Fallen Sentinel of Abuja City Gate!
The CCTV camera that is supposed to keep watch over the approaches to the City Gate from Berger Roundabout in Abuja is doing the job in the breach because the pole that held it up now lies supine, a fallen sentinel. The camera is nowhere to be found, and the solar panel that is supposed to give it power stands erect but decrepit all the same! Who is gonna help them?

Another term

Nigeria needs 'science thinking'

Omolola, left, on graduation day in 2007, and right, recently.

Martha Omolola is a Year 2 Computer Science student of Bowen University, Iwo, Nigeria. Prior to entering secondary school in October 2007, her parents had to help the school decide the calling for which she should be prepared in line with the school’s tradition.

Omolola had graduated from Crystal Nursery/Primary School, Omole Phase II in Lagos, a fairly well-rounded student, and one of the top three in her class. At school, she had enjoyed Mathematics, Verbal Reasoning, Elementary Science, English, and all other subjects except Fine Art. At home she had been exposed to reading wide for her age. All pointed to an aptitude for almost any course of study that caught her fancy, her parents thought.

Omolola’s father, a journalist, dreams of his three children pursuing science-based courses because he knows science is large enough to accommodate all comers. This is unlike what most Nigerians and, unfortunately, the government of Nigeria seem to think and profess—that Nollywood and sports will save the economy. Although government mouths industrialization and job creation all the time, the amount of time and money unwisely invested in entertainment, Nollywood, FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games etc. betrays its preoccupation.

Wande, Omolola’s older brother, who has a flair for Fine Art, had agreed to ‘packaging’ for Computer Engineering, which he is now studying at Babcock University, Nigeria, while the baby of the family, Dotun, who is in his fourth year in high school, has opted for Automobile Engineering.

Asked what might interest her as a profession, Omolola said she would like to play soccer. She had spent the evenings of her last two years in elementary school doing just that with the boys in the compound of her home. She had also watched a lot of soccer—World Cup, African Cup of Nations, English Premiership League, women’s soccer tournaments etc. etc. However, told that football would end for her at about the age of 30 years if she came out to be so good as to make a living from it, she now opted for acting.

“No, you have to study something first. Most of the actors you see in the movies have professions other than acting; you can’t just be an actress,” her father persisted. He remembered his lawyer brother, who is Omolola’s favourite uncle. Oh, this must be the clincher, he thought: “What about becoming a lawyer like Uncle Bimbo.” “No,” she said with a tone of finality.

Before the conversation with daddy, Omolola had adamantly wrestled with her mother over Pharmacy, Medicine, Architecture, and a host of other professions. Unknown to her parents at the time, she was only responding to the world around her, a world full of football, hip-hop music, home movies, dancing competitions, stand-up comedy, as well as reality and game shows on television. Her world was full of almost everything but the most fundamental of callings—Science and Technology (S&T).

To be born in Nigeria at the time of Omolola and her cohorts is to grow up with the impression that the only things that matter in life revolve around sports and showbiz. Thus, many children grow up feeling that they could only be great in music, football or show business because, although they may know a few engineers, doctors, architects and other professionals, they would know plenty of entertainers, sportsmen, bankers, and pastors. Thus, they are mostly disinclined to see the sciences as worthy areas of endeavour because their role models are the celebrities they see on television and hear on radio—actors and actresses like Olu Jacobs, Richard Mofe Damijo, Joke Sylva, Onyeka Onwenu, Genevieve Nnaji; hip-hop acts like Tuface Idibia, Dbanj, 9ice, Asha; and sports celebrities like J. J. Okocha, Vincent Enyeama, Peter Odemwingie, Usain Bolt, David Beckam, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Venus and Serena Williams, Messi, Martha, etc. etc. More so because they are heavily promoted by corporate entities, particularly communications companies, for their marketing needs. Somehow, even the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has been heavily involved in promoting sports by bringing in high-earning foreigners such as Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand one year, and the Williams sisters another year. Their normal and endorsement earnings, and prize monies just whet the appetite in poverty-stricken Nigeria.

Star Quest television show, a search for new musical talents, has been on network television for more than 10 years now, sponsored by Nigeria Breweries PLC. Occasionally foreign stars come into town through Star Quest, in addition to an endless broadcast of their videos and songs by the electronic media. Every year, a number of the stars, foreign and local, are sponsored on a national tour by the communications company, MTN Nigeria. Television and radio, which are about the strongest influences in children’s lives, are today awash with entertainment, sports and all manner of reality shows.

These days, every major supermarket in Lagos and Abuja has some youths loitering around with CDs they claim contain their songs. As you approach or leave, they offer you one CD as a gift and then ask you to support their effort. Usually, the CD contains nothing; when it does contain something, it  may be worthless. Is this executive begging or a manifestation of the belief that the only way out is music?

This seems to be happening because children are unfortunate enough to be fed with heavy doses of entertainment and sports, and their exponents and proponents, but little or nothing of the other callings that are possible, particularly those that are S&T-based. Worse, many parents, particularly the poor and not-too-rich are encouraging their children into showbiz and sports because they, too, have come to see sports and showbiz as the only way out of poverty. Also, many of the home movies actually glorify juju (i.e. black magic) rather unwittingly and to the detriment of science. Any wonder that education, particularly science, is suffering?

Unwittingly, the impressionable are being told the lie that the sciences are peripheral in life. The consequence is that, without proper parental guidance, many children will grow up not knowing that there can be fulfilment in Law, Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, Pharmacy, Computer Science, Architecture etc. Or that they can achieve greatness and be acclaimed as scientists. Yet, life itself is science. Many fail to realize that although we hear the names of media celebrities more often, the richest people in the world and those who affect our lives most profoundly are scientists or investors in science. Check out Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg, Carlos Slim, and even Aliko Dangote; none sells sports. Even those rich men and women funding sports — they make money from somewhere, usually something science-related, and later invest it in sports.

Bedrock of Globalization

The bedrock of most modern pursuits is S&T, or at least without S&T they cannot be what they are. For instance, what would the English Premiership League or the other soccer leagues of Europe be without the science of telecasting, the space science and technology that make the incredible revenues possible because they are accessible worldwide? Where would home movies be without the possibility of putting them on CDs or DVDs, and seeing them on television, which today depends a lot on space science? Where would humanity be today without mobile phone technology and the other spin-offs of space science, or the large volumes of goods that are moved by sea, or the possibility of fast travel by air? How would globalization have been possible without S&T?

Also, the Nigerian society is near-saturated with comedy shows and award events that are broadcast live or eventually get broadcast on television. A number of television stations monitored over a seven day period recently broadcast four local award ceremonies, all but one of which were on or around showbiz and the so-called celebrities. The odd one was on banking. Not too long before that, there had been an award ceremony, which was also mostly on business and politics. Around the same period, there had been the US Grammy Awards, which was available on satellite TV and was adequately covered by the Nigerian media and local impresarios. On the other hand, the only recognition for scientists and science-based professionals in Nigeria are two awards: the National Merit Awards, an all-comers affair and, thankfully, the annual science award organized by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited.

The situation has not always been like this. In the 1980s and early 1990s, there were overt and not-so-overt attempts to promote S&T. The mass media covered the sciences fairly well, with some having dedicated space (or time) for S&T issues and people. Government had fairly vibrant programmes on science, including an annual National Science and Technology Fair (NASTECH). In 1991, the African Science Monitor (ASM), a monthly science magazine established by the now deceased business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola, appeared on the scene and trudged on for a few years. However, it actually started suffering fortune changes when Chief Abiola went into politics in 1992. ASM became comatose when he was detained, but long before Chief Abiola died in detention in 1998, the last nail in ASM’s coffin had been driven in. The coffin was lowered into the grave with him.

Chief Abiola himself was eloquent testimony to how it should be: he was first a businessman who used his resources to support education and sports for much of his life. Sports stakeholders conferred on him the title, Pillar of Sports in Africa. In his latter days, he realized that science was missing from the mix, so he invested in ASM, whose editorial board was made up of renowned scientists from all over Nigeria. Unfortunately, it was also the time he went into politics.

Chief Moshood Abiola

Somehow, all the efforts at promoting the sciences crumbled under the weight of political and economic instability, which caused serious distress in the mass media. However, while the mass media have bounced back and all areas of coverage—Sports, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Health etc.—are booming again, very little has been done for S&T. In other words, there is haphazard coverage of S&T even though it is the bedrock of all.

The point of this treatise is that it is high time the media returned to promoting S&T in a way that will attract national focus to the sciences, and encourage young people into science. While the benefits of S&T to the nation go without saying, the benefits to an exponent medium include:

1. The medium will capture the Nigerian scientific market and population, which in 1990 was estimated to be around 20,000. This is expected to translate into an increased share of the market, which may be marginal in the short run, but will become substantial in the long run as scientists turn to a medium that has something for them as their preferred medium; and

2. The medium will capture a sizable share of the S&T advertising market.

Rationale

It has been established that the Nigerian economy has suffered vicissitudes over time because of its over-dependence on petroleum, and the nation’s inability to bring S&T to bear on national development aspirations. Yet, Nigeria is so richly endowed that its economy could easily be one of the top 10 (not 20) in the world. Besides mismanagement, corruption, and the setbacks caused by political instability over the years, Nigeria’s inability to drink from the fountain of S&T is the greatest problem. In other words, S&T is the missing link in the chain that should pull Nigeria out of underdevelopment and poverty.

Despite the well known and documented possibilities of S&T in the development of nations, Nigeria lags behind in terms of investment in S&T and utilization of the products of research & development (R&D). For instance, between the Federal Ministry of Science & Technology (FMST), and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), there are more than 30 research institutions that have been trudging on through the years despite:

· under-funding;

· under-utilization of capacity and staff potentials;

· under-utilization of products and processes developed;

· poor patronage by government and the private sector; and

· poor communication with the outside world.

In spite of their precarious situation, some of the research institutes have succeeded in developing products and processes but have been unable to commercialize them due to a combination of poor funding and patronage compounded by poor communication and poor relations with the outside world. For instance, the Leather Research Institute, Zaria, in the late 1990s developed a process for replacing the Neem tree, which is not locally available, as the main raw material in paper production, with Bagaruwa, a local plant.  However, despite the huge potentials as an R&D success and for saving foreign exchange, the development has remained on the shelf.

Also in the 1990s, Project Development Agency (PRODA), Enugu, developed an automobile, which was seen as a huge step towards a made-in-Nigeria automobile; there has been little or no progress on the development.

Although rapidly industrializing nations such as Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, India and Indonesia were around the same level of development as Nigeria in the 1960s, they have since shot ahead in terms of industrial and economic development. They are far more industrialized today because, although they also have their bouts with corruption and, or, political instability, they have not allowed their R&D efforts to be stifled. Those efforts are yielding dividends in terms of their ability to be self-reliant, produce for export, and benefit from outsourcing from the West.

India today is a major power in IT software development in addition to having a huge capacity to manufacture heavy equipment—railway transportation components, including locomotives, agricultural equipment, and automobiles. Its Tata trucks and buses are patronized for military and civil uses in Nigeria.

Brazil is the world’s leading bio-fuels producer in addition to its well known capabilities in the production of automobiles, particularly high capacity buses and, lately, state-of-the-art airplanes. Because of its investment in R&D, Argentina is self-reliant in many areas, and has export capability in agriculture, particularly meat and corned beef. Thailand and Indonesia and some other Asian nations are major exporters of all manner of consumer products to Nigeria. Imports from these countries include rice, biscuits, soap, detergent, shampoo, toys, condoms, medicaments etc. etc.

Mass Media

As in the campaign for independence and the return of democratic rule, Nigeria’s mass media have a role in bringing S&T to the consciousness of the people and government in the first instance. Secondly, the media have a role in promoting science in much the same way they have been promoting business, sports, and showbiz. There is need for robust coverage and outright promotion of science and scientists.

  

Hardworking chairman of the board!

The Boko Haram Saga

EMERGENCE

FRUITION

EMBOLDENED

ARROGANCE 

AUDACITY

REFLECTION 

REPRISALS

BaracKong!

About time

Syrian graveyard

In God's name, this is meat that we feed on!

Need I say more?

Signs of the times

Mortein powerless

Somebody tell me this guy doesn't deserve penisectomy if found guilty!

Ariel Castro, the Cleveland, Ohio, man accused of abducting three females, two of them teenagers, and keeping them as sex slaves for almost 10 years.

Corn don' land oooooooo!

Nigeria is trying to get pregnant women to access antenatal care and have their babies in health facilities with 5,000 Naira "conditional cash transfer"! Certainly, it will work, but probably more than the authorities expect. Women who have never handled 1,000 Naira at a time in their lives are likely to want to be part of it, so Nigeria should expect every woman in that bracket who is in child-bearing age to get pregnant soon and, possibly, every year henceforth. That will probably include those who shouldn't get pregnant anymore. If we ever needed a policy to increase fertility rapidly and send population growth out of control, don't we have it?!

And some smart Alec(s) will no doubt get a few billions from administering the money. Corn don' land ooooooooo!

Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?

By NATHANIEL RICH

Published: November 28, 2012 

After more than 4,000 years — almost since the dawn of recorded time, when Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that the secret to immortality lay in a coral found on the ocean floor — man finally discovered eternal life in 1988. He found it, in fact, on the ocean floor. The discovery was made unwittingly by Christian Sommer, a German marine-biology student in his early 20s. He was spending the summer in Rapallo, a small city on the Italian Riviera, where exactly one century earlier Friedrich Nietzsche conceived “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”: “Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being. Everything dies, everything blossoms again. . . .”

The "immortal jellyfish" can transform itself back into a polyp and begin life

anew

Sommer was conducting research on hydrozoans, small invertebrates that, depending on their stage in the life cycle, resemble either a jellyfish or a soft coral. Every morning, Sommer went snorkeling in the turquoise water off the cliffs of Portofino. He scanned the ocean floor for hydrozoans, gathering them with plankton nets. Among the hundreds of organisms he collected was a tiny, relatively obscure species known to biologists as Turritopsis dohrnii. Today it is more commonly known as the immortal jellyfish.

Sommer kept his hydrozoans in petri dishes and observed their reproduction habits. After several days he noticed that his Turritopsis dohrnii was behaving in a very peculiar manner, for which he could hypothesize no earthly explanation. Plainly speaking, it refused to die. It appeared to age in reverse, growing younger and younger until it reached its earliest stage of development, at which point it began its life cycle anew.

Sommer was baffled by this development but didn’t immediately grasp its significance. (It was nearly a decade before the word “immortal” was first used to describe the species.) But several biologists in Genoa, fascinated by Sommer’s finding, continued to study the species, and in 1996 they published a paper called “Reversing the Life Cycle.” The scientists described how the species — at any stage of its development — could transform itself back to a polyp, the organism’s earliest stage of life, “thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality.” This finding appeared to debunk the most fundamental law of the natural world — you are born, and then you die.

One of the paper’s authors, Ferdinando Boero, likened the Turritopsis to a butterfly that, instead of dying, turns back into a caterpillar. Another metaphor is a chicken that transforms into an egg, which gives birth to another chicken. The anthropomorphic analogy is that of an old man who grows younger and younger until he is again a fetus. For this reason Turritopsis dohrnii is often referred to as the Benjamin Button jellyfish.

Yet the publication of “Reversing the Life Cycle” barely registered outside the academic world. You might expect that, having learned of the existence of immortal life, man would dedicate colossal resources to learning how the immortal jellyfish performs its trick. You might expect that biotech multinationals would vie to copyright its genome; that a vast coalition of research scientists would seek to determine the mechanisms by which its cells aged in reverse; that pharmaceutical firms would try to appropriate its lessons for the purposes of human medicine; that governments would broker international accords to govern the future use of rejuvenating technology. But none of this happened.

Some progress has been made, however, in the quarter-century since Christian Sommer’s discovery.

We now know, for instance, that the rejuvenation of Turritopsis dohrnii and some other members of the genus is caused by environmental stress or physical assault. We know that, during rejuvenation, it undergoes cellular transdifferentiation, an unusual process by which one type of cell is converted into another — a skin cell into a nerve cell, for instance. (The same process occurs in human stem cells.) We also know that, in recent decades, the immortal jellyfish has rapidly spread throughout the world’s oceans in what Maria Pia Miglietta, a biology professor at Notre Dame, calls “a silent invasion.” The jellyfish has been “hitchhiking” on cargo ships that use seawater for ballast.

Turritopsis has now been observed not only in the Mediterranean but also off the coasts of Panama, Spain, Florida and Japan. The jellyfish seems able to survive, and proliferate, in every ocean in the world. It is possible to imagine a distant future in which most other species of life are extinct but the ocean will consist overwhelmingly of immortal jellyfish, a great gelatin consciousness everlasting.

Nathaniel Rich is an author whose second novel, ‘‘Odds Against Tomorrow,’’ will be published in April.

Editor: Jon Kelly

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?_r=0

Crown prince of sprint?

12 year-old James Gallaugher. See him go

Rape again? Penisectomy is the answer

 

I keep saying that penisectomy is the answer to rape in Nigeria, but it seems nobody is listening to me! How long will we allow the tame laws on rape to continue without deterring anybody?

Will banishment deter anybody from committing 'sweet' rape?

 

Resourcefulness!

If this ain't resourcefulness, I don't know what else is: mobile video and audio shop complete with I-pass-my-neighbour power supply!

MTN Nigeria's Greek gift

Beware of MTN Nigeria's Greek gift  

Have you been patronizing MTN Nigeria to get bonus advertised as a WOW OFFER? Well, it is a Greek gift, and MTN Nigeria has probably been chopping your money at a higher rate than you are aware of. This wow offer is supposed to reward you with 100 per cent bonus credit when you recharge during the weekend, starting Friday. And yes, you are immediately notified by SMS that you have 100 per cent bonus airtime to be used up by midnight on Sunday. That appears fine; problem is you can't use this bonus credit until you have used up the credit in your main account. If you didn't know this, chances are you would start calling to use your bonus airtime, but it is your main account that gets depleted. Unless you are a very reckless caller or the recharge amount is not much, you will not be able to access this bonus credit until it expires on Sunday. Can an organization be any more fraudulent?

I was not surprised to find this out this weekend. And yes, as a good number of people believe, MTN Nigeria is the most fraudulent organization on the face of planet earth. See the message I got Saturday evening after making several short calls; there was no bonus airtime from anywhere!

Yes, this type of fraud can only be on MTN!

What should we do? Teach them a lesson, of course:

1.    Let other people know that this promotion, as with most other MTN Nigeria promotional offers, is sheer FRAUD,

2.    Don't participate in this fraudulent nonsense anymore, and

3.    Don't use MTN unless you have to; if you have more than one phone, use the one that is not MTN.

It's high time we let fraudulent organizations know that we can teach them a lesson!

Greek gift

A gift given with the intention of tricking and causing harm to the recipient