It was a turning point in the history of human civilization when human creativity and scientific thinking ushered in the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. It came to replace the Greek view of nature, which dominated science for nearly 2,000 years. This scientific revolution was a ground-breaking development that did not only impact upon man’s physical environment but also positively changed and improved upon the entire life lived by him.
Technology, which remains the strongest instrument of the scientific revolution, keeps developing every day; all for the sake of making life worth living for man. The scientific revolution, which included space science, was not without Allah’s authorization who says in Qur’an 55:33 that jinn and men who wish to explore the space could do so but not without “authority (from Allah).” From small software applications to complex hardware and industrial machines invented and designed for man’s well-being, the comfort and benefits derived by man from these scientific devices and high-tech tools are inestimable. Life today, for instance, without mobile phone, the internet and the computer, is indeed, better imagined especially in developing countries where human populations, which keep surging exponentially, are poorly managed.
Aside of easing life for man, technology also exists to reduce or even end human interference because man naturally disposed to making mistakes, becoming sentimental, or even getting tempted to cheat others. For instance, the mini pocket-sized calculator was invented to ease the task of calculating large numbers. It goes without saying that an individual’s refusal to use a calculator (which technology invented to ease brain tasks) in a situation that requires the use of it should simply be seen to have an ulterior motive behind his choice. Tendencies of prioritizing under-development in Nigeria extends beyond the individual level to even official and corporate levels.
While the introduction in 2006 of pre-paid electricity meters by the erstwhile Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was, on the one hand, inspired by the desire of the electricity company to boost revenue collection; it was, on the other, provoked by consumers’ persistent calls on the PHCN to end the much-abhorred estimated billing system in which customers pay for energy they never consumed. Nigerians loudly heaved a sigh of relief with the coming of pre-paid meters (PPMs); expressing high hopes that the technology had come to end their decades of exploitation in the hands of electricity workers.
Unfortunately, Nigerians’ hopes were temptingly dashed as efforts by consumers to acquire the PPMs were vehemently frustrated by electricity workers commonly referred to as “NEPA Staff”; a name derived from the defunct public power supply company, the “National Electric Power Authority.” NEPA has since become an indelible label for electricity workers in Nigeria even as the company’s title had changed from public to private ownership that was finally unbundled into Electricity Distribution Companies (EDCOs).
In spite of all the mutual benefits enjoyed by consumers and the EDCOs from the impartial utility of PPMs, NEPA staffs who do not hide their anger with this technology are always happy to hear a customer complain of dysfunctions in his PPM. Rather than fix a dysfunctional PPM, the migration of the affected customer to estimated billing is always their quick option; all because it is an under-developed system that allows extortions.
When the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) came into force in 2007 as the exclusive platform for the payment of salaries to federal workers, Nigerians were told it was meant to check ghost workers’ phenomenon and payment of multiple wages to one staff. While Nigerians welcomed the idea, ‘enemies’ of the technology saw it as an infringement upon their ‘right’ to infractions. In the past few months, some federal workers have continued to be short-paid without pay-slips. Why? The IPPIS portal has crashed, they claim; simply to intimidate government to revert to the old system. That’s another way of prioritizing under-development.
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) came to deal with the challenges associated with banking hall transactions including huge crowds. For some time now, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have been starving commercial banks of cash, which according to the latter, is why they cannot load cash into ATMs. Consequently, Nigerians are intimidated to restore the crowd previously dispersed by ATMs from the banking halls or approach Point of Sale (PoS) machine operators to obtain cash for their daily needs. Technology came to make life easy for us but Nigerians prefer to circumvent it to further their subsistence in under-development.
If ATMs in other climes were to suffer the same fate the machines are subjected to in Nigeria, the Indian-born British inventor, John Adrian Shepherd-Barron (died 2010) who led the team that installed the first ATM would have cause to regret wasting his time, agonizing his brain, and exhausting his energy to produce it.
Mobile banking applications on mobile phones also came to ease businesses, simplify banking transactions, save time, conserve energy, and safeguard cash from robbers. But each time Nigerians attempt to take advantage of the mobile app technology, they get frustrated through the epileptic services offered by GSM network providers; forcing them to also make trips to commercial banks in spite of all the risks involved.
May Allah touch the heart of Nigerians who are subverting modern hi-tech applications and devices to stop prioritizing under-development over national development and interest, amin.
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