Former Director-General of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Major General Nnaemeka Maduegbunam (Rtd), has said no country will transfer valuable technology to Nigeria for free, stressing the need to develop indigenous technological capacity.
Maduegbunam urged Nigerian leaders to look inward and harness the ingenuity of Nigerians to advance the country technologically, arguing that Nigeria has the brainpower and expertise required to develop home-grown solutions to its pressing challenges.
Speaking at the official unveiling of his book, We Can Do It: Towards Nigeria’s Self-Reliance in Science and Technology, Maduegbunam said advanced countries derive significant advantages from their technological capabilities and would not simply surrender them without consideration.
“There is no way a foreigner will simply transfer technology to us for free. Technology has value, and that is what gives them an edge over us,” he said.
“Whenever you hear about technology transfer, you must understand that nobody will simply hand over valuable technology without consideration. What will help us is indigenous capacity.”
Maduegbunam said his experience at DICON strongly influenced the ideas behind the book, recalling efforts during his tenure to strengthen the corporation’s domestic production capabilities.
“When I wrote this book, the dream of making DICON work was very much on my mind because DICON itself is an embodiment of the principle that we can do it,” he said.
“I was able to achieve what we achieved because of the support I received from my superiors and colleagues. If you have a plan and the resources are not made available, it will not work. There are no two ways about it.”
He recalled efforts to revive DICON after decades of limited activity and the development of an indigenous AK-47-type rifle, code-named OBJ-06.
Maduegbunam also commended the efforts of his successors, particularly Major General Victor Ezugwu, under whose tenure DICON locally manufactured a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, code-named “Ezugwu”.
“We have the brains. The problem is that sometimes we sit down and assume that everything must come from outside,” he said.
Maduegbunam argued that some equipment abandoned by Nigerian institutions could sometimes be restored at relatively little cost if sufficient local technical expertise and initiative were deployed.
“If you examine some of the equipment in our organisations, the problem that has kept it out of service may not even require more than N10,000 or N20,000 to fix,” he said.
“There was a time when we had spent virtually all our available funds. The amount required to fix a particular piece of equipment was about N10,000, while the equipment itself had significant value.
“This is the point I am trying to make: we have the capacity to solve many of our problems if we look inwards.”
In his remarks, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, said the Nigerian military could not perform optimally by relying solely on external solutions.
Represented by the Commander of the Nigerian Army Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (NAEME) Corps, Shaibu said the Army was pursuing home-grown solutions to some of its equipment challenges.
“Today, the Nigerian Army continues to pursue home-grown solutions to some of its operational equipment challenges while promoting local capacity, innovation, maintenance and repair,” he said.
“This approach is consistent with the Nigerian Army’s desire to reduce dependence on external solutions and build sustainable capabilities within the Service.”
Shaibu said the title of Maduegbunam’s book reflected the self-belief and innovation required to develop solutions tailored to Nigeria’s particular operational requirements.
Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Barth Nnaji, also argued that Nigeria could not sustainably address the high cost of defence equipment and exchange-rate pressures without expanding local production of military hardware.
“There is really no way, when we are talking about bringing down costs and addressing the skyrocketing exchange rate, that we can achieve this without local production,” Nnaji said.
“We can produce various weapons. We can produce tanks. We can produce all kinds of hardware and even software.”
He also cited the emergence of Nigerian companies producing drones and other defence-related products as evidence of the potential for partnerships between DICON and private-sector innovators.
Nnaji said the military should use DICON as a platform to identify equipment that could be produced domestically, demonstrate the necessary capabilities and build partnerships with civilian industries to expand local manufacturing.
Linus Aleke
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