THE ROLE OF INNOVATION IN CREATING THE NIGERIA OF OUR DREAMS

Innovation assumes a number of forms, processes, products, and services or anything that assist companies and nations to perform in an improved fashion. As such, innovations can be created by any person who is innovative in spirit and who possesses a frame of mind capable of exploring existing boundaries. For innovations to happen, we need two things. We need actors- entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers willing to take risks in order to create something new; we also need a learning environment that provides useful resources to work with. Innovation plays a major role in building and improving the economy of a nation.

We dream to have a Nigeria that is poverty and violence free, where infrastructure is first to none, where youth recognizes their potentials and work to actualize them, where there would be opportunity for prosperity and success for all Nigerians irrespective of what part of the country they hail from. The dream cannot come by chance or good-luck but by effective innovations, sacrifice and risk taking. Innovation is a key driver of economic and social development. The experience of successful developing countries shows that innovation policies that are well integrated into national development strategies can help raise productivity, create jobs, improve firm competitiveness and support faster growth of the nation.

In Nigeria today, where life expectancy is one of the lowest in the world, where health sector is more or less drowsy; when good innovations are put together and are implemented in medicine, there is tendency that our life expectancy will improve. It was through the innovation of free education policy by Chief Obafemi Awolowo that some people had access to education and are part of Nigeria’s success story today. If innovation policies are encouraged and implemented, the 57% of unemployed young Nigerians will be employed, the 9 million uneducated Nigerian Children will be educated, there will be improved living condition as poverty and violence will have reduced. The 12.1 million Nigerians who live in hunger according to the 2014 African multiple scorecards on hunger and food security will be living in good condition, 158 out of 1000 Nigerian children who die of malaria won’t die and above all, Nigerians will be happy.

The key to the Nigeria of our dreams is located in the minds of millions of young Nigerians out there. We have all it takes to create an environment that challenges the creativity of over 160millions of us, we have to implement intellectual property rights a little more seriously and empower financial system to make risks taking a little less scary. The 2015/2016 World Economic Forum Global Competitive Report ranked Switzerland, Finland, Israel, USA as most innovative countries in the world. Interestingly, these countries also happen to be among the richest.
In conclusion, for us to have the Nigeria of our dreams we need to encourage innovation, creativity and ideas. If there is a New York, It’s because there was an old York; if there is a New Delhi, it’s because there was an Old Delhi. If there is going to be a New Nigeria, then we must encourage INNOVATION.