Our African leaders of tomorrow go abroad to showcase their talents for policy making and research. It’s a sad development when you hear about research carried out by Nigerians on foreign soil. Take a look at the internet in 2014, we all love it. But are we a part of that growth?
I will agree that Nigeria has made giant strides toward the growth of her ICT sector, but we are only passive contributors when we look at the big picture. Nigeria does not take part in the underlying research responsible for many of the new technology today. We build on it. This might be due to the lack of a comprehensive research platform, whether tangible or online.
I read an interesting piece on Mashable yesterday about Citizen Science and I thought, Nigeria needs that.
A citizen scientist is anybody who willingly contributes his or her time and resources toward scientific research in partnership with professional scientists. Most of the said scientists or research institutions will post their projects on designated websites while we help with it, like Google docs for research and development. We are definitely not lacking in gifted minds in Nigeria.
In the world of Citizen Science, people from across the country or even the world — like you, me and our Ph.D.-challenged friends — can brainstorm and participate in the grunt work for big-scale scientific research. It’s a win-win way to help out and get introduced to some of the top researchers and inventors in tech.
Years ago, it might have been a stretch to mention that Nigeria get this, but now, the power of the internet and social media is sweeping across the nooks of the country. Wherever you are, you can join the conversation. So why not do it productively.
Abroad, there is the Citizen Science Alliance, SciStarter to mention a few. We need a local, relatable platform.
Maybe the reason we don’t have a Citizen Science Platform is the same reason we don’t have a crowd funding platform. But that’s a discussion for another day.
Photocredit: Online Science Educator
