Developing Inventive Creativity And Inventive Activity In Nigeria

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By Kenneth Nwachinemelu David-Okafor

Kenneth Nwachinemelu David-Okafor

How many inventors are there in Nigeria?

Whatever you have guessed as the answer, know this: as long as your name is not in that number then I have a message for you: you can make yourself relevant in 2017 by becoming an inventor or encouraging someone you know to become one!

Think of the possibilities, what you could accomplish, what you could contribute or what the person you motivate could accomplish, could contribute to the growth and reputation of Nigeria.

The good news is that becoming an inventor is not impossible if you are prepared to put in the required diligence.

How?

Let me share this with you: who is an inventor?

Inventor — a person who brings ideas or objects together in a novel way to create an invention, something that did not exist before. 

The Encyclopaedia Britannica (2017) notes, “Inventors defy definition; as a result, they are frequently defined by what they are not. For example, though there is a close relation between invention and science and engineering, an inventor is not necessarily a scientist or an engineer. A scientist is said to be a discoverer—that is, somebody who by acute observation and brilliant analysis is able to find and explain something that already exists in nature. An engineer, meanwhile, uses existing technology and scientific understanding to design better objects or processes. But an inventor, it is said, creates something that had never previously existed.”

The University of Tennessee Research Foundation makes a very important distinction between who is an inventor and who is not an inventor. On the UT Research Foundation website, the author(s) writes, “Who is an inventor? - Basically, the inventors are all the people who contributed to the conception of the invention. Conception is the mental part of invention – formulating a mental representation of the means to achieve a desired result. While there may be considerable work involved in building and testing this mental representation to create a tangible invention (which is referred to as the “reduction to practice” in patent law), only individuals who contributed to the conception of the idea are inventors on the patent.

“Who is not an inventor? - An individual who was involved in the reduction to practice of an invention, but not the conception, is not an inventor. A department head or dean who did not have any direct role in the making of the invention is not an inventor. The sponsors who provided the funds supporting your work on the invention are not inventors. A colleague who generously provided materials for you to build or test your invention is not an inventor.”

So you can right from the bat that is someone who contributes to the conception of the invention. You therefore can get a feasible idea and get other professionals to build it! You do not need to be a scientist or an engineer to become an inventor!

If you are lacking ideas of areas in which you can develop an invention then I can share with you some key areas in which Nigeria has great needs.

There are ideas I have shared in an e-book (cover picture above) COMING OUT SOON: 

INVENTORS, INVENTIONS & INVENTIVE THINKING SHORTAGES

Key Reasons Why Nigeria Is Short Of Inventors

Cultural, Scientific, Educational, Environmental, Political and Other Factors Constraining Nigeria's Inventiveness and Inventive Endeavour

When I decided that it was not worth complaining about Nigeria when I get frustrated that nothing seems to change I decided that I would do something: I aspire to contribute to transform Nigeria from a rabidly consumerist country to a more productive and inventive country!

Please get this right, many people assume Nigeria is a creative country; and it is to the degree that it has a well-documented and vibrant creative industry sector BUT CREATIVITY IS SO MUCH MORE THAN MUSIC, NOLLYWOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT. More importantly, we, Nigerians, are not, I dare say, as imaginative as we pride ourselves. Through action research, I discovered that Nigeria’s education system and its operators have not prioritized the development of creativity across several disciplines (including inventive creativity), critical thinking and creative problem solving.

Let me present some hard facts before you:

o  Nigeria was awarded less than 10 U.S. patents per one million residents between 1985 and 2014. But just for 2014, China got 801,135; United States got 285,096; Russian Federation got 24,072; United Kingdom got 15,196; Israel got 1,125; Singapore got 1,303; South Africa got 802 (See World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, WIPO Patent Report: Statistics on Worldwide Patent Activity.)

o   Nigeria has about 143 universities (federal, state and private) and none of them has prioritized the teaching and fostering of creativity and innovation. (NB: only one the Rivers State University of Science & Technology has the word “creativity” in its moto: “excellence & creativity”).

o       Nigeria has about 200 tertiary institutions (federal, state and private) and all of them combined have not tallied up to 100 high priority patents within the last 10 years.

o  According to a new market research report, 'World Mobile phone & Smartphone Market (2010 – 2015)', published by MarketsandMarkets, the total global mobile handset market was expected to reach US$341.4 billion by 2015 while smartphone sales will account for 75.8% of the overall mobile handset revenue at US$258.9 billion.

Of this total sales, about 120 million handsets would be sold in Nigeria within less than the same period. Not one Nigerian, DEAD OR ALIVE, would get a single dollar as royalties for any part or parts of a Smartphone invention or patent.

o       Nigeria has produced only one Nobel Prize winner (and that is in Literature).

o      Nigeria suffers chronic electric power shortages but the authorities have spent almost US$20 billion dollars in the last 20 years tackling the same problem and it has not been sorted.

o   The Federal Ministry of Education and most Nigerian universities in 2016/2017 budgeted more money (90% and above) to recurrent expenditure and less than 10% to capital projects. In lay language, this means that the ministry and universities would pay salaries rather than purchase tools/equipment/build infrastructure for the use of those who would earn the same salaries they have budgeted for would use to do the job for which the salaries would be earned!

I am tired of complaining!

I want to do something; so I am going to motivate you and I.

I have a simple message for you: do something to make your life positively affect someone else’s with your idea or product (indeed invention) in 2017.

If you lack any originally ideas of your own then read:

INVENTORS, INVENTIONS & INVENTIVE THINKING SHORTAGES

Key Reasons Why Nigeria Is Short Of Inventors

Cultural, Scientific, Educational, Environmental, Political and Other Factors Constraining Nigeria's Inventiveness and Inventive Endeavour 

To answer the opening question, Nigeria has than 100 inventors (in-country and abroad). This is abysmally low for a country with an estimated population of 180 million.

Like I said I am tired of complaining.