Jelani Aliyu, hails from Sokoto State, Nigeria and is General
Motors Lead Exterior Designer and the designer of the Chevy Volt. General
Motors is the world’s largest automobile maker. The car has been described
as an American Revolution and one of the hottest concepts in the design
line. Jelani was born in 1966 in Kaduna, to Alhaji Aliya Haidara and Sharifiya
Hauwa’u Aliyu. The fifth of seven children, theirs is a very close-knit family.
For him, it was an amazing experience growing up in Sokoto, surrounded
by the rich culture of the people and the state and enjoying excellent
access to the latest and international information.
From 1971 to 1978, he attended Capital School, Sokoto, an excellent
school and this served as a very productive educational experience for him.
In 1978, he gained admission into Federal Government College, Sokoto,
from where he graduated in 1983 with an award as the best in Technical
Drawing. Jelani was privileged to meet and make many good friends from all parts of
the country and beyond during this time. He had tremendous
encouragement and mentoring from his family and friends and his creative
art develop the ed. He drew a lot, designed his own cars, and even built
scale models of them, complete with exteriors and interiors. After FGC, he got admission into the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to
study Architecture, but soon discovered that curriculum did not support
his future vision and plans. After considering other institutions in Nigeria and their academic
programmes, he concluded that only one of them had the study criteria
that would support his future goals. The institution in which he chose to
pursue his education was one he felt offered the best creative programmes
and had experience that would give him the best foundation required to
study Automobile Design abroad. That institution was the Birnin Kebbi Polytechnic. He was there from 1986 to 1988 and earned an associate
degree in Architecture, with an award as Best All-Round Student. While
there, he did some in depth research into home design and construction,
looking into materials and structures that would be most compatible with
our environment and climate; buildings that would stay cool in a hot
environment with little, or no artificial electrical air conditioning. Upon graduation from the polytechnic, Jelani worked for a while at the Ministry
of Works, Sokoto. In 1990, Aliyu moved to Detroit, Michigan to enroll at the College for
Creative Studies in Detroit under a Sokoto Schorlarship board
sponsorship. Having always wanted to study Automobile Design, this was
a dream come true and an absolutely fascinating experience. The course
was very practical and emphasis was put on creativity and the development
of new designs to provide solutions . He received his degree in automobile design in 1994. In 1994 he began his career with the design staff of General Motors. He
worked on the Buick Rendezvous and was the lead exterior designer of the
Pontiac G6. He also worked on the Astra with General Motors’ Opel
Division. With his brilliant work on the design of the Chevrolet Volt, which was
unveiled in 2007, Jelani Aliyu is considered by many to be the super star of
the General Motors renaissance.

Wow, he a genius like me, this Nigeria is just too hard, if yu want to innovate if your government is not giving yu funds it's your village witches that will be troubling yu.

Guess Nigerians and Africans in large are these creative,a lot of Africans handling big post and commanding higher respect in the World at large
The only think you and I have to do is just to unleash our hidden potential

that's good news to hear, i am proud to be a Nigerian