BOGORO: CHAMPION OF R&D

By Abdullahi Sabiu 

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Boss - Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro, is a Reporter's delight, once you happen to be close to him and raise national development issues.

 He is so brilliant and full of nation-building ideas that confirms the truism that certain CEOs in Buhari's government, like Bogoro are quite resourceful.

I had a recent encounter with the man, when I led the management team of THE REPORTERS Magazine recently, to bestow on him our prestigious Man of the Year 2020 Award.

The professor apparently  in an excited mood, got us talking about the issues holding our nation back, caused mainly by our lack of ample use of researched and development information that we can easily deploy to move this nation forward. For instance, he wondered why Nigerians would not give their best shot  to the building of a knowledge-driven national economy. All over the developed world, national economies were knowledge-based ( research and development- 

guided). It still beats him hollow how our nation gives less-than-desirable attention to innovative was through research and development. It is the professor's candid opinion that if Nigerians in positions of authority would devote a lot of time to research on our debilitating economic problems, we would not have had it so tough since independence.

In truth, part of the challenges of governance and management of public resources that has been with this nation for decades stems from a clear lack of innovativeness, which is the by-product of intellectual laziness.

When I probed Professor Bogoro deeper, I imagined how many, comparatively better economic models he knows that have not been applied to the Nigerian economy for decades.

" Quote me", he says  "knowledge-driven economy is the way to go." And I cannot agree more, the truth is that research only leads to new discoveries of solving old problems using new methods/ technology. This raises the question: what economic model have we, as Nigerians, been adopting in our national economic policies? Which country of the world had similar problem like ours  and how did it wriggle out? Which is the new economic model comparatively far more effective? Who  and what were the drivers of the new economic model and why did it succeed? Every serious research and development process begins with tough questions. It follows logically therefore, the Professor Bagoro must have thought so deeply to arrive at the option of research and development as the ladder of progress for a developing nation such as ours.

Essentially, my interaction with Professor Suleiman Bogoro was indeed an eye-opener on the kind of thought processes that propel the growth and development of society. This style of thinking out of the box that Bogoro has held onto for decades is one viable means of breaking away from the inglorious past. I feel greatly inspired by the man's methodical/calculated intellectual disposition and convinced that with the right calibre of people ine institutions that drive our process of nation-building, no luck could have been better.

Interestingly, Bogoro has gone through tough odds because of his resolve to uphold the strategy of thinking outsidr the box. In the process of transforming institutions under his watch, envy started brewing inside some interests within the  Nigerian education sector. He confessed to me how some dangerous Nigerians" orchestrated falsehood" against him. Did it succeed? No. Infact President Buhari brought him back to the office he was forcefully removed from. He told me that the no-no sense President Buhari told him to get back to work and "continue with the good work he was doing, before those orchestrating falsehood against him shoved him aside. He gladly returned to world and recorded massive transformation within a very short time. Those who tried to scheme out have now woefully failed as he is swiftly turning around the fortunes of TETFund. The Man of the Year 2020 Award is nothing more than an eloquent testimony of hardwork and innovativeness.