World Beat: Nigeria

Mercury, July/August 1997 Table of Contents

Lesley I. Onuora
University of Sussex

If Nigerian astronomers can still do research under the conditions they face, imagine what they could achieve if they had world-class facilities.

Why should a country such as Nigeria want to support astronomy? The government and public are unconvinced that it should. Arguments based on educational benefits -- using astronomy to attract young people into science and engineering, understanding our position in space and time, and so on -- carry little weight. People appreciate the practical applications of space science, such as remote sensing, satellite meteorology, and satellite communications, but they believe that pure science is only of esoteric interest.

The same public skepticism also frustrates astronomers in developed countries, but it is not so severe there, since people accept the need to understand the environment and encourage inquiry. But in Nigeria most people have no respect at all for science and scientists. In a country with no welfare system, it is the ability to provide well for one's family (including the extended family and possibly one's whole hometown) that is admired. Because an education in pure science leads to a career as a teacher, which is poorly paid, families insist that their bright students take up medicine or law. Nigerian scientists have made efforts to popularize their profession -- for instance, through a recent radio series -- but the meager job prospects ensure that those efforts fall on deaf ears.

Despite this, astronomers at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, in the southeast, have managed to undertake research and teaching. The Department of Physics and Astronomy awards master's degrees and doctorates in astrophysics, and at present there are four master's and three doctoral students. Theoretical researchers have concentrated in high-energy astrophysics, radio astronomy, and cosmology. They have tried to develop observational projects, but funding has been a problem.

International collaboration that makes use of existing instruments seems to be the best way forward, as this cuts costs and avoids problems with the security and maintenance of equipment in Nigeria. Nigerian astronomers have established contacts with South African colleagues at the Hartebeesthoek and South African Astronomical observatories; they have jointly observed cataclysmic variables. Now they plan to enable at least one doctoral student to spend time in South Africa, while providing materials for other students to continue their work in Nigeria.

At the undergraduate level, all third-year physics students at the University of Nigeria have to take introductory astronomy. In the fourth and final year, they have the option of taking four more astrophysics courses and completing a project. Elsewhere, astronomy is slowly spreading. University of Nigeria astronomy graduates are now lecturers or professors at two universities in the east of the country, and a university in the west also has introduced astronomy courses in response to the third United Nations†European Space Agency workshop on basic space science in Lagos in 1993.

Another of the problems faced by researchers in Nigeria is poor communications. Out of 40 universities, two in the west have email facilities, and even these are unreliable, being dependent on telephone connections that are themselves intermittent. Recently I tried to send email to one of those universities. I tried several times over a space of some weeks, but every time the message bounced back, "host unknown."

At the University of Nigeria, far from any major city, communications are especially troublesome. The only certain method is to use courier services, which are prohibitively expensive. The cost of sending a manuscript abroad even by ordinary airmail, with a fairly low probability of actually getting there, is a significant fraction of researchers' salaries. When anyone travels abroad, he or she becomes a postman, carrying a hundred or more letters from colleagues to post. Because of the capricious communications, scientists tend to publish only in local journals. Not only does this isolate them from the international community, it means there is little meaningful feedback on research, since few people read, let alone understand, the papers.

The underfunding of universities forces staff to bear all the costs of communications and publication personally, unless they have managed to obtain a research grant. For the same reason, computers are scarce. A few staff members have PCs, either owned privately or in a few cases obtained through external grants. Most people, however, have to buy time on PCs if they want to do any computing. Tight security is needed for any equipment, which further restricts its availability.

Ironically, the rapid expansion of electronic publishing, which has improved access for researchers in developed countries, have worsened the situation for astronomers in other parts of the world. They now have no hope of keeping up with the latest research and no hope for the foreseeable future of enjoying the facilities that are taken for granted elsewhere. Nigerian universities continue to depend on printed material. Yet the availability of current journals is very limited; most publications are donations.

This places a great responsibility on the lecturers as the only source of information. They need to attend international conferences and summer schools to stay current, but this, too, depends on international sponsorship. The Nigerian government supported the 1993 space workshop, but probably only because the United Nations was involved. And the Nigerian government is not the only one to wonder why Nigerians are doing astronomy. One international collaboration was unable to get off the ground because of visa problems -- the project was deemed unsuitable for Nigerians.

At times, I have been told that African scientists are not making enough effort to convince their governments of the importance of science education and research. I have also heard African scientists criticized for getting too involved in university administration and politics -- to the detriment of their research -- and for being too dependent on aid programs.

This is sometimes unfair. It may be necessary to involve oneself in administration in order to exert pressure for change. Without encouragement from colleagues elsewhere, the situation can become very depressing.

LESLEY I. ONUORA is visiting research fellow at the University of Sussex in Brighton, Great Britain. She lectured at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Erugu, from 1978 to 1995. Her email address is lonuora@astr.maps.susx.ac.uk.

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