Obasanjo Laments Effect Of Brain-drain On African Science

FORMER President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo Friday berated the exploits of African scientists in Europe, America and Asia, lamenting that their efforts on the global horizon “is fast regressing.”

  Obasanjo, who spoke at a lecture at the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, however noted that on the aggregate, “African scientists have not been pushovers over the ages.”

  The lecture titled: “The African Scientist in a Fast-Changing World,” was held in honour of late Prof Ali Al’Amin Mazrui.

  Describing Mazrui as a scholarly giant Obasanjo said: “Sadly today, the place of eminence of the African scientist on the global horizon is fast regressing.”   

  “In a fast-changing world, we are getting far left behind. Our contribution to the science, technology and engineering scholarly literature is the least of all regions of the world.’

  “Our universities are at the bottom of global league tables of world-class universities, with the region (Africa) having the least number of Nobel Prize winners in science. Even, a good number of our local problems are being solved by scientists from outside our region.”

   “Yet, we have some of the best intellectually endowed scientists in the world. The laboratories in Asia, Europe and North America, where breakthroughs are achieved to drive our fast-changing world, are populated in part by brain-drained African scientists,” he noted.