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Technology in Nigeria
Related to country: Nigeria

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INTRODUCTION

Today, two main characteristics differentiate the developed and developing countries. The first characteristic is the numbing gap between the wealth of the two sides; the second is the gap in technological ideas and their impact on the well-being of their citizens. This paper is concerned with the development of ideas about technology and the impact of those ideas on economic and political development in Nigeria. The focus and significance of the paper are: (1) understanding the basic fact that technology is largely about ideas not finished products; (2) that ideas for sustaining appropriate technology in the developing countries in general, and Nigeria in particular, must be based on the building of a stable institutional framework that reinforces the acquisition of ideas about technology; and (3) that accomplishing the above requires concerted effort by the government, the business class and civil society focused on the development and utilization of basic infrastructure such as roads, energy, water supply and rail transportation. As preconditions for appropriating technological ideas from the developed countries, such efforts will result in the entrenchment of the concept of autochthonous technology in Nigeria.

THE ARGUMENT

Since independence, Nigerian policy makers have tended to think of technology mainly in the context of finished products rather than as a set of ideas rooted in the local culture with the set purpose of serving the basic needs of the people. This perception of technology focuses attention on the importation of finished products, and results in the absence of a maintenance culture, a sine qua non to the development of appropriate technology. Although businesses or individual entrepreneurs do sustain a maintenance culture, they are largely concerned with cost-benefit calculations and are less likely to engage in economic activities which are considered unnecessary for the well-being of noncost bearing members. For example, private enterprises are likely to engage in the business of road construction if they can charge tolls for the users; while, private healthcare will thrive if its profit margins exceed the costs of providing such services.

Given that entrepreneurs are self-interested rather than general welfareseeking agents, the provision of such essential infrastructures as reliable energy supply, roads and rail tracks, as well as efficient and stable institutional frameworks necessary for the development of ideas and utilization of technology, rests with the government. Effective technological development requires sustained participation of the government both as a provider of grants and as the custodian of law and order which are indispensable to the formulation of policies that facilitate such appropriations. While it is true that certain government policies benefit only a few individuals (for example, tax reductions for imported cars will benefit those with money to buy the cars), government provision of such public goods as healthcare, well maintained roads, and an efficient public transportation system invariably benefit most people in a given country. Furthermore, government officials can achieve their sometimes narrow objectives of rewarding ethnic and political supporters even more effectively by making certain that public goods are provided efficiently. For example, the existence of an efficient rural healthcare system within the country will benefit all citizens, including supporters of the incumbent regime.

In a notable deviation from its traditional support of neoclassical economic frameworks for economic development in the Third World, the World Bank argues that state capability in promoting efficient collective actions that ensure the maintenance of law and order, public health and basic infrastructure is essential for economic development.1 The Bank argues that state capability means "... combating entrenched corruption, ... subjecting state institutions to greater competition, ... making the state more responsive to people's needs, bringing government closer to the people through broader participation and decentralization"2 of government activities. For Nigeria, an institutional framework that supports education, builds and maintains roads that link the rural to the urban centers, ensures reliable energy supply and promotes the spirit of inquiry is a necessary condition for developing ideas of appropriate technology. However, given inadequate resource accumulation and allocation practices in most Third World nations, a more feasible approach would be one that focuses government policies on the provision of basic infrastructures. This will facilitate effective participation of members of civil society and encourage better utilization of available resources to bring about development of ideas rather than the consumption of already developed technological products from the industrialized nations. Participating in the development of ideas and their consequent usable products will also institutionalize a maintenance culture for developing and sustaining appropriate technology in Nigeria.

July 15, 2008 | 8:41 AM Comments  0 comments

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