Once upon a time, the world was romanced by peace and harmony. Disputes and rancor were solved on either dialogue or at most confrontation. But all these don’t work anymore. The days of battles with Spears and Arrows are long gone; the days of Colt Single Revolvers, Colt Single Action Army Bisley and Head Knockers among others are long forgotten. The fate of earth changed in the 1930s, when the United States, Canada and United Kingdom had a breakthrough on the Manhattan Project and 1945 when the United Statest made the first drop of Nuclear weapon on Earth. After this, other countries of the world like Iran, North Korea, even India to mention a few have taken turn in openly or secretly investing hugely in nuclear program and the success of this project has earned them powerful positions in world affairs. Eighty three years after, Africa continent or rather as Adolf Hitler defined us ‘Dark continent’ is yet to make a breakthrough in nuclear program. The most unfortunate is not the effort in trying but the absence of trying. Most African countries believes an attempt in nuclear program would be met with full retaliation by the world powers, while others don’t just see the use for a nuclear research program except for South Africa in 1999, which enacted the Nuclear Energy Acts. To say Nigeria has not been making effort to join the league of nuclear equip nations will be a white lie. As far back as 1976, Nigeria enacted the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission Act and even in 1978 established two universities based research and training centers. One in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife named Center for Energy Research and Development (CERD) and another at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria called Center for Energy Research and Training (CERT). Unfortunately these Institutions have been in a ghost state as no impactful research has been carried out to aid the nuclear program. A visit to the institute in Abuja and other annexes portrays a nation lacking knowledge on what it is doing. In 2007, the then president Musa Yar’adua set up a 2011 deadline for the nuclear station but just like the promise of constant electricity in 2010, its implementation remains to be seen. Research has revealed that there are better advantages to nuclear programs than weapon construction. Nuclear energy can save the nation a lot of money in running cost of oil production; act has a better alternative source of electricity and of course, is a new evolution in our technological aspiration. To avoid misinterpretation, I am not advocating for the construction of another weapon of mass destruction as I would be inhumane not to understand the pains, agony and suffering under gone by people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But what I am advocating for is strength and voice for Africa. The power that makes us counts in world affair, the voice that every other countries of the world listen to, the region that command respect and honor from every other countries of the world. Not another ‘dark continent’ but a region full of life and advance technology. This we can get if we declare a state of emergency on nuclear program. While South Africa has successfully launched satellites into space and even locally built one. The so called giant of Africa is still at the mercy of Chinese rogues who continuously dupe the government in exchange for an inferior space dish. The sooner Nigeria takes technological advancement serious the better for us all, for long we have been a dumping ground for test run Asia equipments and their University student final year products. Our government needs to stand up and remain standing. After all, no nuclear advance nation has problem dealing with terrorism.
Adekoya Boladale is a political scientist and wrote via adekoyaboladale@gmail.com
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