I would have made ten times more scientific
discoveries if
I was provided the same opportunities that Albert
Einstein
had in this country.
Nigeria is so unpopular these days in the
international community. Do you feel a sense of guilt that
perhaps if people like you had stayed back at home or
returned, to play a role in government that things
could have
been different?
Yes and no.
Nigeria has received negative press because of the controversies surrounding the jailing of Moshood Abiola, the murder of Kudirat Abiola, the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, 419 scams and drug trafficking. I believe that some of these problems would not have occured if the one million Nigerian professionals living abroad had returned home.
The justification for my staying abroad requires a circular, chicken-and-egg-style explanation: I would not have acquired the skills Nigeria needed if I had not left Nigeria. Also, I will not do my best work if I return to Nigeria today. But Nigeria cannot use my skills until I return to Nigeria. A compromise solution is for me to have one foot in Nigeria and the other foot in the United States.
My research requires that I have daily access to $55 million supercomputers which are not available in Africa which, in turn, makes it impossible for me to work in Africa.
However, I am making a scientific contribution. I consider my scientific discoveries as an expression of the creativity of the Nigerian people and their contribution to world civilization. Also, it will be used to educate, motivate and inspire the future generations of scientists of African descent.
Scientists and engineers are needed in Africa because it is science and technology that drives economic growth.
It is a shame that one million Nigerian professionals are living abroad. Nigeria's main export to the United States is human resources, not petroleum resources. In the late 1970's, Nigerian was spending $40 million a year on scholarship sponsorship of Nigerians studying in American universities. Few of those sponsored were offered employment by the Nigerian government.
In 1979, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that each African professional between the age of 25 to 35 contributes $184,000 each year to the United States economy. It is estimated that 150,000 Nigerian professional are working in the United States. This means that Nigerians contribute about 30 billion dollars to the United States economy. This is much greater than the 8 billion dollars Nigeria exports each year in petroleum.
We need to review the pull and push factors to understand how to recruit Nigerian professionals to the motherland.
The factors that will pull Nigerians to return home are:
- Nigerians are proud of their cultural heritage and would prefer to live in Nigeria than anywhere else.
- most Nigerians living abroad encounter racial discrimination and would love to live where there will be treated as a first-class citizens
- Nigerians with graduate degrees are working as taxi cab drivers or security guards. This makes it very easy to entice them by offering them meaningful employment
Reverse brain-drain can be achieved by paying Nigerian professionals large sums of money to return home and increasing the pay of those already living in Nigeria to encourage them not to emigrate.
Also, Nigeria should create a brain-drain from the developed countries to Nigeria. My father swears that Nigeria operated more smoothly during before Independence. Nigeria had a brain-drain when thousands of British professionals left after the Independence of 1960. Because of the brain-drain, Nigerian has had several coups, the 1966 gruesome progrom in which 30,000 Igbos were killed, and a 30-month civil war in which 1 million lives were lost.
Until the Nigerian brain-drain is reversed, corruption and mismanagement cannot be eliminated and Nigeria will never catch up with African countries like Botswana, whose standard of living is 12 times higher than that of Nigeria, or South Africa.
The solution is to lure millions of talented Nigerians and non-Nigerians to emigrate to Nigeria. United States, Canada and practically all western countries are always issuing immigrant visa to highly talented professionals. Ghana is aggressively luring African Americans to return home to Ghana and as result many are following the example of the renowned Pan-Africanist W.E.B. DuBois by retiring in Ghana.
Since, Africa needs about 20 million scientists and engineers to develop it, I believe my primary mission is to educate, motivate and inspire the next generation of African technical professionals. To accomplish this task requires that I conduct research, read and write everyday and receive the support of the Nigerian people.
The daily letters that I receive from Africans proves that people of African descent feel a sense of ownership and pride in my scientific contributions. I will disappoint them by returning to Nigeria, where my research will not be supported.
Click on emeagwali.com for more information.
