Is imitation limitation? The case of China and Nigeria

We have as many motivational books as the speakers feeding us with maxims and principles daily. As Stonebwoy puts it in his Bhim Nation, "dem say this dem say that ooo" as principles. One of the "dem say this dem say that ooo" principles is imitation is limitation. In fact, I think I came across a motivational book with that title. I have forgotten who authored it though. Of course, I have not read the book. I guess many of my friends did in our university days. Some bandied the maxim about in the name of motivation.

I agree it is not good to evaluate a book by its cover. But when the title is intrinsically categorical, we can at least attempt evaluating it as such. So I am focusing on the maxim as the title. And that would be done against the background of China and Nigeria on the World and Africa stage respectively. First, let us start with the human species in general.

MAN AND NATURE

No creature imitates others and processes in nature than the human species. When bats, sharks and whales among others were using sound in long distance navigation in their habitats, man had no idea of sound navigation ranging, SONAR. When the avian creatures were using the air as means of transportation, man was still glued to the land. When plants and others animals were producing poisonous substances to kill any invading creature, man had no idea of medicine curing sickness. Technically, medicine poisons any invading organism to defend the host.

But today, man had imitated the locomotive modalities of the creatures of air and how they do it. The outcome is flying crafts of all kinds. Not only can we fly today, we can even fly to space; places that the avian creatures who started or were naturally equipped to make use of the air will never dream of, let alone reach. We mastered SONAR as well in our ships, submarines and other technologies in and on the water bodies. We explored, imitated and "understood" the mechanism of poisons as medicines, hence can use plants, and even extract the main ingredient and multiply them in our laboratories for curative and treatment purposes.

In sum, our technological prowess is mostly bionics, imitation of nature. Some of them better than we can find in nature, others very close and others too crude to compare to that of nature. Given that Nature is an interactive place Man is the only animal that imitates with the potentiality of becoming better at it, best in it and eventually innovative and creative with it. So the question must be asked is imitation really limitation for man? How do you think our world would look like today without man imitating other creatures and processes in Nature and becoming better at it, best in it and creative with it?

CHINA AND THE WORLD

Every nation has its primitive technology anchored on the knowledge base of the time. Yet when the developed Western nations were revolutionizing their economy via the use of science and technology culminating into industrialization, China was just populating the world. When they were into the space race, China was grappling with how to provide for the population at home. As these Western nations were extending and stamping their influences beyond their immediate borders and all the way to Africa, China had no such influence even beyond its immediate borders.

Today everyone knows the story. China had not only joined these Western powers economically to improve upon the living standards of her citizens; she has equaled them in almost every corner of influence that matters in world politics. China's influence in Africa now is challenging if not eliminating that of some Western powers. Unable to join the internationally collaborative heavenly laboratory of man, International Space Station, ISS, China is literally building its own Space Station that will soon dock in space around 2022. China does not only announce its readiness for space exploration by launching satellites up there, it also put a Chinese astronaut in space, the third nation to do so after US and Russia.

And this is happening at a time that funding for NASA from US Congress is declining. This simply means China is likely to overtake US in space exploration, research and technology. The sudden boom in the economy, which is traceable to information technology, reflects the importance of space technology. Space technology is essentially information technology. Chinese military is no longer solely number dependent as their movies depicts in the past, it is now technology dependent with all the modern sophistications. So as we marvel at the Chinese achievements, let us also ask how they did it.

HOW CHINA COULD HAVE DONE IT

They did it by leaning from, and imitating the doers. They enrolled in their universities to acquire the analytic intelligence necessary to fire the synthetic intelligence into action. With this knowledge acquired, they came down in their numbers to build China. They begin to restructure the educational system with emphasis on science, technology, mathematics and engineering. Education becomes practical, meaningful to many. It begins to bring the needed visible positive change.

The capacity to feed the industries with not only natural resources but Chinese human resources with the necessary knowledge for the actualization of the dream became obvious. The politicians understood the dream. They pumped in the necessary investment. Industry and education corporate than compete in prosecuting the dream, which is to develop China. Whether they achieve the dream via originality or imitation, which is never exclusive to any individual or nation, does not matter. What matters is China's development. As far as knowledge is concerned, development is essentially an amalgamation of originality and imitation. China is simply doing that.

When Ghanaians hear of Chinese products, we literally say it is of low quality at best. What we forget is that whether it is of low quality or not, it means they learnt and imitate how to make the product since they were not the first to make it. Industrialization begins with knowing how to manufacture something. Chinese now knows how to make almost all electronic products as well as non-electronic ones. They even came to Ghana to learn and imitate our traditional symbols at our blind side. Later, they will imprint these symbols cloths as designs and sell to us at affordable price.

We can continue calling their products low quality, and they will continue making them, strengthening their economy with the manufacturing knowledge via the exportation of the products. Meanwhile China is penetrating even the Western nations with their manufactured goods. This means China exports the quality of manufactured goods that Asia, African, US and European markets can afford to such markets. So what we can afford is the low quality one we are having. Every market that affords products of low, high or highest quality is useful to the manufacturer. Is imitation really limitation for man, hence a nation?

NIGERIA IN AFRICA

When looked at from the angle of whether imitation is really limitation, the story of Nigeria is not different from China. Similarly, most of the arguments for China equally hold for Nigeria. After all, Ghanaians treat Nigerian products with the same suspicion and contempt. When South Africa was leading Africa economically and therefore probably scientifically and technology and in service delivery, Nigeria was just populating the continent. When South Africa was engaging in space program by launching satellites into space and even thought of becoming a nuclear armed state, Nigeria was struggling how to take care of its growing population.

Yet today, Nigeria has become a force to reckon on the continent. Like China, Nigeria had imitated the doers scientifically and technologically. They also learnt how to manufacture, the foundation of their industrialization. Not only is Nigeria's space program doing well by launching satellites into space, when all things go well Nigeria will send astronaut to space before 2016 ends. That is Nigeria announcing its readiness to join the space race, which means information technology research, exploration and use. And it seems that despite the increasing corruption bedeviling the nation, the politicians at least understood the importance of science and technology to sustain fueling the economy from the manufacturing therefore service delivery perspective.

Like China, when Nigeria goods flood the Ghanaian market, we say that is low quality product. Again, what we forget is that they have learnt how to manufacture these products. With the exception of few charlatans bent on making money out of nothing, fake or low quality products do not mean fake knowledge. Affordability determines what your market can get. When the Ghanaian movie industry was leading Africa, Nollywood was nowhere near. What did they do? They came to Ghana to learn and imitate. Today, we have to ask where the Ghanaian movie industry is on even the African map. Nigeria's Nollywood has imitated and innovatively handled the acquired knowledge in ways that the imitation is virtually overshadowed. Nollywood movies industry is not only dominating Africa markets, it is penetrating the world after Hollywood of US and Bollywood of India. Is imitation limitation for man, hence a nation?

CONCLUSION

Though not exhaustive accounts, the above journey from how man is imitating Nature in all his technology and how China and Nigeria are imitating others who took the lead and today they are doing well as far as development is concerned shows that imitation is not limitation. If anything at all, imitation is just the beginning to unveiling our own potentialities especially if we have clear dreams as individuals and nations. A robust and functional higher education educational system is the crucible of originality, and imitation of others for the development of a nation.

Today the developed Western nations are afraid of Chinese proficiency in imitating information that no week passes without them accusing China of espionage. It is now obvious that what makes a nation super-power and sustain it is not necessarily the form of political governance system but the robust and functional higher education educational system anchored on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Ghana can replicate the same feats as China and Nigeria are doing.

Let us be weary of that age-old mantra that we are the first sub-Sahara African nation to do this or that. Others are developing, yet when we open our mouth, we say we are the first sub-Sahara nation to do this or that. Either we are convinced that imitation is limitation or pride is chaining us down from learning and imitating the best means of ensuring appreciable development from others. Imitation is not limitation.

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