I didn't really know where to post this, so I decided to put it here in Culture. Who knows, our culture may have something to do with it.

I'll start with a controversial question.
Is it possible that Nigerians are incapable of producing true geniuses? How come we have never produced any outstanding individual that the whole world has stood up in unison and repeatedly applauded? How come we are always 'potentially great', but somehow never able to produce true greatness, and even when we do something close, we're totally unable to sustain it? I'm talking about Nigeria among fellow African and third world nations mind you. Let's leave the West out of this for now.

Watching a certain Malian, Seydou Keita play for my favourite team, FC Barcelona. It just occured to me that, aside a certain golden age in Nigerian football supposedly birthed by a Dutchman called Westerhof, our players have never really done well on the biggest of stages. In fact, my earliest memory of Seydou Keita was at the Nigeria '99 World Youth Championship, where he almost single-handedly destroyed our team in the quarter-finals. Surprisingly none of the Nigerians who played in that tournament is still representing the nation, at least I can't think of any.

Come back home to Africa, where we are supposedly the 'giant'. We haven't even won more than 2 African Cups and 2 African Club cups, as big as we have always claimed to be. In fact, on the world stage, when we have had men like George Weah, Abedi Pele, Samuel Eto'o, and Didier Drogba, repeatedly applauded on the world stage, the best we have ever seemed to muster was a certain Kanu Nwankwo, who unfortunately did not play at his full potential due to a heart condition that affected him somewhat. Jay Jay Okocha, while globally acclaimed as a dribbling wizard, never won a single individual honour in his entire playing career, not even African Footballer of the Year.

In other sports, we have the Kenyans who have basically owned long distance running for ages. Apart our Commonwealth efforts, we seem to have not been able to do beyond Chioma Ajunwa's random gold medal at Atlanta '96. Yet somehow in the same competition, a certain Josiah Thugwane managed to win an Olympic Gold for SA in the marathon, despite not having a serious pedigree in international competition.

Let's leave sports and come back to other fields of endeavour. With over a hundred and fifty universities, and so many graduates who have attended schools from all over the world, even shattered academic records, but have never done anything beyond winning school prizes, at least not outside their academic communities. One would think that, should there have been an African Nobel Laureate in science, it should be a Nigerian. Yet we don't hear of Nigerians who even come close, except some seemingly controversial fellows like Emeagwali and the GAGUT chap (I forget his name).

Yet, surprisingly, we seem to have many Nigerian academics all over the world, with Phds and whatnot. We have won the odd prize or two, particularly in literature though, however I can't really say that Nigerian writers, even the prize winning ones, have particularly evoked the same feeling that a Baldwin, Fanon, Cleaver, or maybe even a Mongo Beti have done. I'm not expert but . . . I'm sure you catch my drift.

How about the business world? Let's look at Africa. Sawiris (Orascom), Mo Ibrahim (Celtel), Strive Masiyawa (Econet), Phutuma Nhleko (MTN). Can you exactly mention Adenuga (Glo) in the same breath as these men? But they're all black men and one Arab dude. No Oyinbos. Well, you may say we have Dangote. Erm . . . is it really the same? I don't think so.

Politics nko? Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Abdel Nasser, Jerry Rawlings, Jomo Kenyatta, even our friend Ghadaffi. We haven't done any better here, or at least we don't seem to have produced anyone close to that stature. All our politicians have dubious precedents, even the so-called morally upright ones. After all, they're the ones who say they are morally upright. Buhari has Abacha's son in his fold, running for Kano State gov, and Ribadu is functioning like a JK flip flop. Running for elections under the umbrella of men who he pursued with the weight of the law just a couple of years ago? Excuse me for my confusion, but all our best men have either been exposed as hypocrites at one point or the other, or are constantly posturing with no indication that they truly have the balls to take us to the next level.

There's been a lot of criticism in Nigeria for the Somolus, the South African ad couple, who had a splendid holiday in SA, and unabashedly proclaimed 'SA is the true giant of Africa'. I must admit, I was embarrased by Bimbo Somolu's gushing praise for SA, a nation which all of us Nigerians hold in contempt. After all, we all know that the blacks in SA are a bunch of morons who are spared their blushes by the whites who built up the country, and continue to run the place. Abi no be so?

But then, are we really justified in our indignation towards the Somolus? Could it be possible that any of us may have just done the same, for the right price, or maybe not for any amount? I can't start to recount how many times I have travelled out of Nigeria and felt exactly the way the Somolus may have felt. Of course, it's not on for me to start running my mouth as a true Nigerian So what do you guys think? Are we Nigerians condemned to mediocrity?

I dont know what you smoke, but IMO, Amuneke, Okunowo, Mikel Obi,Kanu were/are all better than Seydou Keita.

To answer your question: Yes, Wole Soyinka is a true Genius, Awolowo was one, Barth Nnaji nko, Emeagwali nko.



Whatever it is you are smoking, stop it, it is already clouding your judgment.

^^
Nice comments, many thanks. Next?

1. Define genius. Has Jamaica produced several "geniuses" because they've produced many gold medal winners in sports?

2. Okocha: "Okocha never won the African Player of Year award, becoming arguably the best player never to win the award despite coming second twice in 1998 & 2004. He did however win the inaugural BBC African Footballer of the Year and the successive one, becoming the only player to retain the award and win it more than once. In 2004 he was listed in football legend Pelé's FIFA 100 (a list of the greatest 125 living players of all time). In 2007 he was voted number 12 on the greatest African footballers of the past 50 years list, on a poll conducted by CAF to coincide with their 50th anniversary." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Jay_Okocha

Aren't those individual awards?

I don't claim to know much about football, so I'll desist from dwelling too much on that.

3. How could there possibly have been a Nigerian Nobel laureate in science? Does Africa have a scientific culture? Has the Nigerian government ever given out significant scientific research funding prior to the meager 1% coughed up by Goodluck Jonathan's administration? Do people who study pure sciences that can be rewarded with a Nobel prize get applauded in Nigeria or do they get looked upon as fools while people who go into health care, engineering, finance or law get looked upon as demigods? Does Nigeria have many adequate, high-quality primary and secondary schools comparable even to the elementary, middle, and high schools I attended in America, let alone those academies and magnet schools (Stuyvesant, Bronx high school of science, and the many others listed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Consortium_for_Specialized_Secondary_Schools_of_Mathematics,_Science_and_Technology) attended by future Nobel laureates?

Does Nigeria have 150 high quality universities? Does Nigeria even have 150 medium quality universities? Does Nigeria even have 25 high quality universities? Does Nigeria have 15 high quality universities? Does Nigeria have 10 high quality universities?  etc. etc.

And last, but certainly not least, does Nigeria operate on merit?

4. How was Kwame Nkrumah a political genius? Please read up in more detail about the glaring failings of Nkrumah.

5. How is Ghaddafi a political genius? The Green Book?  Let's be serious.

PhysicsMHD:

1. Define genius. Has Jamaica produced several "geniuses" because they've produced many gold medal winners in sports?

I'm working with this definition, from dictionary.reference.com:

1. an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc.: the genius of Mozart.
2.
a person having such capacity.
3.
a person having an extraordinarily high intelligence rating on a psychological test, as an iq above 140.
4.
natural ability or capacity; strong inclination: a special genius for leadership.
5.
distinctive character or spirit, as of a nation, period, or language.
6.
the guardian spirit of a place, institution, etc.
7.
either of two mutually opposed spirits, one good and the other evil, supposed to attend a person throughout life.
8.
a person who strongly influences for good or ill the character, conduct, or destiny of a person, place, or thing: Rasputin, the evil genius of Russian politics.

So it cuts across arts, science, music, sport, etc, in my view. Also note the reference to Rasputin. A 'genius' doesn't have to have a halo around his/her head, just had to be outstanding at what he or she does. In my view, Usain Bolt's a genius. So is Ronaldo da Lima, or Lionel Messi. Very few people can do the things those guys do.

Many thanks on the Okocha observation. Unfortunately, he didn't win the CAF award, so I still stick to my earlier corollary.

As per fstranger's earlier comment, I didn't say Seydou Keita was better than the listed Nigerian players. But he's definitely more successful. Emmanuel Amuneke and Gbenga Okunowo played for Barcelona as well, with much less success. In fact, on the strength of the evidence available, it appears that Nwankwo Kanu is the most successful Nigerian player ever. But let's put him beside Samuel Eto'o or George Weah.

On the issue of Nobel prize winners, well, we have two black Nobel Laureates in Literature (Derek Walcott) and Economics (William Arthur Lewis) from St Lucia. Would you say the island of St Lucia produces a higher quality of intellectual than Nigeria? I don't think so, even with our institutions of dubious quality. How come we haven't been more successful?

Let's even leave science and tech aside, black people and science don't really mix well, so I'll leave it at that. But then, how come Cheick Diarra is Chairman of Microsoft Africa? He's from Mali. He's a Phd in Engineering and ex-NASA. I'm sure there must be tons of Nigerians who are ex NASA and with Phds in Engineering. You know something interesting? Google has been searching for a country manager for Nigeria for ages. First time they hired someone, they got a Kenyan. He's gone, so now they're searching again. I hope they get a Nigerian this time!

About Nkrumah and Ghadaffi. Fact is, these cats have always been way more popular and charismatic than anybody from Nigeria. This is not about their being good or bad guys. It's just about how acclaimed they are. And business. Let's face it, businessmen from Nigeria have not exactly lit up the continent. I guess people are going to use the government excuse again. However, some of the recognized business facin Africa are even enemies of their home governments. Mo Ibrahim, Naguib Sawiris, and Strive Masiwaya (who lives in exile by the way).

My point is, we produce averagely decent people, solid, hardworking, and intelligent. But with less resources, other African nations seem to have produced a few more interesting people. Which kind of makes us look like little else beyond a tough-talking nation. A feeling I don't like at all.

Please find this genius for me, guys!

1. I don't think we're going to agree because you seem to be driving at something kind of vague or being deliberately disingenuous just to drive home your point - which is just the all too well known fact that Nigeria has never lived up to its potential. But to imply that other black countries have produced a "true genius" and Nigeria has produced nothing but mediocrity, seems ludicrous to me.

2. By the very first thing you posted as your definition of genius:

"1. an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc."

Nigeria already has produced such individuals.

There is already Wole Soyinka, who wrote The Man Died (have you read that? it's flawed, but definitely exceptional) and Chinua Achebe (I know you've read some of his work) who wrote Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease, etc., yet you implied that all of the writers Nigeria has produced are inferior to Eldrige Cleaver and Mongo Beti of all people, which I think is disingenuous. Admittedly Frantz Fanon's and James Baldwin's writings are brilliant and I won't have any problem with someone saying they are better than any of Nigeria's writers. I also have to ask if you've read Elechi Amadi, he's not a genius, but highly original.

With regard to music, there is Fela Kuti. A man who introduced a new sound (Afrobeat) to Africa.


3. I outlined some of the reasons we haven't been more successful in #3 in my previous post. One significant contributing factor is that you can't assert that anybody who can get an education must be in certain lucrative fields. The other is the funding of education and research.

4. Bringing up Cheick Diarra, somebody with a Ph.D in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Howard University, in a discussion of genius, is why I say you are driving at something vague. In the normal sense of the word genius, he only technically qualifies in the sense of someone who probably has an I.Q. above 140, but that's insignificant. Even I have an I.Q. above 140 and I'm Nigerian. What work has Cheick Diarra produced that shows "exceptional natural capacity of intellect" that is "creative and original work in science, art, music,etc."? You do know that his publications can easily be found out on google scholar or ISI web of knowledge, and similar sites? When you find one of his works which meets those criteria, let me know.

What is the significance of being chairman of Microsoft Africa, exactly? A Nigerian, Nosa Omoigui, was at a high position at Microsoft Research at the age of 28: "Omoigui rose quickly through the ranks, working in television and digital media and eventually landing a program manager position at Microsoft Research. At the tender age of 28, he found himself sitting across the table from the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer at high-level product review meetings."

"Prior to founding Nervana, Nosa spent 6 years at Microsoft Research and Microsoft, where he was a Development Manager, Research Manager and designated Technology Strategist."

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2006/02/20/focus2.html

http://gilbanesf.com/speakers.html

Not that I consider Nosa Omoigui a "true genius" because I don't, if I understand the level of genius we're talking about, but this Nigerian was involved in the development of the company's actual products, not just acting as the face of one of it's regional branches.


The same question with regard to Google's country manager for Nigeria. What's the significance exactly? As for the Kenyan who was hired as country manager for Nigeria for Google, are you under the impression that Kenya produces more people who would be qualified for such a position than Nigeria? If so, please substantiate this insinuation.

I don't think Cheick Diarra, Calestous Juma, and similar individuals are geniuses by any of the definitions you posted except the I.Q. test one, which, as I said before, is insignificant.

If we're just talking about scientists with some degree of publicity, how about this individual: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2010/02/introducing_ted_22.html

Is Ndubuisi Ekekwe not Nigerian?

Not that I consider him a "true genius" either.

How about this individual, Robert Okojie, another Nigerian, that NASA is promoting?

http://rt.grc.nasa.gov/main/featured-innovators/dr-robert-s-okojie/
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news-0/125300366497400.xml&coll=2

Not that I consider him a "true genius" but he seems to far exceed Dr. Diarra in meeting the criteria of the definitions of genius found at dictionary.reference.com.

4. I don't understand how anybody can think Muammar Ghaddafi is a political genius. The man is a barely sane (probably not, actually) dictator.

5. Nkrumah had to be overthrown because he was bankrupting his country and becoming totalitarian.

6. If "a person who strongly influences for good or ill the character, conduct, or destiny of a person, place, or thing" is an acceptable definition of genius, then every person who was in any position of government in Nigeria was a genius, especially if strongly influencing the character and destiny of people and places for ill is genius-like activity.

PhysicsMHD:

Even I have an I.Q. above 140 and I'm Nigerian.

Thanks for putting a nationality to that moniker. I always thought you were White, going by Ajanlekoko's logic. Thanks for proving to us mere mortals that you dont have to be White to have an IQ of 140 plus.

You my friend are way smarter than my idol, Richard Feynmann who, with his 123 IQ points, won a nobel prize at a very tender age. I see Nobel Prize in your future.

Talking about Cheick Diarra, somebody with a Ph.D in aerospace engineering from Howard University, I am not sure if the OP knows that the graduate with the highest GPA ever from Howard  Engineering is a Nigerian who went on to complete her PH.D., in robotic Engineering at Caltech. Shouldn't she be considered smarter than Cheick Diarra since they both attended the same crappy college.


What about Professor Kunle Olutokun, not that he is a genius, but truth be told, his individual achievements tower above that of Diarra on any given day.
http://ifastudent-cognitivediary..com/2010/09/kunle-olukotun-ogun-at-stanfordafara-at.html

Not even sure what the OP is trying to get at. his assetions are without merit at all.

What about this guy:

"G. Okikiolu: The excellence of Black persons in Mathematics has not been limited to Americans, the Nigerian George O. Okikiolu works in London and has published 3 books and at least 190 papers, more than any other Black mathematician."

lol@ the Feynman thing. I read that his trouble was actually with verbal/writing parts of tests in Gleick's biography of him, so that actually probably explains the 123 I.Q. thing. He got a very low score on the GRE verbal section according to Gleick's biography. But mathematically, he was clearly way way up there.

Yeah, I forgot Kunle Olutokun.

Also, add the MacArthur award winning (among other awards) John Dabiri, who was made a full professor in 5 years by Caltech.
(http://dabiri.caltech.edu/people/dabiri.html)

Then there's the early Nigerian physicist Alexander Obiefoka Enukora Animalu after whom the Animalu-Heine-Abarenkov model potentials were named.

fstranger3:

What about this guy:

"G. Okikiolu: The excellence of Black persons in Mathematics has not been limited to Americans, the Nigerian George O. Okikiolu works in London and has published 3 books and at least 190 papers, more than any other Black mathematician."

Yeah, but apart from the 93 of his publications recorded at mathsci.net, the other 97 are apparently from his own journal that he started. Not denying that he's a standout, because 93 publications is no mean feat.

PhysicsMHD:

lol@ the Feynman thing. I read that his trouble was actually with verbal/writing tests in Gleick's biography of him, so that actually probably explains the 123 I.Q. thing. He got a very low score on the GRE verbal section according to Gleick's biography. But mathematically, he was clearly way way up there.

Then there's the early Nigerian physicist Alexander Obiefoka Enukora Animalu after whom the Animalu-Heine-Abarenkov model potentials were named.

Yes, you are right. he himself acknowledged that much. I have read classic Feynman twice now and I love the book. Funny enough, he never believed in the whole IQ thing. His sister had an IQ of 140+ and she was no where as brilliant as he was. And very humble.

Yeah, and he is also the only person to have ever had a perfect score on the maths section of Princeton's graduate school entrance exam. And that was when Einstein, Dirac and the rest of them heavyweights were in Princeton. The verbal section killed him.

So you see, I will be looking forward to your Nobel speech in year 20?? All I need is a 5 second acknowledgement as one of those people who always believed in you and encouraged you even in the face of constant attack from our  reetard, but egotistical OAU dropout turn Bristol grad.

fstranger3:

Yes, you are right. he himself acknowledged that much. I have read classic Feynman twice now and I love the book. Funny enough, he never believed in the whole IQ thing. His sister had an IQ of 140+ and she was no where as brilliant as he was. And very humble.

Yeah, and he is also the only person to have ever had a perfect score on the maths section of Princeton's graduate school entrance exam. And that was when Einstein, Dirac and the rest of them heavyweights were in Princeton. The verbal section killed him.

So you see, I will be looking forward to your Nobel speech in year 20?? All I need is a 5 second acknowledgement as one of those people who always believed in you and encouraged you even in the face of constant attack from our  reetard, but egotistical OAU dropout turn Bristol grad.

Yeah, the emphasis on I.Q by some people (such as those high I.Q. societies) is mostly silly. Having an I.Q. of 180 doesn't mean that you'll ever even do anything original or creative. I read that that Marilyn vos Savant, the person with the "highest I.Q in the world" didn't even understand a lot of what she was writing about in her book on Fermat's last theorem: http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/~andrew/PDF/VS.pdf


@ the bold, rofl 

Let's let that little beef die out.

As for winning a high scientific award, I'll try, and I'll mention fstranger in my thank yous (after all, who'll even know who I'm referring to?) if I remember this forum years from now. 

Guys,
Note we are talking about Nigeria in the context of the developing world, the 'rest of us'.
I am particularly looking at Africa and Nigeria in context. How well have we done really, compared to our contemporaries?

I also think you guys are laying a lot of emphasis on IQ and academic intelligence, while I didn't mention it once in my original post.
Think differently for a second.

the guy who won a science award [half a mil] in california for his work on jet propulsion.

dont know his name.

^^^
We seem to have a lot of award winners in the diaspora. What do those award winners do subsequently? Are they typical one-hit wonders? Have anyone of them done anything beyond winning academic prizes?

In fact, outside academics, what are Nigerians doing?

making money any way they can.

getting visa

etc.

AjanleKoko:

Guys,
Note we are talking about Nigeria in the context of the developing world, the 'rest of us'.
I am particularly looking at Africa and Nigeria in context. How well have we done really, compared to our contemporaries?

I also think you guys are laying a lot of emphasis on IQ and academic intelligence, while I didn't mention it once in my original post.
Think differently for a second.

1. You did mention literature. I addressed that. I think Nigeria did decently in literature in terms of producing individuals of "exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work" though of course, I would have liked for us to have done much better.

"Nigeria has produced many prolific writers. Many have won accolades for their writing abilities, including Daniel O. Fagunwa, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Buchi Emecheta, Elechi Amadi, and Ben Okri.

Critically acclaimed writers of a younger generation include Chris Abani, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Atta, Helon Habila, Helen Oyeyemi, Nnedi Okorafor, Kachi A. Ozumba, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Dapo Adeleke and Nwobodo King Jeremiah."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_literature

2. What does having a soccer great who has won numerous individual awards, like Samuel Eto'o, do for Cameroon in terms of developing the rest of Cameroon? Aren't they still ruled by the same clown who has been ruling them for 20+ years? If Jay-Jay Okocha had won very many individual awards would it somehow have affected Nigeria's developmental progress?

3. You brought up Nobel laureates in science in your original post. I think academic intelligence is very relevant there. I gave you my explanations. If you believe my explanations are faulty, you could say why. I still don't agree with this idea that this black Nobel laureate in science, and from Nigeria specifically, is nonexistent because we're doomed to mediocrity and naturally mediocre people.

4. Nigeria's awful business climate has been addressed in multiple threads on this forum, right? How can you procure gold from a trash heap? I want there to be a Nigerian Bill Gates/Steve Jobs etc. as much as you, but I don't know that it's necessarily a problem of the right people not being there as much as it is about the wrong environment being there. I can't accept our mediocrity as proven until the right environment is there and the right people fail to materialize. You probably know more about this  problem than me. My advice is to try to be that individual yourself if you're in a position where you can attempt to do so, and/or try to influence others to be that brilliant creative entrepreneur by writing about this deficit of creative entrepreneurs in Nigeria in real life (on and off the internet).

AjanleKoko:

^^^
We seem to have a lot of award winners in the diaspora. What do those award winners do subsequently? Are they typical one-hit wonders? Have anyone of them done anything beyond winning academic prizes?

In fact, outside academics, what are Nigerians doing?

My problem with your post and POV is that it lacks coherence. I thought being award winners is a sign that the rest of the world acknowledge their genius, No?

You started off with :

Is it possible that Nigerians are incapable of producing true geniuses? How come we have never produced any outstanding individual that the whole world has stood up in unison and repeatedly applauded? How come we are always 'potentially great', but somehow never able to produce true greatness, and even when we do something close, we're totally unable to sustain it? I'm talking about Nigeria among fellow African and third world nations mind you. Let's leave the West out of this for now.

Insinuating that for some reasons attributable to certain ingrained cultural practices, we are incapable of producing true genius. And from the bolded, you seem to want someone the rest of the world, prolly preferably White people, has certified to be truly great.

Names were mentioned including Wole Soyinka who was unanimously applauded by the rest of the world as a  true genius and was subsequently awarded the highest honor bestowable on foreigners by the Queen. Now, how does being awarded a Nobel Prize by the Nobel committee made of dignitaries from all over the world not satisfy your requirement that any mentioned Nigerian be one that ".  .   . the whole world has stood up in unison and repeatedly applauded?"  

After you were prodded by PhysicsMHD to do what ought to have been done in the first instance, you defined what and who  you would acknowledged as a genius, and you went further to mention riff-raffs like Ronaldo de lima and Lionnel Messi and Usain Bolt, leaving out, and in a way, discrediting home grown greats like Okocha, Odegbami, Rashidi Yekini and the likes, citing ridiculous reasons like not winning CAF awards for your non-acceptance of their greatness.

In politics, you started off with:

Politics nko? Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Abdel Nasser, Jerry Rawlings, Jomo Kenyatta, even our friend Ghadaffi. We haven't done any better here, or at least we don't seem to have produced anyone close to that stature. All our politicians have dubious precedents, even the so-called morally upright ones. After all, they're the ones who say they are morally upright. Buhari has Abacha's son in his fold, running for Kano State gov, and Ribadu is functioning like a JK flip flop. Running for elections under the umbrella of men who he pursued with the weight of the law just a couple of years ago? Excuse me for my confusion, but all our best men have either been exposed as hypocrites at one point or the other, or are constantly posturing with no indication that they truly have the balls to take us to the next level

It beats me that you of all people would have the balls to lampoon our politicians while at the same time extol irredentists like Ghadafi. Talking about dubious precedents, what makes Jerry Rawlings a better person or in your words, more acclaimed that Buhari?

On Science and Engineering, you said:

Let's even leave science and tech aside, black people and science don't really mix well, so I'll leave it at that. But then, how come Cheick Diarra is Chairman of Microsoft Africa? He's from Mali. He's a Phd in Engineering and ex-NASA.

I ask you humbly,  what makes the Malian more interesting than Kunle Olutokun or Barth Nnaji? Is it because he is from Mali? the fact that he attended less prestigious universities than Olutokun or Nnaji or the fact that he works for Microsoft? Vs Nosa Omoigui, how does he compare?

And talking about comparing Kanu with Weah: Do you really want to go down that route? Weah  never played on the world stage, an achievement in by itself. His last attepmt at playing at the world cup was scuttled by none other than Kanu Nwankwo and his collegues, and this is after Weah had already bribed Kallone to allow them easy passage in SL. Vs. Eto, where should i even start, Kanu Nwankwo single handedly won Japan '93 for Nigeria at the tender age of 14, ask Eto to produce his own age-grade soccer medal/laurels? At the senior level, Kanu has won  and achieved practically the same thing Eto has ever won.

Honestly, I am struggling, just like the rest, in getting a good understanding of your points. And I am afraid that this is another case of colonial mentality disguised as an attempt at placing Nigeria amongst her contemporaries:

COLOMENTALITY

Colomentality

E be say you be colonial man
You don be slave from before
Dem don release you now
but you never release yourself

Colomentality

E be so , E be so dem dey do,
dem dey overdo all the things wey dem dey do
e be so dem dey do, dem think say dem better pass dem brother.
No be so?

E be so

The thing wey Nigerian no good
na[b] foreign things dem dey like[/b].
No be so?
*[CHORUS] EE BE SO/ I BE SO
Dem go turn air condition and close dem country away.
Na be so?
E be so
Dem judge him go put white wig and jail him brothers away
No be so?
E be so

Dem go proud of dem name and put dem slave name for head
No be so?
E be so

Colomentality now make you hear me now

*[CHORUS] COLO MENTALITY

Mr. Ransome you make you hear
Mr. Williams you make you hear
Mr. Ali -a you make you hear
Mr. Mohammed you make you hear
Mr. Anglican you make you hear
Mr. Bishop you make you hear
Mr. Catholic you make you hear
Mr. Musulim you make you hear

Na Africa we dey O make you hear
Na Africa we dey O make you hear

Colomentality hear
Colomentality! listen!
Mr. Ransome you make you hear
Na Africa we dey o make you hear this

op

you have to make the enquiries in an orderly manner, sort of like the way the westerners would do it.

list the different fields first.

eg

Science (put name here)

Literature

Sports (?)

Mathematics

Politics or political science

Art

Music

etc.

^^
Fair enough. Thanks, tpiah. Now, here goes again:

Can people please help me out by listing any Nigerians who in whatever field have been globally acclaimed as having achieved above their peers?
I'm particularly interested in learning how we have performed compared to others from the same race or economic bloc. Developing countries particularly.

Just help me by listing the person under the 'Field' Category, what the person achieved, and where the acclaim came from. Also what the person is doing currently might be useful as well.
Use these categories: Politics and Government,The Arts,Science, Business and Economy.

I'll give two examples, one from Business, and one from Politics. Both Africans. Mo Ibrahim, and (ouch!) Muammar Ghadaffi.

Business: Mo Ibrahim, a black African engineer and entrepreneur, founded the telecoms company Celtel, in 1998. He's worth est. $2.5bn (Forbes 2008 Rich List), was named by TIME in their 'Top 100' in 2008, also by EE Times in 2008 as one of 35 people or places to watch.
His company, Celtel, operated in 15 countries in Africa. It was acquired fully by MTC Group of Kuwait in 2006, and rebranded to Zain in 2008. The company has since been sold to Bharti Airtel.

Mo Ibrahim is regarded as one of the pioneers of the GSM standard, and has many telecom patents to his name. He was part of the team that founded BT's Cellnet subsidiary. He founded Metapath Software (MSI), that was later acquired by Marconi in the late 90s.

Lately, Ibrahim has been busy with his Mo Ibrahim foundation, the promoters of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership and the Mo Ibrahim Governance Index. The Mo Ibrahim prize rewards African leaders who have demonstrated excellence in governance. He also founded Satya Capital, an angel investor targeting tech innovation in Africa.

Now I consider this man to be almost peerless among his contemporaries. He's experienced success as an academic, technocrat, businessman, and social entrepreneur. He's definitely one of the pioneers of communications, not only in Africa.

Politics: Muammar Ghadaffi: Rather than repeating stuff about him, I'd rather refer you to his Wikipedia citation.

I find some things intriguing about him: firstly his ascent to power at a very early age (27) as a result of sheer guts or bravado. Second, his refusal to overtly promote himself, but rather cast himself as some sort of Arab Che Guevera and Fidel Castro rolled into one. Thirdly, his ability to keep the world guessing regarding his state of mind. He's a total iconoclast in my view, and has managed to hold things together with a maverick ability that I actually find impressive. Even now, with all the shyt going down, he's still showing the world that he won't go out like that. He's stood down the West in the past, something his fellow Arabs have never had the balls to do. I consider him to be a political genius.

May I request that we look at this very objectively. Do we have Nigerians who have achieved on the same scale?

Politics and Government: None.

The Arts: Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Fela Kuti, refer to their wikipedia pages.

Science: None.

Business and Economy: None.


Happy now?


But please stop with the Ghaddafi thing. It's ludicrous. The man is a disaster. If Nzeogwu and co. had taken over and one of the 5 had somehow ruled Nigeria as an internationally infamous dictator since 1966 (not that they wanted to do such a thing), would you be here calling whoever that was a giant on the world stage?

Most of Ghaddafi's publicity derives from his infamy, such as sponsoring the terrorist hijack of an airplane, trying to obtain nuclear weapons, supporting every bad guy he possibly can (Idi Amin, Slobodan Milošević, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, etc.), illegally amassing a fortune for himself and his family, and more. His Green Book is obscure and largely unread, his eccentricity is widely mocked (visiting countries with a tent and camel, keeping a legion of virgin female bodyguards, etc.), and the vast majority of people outside of his country know neither the name of his political regime (the  "Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" nor what his actual political philosophy is.

From your mention of Ghaddafi in a discussion of political genius, I have to ask: If Nigeria had managed to produce an Idi Amin scale political character who derived his world wide reputation from infamy, would you be happier because of that, just because it meant a Nigerian political figure was well-known outside of Nigeria?

Nigerian geniuses only seem controversial, because we pull them down. The average elite Nigerian is very intimidated by anyone with a smattering of intelligence, talkless of those with trainloads.

I class myself a genius, cos I can turn out quite a few inventions a week. Do I patent them? Sometimes. Will I ever make myself obvious to the man on the street? Never, because it will lead to my doom from lynchings (mental, psychological and physical). The average Nigerian is psychologically destroyed and does not realise it (thats a full topic on its own).

Advice for the teenagers out there; Nigeria is no place for intelligent people. If you've got brains and no balls, scram! Leave the God forsaken country! Only return when those with higher intelligence have attained positions of power. The only way forward is for brainy people to take an active interest in politics, thug for thug, money for money; when one or two gather, it will be a piece of cake.

PhysicsMHD:

Politics and Government: None.

The Arts: Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Fela Kuti, refer to their wikipedia pages.

Science: None.

Business and Economy: None.


Happy now?

This is more like it

As per the Ghadaffi thing, I think I have mentioned earlier that we're not only looking at what makes me or you happy. I don't really care about Nzeogwu, not even Abacha, what they did or didn't do.

After all, Jenghiz Khan, Nero, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, are all firmly written into history, not necessarily for the great and wonderful things they did. But you can hardly pick up any literature on world history, and not read about these men. Rasputin is regarded as an evil genius in Russia, emphasis on the word evil. What I was hoping to get people to talk about is the impact of the Nigerian on the world stage, in any of those categories. How have we represented, for good or bad?

U de vex?:

Nigerian geniuses only seem controversial, because we pull them down. The average elite Nigerian is very intimidated by anyone with a smattering of intelligence, talkless of those with trainloads.

I class myself a genius, cos I can turn out quite a few inventions a week. Do I patent them? Sometimes. Will I ever make myself obvious to the man on the street? Never, because it will lead to my doom from lynchings (mental, psychological and physical). The average Nigerian is psychologically destroyed and does not realise it (thats a full topic on its own).

Advice for the teenagers out there; Nigeria is no place for intelligent people. If you've got brains and no balls, scram! Leave the God forsaken country! Only return when those with higher intelligence have attained positions of power. The only way forward is for brainy people to take an active interest in politics, thug for thug, money for money; when one or two gather, it will be a piece of cake.

I'll come back to this later. But let's stick to the topic if you don't mind. Is there any Nigerian who you know has represented globally, and can be quoted among their peers? Even if that person is Shina Rambo, was he of international renown?

Mr Ajanleko here is ur ANSWERS!
1.On politics:We are not d first,well Ghadaffi is more popular dan any of our presnt or past leaders(good or bad)
2.BUSINESS:Aliko Dangote is rated as the RICHES BLACK MAN on earth by FORBES,he is a business man( d biggest manufacturer of cement in Africa)
3.Sport:Kanu Nwankwo remains d only footballer in AFRICA ahead of samuel Eto'o with d highest no of TROPHY dat cuts across many leagues.(note dat he was able to beat eto'o because Eto'o awards/trophy are concentrated in Spain and lately ITALY

4.If Usain bolt is a genius for being d fastest run FOR Now(olympic record),then.MARY Onyali is also a genius for once being THE best in long jump(olympic).note dat usain bolt will not hold d record forever just like our Onyali
5.Arts:A Nigerian,Wole Soyinka is d FIRST AFRICAN to win a noble prize in Literature,what else do u want him to achieve above his peers?

6.If u think is wise to celebrate d GUT & BOLDNESS of Ghadaffi at a tender of 27,den there should b no reason for YOU not to celebrate d boldness of ABDULmutallab,d Nigerian who wanted to hijack a US airlinenote dat d guy failed just like Ghadaffi failing now) & he was less dan 27yrs
7.If d Mali chairman of google AFRICA is a genius,What stops u from Recognising OKONJI IWEALA,a NIGERIAN & Managing director of WORLD BANK as a genius?

Mr Ajanleko here is ur ANSWERS!
1.On politics:We are not d first,well Ghadaffi is more popular dan any of our presnt or past leaders(good or bad)
2.BUSINESS:Aliko Dangote is rated as the RICHES BLACK MAN on earth by FORBES,he is a business man( d biggest manufacturer of cement in Africa)
3.Sport:Kanu Nwankwo remains d only footballer in AFRICA ahead of samuel Eto'o with d highest no of TROPHY dat cuts across many leagues.(note dat he was able to beat eto'o because Eto'o awards/trophy are concentrated in Spain and lately ITALY

4.If Usain bolt is a genius for being d fastest run FOR Now(olympic record),then.MARY Onyali is also a genius for once being THE best in long jump(olympic).note dat usain bolt will not hold d record forever just like our Onyali
5.Arts:A Nigerian,Wole Soyinka is d FIRST AFRICAN to win a noble prize in Literature,what else do u want him to achieve above his peers?

6.If u think is wise to celebrate d GUT & BOLDNESS of Ghadaffi at a tender of 27,den there should b no reason for YOU not to celebrate d boldness of ABDULmutallab,d Nigerian who wanted to hijack a US airlinenote dat d guy failed just like Ghadaffi failing now) & he was less dan 27yrs  
7.If d Mali chairman of google AFRICA is a genius,What stops u from Recognising OKONJI IWEALA,a NIGERIAN & Managing director of WORLD BANK as a genius?

^^
Like everybody else, you decided to challenge my question. I only need answers bros. List the people, and why you think they are geniuses.

^^^

Because your question is an affront on our collective sensibility

fstranger3:

^^^

Because you question is an affront on our collective sensibility

Haba. Why not ignore, rather than choose to indirectly call the poster a slowpoke?
Na question I ask. Anything wrong with that?

AjanleKoko:

This is more like it 

As per the Ghadaffi thing, I think I have mentioned earlier that we're not only looking at what makes me or you happy. I don't really care about Nzeogwu, not even Abacha, what they did or didn't do.

After all, Jenghiz Khan, Nero, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, are all firmly written into history, not necessarily for the great and wonderful things they did. But you can hardly pick up any literature on world history, and not read about these men. Rasputin is regarded as an evil genius in Russia, emphasis on the word evil. What I was hoping to get people to talk about is the impact of the Nigerian on the world stage, in any of those categories. How have we represented, for good or bad?

You still haven't answered my question. Why bring up Ghaddafi in the first place in the context of this discussion?

The man is NOT a political genius in any sense of the word. Not even in the sense that Stalin, Mao, or Napoleon were important political "geniuses" on the world stage.

Gamal Abdel Nasser was a political genius; the same for Sun Yat-Sen, Nelson Mandela, and so many others.


The truth is that Muammar Ghadaffi will NOT be remembered by anybody outside of Libya 50 years from now, not to talk of 100 or 150 years from now. You assumed he's a world figure like those I mentioned above because he's gotten so much press for over 30 years. Aside from the press he gets from his idiotic actions, what is there to actually remember him for? What legacies, what major movements? What political imprint on world history? Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., all made major moves on the world stage and had known political philosophies. What the hell did Ghaddafi do except screw up continuously and get bad press for it? Name even one thing this buffoon has done that's a major action on the world stage.


My other problem is that I don't think that your discussion with regard to Nigeria's impact on the world stage  is constructive. It's actually just a series of vague put-downs with no discernible purpose. Take science for example. Instead of attempting to discuss why Nigeria lacked scientists who had achieved at the highest possible levels in the world, you initially naively asserted, with no prior thought, that Nigeria by mere virtue of its population and number of universities, could have actually produced a Nobel laureate in science without doing any analysis or comparison between those countries which have produced Nobel laureates in science and Nigeria to see what the difference was. The difference is so real and so tangible, yet you just assert without any further thought that it must be due to the inherent mediocrity of the people. You even asserted "and so many graduates who have attended schools from all over the world, even shattered academic records, but have never done anything beyond winning school prizes, at least not outside their academic communities" a statement which I even ignored, since there is already a thread on Nigerian academia to address that claim. I ignored it and tried to find what your perspective was on the actual problems with Nigeria's ability to produce those scientists that have achieved at the highest levels, but you avoided all of my points/questions.

When I pointed out what some of the differences were between Nigeria and countries that produce individuals that win the very highest awards, you went and brought up chairman of Microsoft Africa and company manager for Google and other irrelevant vague nonsense to try and insinuate that other black countries generally produce people who are standouts compared to Nigeria and its supposedly generally mediocre people.

What other Sudanese can you think of besides Mo Ibrahim who has done something that puts them on the world stage? I mean this for all categories: arts, politics, science, business, etc. I can only think of Muhammad Ahmad, but even he is somewhat obscure to most of the world.


I can't think of any Malian, I can only think of one Kenyan (Jomo Kenyatta), I can't think of any Libyans except for one madman (Ghaddafi), so how true is your idea of Nigerians being particularly mediocre in producing achievers at the highest level in comparison to their contemporaries?

Where are these Malians? What Kenyans? What Libyans? Think about your own questions for the 54 countries of Africa, and you'll immediately realize that Nigerians were not specifically targeted by the god of Africa to be cursed with mediocrity.

AjanleKoko:

This is more like it

As per the Ghadaffi thing, I think I have mentioned earlier that we're not only looking at what makes me or you happy. I don't really care about Nzeogwu, not even Abacha, what they did or didn't do.

After all, Jenghiz Khan, Nero, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, are all firmly written into history, not necessarily for the great and wonderful things they did. But you can hardly pick up any literature on world history, and not read about these men. Rasputin is regarded as an evil genius in Russia, emphasis on the word evil. What I was hoping to get people to talk about is the impact of the Nigerian on the world stage, in any of those categories. How have we represented, for good or bad?

I'll come back to this later. But let's stick to the topic if you don't mind. Is there any Nigerian who you know has represented globally, and can be quoted among their peers? Even if that person is Shina Rambo, was he of international renown?

For your criteria, there are two undisputable names at standing firmly on opposite sides of the pole; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. lol
Both are quite good looking too!

any updates on the boy?

current photos, etc.

Politics and Government: still thinking.

The Arts: Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Fela Kuti, cyprian ekwensi, etc.

Science: John dabiri

Business and Economy: thinking.