I have always known and cherished intellectual capital as the ability to breed ideas that ignite value, but it had never struck my mind that ideas, rather than accumulated wealth, are capitals until Iread a speech delivered by Dr. Philip Emeagwali the 1989 Gordon Bell prize winner, at the University of Alberta, Candada recently.

The soul-searching and thought-provoking piece titled “The Panacea to poverty in Africa dwelt on the power of intellectual capital and what such power meant for Africa. He particularly drew Africa’s attention to a Deutsche Bank advertisement in the Wall Street journal that says” “Ideas are capital. The rest is just money”.

Emeagwail then noted with dismay that when African men and women wad would-give birth to new ideas fled to Europe and the United States, then the so-called African renaissance can only occur in Paris, London and New York, and not in Africa.

I cannot agree more with the above simple and eloquent advertisement, and Emeagwali’s hornily that “the potential for progress and poverty alleviation in Africa relies on capital generated from the power within our minds, not from our ability to pick minerals from the ground or seek debt relief and foreign assistance”.

Indeed, considering the high level of poverty  in Africa, one would have expected African leaders to invest more on ideas, knowledge and information which are the ingredient of intellectual capital and the engines of economic growth, but probably because most of African leaders are a bunch of opportunists and ignorance with no ideas or vision, they prefer to invest more on what would sustain them in power. Unlike in Europe, the United States and Paris and lately China where intellectuals who could generate and harness the brightest ideas for the potential growth and progress of the countries are valued and treated with utmost respects, the best brains in Africa are treated with disdain and regarded as an unnecessary sore in the throat.

In that case, one would hardly became African men and women with brightest ideas and vision for running away to overseas where their intelligence and intellectual resources would not amount to a total waste.

Take Nigeria for instance, apart from the First Republic when great nationalists with great visions and bright ideas were in the realm of the national affairs, Nigeria has been presided over by a bunch of men and women whose ideas about Nigeria renaissance is how to linen their private pockets.

It is an home truth that Nigeria is blessed with talents in various fields of human endeavour. But Nigerian leaders hardly see any need to tap from the intellectual resources of those great men and women. Even in few instances where one or two of them are called to serve government, their appointments are often done to earn government that appoint them the necessary respect and reputation, and not necessarily to tap from their intellectual resources, make judicious use of the ideas and contributions and translate them into wealth for the citizenry.

Again, in a country where a barely literate local government councilor earns more than a Professor, one would hardly blame the intelligentsia for not staying at home to contribute ideas that would not be effected by the people in government. And that is whey till today, we have the intellectuals that are more at home aboard than in Nigeria.

The truth is that Africa does not value its best brains. Even in offices, workers with the best brains and ideas are hardly recognized let alone accorded respect or motivated to generate ideas that would liberate the society from the chains of under-development. While sycophants with little or no intellect enjoy regular promotion, the intellectuals among them are denied privileges and rights.

And that is why the African counties have remained the consumers of technology rather than being producers of ideas and technology.

And I doubt if Africa would ever come out from the shackles of poverty and underdevelopment unless it refrains from investing on frivolous things like arms and weapons of war to investing more on technological intellectual capital needed to produce products and services that will lead to the path of poverty alleviation.

Boye Salau