Revolution
By Modupe Adeloye
Ibadan, April 20, 2018 (NAN) Dr Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, the Director General of the Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), says Nigeria must leverage on a fourth industrial revolution to promote its collective prosperity.
Gbadebo-Smith spoke on Friday at a public lecture he delivered at Lead City University, Ibadan.
The lecture entitled, “ Human Capital Development in Nigeria and the 4th Industrial Revolution,’’ was organised by the university’s Faculty of Arts and Education.
Gbadebo-Smith said that the impact of technological revolution on economies and society was not preordained and could be shaped by policies at the local, national and global levels.
He, however, expressed concern on how poor countries would cope in the new technology age, wondering whether Nigerians would be technology makers or technology takers.
“Will we play our traditional role as spectator or will we engage in a more robust and participatory manner? The answer of course is, it depends on public policy.
“To this end, there is need to embrace the fact that technological evolution exists in a social context and not just as a business case.
“In order to achieve this, we need to design normative and regulatory approaches to ensure that it is human-led and human-centered,’’ he said.
He said in as much as all the prior revolutions were about production, communications, energy and transportation, the fourth revolution threatens to be the most disruptive of the existing order.
“The fourth revolution is the ultimate convergence of biology, technology and communication driven by big data.
“Knowledge not information is the currency of exchange, information was the currency in the digital revolution.
“The good news is that the fourth revolution is so smart it comes with all the tools necessary to learn and adopt the technology.
“It is in fact so smart that most of the time human teachers will be superfluous, ’’ he said.
The director general said though teachers would still exist, most functions would be performed by A1 programmes and apps.
“Teachers will exist but they will play a different role, offer emotional support, discuss ethics and occasionally solve academic problems.
“In order words, the human capital preparation and pedagogy in lay terms translate into how students are trained, and how relevant is the training to the problems their society faces,’’ he said.
According to him, the fourth revolution will sweep away many perceived good jobs and replace them with new ones.
He also said that professions that would shrink in Nigeria and all over the world would include Accountancy, Law, Structural Engineering and Medicine. (NAN)
MAM/JTJ/OJO
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(Edited by Julius Toba Jegede/Mufutau Ojo)