Transcript Document

IMPROVING IT EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA.
A Speech Delivered at the CPN 2014 Information
Technology Professionals Assembly and Induction of New
Members. Abuja. 18th June, 2014
By
Distinguished Prof O. Ibidapo-Obe, FAS, FAAS, FNCS, OFR
Vice Chancellor Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI)
It is a great honour for me to be here to present this
brief talk on ‘Improving IT Education, Research and
Development in Nigeria’. The thrust of my delivery will
be on “Enhancing Research Collaboration between the
Academia, Government and Industry”. I wish to thank
the Computer Professionals Registration Council of
Nigeria (CPN) for organizing this important Assembly
which provides a platform for scholars, industry
representatives and policy makers to share ideas and
discuss critical issues in Computer Science/ Information
Technology Research and Development.
The work that CPN do to regulate and promote ICT
knowledge and human development resonates deeply
with efforts in which we are engaged at the Federal
University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI). Since assumption of
office as the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of FUNAI, I have
been focusing my energy on providing leadership to
ensure that the University evolves into a model of world
Class University in Nigeria. We are paying attention to
university-government-industry
linkage,
commonly
referred to as the “Triple –Helix” nexus. We recognize that
a key aspect of being a world class university entails
collaborating in research endeavors and conducting
research that make significant contribution towards
creating innovation for the growth and development of
industries and government businesses, thereby promoting
social, economic and national development.
Over the years; the focus of research and development
(driven by IT), is Biotech. Nanotech, Materials, Space,
Manufacturing and Communications. The evolving
National IT policy has also embraced these major
thematic areas for the purposes of advancing
agricultural sustainability and self sufficiency in national
development.
As the global competition for technological innovation
and excellence gathers pace, the need for more
research endeavours intensifies. Nigeria cannot afford
the luxury of lagging behind in this quest for knowledge
fuelled by research in Computer Science/Information
Technology.
Research on computer science and information and
communication technology is a broad field that
involves disciples such as artificial intelligence,
informatics, cognitive science, and microelectronics
as well as language and speech technology.
Computer science/ information technology research
collaboration across sectors (academia/ government
and industry) entails working together to achieve a
common goal of producing new scientific knowledge
for national development. It can take different forms
ranging from one sector (e.g. academia) offering
advice and insights to another sector (government/
industry) to the three sectors actively participating in a
specific piece of research. I will approach the topic of
discussion from three key perspectives:
 The need for research collaboration between the
academia on one hand and government and
industry on the other;
 Some challenges facing this kind of collaboration in
Nigeria today; and
 The benefits of enhancing such collaboration.
THE NEED FOR RESEARCH COLLABORATION
In Nigeria today, the link between university
research and industry is at a generally low level,
and policies are hardly derived from the results
of research conducted in our universities. There
is a growing need for collaborative research
that addresses the complex questions that
matter most to our county. High quality
innovative research in ICT has the potential to
address the complex and pressing issues that
confront us today in Nigeria.
These problems relates to Security (cyber security, the
menace of Boko Haram and others such as
kidnapping in South-South and South-East), Graduate
Employment (employability and the redefined
entrepreneurship concept), Food Security (the
challenges of Biotechnology and Plant Breeding), egovernment (automation of government operations
and development of a unified government portals that
brings together all tiers of government services), Power
and Energy, Water, Infrastructure such as Roads, Rails
and even Water transportation. Through collaborative
research we can achieve IT breakthroughs that can
lead to public safety, new medical treatments,
agricultural improvements, healthier foods and
sustainable national development.
One of the key reasons why IT research collaboration is
important is that no one sector is a repository of all
knowledge and skills. Modern research is increasingly
complex and demands a wide range of expertise and
experience. Thus, it is necessary to form research
collaboration across the three sectors. Further, it is clear
that the academia do not have the necessary financial
muscle to fund high impact research efforts alone. The
rising financial costs of conducting high quality research
suggest the need to pool resources across sectors. This
therefore calls for partnerships between the academia
and both government and industry. Such collaborative
efforts would help in increasing the number, frequency
and diversity of research endeavours to cater for the
various segments of the society.
It is not only in the funding of research efforts that
government and industry should collaborate with the
academia. There is also a need for sponsored
industry-relevant research aimed at addressing
specific problems emanating from industry. For
instance, a software engineering company can give
research grants to some universities to investigate,
design and produce a particular application that is
capable of achieving a new approach to a
particular game, or product or service of their choice.
There is an overriding need for public private
partnerships (PPPs) in funding research in Computer
Science/Information Technology in particular, and in
all other spheres of academic Endeavour in general.
These research funds, when made available, will no
doubt increase the momentum and variety of research
efforts in the academia thereby enhancing Nigeria’s
strategic
competitive
advantage
in
global
technological innovation while at the same time being
of tremendous benefit to the wider society. Research
collaboration across sectors can also enhance the
potential visibility of scientific discoveries. This implies
that the academia must share their research findings
with government, industry and the general populace.
By so doing, the academia will become more relevant
to the society they serve.
CHALLENGES FACING EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION
BETWEEN ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT/INDUSTRY
There are many challenges facing effective research
collaboration between the academia, industry/
government. Suffice it to reflect on two key challenges.
Firstly, the collaboration of scientists across university
industry boundary has long been shown to be
problematic, partly due to the dissimilar research goals
and work norms governing the two knowledge
production systems. Generally, university research is
based upon the norms of ‘open science’ which
promotes free pursuit and open disclosure of
knowledge. This seeks the rapid growth in the stock of
knowledge accompanied by the reputation reward
system based on publications and peer review. This has
led to the recent proliferation of ‘open access’ (OA)
journals which aims to provide unrestricted access via
the internet to research outcomes. The rationale is that
restricted access to the outcome of research adversely
affects growth, innovation and public services.
By contrast, industrial research is based on the norm of
‘proprietary science’ whose central aim is to gain
commercial value from the knowledge produced. It
builds on an ethos of intellectual property protection and
a reward system based on the appropriation of
knowledge for economic gains. The productive
collaboration of scientist from the university and industry
requires a social infrastructure that allows the coexistence of interconnections of the two communities,
and an organizational framework that can reconcile the
demands of the two systems. The development of
appropriate career structures that motivate scientist to
engage in collaborative research projects while
remaining firmly integrated into the academic scientific
communities is very imperative. This will lead to joint new
production of knowledge with commercial applications
and continued interface between the sectors.
Secondly, another major factor that constrains research
collaboration across sectors is research funding. On the
one hand, there is the reluctance on the part of some
businesses to participate in the funding of research.
Some key industry players still find it difficult to set aside
some financial resources for research purposes. Perhaps,
this can be attributed to the recent global recession. The
issue of dwindling resources, especially on the part of the
industry, hit a lot of organizations very hard that a lot of
businesses could not muster enough resources to
participate in research efforts in the academia.
On the other hand, the inconsistency of federal
government allocation to universities affects cross
sector research collaboration. The level of university
funding has a serious impact on the maintenance
and development of the research infrastructure
needed for advanced research for the achievement
of valuable result. It goes without saying that without
good and stable funding, universities will not be able
to provide state of the art research facilities that are
crucial for scientific discoveries. Unfortunately, federal
government funding for federal Universities has been
anything but stable, and at both the institutional and
individual levels, and the consequences have been
damaging. The political budget process and the
challenge in passing the 2014 budget at the national
assembly provide a prime example of this problem.
The last decade has also provided us with a particular
poignant example of this phenomenon. The implication
is that scientific priorities that need years to nurture
when initiated may not be sustained. This was not the
case many years ago when I was embarking on my
academic and professional career at the University of
Lagos. In those days, the Vice-Chancellors of University
were given their yearly allocation at the exact
beginning of each year. This means that the careful
and effective planning that ensures the wise allocation
of resources for research was possible.
However, it is important to note that the establishment of Tertiary
Education Trust Fund (TETFund) by the government is a welcome
intervention and a step in the right direction. The programme has
helped in fostering interdisciplinary research, the development of
human resources and the development of research infrastructure in
public universities in Nigeria. It also has the potential to increase the
country’s capacity for innovation and technological development. I
still wish to call on the private sector, particularly the financial and
industrial sectors of our economy to increase their level of
partnership with governments (at all the three levels of government
– local, state and federal) in sponsoring research efforts in the
universities and other research institutions in the country. Adequate
funding of research endeavors would guarantee us the security of
our technological and infrastructural attainment. It would also make
us to be less dependent on imported expertise and machineries
thereby driving up our levels of self reliance and revenues accruing
from exported technological innovations.
Overall, there are many more challenges, but as
daunting as these challenges are, the benefits of
enhancing research collaboration between the
academia and government and industry far
outweigh the inherent risks.
BENEFITS OF ENHANCING EFFECTIVE RESEARCH
COLLABORATION ACROSS SECTORS
Research collaborations between the academia, industry/
government foster joint production of knowledge which benefits
humanity and national development. The evidence for this
sweeping statement is all around us. Indeed, if one considers
the 20th century advances that have made the world a better
place, they grew primarily out of scientific research much of it
conducted in research collaboration between universities and
industries. In Computer Science and Information Technology, for
instance, we are enjoying the internet, a powerful tool that
provides global and instantaneous access to everything from
the world’s classic literary works to a myriad of social networking
platforms ranging from Face book, Twitter, WhatsApp to
Research gate. I can now call my friends in America and Europe
using Skype, FaceTime or Viber without paying a kobo, thanks to
the advent of the voice over internet protocol (VOIP)
technologies.
This remarkable scientific progress did not occur by
happenstance. All these and many more are results of
collaborative
partnerships
between
university
researchers, industry and government (including the
Military). But we still need to do more, hence the call
for the enhancement of research collaboration
between these bodies that have served humanity well.
For us in Nigeria, enhancing these collaborative
partnerships and understanding will push the level of
our competitiveness in the global technological
innovation to a more acceptable and deserving level
than is the case now.
We cannot afford the luxury of lagging behind such
countries as India, China, South Africa, and others as
doing so would leave us at the mercy of those in the
forefront of research and development. It is heartwarming to see that Nigeria has been included in the
MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) group of
countries, but we have to justify and demonstrate our
ability and resolve in meeting with the global
expectations and challenges which belonging to that
group impose on us. Rather than consigning ourselves to
be the dumping ground of technological innovations,
Nigeria should aspire to join the group of exporters of
technologies. This can only happen if we engage in
vigorous research and production endeavours in various
aspects of Computer Science and Information
Technology and in collaboration with government and
industry.
It is really surprising that Nigeria has lost out in the global
outsourcing of computer-based technologies like
software and applications development and delivery.
The main beneficiaries are India, China, South Africa
and others. Here, the private sector should take the
lead in seeking and expanding their markets and
foreign partnerships in order to exploit the ever-growing
number of Nigerian IT whiz kids. The federal
government also has a role to play by providing the
enabling environment like legal and regulatory
frameworks that would guarantee a level-playing field
between Nigerian operators and their foreign business
interests in these areas. In terms of specifics; what are
our GSM companies, who are adjudged to be one of
the largest in the world, doing in the promotion of Apps
development for the Nigerian market?
CONCLUSION
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the Triple-Helix nexus between
the academia, government and industry support knowledge flows
and has served our country, and indeed humanity, very well and
need to be enhanced. Enhancing research collaboration between
the academia, government and industry will provide an effective
platform for blending industrial problem-solving with academic
knowledge production, and thus facilitating the co-production of
new knowledge that has commercial applications. Industries that
engage in collaborative research with universities will overcome the
limitations of their internal research and development and keep at
the cutting edge of scientific development. Universities should also
actively seek opportunities to create and share knowledge through
collaborative research and entrepreneurial activity and fully embed
them into academic programmes to enhance the student
experience. Indeed, we have never fully as a nation tapped into the
potential of collaborative research across the academia,
government and industry. This is true because in this part of the world
we are accustomed to considering high quality research only in
terms of how much they cost us- but never in terms of how much
sustainable benefit we can generate.
By assuming this fatalistic position, we deny ourselves the
ability to see even the potentials and opportunities we can
enjoy by embracing collaborative research. The potential
reward that can be derived from enhancing collaborative
research collaboration is very enormous. At the barest
minimum, it will facilitate the creation of new knowledge, and
provide an on-going interface between the three different
sectors. I believe that it is through cross sector research
collaboration informed by computer science/ information
technology and based on a deep trust and profound respect
for each sector that we as a nation will be able to respond to
the challenges of the moment. Such research collaboration
will lead to generation of new ideas and the discovery of
new knowledge that lead to job creation, economic growth,
prosperity and sustainable national development.
I wish to end this discussion by congratulating the
organizers of this very important assembly for a job well
done. I anticipate that the assembly will provide
valuable insight and go a long way in deepening our
understanding of how we can enhance IT Education
and optimize research collaboration between the
academia, government and industry.
I congratulate the inductees and wish all participants
very fruitful deliberations.
Thank You and God Bless.
Thank you