While economic realities in Nigeria might be harsh, with public sector corruption severely denting the country’s image, Nigerians have proved their metal in different fields and profession, excelling mostly outside the boundaries of Nigeria. Let’s look at four Nigerian space scientists breaking boundaries globally.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Margaret Ebunoluwa Aderin-Pocock MBE (née Aderin; born 9 March 1968) is a British Nigerian space scientist and science educator. She is an honorary research associate of University College London’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Since February 2014, she has co-presented the long-running astronomy television programme The Sky at Night with Chris Lintott. In 2020 she was awarded the Institute of Physics William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize for her public engagement in physics.

Margaret Ebunoluwa Aderin Aderin was born in London on 9 March 1968 to Nigerian parents, Caroline Philips and Justus Adebayo Aderin, and was raised in Camden, London. Her middle name Ebunoluwa stems from the Yoruba words, “Ebun” meaning “gift” and Oluwa meaning “God”, which is also a variant form of the word “Oluwabunmi” or “Olubunmi”, meaning “gift of God” in Yoruba.

Maggie studied at Imperial College London, graduated with a BSc in physics in 1990, and completed her PhD in mechanical engineering under the supervision of Hugh Spikes in 1994.

Aderin-Pocock has worked on many projects in private industry, academia, and in government. From 1996 to 1999 she worked at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, a branch of the UK Ministry of Defence. Initially, she worked as a systems scientist on aircraft missile warning systems, and from 1997 to 1999 she was a project manager developing hand-held instruments to detect landmines.

She was the lead scientist at Astrium, where she managed observation instruments on a satellite, measuring wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change. She is working on and managing the observation instruments for the Aeolus satellite, which will measure wind speeds to help the investigation of climate change.

Aderin-Pocock is committed to inspiring new generations of astronauts, engineers, and scientists.


Rabia Salihu Sa’id

Rabia Salihu Sa’id is a Nigerian physicist and professor of atmospheric and space-weather physics at the Bayero University Kano. She conducts research in atmospheric and space weather physics, particle physics, and electronics. Sa’id is an advocate and mentor for young women in science with the Visiola Foundation and Peace Corps. She is also co-founder of Nigeria’s Association of Women Physicists and a facilitator for the British Council’s Active Citizens’ Programme.

Sa’id began her university education at the age of 29 and ran a nursery school to pay for her education. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Masters of Science and Ph.D degrees in Physics from Bayero University Kano. In 2002, on the International Fellowships Program (IFP) of the Ford Foundation, she studied for an M.Sc degree in Environment and Development from the University of Reading, United Kingdom.

In 2015 she was a recipient of one of the five Elsevier Foundation Awards for Women Scientists in the Developing World. Presented in partnership with the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the awards that year were for the physics and mathematics fields, with Sa’id’s award in the field of atmospheric physics.

In August 2015, Sa’id was featured in the BBC’s annual 100 Women series, highlighting her efforts to promote science education in Nigeria.

Hakeem Oluseyi

As a child, Hakeem Oluseyi moved between rough neighborhoods in the American South, until finally settling in a poor community in rural Mississippi at the age of 13.

Hakeem’s interest in physics continued into high school, where he created a computer program that did relativity calculations. When his program won first prize in physics at the state science fair, judges told him to become a physicist. Since Hakeem didn’t really know what physicists did, he dismissed the idea and chose to enlist in the Navy. But not long after, Hakeem decided to major in physics at Tougaloo College, a small historically black college in Mississippi.

Hakeem did research for the first time at a summer program at the University of Georgia. He was pleasantly surprised by the freedom and responsibility he was given and found that he fit well into the research community, even though he was one of only a few African Americans.

After finishing up with school, Hakeem worked at one of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies and did research on manufacturing computer chips. This work earned him 8 U.S. patents and 4 E.U. patents. Hakeem’s inventions can be found in the computer chips you use every day.

Hakeem, however, longed for the big ideas of astronomy and astrophysics, and returned to astrophysics research. He worked with the 2011 Nobel Prize winning Supernova Cosmology Project, developing detectors for a planned space-based telescope that will investigate the nature of the dark energy that is accelerating the universe’s expansion.

Today, he is a member of the team developing the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which is America’s top priority observatory. He has worked on developing the LSST’s camera and is developing programs for analyzing the data it will collect.

In addition to astrophysics, Hakeem also has a passion for communicating science to the public.
He is a professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, and a frequent contributor to the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. He has given multiple TED talks and is regularly invited to speak at science forums all around the world. For his science outreach work, he was selected as a 2012 TED Global Fellow.

In 2002, through an organization called Cosmos Education, Hakeem began visiting sub-Saharan African schools to inspire young students with science demonstrations.

Babatunde Akinsanmi

Akinsanmi led a research team which discovered (for the first time) that rings exist around exoplanets in our Solar system.

An international team of researchers, led by Babatunde Akinsanmi (PhD student at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto) found statistical evidence that indicates that the exoplanet HIP 41378 f is similar to Uranus with a ring system around it, inclined by about 25 degrees, and extending from 1.05 to 2.59 times the diameter of the planet.

“These ‘cotton candy’ planets are a rare class of exoplanets, with densities much lower than that of the giant planets in the Solar System. It is difficult to explain these very low densities and that is why we decided to investigate what was happening ”. “What we found was that the presence of rings around this planet can explain the observed low density. The rings make the planet’s diameter look much larger when it passes in front of the star (during transit), Babatunde Akinsanmi explained.

Babatunde Akinsanmi obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Federal University of Technology Akure in 2010. He was awarded the M.Sc. in Astronomy by the University of Porto in 2017 and started his PhD in Astronomy at the same university in collaboration with the Institute of Astronomy in Porto (IA).

His main research interest is in the field of exoplanets involving the search and characterisation of exoplanets using the transit and radial velocity methods. He specifically works on detecting novel exoplanetary features such as rings, tidal deformation and rotation-induced oblateness in exoplanets.

Babatunde Akinsanmi is a scientific officer at the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA).

Source:
https://newswatch24tv.com/2020/11/13/meet-4-nigerian-space-scientists-breaking-boundaries/

calberian:
To think that the country of origin of these geniuses is governed by the kind of people at the helm of affairs is mind-boggling.

It’s like trying to come to terms with a reality that the country Niger or maybe Chad is giving financial aid to the Swiss government to help the European country in their health and educational sectors.

This is well put chief, I hope one day Nigeria would live up to it's actual status and big brains such as these will be given the respect and recognition they deserve.

All these rumour mongers everywhere

TheMainone:


Many Nigerians don't read. At least try to read and digest first before attacking or disagreeing!

Supported

TheMainone:


And who are their major sponsors?

Beer parlour analysis

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chibaby1985:

According to the news agency , shortly before Diezani left office , there were already reports that she had allegedly stolen billions of dollars .
Worried that the incoming President Muhammadu Buhari ’ s administration might probe her , the former minister allegedly fled to London and obtained a diplomatic passport from the Prime Minister of Dominican Republic himself .

She obtained a diplomatic passport from the prime minister of the commonwealth of Dominica "Roosevelt Skerrit", not from the prime minister (president) of Dominica. They are two different countries. Punch should get their stories straight na! Copy well!

Them wan well this kontri!!

Even though Lyon cannot speak English, his administration might be better than the past crooks who have ruled Bayelsa.

The Ruiz go beat beat this Aj ehn
Ruiz the champ! Puta madre!

We support sai baba for 2023! Carry go baba!!

post=84391251:
They are just so pathetic and confused in life.
The people wishing death on our darling Daddy,
President Muhammadu Buhari will all die before him.
So shall it be.
They cannot escape it.

Dead meat seller, i promised you a better job, check my signature for my email. This BMC work no be am at all. Two weeks now even subscription you no get money do!

Which Nigerian senators will drop 1 billion without raising suspicion!

This must be Okon Abang!
Very tight conditions!

Is it Jonathan that carried their thumbs and forced all of them to vote Lyon?? Dickson failed and wanted to impose his stooge on the state. The people revolted and clearly said NO! Why is this too hard for some people to understand??

Last minute stealing oo. Prickson ole

Sai baba!! Carry go! We dey your back! I will personally mobilize my household, my father and his 5 wives and all his children to vote Buhari in 2023! We must to have sense by force

modelmike7:

Good one from them This is the way it is supposed to be.
We hope the spare parts sellers can advice Ikpeazu, the kerosene governor the bolded advice above the cattle sellers adviced Bello.

You sound like an irredeemable retard!!

This man is clearly not properly educated, but he's definitely still better than Dickson who struggled to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of Bayelsa for 8 years!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg1XE0qiTzA

A criminal par excellence!

By Ike Uchechukwu

Cross River state governor, Prof Ben Ayade has presented the 2020 budget estimate of 1.1trillion naira tagged budget of “Olimpotic Meristemasis” to the State House of Assembly.
Ayade has also abolished payment of tax by small scale entrepreneurs like barbing saloon, welders, stylists amongst others.
According to him, he would rather tax his brain than tax the people, so no more daily payment of N500 by Okada riders and taxis but they will now pay 1000 and 2000 monthly for Okada and taxis respectively adding that all civil servants whose salaries were below 100,000 naira were also exempted from paying tax.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Gov Ayade presents 1.1trn budget estimate for 2020

Presenting the budget on Thursday on the floor of the State House of Assembly, Ayade said all low income earning people in the state were hereby exempted from taxes including civil servants whose salaries were less than 100,000 naira as well as stylish, saloon operators, welders and more.
His words: “All low-income earners are hereby exempted from taxes, including civil servants who salaries are below 100,000 nairas.

“The budget is an audacious step towards reducing recurrent expenditure and focus on increasing capital expenditure with Capital expenditure standing at 911 billion while recurrent stands at 188 billion which is 82.8% and 17.2 % respectively.
“Nigerians must realise that any state whose budget is driven by the envelop size has limited vision. There are two ways budgets are derived in business or public sector management, it is either as an expression of ambition or an expression of your envelope size.

“The expression of the ambition of the progressive agenda set for Cross River does not allow me the agony to adopt an envelope size budget. The value of our projects have not been commoditised into value , with the intellectual capacity we have reduced a lot of waste,” he said.

Source:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2019/11/breaking-gov-ayade-presents-1-1trn-budget-estimate-for-2020/amp/

How this one news?? Mtschew Igbere kor Eran'gbe ni

They are not serious at all.. Kwurrupt elements!!

Naso witches and wizard take deceive Atiku oo

This country is a zoo!

seunmsg:
Eeyah! Poor Dickson.

*prickson

B

ojun50:

Yr brain suppose dey reason well, na weekend we dey

Abeg tell am oo

When Yahaya Bello was nominated governor of Kogi state in January 2016 by the John Odigie-Oyegun led APC, following the demise of the party's flag bearer in the previous election, Mr. Abubakar Audu, little was known of the youthful governor's abilities.

A time when Nigerians were strengthening their voices in support of the #NotToYoungToRun bill, it was kairos for Yahaya Bello who was just 40 at the time of his inauguration.

On the 22nd of May 2018, a little over three years into the administration of Mr. Bello, Kogi state chapter of Nigeria labour congress (NLC) made shocking revelations before men of the press, accusing the state government of owing workers eight to 39 months salary arrears.

Down South in Bayelsa, the Nigerian union of local government employees accused the PDP led government in Yenagoa of owing its members 10 - 19 months salary arrears.

Despite Bayelsa's modest population and excess federal allocation, the PDP led state government was one of the firsts to reject the federal government's 30,000 Naira minimum wage for its own workers, claiming it was on the high side.

Not even teachers in Bayelsa were left out of the salary crisis, as the NUT (Nigeria union of teachers) accused the state government of owing its members 3 - 7 months arrears.

While workers groaned in Bayelsa, for more than three years, it was unprecedented hardship for Kogi civil servants.

As the pangs of Nigeria's recent economic down turn bit through their daily lives, hope remained far as several appeal to the Kogi state governor to consider the suffering of the masses fell on deaf ears.

In 2016, Yahaya Bello became Nigeria's first governor to purchase the bullet proof Lexus LX 570, valued at around 120,000,000 Naira. There was backlash on social media, with people calling out the governor for his insensitivity but it seemed the average Kogite was less concerned about the governor's choice of car.

By April 2019, ahead of the coming election, the governor's office released a list of 110 achievements they claimed could be credited to Yahaya Bello. Among others, they include democratic humanist, epitome of power shift, unifier governor. Whatever the governor's office meant with those lines, perhaps only Kogites understand.

On the 10th of October 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari requested the Senate’s approval for the payment of N10 billion to Kogi State.

The president claimed the money would be used by the state government to settle local debts it incurred as a result of the projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government. Few days later, 1,500 luxury SUVs arrived Kogi state ahead of the governor's re-election campaign.

For nearly four years, there has been controversial as well as irrefutable evidence to support the notion that the governor of Kogi state substitutes the provision of public goods with handouts and political patronage.

As responsible Nigerians clamor for good governance in Bayelsa, we also call on Kogites to vote out the APC led government for the uncommon privation they have hammered on the confluence state for 4 years.

With an adult literacy rate of 62.8 in 2010, it is safe to say that Kogi state has got a fairly educated populace which we hope will influence today's elections positively. However, the State's tribal make up might still end up as the deciding factor in the outcome of the elections.

By Cephas Kadiri

Source:
http://www.gpggnigeria.org/why-nigerians-must-vote-out-apc-in-kogi-and-pdp-in-bayelsa/

Citizens' right can simply be explained as a moral or legal entitlement to have or do something.

While many Nigerians are scared of exercising their rights as citizens, others do not have proper education concerning their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

As conscious and responsible citizens, it is imperative to know that the Nigerian constitution guarantees the following universally recognized fundamental rights of citizens:

RIGHT TO LIFE
This is the right of every Nigerian to exist and that no one should deprive any Nigerian the right to live.

RIGHT TO DIGNITY AND LIBERTY
No Nigerian should be deprived of freedom or subjected to inhuman/degrading treatment.

RIGHT TO PRIVACY
The privacy of Nigerians, especially in relation to their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications, are guaranteed and must not be infringed upon.

RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION
Any Nigerian can practise or propagate his religion or belief.

RIGHT TO FAIR HEARING
In the determination of an individual’s civil rights and obligations, a person shall be entitled to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal established by law and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence and impartiality.

RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Nigerians are entitled to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.

RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY
Every Nigerian has the right to acquire and own landed property anywhere in Nigeria.

RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY AND ASSOCIATION
Nigerians have the right to freely assemble and associate with other persons. They may also form or belong to any political party, trade union or other association as they desire.

RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT
Every Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout the country and to reside in any part of it.

RIGHT TO FREEDOM FROM DISCRIMINATION
No Nigerian is to be subjected to restrictions based on the fact that he/she is a member of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion, political opinion, or circumstances of his/her birth.

By change advocacy network.

#KnowYourRights #KnowYourDuties

Source:
https://medium.com/@changeadvocacyinfo/know-your-rights-dfc729a5e548

Two sides of the same coin