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SDGs expert proffers solutions to surmounting COVID-19 pandemic fallout

 

Adewumi Ademiju, Ado-Ekiti

A Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) expert, Mr. Micheal Ale, has suggested that urgent and robust boost in industrialization is key to helping Nigeria recover from a possible recession brought about by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
He added that the Covid-19 has brought into the limelight the significance of the latest innovations of robots and artificial intelligence as inevitable products for the nation to patronize.​
The expert in a press release on Monday made available to journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, analysed how Nigeria can harness her potentials on industrialization by meeting the target of the SDGs 2020.
He noted that the nation needs to key into the global policy on SDGs.
“lt is not about government policy, it is all about understanding what industrialization is. If we say it is government policy we are looking indepth into aspects of leadership. But if we look into a global perspective as far as the United Nations and all over the world are concerned, there is a global policy and a national policy.
“There is a global policy that the government keys into and the direction has been given to us.
“The first industrial revolution was when machinery replaced hands in agriculture, the second was the internet and technology, the third was the renewable energy which​ make our activities faster and the fourth revolution is the robots and artificial intelligence.”
The development expert described the policy of knowledge economy being initiated in the state by Governor Kayode Fayemi as key to meaningful development.
He lamented that Nigeria is currently far behind the developed nation’s on industrial revolution, and expressed optimism if the country addressed the origin of underdevelopment which he said is affecting proper attention to the importance of academic researches.
“We need to now go back to the root cause, and that is academics. While​ watching a documentary about Nigerian agriculture, I saw a rice mill and I know in China now rice mills are being operated by robots. But in Nigeria we are still at the first industrial revolution stage and that has to do with academics and knowledge because you can’t talk about industrialization without talking about economy what really affected our industrialization was the economy that has to do with oil and gas
“So invariably, COVID-19 is the beginning of another revolution in industrialization in the fourth category, because we will start talking about chips, robots and the likes,​ all these we are still going to import and this is why the issue of knowledge comes in.​”
Ale, who is the national President of
Association of Waterwell Drilling Rig Owners and Practitioners (AWDROP) in Nigeria, gave tips on how the nation can be self sufficient and equally begin a robust industrialization journey.
“It all boils down to the root cause, in sustainable development, it is a tree format, you have the tree, the trunk and the roots. the tree that isn’t doing well now are the consequences but we need to go back to the roots. The moment you tackle the roots you then have addressed the consequences, if I want that tree to die I tackle the roots, if I want it to live then I put in more fertilizer.
“We should go down and see what do we have, I think there is a lot of committee that are being set up by government, we can look at them. The important thing is research, development and innovation, I keep saying this, we must go into a lot of research, innovating and put them to use.”

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