Dr. Tony Ofoyetan is the Director-General of the International Institute of Professional Security, IIPS, a professional security establishment that provides training and certification of protection professionals. In this chat with Saturday Vanguard, he speaks on why the African continent must not depend on technology transfer for her development because the kind of technology transfer African leaders have been clamoring for, is a mirage. He notes that the exodus of young, vibrant, intelligent African professionals from Africa, and the talk about AI taking over jobs, is not a coincidence. Excerpts
Technology transfer
”All over the world, with special attention to the western world; there are two ways to be technologically developed if you are not the innovator. You are either buying or you are stealing the technology. Now, you only buy technology that is not going to be at a disadvantage to the manufacturer and every contemporary technology especially, has a revert to the original manufacturer at a time. In actual fact, in contemporary technology, they have their software domiciled in the original owner,” he said.
Tucano Jet
Citing the example of the Tucano jet purchased by the Nigerian Government to fight terrorists, Ofoyetan said: “The Tucano jet is not being used in Nigeria today not because Nigeria does not want to use it but because the software that would engineer the use of that jet is domiciled with the owner of the Tucano jet and cannot be released until they are sure that what you want to use it for meets their own terms and conditions.
Tracking device
”If you want to install tracking device in all the vehicles in your fleet, you have a royalty you pay either on monthly or annual basis, so any time you refuse to pay, the franchisee of such technology can deactivate it and that tracking device just becomes a mere gadget not fit for purpose.”
Missile trapper
“The missile trapper was first used by the Israeli Army. The US never knew there was a missile trapper until the Hezbollah attacked Israel and shot missiles into Israel. That was the first time Israel deployed the missile trapper and they were able to trap almost 80 per cent of the missiles that were shot. It became surprising and shocking to America. Of course, because of the relationship between America and Israel; today, America has such technology and they will improve on it.”
Acquiring technology
On how China became the tech giant it is today: ”What China did at the early stage of their technological advancement and innovation was to buy original technology, end-product, equipment or machinery; they would take it to their science laboratory, take it to pieces – button for button, bolt for bolt, lead for lead, wire for wire – and replicate everything. At the initial stage, it didn’t get that desired result because they were not the originators but over time, with practice, not minding the money that would be wasted in doing it over and over again, today, China has been able to perfect what they stole physically and what they ‘stole’ also in terms of buying and replicating other people’s technology.
As a matter of fact, anything you buy and replicate without getting the permission from the original owner is stealing. If you manufacture glasses and I had to duplicate it, that is stealing except you franchised it to me. Everything you see was duplicated because one, it costs money to get researchers, sustain them and it would cost me money for them to bring different innovations, produce and reproduce until it gets to the stage of perfection for certification like the aircraft,” he stated.
All Politics
There are countries that have manufactured their aircraft as we speak but have not been certified to fly. There are other technologies that are in place now but have not been certified. For instance, Kia Motors is not in the US. Hyundai was able to break through, only God knows how. At the initial stage, it was Hyundai and Kia Motors because the American Government did not certify them as being road-worthy for their country which of course we know is not absolutely true. It was to minimize the competition against Ford, knowing full well that manufacturing Ford in America would be more expensive than bringing Kia from Korea. If you have a vehicle design, I can look at the design, take it to pieces, look at the strength and the weakness of that vehicle, improve on the weakness and bring out my own brand with a little alteration and it will go.”
As the Hungarian-American psychiatrist, Thomas Szasz rightly said: ‘In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined. It is high time Africa woke up and take her rightful place in the world. Right now, Africa is being defined by the rest of the world since she has refused to define herself. From experience, even when she tries to define herself, she is told it is not good enough, not up to standard! Who sets the standards?
“When you tell me that suya and roasted corn are cancerous, I ask, cancerous to who? Is it to me or to you as a white man? If it is to me, you are a liar. If it is to you, you are truthful. God did not create me to stay in ice. No matter how hot the day is, I will hit the road without an umbrella. But if you come from Europe, if you are not careful, you will have skin burn. God created everybody with certain unique features. If the white man eats ogbono, he may end up in hospital with running stomach but I can eat it three times a day and nothing will happen. Respect what God has put in your territory, don’t abuse it. God is all knowing and all wise.”
COVID-19
“This is neocolonial mentality, go and read the journals in the WHO. Even in the medical line, there is high level of conspiracy. Look at the rise and fall of COVID-19; now they are talking about another pandemic coming. Recently, we heard about tick being the transmitter of the virus. These are conspiracies. It was not so from the beginning.”
Condition for tech transfer
“My technology is to help my country security-wise, financial-wise, employment and GDP growth. If I transfer it to you, what is my advantage? If I move from iPhone 13, I can give you everything about iPhone 13. I can give you the software and call it technology transfer but as at the time you are starting to manufacture iPhone 13, I have started manufacturing iPhone 14. It is when I have concluded on improved version of what I have that I will give you the one I am discarding.”
Disarmament
“There was the era of disarmament all over the world. They talked about disarmament of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as atomic bombs. Are you telling me that right now, there is no nuclear weapon in America, Russia and Europe? In our presence, they discarded and even destroyed some of these things so which one is remaining now? All of us entered an agreement and African countries stupidly and sheepishly signed ‘no nuclear weapons and armaments anywhere in the world again.’ But as at the time we were signing, they had already rebranded and had brand new sets kept in their submarines, under the ground in their deserts because they know that at any time, Russia or the US can go haywire and Africa can decide to say ‘we are tired of colonialism, we want to be on our own and be united as a single nation to fight against economic exploitation,’ then at that point, they will all come out in their strength. They can foresee the future more than we can and we won’t blame anybody because it is the survival of the fittest. If you are in that position, you will do the same.
Democracy
“Democracy is a western philosophy of governance. It is never in our culture. Gay and lesbian life styles are never in our culture but today, the western world is saying if we don’t adopt them, they will not give us aids. What do we need the aids for? In Nigeria, nobody is talking about californium, a natural resource which costs about $24m per gram. Look at what is happening in Zamfara, Kaduna and Oyo gold mines. Nigeria has about 24 solid minerals in commercial quantities and all our concern in this world is oil+oil=oil! We’ve got no business with poverty in Nigeria as she is one of the richest countries in the world. DR Congo is wallowing in poverty because of western exploitation, yet it is the richest country in Africa. How will they transfer the technology of gold mining and refining to you? They take the raw material, refine it and sell to you. They dictate the amount they want to buy our raw materials but we don’t dictate how much we will buy the finished product. No nation today can boast of successful technology transfer. It doesn’t work,” said Ofoyetan.
Artificial Intelligence, AI
“Technology itself is expensive to sustain. When you talk about AI, no matter how sophisticated a technology is, it is still less than the human brain and capacity. There is something that technology does not have – personal discretion. In everything you do, discretion is very fundamental. I am still waiting for the technology that would be able to exercise human discretion. I am not saying tomorrow but for now, I am not aware of such technology. You have the ability to say ‘I want to go right now; this interview should stop.’ Something must have prompted you to take that decision. I am not a scientist but for now, I think that is a major limitation. African labour is cheap so when you talk about AI coming to Africa and Africans going abroad, what the West is simply telling you is that they want to use technology to monitor your activities. ‘We want to use the technology as surveillance, we want to use it to restrict you. We don’t want you to have the opportunity of having your own innovations. The people that are capable of giving you brand new innovations and technology must come to us so that we can cage and limit them while we use our technology.’ It becomes a continual enslavement and colonialism.”
Paradigm shift
Look at the dynamics of the world now, Russia is doing well in getting Africa’s support and it is going to be a major threat to the US. The US is not going to lie on its oars. About five countries pulled out of ECOWAS because they don’t want to fight against Niger. It is western propaganda to say that we are all corrupt and anybody that comes to power is corrupt. If the devil is everywhere, it means there is corruption the world over because the devil is the transmitter of corruption. There is no egalitarian society anywhere in the world. America has a population of about 350-400m, they have 24 solid minerals in commercial quantities and they are able to harness theirs. Nigeria is less than 250m people with almost the same solid minerals in commercial quantities. Around Ore, there is this special clay God has given us; it has glass finishing, the only kind in the world. When you use it to produce bricks, without even painting the house, the brick will be glittering with silver finishing but we are not harnessing it.”
Africa independent?
Ofoyetan regretted that Africans kill themselves to feed the masters “and we say we are independent? What type of independence is that? Anyone that speaks the truth is threatened with death. Today, Niger is tilting towards Russia because they have had enough of French colonialism. How can they be paying almost $500 bn every now and then on colonial royalty? I’m a democrat to the core and a lawyer but if it takes military intervention to remove you from slavery, go ahead. When you are done with the removal, go back to your democracy.”
