Mr Jelani Hydar Aliyu, a Nigerian who designed the Chevrolet Volt, a state-of-the-art electric car, in this interview, tells the story of his life and the (OFR) national honour he received last week. Excerpts:

How did you feel when you learned you would be awarded the national honour?

The very first thing that I felt was actually pride, the pride to be a Nigerian. Words cannot explain how happy I am and how proud I am to be from Nigeria. The way I see it this is an award not just on an individual, but it was an award to a story that began long time ago. So, this is a culmination of a story that began quite awhile back. It was an award not just to myself but to my family and all the people that have contributed to making it possible for me to have come this far.


How did you begin to draw and what’s your inspiration?

I started drawing as far back as I can remember. I have been drawing probably since I was able to pick a pencil and hold a paper and start doodling and drawing things, people, cars and anything around me. And I got a lot of support from my parents, my brother. I know that my father and brother whenever they would travel away they would buy a lot of magazines and other materials that helped me and helped my imagination.

Also in particular, a family friend and relative, Sanusi Babagoro, really played a great role in helping me develop my talent. I remember he would spend a lot of time with me encouraging me, helping me develop my talent and we talked about many, many things. He really played a great role in what I have become.

At what point in your life and career did you have your break?

Well, I think there are three. The first would be at school when I really got admitted into the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, United States so that was a major point, I had always wanted to do car design, so getting admission to that college was really the first big step into becoming a car designer. The second would be getting employed with General Motors as a car designer and the third point was coming out with the design of Chevrolet Volt, which happened as a result of working in the Advance Concept Studios, where the major future vehicles are conceived. So, those were the three major points in my career...


How did General Motors identified your talent?

Well, every year when students graduate the companies come looking for people they would like to hire, so we put out our thesis, designs and they would come and look at them. We would talk to them and they looked at our work, then they would decide on whom to hire. So GM came and a lot of other companies also came and they were impressed with what I have done and GM decide to give me an interview which led to a job offer.


How many awards or recognition have you received as a result of this endeavour?

Well, there were some instances of recognition at school based on the projects we did with other companies. But most of them were after the design of the Chevrolet Volt…


What is your message to the Nigerian youths?

My message to them would be to really understand what they are good at. That’s the key to success. Understand what your talent is and do all you can to develop that. Secondly, try to identify people in your family, in your community that can help you get there. Really, put all your efforts into the things you are good at.

Traditionally, in terms of human development it is okay, you are good in ABC, but you are not good in EFG so maybe you should not spend more time on the things that you are not good at so that you could bring up to par. Well, what that does is at best, it makes you mediocre. So, now you are good at something you don’t really want to do and you didn’t put a lot of effort into what you could have been great at.

So, my advice is to identify what you are good at - not also neglecting the other stuff - and put all your efforts in it so that you would be the best that you can be. The things you are not so good at let someone cover that area, so that together each person will play his or her role to bring the society up, the nation up, the world up. But concentrate on what you are good at, usually it is the things that you find yourself wanting to do without anybody pushing you to do them. And then never give up, no matter what the challenges are.


What do you think would be the future of automobile design?

The ultimate is really rich and very far. My degree in college is in industrial design and I majored in transportation design. And when you look at Industrial Design it is about, they say, it’s a tool for economic growth. It’s about understanding the challenges the people face every day and coming out with solutions to them.

Transportation and car design happen to be part of that. As we move into the future definitely there will be more fuel-efficient vehicles, more electrical vehicles, vehicles that are kind to the environment; vehicles that don’t necessarily use fossil fuel, but beyond that there are probably going to be things that you can’t even imagine.

There is a lot of development in robotics, who says in the future we will not...right now we have cars that are increasingly more computerized. You go into a car now it has a lot of gadgets and sensors and gives a lot of information. I see us as going beyond driving cars that are computerized into computers as movers, because it’s all about technology, more software, more integrated systems.

So the vehicles of the future will be more intone with the environment and intone with the system, a lot of development is being done in autonomous vehicle, whereby the car just takes you to where you want to go. With global satellite navigation systems now we won’t be too far...Right now there are cars that sense another car near, in front of you and breaks for you, cars that park themselves for you. So, in the future it wouldn’t be surprising that you would get into some type of machine, you tell it where you want to go and it takes you there...


But how full-proof and safe would this technology be?

It will be very, very safe because the technology now is getting more sophisticated. Right now with the GPS systems it gives you direction, it tells you how to get to any spot, it knows the road and it tells you everything. And there is a lot of work being done to hook to satellite systems with vehicle-drive systems. So, it will be safe and I am sure before it goes to the public there will be a lot of testing to it.


Who is your role model?

My two biggest role models have been my dad and my mum. Alhaji Haidara Aliyu and Hajiya Hauwa’u Aliyu. My father was an educationist and after he retired he played a big role in the mid-90s as Nigeria was going back to democracy and he was one of the national electoral commissioners. So, he played a significant role in ensuring that there were really free and fair elections that time.

So I derive inspirations from him in how to deal with world challenges. He loves reading a lot. I learnt that from him and he had a small library, going through encyclopedias and a lot of books he had collected over the years. And that opened up a lot of the world to me in terms of understanding what was happening out there.

And then, our mother was really a wonderful mother. Right from the start, she brought us up to really know what was good and what was not; how to relate with people and the importance of relationships and the importance of being good to the world and live in harmony with people close to you and the world in general.


What are your hobbies?

Well, my hobby is my work, outside my work I like reading.


You are just arriving from the United States so we want you to give comparison of life in the two climes?

Each country has its beauty. I grew up here and what fascinates me here is really the culture and how inter-connected socially people are – how close people are. So, the bottom-line is wherever people are they do the best they know how. So when things don’t work it’s hard over the years I am beginning to find it hard to blame the individual.

People always try to do the best they can sometimes the system isn’t set up… I strongly believe that some of the challenges faced in Nigeria are not because of an inherent human lack of capability. I truly believe some of the reasons why things don’t work here is because they are not meant for this part of the world.

For example, some technologies find their way here as conceived and created for other parts of the world where the temperature and climate are totally different. So a system that was transplanted into a very humid and hot climate may need more maintenance that is probably beyond human capability. So, if a system doesn’t work in Africa it wasn’t meant for Africa.

But an interesting thing happening is technology has a way to go beyond some of these challenges and we are beginning to see that. I remember when I first came to the United States for my undergraduate studies to call my people back home that was before the cell phones, it was nightmare. I had to stay like 2am or 3am dialing, redialing until I would finally get through and I would talk for five minutes because it was too expensive and even that at times it would come on and off, and everybody would have to gather at one place so I could talk to everybody. Now I can pick up the phone and call anybody.

So twenty years ago the technology was not meant for climate or our culture and there was little penetration of landlines to people but now with new technology we have more connectivity and it’s cheaper and more effective. The same thing I believe is going to happen with electricity, somebody will come up with a new technology and it’s already happening with solar energy.

Imagine solar panels would be so cheap that it takes a couple of hundreds of naira to put on your roof and anybody can afford it; the sun is always there – no need for central power systems, anybody could have his or her own power. The same thing could happen to transportation, there is a new technology that makes a car for a couple of thousands of naira or new road networks that make it easy to construct and there would be no need for maintenance. So through technology a lot of the problems in Africa would be solved.

What we need to do now is to identify who the talented people are among the youth that can be nurtured and tutored; how can we identify these youths, and some of us who are a little bit older help them get through these new technologies. There is this invention that someone did, a water filter, very cheap. You can take any water, no matter how polluted and then purify it. It’s a simple technology, not complicated energy intensive technology – but it’s just a nanotechnology filter and the way the elements are made there are holes that a bacteria cannot find its way through.

Just take some dirty water pour it through the filter and you have purified water. We keep out all the bacteria and viruses out of the water. I hear that in Kenya, people are coming up with solutions and programs for computers and cell phones for African applications…if you take an individual you put him in front of a computer in New York, and you take another individual and put him on the computer in, let’s say Dogon Daji, those two people will have the same capability. The computer levels the playing field, so the more we invest in technology, I am not talking about pouring billions of dollars, but understanding that potential and letting our youths lose on it, it will be amazing.

They would do things I can’t even think of. Because every generation is like coming up with new things, my child… Sometimes we can’t believe it, my wife and I will buy a new phone and we can’t figure it out, we go through the manual to find how it works, but when we give it to our daughter or our son, they just come out with how it works. So lets take advantage of that. I am not saying there aren’t other ways but technology will really help us move forward more than we can imagine.

http://www.sundaytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11453&catid=1&Itemid=32

Congrats to the guy.. I always tell people the same thing the guy said "identify what you are naturally good at and build your future towards that part"..

Am hapi 4u.every drm is achievable

D guy is rili gud.

I always tell people the same thing the guy said "identify what you are naturally good at and build your future towards that part"..[img]http://www.forexchartingsoftware.info/eurogamer.gif[/img]

My ibo brothers this guy is an aboki ooh. Lol...

UncleJJ: My ibo brothers this guy is an aboki ooh. Lol...

Meaning??

UncleJJ: My ibo brothers this guy is an aboki ooh. Lol...

Aliyu continue the good work bt don't show υя aboki inside Oº°˚˚° ☺.

UncleJJ: My ibo brothers this guy is an aboki ooh. Lol...

attention seeking cat

Kslib:
Meaning??

Good things can still come out of Nazareth!

u pple in the south make me laugh .u think hausa pple re not smart n intelligent sha,continue thinking dat rubbish .i pity una ignorance.am not aboki n i ve friends who interm of everytin re better than u.

HAPPY FOR ALIYU.ONCE D passion is there,a lot could b achieved.

Many peeps in d south who has never been to d north think all north are illitrates. Yes, i knw d south go to school more dan d north, bt d northerners dat has d privilege to go to school are always good. Ask d southerners dat school in d north dey wil tel u more.
To Aliyo, more grease to ur elbow.

Great. i love your work on cruze too

lagerwhenindoubt:

nice car

can someone please summarise

Ok

He don try

he is hausa fulani...nairalanders jump on ur tribalistic train...lol

Nice one Aliyu.

Hausas are innovative..

The hausa/fulani hating-a$$ Nairalanders will not comment on this thread cos it is an aboki guy dat posses this great talent

If to say na abubakar shekau story na dem for don yanpian for here dey rain avalanches of abuses and hatred on the hausas, e dey pain dem deep down to they marrow say d nigga na aboki.

Oh well, jump inside hell hater

You ain't even started yet!!!

Garri_Activist: The hausa/fulani hating-a$$ Nairalanders will not comment on this thread cos it is an aboki guy dat posses this great talent

If to say na abubakar shekau story na dem for don yanpian for here dey rain avalanches of abuses and hatred on the hausas, e dey pain dem deep down to they marrow say d nigga na aboki.

Oh well, jump inside hell hater

You ain't even started yet!!!

The yorubas and igbos na.. they love to blame others but themselves for every ills in this country.

WHATS SPECIAL ABOUT THE DESIGN? IF UR LOOKING FOR DESIGNERS, WE FULL HERE BEREKETE.

victorazy: WHATS SPECIAL ABOUT THE DESIGN? IF UR LOOKING FOR DESIGNERS, WE FULL HERE BEREKETE.

Which one have you designed?

victorazy: WHATS SPECIAL ABOUT THE DESIGN? IF UR LOOKING FOR DESIGNERS, WE FULL HERE BEREKETE.

even toy tire u no fit design

honeric01:



The yorubas and igbos na.. they love to blame others but themselves for every ills in this country.

this thread/rope for don reach page 10 by now!

He stole the patent from Honda