ETHICAL EVALUATION OF THE HISTORICAL IMPERATIVES OF SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND BIG SCALE INDUSTRIES IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA

This research is motivated by the wonderful contributions of Science and Technology. Science and Technology have continued to engineer progress in human life. One of the remarkable ways science and technology have been employed and was to facilitate industrialization in the 18th Century Britain in Europe. The industrial expansion was facilitated by the ground breaking of Science and technology which led to industrial boom in the manufacturing of goods and production of services. Science and Technology in the world including Africa is an age long phenomenon. While, Science is the systematic study of anything that can be examined, tested, and verified, it is one of the greatest and most influential fields of human endeavor. Technology on the other hand, is scientific knowledge that is put to practical ends. This knowledge is used in designing machinery, materials, and industrial processes, generally .known as engineering. The concern of this paper is that in recent years, a greater volume of African countries have embraced the western science and technology as a driver of development assimilating African science and technology as though there was nothing like that before. This work is interested in helpful materials to explore the previous African concept of science and technology. Based on its finding, it is discovered that Africans appear to have abandoned their rich indigenous science and technology which has unfolded over the centuries since the dawn of human history like the western science and technology today. The work advanced the need for Africans to revitalize their lost heritage to complement the scientific culture of the west.