As a journalist who takes a lot of interest in research, information that used to take me many months to acquire some 30 years ago now takes me a few hours to get, thanks to the smart phone and the Internet. What I need to do today is just to do a Google search and I have my answer. The implication of what I am saying is that the world is changing and we must change with it. Just as the Chinese are doing, we must also frog jump to development by adopting the policy of “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” in consumption, manufacturing processes, industries, investment, funding and in many other aspects.
According to the NCC, broadband within the Nigerian context is defined as an Internet experience where the user can access the most demanding content in real time at a minimum speed of 1.5 Mbit/s. In Nigeria, broadband means that connections are ‘always on’, without the need to dial-up every time you want to go online. It also means that high-capacity networks that can deliver very large amount of information simultaneously. As a result, they can deliver voice, data and video, all at the same time.
Today many of us cannot imagine life without the smartphones, facebook and whatsApp. Today, you can sit in your living room and take an on-line degree from a highly recognised university in the UK, Canada or the United States or anywhere in the world. Today, you can sit in Lagos and be looking at your factory situated far away in Las Vegas, in the US. You can even be Nigeria and be looking at the factory floor in far away Australia and be directing your staff there as to what to do and how to do it on-line. All these are possible because of the Internet and technology. I can also reveal to you that JAMB leveraged on technology and particularly the Internet to ensure the success of this year’s UTME examination into Nigerian universities. This explains why the rate of malpractices was drastically reduced.
Today, courtesy of the Internet, farmers can be taught on-line how to use improved inputs and seedlings and new farming practices, they can be taught how they can produce, multiply the yields of their farms, using the same acreage they have been using years ago. Technology and innovation have been and will continue to be the bedrocks of economic and infrastructural development in many nations of the world.
This is why countries with enormous technological innovations and innovators are well respected in the comity of nations, and they often influence the political and economic policies of less technologically endowed nations. Africa is today at the lowest level in the food chain when it comes to technology innovations. The continent is plagued by famine, war, strife, and illiteracy, all of which combine to make her the dumping ground for goods produced by technologically advanced nations. But, this can be changed for the better. Reports indicate that literacy rate is getting better in Africa and the continent is generally witnessing a rise in the number of technological innovations and
inventors.
If Nigeria wants to join the countries with technological innovations and innovators, it must encourage its citizens to take interest in technology and innovators. Already, Nigerian citizens are making waves in technological innovations in Europe and America. Nigerians are at the forefront when it comes to technology innovations in Africa. Technological innovators are springing up daily, a development, which has seen Nigeria ascending an enviable position on the continent.
For example, Prof. Oyekunle Olukotun, a Nigerian professor at Stanford University, was said to have played a pioneering role in the development of multi-core processors that enable computers handle a lot of computing processes and tasks efficiently and effectively. His innovation has paved the way for the development of superfast, highly efficient computers and mobile smart devices.
Another Nigerian, Cyprian Emeka Uzoh, holds more than 300 semiconductor patents worldwide. One of such innovations is
called “Copper Interconnect technology,” an innovation, which has contributed significantly to the development of computer electronics and technologies. Uzoh is said to have played a key role in co-developing and co-implementing it in notable Tech companies around the world, including
IBM.
