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One would not be far from being correct to say that 2020 is the year of science. I will tell you why it is so. It was late in the year 2019 that science created coronavirus known as COVID-19. By the end of March 2020, COVID-19 had spread to more than 170 countries, sickened about 800,000 people globally, and triggered the biggest pivot in the history of modern science. And within one year, vaccines are making their way into the waiting arms of the public in developed nations. Some less developed countries have also made arrangements to buy the vaccines for their citizens.
After COVID-19 entered the world, many researchers were gingered globally to drop their previous intellectual projects in order to study the deadly disease. Ed Yong in his article titled “How Science Beat the Virus” which was published in The Atlantic of Dec 14, 2020, says that science became thoroughly COVID-ized in a few months. Other experts were not idle as they publish some questionable works, which Yong describes as “questionable motives.”
Bearing in mind the triumph, fear and trembling at humanity’s encounter with the virus, Yong writes that science can draw important lessons such as: “Warped incentives, wasteful practices, overconfidence, inequality, a biomedical bias – COVID-19 has exposed them all.”Well, science is not only the enabler of innovation.
H and S Rose pointed out in their studies that science was not developed and institutionalized during the first industrial revolution. But today, science is still being idolized in the innovation process. Some empirical studies have equally attempted to measure the contribution of science to innovation in order to stress its primacy in the innovation endeavor. Truth be told, there are other factors besides science contributing to innovation.
But what is innovation and why has it remained elusive? The word innovation is used to describe, “the whole chain of activities from research until the production/process reaches the market place.” We all talk about innovation almost daily. Let us be frank with ourselves, we all crave for innovation. And we would not mind waiting for a miracle to occur. Innovation is something we all need desperately but it is risky and costly.
It appears the challenges we face daily are winning. I have a feeling that we are waiting for miracles to just happen by mistake. I have a feeling that we are waiting for another Moses that will part the Red Sea for us to walk through leisurely
Individuals need innovation. Many firms need it and the same with our communities. Indeed, Nigeria needs innovation. We are staring at a host of challenges across all sectors of the national security spectrum. You name it. Is it in healthcare, food security, education, energy, transportation, and national competitiveness among others? It appears the challenges we face daily are winning. I have a feeling that we are waiting for miracles to just happen by mistake. I have a feeling that we are waiting for another Moses that will part the Red Sea for us to walk through leisurely.
A scientist, R. A Charpie describes innovation as a miracle. Charpie in a paper titled “The Management of Technological Innovation” sees innovation as the: “The process by which the idea, the men with energy and commitment and the source of high-risk capital get together to produce consequential innovation has got to be one of the most haphazard and in a sense, miraculous things that happens in this economy of ours.”
It is therefore not surprising, according to a scholar, that success in the innovation endeavour is highly elusive. Success in the innovation endeavour is so elusive that it was likened to the game of football. Let us say hypothetically that managers of football teams –Arsenal and Manchester United – know what their teams ought to do in order to win. But the factors which they strive to control are not easy to manipulate, while the team managers cannot guarantee success in any particular game. “What can be more positively asserted is that a team which does not know the rules of the game will fail.”
Innovation is a miracle. And that is why the USA President Trump and his Vice President Pence, refer to the COVID-19 vaccine as “a medical miracle.” But President-elect Joe Biden says “no miracle is coming.” In the face of vaccine nationalism by global powers, when will the vulnerable people in Africa have vaccine. And what is the position of Nigeria in the global race for vaccine? Anyway, there are reports that Nigeria is expecting vaccines for 20 percent of its population. But what happens to the remaining 80 percent of the population?
There are reports that the Trump administration invested about US$ 10.0 billion in 8 vaccine candidates – purchasing hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines before they were proved. All regulatory hurdles were cleared while a 4-star general Gustave Perna was appointed to take charge of logistics and distribution. In the face of vaccine nationalism by global powers, when will the vulnerable people in Africa have vaccine? And what is the position of Nigeria in the global race for vaccine?
There is no doubt that many governments around the world are investing huge resources in order to enhance their technological capabilities. They see innovation at firm and government levels as one of the means of breaking out of recessionary cycles, as enhancing international competitiveness, as contributing to and in some cases, as driving economic growth and a means of generating jobs. All these a scholar argued “should be the concern of every caring government whether in a capitalist or socialist system.”
About five years ago, series of articles titled “Innovation: Complex but Inevitable” were presented in this column. It is strongly believed that unless policy makers appreciate the complexities involved in the innovation process, it would be hard for them to formulate effective policies. The innovation process is inherently risky and costly. But we observed that only few governments and firms are prepared to bear the cost and risk.
The management of the innovation endeavour must necessarily require not just the brilliance of an engineer or a scientist but the attention of professionals who have a clear understanding of the issues involved in the endeavour. The role of government is key in the endeavor. Both state and federal governments must embrace a multi- disciplinary approach towards solving problems in any sector of the country. Why, you may ask? Without government adopting a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving, it would be hard, perhaps impossible for the nation to get its policies and implementation processes right in today’s industrial competitive environment. Thank you.
