The founder of Zeetin Engineering Limited, Azibaola Robert, FNSE, has said that sincerely embracing and deploying science and technology by Nigerians, rather than pandering to any ethnic or tribal sentiments, would facilitate and deepen the economic and infrastructural development of Nigeria.
Robert stated this in his Abuja office, when he hosted a delegation of the national executive of the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), led by its President, Engr. Dr. Elizabeth Jumoke Eterigho.
“There are many things wrong with Nigeria’s technological advancement,” Robert said, adding “And until we sincerely embrace and deploy science and technology as the necessary tools to facilitate and deepen the economic and infrastructural development of Nigeria, rather than pandering to ethnic or tribal sentiments or considerations, we will not be able to develop and make progress as a country.”
“But, for me, I want to do the technology; that’s why at Zeetin, we are buying machines to make machines,” Robert added.
A high-end tech entrepreneur recognised by engineers, Robert sued for collaboration among Nigerian engineers for the technological advancement of the country.
“Nigeria’s technological development can easily be fast-tracked, when our engineers, companies, especially those that are technology-driven, collaborate strategically for the overall industrial development and growth of Nigeria through technology. That is what we are doing in Zeetin.”
Robert decries what he terms Nigerians’ penchant for dependence and consumption of foreign brands, as detrimental to the development of the country. “Our brains have been wired to think that nothing good can come out of Nigeria,” he said.
“But this country will be great if we change that mentality of depending and consuming everything foreign; believing that whatever we are wearing is fake once it is not a foreign brand.”
He believes that technology is not transferable. “Therefore, let’s start building our own technology. At Zeetin, we are building a brand that will outlive us, stand the test of time. Our brand, like the SolidWorks Academy, should provide a platform for other Nigerians to showcase their tech work.” He advised Nigerians to begin to build conglomerate brands that cut across Nigeria’s ethnic and tribal borders.
Truly passionate about technology, Robert urged Nigerians to “encourage our youth to embrace and take science and technology seriously, else a whole generation will be lost. Until we seriously do that, we will make no progress.”
The Zeetin CEO called for collaborative efforts to achieve it.
Speaking about empowerment of engineers, the national president of APWEN, Eterigho, said that Nigerian women engineers needed “digital transformation to enable us function effectively in our various fields of specialisation.”
“We need more advocacy, enlightenment, improved local content, change of our taste buds to curtail Nigerians’ dependence on and consumption of foreign brands.”
She said that APWEN, a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, is involved in advocacy, and that it would like to collaborate with Zeetin Engineering to help improve, build the skills of women engineers, and “encourage girls to change their mentality, orientation about science subjects, because they often considered them too difficult.”
As part of the collaborative efforts, Zeetin’s CEO granted APWEN’s requests to regularly be sending women Engineers to Zeetin for their IT and NYSC assignments under his tutelage. He used the occasion to invite APWEN to be his guests later in the year as an Awardee of the Vanguard Personality of the Year 2021, coming on the heels of his recent investiture as Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
