Last week I discussed the need to encourage our children, especially the girl child, to embrace STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and how that could help the child function effectively in today’s and tomorrow’s digital world and help engender sustainable development for the nation. A few days after my article a news broke that highlighted, in a concrete way, the link between STEM, the girl child, and sustainable development, in a way my article couldn’t have.
Eniola Shokunbi’s air filter
During the week, the media was awash with the news of a 12-year-old Nigerian girl schooling in the US, Eniola Shokunbi, who designed and developed a simple yet effective air filter system that has the potential to eliminate over 99% of airborne viruses like the COVID-19 thereby improving the air quality in classrooms and other public places.
Scientists at the University of Connecticut and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted rigorous tests on the air device to confirm it truly can eliminate 99% of airborne viruses and that it is safe for use.
State support for viable inventions
The state of Connecticut, US, was so impressed with the invention that the Connecticut State Bond Commission voted $11.5 million in funding to produce the air filter system for schools in the state. And to think the invention sprang from a school assignment. Reports say pupils from the MacDonough STEM Academy in Middletown were assigned tasks to create a solution to enhance school safety during potential future pandemics. Shokunbi’s filter was so good and effective that it found immediate use in the real world hence the state’s willingness to bet circa $12 million on it. The air filter’s design is said to combine “creativity with affordability.” The production cost for a unit of Shokunbi’s air device is put at around $60 compared to other air filters in the market.
The air filter has helped solve real-life problems. One, it has helped her school and other schools in the state, and indeed other interested schools or homes across the US, solve the problem of clean germ-free air. Second, by removing 99% of airborne viruses, the environment is healthier, thus saving schools and the state millions of dollars in health bills. The invention will also create more blue-collar jobs for the mass production of the device.
A learning opportunity for the Nigerian govt
Shokunbi, her parents, Nigerians, her school, the state of Connecticut, environmentalists, and, indeed, the world can be proud of this. Talking about pride, I suspect that if Shokunbi had made her discovery here in Nigeria, she wouldn’t have been this celebrated, a sad commentary on our priorities, as a nation. Doubtless, we would have seen several headlines about her invention and a few interviews in the dailies or even on national TV. And possibly a politician or two would try to share the limelight with her to score cheap popularity. But beyond these paltry gestures, Shokunbi will become another forgotten chapter in the country’s history.
The many missed opportunities by govt
We have had so many ‘Shokunbis’ in our national history that we have allowed to go to waste; we never took advantage of their talents. Remember the four little girls some 12 years ago who invented a urine-powered generator? Eniola Bello (15), Adebola Duro-Aina (14), Abiola Akindele (14), and Oluwatoyin Faleke (14) were secondary school kids when they developed their generator. Like Shokunbi’s air filter, it was a practical invention with great potential to solve a real-life national problem. But unlike the government of Connecticut which immediately saw the possibilities and tapped into them, the Nigerian government failed to take advantage. The nation suffers from an epileptic power supply, constant fuel scarcity, increasing fuel prices, and regular occurrence of carbon monoxide poisoning from generator fumes. So, the urine-powered generator was the perfect opportunity for the government to explore a less expensive alternative for power generation. Besides, it was also an opportunity to harness and utilise the girls’ talents and encourage their natural ability to create useful technology.
Government support could come in several forms and does not have to be monetary. The government can use its clout to give Nigerian inventors global exposure that will help them attract funding or gain access to global research facilities where they can collaborate with other people in their field.
Highlighting STEM’s commercial viability
It is important to reiterate that encouraging our children to embrace STEM is great, but beyond that, there must be a system to ensure that whatever ideas or inventions they develop can move from the classrooms and research labs to the market where they become useful in solving real-life problems. It is only that possibility that will energise our young ones to consider the STEM fields.
There are many Nigerian inventors today, young, old, male, and female, who have created useful stuff and were expectant of government support to build on their inventions and make them commercial successes that have been left disappointed. They were simply used as PR tools and quickly overlooked, left to their own devices.
Today, many Nigerian inventors are celebrated globally by other nations and big organisations who value their inventions and see the possibilities of those inventions to transform lives and engender sustainable development. The list is endless. Shokunbi is the latest example. Remember Silas Adekunle, the Nigerian inventor who created the world’s first intelligent gaming robot; Jessica Matthews, who invented Soccket, a power-generating soccer ball that can generate and store power as you play it; Dr. Seyi Oyesola who co-invented a solar-powered mobile mini hospital called Hospital in a Box or CompactOR; Dr Otu Oviemo Ovadje, who invented the Emergency AutoTransfusion Device or Eatset; or Aloysius Anaebonam with 12 US pharmaceutical patents. The last time I checked, no Nigerian inventor had been awarded any national honours.
There are many more Nigerians who in the coming years will invent groundbreaking inventions, either here in Nigeria or abroad. And one can only hope that the government will rejig its approach and handling of such great minds to ensure Nigerians benefit from their inventions. In spite of this lack of support and encouragement though, STEM education remains critical to societal transformation and development.
As we celebrate the latest Nigerian tech wizkid, let me congratulate Eniola Shokunbi for her great invention. I believe there is more to come from this young brilliant mind. For her invention, she is our Tech Actor
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