Former Nigerian president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia berated the exploitation of African scientists in Europe, America and Asia continents, lamenting that their efforts on global horizon is fast regressing.
Obasanjo speaking while delivering a paper entitled: “The African Scientist In A Fast-Changing World” presented at the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences in honour of Late Professor Ali Al’Amin Mazrui, however, noted that on the aggregate, African scientists have not been push-over over the ages.
He disclosed that his choice of the topic was borne out of the fact that, “since my friend, Ali Mazrui, was a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and we are celebrating him at the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, I have decided to reflect with you today on “The African Scientist in a Fast-Changing World,” Obasanjo revealed.
He lamented that: “sadly today, the place of eminence of the African scientist on the global horizon is fast regressing. In a fast-changing world, we are getting far left behind. Our contribution to the science, technology and engineering scholarly literature is the least of all regions of the world. “Our universities are at the bottom of global league tables of world-class universities with the region having the least number of Nobel Prize winners in science. Even, a good number of our local problems are being solved by scientists from outside our region. “Yet, we have some of the best intellectually-endowed scientists in the world. The laboratories in Asia, Europe and North America, where breakthroughs are achieved to drive our fast-changing world, are populated in part by brain-drained African scientists,” Obasanjo stated.
Obasanjo observed the efforts of United Kingdom in recent time, in science and technology, which according to him, “could take the nation to world view.” According to him: “During the last two weeks, the fast-paced world of science and technology reported the British government voting to allow a new technique involving babies created from three people. If passed by the House of Lords, the UK will become the first country in the world to offer this medical procedure, which can be used to treat mitochondrial diseases. “Other exciting things in the world of science in the last two weeks include use of biodegradable nano particles to kill brain cancer cells in animals and lengthen their survival and the selection of 100 astronaut candidates for the Mars One project which will land four people on Mars.
“New drugs to counter diabetes and hypertension ravaging Africa and the rest of the world are in different stages of development. The technology in surgery has also advanced in recent months. Consider surgery when a patient is to get his or her diseased heart, liver or spleen removed with minimal invasion through new technologies being developed by biomedical engineers in the University of London and at Harvard. “By 2050, the scenario that surgeons envisage is one where a patient with an organ failure walks into a hospital, gets a 3-D printed organ to replace it in a few hours. “It may be twenty years or more before these drugs and surgical techniques become available for the masses. However, when they do, the health of the people will be better secured than what we have today,” the former Nigeria President posited.
Obasanjo further disclosed that, “this situation notwithstanding, when we aggregate the efforts of the global community of scientists through the ages, the African scientist has not been a complete pushover. “You will recall that some of the well-known contributions of ancient African science include one of the first intensive agricultural schemes; metallurgy, including the mining and smelting of copper, practised in Africa as far back as 4000 B.C.; and the system of hieroglyphic writing and the use of papyrus.
“The science of architecture also reached new heights with the pyramids.They were amazing accomplishments both in terms of construction and the mathematical and astronomical knowledge necessary to build and situate them,” Obasanjo submitted.
