Emeagwali says he doesn't visit Nigeria that often. The first of nine children, every member of his family including his parents all now live in the United States. He says the only reason countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea are progressing and Nigeria is stagnant is because Nigeria does not invest in people. These countries invested in people, and now they are spending a lot of money to get to the information age. In Nigeria, we imported a lot of cars 25 years ago, all those cars are down now because we didn't invest in people.
Labour is cheap in Nigeria.
People can stay in that country and do a lot of international work if they have the skills. But there is no emphasis on skills. Nigerians just want to get rich. You can't buy your way to civilization. You need to have an educational system that is strong from first grade.