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Trump just earmarked around $1.2 billion for quantum computing research. Guess what the reaction was in America? That amount is too small.
If you spend your life reading only the Harvard Business Review, you'd think that only the private sector drives innovation.
If you spend your life reading only the Harvard Business Review, you'd think that only the private sector drives innovation.
Many of us think Elon Musk created Tesla out of sheer grit and his personal genius, or that the Shale Revolution is a product of only "capitalism"; both owe their success to generous grants, subsidies and smart policies from the Department of Energy.
Before you talk about the US and "capitalism", you need to understand how the US works. Every serious nation has an industrial policy (the market does not perform magic - for e.g., the market prefers to finance porn websites with quick returns to funding semiconductor research).
The US has an industrial policy - which is driven by the the Department of Defense, Department of Energy etc. They know the market will not fund particular kinds of innovation/research because it is too risky, but this innovation is required for the US to keep its edge.
Every serious nation has an industrial policy. Japan's industrial policy is driven by the MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry), while South Korea invested heavily into semiconductor research over several decades - that is why we have Samsung smartphones today.
Britain sold off a lot of its heavy industry, but still kept its edge in aircraft engines, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. Nations deliberately plan to dominate certain sectors - or keep their dominance.
Nigeria lacks an industrial policy, so it has no research focus. If a president is more interested in prospecting for oil in the the Gongola Basin than in say, research into agricultural productivity. What are Nigeria's universities supposed to focus on?
Some of us believe that once university students pay the kind of fees Atlantic Hall students pay, that all our problems in tertiary education will be solved. Sorry, it doesn't matter how much students are made to pay - if the issue of a lack of direction is not dealt with.
