ibadan School of Government and Public policy (ISGPP), Professor Akin Mabogunje, during the inauguration of the 32 -man Public Policy Group (PPG), at the conference hall of the institution, on Wednesday.

Professor Mabogunje, who said the inauguration of the group cannot come at a better time, especially, given the current situation in the country, said that “there is clearly a glaring need for government and all relevant stakeholders in the socio-economic development to prioritise on areas requiring urgent attention for policy development and articulation.”

“I have always been dismayed at the tendency in this country to align science and technology only with education without stressing their critical dimension for the enhancement of our productive activities and the possibilities of growing a self-reliant and resilient economy through a robust generation of inventions and other intellectual property
“For instance, the abundant hours of sunshine in our country, I will hope that we can articulate policies that would gradually serve to put Nigeria in the forefront of countries engaged in the production of innovative and creative products in the area of renewable solar energy rather than just being consumers of what other countries produce.

Earlier, the executive vice chairman, ISGPP, Dr Tunji Olaopa, had said ISGPP is concerned with getting government “to work better for democratic governance and development from the perspective of knowledge and policy intelligence.”
“ISGPP hopes to leverage the twin instrument of research and executive education, by converging on existing community of scholars and practitioners, to intervene in Nigeria’s policy environment with the goal of facilitating creative responses to the development predicament in Nigeria.”

In his conceptual note on mandate and programmes, Professor Oyejide, said that PPG would be ready to act in one of the key features of the typical think thank which is its “capacity and readiness to offer guidance, at very short notice, when the unforseen suddenly becomes reality.”
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