Member of the African Union (AU) Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) standing committee, Olugbenga Adeleye, has encouraged every Nigerian to be involved in efforts aimed at developing science and technology in the country.

Mr Adeleye, who was recently inaugurated as Head, Human Resources, Science and Technology Cluster Committee of ECOSOCC Nigeria, was speaking against the backdrop of challenges tied to science and technology in Africa’s most populous nation.

Some researchers have identified lack of skilled manpower, insufficient budgetary allocations, and political instability as some of the factors hindering the growth of science and technology in Nigeria.

In an exclusive interview with Development Diaries, Mr Adeleye said that Africa must restrategise to overcome these challenges.

‘The challenges have been there all along. African Union also recognises these issues and realises that there is a need for everybody to be on board’, he said.

‘African Union ECOSOCC is not just for NGO practitioners alone; it cuts across every sector – IT professionals, businessmen and women, artisans, young people – from all works of life.

‘They [African Union] envisage that, look, we are lagging behind and there is a need for all our people to get involved’.

He further said, ‘To solve these challenges, there is a kind of education that we need to give to ourselves.

‘What is it that we want to do? How do we achieve it? What visions do we have? African Union has a prosperous vision for all. If we understand all of these, definitely it will help us to know what to do.

‘We have to look at the environment, we have to look at the structure, we have to expose our people’.

The ECOSOCC is an advisory body of the AU whose purpose is to give civil society organisations (CSOs) a platform to contribute their input in the AU institutions and decision-making processes, in various projects and programmes.

As leader of the science and technology cluster committee in Nigeria, what should CSOs and other stakeholders in the country expect?

‘I am going to adopt a multi-stakeholder approach in all that we do. I promise to forge strong partnership with all the civil society – even those in diaspora – organised labour, private sector, the professional groups, to come up with strategic plan on how to bring prosperity to the people’, he said.

Established in July 2004, ECOSOCC is made up of CSOs from a wide range of sectors, including labour, business and professional groups, service providers and policy think tanks.

Photo source: Olugbenga Adeleye