Ahmadu Bello University Zaria: Innovation - Key to Economic Growth and Development

Ahmadu Bello University Zaria: Innovation - Key to Economic Growth and Development

The indefatigable and amiable Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU), Professor Ibrahim Garba has done it again, he was able to bring the ever busy and famous Jelani Aliyu, MFR to the 39th Convocation of the university as the speaker of the Convocation lecture, a gathering that assembled "who is who" in the nation automobile industry, technocrats, politicians and academia. The first time Professor Garba  brought change in the traditional way of convocation lecture was when he pulled the richest African, Alhaji Aliyu Dangote to the university to deliver special convocation lecture in February, 2016. when you say Dangote is a busy man, it is a gross understatement, yet he was brought to ABU and made to deliver a lecture to the general public. Back to Jelani, who is he? Jelani appeared in this column in two different articles; Educational Feats of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food for Thoughts II and Nigerian Born Inventors and their Inventions. Jelani, a Nigerian from Sokoto state living in USA is a celebrated car designer of General Motors. General Motors is the world’s largest automobile maker.  Jelani is the designer of the Chevy Volt, a car refuted to be an American Revolution and considered to be one of the apt concepts in the design line. Globally, Jelani's work was considered to be a masterpiece in the car industry because it was the best selection made out of many entries from renowned automobile designers across the continents. Prof. Carl Olsen, an American professor of automobile design, his teacher described Jelani's piece as the bright future of General Motors. He said "Jelani is exceptionally gifted as a car designer..... he is representing the future of the General Motors....every designer was giving opportunity to design a car that can meet certain criteria,  there were submissions from USA, Britain and Germany. In the end, Jelani's design was chosen as the best" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqx-xKGeDCA).

The presentation of Jelani as the speaker of the 39th Convocation of Ahmadu Bello University on 25th November, 2016 was a thought provoking, an inspiration to the young Nigerians and bundle of hopes to the generality of the populace. Yes, when you come across people like Jelanis, Emeagwalis, Dangotes, Imafidon's family in UK and host of others, the Nigerian in you must come out and you must be proud to be a Nigerian. I am sharing the abridged version of the Jelani's lecture with my esteemed readers with the hope that the message will come across those who can use it to make this country great in technological advancement. Happy reading

 "It is with great pleasure that I am here at this 39th Convocation Lecture of this great University. The true value of ABU to the success of Nigeria and the West African region in general, is immeasurable, it is a paragon of empowering our mind, the greatest asset for learning and growth. The subject of this lecture is "innovation". Innovation is the phenomenon that has propelled earlier great civilizations and today's developed nations to success. It is the continuous commitment of a people to develop new and more effective solutions to their challenges, establishes their societies as progressive and economically successful, thereby creating employment, fulfillment and higher living standard.

In 1908, Henry Ford, one of the greatest industrialists, put into practice the system he developed   for the mass production of affordable automobiles, with that innovation he produced 16.5 million of the Model T, putting America on wheels and forever changing the economic landscape of the country. His cars empowered individuals and families, 'they could now take advantage of job opportunities and services further away, cover a broader area faster and more efficient. This additionally energized the housing and tourism industries, further contributing, positively to the American economy. This history is forever fresh in the mind of every American!

Today in Nigeria, we are at a vital crossroads and thus we have to initiate a culture of innovation of some strategic projects for national development. Imagine a future for Nigeria, a Nigeria of incredible accomplishments, abundance, peace and ubiquitous health to all and sundry. A Nigeria where every city, town and village, in every part of the country would be an epitome of success. A Nigeria where all communities and villages would have a hi-tech health centers with physicians having direct access to specialists from around the world. A Nigeria where nomadic cattle herders would leverage solar powered drones and GPS to locate and access fertile grazing land without trespassing on farms or private property. As Nigerians, we are, a people of wisdom, virtue and prowess. And these powerful capabilities that reside within us must be reawakened. These inherent capabilities propelled me into my career as an Automotive Designer. What is fascinating about the profession is the continuous innovation and discovery that it deals with, always strategizing for the future and coming up with new concepts and solutions, working years ahead of actual model launch.

I have worked on the designs of several exciting vehicles, but the most fascinating and the biggest game changer is the Chevrolet Volt Electric car which ushered in a new era in the automotive industry. Just like a cell phone, you would plug to charge its batteries and then drive up to 60 to 75 km on pure electric power. The Volt started off as a design competition between the company's three advanced studios, in Michigan, California and England: we were tasked with to coming up with a new type of vehicle that would define the future of the company. There were over 200 entries, narrowed to five, and then, mine was chosen as the winner to be the Chevrolet Volt Electric Car.

I drew my inspiration for the design of the Volt from my African background and closeness to nature: when we observe nature we see that we live on a truly magical planet, a gigantic orb of life hurtling through space, everywhere we look around us, we are surrounded by wonders of our natural world, from the tiny leaf of less than a millimeter thick and yet a highly efficient factory, to the amazing sea rays that glide within the deep waters of the Atlantic, planet earth is a perfect balance of beauty and practicality, and that was the inspiration for my design of the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is an incredible success, defining the future of General Motors and ushering in a new era of renewable energy powered cars.

After the Volt, I have worked on other exciting design projects such as the Bumblebee Camaro featured in the Transformers 4 Movie and the 2016 Chevrolet SiEverado, which is the company's premier income earner. With the Bumblebee, the design brief was to design a sports car that captured the essence of the Autobot Transformer. The Silverado is designed to be an extremely capable utility vehicle that carries on the tradition of performance and durability in that segment.                                                                     

So how did I start from Sokoto and became an Automotive Designer in the USA? It has been an incredible journey with a strong vision, perseverance and strategy. After my basic education in Nigeria, I gained admission into the Collage for Creative Studies, Michigan to study Automotive Design. After graduation, I was getting ready to come back to Nigeria and live on the continent that I love so much when the automotive giant General Motors, which had been monitoring my educational development, hired me to work at the corporation's Design Centre in Michigan. After about three years, I went on international assignment to Opel in Germany, where I worked on the division's then best seller in Europe, the Astra. Back at the General Motors in USA, I worked as the Lead Exterior Designer on the Pontiac G6, the vehicle that ushered in a new design era for the Pontiac brand. Automotive design deals with the continued discovery of advanced concepts, looking at more efficient and effective solutions with every new model. That is exactly the type of skill needed to move Nigeria forward. That intensive search for solutions, a culture of advanced research and development aimed at delivering solutions to enhance the quality of life and create a better tomorrow. We must innovate in all facets, from agriculture to education, from health care to construction and transportation. But we must be bold and unprecedented in our strategy, because a successful future lies not in mediocre ideas, nor outdated ones,  nor in solutions that are not in tune with our culture, climate and economic structure. The future of Nigeria depends on what we choose to imagine and focus our mental energies on today. (to be continued next week)

Food Security in Nigeria: Is Biotechnology the Panacea? IV

Food Security in Nigeria: Is Biotechnology the Panacea? IV

The zenith of biotechnology in agricultural sciences may soon be attained sooner than later. It will be at a time described by my academic colleague Dr. Aliyu Ammani as "Agriculture of the future". In a facebook comment, He wrote "we in agriculture are working day and night to make food available to mankind. we hope to develop improved crop varieties and animals breeds that would beat your wildest imaginations. Imagine a day, when you plant your crop in the morning and harvest in the evening of the same day, imagine new breeds of chicken of the future, as the one taller than the average height of a man depicted in the picture,...". It is clear from the ongoing discussion  that biotechnological products are needed to meet the food requirements of the world and make it food secured with higher productivity of the mankind. Another unique benefit of these crops is the reduction in the need for any chemical inputs or inorganic fertilisers as some of them are bred to low inputs requirements or to be resistant to diseases and pests. Thus, some of them get rid of the need for pesticides and herbicides altogether. However, there are many fears - hiccups  associated with the products of biotechnology; some of these fears constitute serious impediment to the use and acceptability of such products especially those developed using genetic engineering named genetically modified organisms (GMO). What are the fears?

The first fear among people is the "unnatural way" the GMO are developed. It seems a little unnatural, and there’s a psychological tendency  among people to desire  naturalness in the way foods are produced. Some people reject and avoid some forms of novelty in the foods are produced. “It’s just not natural to take the gene from one species and put it in another. It’s just not natural!” A quote from survey showing rejection of GMO. The second and most deadly fear is claim that GMO causes cancer. Cancer is the most dreadful and most fearful ailment in the history of mankind, a mere mention of this terminal disease keeps people off and away permanently. Another fear was caused by an allegation by some scientists of detecting multiple toxins from GMOs in Maternal and Fetal Blood. Yet another study, the so-called "90-day feeding on rats with GM Bt corn MON810". The study reported the rats experiencing negative reactions. The rats suffered “serious damage to the surface mucous membranes of the jejunum (a part of the small intestine),” among other ill effects on the digestive system as reported in an article from the website GMWatch.org. The study was the third Egyptian experiment done showing harm to GM-fed rats as claimed by the site. However, many researchers argued that the 90-day duration of the feeding study was incapable of showing visceral harm because of the short duration of the study. They concluded that a study of two years or longer should be conducted to find out if the intestinal mucosa lesions would eventually lead to overt displays of ill health in the animals. Unfortunately, studies longer than 90 days on this subject are rarely reported. Still, similar study claimed to identify tumours in rats fed on GMOs and/or the herbicide glyphosate for a long-term. However, it was found out that the researchers failed to perform statistical analysis of their data and used too few rats for the study. So, it was not possible to determine if the tumours were due to the food, the chemical or to the fact that the strain of rats would get tumours. Generally, the current scientific consensus regarding GMOs remains unchanged for many years. GMOs are safe and do not pose a health risk to humans. However, the beauty about scientific consensus is, it is not cast in stone,  it can change if there is sufficient evidence for it to change, but to the best of my knowledge none of the studies widely reported by reputable sources  presented such evidences. So, to many scientists; GMO, is it!

Nevertheless, the safety of GMO crops has been a top agenda of international organisations; United Nations Organisation, regional and advanced countries food safety authorities, and many others were vividly quoted giving GMO a clean bill of health for public consumption.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) was reported of not finding any risks associated with the consumption of GMO foods.  According to WHO, GM foods currently on the international market have passed risk assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved. Another reputable organisation, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has stated categorically that no adverse impact on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of GMO foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved. In African continent, African Union (AU) and NEPAD have all nodded their weights for the use of GMOs and adopted the biosafety measures to safeguard likely health risks to the people: A body known as African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) was established under the AU-NEPAD to assist member countries to develop the right biosafety expertise to effectively carry out biosafety regulation. This is to balance the adoption of biotechnology as a tool to advance the Continent by AU. Working under the UN, 54 African nations signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, that requires countries to domesticate the Cartagena Protocol having their own respective Biosafety Laws.

With all the assurances how risky is the use of GMOs? everything in life has certain level of risk. Scientifically, whether something is risky or not depends on how physically hazardous it is, in which ways and at what level of dose it becomes risky, and how exposed people are to the hazard, at what age and how often.  Example, a radioactive particle in lungs may cause cancer whether the particle came from the natural breakdown of uranium in the soil, which produces natural radon gas, or from a nuclear power plant accident cause by man. Despite all the assurances, some people are still skeptical on the use of GMO foods, while the majority of scientists are arguing that GMO food is safe as shown by a recent poll from the Pew Foundation who reported that almost 90% of scientists from America's largest science body think GMO food is generally safe, while only 37% of the public agree. That is the dilemma of GMOs foods, the campaigners of GMOs must wake up or change strategy, for Biotechnology to address imminent food insecurity globally.

In Nigeria, despite all the brouhaha, so far, no GMOs products are released for commercial purposes. Reports show that GMOs rice, sorghum, cowpea and cassava are on confined trials at various locations in the country. There is a confined field trial of genetically modified pro-vitamin A and iron enhanced cassava at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike.  This is an experimental trial of GM cassava, in its early stages, to assess the accumulation of pro-vitamin A and iron in cassava.  Under the permit of confined trial, no plant material from the trial can be consumed by humans or animals and they must be destroyed after the trial and the trial site inspected for another six months to ensure plant material does not persist in the environment. Only after rigorous food and environmental safety assessments, by independent laboratories appointed by Nigerian Biosafety regulators (Ministry of Environment), a multi-locational regulatory field trial of selected lines, submission to Government of a biosafety dossier for one single line for commercial release, and approval by government can GMO crops cassava  be produced commercially in Nigeria, this may take next four to five years.    

In conclusion, Nigeria has to gear up to take advantage of the clear benefits of biotechnology that includes: environmentally friendly control of pests and diseases (fewer chemical sprays), environmentally friendly farming methods (minimum and zero tillage from round-up ready crops), increased productivity, improved nutrition, and drought resistance (to combat climate change). This is the only road to food security for the over 160 million Nigerians. Government and other stakeholders must champion this cause for posterity.   Click to read the newspaper version

Food Security in Nigeria: Is Biotechnology the Panacea? III

Food Security in Nigeria: Is Biotechnology the Panacea? III

Biotechnology is creating waves in Nigerian agriculture despite challenges, obstacles and lackadaisical attitudes of the research funding arms of government. Going by the available records, Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University Zaria is the leading organization in biotechnological breakthrough in respect of agriculture. However, IAR is not alone in this domain. Information available at the website of National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) shows impressive efforts made by some of the research institutes across the nation. NACGRAB, a research and biotechnology archive centre  was established in 1987 by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMS&T).  The centre is mandated to conduct research, gather data and disseminate technological information on matters relating to genetic resources conservation, utilization and biotechnology applications. The Centre, located in Moor plantation Ibadan, backed by Decree 33 of 1987 is charged with the regulation of periodic varietal releases of seeds, livestock and fisheries to industries for commercial production. Thus, the centre was established to serve   diverse biological heritage endowed to the nation, which needs to be maintained for the purpose of utilization and for posterity. The mission of NCGRAB is to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of the rich biodiversity through Research and Development view to enhancing agricultural, economic and social development. The mandate of the centre is to  explore, collect, identify, evaluate, characterize, store and conserve the rich stock of both animal and plant germplasm materials. Similarly, the centre is expected to acquire, maintain, utilize, exchange and disseminate information on genetic materials of plants, animals and microbes to the relevant stakeholders for the benefit of the nation. The biotech unit at NACGRAB was established in 1999 to handle issues relating to research and development of genetic resources. The unit complements the conservation mandate of the Centre using the simple biotechnology tools such as tissue Culture technology for the in vitro conservation, technique of regeneration and multiplication of both agronomic and tree crop species, molecular biology technique for characterization and evaluation of plant genetic resources in the country, among others.  In recent years, the biotech unit of NACGRAB has achieved many successes and few of such recorded achievements are:

• Yam improvement for Incomes and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
• NACGRAB/UNILAG/NABDA – environmental protection (desertification control, soil erosion control and bioremediation).
• NACGRAB/UNILAG DNA bar-coding and molecular characterization of medicinal plants at the Gashaka-gumpti national park
• NACGRAB/FUMAN – collaboration on the supply of pineapple seedlings

In the last twenty years, National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) have developed over a thousand improved varieties of agricultural commodities for the five agricultural ecological zones. Some of such varieties were certified and released by NACGRAB. In this regard,  the centre, being the custodian of biotechnology products has dully certified and releases 586 varieties of many agricultural commodities for commercialization and sales to public. Among these varieties are 46 cassava improved varieties code named NICASS 1 to 31 and UMACASS 33 to 43. These varieties were developed by the combined efforts of International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan and National Roots Crops Research Institute, (NRCRI) Umudike, Abia State. The unique characteristics of these improved cassava verities are early maturing, high yielding, suitable for gari and fufu, tolerance to drought (leaf retention in dry season), High starch yield, high dry matter, erect plant type suitable for intercropping and dense population in plantations, high quality cassava flour due to low fibre content with potential yields ranging from 40 tons per hectare to 53 tons per hectare compared to the local varieties with maximum yield of less than 10  tons per hectare. Soybean is another commodity featuring predominantly in the seed catalogue of  NACGRAB. 23 varieties of soybean were developed by the combined efforts of  IITA, Ibadan, National Cereal Research Institute Badegi, Niger State, Institute for Agricultural Research and Training (IAR and T), Ibadan. The unique features of the soybean are Medium maturing, high promi-scuous nodulation, high % nitrogen derived from atmosphere, high fodder yield and resistant to lodging, cercospora leaf spot and bacterial pustule with potential yields ranging from 1.5 tons per hectare to 2 tons per hectare. Additionally, there is a variety of Soybean code named "NCRISOY 1" which was released in 2014 with unique characteristics of being extra early maturity, promiscuous nodulation, resistant to rust, cercospora leaf spot and bacteria pustule with yield potential of 2.5 tons per hectare. The traditional soybean yields less than one ton in a hectare.

Rice is one of the most important agricultural commodities with global attention. It is used for the preparation of many local and intercontinental dishes and it is one commodity that one out of every three houses eats on daily basis. Nigeria spends billions of Naira annually to import rice into the country. rice consumption was reported to increase at a rate of 5% per year between 1961 and 2006. In my article of 2nd September, 2015, I quoted the  total demand for rice as about 5 million Metric tons per year out of which about 3.2 million Metric tons were produced locally (ATA Document). Over the years, the national rice production has not kept pace with the national consumption, thereby widening domestic rice deficit, which has to be met through massive importation of processed rice. Nigeria is reported to be among the largest rice importers in the world. The 2011 Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) report showed that Nigeria is the world's second largest importer of rice  worth N356 billion. Banning of rice importation has never been successful due to porous borders and compromising security personnel. Solve rice problem in Nigeria, more than half of Nigerian foods problems are solved. This is how important rice is to Nigerian food security. From 1991 to 2015, 71 rice improved varieties were developed and released into the country. These varieties include FARO 1 to 62, FUNAABOR-1 and 2, UPIA 1, 2, and 3, FARO 63, 64  and 65. The improved varieties are  of different sizes; short. medium and long grain types with potential yields ranging from 2.5 per hectare to 4.5 per hectare compared to about 1.5 tons per hectare of local varieties. The rice varieties were developed for swampy areas, forest zones, Northern and Southern Guinea Savanna, Sudan Savanna, Sahel Savanna and practically for every location in Nigeria.

There are many other improved varieties of all the strategic agricultural commodities government has been promoting in recent years. Maize is an excellent example in this case. There are 139 varieties of improved maize for short, medium and long maturity periods, example of SAMAZ 47, which is early maturity, high grain yield, tolerance to drought, Striga hermonthica and can perform in low soil nitrogen with yield potential of 10.3 tons per hectare. Millet, cowpea, groundnut, etc are among the crops varieties released over the years. Industrial crops were not left behind. Rubber, an industrial crop was among the varietal releases. 14 improved varieties of rubber were certified and released for public use. For instance, a rubber crop variety, code named "NIG 805" developed by Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria (RRIN) was released and the variety is found to be high yielding with potential yields from 2.3 to 2.8 tons per hectare per year compared to obtainable yield of local varieties from a mere 0.3 to 0.4 ton per hectare per year. Sugarcane is another example of industrial crop with many improved cultivars. From 1990 to 2010, there were 19 improved varieties of sugarcane released for public use. These  varieties are resistant to smut and other diseases. Vigorous tillering and ratooing habit with non hairy leaves, Good ratooning ability, medium to high tillering, good canopy formation, Smut resistance, good juice quality and high cane yield of an average of 105 t/ha. It is apparent that this column cannot exhaust all the available information on the agricultural products of biotechnology developed here in Nigeria. Suffice to say that Nigeria is on the path of achieving self sufficiency in food production through this God given technique - biotechnology. However, there are many fears - hiccups  associated with the products of biotechnology; some of these fears constitute serious impediment to the use and acceptability of such products especially genetically modified organisms popularly called GMO. What are the fears?  and how far can  we use biotechnology to produce foods and how safe are these foods? ( To be concluded next week)