Can Nigeria Leapfrog into
the Information Age?

Philip Emeagwali

Delivered in New York, August 1997

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I thank the organizers of this convention for inviting me to share my thoughts with you. On a personal note, I appreciate the invitation to be speaker and guest of honour. But more importantly, I believe that inviting a scientist to speak at this convention is a recognition of the potential role of technology in improving the standard of living in Nigeria and Africa. I would like to share with you my thoughts on how to formulate a strategic plan to launch Nigeria and other African countries into the Information Age, in order to achieve economic development and prosperity. I am particularly interested in the Nigerian Vision 2010 which I believe should have been used as a blueprint for leapfroging our nation from the Agricultural Age into the Information Age. Later, I will propose a three-track approach that will enable Nigeria to invest evenly in agricultural, industrial and information sectors.

For a better understanding of where we are going, we need to retrace our steps. About 10,000 years ago, Africans in the valley of the River Nile entered the Agricultural Age when they discovered that cultivating the soil for crops and shepherding herds of animals would provide more food than just hunting animals and gathering fruits. This leap into the Agricultural Age motivated Africans to develop mathematics, chemistry, astronomy and medicine as tools for the new age. Our advanced technological knowledge enabled us to build majestic pyramids, the tallest buildings in the world for 3,700 years. These pyramids withstood all types of desert storms and still stand today, like the Rock of Gibralter.

Europeans learned our technology, used it to enter the Industrial Age and became more prosperous than we are. They learned to put capital together and mass-produce consumer goods. Unless Africa leapfrogs into the Information Age, the economic gap between Europe and Africa would widen because Europe is about to enter the age. In other words, to catch up, Africa must take two steps for every step Europe takes.

Many Nigerians believe that our country takes one step backward when other countries such as South Korea, Malaysia, and South Africa take one step forward. This belief is substantiated by the World Bank which now ranks our oil-producing nation as the 13th poorest country in the world; and has declared that the standard of living in pre-independence Nigeria was higher than what exists today. We have indeed, taken several steps backward. While acknowledging that we squandered and mismanaged our petroleum revenues and that we are no longer the "Giant of Africa," we must accept that now is the time for a new Nigeria.

Already we have a master plan --- "Vision 2010," to work with. If we succeed, that will create a better society for our children and future generations.

The Nigerian Vision 2010 was inspired by the six-year-old Malaysian Vision 2020 plan. Shortly after her independence in 1957, Malaysia sent people to Nigeria to learn how to grow palm trees. Today, Malaysia employs Nigerian oil palm experts, produces and exports more than half of the world�s palm oil, and sells palm oil to Nigeria. This is one example of how the best Nigerian minds are helping other countries achieve significant economic growth.

In fact, Malaysia has become so prosperous that its prime minister has projected that the Malaysian Vision 2020 could enable his country to become a developed nation by quadrupling its $9,000 per-capita income by the year 2020.

How did Malaysia, a multiracial nation of about 20 million people, become so prosperous? What lessons can Nigeria learn from Malaysia? What does Malaysia have that Nigeria does not?

Malaysia invested in manpower development through education, while Nigeria invested in a strong military, a new capital city of Abuja, and continues to maintain unprofitable state-run enterprises such as the Nigerian Electricity Power Authority (NEPA), the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the ill-conceived $6 billion Ajaokuta steel complex, and oil refineries that have not solved the problem of fuel scarcity even inside of Nigeria.

Malaysia was thinking long-term while Nigeria was thinking short-term. After comparing the Malaysian Vision 2020 to the Nigerian Vision 2010, I have come to the conclusion that Malaysia is still thinking long-term whereas Nigeria is still thinking short-term.

The Malaysian Vision 2020 includes the development of a $40 billion Multimedia Super Corridor, a 750 square-kilometre (468-square-mile) technological city that will replace its vast oil palm plantations. The Nigerian Vision 2010 yet has no plan to build its technological city. Put differently, Malaysia plans to enter the Information Age by the year 2020 while Nigeria plans to remain in the Agricultural or Industrial Age.

The Malaysians have recognized the emerging Information Age and are poised to enter it based on a strategy that is similar to the one used to send astronauts to the moon. Because the moon is constantly revolving around the Earth at a speed faster than a bullet, astronauts select their flight path so that their spaceship and the moon will arrive at the same location at the same time. Like astronauts, Malaysians have calculated that the Information Age will arrive by the year 2020 and their goal is to bypass the Industrial Age and leapfrog directly into the Information Age by the year 2020.

Similarly, the flight plan for Nigeria should be to land us in the Information Age in the least amount of time. This is important because 60 percent of the wealth of many countries is presently derived from knowledge-based goods and services. In contrast, Vision 2010�s goal is for Nigeria to derive its entire wealth from agriculture and industry. Vision 2010 will make Nigerians the hewers of wood and fetchers of water for those nations that have arrived in the Information Age. My recommendation is that we should not put all our eggs in two baskets, namely agriculture and industry. Since, it is not necessary to become fully industrialized before entering the Information Age, Nigeria should use a multi-pronged attack strategy to enter the Information Age. Therefore, I propose a Vision 2020 for Nigeria in which a greater emphasis is placed on education and technology. Vision 2020 should be a supplement to Vision 2010 and should: (1) be formulated by the year 2000 to help improve the standard of living of Nigerians by the year 2020; (2) enable Nigeria to catch up with Taiwan, Malaysia and South Africa in 50 years; and (3) enable Nigeria to catch up with European countries in 100 years.

How can Nigeria take a quantum leap into the Information Age and catch up with the four Asian tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan)? We must realize that we do not have the resources to do everything we desire. Therefore, we must specialize and focus on doing a few things well.

The 1996 defence budget of Nigeria was greater than its education budget. Fifteen billion naira was spent to maintain a large political army. Put simply, when Nigeria spends 500 naira to maintain one soldier, it only spends one naira to train one student. Money can be saved and military coups discouraged by replacing career soldiers with a small but elite part-time National Guards. We should direct 40 percent of our budget to education and 10 percent to technology development.

After the United States defeated Japan in the Second World War, it forced Japan to redirect its resources to non-military areas. The result: Japan became one of the wealthiest nations on earth. Nigeria should never have built a massive army after its independence in 1960 and should have reduced its military strength, as soon as possible, at the end of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70). Germany, Costa Rica and many other nations have done well without a sizable army. Imagine where Nigeria will be today if all the military budgets since independence had been spent to educate our children.

Our students are taught how to read and write by teachers some of who cannot. My second grade teacher in Nigeria had only a sixth grade education. My seven-year-old son�s second-grade teacher in the United States has a masters degree. Nigeria�s one million unemployed graduates should be retrained and offered attractive salaries to become primary- and secondary-school teachers.

Education at the primary school level may be considered more important than university education for the simple reason that "learning builds on learning.� A child who didn�t learn much in primary school cannot learn much in secondary school or at the university level. This is why the developed nations invest heavily in their children�s primary school education.

Since it is unquestionably a better investment to educate a great number of young students rather than a few elite university students, Nigeria should invest more in pre-university education. Adopting a compulsory period of 12 years of formal education will reduce the internal education gap between northern and southern Nigeria and make each one of us more useful and productive to our society. Where can we find the good leaders for tomorrow? Where can we find the medical doctors to care for us tommorow? Where can we find the civil engineers to repair our roads?

Education is a life-long process and Nigerians must continue their education at the public libraries. Most Nigerian students can only afford to buy books required to pass their examinations. Nigerians who do not read widely will not be politically aware nor concerned about reducing the moral decay, corruption and injustices in the country and in the world. They will not understand that it is a crime for a police officer to request bribes and a crime to offer bribes to a police officer.

Vision 2010 should plan for every community to have a well-stocked public library so that our children can expand their mental and geographical horizons. Every library should be equipped with computers and have access to the Internet.

Vision 2010 should recognize that technology is the engine that drives a nation�s economic growth and that science should be compulsory in Nigerian schools.

Some Nigerian students stared blankly at me when asked to explain how dinosaurs lived, how atoms are split, how microchips are built, the importance of DNA, and the pros and cons of exploring outer space. How can we compete in a modern world when our students cannot differentiate between a television and a computer monitor?

Vision 2010 should call for the increased funding of science education at the post-graduate level. Nigeria should spearhead the formation of a pan-African Institute of Technology comparable to the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand. This new institute should (1) be operated on a cost-sharing basis by members of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), (2) have campuses in various African countries, and (3) conduct research relevant to Africa and have research hospitals that make it unnecessary to travel to Europe for medical treatment.

Sponsoring students at the pan-African Institute of Technology would conserve foreign exchange, such as the $40 million a year that was paid by the Nigerian government to American universities in the 1970s. If each OAU-member nation were to contribute $40 million a year, we would have $2 billion a year to operate a pan-African Institute of Technology that would be as good as the best universities in the United States, Britain and Canada.

Thousands of Nigerian scholarship recipients, who could not find employment in Nigeria, are making contributions to the United States economy. In 1979, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that each African professional between ages of 25 and 35 contributes $184,000 each year to the United States economy. Based on United Nations� estimate, 50,000 Nigerian-American professionals are contributing $9 billion a year to the United States� economy.

Nigerians have made significant contributions to major cities of the world. Consider the city of New York. Former president Nnamdi Azikiwe taught at Columbia University in New York. Three-time world boxing champion Dick Tiger fought 19 times in New York. Master drummer Babatunde Olatunji has been performing for 40 years in New York. Today, there are thousands of Nigerians working in New York. Do they wish to return to Nigeria? YES, YES, YES!

At the same time, 100,000 foreign technical experts are working in Africa. These foreign experts are paid higher salaries than their African counterparts, a double standard described as �monkey dey work, baboon dey chop.� The foreign coach of the Nigerian Super Eagles was paid $95,000 a year while our renowned mathematician Chike Obi was paid about $600 a year. This low salary is one reason many Nigerian engineers and doctors have fled to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe. No nation in the world has been developed by foreigners.

Nigerians are homesick and would like to return home and use our talents, experience, and expertise to develop Nigeria. However, they would like to be offered a salary that reflects their contributions to the nation. Many Nigerians would even relinquish their permanent residency or U.S. citizenship to return home. In Hakeem Olajuwon�s words: "There's no place like home. I will always be from Nigeria."

Vision 2010 should also recognize that Nigeria cannot become as developed as other countries if we continue denying educational and career opportunities to our women. Since only 13 out of the original 172 members of the Vision 2010 committee are women, it will be difficult for the committee to formulate a vision that will benefit half of the Nigerian population.

I was filled with pride when Chioma Ajunwa won the first Olympic gold medal for Nigeria. I have been moved by the fine documentaries of Ngozi Onwurah, whose films have won international awards. I have expanded my mental horizons by reading the novels of Buchi Emecheta, whose books are recommended readings in many American schools. I have spent countless hours enjoying the music of Onyeka Onwenu, Christy Essien-Igbokwe, and Sade Adu. I have been inspired by the battle exploits of Queen Amina of Zaria, our grand matriach. The contributions of these women prove that when we invest in our daughters� education we grow as a nation.

Vision 2010 should plan for Nigeria to compete in the high-tech fields. South Africa built nuclear bombs. China launched satellites into space. India is the second leading exporter of computer software in the world. Yet, the average Indian is no more educated than the average Nigerian. Reflecting on the Biafran War, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu said: �In the three years of war, necessity gave birth to invention. During those three years, we built bombs, we built rockets, we designed and built our own delivery systems. We guided our rockets, we guided them far, and we guided them accurately.� Thirty years after the Nigerian-Biafran War, Nigeria is still technologically behind Biafra! Nigeria must get rid of its complex and realize that we can accomplish as much as South Africa, China or India, if we set our focus in the right direction.

How did India get ahead of Nigeria in technology?

India invested heavily in technical education, introduced lots of computer courses and produced 250,000 scientists and engineers a year. The large pool of skilled computer programmers attracted many foreign companies, which would rather pay a $15,000-a-year salary to an Indian than pay a $60,000-a-year to an American.

There are still opportunities in contract programming. According to CNN, during the last three years, over 50,000 computer-related jobs with average salary of over $40,000 a year were created in Manhattan, a borough of the city of New York. That is over $2 billion a year pumped into the economy of Manhattan alone. We can pump $2 billion a year into the economy of Nigeria when we start selling our computer expertise the way we now export our soccer players to Europe.

How can we train knowledge workers for the Information Age when government policies in Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe discourage the importation of computers? These countries believe that the use of computers increases unemployment and that access to the Internet will affect �national security.�

Computers and the Internet will increase the productivity of African workers and therefore create wealth for the society. Why travel to Taiwan to purchase goods that can also be purchased over the Internet? Better still, why import from Taiwan what we can manufacture in Nigeria?

Computers and the Internet have already enabled Nigerians living abroad to form a virtual community called naijanet whose 800 members live in the United States, Australia, Japan, Finland, United Kingdom, South Africa, Namibia, and even Nigeria. At naijanet, we hold daily discussions on Nigerian-related topics. In the latter instance, the e-mail effectively removes national boundaries. In fact, ideas generated within naijanet are now published in Nigerian newspapers.

In terms of future employment, the implication is that a Nigerian contract programmer will not need an immigration work permit to work in the United States. Conversely, Nigerians living abroad who are not yet ready to return home can lend their expertise to Nigerian communities, without being there.

You might wonder: �Why have an Internet in a continent where telephone and electricity services are unreliable?� First, the $1.3 billion Africa ONE project will directly connect Lagos to Europe with fiber optic cables buried underneath the Atlantic ocean. When this project is completed in 1999, it will be unnecessary for Lagosians to use Nigeria�s unreliable telephone system to access the Internet. Nigerians living outside Lagos will only have to place an inexpensive telephone call to Lagos or wait until their city is connected by fiber optic lines.

Second, communicating by Internet is less expensive than communicating by telephone. It is sometimes faster and cheaper to travel by road, in spite of our bad roads, than to make a telephone call between two Nigerian cities. Thus, sending e-mail messages would reduce the need to make frequent trips and telephone calls.

An e-mail message is 20 times cheaper than a fax message and 100 times cheaper than a telephone conversation. The low cost of e-mail can put it within the reach of many Nigerian families, business, and government.

Subscribers pay a flat monthly rate of $5 (and free from some providers) for an unlimited amount of e-mail to any country. In contrast, telephone owners pay 250 naira, about $3, naira a minute to call the United States.

It is even much faster to send an e-mail message than mail a letter. The e-mail arrives a few seconds later. A letter from Nigeria takes up to two months to arrive, if it arrives at all.

The Internet can be used for other things besides e-mail. I receive Japanese radio broadcasts from the Internet. I read Zambian newspapers on the Internet. I spoke to a friend in England on the Internet. I read books on the Internet. The list of things that can be done on the Internet is a very long one.

The Internet contains more information than the world�s largest libraries. Therefore, Nigerians with access to the Internet can retrieve information from the world�s largest information database. Since it is cheaper to get connected to the Internet than to buy a television, Nigerians cannot afford to be left out.

Why should Nigeria invest in the software industry? Because that is where the development, empowerment and money is. Computer industry is a trillion-dollar (yes, that is a �T�) market. Today, the richest companies in the world are in the computer industry.

Half of the ten richest men in the United States made their money from computer related-industries. Bill Gates, a 42-year-old computer entrepreneur, is worth $40 billion. In fact, Mr. Gates has enough money to cover 1996 Nigeria�s national budget twenty times over!

The United States has hundreds of unknown computer programmers who are wealthier than Moshood Abiola. Sanjiv Sidhu, a 39-year-old Indian immigrant computer entrepreneur, is worth $716 million and employs many Indian computer programmers earning a $65,000-a-year salary.

How can Nigerians at home and abroad make a living in the computer field? We must make 20-, 50-, and even 100-year-plans. It is impossible to get rich overnight in this field.

First, since we do not have the money to properly educate our children to compete in a modern high-technology world, we must implement a disciplined family planning that advocates and encourages each family to have only one child. An only child will receive far better education than a child with five brothers and sisters.

Second, we must overhaul our universities and polytechnics to enable them to produce 200,000 well-trained scientists and engineers each year. These engineers should be hired by NEPA to bring us constant electricity, NITEL to bring us reliable telephone services, and NNPC to discover and recover more oil.

Third, the computer industry rewards creativity and penalizes conformity. We must encourage creativity and produce an entrepreneurial work force. Nigerian culture encourages conformity, deference and respect for elders, teachers, and leaders. Outspoken journalists such as Chris Anyanwu (The Sunday Magazine), George Mbah (Tell), Ben Charles Obi (Weekend Classique), and Kunle Ajibade (The News) have been imprisoned for expressing their political beliefs. As a result, Nigerian editors are afraid to write the truth for the people. Nigerian politicians lack the courage and conviction of Nelson Mandela and are afraid to probe military officers for corruption. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti sang: "Awa people dey fear too much. We dey fear for dey thin we no see."

Fourth, we must have a technological Cyber Corridor, an approximately 300-square-mile region allocated for information industry workers such as computer programmers, video-games designers, and Web-site developers. Nigeria should collaborate with OAU and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in developing the proposed Cyber Corridor.

We should entice the big multinational infotech companies such as Microsoft, Netscape, IBM, Sun Microsystems, British Telecom, Motorola and Sony to Cyber Corridor by developing the infrastructure such as fiber-optic cables, good roads, safe water, constant electricity, reliable telephones, good schools, modern hospitals, quality housing, leisure and entertainment facilities. In addition, we should permit foreign information technology companies to operate tax-free, bring in highly trained foreign workers, liberalize our laws to allow foreign investors to repatriate some of their profits with less protocol, assure the personal safety of both indigenes and foreigners, rectify our image as the most corrupt nation on earth, ensure political stability by eliminating coups d�etat, and train the workforce for the new Information Age.

The African Cyber Corridor could be the technological capital of the continent, the regional headquarters of major infotech companies, and a source of cheap labor that could draw jobs away from California�s Silicon Valley. Someday, every nation will want to build a technological city. India has built its Information Technology Park. Egypt is building its Pyramid Technology Park. Israel, Taiwan and many other nations are building or planning to build their technology cities.

We must connect major cities to the Internet with at least a 10-gigabyte digital optical fiber backbone which would simultaneously allow us to place more reliable telephone calls and avoid Nigeria�s unreliable telephone system. Ten gigabytes would allow us to e-mail a copy of the Nigerian national anthem to every African by the time you say �Arise, O compatriots.�

The list of things to do is actually longer. I have discussed a few that Vision 2010 did not address adequately. These should be included in the proposed Vision 2020.

Again, we Africans were the first to enter the Agricultural Age. The first to build in stones. The first to pioneer in technology. The Greeks learned our technology and taught it to the western world. Two thousand years later, the West is leaving us behind as it prepares to enter the Information Age. We must hurry to enter the Information Age.

Let us not be the last country to live in the Agricultural Age and poverty. We must soar with the wind of good fortune, like the eagle, to where the real wealth of nations is. We must adopt a quantum-leap strategy to catch up with Europe.

Vision 2010 should be more than an economic blueprint. The lesson we learned from the 1970s and the 1980s is that a massive inflow of petrodollars will not bring an economic prosperity that will spread and permeate to all levels of our society. Vision 2020 should include those intangible but precious elements that will enable a Nigerian to live a satisfying life. Thus, we must grow along several dimensions.

We must grow politically by eliminating coups d�etat while empowering the people to choose their leaders.

We must grow democratically by creating a society in which the emphasis will not be on individuals or leaders but on the community.

We must grow psychologically by restoring the faith and confidence of the Nigerian people in our leaders.

We must grow spiritually by having a society in which African traditionalists, Christians and Moslems can practise their religions with mutual respect for each other�s.

We must grow socially by reducing crime and corruption, creating a new Nigeria in which government officials do not demand bribes from citizens.

We must grow morally by encouraging honesty and not singing praises to embezzlers.

We must grow artistically by leaving a legacy comparable to the carvings from the Benin Empire, the terra cotta sculptures of the Nok culture, and the bronze vessels of the Igbo-Ukwu civilization.

We must grow culturally by creating a less repressive society in which women are encouraged and empowered in all areas of education and society.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must ensure that Nigerian children are properly educated. When we invest in our children, we will find that our standard of living grows, too. We should invest in education and technology not because it is easy, but because our children will be the beneficiaries tomorrow of the decisions, we adults, make today. Investing in education and technology will be our legacy to our children; because it will bring the best out of them as well as all Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation.

Thank you very much.

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