Nigeria at 66: Celebrating our scholastic heroes

In a nation where countless the long-suffering people keep stewing in the pitiable pit of avoidable hardship, from one administration to another, gotten worse by an inefficient political structure that favours the rotten, abundant political leaders who wish to be praised, feared and worshipped, it is certainly time to alter the story. Oh yes, since we can not be clapping for those who keep pauperising the people with anti-people financial policies.

This time around, the idea needs to alter, in favour of academic community; more so, the superior innovators, creators and developers, whose life-altering items of their uncommon, imaginative resourcefulness are improving the world we reside in. A lot of them are out there fixing myriad difficulties in security, the economy, health care shipment, education, farming facilities, and the show business around the world. They are our beacon-bearers, the path-finders, revealing us the method forward out of the dark and tough forests of lack of knowledge, penury, and mass anguish. Why, you may be asking? The response is not improbable.

The reality that 133 million Nigerians are still coping painful cravings, specifically in a generously blessed nation with various mineral resources, oil and gas, huge farming and tourist capacities, shows one considerable truth. Which is the repeating failure of our policymakers to have actually blatantly declined to make the very best usage of our finest brains– both within and outside the nation.

Let me humbly start with an individual experience. As the smart ones state, “charity starts in your home.” In between 1976 and 1981, yours really was the Senior Science instructor at Government Secondary School, Agbamu, in Kwara State. Regardless of the concentrate on mentor Biology, Physics and Fine Art when there were insufficient instructors to teach such topics, I presented the “New Enlightened Writers Society”(NEWS). That remained in 1980 to motivate both the science and arts trainees to imbibe the tenets of innovative writing and refine their skills in the writing of poems, narratives, plays and books.

Surprisingly, some 44 years later on, specifically in 2024 among the members of that club, now Dr. Guanah Jammy Seigha called me on phone, wishing to consult with me where I live in Lagos state. He was emphatic on concerning value me as one of his heroes whose play entitled: “Saints and Sinners” composed in 1980 and served as the end-of-the-year drama influenced him to pick his profession worldwide of theatre arts.

He presently takes pride in 3 Ph.Ds and 3 Masters Degrees. While the Ph. Ds remain in the fields of Theatre and Film Studies, Mass Communication along with Journalism and Media Studies, his Master’s Degrees were bagged in Education (M.Ed.), Master of Arts (M.A.) in Theatre Arts and Master in International Relations and Strategic Studies (MIRSS). Just incredible, is it not? Yes, it is.

As we speak, he is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Africa, Toru-Orua, Bayelsa State, and he likewise lectures in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies and is credited with helpful books such as: “A Primer To The Art of Acting,”
Strategic Communication Public Relations. Advertising.Society, and Twisted Fate (A Play), among others,

He should be commemorated, or should he not? Naturally, he should.
Likewise is one world-acclaimed
Nigerian engineer and robotics specialist
with 7 Master’s Degrees and 4 PhDs. His sensational works are connected to U.S. military drone innovation.

He established Ubiquity Interface Inc. and Open Robotics University, according to released biographies.He has actually likewise been commonly reported to have actually dealt with drone innovation for the U.S. Army, along with work including robotics, unmanned airplane and other innovative innovations.

Another Nigerian pride is Professor Obi Davies-Ekwuma, a Nigerian-American teacher of Urology and Transplant Surgery.

He from another location managed a surgical robotic from Redeemer’s Health Village in Ogun State while the client was 500 kilometers away at Niva Premier Hospital in Abuja.

The three-hour operation included eliminating a kidney impacted by a malignant growth, and the client was reported to be in great condition later. The treatment has actually been referred to as a significant innovation advancement in West Africa, demonstrating how tele-robotic surgical treatment might permit customized surgical know-how to reach clients throughout Nigeria without needing them to take a trip cross countries

There is alsoOshiorenoya Agabi who is rewording biotech, merging living nerve cells with computing instead of simply simulating the brain in software application. His course ranged from a physics degree at the University of Lagos through computational neuroscience at ETH Zürich to Imperial College, London. His gadget utilizes living cells to spot unpredictable substances, allowing next-generation airport security that might find dynamites without checkpoints– currently backed by partners like Airbus– and is being trained to ferret out early-stage cancers and pathogens. This is undoubtedly, a living evidence that the future of computing is not simply digital, it lives. And there is more to come.

It was exposed not long ago that Nigerian medical professional, Dr. Richard Okoye has actually constructed what is explained as Africa’s very first completely digitalized health center in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Called “SaveALife Mission Hospital” it utilizes digital innovation to assist physicians keep track of clients, keep electronic medical records and get signals when a client’s essential indications end up being worrying.

The health center likewise uses sophisticated
treatments, consisting of robotic knee surgical treatment, heart treatments and kidney transplant services.

While we are happy to be connected with names such as that of Professors Philip Emeagwali, Gabriel Oyibo, Samuel Achilefu, Babajide Alo and Ayodele Olaiya
as the items of their imaginative resourcefulness are favorably effecting on the international financial scene, far beyond our coasts, their home nation, Nigeria has actually not benefited much from their enormous intellectual resources. The fault is not theirs however that of our policy makers.

We ought to for that reason, take a hint from the practical collaboration in between the Geometric Power plant Aba, owned by Prof. Barth Nnaji and the Dr. Alex Otti- led Abia state. Now is the very best of times to make the very best usage of our finest brains.