ABU Zaria Developed Drone Using Local Materials

 ABU Zaria Developed Drone Using Local Materials

https://leadership.ng/2019/03/15/updates-on-nigerian-born-inventors-abu-zaria-developed-drone-using-local-materials/ 

This is a corollary to my article of January 25^th 2019, titled ‘updates on Nigerian Born Inventors: Celebrating the Invention of Koniku Kore’. That article was a continuation to 5-series article published between the last quarter of 2016 and first quarter of 2017. The article was titled “Nigerian Born Investors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities. My esteemed readers may recall my assertion in the article; “that the list of Nigerian inventors and their inventions are not exhaustive. A huge country like Nigeria with a deep-rooted diversity and exponential increase in population, invention to survive daily challenges of life is the order of the day. Necessity makes people to think deeply on how to address their problems, constraints and threats against their living condition. Necessity is the major factor making Nigeria to churn out inventors in multitude”. This necessity created unquantifiable inventors with unquantifiable opportunities to make Nigeria excel in several human endeavors. These opportunities have potential to make Nigeria great among the comity of nations. However, potential is like a large fertile farm with good soil and uninhibited water; without cultivation, weeds and dangerous reptiles will cover the farm and become dangerous to the owners of the farm.

The scenario of ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ plays excellently for Nigerians abroad as they doggedly fight odds to survive and outshine others.  It is within this framework that the invention of KONIKU KORE made by a USA based Nigerian came to limelight with delight two years ago. The technology is capable of making the seemingly ‘impossible’ possible in the global technological revolution. Koniku Kore is a giant invention of the 21^st century, it is a device, which can fuse live neurons from mice stem cells into a silicon chip invented by a USA based Nigerian, Oshi Agabi. The device is a next generation neuro computing platform that can provide uses in security, military and agriculture. An example would be that a single neuro-chip device could sniff out explosives without even seeing it. The creation of this seemingly synthetic brain is a breakthrough combination of robotics, neuro-biology, computing and bioengineering. Details of this piece can be accessed via https://breakthroughwithmkothman.blogspot.com/2019/03/updates-on-nigerian-born-inventors.html

Back home, ‘the necessity’ has created many inventors over the years. Private and public sectors recorded scores of successes in innovations and inventions of technologies to facilitate development. Among the public sectors are the universities and polytechnics that have labored to address national developmental challenges. Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria is famously striving in technological advancement despite system and environmental challenges. Recently, students of the university developed a drone using local materials.   

 A 3-man team of final year students of Ahmadu Bello University ABU, Zaria made a drone as their final year project and named it 'Hope For Chibok Girls'. The drone was tested at the ABU stadium complex and worked perfectly well to the surprise and delight of witnesses. ABU Zaria, as a citadel of learning and excellence is relentlessly working and bringing fames to Nigeria through scientific inventions.

 Unarguably, ABU Zaria is the largest university in sub-Saharan Africa, and the first university to be established in Northern Nigeria in 1962. The university has graduated over one million students from different academic programmes since establishment. ABU Zaria is indeed one of Nigeria’s finest in the aspect of research, human development and community service. Located in the heart of Zazzau Emirate, 70 km from Kaduna town, ABU Zaria is by all measures, a household name in intellectual production.

With two major campuses (Samaru and Kongo), over 100 academic departments, housed by 13 faculties and 12 research institutes, a student population of over 50,000 and staff strength of over 5,000, the intellectual dexterity and creativity of ABU Zaria products is never contested. The two campuses occupy over 7,000 hectares of land for teaching, research and other academic activities. While some universities may have diverted from their core mandates; but ABU has, over the years, been pushing hard to achieve her core mission aptly captured: ‘To advance the frontiers of learning and break new grounds, through teaching, research and the dissemination of knowledge of the highest quality.’ Additionally, the university is aimed at fostering national and international integration through the development and promotion of African traditions and cultures; to serve as a model and conscience of the society; and to produce high-level human power and enhance capacity-building through training and retraining, in order to meet the needs and challenges of the 21st century.

Today, ABU Zaria has certainly come a long way in Nigeria and beyond, the university has far become a pacesetter, a trailblazer and frontrunner, which other institutions emulate in knowledge production and advancement. The university has grown to become the most influential and diverse in the country. Current record indicates that almost all the 747 LGAs in the country have sons and daughters either as students or staff or both studying and working/living in ABU Zaria in addition to citizens of other countries. This diversity makes ABU unique among the tertiary institution of learning in Nigeria. In fact, the diversity has placed the university on a very strong footing, making it more robust in pursuing its mission while making effective contributions to all spheres of human endeavour.’

Over the years, the university has been assiduously working, despite challenges, to achieve this lofty mission. It has recorded many successes in different areas of human and national development. Time and space may not allow me to x-ray all the breakthroughs made by this giant university in the south of the Sahara however. The development of the drone by the university’s undergraduate student is one of modest achievements in the technological strides of the University in recent years.

Drone is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), which includes autonomous drones and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs). Drone is capable of controlled, sustained level flight and is powered by a jet, reciprocating, or electric engine. Drone differs from a cruise missile because it is intended to be recovered after its mission, while a cruise missile impacts its target, damage both the target and itself. A military drone may carry and fire munitions on board, while a cruise missile is simply ammunition for a target.

Drone technology has been in existence since 1849 when Austria attacked Venice using unmanned balloons stuffed with explosives. Over the last ten decades, drones have undergone a rapid transformation in consumer electronics with advances in technology and wide applications for military operations and the civilian utility. Today, in spite of advances in drone technology, drone manufacturing is limited to developed countries without much contribution from developing countries like Nigeria. However, this is changing as ABU conceived and successfully developed UAV with locally available materials and improvised equipment.

Three students of Physics Department of ABU Zaria undertook the task designing and construction of drone using readily available materials. One student was assigned the design and sourcing of the construction materials. Another student was assigned the design and testing of the aerodynamic system of the UAV. The third student took the responsibility of designing electrical system that provided the necessary power to overcome the forces of drag, lift and thrust as well as the ability to manipulate the control system from the surface while the drone is in flight. The combined efforts of the three students produced a most desired result – a perfectly flying done. The ABU drone was tested and worked excellently according to the design.

The drone technology may not be an original invention of ABU Zaria, nevertheless, the university has to be credited for developing the drone with locally available materials. With more support, equipment and infrastructure, the young scientists, the ABU students who transformed the mere concept of ‘Nigerian drone - Hope For Chibok Girls' to reality can do much better. The ball is in the court of the Nigerian society.

     

First Food Crop GMO in Nigeria: Commercial Release of Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea III

First Food Crop GMO in Nigeria: Commercial Release of Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea III

https://go.shr.lc/2TrfCBa this is the link for the online paper version

As a conclusion to the release of the fist food crop GMO in Nigeria, it is pertinent to enlighten the general public on the genetically modified product as one of the important feats achieved through scientific process. As mentioned in the first part of this article that GMO connotes dreadful fear to some people because of unscientific and unsubstantiated allegations that GMO is harmful to people. The contribution of Dr. Rose M. Gidado in the second part of this article adequately addressed safety of PBR cowpea for human consumption. Still, the question is ‘does Nigeria need the Genetic Modification (GM) Technology?’ This question is germane considering the results of the Fifth Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS5) that was discussed in the second part of this article.  Dr. Onyeka Nwosu, an Abuja based Scientist amply tackled the subject of GM technology and the Nigerian quest to achieve food security and diversify the economy through agriculture. Happy reading.

Does Nigeria Need The Genetic Modification (GM) Technology?  

Agriculture today accounts for about 25% of GDP in Nigeria and is the sector that offers the greatest potential for poverty reduction and job creation, particularly among vulnerable rural populations and urban dwellers with limited job opportunities. The growing population in Nigeria is expected to cause an exponential rise in the demand for food, a warming climate, water scarcity, and arable land shrinkage that will make the challenge more difficult. In recent years, Nigerian and non-Nigerian scientists and experts from different fields are increasingly focusing on the challenging and threatening projection that in the next 30 years, Nigeria will need to produce as much food as has been consumed over our entire human history. Growth generated by agriculture in Nigeria is believed to be effective in reducing poverty and mortality than GDP growth in other sectors because it is certain that increased GDP growth will bring food security and job opportunities to the country through a coordinated effort between the public and private sectors. However, the agricultural sector has suffered sustained neglect and as a result, Nigeria has gone from being an exporter of agricultural and food products to importers today.

Considering the increased level of poverty, malnutrition, hunger, unemployment and low level of agricultural productivity in Nigeria, Genetic modification (GM) technology has great potential to offer solutions.

Genetic modification technology, which is also known as genetic engineering, a method of modern biotechnology is the term given to the technology through which a gene from one organism is transferred to another. The inserted gene may be from the same species (transfer of a desirable gene from an organism of specie into another organism of same specie). This is called Cisgenics. The inserted gene can as well be from another species (transfer of a desirable gene from an organism of specie into another organism of different specie). This is called Transgenics. In some cases, an inserted gene may govern one particular trait, such as an organism’s resistance to disease or pest, while in other cases; many inserted genes may determine characteristics. It was the understanding of DNA that paved the way for the technology. The knowledge gained has allowed researchers to transfer genes between the cells of different organisms. In other words, agricultural modern biotechnology enables improvements that are not possible with traditional crossing of related plant species alone.

The modification in plant genes, through this genetic engineering, is of enormous advantage to all the stakeholders i.e. benefits the farmer, the consumer and the government. The genes are modified to introduce newer or improved desirable traits or even eliminate undesirable ones. Some of these traits include improved resistance to pest and diseases which eventually benefits the farmers through yield increase, improved adaptation to extreme environmental stress like drought and flooding conditions which promotes better crop protection and improved nutritive value which benefits the consumer through high nutritional enrichment. This success from farm to the consumer undoubtedly positively changes the economy of Nigeria through increased exportation, industrialization and food security.

The power of this modern breeding biotechnology is further augmented because biotechnologists can add a gene conveying useful characteristics from virtually any other organism, thus stressing the very real value of wild biodiversity and solidifying the arguments for its conservation. By contrast, conventional breeding can only use genes already existing in the crop variety of interest or in closely related, sexually compatible varieties. In other words, the truth about modern biotechnology in agriculture and its products is the opposite of what the public think. They are produced with methods that are more precise, predictable and controllable than historical methods long accepted as safe.

According to ISAAA 2016, planting of genetically modified crops has increased 100-fold from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 185.1 million hectares in 2016, planted by up to 17 to 18 million farmers making it the fastest adopted crop technology in recent times. This global adoption rate speaks for itself in terms of its sustainability, resilience and substantial benefits it delivers to both small and large-scale farmers as well as consumers. The most commercially available genetically modified crops in the world are Maize, Cotton, Soybean and Canola which are either engineered to be herbicide tolerant, insect resistant or both. Nigeria’s textile industry suffered a serious setback that affected the economy of Nigeria due to the severe attack of bollworm that reduces the yield of cotton production on the field. Today through genetic modification technology, genetically modified (GM) cotton that has an improved characteristic of resisting the attack of bollworm have been successfully developed and planted. This insect and pest attack is also likened to the low production of other cash crops that are used as both human and animal feed such as Maize and Soybean.  Commercialization of these crops in Nigeria will economically improve the GDP via improved textile using the GM cotton and the agricultural industry using GM maize, soybean etc. for food, feed and processing.

The Nigerian government has already taken care of the ill-fated public concerns of this technology like environmental concerns, human health concerns, socio-economic concerns, cultural issues, religious issues among others through the provision of a strong biosafety regulatory system. According to reports of Council on Science and Public health, there is no evidence to support the idea that the consumption of approved GM food has detrimental effect on human health. This is actually because of Biosafety regulation that comprehensively assesses the process and the products of the technology. This makes genetically modified products the most extensively regulated products all over the world. Biosafety regulation is intended to diminish or eradicate the possible harmful effects of modern biotechnology on the environment, biodiversity and human health using, policies, laws and guidelines. It also helps to determine in advance when hazards to human health and natural systems will result if any particular Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is released into the environment, anticipate when a given GMO or any of its product(s) will be harmful if it becomes part of human food, and detect whether a GMO will actually yield the benefits it was designed to provide.

Nigeria developed her biosafety system, which is consolidated legally through the assenting of the National Biosafety Management Agency Act, 2015 bill into law. This Act led to the establishment of the only competent Authority in Nigeria, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) that has the responsibility for providing regulatory framework for safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology and its products like GMOs with the view to preventing any adverse effects on human health, animals and the environment and as well as sustaining the biodiversity.

Indeed, considering the enormous economic importance of agricultural genetic modification technology in Nigeria and also bearing in mind the existence of a legally and technically equipped institution (National Biosafety Management Agency) that ensures the safety of the technology, Nigeria without doubt needs the full adoption of genetic modification technology.

This concludes my three series article on the release of the first food crop GMO developed in Nigeria for Nigerians and beyond.

        

First GMO in Nigeria: Commercial Release of Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea II

First GMO in Nigeria: Commercial Release of Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea II

As mentioned in the first part of this article, cowpea is a common crop in Nigeria, which is predominantly grown by smallholder farmers. The crop serves as a primary source of protein for both urban rich and rural poor Nigerians. With serious threat to food insecurity coupled with the results of the Fifth Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS5) recently released, the choice of cowpea for the development of first Nigerian GMO is certainly dexterous in our national effort to achieve food security. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) with technical and financial supports from International developmental Agencies conducted the fifth round MICS5 between 2016 and 2017. The survey result painted a bleak future the children in Nigeria. It showed high level of malnutrition among children under the age five nationwide with the highest concerns in northern states. Child wasting (children who are too thin for their age) increased from 24.2% to 31.5%, while child stunting (children who are too short for their age) increased from 34.8% to 43.6%. To address this serious national concern and reverse the problem, we must take measures to improve the availability and affordability of food crops with dense nutrition. Cowpea (popularly called beans) is the best choice food crop that meets these requirements.

With PBR cowpea, farmers will no longer need to use toxic chemicals on the production and preservation of cowpea, yield will increase, and more cowpea will be available for food to Nigerians and beyond. This is indubitably a highly commendable effort to IAR and her likable collaborators and supporters. While commending the developers of the first Nigerian GMO, it must be stated that GMO connotes dreadful fear to some people. Is GMO safe for human consumption? Is PBR cowpea safe to humanity?

Answer to the first question is emphatically affirmative: all scientific evidences show that GMO is safe for human consumption with strict adherence to biosafety measures during and after the research and development, there is nothing to fear. To answer the second question, I will present a response from an indefatigable scientist of biotechnology, Dr. Rose M. Gidado to an NGO allegation that PBR cowpea can cause cancer. This allegation came before the formal release of the cowpea. The title of response was “Why GM beans can’t cause cancer”, it is as follows:

Penultimate week, an NGO went to the press with the news that the yet to be released genetically modified cowpea developed by the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria will cause cancer among Nigerians.

Their conspiracy theory was targeted at discrediting the 10- year research work undertaken by scientists in one of Nigeria’s top universities.

Although the faces behind the NGO claimed to be scientists, their claims showed they lacked basic knowledge of biology making their claims and position not only faulty but lacking scientific basis.

Using common sense, one is even surprised that the NGO is shouting at roof- top when no one has been granted access to the beans to have cooked, eaten and found it to be cancerous.

Prof Ishiyaku Mohammed, a Professor of plant breeding who led the research pointed out clearly that the rules of substantial equivalence applied in the development of the Bt. Beans.

According to Mohammed, all the research efforts that went into the production of the Cowpea (Beans) was conducted by Nigerian scientists using tax payers money from the university, how then will they engineer a crop to kill Nigerians.

In food safety, the concept of substantial equivalence holds that the safety of a new food, particularly one that has been genetically modified, may be assessed by comparing it with a similar traditional food that has proven safe in normal use over time.

Substantial equivalence is a concept, first described in an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication in 1993, which stresses that an assessment of a novel food, in particular one that is genetically modified, should demonstrate that the food is as safe as its traditional counterpart.

The concept of substantial equivalence was developed proactively before any new genetically modified (GM) foods came to the market. It was first described in an OECD publication in 1992, produced by about 60 experts from 19 OECD countries, who spent more than two years discussing how to assess the safety of GM foods. Most of these experts, all nominated by governments, were regulatory scientists from government agencies and ministries responsible for consumer safety.

In 1996, participants at an expert World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization consultation recommended, “safety assessments based upon the concept of substantial equivalence be applied in establishing the safety of foods and food components derived from genetically modified organisms”. This represented an endorsement by experts based on three years' experience in the safety assessment of various GM foods.

According to Nature, an international journal of science, substantial equivalence is not a substitute for a safety assessment. It is a guiding principle, which is a useful tool for regulatory scientists engaged in safety assessments. It stresses that an assessment should show that a GM variety is as safe as its traditional counterparts. In this approach, differences may be identified for further scrutiny, which can involve nutritional, toxicological and immunological testing.

The approach allows regulators to focus on the differences in a new variety and therefore on safety concerns of critical importance. Biochemical and toxicological tests are certainly not precluded.

Since the concept of substantial equivalence was first described, several new foods have been assessed and knowledge has accumulated on how to use the concept. In parallel, the OECD, its governments and others have continued to review its adequacy in food safety assessment and to develop supporting tools.

The OECD's task force on the safety of novel foods and feeds, in particular, continues to focus on the application of the concept. This includes work on assessment methodologies when substantial equivalence cannot be applied, as well as efforts to identify the critical nutrients and toxicants found in major crop plants, as a focus for the demonstration of substantial equivalence.

In the case of the Bt. Cowpea developed in Nigeria by the IAR, Dr Francis Onyekachi, a plant breeder with the African Agricultural Technology Foundation put it mildly when he said that the only person that can differentiate the Bt. Cowpea from the ordinarily beans is the Maruca vitrata pest for which the beans was engineered to withstand.

“The modification carried out on the beans has nothing to do with its looks, taste, colour, size nor its nutritional composition.  The Cowpea was only conferred with the resistance to the Maruca pest,” he added.

Dr Theodore Akpa, a food scientist said that singling out the Bt. Cowpea, as a cancer-causing agent is the highest level of ignorance, aimed at purely spreading falsehood.

“We have to understand that just because it was modified does not change it from what it was originally,” Dr Akpa said.

 The development of the Bt. Cowpea (Beans), mainly to withstand the ravaging impact of Maruca, is a great feat on the part of Nigerian scientists and they should be celebrated rather than discrediting their 10-year effort to uplift Nigeria.

Chief Audu Ogbe, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said recently that Nigeria has become the dumping sites for finished goods and products from all part of the globe. He challenged Nigerian scientists to step up their game and turn around the tides and make Nigeria a proud leader in the global innovations and inventions.

Chief Ogbe lamented the situation that has turned Nigeria into a net importer of everything including toothpicks and said that with support and encouragement, Nigerian scientists can excel.

We should support our own and encourage them to do more rather than collect peanuts from foreign interest and run down genuine efforts capable of transforming our landscape for better.

Yes, we need to support this new innovation to address our food security challenges and make Nigeria achieve food security sooner than later.