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Between Obadiah Mailafia, Stephen Hawking And The Quest For African Einstein (1) By Jibo Nura Life is ten per cent (10%) what happens to you and ninety per cent (90%) how you respond to it. And the beauty in it is to always consider the good moments by reflecting on the bad ones in order to live as peacefully, as cheaply and as satisfactorily as possible. I read with enthusiasm Obadiah Mailafia’s piece titled “In search of African Einstein” that appeared on the back and the 60th pages of the Sunday Trust’s Guest Columnist of June 8 and 15, 2008 where Mailafia intelligently expressed his dismay, and at the same time lamented for not being a pure, but an applied social scientist. By the time I finished reading through the excerpts, I could not contain, but issue it to my very close friends to go over it and furnish me with their candid opinion(s) on what they think is going to be the future of Nigerian Science and Scientists. I know that predicting the future, scientific for that matter is not every ones affair. However, you don’t need to be Michael de-Notre Dame(1503-1566) commonly known as NOSTRADAMUS, a famous French Astrologer to make predictions or pass comments on any observable knowledge gained through experience. I also believe that even a non-scientist like Arthur C. Clarke who foresaw the exploration of space more clearly than many scientists, did it out of sheer commitment and dedication to his own cause. But when discussing matters of scientific and technological importance, there is the need to reflect on the singular monumental contributions made by famous scientists who brought about scientific revolution that began with the fundamental laws. Hence, Sir Isaac Newton, the pioneer scientist of the seventeenth century readily comes to mind. Newton discovered the law of gravity that the present day scientists are using in solving peculiar problems that have to do with experienced natural force or phenomenon. As a science student way back in my secondary school, I still remember my introductory lesson in SS1 when my Physics’s teacher –Mr Isaiah was explaining to us atomic theory based on J.J Thompson’s first discovery of sub-atomic particle since the 18th century. I also remember vividly his common dictation that always starts with “A car accelerates…” which we jokingly referred to as Isaiah’s car. Once Mr. Isaiah started dictating to the class, one becomes bored but at the same time alert over what he would ask us to find out in the end-be it velocity, speed, displacement or distance of “his traveling”, but non-existent car. Then we had phobia for Physics, but of course left with no any other option than to embrace it wholeheartedly, because we thought that was presumably the only way to actualize our dreams of becoming medical doctors and pharmacists. During that time when we hear names such as Maurice Wilker-the man who ran the world’s first fully operational computer or Francis Crick and James Watson who discovered the double helical structure of DNA (Deoxy ribo Nucleic Acid) that opened the gate way for today’s biomedical revolution, we became highly excited! The dream and vision in all of us were therefore to become famous and renowned scientists some day. What we were up to are really to hear and listen to famous names such as Alexander Graham Bell, the man who discovered the telephone in 1876 or Thomas Elva Edison’s laboratory work at Menlo Park, U.S.A, which paved for inventions that have broken up the foundations of the old civilization. Edison we were told, was the person that invented the phonograph in 1877 and eventually discovered the incandescent light in 1879. To him, everything is “interesting”, and therefore believed that “there is no substitute for hard work” and that “Genius is about 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration. In fact, those days we don’t want to hear anything than stories of the old such as Henrich Hertz the inventor of generation and detection of Electro Magnetic (EM) waves which gave birth to radio and television in what we today refer as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). That is why whenever I see people like Professor Abubakar Gulma-the 25 year old Cambridge PhD holder and A.B.U’s First Class degree material in Electrical Engineering, resigning and signing into politics-just to make both ends meet, I feel completely bemused and sad, particularly when viewed from the fact that people like him are not meant to be intermingling or getting involved in Nigeria’s political quagmire that seems to have no solution. Also, the likes of El-Rufa’i, another Quantity Surveying First Class material from Ahmadu Bello University; Sarki Abba, the West African School Certificate’s (WASC’s) guru and immunology specialist, are supposed to have waited back and spend ample time in academics. But today, El-Rufa’i is being consumed and carried away by the exigencies of Nigeria’s political moment. And Prof Abba now left us reminiscing over the problem of his brain drain in one of the United States Universities. Indeed, it will be very difficult for Abba to come back and contribute his quota, especially in this noisy confusion of Nigeria’s academic life. Had it been there is enabling academic environment all these people could have waited back in academics and make breakthroughs the way Wright Brothers feature prominently in the field of Aviation as they successfully flew the first airplane on the 14th day of December 1903 probably about the same time as Gustare Whitehead. Indeed, they could have excelled internationally and become Africa’s Einstein of the 21st century the way Sir Albert made his mark on law of relativity in the 20th century. I understand that Albert will continue to be remembered as the greatest mind that harnessed the forces of the atom and the universe. This absent minded Professor, whose extra-ordinary brilliance made his face a symbol and his name synonymous for genius, believed that mass and energy are interconvertible. His famous Physics ‘s equation (E=MC2 ) i.e. energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared, will live to be remembered till eternity. As a child Albert Einstein was slow in learning how to talk. He was then expelled by his headmaster, because he was proclaimed as “unlikely to amount to anything”. But even at the age of five, we were told that he was busy puzzling with a toy compass and the mysteries of the nature’s forces. In his leisure time, in 1905, he produced three papers that apparently changed the world’s scientific view point forever. Jibo Nura, works with MOBAT Quants’ Consultants and Project Managers, Yankari Holiday Resort and Safari Project, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Contact Nura at: jibonura@yahoo.com
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