Varsity taxes intellectuals on advancing innovative technology

Bimbo Babatunde

Caleb University has called on intellectuals to regularly acquire knowledge to propel innovative technology in Nigeria.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Nosa Owens-Ibie said this on Wednesday during the 2021 Caleb University International Conference in Lagos with the theme: “Future Forward: Disruptive Innovations what next?”

Owens-Ibie said disruptive innovation is the innovations and technologies that make expensive or sophisticated products and services accessible and more affordable to a broader market.

According to the VC, it was high time intellectuals did things differently to achieve better results and remain relevant as the world evolves, to reposition Nigeria and Africa as a continent.

Owens-Ibie said: “We are dealing with a reality that things are no more normal anywhere and even what is not normal is further disrupted daily.

“For instance, what we use to generate wealth from has changed, some of them permanently to an age of technological determinism.

“This conference will help all of us individually or corporate entity to focus on the fact that if you are rejoicing in only what you know in a world where knowledge is rapidly evolving, then you need to think again.

“For you to remain relevant, you must be ready to show that you are different.”

A professor at Crown Hill University, Eiyenkoein, Kwara State, Muritala Awodun, asked individual Nigerians to create values within their societies.

Awodun urged Nigerians to engage in entrepreneurship to generate value within the society to create new and innovative technologies.

“Nigerians should not wait for the government before they can be productive. Everybody should make themselves vessels of change to ensure development in the county,” he said.

A lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Caleb University, Mrs Ifedolapo Ademosu, urged Nigerians to proffer sustainable solutions that could move the country from where it is to where it ought to be.

Ademosu urged Nigerians to leverage local knowledge in solving local problems as a result of different socio-cultural dimensions.

She asked governments not just to implement ideas but to engage people who are ready at the local level to make a difference.

She said: “We should begin to look at problems in a different way to choose sustainable development across the board not just from the human point of view, but from what we can do to address the problems.”

Deputy Vice Chancellor, Caleb University, Prof. Adedeji Daramola, said the essence of the conference was to brainstorm and bring out an idea on how participants can run a common front to address the dynamics of changes and challenges we have all over the world.

“We are launching out to bring creative ideas to break the bonds and limitations in Africa, people thought Africa is backward but most of the African Nations are leading at the exotic global level,” the DVC said.