Last year the Rockefeller foundation launched a global challenge
offering $1m to the winner of an innovation that can prolong Nigeria's cassava
shelf life.
In my mind, I thought that would be easy, no country in the world grows
and eats more cassava than Nigeria; so I am pretty sure a Nigerian would win
this competition- No be to create a way make cassava no spoil for a few days
before processing - in short, the title of the challenge mentioned Nigeria.
To my surprise, yesterday Rockefeller Foundation announced a United
Kingdom institution as a winner. Yes, the University of Greenwich's Natural
Resources Institute won $500,000 for coming up with the best method of
preserving Nigeria's Cassava.
This made me wonder. What are our institutions doing? OAU, ABU,
FutMinna, YabaTech, UniLag etc? What is our ministry of science and technology
doing? Still figuring out how to make pencils while other countries are innovating
solutions for your domestic products??? Shame! The sad occurrence in this
cassava challenge relates to nearly every sector in Nigeria's economy.
·
We sleep while other nations innovate.
·
We gossip politics; other nations participate.
·
We alienate ourselves from governance and socio
-economic development while other nations practice inclusive governance.
·
Our competition lies in the grandest of weddings
while other nations dwell in the greatest of inventions.
·
We pride in the cost of our imported auto luxuries
while Ajaokuta lays moribund... worse still is our being ignorant of the fact
that the past 10 years, Rolls Royce has gotten
some alloys from Kogi State's illegal mines.
Do we blame our colonial masters again? Freedom was fought for by our national
heroes, we simply enjoy the chains around our necks hence we gladly place them
back, and in different forms.
Wake up Nigeria! Your candle is fast burning out!!
Read about the Rockefeller cassava challenge here https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/cassavachallenge/
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