We got home two weeks ago tonight, and it feels a bit distant. I've been cutting grass most days, making me feel really useful and productive. We've also made some visits to family and friends, so it has been nice that way. But when people ask, "So, what was it like?", I am at a loss. Nigeria is, as so many places on earth, a fully functioning, vibrant place, with people in school, people in love, people dieing, people working, that nonetheless those of us in the US know nothing about. There are, as is common everywhere, contradictions. There are many people working very hard to collectively deal with the needs of the people who live there, and yet there are those who will take advantage for their own personal gain. There are lots of efforts for long range improvement, by those who may not live to see the results, but they understand the concept of "the common good", and are content to contribute in the time they have. Others take the shortest view possible, as in here and now.
So part of this diary will be to talk at some length about the work my brother-in-law, Turner Isoun, was able to do in 8 years as Minister of Science and Technology within the federal government, to serve as a microcosm of the whole national, and in fact international, effort to add to the common good of humanity. I was introduced to significant efforts through visits he arranged for me to several different agencies and research projects. The first stop, I think, was to a biodiversity center near Odi, in the delta of the Niger river. It has been described in an earlier post, but deserves to be mentioned again. Research into vegetable, mushroom, meat, and fruit propagation is taking place there, with studies of methods to expand grasscutter and snail farming critical to improving the availability of high quality protein in the diet. Work goes on, but improvements take time, and represent a belief in long range research to improve the common good.
I also visited the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, on the outskirts of Abuja. Led by Director General and Professor O. O. Adewoye, it is working to improve the nation's ability to define, record, and evaluate engineering concepts with the latest computer aided tools, and to demonstrate their value to industries in the country. Designing a new machine years ago was done mostly by trial and error. More recently, some steps were developed using mathematics and drawing techniques to allow some conceptualizing and proof of concept before hard parts were made, but it was slow laborious work by hand. Today, with the advent of computing power, a design idea can be developed in software, turned into a 3D visualization, analyzed for stress and strain and material characteristics, and "operated" to simulate what it might be expected to do, all before parts are made. Once all looks good, instructions can be forwarded to machines which will make the parts necessary for hard testing. And this agency is developing a core group of individuals and tools to allow Nigerians to begin incorporating these tools into solutions for Nigerian problems, which I find very exciting. For example, there are lots of windmills under development around the world, and most are intended for regions with good to exceptional wind. Nigeria has wind, and it is quite dependable, but it is not of much velocity. So the students and employees of the agency have been doing solid modelling, aerodynamics, and strength of materials studies on modified designs to take advantage of low velocity, dependable windpower suitable for Nigerian conditions. Another example: a lot of leather is tanned in Nigeria, and a local seed extract is used for conditioning the leather. Obtaining that extract is not technically difficult, but is extremely labor intensive. Design efforts are underway to adapt existing milling equipment to do the job, with assurance that the equipment will be strong enough and reliable enough by determining weak links in the equipment and adjusting strength, materials, and forces based on computer aided analysis.
The key tools in use include math modeling using Comsol Multiphysics, Matlab, and Fluent, virtual manufacturing using Comsol and Unigraphics, and CAD / Cam design work on Unigraphics or similar computer drawing software. I was surprised when they told me that computer drawing software compatibility issues rarely arise anymore; that used to be a pretty major issue.
My next stop was the National Resource Institute for Chemical Technology in Zaria, where
DG Ebenezer Okonkwo and Dr. Turner Isoun
Dr. Miriam Isoun and a bio diesel neem oil researcherresearch is underway to utilize the seeds of the neem tree. The Director General was Dr. Ebenezer Okonkwo, a very personable gentleman who took time to answer every inane question I posed to him. The tree itself is useful for reducing desertification in dry areas, and will grow quite nicely to heights of 50-60 feet or more. And all of the tree is used for something somewhere in the world. The East African name, Mwarobaini, is most descriptive, translating to "tree of 40", or forty different uses. You might want to Wikipedia the word neem and read some details. Our visit dealt with production of oil from the seed of the fruit, and other peripheral products associated with the seed. These include a natural pesticide, a moderately rich fertilizer, and unique compounds used in cosmetics, soaps, and the like. A funny story we heard had to do with the pesticide. Initial trials with local farmers came back with poor results - farmers almost immediately said it didn't work. With some questioning, it became obvious that the problem was that it didn't smell like a pesticide, so obviously it couldn't work. Add a little aromatic to make it smell like chemicals, and like magic, it worked great. Marketing at its best. Work is being done to commercialize it, so that in desert areas the trees will hold back the desert as well as provide a wide range of very saleable products, so our next stop was a pilot plant for commercial processing in Katsina, further north. (The forecast for the next three days in Katsina is for 100F, 100F, and 104F! A hot place!)
A fully functional facility which is presently making fertilizer, oil, and pesticide, it is guided by a Nigerian team, with technical guidance by a gentleman from India who has lots of experience in neem processing.This trip involved travel to the far north edge of the country, which was fascinating in itself. The
people in the north live in ways well adapted to the heat and dryness, and gave us a feel for the length and breadth of this amazing country.Our next stop was the National Space Research and Development Agency, perhaps the agency
nearest and dearest to Turner. The Director General, Dr. S. O. Mohammed, arranged for our visit, met us at the door, and provided us with a very capable guide of the site. During Turner's tenure, a lot of thought was given to improving communications and mapping / remote sensing within the country and with the rest of the world. Lots of proposals were made, but all involved accessing technology owned and operated by someone else. Why couldn't Nigeria have its own satellites, to provide photographic records, weather maps, and catastrophe documentation (remote sensing), and internet / television / telephone / etc. (communications)? And train capable technical people to operate it all? So early on, a remote sensing satellite was launched from Russia in September 2003, with help from the British. That satellite, with an expected life of 5 years, is still functioning. And an interesting outgrowth of this project has been the increased cooperation with other countries who have similar satellites. Every satellite can't be everywhere at once, so there is a joint effort to use any one of the member satellites in the best position to get the data needed at a given point in time. Several were able to cooperatively provide pictures of the tsunami in the Indian ocean in 2004! The communications satellite was launched from China in 2007, and went into operation in a geostationary orbit over Nigeria, under the control and direction of Nigerian technical people at several locations on earth. This has allowed the development of new skills and knowledge within the country, and has allowed Nigeria to be an active partner in space consortiums and infrastructure, rather than simply a customer of others' programs. The communications satellite, in late 2008, experienced a power supply failure, and lost its functionality.Throughout the launch, deployment, use, and failure, however, a great deal of value was identified in the program, so plans are in place to launch replacements for both the communications satellite and remote sensing satellite (end of life being imminent), as well as backups for both! So this is a technical success story of which Nigeria can be proud. And the skills learned in the program will contribute to the common good of the people of Nigeria.
Our next stop was Gamma Radiation Facility, directed by Dr. Franklin Osaisai. We met with Dr. Adesame, the assistant director, who gave a very clear description of the efforts underway at the
facility. There are three main areas of study. First, research is underway to use gamma radiation to promote storage and shelf life of fresh food. A low exposure can reduce or eliminate decay and sprouting, and provide a much longer usable life, improving the food supply of local people and allowing possible exports of local products. Work is also underway to use gamma radiation for medical purposes, and in the development of new medicines. Third, radiation is useful in hardening plastics, making tougher materials which are approaching the strength of steel as a result, and work is taking place to better understand the process. This is particularly useful in Nigeria where oil provides the raw feedstock for active plastics manufacturing industries. Nigeria has signed international agreements governing the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and takes that responsibility quite seriously.
Also, earlier in our stay, we visited the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, located in Port Harcourt. The university has faculties of engineering, agriculture, environmental science, law, sciences, management sciences, technical and science education, and post grad programs. Student population is about 17,000, on a spacious campus. It was originally established as a college in 1972. Turner became Vice Chancellor in 1980, and was charged with the task of conversion of the college to a true university. The school provides specially skilled graduates to deal with issues of the delta region, Nigeria, and in international forums, primarily in the sciences, and has added valuable professionalism and authority to many government and nongovernment initiatives. The contribution to the common good is obvious.
Turner has also been a longstanding member and supporter of the African Academy of Sciences, based in Nairobi, Kenya, and was editor of the academy's periodical for several years.
My sister Miriam has been the principal behind the Niger Delta Wetlands Center, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, since its founding in 1995. The facility as currently configured has a large conference center available for meetings and conferences, with about 10 motel style rooms for conferees who have come from a distance, some basic facilities to make their stay more comfortable, and a solar powered office, which is available for use and to demonstrate the technology involved. It has provided space for research being done in the delta region, and for local offices of some key allies in the effort to protect the delta ecology. As a nongovernmental
organization, the Wetlands Center has been able to petition for funding from foundations around the world, and use that funding to establish pilot demonstration projects in all sorts of areas and subjects. Work is underway in documenting the flora and fauna of micro- and macro-habitats, in demonstrating the use of renewable energy sources to reduce the environmental impact of human activity, and to establish environmental "safe zones" in parks and preserves, documenting and protecting to whatever degree is possible the biodiversity that still exists. Oil has not been the friend of Nigeria ecologically, and efforts to minimize its impact on the bioculture is difficult work, but it is taking place in moderate ways, which hopefully will provide for the common good longterm.
A few websites you might want to look at further:
http://www.rsust.edu.ng/
http://www.nigerdeltawetlands.org/
http://www.nasrda.net/
http://www.neemnigeria.com/
And last, a few funny pictures -
Jim and Mary Ann
