“ …Science cannot thrive in third world countries
because we’d first have to take care of hunger, diseases and superstition…” Dr
Nwanguma, B.C
I first heard this statement in a classroom wrote it
down and gave it serious thought. I made a lot of deductions from the statement
and decided to share some of them on here. You must not be science oriented to
connect with what I am about to say because science cuts across and affects
every single aspect of human life in one way or the other.
Africa as a continent tends to be a little backwards
when it comes to scientific breakthroughs compared to the west, apart from
putting blames on its government policies, corruption and neo-colonization as
some people would argue, I believe that just
like my lecturer stated above that hunger, disease and the belief system
also have a role in this backwardness.
HUNGER: Third world countries
especially in Africa like we all know have this problem of hunger that is still
lingering owing to failed government policies, misuse of public funds,
corruption, amongst others. Looking at Nigeria for example where several
poverty alleviation programmes have come and gone, some still pretty much
around and still the average citizen lives on about $2 a day. A friend once
humorously remarked that “The whole country is hungry”, although that statement
seem funny but a critical look at it shows that it is true in every sense. School
teachers, University lecturers and even Professors are underpaid. Some of these
Academics who are supposed to be on the frontline of research cannot even feed
or live normal lives and this is one of the reasons why there are cases of
scientific grants being converted to personal money and not used for its
initial intent. The nation is frail and hungry and until this hunger is taken
care of, I doubt if we could practice Science effectively.
DISEASE: This is unconnected to hunger in a way
because it is common for people who are undernourished to contract various
forms of diseases which would now have to be taken care of with the monies
which could have been used to harness science and technology all in the name of
fighting diseases. Africa for instance
is still battling with several diseases that have become extinct in most
developed countries. Discovering the means of eradicating some of these
diseases contributes to science but you and I know that most of these research
works are carried out in developed countries where the necessary tools for
conducting experiments are abundant while the human test are carried out down
here where ‘Laboratory animals’ abound.
SUPERSTITION
& BELIEF SYSTEM:
Although this could be waved off as being irrelevant, it remains one of
the many hindrances to effective scientific practice in Africa. It seems to
have reduced due to the fact that some of those people involved in these
practices are embracing civilization but it is still pretty much around and
even some who claim to be civilized are still superstitious. Don’t get me
wrong, I am not trying to downplay or rubbish the belief in a deity or greater
power but rather, I am trying to show how superstition shields effective
scientific practice. In the past, a lot of new ailments have been attributed to
the gods and deemed incurable even when they could have been researched upon
and proper experiments carried out. That
was in the past right? But sadly, it is still happening even in this age. Some
religious factions for example abhor transfusions of blood and blood related
materials in which case means that Stem Cell Therapy which has proved to be
effective against certain disease conditions cannot be conducted.
The government could try to tackle hunger by putting
up programmes that should be monitored to ensure that they are not just another
way in which a few officials enrich themselves and even review the payments of
academics and other research scientist to curb this problem of converting
grants and other monies meant to harness research into personal money. Schools
cum institutes of learning should be hugely funded so that they would produce
graduates that could compete with their counterparts in other countries of the
world because if for example, we have Doctors that are competent enough, there
would be no need to travel out to carry out certain medical procedures. There
is need to setup more world-class research institutes in Africa so that more
research work could be carried out here instead of the norm which involves
starting a research work here and completing it abroad. The issue of
Superstition and the belief system is one which I believe would still linger
for a while because people cherish and are of the opinion that their belief
system is the best.
Effective scientific practices are very possible in Africa
if only we act on those problems that are so obvious but which we tend to
ignore and go about our business like everything is fine.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow me on Twitter: @victorikeji
No comments:
Post a Comment