Nyerhovwo Tonukari
Imagine if some countries or group of countries gang up and ban the sales of some the essential items we now import? And our great country, the Giant of Africa imports so much. Nearly all the medicines and vaccines used in Nigeria are imported. We also import most chemicals and electronics, as well as many food and feed components. For example, we eat bread or baked products daily, and we import the wheat, baking powder and the yeast. What happened to the Nigerian Yeast and Alcohol Manufacturing Company established by the Federal Government in Bacita, Kwara State? But don’t we grow yeasts very easily in our microbiology and biochemistry laboratories? Why can’t we produce yeast industrially?
Nigeria has now become a dumping ground for several overseas manufacturing companies. Many of the foreign companies in Nigeria are not manufacturing but importing goods from their home countries. Successive governments have tried banning some imported products. Federal and state governments have even ventured into setting up companies to produce some of these imported goods and processes, but their efforts have not been very successful.
Who is to blame?
Universities and governments have generously provided laboratories, equipment and chemicals for Nigerian scientists. But how many real inventions or products or processes from our laboratories or patented by Nigerian scientists can you find in the market? Besides, many of us have received grants to conduct research; where are the benefits of our results and findings to our sponsor which is the Nigerian government and its people? Most of us who used university, federal or state government scholarships to train for our PhDs should ask ourselves if our research has truly contributed to the growth of the Nigerian economy. The only thing we can point to are publications most of which our own colleagues do not even bother to read. Many of us are even so proud that our articles are published in “foreign journals” which are not accessible to Nigerian scientists. Can you imagine a research sponsored by a public university using taxpayer money and others supported by grants from federal government not being accessible to us Nigerians because it is published in subscription journals which cannot be afforded by our universities’ libraries? Let me repeat that again: our libraries are too poor to subscribe to such journals, and we as individuals are also too poor to subscribe individually to the foreign journals. Yet, they encourage us and heap accolades on us when we send our best results and papers to the foreign journals.
The focus of universities especially the faculties of science should not be only in the training of future lecturers and research scientists, but also in the training of those who will work in the larger economy including production and service industries as well as in government. That is why I have been advocating that science students should be taught some real-world computing (like Microsoft Excel and Access or other database), basic engineering concepts, some accounting and business. Universities must serve as sources of innovation, skilled personnel, attractors of business investment and agents of social justice and mobility. We must harness our talents and re-orient our curriculum to benefit our economy.
Nigerian scientists must do more because we all owe Nigeria. We just cannot sit in our offices and laboratories and be contented with our publications. We have to keep asking ourselves the ultimate aim of our research. Sometimes we want to do “advanced” research using very expensive techniques just to be envied and praised by colleagues and students. But who is willing and able to develop just one of his results and actually do the very hard work to make a marketable product from his or her research for the benefit of mankind? Who is willing to push the boundary of his or her research to develop a process or assay or method that will be employed industrially? This may not be easy to do, but it is the only way to development. The society look up to us and trust us as lecturers. We can leverage this trust to build industries. It does not have to be based on our own research; we are permitted to use other peoples’ publications and ideas many of which are now freely available thanks to online journals and open access articles. There is nothing wrong in copying others’ work even if they have been patented as long as you cite the articles or pay to use the patents. We live in an era of knowledge where many industrial processes can be accessed online, and videos are freely available in YouTube.
Maybe focusing our research into getting new products or processes is just too tough. What of making existing products that we currently import? Dear colleagues, we need to step a little out of our laboratories and participate in the wider economy. We must believe in ourselves and move on to adopt and adapt the science and technologies that we teach. Most companies established by governments have ceased to operate. It is now left to us Nigerian scientists as individuals or in groups to establish such companies that produce most of these drugs, chemicals and electronics that we import. We do need help with financing, but we can never wait till the conditions are perfect before we embark on ventures that will create wealth, jobs and other opportunities.
Biotechnology offers huge potential to sustainably drive enterprise and employment. Simply, biotechnology is the application of living cells to make useful products. Biotechnology is an exciting discipline that has drawn the interests of traditional biologists, biochemists, microbiologists, medical and agricultural scientists into applying mathematical and engineering models to understanding biology. The arrival of increasingly rapid computers and massive data handling capacity at the beginning of the 21st century facilitated the translation of data derived from high-throughput screening methods into more robust and predictive design techniques. The convergence of the life sciences with chemistry, chemical engineering, computer science, and other disciplines has increased the potential for industrialization of the biological sciences for manufacturing.
The global protease market was about USD 1.7 billion in 2018, but there is no Nigerian company producing protease. The global industrial alcohol market size was valued at USD 105.89 billion in 2016. The same alcohol market will be worth $223.63 billion by 2025. That is 80 trillion naira. What is Nigeria’s share of this market? We import most of our industrial alcohol; we only produce the beer that we drink. But we should not even be proud of producing beer because we import the barley, yeast and hops. There are very many published papers on alcohol from cassava, and one should expect to see many cassava-based alcohol distilleries in this part of the country!
Applications emerging out of advances in biotechnology research are include diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, fermented foods, bio-catalysis, biopolymers and biomaterials, biosurfactants and emulsifiers, bioenergy from renewable feedstocks, and bioremediation. Biotechnology can be easily harnessed for the production of many things we currently import including vaccines, amino acids, enzymes, ethanol, yeast, vitamins and acidulants. Therefore, more focus on biotechnology as a strategic priority for economic growth must be encouraged.
It is time many Nigerian scientists move away from researching and publishing for the sake of promotion and pride in large numbers of publications. It is time for us to implement the results of research. It is time to convert our scientific findings into industrial processes and products. National economic growth relies on education, innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore, our research should be geared to support the development, production, and commercialization of new products and processes. This will also lead to creation of employment in such high-tech enterprises.
We have no excuse to remain poor and backward. It is not the responsibility of government to establish industries. It is left to those with knowledge and ideas and who are determined to exploit their God-given talents. We have to produce most of the essential items that we use or consume. I am fully aware that we are in an era where entrepreneurship is strongly discouraged and academics who attempts one or two outside ventures are looked upon with suspicion. But it is time to go beyond complaining. It is now time to provide solutions. No one is stopping science lecturers from setting consultancies, laboratories and companies. Nigerian scientists should submit a proposal for soft loans (not grants) for academics to start companies.
It is necessary for us to retrace our steps and focus on research that will enrich our country and provide jobs and wealth for its citizens. Those of us in the biological and physical sciences have so much opportunities. We must support this great country in formulating strategies to attain a robust biotechnology-based economy. Economic security, enterprise and employment creation can be achieved through greater participation by scientists and investment in biotechnology. The benefits are enormous; new products or processes will be available, the government will get more tax revenue, several persons will be gainfully employed and we the scientific entrepreneurs will definitely be rewarded financially.
- Excerpts from the lecture delivered by Professor Tonukari at the 5thBiennial Conference of the Delta State University Faculty of Science, Abraka.
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