How We Lost Our Capacity to Innovate in Nigeria #TEDx #Ofili

It's amazing how we Nigerians hardly innovate. The speaker in the video below, Okechukwu Ofili, stated something quite profound and apparent about Nigeria, which is the fact that we Nigerians suffer from something he calls, "the foreign comparison issue". This is were we tend to compare our status and accomplishments with developed countries which somehow, mentally dampens our capacity; which shouldn't be. Seeing other countries constantly innovating and developing should instinctively cajole us to aim higher but unfortunately, that isn't the case.

Ofili also gave some statistics which I found embarrassing (being a Nigerian) but enlightening at the same time.
Between 2000 and 2011:

• 450,000 patents were registered in Japan (population 120 Million)
• 15,000 patents registered in Israel (population 10 million)
• 1500 patents registered in South Africa (40 Million)
• 17 patents registered in Nigeria (population 150 million) 

X_X

Ofili, is an engineer, author, artist and public speaker (he probably has more up his sleeves) who is well known for his books and well-entertaining blog.
I found this talk uplifting, inspiring and I will definitely start innovating more... hope you will too.