IMPERATIVES FOR ADAPTIVE NATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR SCIENCE, INVENTION, INNOVATION AND INDUSTRALIZATION
A keynote speech delivered by Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, GCON at the National Innovation Expo/Workshop, organised by the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, at the International Convention Center, Awka, Anambra State on 25thNovember, 2022
PROTOCOL:
INTRODUCTION:
I am very delighted to be here today to deliver a keynote speech at this auspicious occasion.
Let me start by congratulating the Chairman and Members of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology for working assiduously to put this workshop together at this time global attention is focusing on science, innovation and technology. I commend your foresight, which clearly demonstrates your commitment to getting our country to move with the time and in the right direction. Well done.
Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen I was originally asked to speak on the topic titled: ‘Bridging the gap between Inventors, Large scale Industries and Government’ but after due consideration, I decided to adjust or change the topic to: ‘Imperatives for adaptive national framework for science, invention, innovation and industrialization’. My reasons for changing the topic are as follows:
- – To focus our discourse on more contemporary issues and challenges;
- – As keynote speaker, I believe I am expected to provoke thoughts, identify critical issues and possibly broaden the scope of the discourse;
- – The original topic sounded like the old song. In today’s world, invention and innovations have become so disruptive that they no longer beg for accommodation.
The song of waiting on or hoping that Government must undertake or direct all economic and social activities is now in the past. I must sound it clearly that human race is in transition in a dimension of technological revolution. It will affect the way we work and the way we live and so, we must adjust the way we think. Permit me to recall that earlier this year, I addressed an audience on “preparing for the 2nd quarter of the 21st century (2026-2050)”. I seriously think that we must be engaged with the urgent need to draw attention to and prepare our country for the effect of the new wave of scientific inventions and innovation in the 2nd quarter of the 21st century. I must say that the dimension and speed of this sweeping revolution leaves no room for government facilitation rather, government now scampers to make itself relevant. For example:
- – Elon musk, the founder of SpaceX, Tesla Inc, etc did not wait for government;
- – Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook (Meta) did not wait for government;
- – In 2022, M/s Olamide Olowe, a Nigerian young woman of 26 years and founder of Topicals Skin Care attracted a venture capital of $10 Million US Dollars into her business without waiting for government;
- – In 2021, without any clear government policy intervention, Nigerian start-ups attracted $1.37 Billion US Dollars from foreign venture capitals;
- – Coca cola did not wait for government to buyout Chivita
I can go on and on but let me stop here and repeat that the song of waiting for government is now in the past but government must make itself relevant through proactive legislation to provide regulatory framework for operations of investors and innovators in the 2nd quarter of 21st century. On the other hand, inventors and innovators should aim and target venture capitals or get so attractive or disruptive for a buyout.
Again, government should make itself relevant in creating the right environment to avail venture capitals to inventors and innovators.
Having clarified why the adjustment on the topic, let me again congratulate the Senate Committee on science and technology for taking the initiative in organizing this workshop and creating this platform to interrogate some of these issues. Let me also acknowledge that the theme of this Workshop: ‘Promotion of Local Inventors of science, technology and innovation’ is apt and the changes I made to my topic speaks to it in many ways.
Moving forward, I want to say that the substance of any economic progress is industrialization and the real reagents that catalyses industrialization are science, invention, innovation and technology. This is to say that while industrialization is the major factor in advancing and securing human civilization, science and scientific inventions have been the agents that shape the contours of industrialization. I shall therefore focus on the anticipated effect of scientific advancement in the 2nd quarter of the 21st century. I shall also highlight the imperatives for our collective preparedness. But before then, let me put in proper perspectives, the meaning of the key words in my topic as I may use them interchangeably:
- – Technology: means application of scientific knowledge for practical purpose especially in industries;
- – Invention: means the action of inventing something, typically a process or device;
- – Innovation: means a new method, idea, process, etc.
The difference between invention and innovation is that to invent something is to discover a new thing, while to innovate means to use a new idea or method.
Having laid the above foundation, I shall proceed to discuss the sequence of scientific inventions/innovations that provoked industrial revolution that have advanced human civilization and is about to take a new dimension in the 2nd quarter of 21st century.
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
In his book titled “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”, Klaus Schwab (the founder of World Economic Forum) described Industrial Revolution as the appearance of “new technologies and novel ways of perceiving the world (that) trigger a profound change in economic and social structure”.
I shall not spend time on the history of industrial revolutions but suffice it to say that before the ongoing 4th industrial revolution, there had been three industrial revolutions. I shall hereunder give a brief summary of each of them.
1. THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
This process started in Britain in the 18th century (1760). The crux of this industrial revolution is the transition from agrarian and handicraft economy to industrial production using machine manufacturing. Its principal feature was the introduction of steam science. The first industrial revolution led to the invention of steam engines, and steam was used to power virtually everything from agriculture to textile manufacturing.
2. THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
This was the period of major scientific breakthroughs and often referred to as the age of “science and mass production”. This revolution launched into human civilisation new sourcesof energy, e.g. petroleum, electricity, gasoline engines, aeroplanes, radio etc. The prominent featureof this revolution is the introduction of speed and mass production.
3. THE THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The third industrial revolution is popularly known as “the digital revolution”. This revolution brought forth the computer and internet technologies. In summary, the third industrial revolution brought about the digitalisation of existing technologies. The revolution led to the mass upgrade of electronic and mechanical devices to digital technologies that are mostly credited with production automation.
In a nutshell, “the first industrial revolution used water and steam to mechanise production, the second used steel power to create mass production. The third used electronics and information technology to automate production’’1.
One common denominator of all the industrial revolutions is their dramatic technological and economic transformation with their consequential social effects. They transformed agrarian and handicraft economies to industrial economies. They introduced factory productions leading to large scale outputs. They introduced new energy sources e.g., petroleum, electricity, efficient machines and engines. They brought about speed i.e., in transportation, communication, data science etc. But all of the above and many more may not be the main focus of this discourse. The concern is that every phase of industrial revolution comes with massive disruptive effects on the way we live and work, i.e., new demands disrupt old skills, new structures disrupt work systems, and old technologies are replaced by new ones leading to loss of businesses even as new ones emerge.
This intrusion and disruptions are the reasons for the call for us to prepare as the 4th industrial revolution inevitably cruises in and the preparation must start with legislations. Again, I think this workshop is apt and I commend it.
4. THE SCOPE OF 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The 4th industrial revolution has been described as “the next phase of dramatic technological expansion and social change”. In describing the scope of the 4th industrial revolution, Klaus Schwab puts it this way:
“The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge are unlimited. And thesepossibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, material science, energy storage and quantum computing”.
The above represents the drivers of 4th industrial revolution or if you like the direction and dimension of inventions and innovations in the 2nd quarter of the 21st century.
Hereunder, I shall highlight the direction of inventions and innovations under the 4th industrial revolution as the drivers of the 4th industrial revolution.
5. DRIVERS OF 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND IMPERATIVES
i. SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
It is believed that communication is core or if you like, central to technological advancement of the 21st century with its sweeping effect on all aspect of our private and public lives. Some of the engines of these technological advancement include Bluetooth technology, Skype, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, IBM Watson, and indeed the numerous apps technologies. Social coherence, and in some ways, social disharmony, have also been fostered through communication.
The speed of such communication which engenders growth, effective administration, brand loyalty for cooperation, celebrities, politicians, etc is the essence of and power of the social media. That is- reaching people and targeted audience faster and in real time, thereby promoting change or responses that follow certain courses of action.
On the political space, for example, many governments and political leaders now project some governance information and direction to their citizens and the world by use of the social media. Political communication has largely moved from mainstream media to include the social media.
In the work space, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, twitter, blogs, youtube, google team, etc have become major sources of hiring labour, and about 80 percent of global companies use them for their recruitment processes.
As it is for employment of labour, so it is for marketing of goods and services. In the 21st Century, social media has become a global market place and avenue for brand identification and loyalty, corporate judgement and conversation, and the list goes on.
Imperatives
a. As communication, including broadcasting to millions of audiences without boundaries becomes a common place at little or no cost, by year 2050, every individual – rich or poor, illiterate or educated would have the means to influence, challenge, stimulate or expose situations around them. For example, the video clip by a little girl, which exposed how George Floyd was killed in the United State of America by a white police officer sparked off a global protest and placed a demand on the government for a change. Also, in Nigeria, many video clips went viral on the Endsars protest of 2020 and informed or influenced the opinion and decisions of many, as well as the decision which the Government had to take.
b. In the years ahead, it is almost sure that citizens will continue to lose their privacy. It is expected that tracking of information will be a lot easier through connectivity that is launching us into a world wide web.
c. In the years ahead, it is most certain that SMS text messaging will virtually disappear as messaging apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter etc. will take over.
d. It is also certain that in the years ahead, computer keyboards both desktops and laptops,smartphones keypad will virtually become irrelevant as all will be replaced with largely voice-controlled directives.
e. Social media in the years ahead will become major sources of connection for various purposes, including social communication or hiring labour. This will likely force the conventional systems out of businesses.
f. The experience from the covid 19 pandemic and technological advancement has shown that government business, education, corporate meetings, regular working hours, religious services, etc can be conducted virtually with the aid of communication technology. I won’t be surprised, if in the nearest future, law-making business will also be wholly conducted virtually.
g. There is also the development of web3 technology and a virtual world called the metaverse where people live, work, shop and interact with each other virtually.
The effect will be endless, but I must not forget to mention the IBM’s Watson’s impact on professional services. IBM’s Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering any question. It is capable of offering clear professional answers to many questions. I must let lawmakers know that IBM’s Watson’s services are already a threat to many professions.
ii. ROBOTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Simply put, this is science reaching beyond the limits of human activities (in many cases replacing them), with machines that are equipped with enhanced agility, sense and intelligence to perceive its environment and perform cognitive functions to successfully interpret and solve particular scenarios. In the second quarter of the 21st century, scientists will continue to push the boundaries of technology in a bid to replace most human endeavour with machine operations, cutting across industries and human operations – manufacturing, oil and gas, space travel, transportation, medicine, agriculture, sports, education, communication, construction, power supplies, military, banking etc.
We are certain to experience unprecedented enhancement of the existing technologies, e.g.,from electric vehicles to self-driving and self-assisted parking cars, from smartphones to smarthomes, from cyberknife to robotics surgery, space travel to space colonisation, from smart city to intelligent roads etc. The world no doubt will reach for an unprecedented level in technological expanse in the second quarter of the 21st century.
Imperatives
In the second quarter of the 21st century, we should expect the following:
a. Petrol engine cars will disappear, to be replaced by electric cars; petrol or filling stations will be replaced by electric charging stations.
b. Oil companies and oil explorations is certain to phase out, this will certainly depresseconomies that are oil dependent with consequential social and economic effects.
c. Electricity generation and utilisation will likely be greatly decentralised as many users will now generate their own power. This will lead to collapse of the grid system with its consequential social and economic effects particularly in developing nations.
d. Softwares will continue to disrupt many conventional systems in both commercial andindustrial sectors e.g., UBER in the traditional taxi system ownership.
e. There will be many mobile devices that will affect the way we live and work and make it possible to work from anywhere.
f. Computers will become better in quantum services. A good example is Facebook, which has developed face recognition capabilities with increased accuracy. Today, legal and even medical consulting services can be accessed within seconds using Watson.
g. In medical diagnosis, the tricorder X price is about to disrupt even the conventional laboratory services. The list is endless.
iii. THE INTERNET OF THINGS
This is a concept where everything talks and interacts with everything. It is an interconnectivity of physical objects, including human beings and animals, (generally described as things), with sensors or nano chips encrypted with software applications to make it possible to exchange data with other “things” or devices through the internet gateway. 5G is the technology that will launch this “experimentation”, and as you can possibly imagine, there would be other Gs which will make communication and transfer of informationand data supersonic.
This is the future that every individual, government and corporation must embrace, and therefore should be preparing for.
The truth is, our world has changed and even more so continues to change and briskly, too.
Imperatives
a. The 5G internet super highway has come to stay as a major gateway for speedy connectivity. This will drive the interconnectivity of things that will change our world in this century, including human beings being embedded with nano chips that make them“part-human, part-machine. Today, we are able to use our finger tips and face detectiontechnologies to open and lock our phones, access devices, etc. By 2050, we may not require those; human beings can simply pass information to machines or other human beings through thought process. This is already being experimented. It will become possible therefore to simply snap a picture just by a wink of an eye or send commands through thought recognition and the “object” will recognize the communication and comply. I make bold to say, that the argument against 5G technology in Nigeria is unnecessary as its deployment is inevitable.
b. In the next few years, it will be possible to disrupt the use of keys as locks as encryptedapplication can be used to unlock cars and doors, etc.
c. Facial and voice recognition will become commonplace soon. You can send commandsbyvoice recognition, and the object will recognise and comply, etc.
4. CONCLUSION
I must conclude by saying that the future I am talking about is not a distant one. You should expect some of the above imperatives to dominate our world as early as the next five years. Our world has certainly changed with the “intrusion” of 4th industrial revolution. In a very short while from now, talents and innovations are going to be the only dependable capital assets.
In his call on the global polity to prepare for the effect of the 4th industrial revolution, Klaus Schwab puts it this way “we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything human-kind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear, the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the publicand private sectors to academia and civil society’’
As lawmakers, you must know that the 4th industrial revolution will throw up challenges in legislating for social existence, citizens’ rights and privacy, regulation of corporations and businesses, etc. The question, therefore, is not what is changing, but how are you preparing to contend with this myriad of changes, which as we now know, are inevitable.
In addition, what legislative steps do we need to take to bring critical stakeholders together to fashion out sustainable modalities for closing our technological and innovative gap. Furthermore, we need to ensure that we harness our available human resources as well as groom and nurture Nigerian youths unto the path of science, technology, innovations and inventions as a veritable way to key into the opportunities that the 4th industrial revolution will present and place our economy on a sustainable path for growth.
Let me finally conclude by asserting that organizing workshops like this where critical stakeholders can come together to discuss burning issues, come up with the way forward and fashion out an appropriate legislative agenda is a step in the right direction. More initiatives along this line are needed from the Government to fashion out the best way forward for Nigeria in the next 25 years.
Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the 4th industrial revolution.
I thank you for your attention.