08/20/2026
YORUBA NATION-CLOSING THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY GAP
Our biggest issue in our attempt to close the science and Ptechnology gap between us and the industrialized world is that we must first learn to communicate among ourselves.
Technology Gap describes an advantage enjoyed by a nation that introduces new goods into the market. The country will enjoy a comparative advantage as well as a temporary state of monopoly until other countries have achieved the ability to imitate the new good. People’s lives will be transformed.
Our educated elite, who speak English, have no desire to explain what they know to the masses, who speak Yoruba. Think about it. Not more than 10% of Yoruba people speak English beyond the ‘broken’ type. And among this 10% are the surgeons, engineers, computer engineers, architects, scientists, professors, etc. And since they have not developed a way of communicating with the masses, their knowledge is of little or no usefulness to the masses.
Among the non-educated ones or those with little education, comprising of 90% of us, are the carpenters, car mechanics, repairers of generators, artisans, farmers, electricians, bricklayers, furniture makers, tool makers, fashion designers, politicians, council people, babalawos, local healers, ‘rewires’, ‘vulcanizers’, meat sellers, petty traders, market women, bricklayers, etc. These people need the knowledge of the elite to transform their lives but speak very little or no English at all. They speak Yoruba, 100%.
There is therefore no synergy between our educated elite and the masses. This is where we have been stuck for the past seven decades. Education, to our elite, means finding a way to separate themselves from the masses. To them, it does not mean finding a way for the masses to benefit from their acquired knowledge.
In England, the educated elite and the masses speak English, 100%. And in most European and almost all other countries of the world, the language of the masses is the language of the elite. Where there may be a problem, the elite develop the language so the masses can grasp the intended idea.
Our own educated elite have no way to communicate the differences between aedes, anopheles, culex mosquitoes, etc., with the masses, who need the knowledge. They do not have a desire to develop the Yoruba language for lava or pupa, so that the masses can know the differences. Doing this will mean that they are bringing themselves low to the level of the masses. So, the masses do not benefit from their knowledge.
If you should go to the local market in Yoruba land, and ask for the price of a kilo of meat, you will be given a price by the meat seller. After bargaining, you ask to buy 3 kilos. of meat, you will be surprised that he is selling you 3 pounds of meat instead of 3 kilos. If you should complain about this, the meat seller will explain to you that you do not know what you are talking about since the scale already displayed 3.
An auto-mechanic in Yoruba land has already developed a ‘lingo’ of his own, aimed at confusing the car-owners. As a mechanical engineer, you may really know what ails your car, but since you do not have a means of communicating this with the mechanic, you are left at his mercy.
If you should attend an academic conference in our Yoruba land, you will find out that the academicians, even if all of them are Yorubas, speak a language that the local masses do not understand. I recently attended one, aimed at making our children speak our language. In this conference, there were kings, high chiefs, academic gurus, etc. All of them were speaking English, including the kings or their emissaries!!!
If we are to bridge the gap in technology between us and the First world in science and technology, we will need to develop science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Yoruba language so our masses can contribute, and also gain.
