Seclot Vet

BAT AND THE CHURCH RAT A scruffy look at a metaphor of animals and holiness made by Bola Tinubu on climate change. Since the dawn of the 2023 elections campaign buildup, I have not had the opportunity to do much of a neutral analysis on BAT, unlike other candidates. Here's one.

A (SHALLOW) POPULARITY ANALYSIS ON NIGERIA'S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES A comparison of Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Atiku, and co. For this shallow analysis, I'll start out with a very obvious indicator, Google search results, contrasting it with Google's trend tool.

The point I've made here should not be reduced to "let's invest in education". The idea is to enhance research output. One can invest infinitely in education and not improve research significantly.

In today's economy, this simply means we're making money with everything but our brains. Omo! We should definitely not be sleeping at night.

So we can see how particularly tragic it is that burning down our knowledge centers does not affect the world significantly. It implies that the world is not dependent on Nigeria for any serious bit of knowledge.

One side of the bonus coin is that the first push need not come from the government, and we all share a common responsibility. The other is, a government that does not explicitly communicate this plan does not have it, and will not achieve it by accident.

(c) That individual scholarly pursuits, projects, and accolades would amount to an intellectualy productive society ❌. Meanwhile, we need a scheme to enhance our knowledge output; to identify, connect, and facilitate collaborations among intellectually capable individuals ✅.

(b) That educational investments should focus on schools, while career and business investments can function independently ❌. Meanwhile, our institutions must rapidly evolve to cater for the intellectual needs of our society ✅.

And so there are three misperceptions: (a) That we should focus on "realistic" (meaning 'tangible') goals for now, and work on scholarship later ❌. Meanwhile, we cannot achieve a competent society without establishing a strong intellectual foundation ✅.

Most prospective political leaders pay little attention to such transformational pathways. Companies invest little in R&D. Philanthropists will sponsor air-hunting before funding research. What we see as the jara of development is actually the foundation for economic prosperity.

Now here's the tricky part. Although many people would point to "poor education" as a critical problem in Nigeria, intellectual development is not specifically identified as a key channel to national development.

Thus, the pervasive drought of academic deficiency reflects in the quantity and quality of all our socioeconomic productions.

Secondly, research output isn't just some fancy statistic on paper, or something academics alone should worry about. The calculus of success, as far as nations are concerned, in today's economy is very clear: #knowledge is money.