In the first part of this series in which we are calling for an economic summit now rather than constitutional conference, because: Our research revealed that all the rich and powerful nations in the world today are industrialised; Industrialisation is achieved through learning and Nigeria can mobilise all Nigerians for integrated learning - education, training, employment and research and achieve accelerated industrialisation in a few decades.
That is to say that Nigeria should focus on the economic development path rather than the political path which European and Asian nations took and toiled for 2000-3000 years before achieving the modern industrialisation which solves the basic problems of a society.
The second part of the call argued that European and Asian nations toiled and suffered for a long time because they did not know what to do to achieve sustainable economic growth and industrialisation, SEGI. Though many would argue that it was because of corruption, no, it was not corruption that delayed progress for a long time in Europe and Asia. Because they did not know what do to promote SEGI, they did not do things that would promote SEGI. There was no educational system of any type in Europe for about 2000 years.
European scholars did not anticipate the Industrial Revolution, IR, Europe achieved beginning in England 1770-1850 and European scholars have not explained what the IR entailed and why Europe achieved it. Latin American and Caribbean and African nations and some Asian nations, the former colonies of European nations have the additional problem of being indoctrinated in the wrong ideas of Europe about the growth and development of societies and that is the reason politicians in the former colonies were borrowing compulsively and accumulating burdensome national debts subjecting the so-called independent nations to the controls of the World Bank and IMF and Western creditors.
Yet it is not corruption that is delaying rapid development in the former colonies, for clean Tanzania of Julius Nyerere's days and clean Ghana of General Rawlings's days did not achieved rapid SEGI. The failure of Latin American nations to make reasonable progress is a warning that Nigeria must pursue the innovative approach of emphasizing the economic path to building Nigeria a great nation.
This third part of our call for economic summit in Nigeria explains why the programmes being implemented in Nigeria and other African nations will not and cannot promote rapid economic and political development for a long time. It would be suicidal to wait for politicians and uncountable constitutional conferences and the violence that is invariably associated with the frustrations that develop when development is delayed.
Western thoughts about growth and development of a society have two types of debilities. The first is that Western intelligentsia and intellectuals have no sense of history. The second is that they do not understand the science that underlies the growth and development processes of a society. Asians are not better. The rich and powerful nations in the world are in Europe, the United States of America and Asia. The poor nations are in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and some parts of Asia. All the rich and powerful nations are industrialised. European nations did not anticipate the industrial revolutions (IR) they achieved. When Europeans achieved IR they felt they were super-beings.
The evolutionary theories developed by Europeans classified people into two categories: the simple and the complex or the primitive and complex. Africans and Latin Americans were described as the simple or primitive people while Caucasians were considered the complex or modern people. To promote development, money and technology are to be transferred from the modern people to make the primitive people and places modern. That is the origin of INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER, ITT, as a development strategy for African nations. African nations are still practising ITT. Bola Tinubu, President of Nigeria, on his visit to China recently signed some ITT agreements with China. Hoogvelt (1982) described the evolutionary theories as historical perceptions of the human development process.
Industrialisation is achieved through learning, just as a language is learnt. Just as the individual speaks a language when he or she has acquired a minimum quantity of vocabulary and syntax, so a nation speaks the S & T language when the citizens have acquired a certain minimum scientific knowledge, skills and capabilities. No one transfers a language to another individual to speak. So, the evolutionary theories do not have any meaning. Yet they have been guiding Nigeria's development for 64 years.
What do we mean when we say that a people have no sense of history? It means that they do not probe the history of a thing or process or experience. The people do not accept historical facts. Peoples without a sense of history are also unable to incorporate historical facts or take cognizance of historical facts in their analyses.
All human beings are born as crying babies. The baby soon begins to babble (learns a language) and speaks a language. So, the individual mature in learning a language. The baby who could not babble does not speak a language. The individual who has primary education, secondary education and tertiary education, and postgraduate education - Master's and Ph. D. degrees, may teach in the university or work for a long time in the economy, grow in knowledge, skills and capabilities and mature and write books. The citizens of a nation learn either laissez-faire, because of the nature of man created as a learning being or learn at higher intensity in a nation with public learning institutions for education, training, employment and research or still learn more intensively when all the citizens are mobilised for integrated learning (education, training, employment and research).
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Industrialisation is necessarily scientific. The industrialised society is a scientific society applying theoretical science. The industrialised society is different from an agricultural/artisan society. There are no claims in science. Claims are quickly discovered and disproved. The thinking and written works of social scientists, especially economists, accountants, and bankers are not scientific; they are claims. They do not follow the rules for writing science. The great stumbling block for social theories had been that they lacked a reliable method for verifying their conclusions - for testing them against empirical evidence.
Jealous of the success of the application of the scientific method in physical and biological sciences research, the social theorists decided to adopt it in social sciences research (DeFleur, et al., 1977). Sad! No! How does one borrow knowledge? How does one borrow a language. This is the cardinal reason African and Latin American nations using social sciences' claims as guide in their development endeavour will be in trouble for a long time.
*Professor Ogbimi, a development economist, wrote via: [email protected]
