Lack of knowledge application responsible for Nigeria’s underdevelopment — Minister

The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, has identified failure of Nigerians to apply knowledge and innovation for development as one of the reasons Nigeria is not progressing as a nation.

The Minister, who said this during the convocation lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), said despite enormous resources and manpower, he urged youths to think out of the box and go beyond the usuals.

Speaking at the lecture titled; “Knowledge and research as a foundation for prosperous economy”, the communication Minister said that for the country to develop, three key sectors must be identified and improved upon.

According to him, “the world needs more youths with technological knowledge to resolve global challenges, our youths are not expected to fish like their forefathers did in the last years.

He said the three sectors include; agriculture, manufacturing and servicing had been used to measure the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since 1980.

“The Universities of Technology must rise more to the challenges of technological advancement in the country.”

He also charged the universities to be creators of jobs through technological advancement, urging the students to embrace self-investment.

”With the level of water body we have, fishery is not growing, we depend on importation of fish. Financial institutions have done very well, but not as we expected them to have grown.

“We are not applying knowledge and innovation; we are expecting to fish like our forefathers did in the last years.

”Forestry is suffering the same things; coming to university is not to get degrees only, knowledge must be generated, disseminated in the way it can advance the country,” Tijani said.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, in her address, said the convocation was to showcase the school as a citadel of knowledge and happy to have brought the minister to Akure for the first time.

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