At a time when it was easy to move around Nigeria without constant concerns over security, I visited more than 100 universities across the country. From Usman Dan Fodio University to OAU Ile-Ife, and of course my alma mater, FUTO, I ran workshops, taught microelectronics programs, and worked closely with faculty to deepen electronics and systems capabilities.
At Usman Dan Fodio University, I collaborated with faculty to help set up an embedded systems lab. I never collected a kobo from any institution. My multiple fellowships at Johns Hopkins University provided sufficient resources to fund the travel and execution of this work. Some of the photos and records from these engagements are available here: https://www.afrit.org/workshops/
One lecture that remains especially memorable was delivered at the Nigerian Defence Academy. In that lecture, I advanced a simple but bold thesis: Nigeria should commit at least 25% of its non-personnel military budget exclusively to Nigerian startups with focus on systems development and production. Had this policy been implemented, Nigeria today could have been a net exporter of military-grade hardware and security technologies. To be clear: defence gadgets, not offence!
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Following that lecture, the military leadership invited me to Abuja, where I presented a practical playbook for executing this strategy. (Those days, one was thinking better as a student. These days, kudi, omo and ego cloud the visions!) Unfortunately, the urgency of Nigeria’s day-to-day security challenges made it difficult to pursue long-term structural reforms in a system accustomed to firefighting rather than planning.
Yet my position remains unchanged: Nigeria cannot meaningfully improve its public finances without confronting import substitution in military and law-enforcement procurement. If Nigeria were to earmark just 25% of defence and law-enforcement budgets for local companies and startups, we would immediately see Nigerians working in firms like Raytheon or Lockheed Martin returning home to participate. Even restricting this policy to police and broader law-enforcement equipment, excluding the military, would still generate substantial economic value.
Good People, spending a quarter of defence and law-enforcement budgets locally should not be controversial. It should be national policy because it will create local jobs, reduce costs and build national resilience and knowhow.
Photo: Ndubuisi giving a lecture in NDA, Kaduna
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