Nigeria not yet ripe for robotics engineering

From Champion Newspaper, June 4, 2009

Nigeria not yet ripe for robotics engineering — Ekekwe

Dr. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, a robotics engineer based in the United States of America is currently the President of African Institute of Technology which is in the forefront of advancing microelectronics and robotics technology in Africa. He was in Abuja recently where he entertained questions from journalists. ADELANI ASHAMU was there.

You already have two patents in robotics. Do you think Nigeria has the capacity to develop this branch of engineering?

Currently I have two pending patents, that I have already filed for, but so far they are still going through the normal rigorous process of patents consideration but we are very optimistic that these patents will come through. I think the question is not necessarily whether Nigeria has the potential, in all fields of endeavour, we have proved that we are smart, energetic, brilliant and there is no field of endeavour you would not see Nigerians doing very well. So for me I would not say it is an isolated case as there are many people that have come before me and even doing better than l am doing but as an individual, I have this keen curiosity that until you solve a problem, you can not really celebrate success. As an engineer I believe I can push the limit of science and that was the reason I continually try to re-define how we see scientific discoveries, shaping the future of humanity.

There are two levels to explain that context. You have individual issues and another that I would call a national issue. Unfortunately right now in this country, no one can readily operate or do anything in robotics engineering because our nation is not an industrialised economy. Robotics can not necessarily flourish here. In other words, at the individual level what usually drives people going into certain careers has to do with the propensity that when they graduate they can find a job. If you graduate from robotics anywhere and you come back to Nigeria to practice you may be surprised that you would not have a lot of career opportunities; but for me it is a little different. As a little boy, I had this imagination that man should be in a level where machines should serve us because I believe that God has given us the intellect. I wish we have more time or freedom and allow our brains to create engines and machines that would serve us.

You mean Nigeria as a country is not prepared for robotics?

We have not moved to the level where we can actually deploy these technologies because there are some fundamental things that must happen. You can not talk of robotics engineering when you don’t have good electricity just like you can’t talk of robotics engineering when your graduates are not necessarily knowledge workers. It is actually very insulting in that when someone graduates in this country, he begins a job as a training engineer so what has he gone to do in the University for five years if he comes into your company and become a training engineer. It is just to show you that our educational system has not advanced to the level that is required. In that case we have a long way to go and I don’t see robotics engineering taking root in this country in the next ten years. I am here just to create awareness in the universities through seminars and workshops as well as running other courses. Hopefully we would begin that process of recreating bottom top technology institutions that would bring universities across the world to have interest in Nigerian universities and create this kind of technology.

What is your view to the notion that robots are here to take the place of humans?

Some of those arguments are not necessarily very valid. One thing we have come to understand through the course of humanity is that technology comes to destroy the way we live. We should also not forget the fact that technology also creates problems in order to manage the way we live. During the great days of industrial revolution in the British Empire technology came to solve problems but it also created a need. When the internet came a lot of people said ok, a lot of jobs were going to be eliminated but it created a new class of workers, people that made money through internet. So, though robotic systems may be advanced and we have robots to compete with us, they would also create a niche that we have to service them and you will never see a displacement of the human species because man remains the most intelligent, most organized engine that can never be displaced by any kind of human collision, and so we should not worry about that.

How do you think Nigeria can re-invent its energy sector?

There are two things. I believe.Firstly we need to go back to basics. Every national policy in any nation must carry the university system along. The University is the organic engine that drives any national vision. In other words, students of today will become the future leaders of tomorrow and if the students of today are not well prepared to actually manage the leadership challenges in the next generation then the country does not have a future. If you go through history you discover that the prosperity of every nation is always dependent on the vibrancy of the educational system. When you go through industrial revolution, Cambridge and Oxford were the best universities in the world and Britain was very successful. Now America is considered a very great super power not because of its military arsenal but because they have the best universities in the world. So how can our nation get to that level? We have to go back to restructuring and modernisng our educational system. It is only when we have done that,that we would begin to see students who will actually graduate to become entrepreneurs, creating a level of competition and create an economy that would flourish to enable these brains advance. Educational system advances our energy system; advances our policies in all areas of national life.

What solution can government adopt for the educational system since it holds the ace to national development?

In the educational system, a massive kind of investment is required and restructuring of the way we see the education sector. Sometimes, I have proposed that the government should have a national science foundation where basically government would map out certain amount of funds for university professors and lecturers and polytechnics or colleges of education so that they can go into research. There is no problem in this country that someone has never dreamt of how to solve it, whether it is energy, transportation or economic problem. But the greatest challenge we have is that these people sleep with these ideas. No one gives them the resources to try to solve those problems. I want to challenge the government to fund the education system adequately.

* The founder of AFRIT held more than ten press conferences during 2009 program to Nigeria