Anthony Lawrence was among two other kids who were celebrated at the last edition of Indomie Independence Day Awards—an annual fete of children who have been found to demonstrate acts of bravery.
‘Heroes’ they call them, or at least, that is the term with which the organizers and promoters of the event, Dufil Prima Foods, describes them and branded the event since inception in 2008.
But for Lawrence, it was a big night and the branding did not matter. All eyes were on him as he danced to traditional tunes that announced his entrance into the giant hall at Federal Palace Hotel. Of course, it was also his parents’ big moment as they tagged along with their under-15-years-old son.
Now finally on the stage, all lights and prominence were on him. As he receives his plaque and other items, his feelings were better felt than expressed: “Thank you Indomie”, he stuttered before a crowd of the great and the good.
Lawrence was honoured for displaying creative ingenuity leading to the creation of a prototype police van, with sirens and a remote control to make it move and wail. Such awards usually fall in the ‘Intellectual Bravery’ category.
But that was not his first creation. The lad told journalists that he has a natural talent for making cars. “When I sleep, I see some cars in my dreams. When I wake up, I’ll start to manufacture the car. I pick my materials from the dustbin,” he muttered into reporters’ midgets and added that his father helps him with funds.
“My daddy buys superglue and anything I need.”
Appreciating Dufil Prima Foods for the recognition, Lawrence who at the time was a junior school student in Osu Technical College Mbano, Owerri, Imo State, and aspires to be an engineer, said things like that were not taught in the school.
“Sometimes when I get up early in the morning, I’ll see this boy sleepless, using his scissors to do these things. So, He said ‘dad, this thing you see me doing, please, I need money tomorrow. I want to buy gum, I want to buy some old, used cartons, pans.’ I do give him money, said his father, an electrical technician and small-scale poultry farmer.
He went on to share more of the boy’s exploits and stated that as at when this interview was conducted little Lawrence was on his way to constructing an aircraft and what was left were the ‘electronic gadgets that will lift that aircraft.’
“He controls it with a remote which he constructed. When I get to Imo State, I’m going straight to the governor to show him all these things,” he said speaking on getting support for his son’s development.
As he spoke, this reporter reminded him of other Nigerians who had novel inventions and developed it to a working stage but were neglected and have since remained forgotten. The reporter wanted to know if it worries him that his son might end up like the rest, especially since he mentioned a common name the others believed in too—the government.
More troubling for me was Lawrence’s request; “I want the government, any person that can help me develop my dreams to help me manufacture a big car.”
His plea came from a place of innocence and perhaps because he had just stood before a crowd to receive an award (which to the discerning, could be for promotion) he had the illusion that the government cares about his surefooted exploits.
But those who have tried Lawrence know better. The boy’s police van was a little few of the potentially great inventions that had come out of Nigeria but were killed because the government, both state and federal refused to fund them.
Seven years ago, the story of Durojaiye Kehinde Obasanjo made the news. He had developed a car that was intended to move on land, water, and air. The project was started in 2009 and took him two months and two weeks to get to a working stage. By 2013, Obasanjo was able to get it to move on land and water, but getting it to fly was the problem…he needed funds.
“Unfortunately, my financial capability cannot complete the flying aspect”, he told SaharaReportersTV in a 2013 interview when he was seen soliciting funds from Lagosians who were amazed at the creation and wanted a demonstration.
The invention which drew the attention of the media when he started driving it around Lagos, had a locally built engine, and Obasanjo said he had the technical know-how to complete the project, but funding was an impediment.
“I need about N15 million to fly it and make it stable on air. It will move on land, move on the see, and fly perfectly. I need nothing less than N15 million. At the stage of the project, the aviation enthusiast had spent N950, 000, and the funds were from demonstrating the project to people, family donations, and selling video CDs,” he said.
To get the needed funds, he approached banks, the state, and federal governments as well as the private sector, but no response came from anywhere, he said.
“This year (2013) I met with Lagos and Ogun state governments, they promised to send delegates to inspect the project and I’m still expecting,” he said. Continuing, he said he met with them in February of that year, and he was still expecting them by August when the interview was conducted.
“The federal government also sent me a letter that they would get in touch with me when the need arises. I’m expecting them. They asked me to continue the project,” he adds.
Nigeria has an electricity problem—one that governments perpetually use during campaigns—either to increase megawatt generation or build supporting infrastructure. But it had a chance (and still does) to solve this problem if a little and genuine interest had been shown to Babaetsetunokan Orighoye electricity-generating device called PABOT Engine—a renewable power plant.
Orighoye’s Unique Renewable Energy could generate power within the range of 5KVA, 10 KVA, 15 KVA, 20 KVA to 5 megawatts, which can also scale up to generate megawatts of power for the national grid. It has also been described as eco-friendly, making it significant in addressing or reducing climate change effects, and can also be installed anywhere.
However, for over 10 years since 2010, the Delta State origin has been trying to get funds from his state government as well as the federal government to further the project and mass produce it for Nigerians. But the only help his state has given him was to facilitate his trip to exhibit the project at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology’s Technology and Innovation Exposition in Abuja.
Top politicians he met at the Abuja expo, like Ogbonnaya Onu, reportedly promised to help him. The ministry also promised to provide grants to enable him to scale up the production of the generator. But as usual, nothing has happened to date. Although Orighoye has secured a patent for his creation, investors are yet to show any interest.
As a 300-Level student in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ille Ife, Osun State, he manufactured other machines beneficial to the agricultural sector including palm fruit blender for kitchen purposes, cassava-peeling machine, weed-clearing machine, vegetable, and fruit slicing machine also for kitchen use and a multi-purpose planting machine for cassava and yam.
All these reportedly occurred in 2003. Fast-forward to 2019, a man with such talents was said to be languishing in poverty and overwhelmed with unmet family responsibilities.
“I have sacrificed almost all my money for the research activities… I am being faced with lots of financial challenges for I am giving my all to the research, which has led to untold hardship for me and my family, as I cannot meet our basic needs such as feeding, clothing, shelter and even caring for my children’s education.
“I am appealing to the federal and state governments for financial assistance to develop the invention for mass utilization by the people, who are in dire need of reliable power supply,” he told Vanguard. “The federal government knows about my invention…,” he adds.
Obasanjo and Orighoye’s story are just a few. Late last year, a secondary graduate’s invention drew wild attention. With no background in engineering, Emeka Nelson, 26, created a hydropower generator, with a maximum capacity of 1000 Watts and a voltage that fluctuates between 220 and 240, he told the BBC. Emeka has also invented a machine that can transform waste into petrol, diesel as well as into tiles and roofing sheets.
Other inventions by Nigerians reported in 2019 were a luxury tricycle (kekenapep) with doors, a tricycle powered by solar energy, and another powered by electricity as electric vehicles are beginning to emerge.
But the questions are, why are they not on Nigerian roads, why are there more Bajaj tricycles in Nigeria? Why does Nigeria rank amongst the highest importers of Bajaj transport products including Tricycle and Bajaj Motorcycles?
“When compared to the rest of the world, even the rest of Africa, many of these inventions are not ground-breaking. Investors would invest in something they see a chance of profitability in. Only the government can invest in these inventions, it wouldn’t necessarily be for returns on the short run, but to improve upon and encourage local inventors to spring up,” said Sydney, founder of Cash Box.
He said the government needs to do more to encourage local investors, stating that when the government takes the first step, then investors can follow suit.
“The government should create a fund to support inventions, improve the state of our university of technologies, give our inventors the support they need to be able to improve on their inventions. I believe they should fund it, if not for anything, at least to encourage our local inventors to keep doing more research and development, and in the nearest future it would become a profitable project,” he said.
But Frank Eleanya, BusinessDay’s tech analyst views it differently. He believes that the idea that the government should fund tech start-ups is not tenable because “it has a lot of things that the government is doing.”
Hence, for him, tech start-ups require infrastructure and the enabling environment for their businesses to thrive and invariably attract investors to help fund their projects.
“What start-ups need is not funding from the government. They need good roads, they need light, an enabling environment essentially. If you look at start-ups that government has funded, most of them got funded maybe with USD10,000 dollars or USD50, 000. How much is USD10, 000 for a business that wants to thrive? If you get USD100, 000 right now as a business, you’re not likely to last as in the next two years because of operational cost,” Eleanya
Investors are looking for an environment that enables businesses and makes it easy enough for their businesses to grow and an environment that encourages the innovation, according to him. “They need to create that channel,” he said, and added that government could begin with making innovation relevant in schools.
“The school angle comes in. So, start-ups can actually collaborate with a State University and they come up with an innovation together and also most importantly what start-ups need is collaboration across the board. No start-up with an innovation can work it alone.” he further said.
“So, it is not a government thing. What you need are investors with bigger money who are not risk-averse and can give you time to build. The government doesn’t have that kind of money. So, the kind of money you need to build an innovation government cannot give it to you,” he adds.
Desmond Okon
