The power of mathematics!

Lekan Sote
| credits: File copy

That German friend, in his halting English, has a new theory: Nigeria, with its immense resources, is lumbering instead of soaring, because its people aren’t critical in their thinking. Nigerians usually fail to subject ideas, actions and their results, to rigorous scrutiny and careful analysis. He believes that Nigerians, otherwise a brilliant lot, avoid the tedium of deep critical analysis, due to intellectual laziness, or sentimental considerations. You may agree with him when you consider the blighted Nigerian economic and political landscape. Though they have the head-knowledge, Nigerians would shun simple management tools, like a decision-table quadrant of four sections, each showing actions that match the conditions therein.

This idea comes from linear programming, a mathematical method for matching resources to tasks. Management students who run elementary SWOT Analysis – an assessment of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, of a business entity – do some kind of linear programming. Contrary to the counsel of Jesus, Nigerians only pray, without making strategic plans. In Luke 14: 28, 31, Jesus queried: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it… or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?”

Sometimes you wonder what Nigerian pupils learn these days – besides being self-opinionated and lackadaisical. Many folk that send their children to those over-celebrated private schools, also enlist the poor teachers into a conspiracy of indulgence for their kids. Now that tiresome Nyesom Wike is no longer the Supervising Minister of Education, and a trained teacher, Ibrahim Shekarau, has taken over, the ministry should go about plugging the dearth, and steer more pupils towards the study of math, science and technology. The German thinks that math and verbal skills are necessary for Nigeria’s next generation of workers.

Mathematician, Rene Descartes, who probably in a fit of mock epiphany, exclaimed: “I think, therefore I am,” was from France, where 27 per cent of students graduate in mathematics, science and technology, compared to America’s 17 per cent. A Frenchman admitted: “We are not terribly good at shopkeeping,” but boasts, “We are very good at models and paradigms.” A cruel joke explains the French preference for the abstract, over the concrete: A Frenchman received a plan and observed: “It probably works well in practice,” then enquires, “How does it work in theory?” This reminds you of the lighthearted joke that Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, who recently lost a reelection bid, is a better professor-in-chief for choosing the profound, over ‘stomach infrastructure’ or ‘amala politics’.

A tribute by Time magazine of French mathematical genius reads: “The French math whizzes dominate the lucrative business of quantitative finance, a field that accounts for roughly half of financial traders (worldwide) and requires analysts well versed in advanced forms of calculus, probability and statistics.” Those who suggest that the wonders wrought by the West (or the North, whichever), must be due to voodoo, must know that all came from exertion of brain power. The seeming ‘magical’ working of the computer, for instance, is based on algorithm carefully thought out, and written down by human hands. No kidding.

Math shows the relationships between magnitudes and numbers; algebra uses signs to represent relations between quantities that are represented by symbols; and algorithm is simply a rule for solving mathematical problems in a finite number of steps, or a set of computational procedures for achieving desired results. Algorithm is used in writing operating systems software that controls computer operational procedures. You might also kick it in that Operations Research is used to determine how a weapon, tactic or strategy can be altered for better results, or promote maximum efficiency in industry. Industrial Management, derived therefrom, is used in planning work flow and machine arrangement in a workshop, to achieve higher throughput.

Senegal’s Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Mary Teaw Niane, says: “For (African) youths to be competitive in the job market, they will need to be equipped with the right skills, to meet the demands of the private sector that is increasingly requiring science, technology and innovation.” The Director-General of Nigeria’s Institute of Science Laboratory Technology, Dr Igbodalo Ijagbone, says: “It has become obvious that since the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, technology is the foundation on which any development economy could be established.” He adds: “Nigeria can establish a sound industrial economy on R & D, by borrowing from other countries.” To harvest this information, Nigeria could, like Malaysia, invite top Western university franchises, or, like China, establish science parks and invite high-tech companies like Microsoft and Google, to establish research centres.

Its report, ‘The Human Capital Strategy for Africa 2014-2018,’ the African Development Bank confirms that the 600 million born at the turn of the 21st Century will eventually become Africa’s workforce. The bank thinks that Africa can only benefit from this demographic dividend and build a highly skilled labour force, if Africa significantly increases the capacity of its high schools, technical and vocational training academies, to teach technical skills. A more ambitious World Bank recommends the training of 10,000 PhDs in applied sciences, engineering and technology, to boost African capacity for socio-economic transformation, innovations and job creation.

Advantages of mastering the tedium of math goes beyond its use in accounting, banking, finance, engineering and economic policy decision-making; it extends to the meteorological services that can measure, and compare, previous and current data to make projections for farmers, the aviation industry and military strategists. Hitler’s neglect of weather forecasts, for instance, led to the decimation of his army that marched against ‘General Winter’ during the Second World War.

It extends also into ‘soft’ areas like sports, where analysts compare past records of sports men and sports tournaments, to the present, and attempt to predict the future. Coaches, without knowing it, use sophisticated game theories – the deliberate analysis of choices and strategies available in a game or a situation, to determine the optimum course of action. This dovetails into their game plans – carefully defined strategy or tactic used to win competitions in American football, soccer or basketball.

Math enables you to play the numbers game that math professor, Charles L. Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll, author of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ played with kids. If you pick any single-digit number, say five, multiply it by nine, and multiply the result (45) by 123456789, your answer will be 555555555. If you selected four, and subject it to the same process, you will get 444444444–4 in nine places. You should try another number and see how it works.

But many Nigerian kids prefer easy pleasure to math or other rigorous pastimes, as their parents hate critical, linear or logical thinking. Both collapse in the face of too much rigour. Every Nigerian has a personal standard, and there are no generally accepted standards. The Nigerian who drives against traffic doesn’t care to know that he is violating the rules of the queue theory, and will therefore increase the time for everyone to get home, if others do the same. To experience a quantum leap into the future, Nigerians must change their thought process, by leaping into the quantum sciences.