Dr. Theophilus Ndubuaku is the Secretary-General of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions in Nigeria; and a member of the central working committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress. In this interview with our Editor in Chief,  he said that Nigeria is fast drifting to a failed state, adding that only research into the causes of the problems will save the nation from anarchy.  Â
What do you aim to achieve by your this campaign?
What I’m campaigning for is the re-enactment of the bill to establish and fund a national research council which has been on the drawing board since the early 1960s. I want the National Assembly to make it a law to fund research in this country. Already, it has been reviewed 13 times by the senate. Sponsored by UNESCO this year, it t is being reviewed again for the fourteenth time. The major thing in the bill is the request for the implementation of this council and for proper coordination and funding of research and research institutions in this country.
Another important reason is that since the council came into being in the 1960s, we have not bothered to implement it when most nations of the world that started with us have implemented their own. And we are getting to a point of being viewed as a failed state. Now, with our country rated as the poverty capital of the world, as number three nation among the most terrorized nations on earth, as number two nation in the global unemployment index coupled with agitations here and there for self-determinism, our nation is drifting fast to a failed state.
Of course, there is no other option now than for government to fund research which is the key consideration or rather the cornerstone of development used by any nation. If we don’t do it, if we don’t fund research and begin in earnest to research into the underlying causes of our troubles, then we are bound to fail as a state. Even the very developed nations, when they are faced with any crisis situation, as in the case of COVID 19, they run back to their research laboratories; they increase their research funding and improve their research institutions.
So what we aim to achieve by this campaign is to get the National Assembly to re-enact this bill so that there can be funding for research, and proper coordination of research efforts in order to prevent duplication of research. This must be done quickly so that the country can be salvaged from its present drift to a failed state.
Why do you think this is an auspicious time to pursue the passage of this bill?
This is certainly a most auspicious time to pursue the re-enactment of this bill because the country is at the brink of collapse. We have all manner of problems bedeviling the nation presently, and only researching into the causes of the problems can save the nation from imminent collapse. If we fail to do this now, and we allow the country to degenerate into chaos and anarchy whereby the over 200 million people of this country are forced into other countries as refugees, it would be disastrous and the world might not be able to cope with the situation. For instance, the United States has already alerted us that Al-Qaeda and the ISIS are coming to overrun the southern states of this country. How are we reacting to that revelation? What are we doing to try to circumvent Al-Qaeda incursion? We must, as a matter of urgency, research into what is causing unwelcome intrusions by foreign militia into the country.
Now, if research is properly funded and we are able to find the causes of our national problems, then the gradual drift into anarchy will be halted. This is why we think that this is the most appropriate time to do it. Because of the lack of research efforts, nearly everything in the country is going haywire.
Why do you think research will be enough to stop the gradual drift to anarchy?
O, I really think that purposive research will help us here. You see, what we are passing through now, so many nations have passed through that. But the important thing is that those countries were able to solve their problems by looking inwards through the instrumentality of research. Those countries, as a matter of fact, mobilized their research sector to find out how to solve each of the problems they faced. You see, here in Nigeria, we have so many research institutes for virtually everything under the sun but these institutes are not being utilized at all to resolve issues. For example, the fight against COVID 19 has been fought in this country without any recourse to the health and medical and pharmaceutical sectors. Not one kobo out of the N40 billion raised by the private sector to fight the disease was channeled into researching COVID 19. So, what are we saying? Of course, we are saying that if the research sector is properly coordinated and funded, then the plethora of problems confronting our nation can be easily resolved. This is because experts will apply measured knowledge to tackling them.
We all know that university research is not targeted at solving problems; what they do in the universities is what we call basics, otherwise known as blue-skies-research, which is just for the creation of knowledge but not designed or tailored  towards solving problems. But research institutes in all lands have specific mandates for coming up with findings to solve specific problems. In the research institutes, experts have no choice than to concentrate efforts on problem-solving research because that is their specific mandate. Hence, we believe that the research and innovation council establishment bill will coordinate research that is spread across the 12 ministries. The funding mechanism is such that it does not put any budgetary burden on the government: it is just an establishment that has funds coming to them through taxes and surcharges, and from these sources, we contribute 5 per cent into the research funds.
The council will be coordinated centrally whereby the President of the nation will chairman of the council.
But, do you imagine the government conceding to your demand?
Yes, we expect that this government will concede to our demand because the first time the bill was passed by the senate things had not gone haywire; yet about 60 senators co-sponsored the bill. At this time when everything is going bad and out of control, I am sure that nearly every senator in the senate of this country would want to identify with the bill. And if we can have such sponsorship and support from the Red Chamber, and the bill s eventually passed, and it goes back to Mr. President who had already noted that the bill could produce a Nobel Laureate for science and research, he would easily sign it. I know if the bill goes back to the National Assembly without being signed by the President the senate would go ahead and veto the Mr. President’s refusal to accede to it.
Presently, about 20 civil society organizations are in support of the re-enactment of this bill. This is because every one of these organizations now see that there is no other way out the national quagmire but through research findings. This is the way every nation that has ever developed followed. We have made it known to the authorities and to the civil society groups that research is neglected in this country. So with the efforts we are making now, this council will be established.
What lobbying system are you using to get this bill re-enacted?
Of course, we’ve been trying to lobby our political representatives and get other stakeholders to identify with the bill.  To lobby our way through, we have already written to the Senate President. We have written to the senate committee on science and technology. We intend to write to every member of the national assembly, and that includes the House of Reps members and all the people connected with research efforts in this country. The Nigeria Labour Congress has already keyed into this bill, too. They have even issued a communiqué on research funding. We have also signed agreement with the NLC and TUC to pursue the passage of this bill until the council is created.
If the government decides to set aside your demands, what would be your next line of action?
You see, if government does not sign this bill we will throw it open to the world to see, and alert the international community that Nigeria is drifting to a failed state and the only key to turning the tide is to awaken the country’s research institutions through funding and adequate political will. It may interest you to note that the World Trade Organization has warned Nigeria that our oil revenue will not persist for long as the only source of income hence government should diversify its economic base. And this can only be done through research.
