Nigeria, Creativity in Nigerians and the Missing Link II

Nigeria, Creativity in Nigerians and the Missing Link II

The World Bank ranking of 157 countries in 2018 on human capital indicated Nigeria’s position at bottom with a score of 0.34 human capital index. At the top of the rankings were East Asian countries/territories, including Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, which scored 0.88, 0.84, 0.84 and 0.82 respectively. Low-income African countries made up the bottom of the rankings. The countries with rakings lower than Nigeria includes Chad (0.29) and South Sudan (0.30), as well as Niger, Mali and Liberia – the three scored 0.32 each. As Scary and gloomy as the Nigerian position shows, the worst on human capital was said by Mr. Bill Gate, the multi-billionaire business tycoon and co-owner of Microsoft when he visited Nigeria in 2018. Before the gathering of Nigerian leaders; President, ministers, governors and other high raking personalities on 22^nd March 2018, Mr. Gate was quoted telling his audience “In upper middle income countries, the average life expectancy is 75 years. In lower middle-income countries, it's 68. In low-income countries, it's 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still: just 53 years. Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth, with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world, ahead of only Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Chad. One out of three Nigerian children are chronically malnourished”. The World Bank result and Mr. Gate statement on human capital perfectly tallied and indicated Nigerian low “investment in health and education”.

While the result of the World Bank ranking of Nigeria human capital index among the 157 countries looks discouraging and dispiriting, the reality shows that several Nigerians are creating waves and excelling in several human endeavors globally.  This may not be unconnected with the large human resources that keep growing in the country. The relative few Nigerians with high human capital index are large enough to make the name of Nigeria rings bell in every continent. Perhaps, this may be the positive aspect of population explosion. These few Nigerians are endowed with creative capacities and innovative thinking and thus, impacting positively on the nation image home and abroad. What is the creativity in these few Nigerians?

Before then, it is important to point out that despite teething challenges to Nigerian development, these few Nigerians were among the several other Nigerians who have resilience and are determined to succeed. As confessed by Mr. Gate during his visit, “Nigerians are known around the world for their big dreams and big ambitions”. This is the stock that made these few Nigerians. They are very creative not only to survive the storms and turbulent waves to succeed but stand tall for others to watch with envy. Their success stories span all spheres of human endeavors; education, industries, academia, health, ICT and politics.

Let me start with politics, outside the shore of Nigeria, there are several Nigerians elected in USA, Europe, Canada, Asia etc as political office holders and being excellent ambassadors in diaspora. Who are these creative Nigerians in this category?  Leadership Friday edition of June 7^th, 2019 catalogued the profiles of these distinguished Nigerians and described them as Worthy Ambassadors that make the country proud.

In this category of elected Nigerians in the Diaspora, United Kingdom has the largest number of Nigerians. The Newspaper mentioned nine names of prominent Nigerians who are currently serving their various tenures, duly elected by people (Britons) as political office holders. The first name was that of Ernest Ezeajughi. He is the first Black Mayor of Brent, United Kingdom. Ezeajughi was elected Mayor on April 16, 2019 by the College of Councilors on Brent, London and was sworn into office on May 1^st, 2019. Another name was that of Chinyelu Susan Onwurah. Like Ezeajughi, she is also the first Black MP in Newcastle. She is a card-carrying member of a British Labour Party. She is holding two ministerial appointments; a Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, as well as Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. She has been holding the two positions since September 2015. Other Nigerians as British Members of Parliament are Chuka Umunna, Helen Grant, Abimbola Afolami, Kate Osamor and Kemi Badenoch. Another British MP is Olugbenga Babatola who made history as the first elected African mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, South-East London. Babatola was inaugurated into office as the first African Mayor of Greenwich on May 25, 2016. Earlier, in 2015, he was the first African elected as deputy Mayor and served alongside the then Mayor, Norman Adam. Again, another name worth mentioning is Kemi Badenoch, a London MP. She has been a member of the London Assembly since September 2015. She is the GLA Conservative’s spokesman for the Economy and also sits on the Transport Committee and Policing and Crime Committee. Kemi was a director at the Spectator Magazine. She was also an associate director at Coutts & Co. She won Saffron Walden with near 25,000 majority votes. These Nigerians distinguished themselves excellently in their chosen careers as community leaders, problem solvers and reliable citizens that made their new societies to handsomely reward them with position of leadership.  For instance, Helen Grant distinguished herself in sports that made her represent her schools and county in different sporting activities over several years. She was captain of her school/county’s tennis, hockey teams, athletics and Cross-country. After her series of elections she was eventually made a Minister for Sport and Tourism in 2013.

The largest concentration of elected Nigerians in United Kingdom is not surprising. Apart from the historical perspective of the two countries, Nigeria and UK, several Nigerians are annually being granted British citizenship and the right of abode in thousands. Records from archive of Home Office London shows significant annual increase from 3,550 Nigerians in 1998 to 6,955 in 2009 totaling over 50,000 Nigerians granted citizenship over a period of eleven years.  In addition to the United Kingdom, there are other prominent countries where Nigerians were equally elected to serve as political office holders.

 In Italy, Tony Iwobi is so far the first Senator of African origin elected in a white-man dominated country in 2018. Mr. Iwobi, a bona fide Italian citizen of Nigerian origin is the chief immigration spokesman for the far-right League Party. Iwobi joint a right-wing political party, Lega Nord. The party is accused of stirring up xenophobia against immigrants. He was elected in the industrial city of Brescia in northern Italy, a major immigration hub under the platform of his party. Earlier, he represented the Party as a municipal councilor in Spirano far back in the 1990s and was also elected a municipal councilor for the party in Spirano until 2014. Again, from 2010 to 2014 he also served as an assessor, an Italian term refers to a member of executive body in a region under a mayor.  He participated in the drafting of Lega Nord's new immigration policy, which has a hard stance against illegal immigration. Although Iwobi is an African but he is persistently against illegal immigration, his campaign slogan is #StopInvasion — a reference to the more than 690,000 migrants who have landed on Italian shores from North Africa since 2013. His belief, illegal immigration increases racism in Italy and thus he was quoted saying “There are two types of immigration, regular immigration, which is welcome and illegal immigration which is a crime everywhere except in Italy, why import new poor people without guaranteeing them a future”.  Iwobi, an Italian politician in his early 60s, was born in Nigeria. Hw came to Italy on a student visa over 40 years ago and married to an Italian lady. He was educated in Europe and USA and became a successful business mogul in IT.

Another spectacular example of a politically elected Nigerian outside Europe and US is that of Kelechi Madu who became a Canadian Member of Parliament.  Mr. Madu made history in Canada as he emerged to be the first Nigerian immigrant elected as a member of parliament in May 2019. Mr. Madu, in his mid 40s is a graduate of law from University of Lagos and sojourned to Canada 14 years ago. In addition to his legislative election representing Edmonton Southwest district, he was also sworn in as the Minister of Municipal Affairs of the Province of Alberta. Madu won his election in a keenly contested race, garnered 7,742 votes to beat other rivals: John Archer with 6,974 votes; Mo Elsalhy with 2,111 votes; Marilyn Burns with 178 votes and Rigel Vincent with 108. The list of Nigerians successfully holding political leadership abroad is inexhaustible.

Few other areas need mentioning to present the creativity in Nigerians are academia, inventions and business sector. (To be continued next week)

Celebrating the Invention of Koniku Kore

Updates on Nigerian born Inventors: Celebrating the Invention of Koniku Kore

In the last quarter of 2016 up to Friday, February 17, 2017, I published 5-series article titled “Nigerian Born Investors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities. In the article, I stated that the list of Nigerian inventors and their inventions couldn’t be 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. Ordinarily, Nigerians are naturally gifted with above average level of ingenuity, hard work and perseverance, when added to the prevailing difficult situation of their environment; the result is multitude of inventors. Invention is about coming up with a great idea, about turning the idea into a product, about making the product workable and making people to be aware about the workable product. The product should not only be acceptable by the people but should be sellable to recoup the cost of putting it on the market with a huge profit margin. Nigerian inventors have shown many workable products without moving to the next level of making people to be aware of their products. They are yet to make their products sellable, needless of making profit.  Invention is a difficult process, a time consuming event and often challenging and exhaustive to the inventors. Many inventors are disappointed after struggling for years with ideas they couldn't make to work. Today, some inventors have abandoned their great ideas out of frustration.

My previous on this subject article brought out the potential of Nigeria to lead the African continent in technological breakthroughs with her uncountable born inventors at home and abroad. In these inventors, lie the 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 abandoned water, without cultivation, weeds and dangerous reptiles will cover the farm, which must be avoided.

The article can be accessed: . In the last two years, what are the updates on Nigerian born inventors, their inventions, opportunities and challenges?

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?tab=mj&blogID=4040876004067686701#editor/target=post;postID=8465991191574425538;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=81;src=postname

There are several inventions made by Nigerians at home and abroad. Some of the inventions have been in existence longtime ago but are recently coming to lime light while few others were newly made. In the last two years, one invention that came to limelight, capable of making the seemingly ‘impossible’ possible in the global technological revolution is KONIKU KORE.

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. The technology is also opened to a community of developers, with the potential to create add-ons. This means that the device, in addition its primary functions will serve as a platform for other application developers to use. Koninku Kore is an application for real-world issues such as detecting illness and terrorism threats and it offers a glimpse into how biology can be integrated into technology, and ultimately how the human brain can help technological advancements.

The Koniku Kore technology attracted media blitz with BBC and CNN leading in “breaking the news” during TEDGlobal Conference in August 2017 in Tanzania. The world is amazingly seeing a technology, which has created computer with artificial intelligence modeled on the exactness of the human brain. Whereas computer is better than human brain at complex mathematical equations, there are many cognitive functions where the brain is much better. Thus, making a computer to recognize smells would require colossal amounts of computational power, energy and high intellectual thinking. 

Koniku Kore is an amalgam of living neurons and silicon, with olfactory capabilities — basically sensors that can detect and recognize smells. The Nigerian born inventor, Oshi Agabi proclaimed before the international journalists at the conference, "You can give the neurons instructions about what to do - in our case we tell it to provide a receptor that can detect explosives." He envisages a future where such devices can be discreetly used at various points in airports, eliminating the need for queues to get through airport security. Instead of joining line for endless search at the airports, people will just be allowed to pass while the neurons-silicon computer clear or unclear them through smell. The same computer can be used for bomb detection.

Oshi Agabi said: "We merged synthetic neurobiology with traditional silicon technology with the goal of fixing urgent real world problems." Adding that the “technology could one day revolutionize airport security, enabling travelers to walk from their car directly to the aircraft." This will certainly address "One of the problems that plagues us right now is security,"

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Agabi said “Explosives have particles and smells coming off the individual and with our device you can tell, without requiring line of sight or contact, you can scan them at the time at a place of your own choosing and you can get into an aircraft and go about your business."

Additionally, Koniku Kore could be used to detect illness by sensing markers of a disease in the air molecules that a patient gives off. The invention could also be used to sniff out illnesses in the same way dogs can detect cancerous cells via smells. "In the same way that a dog is able to detect if someone has prostate cancer, the real question we ask is 'how does a dog do it?' We can clone that process on our chip, so yes in the same way that a dog can detect diseases or explosives at an airport, it's a sensory system, that is essentially what we recreate in our chip," Agabi says.

 Koniku Kore is a major indicator expressing advances in neuroscience; bioengineering and computer science, bringing out in-depth knowledge on how the human brain works allowing the scientists mimic brain system.  This advancement fuels the development of neuro-technology - devices that aim to mold the brain into computers. Before this invention, much of the current work was aimed at improving brain function, particularly for those with brain-related injuries or diseases.

Koniku means 'immortal' in the Yoruba language, one of the three most populous languages in Nigeria. The Koniku project started in 2015 and has already raised $8 million in revenue in 2017 as reported during the unveil of the project by its founder Agabi who stated that “we believe quite strongly that it's going to be run with biological brains that are made with synthetic biological neurons. That is the declared intention of our company: to build a brain."

Addressing ethical concerns and implications of creating humanoid devices, Agabi says: "I think it's unethical not to deploy any resources we have to fight terrorism. It is the urgent problem that we face as a species", adding, "That's not to say that we shouldn't be careful of bio-integrity".

Oshi Agabi was born and grew up in the suburb of Surulere in Lagos, Nigeria and obtained a Bachelors degree in Physics from University of Lagos. He went on to do further studies in physics and neuroscience in Sweden and Switzerland.

"One of the things growing up in Lagos imparts in you is grit," he says. "Lagos is a place that demands grit. Growing up there gave me an unconventional way of always looking at problems."

The world has to celebrate Koniku technology that aims to address two critical human challenges: security and cancer, a terminal disease by creating a device capable of detecting explosives and cancer cells. The inventions, like several other inventions made by Nigerians abroad, the Jelanis, Mohammed Bah Abbas and others are image booster for the country and the authority should provide unflinching support to these inventions.

Nigeria, Creativity in Nigerians and the Missing Link

Nigeria, Creativity in Nigerians and the Missing Link

Nigeria is stupendously blessed with both human and natural resources making other countries grin with envy.  Nigeria is richly endowed with a variety of Natural Resources raging from precious metals and various industrial stones such as Barites, Gypsum, Kaolin and Marble. Each of the 36 sates and FCT has several mineral resources needing to be tapped. For instance, Kaduna has over ten mineral resources such as Amethyst, Aqua Marine, Asbestos, Clay, Flosper, Gemstone, Gold, Graphite, Kaolin, Hyanite, Mica, Rock Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Sihnite, Superntinite, Tentalime, Topaz & Tourmaline. Other states like Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau, Sokoto, Edo, Imo, Zamfara and Katsina states have varieties of mineral resources similar to those in Kaduna State. In fact, each of the 36 states in Nigeria has a minimum of three mineral resources in appreciable quantity waiting for exploitation. Each of these mineral resources is reported to be in large quantity spread over large area. For instance, there are about 3 billon tons of iron ore deposits in Kogi, Niger states and FCT, 10 million tons of zinc/lead in Abuja, Kano and Cross River. There are over 2 million tons of rock salts and over 3 billion tons of coal deposits in Plateau, Enugu and Anambra states. Large quantity of gold is found in Zamfara, Sokoto, Oyo, Niger, Kwara and Kebbi states among others. These mineral resources provide tremendous investment opportunities for economic growth and nation building. If tapped, the country could be Eldorado.  

In addition to mineral resources, there are other natural resources such as water and land resources. Nigeria has seven distinct climate zones, which provide average annual rainfall ranging from 700 mm in the far north (Sahel savannah) to 4,000 mm in riverine and mountainous areas in the south. Rainfall provides billions liters of water annually in addition to several other billions liters of water from River Niger. The river passes through the country and drains an average discharge of 5,589 m³/s into Atlantic Ocean. River Niger with a length of 4,180 Km and drainage basin area of 2.1 million Km² is the third largest river in Africa after River Nile and Zaire.  River Niger has six major perennial rivers as tributaries crisscrossing the length and breath of Nigeria making it the most endowed country with unlimited water resources available for development.    

Land resources are similarly in abundance in Nigeria. The country has 91 million hectares of arable land with merely 50 % utilization despite the quantum of water resources, soil fertility, favorable topography and climates. Land and water resources are certainly important natural resources available for exploitation to develop the agricultural sector. Among the major minerals in Nigeria, the two most important and dependable resources are oil and gas as they constitute 90 percent of foreign exchange earning with all other economic contributors making the 10 percent. Oil also contributes about 70 percent of annual income to the three tiers of governments (Federal, States and LGAs).

Nigeria is the largest oil producing country in Africa. Experts have estimated that Nigerian oil and gas reserves are 23 billion barrels of crude oil and 160 trillion cubic meters of gas www.nigeria.gov.ng. The major part of oil deposits is situated in the Delta basin in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers states. The deposits are multi-layered. The depth of productive layers on land is between 1500 and 2000 m while on the shelf is between 2500 and 3600 m. However, when the areas are multi-layer, the depth of productive strata on land is between1500 and 2000 m while on the shelf is between 2500 and 3600 m. Many oil deposits in Nigeria have gas caps. The quality of Nigerian oil is of high grade with low-sulfur and high paraffin content. The Nigerian oil is attractive at the International market because of its quality; its gravity is 36 API for light types and 20-23 API for medium and heavy types. Despite oil massive contribution to the foreign exchange earning, it nevertheless contributes a mere 9 percent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP).

The analysis on the mineral resources in Nigeria indicates the level of underdevelopment of the resources with exception of oil, the highly dynamic and unpredictable economic sector. This means that with the exception of oil, other natural resources are mere potentials and not yet transform to reality that can propel the development of the nation economy. Potentials are like fertile land with adequate water for both crops and livestock productions left unattended and become vulnerable to infestation by dangerous reptiles. In any community or society, human resources are the driver of transformation of potentials into tangible reality. How capable are human resources in Nigeria to transform these potentials? What is the demography in Nigeria and its adequacy to meet the developmental challenges?

In 2015, population estimate for Nigeria was 186,988,000 with male population of 95,253,000 and female population of 91,734,000 and population density of 201.3 per square kilometer. Today, Nigerian population is estimated to be 201,102,939 making the country to be the 7^th most populous country in the world. The six countries with more population than Nigeria are China, India, USA, Pakistan, Indonesia and Brazil.  At the time of the Nigerian independence in 1960, the country recorded a total population of 45.2 million people and then Nigeria was 13^th most populous country in the world. With average population growth rate of 2.533 percent from 1960 to date, Nigeria moved upward to occupy the 7^th position and is still moving with this (2019) year’s growth rate of 2.6 percent. This growth rate is higher than growth rates for Pakistan 1.88%, Brazil 0.72%, Indonesia 1.03% and USA 0.71%. From 1960 to 2019, Nigerian population was increased by 444%. Today, Nigerian population is equivalent to 2.6% of the total world population meaning that one person out of 39 people in the World is a Nigerian. In the next thirty years, Nigeria will have an estimated population of 450 million people and will occupy the 3^rd position of the top most populous country in the World after India and China. Interestingly, more than 60 percent of Nigerian population is under the age of 24 years. The rate of population growth in Nigeria is “one birth in every four seconds and one death in every fourteen seconds”. This demographic analysis clearly shows that Nigeria is tremendously endowed with human resources. How qualitative are the human resources?

The major qualitative indicator of human resources in any society is the level of her human capital, what is the level of human capital in Nigeria? Human capital refers to the stockpile of competencies, skills, knowledge and personalities attribute embodied in individuals.  These attributes are responsible for the creation of qualitative labor force with appreciable economic, social and personal values. Labor is the most important factors of production. Human capital is therefore a primary factor, which converts all resources for the use and benefits of mankind and nation development. World Bank defines human capital as “the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives”. How is human capital developed? Human capital is developed by massive public and private investments in health and education of the young people. Human capital is evaluated using five indicators periodically. The indicators are “child survival, school enrollment, quality of learning, healthy growth and adult survival”. Nigerian human capital index in 2018 was averaged 0.34 as reported by World Bank (https://www.undispatch.com/chart-of-the-day-the-world-bank-ranks-each-county-based-on-its-human-capital/). This means that the earning potential of Nigerian youngest generation over their lifetime is only 34 percent of what it could be with complete education and good health. In other words, the country is losing 66 percent of its productivity by not fully investing in human capital. While the result of the World Bank ranking of Nigeria human capital index among the 157 countries looks discouraging, dispiriting and gloomy, the reality shows that several Nigerians are creating waves and excelling in several human endeavors globally.  This may not be unconnected with the large human resources that keep growing in the country. The relative few Nigerians with high human capital index are large enough to make the name of Nigeria rings bell in every continent in the World. Perhaps this may be the positive aspect of population explosion. These few Nigerians are endowed with creative capacities and innovative thinking and thus, impacting positively on the nation image home and abroad. What is the creativity in these few Nigerians? What is the missing link between these Nigerians and Nigeria? (To be continued next week)