By Oguwike Nwachuku
President Muhammadu Buhari sent the list of 43 ministerial nominees to the Senate for screening and confirmation on Tuesday, July 23.
By Wednesday, July 24 and Thursday, July 25 the screening was ongoing.
In the coming days, hopefully, Nigerians will know what portfolio is assigned to each minister in the federal cabinet.
Meanwhile, different reactions and interpretations greet the nominees.
Some regard the men and women as Buhari’s campaign team, others say much is not expected from them as their faces betray their already known pedigrees.
The People’s Democratic Party (PD) dismissed the list as uninspiring and without hope for a better Nigeria under Buhari.
Women and feminism advocates also knock a ministerial nomination list that contains only seven women out of 43. They feel shortchanged.
On the screening, I reserve my comment on the “take a bow” or what some people call “carry go” canticle for reasons that are only important to the senate.
I worry because the “take a bow” chant denies Nigerians the opportunity to truly and critically evaluate the nominees’ capacity to field questions, some of which may border on the responsibility that would be thrust on them as ministers.
A friend of mine who mocked the “take a bow” mantra actually suggested that the senate would have invited all 43 nominees at the same time, ask them to “take a bow” and go and serve Nigerians based on their consciences rather than wasting our precious time with the manner of questions, observations and distractions that go with the screening.
The ministerial nominee list was not the only critical thing that attracted the attention of Nigerians during the week.
There was also the fatal protest in Abuja on Monday, July 22 by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).
The group protested the continued incarceration of their leader, Ibrahim El-ZakyZaky, even after a court ordered his bail. Buhari and his administration think otherwise.
During the protest, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in charge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command, Umar Bebel, and a reporter with Channels Television, Precious Owolabi, were killed.
Several others received injuries.
The police said they are prosecuting 54 people allegedly behind the mayhem, which also led to the destruction of property worth millions of naira and vehicles belonging to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
It was a painful death for the Bebel and Owolabi families whose loved ones, Umar and Precious, could have been hit by stray bullets.
Precious was doing his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme with Channels. He was buried on Thursday in Kaduna and sombre best describes the mood of family and friends who witnessed the rite of passage.
Umar and Precious death diminishes all of us, and questions the oath of office taken by those in positions of authority to protect citizens and property as their core responsibility to them.
That is a matter for another day.
But a development that also attracted attention during the week was news of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) being serenaded over the positive impact of its research and innovation on the local and international arenas.
It emerged that UNN is the best in Nigeria and is among the 20 universities in Africa to be so ranked based on quality of citations from publications.
UNN was ranked 17th in Africa in the measurement of quality research output for the year.
It is also the only university in Nigeria in the top 20 in Africa, according to its own report which I quote below:
“Our world ranking is 1,108 with 108,209 citations. No 2 in Nigeria is University of Ibadan with 86,756 citations. No 3 is University of Ilorin with 74,245 citations. No 4 is Covenant University with 55,844 citations. No 5 is University of Lagos with 41,121 citations.
“University of Ibadan world rank is 1,246, University of Ilorin, 1,328, Covenant University, 1,511, University of Lagos, 1,726.
“No 1 in the world is Harvard University with 8,704,969 citations. No 1 in Africa is University of Cape Town with 996, 898 citations.
“This remarkable achievement is all due to the push for excellence in publishing in visible journals that are cited internationally by staff of the university.”
That was not the only cheery news from UNN.
In fact, it was another roaring experience for its students and graduates, known as lions and lionesses, as the institution recently scored another first in innovation/invention.
Scoring first is an attitude UNN acquired many years ago and it works hard to sustain it despite daunting challenges arising mostly from incomprehensible government policies and summersaults and unpleasant operational environment.
In the latest feat, UNN unveiled its first five-seater electric vehicle produced by its faculty of engineering.
Former UNN Vice Chancellor, Professor Benjamin Ozumba, in whose name the electric car is named – Lion Ozumba 551 – was the one instrumental to the research.
In March this year, before Ozumba handed over the mantle of leadership to Professor Charles Igwe, UNN achieved a historic generation of its own electricity from organic waste for a 100KVA Refuse Drived Fuel (RDF) plant at its Nsukka campus.
The plant was produced from the organic waste of agricultural byproducts such as corn husks and wood chips.
Ozumba expressed happiness at the commissioning, saying UNN would no longer be a customer of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
EEDC that services the South East is notorious for unreliable power supply like many other electricity generating (Gencos) and distribution (Discos) in the country.
The RDF gasification plant will end the hardship the UNN community had endure for years.
When Ozumba said the project was first of its kind in Nigeria as well as another feather added to the cap of UNN, the comment was very much anticipated.
His words: “I am happy that the university under my watch has witnessed innovations and transformation, as today another feather has been added to the cap of my administration.
“This is the first of its kind in the country, using of waste to generate electricity.
“By the time more of the plants are produced that will cover every part of the university, millions of naira will be saved every month, as UNN will no longer pay monthly electricity bill to EEDC.”
He commended Professor Emenike Ejiogu of the department of electrical engineering, leader of the research team.
Ejiogu, an engineer trained in Japan, wowed his audience when he announced that his research team would produce 250KVA plants to supply power to UNN and its environs.
He said: “The 100 KVA RDF project is designed and fabricated by laboratory of industrial power devices and energy system under special grant by Ozumba.
“The aim is to enable UNN to generate its own electricity with organic waste that will serve as fuel.
“UNN power demand now is 3mgwats, so with twelve 250KVA of RDF plants, we will meet the electricity supply needs of the university.”
Ejiogu said on request his research team would install the plant for any individual or company.
“It is cheaper and can carry more load than solar energy installation. With an RDF plant in your house or office, it will carry your air-conditioners, deep freezers, pressing iron and other things in your house, office or company.”
The plant will also create employment for people who supply the waste material.
The electric car was also produced with 80 per cent local materials.
Both the RDF plant and the electric car are part of the greatest legacies of Ozumba that will continue to place UNN at the centre of scholarship locally and internationally.
The excitement over Lion Ozumba 551 that can do 30 kilometres when fully charged, according to the coordinator, UNN medtronic team, Ozoemena Ani, did not know any bound. That much was experienced during its unveiling.
Igwe said the car is part of the drive to accord innovation and technology their prime of place to reposition UNN for greater heights.
He applauded Ozumba for laying the foundation for innovation and technology upon which the car dream was realised.
“I feel happy that I inherited a strong institution from Ozumba and I promise to consolidate on his achievements,” he said.
The journey to Lion Ozumba 551 started not quite long ago, as the Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Jelani Aliyu, disclosed.
He said on February 6, 2019 NADDC invited UNN, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Usman Danfolio University, Sokoto (UDUSOK) and the Metrological Institute to make proposals on how to produce electric cars.
David Oyetunji, NADDC Director of Finance and Accounts, who represented Aliyu at the unveiling, said improving the local automobile industry would help create jobs also and reduce the huge amounts of money spent on car imports.
He commended UNN for the car and the gasification plant and urged other institutions to prioritise technology and innovation.
“When I came on board,” Ozumba recalled, “I said we need innovation and technology to be at par with China, the United States, Sweden and other developed countries of the world.
“That was why I provided the resources and encouragement for innovation and technology, because I believe that is one of the ways we can improve our country’s economy.
“It was part of my desire to improve UNN’s and Nigeria’s economy and boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings.”
The two innovations in UNN are germane to the growth of Nigeria if proper attention is paid to them and efforts are made to go beyond them.
Globally, emphasis is placed on science, technology, engineering and mathematics in what is famously called STEM, and any society that downplays the power of cutting edge technology does so at its own peril.
Nigeria is challenged by the lack of inventions/innovations that can launch it into competitive global reckoning, because we fail to apply STEM in power generation and distribution, transportation, information communication and technology, among others.
Not much is heard about national policy on invention and innovation. Worse is that ministers of science and technology, and communications focus on administration and rely more on old ways of doing things than on policy implementation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have been notched to levels that are taken for granted in some countries. In Nigeria, they are like rocket science hardly discussed among students in secondary and tertiary institutions.
In the eighth Senate, one of the issues Senator Ben Murray-Bruce constantly brought up, including introducing a bill on it, was that of electric cars. He saw the future.
Murray-Bruce is passionate about the mobility of the future and wants Nigeria to key into the global technological innovations and inventions in electric cars and other gadgets.
But in the Senate, he was speaking to men and women who are in love with the status quo, repulsive of new ideas and ways of doing things.
On Wednesday, July 24, I watched the televised screening in the Senate of former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, who was re-nominated by Buhari.
None of the senators brought to the attention of the potential science and technology minister, the electric car invented in UNN.
And no mention was made of the 100 KVA RDF plant. May be the potential minister of power nominee would be taken up on that.
It is either the senators are ignorant of the feat or it is the policy of those in positions of authority not to pursue matters of national interest.
Given the right environment and policy, Nigeria can help itself. As Aliyu pointed out, UNN has shown the way for other institutions to follow.
The stated purpose for which UNN was established in 1960 is “To restore the dignity of man”.
The government should lend continuous support to this exemplary institution to enable it deepen that purpose. No time to intervene in the affairs of that university can be better than now.
