Speeches

Education, Research And National Development - Bridging The Gap Between Town And Gown

Jan 31, 2012 - Introduction
While thanking you most sincerely for the invitation, I must quickly enter a caveat; which is that I am not an academic. Consequently, I will not be in a position to offer up an academic treatise on the subject of this lecture.

Hoping however that you might also find relief in an alternative approach, I shall speak from the viewpoint of a professional with some experience of public administration.

In that capacity, I take this assignment as a welcome opportunity to direct my thoughts towards the particularly provocative and almost perplexing issue of national development.

I consider national development a provocative subject for three reasons. First, considering where we are as a country now, there is obviously so much we should have done and can still do.

Second, most of those things we can (or ought to) do are fairly well known to us - leaders and citizens alike. The analysis has been done over and over again, by or for us Nigerians.

Yet, (and this is my third cause of provocation) for various reasons, which will certainly include some corruption of personal and collective values, we have not able been to do the needful in a prompt, consistent or efficient manner. As a result, we are still very far behind in the developmental indices.

Most Nigerians, including most of us in leadership positions, are driven to agitation and impatience by this state of affairs.

Having regard to the human and material resources God has made available to us in Nigeria, there is an awkward unanimity on the conclusion that we should have done much better.

WHAT or WHO is to blame for this failure? Resources, structures, laws, policies or attitudes? HOW do we find out WHY exactly we underperform as a country? And WHO among us should be telling us exactly HOW we can reverse the trend?

Recent events on the international scene make the developmental question even more intriguing. Long standing models of development have come under severe threat, with some being abandoned altogether. This is all the more so in the aftermath of recent economic upheavals.

In America, Europe and many other parts of the world, the public debt burden has suddenly become unbearable, and public expenditure is now under severe restrictions. Consequently, some social welfare programmes have had to be thrown overboard.

Unemployment and inflation figures spiral out of control, pensions are either lost or degraded, and general economic well being is now in a poor state, even in the Euro zone, which has many of the world's most developed nations.

Popular protests suddenly engulfed European cities, including, of all places, a massive and violent one in the United Kingdom and another on Wall Street.

Political models are also coming under threat. In the wake of the Arab Spring, governments earlier commended for stability in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya fell in quick succession, inspiring similar popular protests in Syria and other Mid-Eastern countries.

In the midst of all these, Mother Nature exhibited her violently reactive aspects, symbolised grimly by the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and sparked the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Flood, famine and wild fires took their toll, with rivers as diverse as the Mississippi in the USA and the Ogunpa in Nigeria helping to drive home the many lessons we have failed to learn on ozone layer depletion and climate change.

In addition to the common features of underdevelopment and slow economic growth, terrorism appears in search of a foothold in Nigeria, with the Boko Haram sect gradually entrenching itself in our collective psyche, and handing us a new spectre of insecurity.

In my view, these and several other developments too numerous to recount, are pointers to the probability that we do not just need research to understand phenomena as they exist now and make sense of events, we need a constant review of existing structures and models so as to better predict and cope with our 'national future' within the global context.

As already indicated, old international models are not infallible. Essential catalysts of development must, in my view, be home grown, so that our local peculiarities are always taken into account.

To some extent each and every one of us can contribute by keeping an open and analytical mind, but the bulk of research required will have to be full-time undertakings by trained minds.

In 2001, the US was hit by twelve weather-related events that cost at least $1 billion each. How would Nigeria have coped with even one of such; instigating flood, fire or an epidemic of gargantuan proportions? Who is looking out for us as a nation?

As a public administrator charged with the responsibility for making policy choices, the events that I have referred to clearly serve up an unappetising menu of options from which unavoidably, we must make a choice between a rock and a hard place.

Scholars and Civilisation
From time immemorial, the intellectual elite had taken on the 'look-out' role and played it well; thus giving a current urgency to the subject: Education, Research and National Development.

Since the dawn of civilisation, intellectuals were sponsored and courted by kings for their ability to analyse human beings and their habitat, foretell events and provide solutions to societal problems.

The successes of the Western Region Government were not unconnected with the resource of intellect which Chief Obafemi Awolowo frequently sought and utilised maximally. A number of Nigerian State Governments, including Lagos have also followed this trend.

Because of their extraordinary training and uncommon devotion to intensive study, intellectuals were able, as it were, to see the unseen – to throw some light on the dark and show the way to humanity.

It is no less so in modern societies, despite the fact that universities now stand away from the King's Court in the true spirit of academic freedom. Most notable developments in the arts, sciences, politics, and other spheres of life therefore clearly owe their origins to intellectuals.

However, academics live in their own communities and speak their own peculiar languages. Very often, their engagement with study causes them to stay away from the general community, and come up for air only now and then, to point out the folly of the latter.

This separation has sometimes been problematic though. Problems brew in the real world and possible solutions are doomed to languish unused if they are not primed for popular appreciation and application, which accounts for the near-cliché of 'bridging the gap between town and gown'. We shall come to that presently.

The University of Lagos and the State of Lagos
As a slight digression, I must observe that we can have no better setting for this discussion today than the University of Lagos.

When the institution was conceived soon after independence, it was for the declared purpose of fostering education and research for national development.

So much hope was invested here and in other pioneering universities by the founding fathers of Nigeria. However, I lay particular emphasis on the University of Lagos because it was the one closest to the corridors of power and influence, as well as the centre of commerce and industry.

As we all know, Lagos was the capital of Nigeria at the time. If, for various reasons to be explored, the reality of Nigeria today is not as beautiful as the dreams of yesteryears, I think it is only proper for the University of Lagos to lead what I would refer to as the rededication process.

And there is of course no Faculty better suited to direct the discourse than the School of Post Graduate Studies.

Happily, the University of Lagos, like the State of Lagos, has continued to occupy a pride of place among its contemporaries. There is hardly any aspect of our national life, be it in politics, education or the economy, where UNILAG products are not to be found in leadership positions.

In the Executive Council of Lagos State, quite a number of commissioners and special advisers have one connection or another with this great institution; as alumni, former lecturers or both. It must therefore be correct to say that the history, aspirations and modest successes of our administration also have much to do with the University of Lagos.

Education and the Universities
Some of the developmental factors we ought to pay great attention to in Nigeria have already been determined and proposed in several media.

These invariably include education, research and innovation. By all accounts, these intertwined factors hold so much promise. They are the reasons behind modern civilisation, and history shows us that they have never failed those countries that truly embraced them.

Certainly the gains of education, research and innovation are too obvious to merit the effort and expense of further elucidation. However, a cursory look at the education and research field in Nigeria still reveals some unsavoury realities.

These would justify the suspicion that, as a nation, we are yet to absorb the whole truth about these crucial factors. As long as these doubts persist, the efforts of this evening cannot be worthless.

If, as I hope, what we wish for is a better appreciation of the place of education and research in national development, I think we would have achieved something, even if all we do here today is say what has been said before.

Although we shall be discussing education as a holistic subject, I will pay particular attention to the universities, which are the institutions most closely connected to research and development.

By definition, a university is an institution of higher education and research. The word 'university' is derived from the Latin - universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which, roughly translated means "community of teachers and scholars".

A university represents the centre of highest learning in its community and, to that extent, helps to predict and promote the advancement of civilisation.

For all our engagement with physical phenomena as in science and technology, it is noteworthy that universities actually started with the spiritual and the philosophical.

Prior to their formal establishment, many medieval universities were run for hundreds of years as Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools in which monks and nuns taught classes.

In the west, the earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church, usually from cathedral schools, although some were later founded by monarchs or municipal administrations.

Be that as it may, many historians agree that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries. In the east, the role was played by the religious Madrasah schools.

The earliest areas of scholarly interest, in all cases, included theology, philosophy, medicine, law, history and the arts. However, my intention here is to point out the ethical, spiritual and philosophical bases of knowledge, the loss of which may be undermining all our ultra-modern and high-tech civilisation.

Universities grew popular with the belief that society would benefit from the scholarly expertise they generate.

The bulk of research and education that has changed the conditions of man, extended the boundaries of civilization and given us a better idea of ourselves and the world we live in, emanated from the universities, whether directly or indirectly.

Even where scientists and inventors operated outside formal institutional settings, much of the building blocks and influential bases of knowledge were provided by university scholars and students.

Another role that universities play is that very important one of bridging or equalizing knowledge across civilizations.

This may have been uppermost in the minds of our founding fathers as they established the first set of universities for Nigeria - that we could thereby raise scholars who would be able to access and harvest the products of current research efforts across the globe, thereby creating a quick but solid foundation for the truly Nigerian contribution.

In return, the Nigerian contribution would not only address our peculiar problems, but offer up its results for use by the rest of the world.

Research, according to Professor Ish'aq Oloyede, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, is "the process of proffering solutions to human problems through well-defined methods. It is a systematic way of learning to re-learn and un-learn based on new insights deriving from knowledge". I want to underscore the phrase "learning to re-learn and un-learn based on new insights deriving from knowledge," as I consider it the cornerstone of progressive education.

Many of us here who studied chemistry in the 1960s through to the 1980s, learnt by heart, Dalton's Atomic Theory to the effect that: 'the atom is the smallest indivisible particle of an element'.

However, our young children now tell us of modern atomic theory and further research has since shown that the atom, then regarded as the smallest indivisible particle of element, can actually be split into three: protons, neutrons and electrons.

Similar results of continuous scrutiny abound, showing that in spite of the phenomenal developments recorded thus far, much more still lies beyond our known horizons.

What is important for the moment is that the true dimensions of current knowledge have, first, to be systematically disseminated through a nation's educational system. Then such learning has to be applied in society towards the ultimate goal of national development, which must of course encompass the personal development of individual citizens.

The Concept of National Development
National development may be measured as the extent to which a country is able to enhance the welfare of its people, e.g. by providing social amenities like quality education, potable water, an efficient transportation system, medical care, etc. National development is therefore a matter of continuous concern.

Considering the infinite possibilities for the improvement, decline or collapse of the so called 'civilised systems', development must be seen as the dynamic obligation of every country, irrespective of its current level on the ladder.

For instance, the decline of communism and the effect of recent economic upheavals in the developed world have placed question marks on some assumed models of welfarism and socio-economic development, thus confirming that when it comes to national development, sustenance is even more important than achievement.

Challenges of National Development in Nigeria
Development is a widely participatory process of social change, bringing in its wake both social and material advancement (including social welfare, greater equality and freedom, better conditions of living and other valued qualities) for the majority of the people.

Using United Nations indices, development is usually measured in terms of life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, gross national income per capita, rank minus human development index and non-income human development index.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is therefore a comparative measure of standards of living for countries worldwide, used to determine whether a country is developed, developing or under developed and to measure the impact of economic policies on the quality of life.

Using this international matrix, the United Nations has grouped nations into four broad human development categories, each of which comprises about 46 to 47 countries:
(i) Very High Human Development
(ii) High Human Development
(iii) Medium Human Development and;
(iv) Low Human Development.

In the latest Human Development Index (released in November 2011) our country keeps its place in the low or last category. Among the 46 countries listed in the lowest group, Nigeria is number fifteen, sharing the list with countries like Senegal, Nepal, Haiti and Mauritania. (Please see Appendix I).

In the context of the foregoing international matrix, our underlying developmental challenges in Nigeria will include issues of law enforcement, security of lives and property, public infrastructure, mass transportation, food security, employment and productivity.

However, it might be worthwhile for us to consider the corruption of personal and social values as the single most important underlying factor of which our other failures are symptomatic.

With the human and material resources already provided for Nigeria by nature, I strongly suspect that our inability to develop at the expected pace cannot be unrelated to our attitudes and values.

Also, it is noteworthy that corruption in this wider sense constitutes the visible fault line of even the most developed nations, whereby ethical failings, corruption in the financial sectors and public administration, moral degradation as represented by illicit businesses, drug addiction, prostitution, terrorism and other social vices, detract greatly from the advancements which ought ordinarily to be enjoyed by the people.

Be that as it may, our focus this evening is on the relationship between education, research and national development. I think it is therefore pertinent to explore the question of whether Nigeria's poor showing on the development index can be attributed to our failure to use the instrumentality of education and research to improve social welfare.

In the light of that assessment, we can go on to consider the extent to which our research institutions (typified by universities) have been able to deliver on their statutory mandate and proffer possible steps which may be taken to strengthen them in that regard.

The Research and Report Mandate of Universities
As in other university statutes, the provisions of the University of Lagos Act, Cap. U9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, underscore the importance of research as a cardinal function of the University. Section 1(3) (c), for instance, charges the institution to "encourage, promote and conduct research in all fields of learning and human endeavour".

In line with this mandate, one would expect our universities and research institutions to be at the forefront of efforts to solve our perennial problems, e.g. the design and construction of affordable housing with locally available materials, water purification, development of alternative or renewable energy sources, agricultural development, management of small businesses and cottage industries, crime investigation, corruption in public administration, religious and ethnic conflicts, etc.

However, events compel me to the conclusion that in Nigeria we have unwittingly allowed too wide a gulf between our educational institutions and the demands of society at large.

In other words, we take education, research and the award of degrees almost as an end, not as a means to an end.

The 'final' products, i.e. the graduate students and scholars are very visible in society, but the thoughts, concepts and influence of their ideas are hardly so.

As a result, our education and our society appear to exist as two separate balls that barely touch.

Curricula are allowed to become outdated and most employers are compelled to retrain and re-orientate fresh employees to meet the demands of the workplace.

In many instances, employees are urged to forget the theory they learnt in school and wake up to the realities of the outside world.

Having identified this as a serious contributory factor to unemployment, the Lagos State Government is currently sponsoring a graduate employability and entrepreneurial skills acquisition programme called the Lagos Ignite Enterprise and Employability Project (in collaboration with the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre), as a way of bridging the gap and equipping our graduates with the skill sets that society requires.

To the same end, we have also organised special inception training in education and teaching skills for degree holders in the pure sciences and languages, to cater for the specific needs of our public secondary schools and thereby increase their students' performance.

Thousands of graduates applying for these programmes within days of the advertisement, constitute an open acknowledgment of the misalignment between our university education and the requirements of the workplace.

This reflects either the inadequacy of our various curricula or a wilful corruption of values in the society whereby several research studies and recommendations are shunned for expediency.

For this reason, our education reform efforts in Lagos State include the review of higher education curricula, the introduction of new areas of study (like the Faculty of Transportation at LASU) and the modernisation and repositioning of our technical colleges, which now work in close association with private sector collaborators in the various industries.

Publicity for Research Efforts
Concerning research results and their utilisation in the outside world, the University of Lagos Act empowers the University to "hold public lectures and to undertake publishing and bookselling".

For education to fulfil its potential, it must entail or directly facilitate the transfer of knowledge from school to the real world.

In other words, education is not an end in itself. It is rather a means to an end. The society provides the raw material, which undergoes structural changes in the university and comes back as a finished or refined product for the betterment of the society.

All things being equal, the proper application of knowledge gained from education and research to societal issues should lead to rapid national development.

However, public lectures and publications may not be enough for disseminating the results. As we all know, not much of an academic journal is read outside the academic community.

Research is conducted in UNILAG as it is in other universities and it is in fact a prerequisite for career advancement in all the universities. Thus a professor may be assumed to have done considerable research to merit his or her professorship.

One may consequently predict that on the shelves in the hidden lanes of our university libraries are the products of some of our finest brains.

Yet there is little evidence of these local research efforts being simplified for the popular media, being presented to the entrepreneurial or political class or being translated into something very handy for the practical benefit of the society and its people.

In a paper delivered about 23 years ago, titled: 'Ibadan University and the Welfare of Nigeria' , the late Alhaji Shehu Musa confirmed the fact that research in universities is mainly conceived in terms of publications and career development and tends to have little social relevance.

He also confirmed that unlike what obtains in other climes, only a limited amount of university research reaches a commercial state in our communities.

This disconnect unfortunately affects other tiers of the educational system as, in spite of our many polytechnics and technical colleges, we have a massive shortage of skilled technicians and artisans; and there is a common perception that many of our secondary school graduates are unfit for even the simplest clerical assignments of the work environment.

Education and Research as Problem-Solving Tools
Since World War I, higher education has proved itself as the single most effective instrument of countries reaching for development.

In terms of economic restructuring, social improvement, democracy building, national defence, human capital development, industrial development, promotion of commerce, etc, the academia in more successful countries have made profound contributions in directly assisting entrepreneurs and practitioners who facilitate the attainment of set national goals.

As a result of concerted efforts in education, research and innovation, some countries that have little or nothing by way of natural resources have thrived very well on the knowledge and creativity of their people, both for local benefit and for sale to other countries of the world.

If we take Japan for instance, following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War, the country reached a clear consensus that education was essential for both individual and national development and that it required the active and sustained commitment of energy and resources at all levels of society.

Today, the World Bank points to investment in education as the crucial factor in the rapid economic and technological development of Japan, and this is representative of the East Asian states that are called the High Performing Asian Economies.

To become one of the leading nations in the fields of scientific research, technology, machinery, electronics, robotics and medical research, Japan has deployed the world's third largest budget for research and development valued at $130 billion, and over 677,731 researchers.

No wonder then that she holds the distinction of receiving the highest number of science Nobel prizes in Asia, and deploying more than half of the world's industrial robots used in the manufacturing process.

I also wish to emphasise the fact that Japanese education has always had moral education and character development as important goals.

In addition to the acquisition of academic knowledge, intellectual growth, or vocational skills, schools have the obligation and authority to impart fundamental Japanese values as the foundation of proper moral attitudes and personal habits.

Most of the developed countries rely entirely on the same formula, spending billions of dollars every year on research and development of new technologies which not only make their lives easier but also enable them to create a steady income stream by selling goods and services to other nations of the world.

As research and development has become an integral part of these nations' economic stability, they are much less susceptible to the anxieties of natural resource availability and exhaustion, or the vagaries of the commodities market.

Finland, for instance has made herself the most technologically-oriented country in the world. Due mainly to her renowned high-technology projects and healthcare facilities, Finland was ranked as the best country in the world in a 2010 Newsweek survey, in terms of health, economic dynamism, education, political environment and quality of life.

In spite of its modest size, Finland has a highly industrialised mixed economy with a per capita output equal to that of other European economies such as France, Germany or the UK.

It is also not a secret that the USA owes its leadership position in the world to education, research and innovation.

Ever since Alexander Graham Bell won the first US patent for the telephone in 1876, America has held credit for some of the major inventions of modern civilisation, like the long-lasting light bulb, the first viable movie camera, alternating current, the AC motor and the radio.

By also attracting and facilitating the work of first class scholars from all parts of the world, the U.S. government has elicited major breakthroughs in spaceflight, computing, and biotechnology. It currently has the world's highest number of scientific research papers.

Another shining example is Sweden which has built itself into a research powerhouse. Sweden allocates about four per cent of its GDP to research and development and easily tops European comparative statistics both in terms of research investments as a percentage of GDP and in the number of published scientific works per capita.

Singapore, which is ranked amongst the world's ten most open competitive and innovative nations, maintains a S$1.35 billion Industry Alignment Fund for projects in research and development by which it has established itself as an innovation-driven and knowledge-based economy.

Canada, as we all know, also has a highly developed technology sector and that was not by accident. The government allocates 1.8 per cent of its GDP to research and development.

Similar trends are obvious in Korea, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Research and Development - The Nigerian Situation
This close connection between national developmental goals and the output of the educational system is increasingly difficult to find in Nigeria, despite the constitutional admonitions that "Government shall promote science and technology, and that "Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy".

I believe that the objective of the drafters of the Constitution was for us to use the instrumentality of literacy, arts, science and technology, etc. to address our many issues of national development.

It is therefore pertinent to ask how far we have come in using the instrumentalities of education and research for the promotion of national development in Nigeria.

In order to answer this question correctly, it is not enough, in my view, to refer to the GDP growth which some economists have found it fit to attribute to Nigeria. The realities on ground are stark enough to give us our yardsticks.

To the man in the street, the only appreciable indicators will be security of lives and property, access to qualitative education and medical care, employment opportunities and ease of doing business (including power supply and other enablers).

For many, the economic indicators like interest rate, inflation rate, foreign exchange rate, cost of fuel, etc. would be matters of keen interest because their businesses and livelihoods depend on those factors.

Questions would arise therefore as to the extent to which Nigerian researchers have focused on and proffered solutions to these particular problems and, perhaps more importantly, as to the extent to which the government and other relevant agencies and individuals are able to access and make use of such research reports and academic expertise.

One would expect that with the apparent worsening of some of the above stated problems in recent times, the most influential remedies would emanate from researchers; but that is not quite what we find in practice.

More than a quarter of a century ago, B. N. Okigbo, in a paper titled 'The University as an Instrument of Achieving National Objectives' , had observed that the basic and applied research of Nigerian universities operated at between 6% and 24% of national research capacity.

In other words, these findings indicate that even when funding was better and the academic community, more peaceful, Nigerian universities were still not doing well enough in terms of tangible contributions to national development.

Now, more than 25 years later, your guess is as good as mine concerning the direction of change. We import consumer goods, clothing materials, vehicles and various types of machinery in ever increasing quantities and yet even the quality of service personnel to keep them in use is ever dwindling.

To be fair, we have to acknowledge that the educational system has its own problems of policy inconsistencies, gross underfunding, student overcrowding, poor quality of many entrants from the basic and secondary schools, brain drain and a lingering, almost perpetual, state of industrial unrest on the campuses, to which, I daresay, well researched solutions are most urgently required!

All these have precipitated a stampede of parents searching for suitable universities in countries as diverse as Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, South Africa, U.K., Russia, Ukraine, USA and Canada, depending on the financial resources available to them.

We have also seen a plethora of private universities springing up across the country and patronised by almost all those who can muster the means.

Meanwhile, government owned universities are still expected to maintain unrealistically low cost profiles and, with the help of heavy government subsidies, cater largely to the rest.

This scenario presents to us an unprecedented class differentiation whereby, at a most crucial developmental stage, our children are being segmented according to their parents' financial ability, even though they are all expected to regroup and function happily in the same society.

Confronting the Challenges of Education and Research in Nigeria
As we probably all know, the challenges of education and research in Nigeria are myriad. In view of time constraints, I will dwell on the three aspects I consider most important.

Policy Inconsistencies
I think it would help if researchers are presented with a clear cut statement of the philosophy which spells out the direction in which Nigeria wants to channel its development efforts. In our fifty years of statehood, we have tinkered with quite a number of inconsistent policies. Politically, we have tested almost all the possible options - parliamentary, presidential, military, diarchy, and even an interim government.

Economically, we have had state-control, mixed capitalism, price control and subsidisation, commercialisation and privatisation, de-regulation, etc.

Unfortunately, similar variations and fluctuations are seen in our educational policies.

In the absence of a definite and sustained policy in the various aspects of our national life, it becomes practically difficult for meaningful research to be conducted locally on any subject, so we always end up blaming the IMF and the World Bank for any measure which we consider unpopular.

The consequence is aptly captured by Dr. Sheu Ahmed Jimoh in his paper, 'Educational Research in Nigeria: Some Local Forces Inhibiting Progress, and the Way Forward':

"Before the researcher concludes an evaluative study of a particular programme or policy, it is either discarded or replaced with a different, sometimes completely divergent policy or programme. Political instability has also taken its toll on the educational and research institutes in Nigeria. The academic calendar is frequently disrupted: there are strikes, lockouts, closures and general social upheavals - and all these can influence the orientation, timing, process and quality of any research activity in the field of education. And yet, the politician or policy maker out there is waiting, with his characteristic suspicion of, and impatience with the education researcher."

Funding of Education and Research
It is undeniable that our educational institutions are grossly underfunded, compared to their contemporaries across the world.

This is perpetuated by the policy of keeping school fees very low, even at the tertiary level, while relying heavily on government subsidies.

However, the fact is that there are always too many commitments competing for government resources and the subsidy is never commensurate with the amount really required to run these institutions optimally and efficiently.
To whom little is given, little can be expected; and I think this tells the story of our educational institutions.

We cannot run away from the fact that research output would only be proportionate to the available funding. This is corroborated by Jimoh (supra) when he observed that:

"The resources available for research are grossly inadequate just as is the case too in many other African countries. Even when special funds are provided for research, they are too inadequate to meet the research needs of Nigeria. Consequently, developing African countries still depend on all forms of foreign aid to support research, such as those provided by the U.S.A.I.D. and the U.N.E.S.C.O."

The reality today is that the research expenditure of the top 20 research universities in the United States of America exceeds the annual budgets of many African countries (Please see Appendix II).

Extent of national wealth is of course a limiting factor, hence the possibility that unless we do something drastic, the rich countries will only get richer as they maintain the lead in all aspects of science, technology and even the arts.

It is little wonder then that African universities are often missing in world university rankings; and even when it comes to African university rankings, Nigerian universities are placed far down the list. This misfortune totally belies the enormous natural and human resources with which our country is endowed.

In a recent news report, President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have lamented the non-ranking of Nigerian Universities among the top 300 in the world. In a message to the 35th convocation of Ahmadu Bello University, he said:

"The situation is unacceptable to the present administration. We are determined to work with the management of our universities to turn this situation around. The goal of this administration is not only to improve access to education but to ensure the provision of quality education."

Significantly, Mr. President, in that speech, also charged the universities to introduce entrepreneurial education, to enable the graduates to learn appropriate skills to live on their own.

The President's indignation is obviously justifiable, but we must back it up at all levels by devoting more money and attention to matters of education.

Even to meet the local NUC requirements, substantial funding is required, well beyond what the school fees and other autonomous resources of government owned universities in Nigeria can fetch.

Attitudinal Challenges
Even with the most stable of policies and unlimited funding, the wrong attitude will hamper research.

It appears that somewhere along the line economic considerations began to supersede the passion for teaching and research, and before long we started viewing research from the narrow prism of career advancement and progression rather than the global parameters of relevance and utility.

This accounts for a situation where research is conducted not in a relaxed and painstaking atmosphere but in haste, as the reports and publications are needed essentially to add to the number of publications required for promotion or the award of professorship.

Things We Can Do to Make a Difference
Having identified the problem, we should now turn to suggestions of appropriate remedies.

In accordance with our chosen topic, we shall focus on measures which might help to increase the relevance of our research institutions to society and thereby boost the economic prosperity of Nigeria.

Stronger Links with Society and Better Publicity for Research Efforts
As in other climes, it would be inspiring to see a coordinated and sustained research programme on the particular societal problems of Nigeria.

This must of course be preceded by an accurate diagnostic assessment. Extra effort must then be made to clearly articulate both the motivation and the results, not just in academic journals but in the mass and popular media.

Furthermore, there must be deliberate follow-up efforts, and appropriate links with the industrial sector to ensure that enterprises are created that can optimally utilise the output, or that sufficient rapport is maintained with the relevant government agencies and businesses that can take advantage of them.

In this regard, it is imperative for universities to take their cue from society and the business world, even in deciding on areas of research, and to develop parameters for measuring the utility of such research results and academic publications.

There should be an institutionalised system of staff-exchange between universities and industries. For instance, the Lagos State Government is institutionalising collaborative efforts of this nature by involving local students and lecturers in large and novel projects such as the demolition of the Bank of Industry Building on Lagos Island, and the ongoing construction of our Blue Line Railway.

Curricula Review
Apart from tailoring research to societal aspirations, the areas of difference between what our graduates are taught in school and what is required of them outside must be substantially eliminated.

As already discussed, this disconnection is due largely to the fact that the curricula are not sufficiently reflective of societal requirements or contemporary industry practices.

What is therefore needed is a thorough review of study programmes at all levels and in all institutions, with the active participation of employers in the public and private sectors.

Cross Institutional Affiliations
Just as all research institutions need to develop closer ties with industry, the universities should also not stand aloof from other institutions like polytechnics and technical colleges.

Each coming with its own strength, I think there is a unique potential for fruitful collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas among the institutions. Joint research efforts and peer reviews should also be encouraged.

Furthermore, I would canvas similar associations with foreign institutions, which should enable us bridge the gap somewhat and take advantage of the facilities and human resources available in the more developed world.

Policy–Making, Motivational and Funding Role of Government
For real progress to occur, governments at all levels have to recognise and actively promote education as the key to survival and economic development.

Essentially, this involves the evolution of a consistent policy, devotion of more funds to the sector and ensuring that its leadership is always placed in the right hands.

Placing education on such a high pedestal will further motivate an inflow of funds from the private sector by way of donations and endowments which, even in the advanced world, has proved indispensable for the survival of many institutions.

Most especially, the question of research funding needs to be properly and decisively addressed. Research is capital intensive and it requires sustained funding, even when the desired results are slow in coming. Uncoordinated funding is not capable of producing sustainable results. The government alone cannot fund education and research, hence the need to harness the potentials of endowments, grants, aid and similar schemes.

This may also be augmented by cooperation between the academia and industry, as there are always an abundance of research projects which businesses can and would like to sponsor for their own development.

The Universities and other research institutions can greatly assist by repositioning themselves as think-tanks and engine rooms of governance, enterprise and the citizenry.

For example, it is on record that the success of the Action Group government in the old Western Region was attributable to professors in the academia, who provided the blueprint for economic development in the region.

Before I conclude, I must address two disconnects that we must rectify and reconnect in the pursuit of our national development agenda.

The first is a disconnect between the tertiary and foundational levels of education. And the second is a disconnect between our educational output and our national objectives, and I will attempt a summary illustration.

It is now imperative for us to conduct a root and branch examination of all levels of education in order to promote predictable and harmonious development.

If we focus only on the tertiary level and its capacity to provide research, we may be surprised that the educational capacity to learn or re-learn at the tertiary level is absent, if students cannot ordinarily read and write.

In doing this, I do not support a wholesale 'knee-jerk' policy somersault that throws the system into utter confusion. We must recognise that policies do little or nothing by themselves. It is people who work policies.

What I urge is a close scrutiny of existing policies to see what works and what does not work and to make adjustments accordingly.

This will give true expression to the various educational initiatives going on in different States, and give full recognition to the strength of our diversities, both in needs, resources and abilities. A one-size-fits-all approach may simply be counter-productive.

Secondly, our national developmental and economic objectives must be the bedrock of our education policy.

What kind of economy are we operating today and what type of economy do we foresee in 25 years? Are we stronger and better as an importing nation or as a producing nation? Do we aspire to let Nigerians lead our importation or production as the case may be or are we better off allowing foreigners to lead?

The honest answers to these questions will readily compel our attention to the kind of education policy that we need to promote.

Conclusion
The foregoing has been a brief attempt to assess the challenges of national development and the proper place of education and research.

Having established the role of research-led innovations in the development of the most advanced nations of the world, we reviewed the Nigerian situation and came to the conclusion that our slow pace of development is roughly commensurate with the attention we pay to these key issues of education and research.

In particular, we observed an unpleasant gap between the graduates and the research output of our institutions, and the most pressing needs of our society.

This and other defects of our educational system were found attributable to policy inconsistencies, inadequacy of financial resources, industrial unrest on campuses, corruption of values, poor orientation, attitudinal issues and many other problems.

However, in this age of reason and scientific research, we still have to look to our institutions of research and learning for a closer review of the various aspects of this issue and for more comprehensive and viable solutions than I can provide in this lecture.

Ironic as this might sound, I strongly believe that with proper leadership, reorientation and support, our educational and research institutions can definitely play this role creditably.

Our universities especially, owe us the debt of a functional template for sustainable national development and, whatever it takes, we must collect that debt as soon as possible.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State