11 Nigerian Scientists & Inventors We Never Heard Of.

list curated by a Nigerian.

Being a Nigerian, I take much pride in every of these inventions, not beceause the inventors are Nigerians, but because they collectively proved the point that “wherever there is a will there is a way.“

Without further ado, let’s begin to peep each men one at a go.

1. Silas Adekunle

Silas Adekunle was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK at about 11 years old. He spent much of his childhood obsessed with science and technology, playing with Lego robot kits and watching YouTube videos to get ideas for simple robots he could build himself at home.

Now 27, Adekunle is the CEO and founder of a robotics company that he says has raised $10 million in funding. He also built what he calls the world’s first gaming robot, which impressed Apple executives enough that, in 2017, the tech giant signed an exclusive distribution deal with Adekunle’s UK-based company, Reach Robotics. Apple now sells the robots at $250 a pop.

2. Yusuf Oladipupo B.

Yusuf Bilesanmi is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur who went from leaving LASU to becoming the first recipient of the “One-to-Watch” Award at the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation event. His invention, ShiVent, is a ventilator for patients with respiratory difficulties (as in COVID-19).

He also founded Eja-Ice, a refrigeration and solar-powered cold chain company that has been helping local women fish retailers minimize fish waste due to erratic power supply since 2018.

3. Jelani Aliyu.

Jelani is the Senior Creative Designer of the US General Motors. This Sokoto Muslim man designed the Chevrolet Volt in 2007 which has become one of the most admired American cars globally.

4. Phillip Emegweali

This chap has been living in the United States of America for many years is recognized worldwide and has been voted “Father of Super-computing”.

Philip Emeagwali is a computer scientist who is best known for utilizing the connection machine and 65,536 microprocessors to achieve 3.1 billion calculations per second, the fastest computational record at the time.

It was unveiled on an article by Times magazine that Philip Emeagwali has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein. Hard to believe? Read here.

5. Oviemo Ovadje.

Awarded the Best African Scientist in 1995, Oviemo Ovadje is well-known for developing a medical device called EATSET.

EATSET, Emergency Antilogous Transfusion Set, is a useful tool in the management of patients who hitherto died from internal bleeding such as ruptured entopic pregnancies, road traffic accidents and aneurysmal ruptures, according to WHO reports of Geneva trials of the device carried out 1996.

Oviemo won the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Gold Medal for his unique scientific work.

6. Muhammed Bah Abba.

Mohammed Bah Abba (1964–2010) is a teacher from northern Nigeria who developed the pot-in-pot refrigerator in the 1990s. This refrigerator is extremely simple and does not require power, making it suitable for use in dry hot environments without easy access to electricity or repairs.

7. Shehu Saleh Balami

At such a young age (26), Shehu Saleh Balami invented and launched a solid-fuel rocket at the new Kaduna Millennium City Road in Kaduna State in 2008. He is a graduate of Mechanical engineering at the Federal University of technology Minna, Niger State.

Shehu Saleh came up with the idea of creating a rocket which could run on solid fuel and he was as well successful with it.

8. The Four Girls

Back in 2012, Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and Bello Eniola, four teenage girls in secondary school developed a generator that’s powered with urine and showcased it at Maker Faire Africa.

1 litre of urine gives 6 hours of electricity.

9. Ejikeme P. Nwosu

Ejikeme Nwodu patented an equipment that converts urine into flammable gases, biomethane and hydrogen-rich gases, with 100% indigenous technological inputs.

His Innovation was awarded an Invention Patent Right of Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2014 while the abstract was published in 2005 by the world’s largest scientific society – the American Chemical Society.

10. Jarlath Udoudo Umoh.

Jarlath Umoh is a vetenarian who worked especially on the epidemiology of rabies. His studies on the dissemination of rabies virus in tissues, led to the development of the use of skin biopsy for in-vitram diagnosis of rabies in 1983.

Umoh is currently the Provost, College of Veterinary Surgeons, Nigeria. And was also said to have won eight prizes as an undergraduate student at Ahmadu Bello University and the Beecham – Phi Zeta Research Award as a postgraduate student at the University of Missouri.

11. Omowumi Sadik.

Omowunmi Sadik invented micro-electrode biosensors that can detect foreign materials. This bi-sensors can be used to spot drugs or explosives.

She earned its patent in 2006. Omowunmi is an alumni of UNILAG where she earned a Bachelor and Master’s degree in Chemistry. She is currently a professor at Binghamton University in Upstate, New York, where she is formulating technology that will recycle metal ions from waste for industrial and environmental purposes.

Wrap-up..

Year by year, scientists – find a problem and – step up to profer solutions that would increase efficiency or save lives, even. And that Nigerians, too, are making it to the lists of these amazing scientists tells us that ingenuity is a quality that cuts across barriers, and not one that’s confined to specific regions or ethnicity.

God bless Nigeria!