OBSERVATION: Killing Our Dreams

By Yaya Ademola

WE have sufficiently established in the previous edition that the greatest contribution a man can make to humanity is to leave his society better than he met it. One of the greatest vehicles to delivering this goal is innovation, science and technology.

Innovation is thinking outside the box to proffering solution to problems. Barrack Obama defines it as “the creation of something that improves the way we live our lives.” Jaff Dance says “It is something fresh (new, original or improved) that creates value.”

Therefore, a government will hunt for talents and encourage innovation from its people in all areas of life so as to make life better for everyone which should be the target of a responsible government. Interestingly, we have numerous talents, innovators and innovations that have been wasting away.

Where is Dr. Jeremiah Abalaka from Kogi State today? This man, in 1999, developed HIV vaccine that can cure HIV. Instead of government via its agencies like NAFDAC to assess the claim and give it clearance for use if its efficacy is confirmed or support him for further research on it if the claim could not be confirmed, the man was unduly intimidated and persecuted.

Since that 1999, there has not been any HIV vaccine trial whether in Nigeria or from the Queen’s country. Although Dr. Abalaka is not a microbiologist or pathologist, he is a surgeon with immunology training, which is the fundamental knowledge in vaccine discovery. It thus seems that there are guidelines and big money involved that anybody from underdeveloped world cannot conceive the idea of vaccine and that only those in the developed world could do and experiment with the population of the developing world. These powerful people seem to be bribing their way to compromise our innovation and development.

Despite absence of advanced technology, our medical practitioners have been performing wonders. Just to mention two cases of many. They have successfully separated conjoined twins. In 2005, conjoined twins were successfully separated at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital in Ile-Ife; in 2019, conjoined twins at chest and abdomen were separated by a 78-member team at the National Hospital in Abuja.

We have had many innovations from researchers in the last period but without any clear support from the government to improve their inventions. In 2016, two teenagers, Gboho Ajiyen and Ayoola Olaolu from Delta and Oyo State respectively designed and produced a mini-aircraft that could fly for about 3,000 to 4,000 miles above the sea level and covering a distance of about five to six kilometres.

Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who was the Minister of Science and Technology (still the incumbent Minister) with the staff of the Ministry witnessed the demonstration of performance of the aircraft at the Eagle Square in Abuja.

It is instructive to note that Ajiyen neither had formal education nor boarded aircraft in his life; his personal research and commitment produced the effort. This is a further testimony to a call for review of our education curriculum.

Since 2017, a self taught inventor, Kehinde Durojaiye also known as Kenny Jet, invented a jet car that can run on land, sea and in the air – “an aero-amphibious jet car”- that has the capacity to move 120 kilometres per hour on land and at least six knots on the sea. Kenny Jet has been a keen inventor since childhood. He has made four prototype cars from discarded materials like wood and plastic.

David Opateyibo built Nigeria first locally-made drone in Lagos, which could be used for security surveillance, aerial photography and videography and broadcasting. His drone could fly fifteen minutes in the air with altitude of 2,000 feet purely made of locally fabricated materials.

How many shall we mention? Of all inventions and discoveries, airplane, arguably, is the most spectacular invention of the 20th Century, because it has connected nations together and shown us unseen perspectives of earth which hitherto were hidden. Although the internet has made the world a small place, air travel realistically made the world smaller by reducing times of travels from months to hours. As a matter of fact, aviation propelled impetus movement to the moon; development of space rocket; provision of satellites, internet, navigating system in the cars and phones with knowledge and information about the world.

If we had had a serious government committed to growth and development, these youngsters would have been encouraged and supported. Their innovation could have taken us far away from rolling on barber chair to outer space with accompanied development in all areas of life which would have provided avalanche of jobs for the teeming populace and a better life for common people. It would have brought us into international limelight as an actor to reckon with in Africa.

Since 1999 (22 yrs ago), if the government had encouraged and supported Abalaka and his likes, perhaps, our medicine could have favourably competed internationally as more medical practitioners like him would have been encouraged into invention. But the ruling elite don’t have a stake in Nigeria medical system. Whenever they are sick, they jet out for medical treatment.

As at the time of putting this piece together, our President is yet to return from the United Kingdom where he is gone for medical vacation since March 30, 2021. Meanwhile, members of the National Association of Resident Doctors are just resuming from weeklong strike because of salaries owed by government and for upward review of hazard allowance, among other issues.

Since they are at the helms of our affairs, the ruling elite are positioned to make or kill our collective dream to make our society a better place. Their own dream seems to be antithetical to our collective dream; hence, their retrogressive behavioural pattern to our dream. After all, when the chips are down, they have multiple visas to Europe and America; only the poor people will suffer as they have no place to go.