Readers' Comments on Educational Feats Of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food For Thought

Reactions to my 3-series article on the "Educational Feats of Nigeria in Diaspora" are not going away. The issues discussed in the article were challenges on Nigerian educational system. The reactions show  the sensitivity of education in the mind of Nigerians. The system has a sarcastic outcome and this was satirically captured by one of respected elites as reported in a social media. He was quoted saying  "Nigerian educational system has surprising outcomes. The smartest students pass with First Class and get admitted to Medical and Engineering Schools. The Second Class students get MBAs and LLBs to manage the First Class students. The Third Class students enter politics and rule both the First and Second Class students. The Failures enter the Underworld of crime and control the politicians and businesses. And best of all, those who did not attend school become Prophets and Imams and everyone follows them. What a paradox of life. This can only happen in Nigeria where corruption is the order of the day." Well, well, this is why I think no time or space is too much for us to deliberate on our educational system. The discussion may give us lessons, direction and perhaps, may lead us to find the solutions to the decay of the system. Happy reading

Educational Feats of Nigeria in Diaspora: Food for Thoughts

Dear Dr. Othman,

Thanks for your article published on Friday, 17th June, 2016. the article is timely and very relevant to the current deterioration of the educational situation in the country. The situation requires present administration to create favorable learning environment by providing modern learning facilities, good motivation and right leadership in our institutions (primary, secondary and tertiary). Kudos to Governor of Kaduna State Malam El-rufai towards this direction. We heard him sending thirty female students to study medicine in Uganda and recently planning to send one hundred and fifty male students to study medicine and other science courses in Cuba and Germany. That is an example of right and good leadership.

 Engr. Adamu Arab, Ph.D Fellow and Extension Specialist, NAERLS, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Dear M. K. Othman

Thanks for your highly informative article on the  "Educational Feats of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food for Thoughts" published in Leadership Friday. To buttress the problems you highlighted in the 3-series article, I have come across the global ranking of university and it  so  sad that no Nigerian University or higher institutions of learning made it in the list of 2016 top 1000 Universities in the World. This is the result of near total collapse of the Nigerian education system.  Permit me to share this information released by Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR).

The CWUR has released its 2016 Top 1000 Universities in the world and placed Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in the United States, in the top three positions, respectively. The University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, both in United Kingdom, came 4th and 5th respectively, as University of Witwatersand, South Africa (176th) ranked first in Africa. Others were University of Cape Town (265th), Stellenbosch University (329th), University of KwaZulu-Natal (468th) and the University of Pretoria (697th), all in South Africa, and Makerere University in Uganda also clinched the 846th position in the ranking. Four Egyptian Universities also represented Africa on the list, they are: Cairo University (771st), Ain Shams University (960th), Mansoura University (985th), and Alexandria University (995th). According to CWUR website, there are eight objective and robust indicators to rank the world’s top 1000 universities. The indicators are:

1. Quality of Education: measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals relative to the university’s size (25%)

2. Alumni Employment, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have held CEO positions at the world’s top companies relative to the university’s size (25%)

3. Quality of Faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals (25%)

4. Publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in reputable journals (5%)

5. Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (5%)

6. Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers (5%)

7. Broad Impact, measured by the university’s h-index (5%)

8. Patents, measured by the number of international patent filings (5%)

As Nigerians,  we must wake up and accord the university education the attention and actions it deserves. This is a clarion call to all the stakeholders to do the needful

Prof. C. K. Daudu, ABU Zaria

Dear M. K. Othman

I have read through your Leadership Friday Column - Breakthrough - of June 17 through to July 1, which featured the Educational Feats Of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food For Thought series. I am sure the readers of your column would have found them very exciting, refreshing and even inspiring for young readers especially high-leavers, undergrads and  other students in our higher institutions of learning.
You have also tried making a review of some of the factors weighing heavily against our general educational development but specifically the problems with higher education in Nigeria, some of which were thoroughly dissected in the Needs Assessment document.

It's heart-warming to note that there are people like you out there spreading the gospel. This is because the future of higher education in our country is certainly most dependent on the amount of healthy interest generated amongst, and shown to it by, the public, a task which the Academic Staff Union of Universities had been undertaking through all means at its command. This includes, sadly, when it's has to, by resorting to industrial actions, to brutally and painfully drive home the message. I dare say here, that without the decades long struggles of the Academic community there wouldn't have been any public university system functional in the country!

Keep up the good work! With regards,

Almustapha, L. (PhD)

Industrial actions, strikes, these are words many of us don't like hearing but they are "necessary evils", without them (decades of long struggle), the public universities in Nigeria would have been history. One unique characteristics of ASUU struggle is that, ASUU gives enough time, chance and warning to government to respond before embarking on the industrial action. In fact, all avenues to avoid industrial actions have to be exhausted before ASUU embarks on strike as the last resort. For instance, this year, 2016, ASUU has been calling on government to act on the myriad of issues concerning FGN-ASUU 2009 agreement and 2013 MoU without much success. The last call came through a Press Conference on 18th July, 2016 at Labour House, Abuja. In  the document presented at the Press Conference, ASUU itemized the issues concerning FGN-ASUU 2009 agreement, 2013 MoU and actions to avert industrial crisis in the university system.   ASUU stated "Comrades and compatriots, our Union is seriously worried about number of issues emanating from 2009 Agreement and subsequently, the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding with Federal Government, which remained unaddressed". The issues raised were germane but top among them were "Earned Academic Allowances and Funding of universities". On the Earned Academic Allowances, the amount required to address the issue is approximately N128 billion and government has not made additional payment after the initial amount of N30 billion made in 2013 against the pledge to pay up before 2015. On funding, ASUU asserted "all Nigerian universities are in a state of serious funding crisis, which is becoming worse by the day.....although, the Federal government promised to implement the MoU and will increase the budgetary allocation progressively towards 26% as recommended by UNESCO, this promise has not been translated into action. Rather, budgetary allocation to education dropped from 12% to 11% and 8% in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively".

It is apparent that the Federal Government is in tight corner on the way to address these challenges. It is an open secret that Nigeria is in economic recession with dwindling income from sales of crude oil, the mainstay of the economy. The price oil has drastically reduced at the international market. Similarly, The Nigerian oil production has reduced compared to what Nigeria was producing a year ago. However, there is a great chance to avert the looming crisis. As a matter of urgency, President Muhammadu Buhari can invite ASUU to a meeting for a way forward. ASUU leadership, being the intellectuals of our society can certainly understand Nigerian precarious  economic and political situations; and can proffer solution. All the past three Nigerian Presidents met with ASUU at different times when ASUU was already on strike and there was a stalemate with negotiating team. That was how the strikes were suspended but we don't have to wait for the strike to resume, it will be expensive for the system. It is better to act now than latter.

M. K. Othman   

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Nigerian born Inventors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities II

Nigerian born Inventors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities II

Few of the Nigerian born inventors and their inventions were presented in last week article. Others inventors whose names ring bell  are Shehu Saleh Balami, Ume Ifeanyi Charles and Prof Bartholomew Nnaji.

 Shehu Sale Balami is a Nigerian Engineer who has been involved in designing of rockets. He is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Niger  State. He invented two solid-fuel rockets which were launched in Kaduna. In 2008, he built his first rocket which was modified in 2011. The solid-fuel rocket was produced under the auspices of the Movement for the Propagation of Science and Technology in Nigeria. He produced the two rockets with 100 per cent locally sourced materials at an approximate cost of 30,000 Naira each. With this development, many Nigerians believe that Nigeria can build its own satellites, as well as the space ships that will propel them into space.

Ume Ifeanyi Charles is another inventor of refute. Charles  is a Nigerian, American based credited with five famous inventions. There are:

ü  Method and Apparatus for Measuring Thermally Induced Warpage in Printed Wiring Boards Using Shadow Moir,  which was patented in USA with United States Patent No. 5601364, Feb. 11,1997;

ü  Method and Apparatus for Measuring Thermal Warpage Using Projection Moir,  patented in USA with United States Patent No. 6564166 B1, May 13, 2003;

ü  Object Inspection Method and System,  equally patented in USA with United States Patent No. 6747268, June 8, 2004;

ü  Inspection System and Methods, United States Patent No. 7492449,February 17, 2009;

ü  Ultrasound Systems and Method for Measuring Weld Penetration Depth in Real Time and Off Line, United States Patent No. 7762136, July 27, 2010.

Thus, all the five inventions  were patented at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Charles is a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. He is a recipient of the Donald P. Eckman Education Award in recognition of his contributions towards education of mechatronics throughout the world. In 2010, he was also awarded the Electronics and Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD) Excellence in Mechanics Award.

Prof Bartholomew Nnaji was one of the Presidential aspirants from Enugu state. He was a onetime Minister of Power of the Federal republic of Nigeria. He holds a Doctorate degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the United States. As a hardworking and dedicated researcher, he focused on; Computer Aided Design, Robotics and Computer Aided Engineering. Using the knowledge he gained from his research pursuits, he created the term Geometric reasoning, the concept that most things that are operated has a geometric configuration. He is also credited as one of the innovators of the E-design concept. He is also the founder of the first indigenous owned power generating company in Nigeria and was also a onetime minister for Science and Technology in Nigeria.

Few other inventors whose works are internationally acknowledged can still be mentioned. In this category, we have Cyprian Emeka Uzoh. He holds more than 126 United States issued patents and over 160 patents worldwide in semiconductor technology, including U.S. Patent No. 6709562, “method of making electroplated interconnection structures on integrated circuit chips”. This spectacular feat earned him the inventor of the year award in 2006 from the New York Intellectual Property Association. Yet another Nigerian born inventor is Brino Gilbert. He is acknowledged to be the inventor of the "Counter Collision Gadget (CCG)". CCG is device with the capacity to prevent accidents on the road, air, sea and rail. The invention earned him many awards including a bronze medal in the Aerospace/Aeronautics category at the May 2003 edition of the Invention and New Product Exposition (INPEX) in the United States. He also received a silver medal in the manufacturing category and a trophy for being the best invention from Africa in the continental category. His vision is to make CCG exportable to many countries of the world.

An earlier article in this Column under the title "Educational Feats of Nigerians in Diaspora: Food for Thoughts", many Nigerians who were reported to excel in the academia abroad fall in this category of Nigerian born inventors. Among them was Prof. Philip Emeagwali, an international inventor and scientist. He lives in the United States for many years. In 1989,  Emeagwali won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize ($10,000) for price-performance in high-performance computing applications, in an oil reservoir modelling calculation using a novel mathematical formulation and implementation. The Gordon Bell Prize is an award presented by the Association for Computing Machinery each year in conjunction with the Supercomputing Conference (SC) Conference series. The prize recognizes outstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications. The application used computational fluid dynamics for oil-reservoir modelling. Another inventor whose extraordinary success was reported in the article was Jelani Aliyu, a Nigerian from Sokoto state living in USA. He is the celebrated car designer of General Motors. General Motors is refuted to be the world’s largest automobile maker.  Jelani Aliyu is the designer of the Chevy Volt, a car recognized 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. In the end, Jelani's design was chosen as the best design" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqx-xKGeDCA). The car, Chevy Volt designed by Jelani was powerful, efficient, aggressive and unique compared to other cars in same class. Jelani, himself made a confession that he was inspired by "nature, ....a slick aggression of a cheetah" - powerful, smooth and aggressive move, direct to the target, "a practical solution to technological balance of beauty, efficiency and excitement at the same time".

In recent time (2016), BBC reported the invention of a Nigerian "tractor", designed and built in Nigeria by one Engineer, Timothy Addigi Terfa. Engr Terfa called his tractor "Ijodo", which means labour in his Tiv native language. He explained his motivation to manufacture the tractor. He wanted to increase agricultural productivity in Nigeria by reducing the drudgery, make farming a lot easier with machine and creating massive employment.  In a similar effort, National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM), Ilorin developed a "trike-tor". The trike-tor is a 3 wheeled and 30 horse power mini-tractor that was developed from the concept of a motorcycle. It was designed to carry out similar duties as that of a conventional tractor but at smaller scale.

To conclude on the inventors and their inventions; I have to mention the recent News report from THISDAY on the "Amphibian jet car" invented by a young talented Kehinde Obasanjo who was spotted in a busy Ahmadu Bello Way, Ikeja, Lagos touching, test-running, admiring and guiding jealously his brainchild, a prototype multi-purpose amphibian jet car. His aim is to be the first Nigerian manufacturer of amphibian jet to carry out multi-purpose functions and this he has set in motion. Obasanjo told THISDAY “This is called ‘amphibian jet car’. I built it here in Nigeria. It is designed to move on land, on sea and to fly in the air. Out of the three operations it is supposed to carry out, I’ve achieved two; this one you are seeing here moves on land and on sea. It moves on the sea with a flying engine. I’m yet to complete it so that it can be carrying out all the three operations,” Finally, Ibrahim Adekunle, a "semi-illiterate" inventor as  he never went to Secondary School, not to mention higher institution of learning like university. he invented “Limousine Tricycle” was one of the five selected inventions on the BBC’s coverage of the Maker Faire Africa, an exhibition for inventors which took place in Lagos. As reported in THISDAY, Limousine Tricycle was built after cutting a normal tricycle into two and adding more seats and parts in between the cuttings.

There are many other small scale inventions scattered across the nation. All the inventions are targeted at developing the Nigerian economy, increase productivity and elevate Nigeria to a greater height. Despite these concerted efforts of first class minds among our compatriots, Nigeria seems to be moving at a snail speed towards technological revolution. What are the challenges? They are insufficient recognition, lack of support from government, other stakeholders, lack of synergy, and many others. Nigeria must invest heavily in science and technology. All the science technology agencies created to explore and exploit the national potential for technological revolution must be empowered to discharge their responsibilities. Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind with its pool of inventors, scientists and first class craft men and women. (Concluded) 

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Nigerian born Inventors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities

Nigerian born Inventors, their Inventions, Challenges and Opportunities

"Necessity is the mother of invention" is a popular adage used for describing the resultant effect of a difficult situation. Nigerian situation has been difficult for quite some years now and the positive outcomes of this rather unpalatable condition are the creativity, ingenuity and invention brought out by Nigerians to survive the condition. Ordinarily, Nigerians are gifted with above average level of ingenuity, hard work and perseverance, when added to the prevailing difficult situation the result is multitude of inventors. Thus, in the last 10 years, Nigeria has produced more than 100 inventors of all kind of devices with recognition from local to international level,

Invention is a creative process. It is certainly a vocation of first class mind, a product of imagination that allows one to see beyond what is known and norms. Seeing a new possibility, connection, or relationship can often spark up the process of invention. As written in Wikipedia "Inventive thinking frequently involves combining concepts or elements from different realms that would not normally be put together". Sometimes inventors disregard the boundaries between distinctly separate territories or fields. Several concepts may be considered when thinking about invention; re-envision, insight, exploration and improvement are few of such concepts bogging down the mind of inventor for successful invention. Generally, from the earliest stone tools of the Paleolithic era to the 21^st century with its latest digital advances, human inventions have shaped civilizations and transformed life on earth. The world of invention is dynamic; expectations and capabilities evolve with every step forward, and each new generation brings its own set of innovative thinkers. Nigeria, with an estimated population of 185 million people is blessed with innovative brains and creative minds among both the educated and non - formal educated people across the nation. Who are these inventors and what have they invented for us to recognize them?

Nigerian inventors have made impacts on all spheres of human endeavors and this column cannot list all the inventors and x-ray their inventions. However, few of the celebrated ones are catalogued in this article for inspiration to the young ones and analyzing the opportunities presented by each invention.  

Let me start with a young Nigerian inventor, a 24-year-old senior secondary school graduate, Emmanuel Okekunle from Jos. His full story is published in www.Naij.com. Mr. Okekunle  graduated from Cherubin and Seraphim College, Jos, Plateau State, in 2010. At the age of 5, he became interested in designing and constructing things and constructed a wheelbarrow to help him carry up to five litres of water. At 7, he started developing electric toy cars using motors, batteries and tomato tins. In JSS1, he designed a toy helicopter. In SS2, encouraged by a teacher who told his students their inventions could secure them a scholarship, he constructed a rechargeable lamp, fan, emergency alarm, electric waste bin that converts waste to ashes, and an aquarium, among other things. He sees his ability to design things as a natural talent. At first, he says, his parents did not appreciate what he was doing, as he would bring all kinds of ‘useful’ garbage home. However, when they saw their son’s achievements, they began to encourage and support him. NTA, Jos, gave publicity to the inventions made by Okekunle through the national network. Nigerian Society of Engineers, Jos branch, at one time invited him to inspect his works. However, not much was achieved as these inventions bore no "engineering design". Okekunle was not discouraged by engineers' assessment, he participated in NTA science exhibition. He worked on a methane digester and was able to use it to produce bio-gas. He represented Plateau State in Abuja at a science and technology exhibition with his apparatus.

The next Nigerian inventor is Saheed Adepoju,  the Co-founder of Encipher Limited, a Nigerian-based technology company that introduced the first android-powered tablet into Nigeria. The INYE-1 was unveiled in April 2010. It is a 7-inch resistive screen tablet, which runs android 2.1 and allows users to connect to the internet using its inbuilt Wi-Fi card and to use an external 3G modem from GSM networks. It offers about 3 hours of battery life and allows HDMI output to HDMI capable devices. He also invented INYE-2, unveiled, a year after the launching of INYE-1. INYE-2 is an 8-inch capacitive screen tablet. It runs Android 2.2 and allows users to connect to the internet using its inbuilt Wi-Fi card as well as its inbuilt SIM. It offers about 8 hours of battery life and allows users to connect to other USB devices

The third in the series is Seyi Oyesola, a trained medical doctor who invented CompactOR, popularly known as “Hospital in a Box”, a solar-powered life-saving operating room which can be transported to remote areas of Africa and set up within minutes. It is a portable medical system that contains anesthetic and surgical equipment. One major advantage of this invention is that the operating suite is light enough to be dropped into inaccessible zones by helicopter and it can be powered by solar panels. Dr. Seyi is a Nigerian trained doctor and a Worldwide acknowledged inventor. He received his basic science and medical education at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He undergone a specialist training in Anesthesia and Critical Care in the United Kingdom and United States.

The next inventor is Col. Oviemo Ovadje (Rtd), he is a Nigerian medical Doctor who is credited with the invention of the Emergency Auto Transfusion System (EAT-SET), which is an effective, low-cost and affordable blood auto-transfusion mechanism that saves patients especially in developing countries. By 2013, He had patented the invention in nine countries. Oviemo was born in Nigeria and hails from Delta State. He began working on the invention in 1989 with $120 dollars. In 1995, he was declared best African scientist and founded EATSET Industries, in April 2001. The United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the government of Nigeria funded the EAT-SET Project, with the World Health Organization (WHO) acting as the executing agency and providing assistance in the coordination of the project. Col Ovadje had received many international awards including:

*.OAU-WIPO Best African Scientist Gold Medal, Geneva Switzerland (1995);

*.Winner Promex Medal Geneva, Switzerland (1998);

*.First African Winner World Health Organisation Sasakawa Gold Medal, Geneva, Switzerland, (2000);

*.Winner ARCO Gold Medal, The Dorchester, UK, (2001);

*.Winner Army Council Medal, Nigeria Army, Army Head Quarters, Abuja, Nigeria.

Another inventor is Professor Kunle Olukotun. He is well known for leading the Stanford Hydra research project, which developed one of the first chip multiprocessors with support for thread-level speculation (TLS). Kunle is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University. He is a PhD graduate of Computer Engineering from The University of Michigan. He is the founder of Afara Websystems (later acquired by Sun Microsystems), a company that builds servers surrounding a custom high-throughput CPU architecture and develops IP traffic management systems for high-throughput, low power server systems with chip multiprocessor technology. Prof. Kunle, a hardworking Nigerian is no doubt an international inventor of high refute.

The next inventor is Mohammed Bah Abbah who invented an indigenous technology very useful for rural areas. He invented the “pot-in-pot refrigerator” or “zeer”, a refrigerating device that does not use electricity, It is most suitable for people in rural areas, who want have cold water during hot season. He won a Rolex Award for Enterprise, an award that provided $75,000 which Mohammed used to produce and distribute his inventions in 11 northern states in Nigeria. The pot-in-pot refrigerator was developed by Mohammed by combining the knowledge he had gained from his grandmother’s craft of traditional pottery with simple laws of physics. He followed up on the idea by placing food in a small pot, which is then placed in a larger pot. The space between the two is filled with moist sand and a wet cloth cover is used to cover the whole set up. As the water in the moist sand evaporates through the larger pot, it carries heat away from the inner core of the whole set up. It follows a simple engineering principle of cooling by evaporating. This simple but very useful invention was popularized by the inventor himself. He set up of a local production facilities to provide the pot-in-pot at the cost of $2 (N700) for the smaller pot-in-pot refrigerator and $4 (N1,300) for the bigger pot. The invention allows perishable food to extend their shelf lives. For instance, meat can be stored in it for up to two weeks instead of a few hours in an open tray. (To be Continued)