Nigeria And Our Romance With Technocracy 

DR UCHE DIALA 

We, as a nation have been obsessed with, indeed, entrapped in this concept of technocracy that I often ask; who is a technocrat, what do we really understand as being a technocrat and what qualifies one as a technocrat?

A Technocrat has been variously defined as “an exponent or advocate of technocracy or a member of a technically skilled elite”.

Also, Technocrats are defined as “individuals with technical training and occupations who perceive many important societal problems as being solvable with the applied use of technology and related applications.”

Are these really our own understanding of technocracy or being a technocrat?

Often, we place too much emphasis on plenty of academic qualifications, especially from fancy foreign academic institutions. Indeed, that is what many of us consider as being a technocrat and automatically accept or substitute for being a technocrat.

Methinks, in administration (public and private), we should focus on people with education (anything from HND/Bsc being the minimum) and who have garnered maturity, relevant practical experience and demonstrated capacity in varied aspects of life, career, administration, politics, business and enterprise with expressed and demonstrated capacity in thoughts and ideas for real societal problem solving.

This, for me, is a better description of a technocrat.

To butress my point, there was an incident which keeps coming to my mind. There was once a woman, Mrs Fidelia Njeze, a pharmacist who was nominated for a ministerial position under former President Goodluck Jonathan. During her screening, some Senators in their questioning were suggesting that she was not qualified or experienced enough to be a minister. I was miffed at their thinking.

Mrs Njeze obtained a BSc in Pharmacy from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, did her internship followed by National Youth Service with the National Orthopedics Hospital, Enugu, thereafter became a practicing community Pharmacist with Chinors pharmacy Enugu and later Managing Director of Gredel Pharmacy Enugu, over a reasonable span of years. She was later appointed a member of the Enugu State Health Services Management Board. Yet, to those senators, she was obviously not ‘technocrat’ enough.

The fact is that fewer things can better prepare someone for the position of a minister or a public administrator than being a community pharmacist who has interacted with real human beings for years, successfully attending to their physical and emotional needs and managing to keep a pharmacy afloat for years with the money that comes in in trickles.

The same can be said of a medical practitioner or any medical personnel with years of experience. As a matter of fact, I would take a general medical practitioner (GMP) with over 10 years consistent practice experience working in a Nigerian hospital or clinic over some foreign based medical doctor for minister for health.

The reason is simple. The most important goal or thing that we need from a minister for health is to keep our people healthy. Health systems can be developed or improved upon with the assistance of health systems consultants but that practical, first hand and hands on experience is invaluable, as a leader of the team, which a minister essentially is.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we think having fancy and plenty degrees is superior to relevant experience and capacity, especially experience and capacity that are homegrown or domesticated. That is why we often come up with people who have fantastic ideas on paper but which do not sit well or are incongruous with our realities.

Certain imported ideas that work elsewhere might not work in Nigeria unless they are adapted and reconfigured to suit our unique characteristics and perculiarities.

The average technical staff who comes from Germany to work with Julius Berger and we call them Engineers do not flaunt fancy or high flying degrees in engineering, yet they do the best engineering designs and construction. The same goes for the Chinese and Japanese.

I hope we can get over this obsession and entrapment by the concept of technocrat(s) and deploy more practical ways of recruiting persons for national assignments, even in our recruitments of civil servants and staff in private organisations.

A careful understanding and right deployment of the idea and concept of technocracy is very vital, especially in our current perculiar Nigerian situation.

©️ Uche Diala