₦airaland Forum

Have you ever seen a non West African with names such as Sunday, Monday and Friday?
Even in West Africa it is mainly Nigerians, and perhaps Ghanaians and Cameroonians, that bear these week-day names.
Why aren't Caucasians bearing such names, seeing that they are, after all, English names?

I personally have not seen any of those category of artisans, and I have been to Kano and Jigawa. The ones I saw back then in those places were Igbos, Yoruba, Edo and Middle Belters

I have lived all my 100+ years in the South (SE,SW,SS) and Middle Belt; so am packed with experiences in those places.


This question is pertinent because you see:

Suya sellers
Gatemen
Shoe shiners
Cattle herders
Fetcher of waters

from the North working in the South.

But you do not see (or readily see):

Carpenters
Masons
Electricians
Vulcanizers
Motor/motocycle mechanics
Bicycle repairers
Radio/TV repairers
Shoe repairers (okay may be this one which naturally goes along with shoe shining)
Battery chargers
Not to mention a computer mechanics

Of northern origin working in the south.

How can this be rationalized?

ACN for life

Have you ever seen an Hausa-Fulani Artisan?

I have not seen a:

Carpenter
Mason
Electrician
Vulcanizer
Motor/motocycle mechanic
Bicycle repairer
Radio/TV repairer
Shoe repairer
Battery charger
Not to mention a computer mechanic

of Hausa-Fulani origin?

As against:

Suya seller
Gatemen
Shoe shiner
Crop farmer
Cattle herder
Fetcher of water

Where they predominate?

Is there a correlation between culture and religion and the type of vocation that an average Hausa-Fulani pursues? It seems like trades that have to do with the ''West'' are not appealing to them. Or is it a matter of limits to their innate vocational skill?

acidtalk: It is so sad how our educational system has deteriorated. A friend invited me to come and help him with the test given to applicants for various positions in his company.
The whole vacant positions were for B.Sc Holders in different fields like Engineering, Business Administration, Economics, Geology and so many others.

A total of 67 people were present for the test and believe it or not, only 3 people actually knew the difference between the below words.

Thought - Taught
Mood - Mode
Sight - Site
Course - Curse
Suit - Suite
Fill - Feel
Hear - Ear
Browse - Surf
Rain - Reign


More than Half of them kept on typing in short forms thinking they were chatting with their Blackberry or Facebook friends.

How bad will things like this keep happening amongst our so called educated youths and graduates especially?

What is the difference between surf and browse? They both imply looking at something (in this case an internet site) casually. I agree though that browse is more formal than surf

BlackPikiN: Abiriba na real small London. (Nigeria)

I don go their before. My cousins na their dey come from.

You go feed your eyes tire with different style of buildings.

How come no one sees these buildings in Abriba anywhere on cyberspace? The few buildings I have seen are no different from those anywhere else in Igboland. Dem forbid photography for Abriba?

floriana: 1. floriana(m): Quote Post

Served there years ago. Pictures will not do justice to the small London name for it is a village inhabited by poor folks living shanty houses interspersed by gigantic mansions owned by relations abroad. Houses are only used when the owners come to town.

So this means it is nowhere near being rightly referred to as small London, right?

Odunnu: Why not take a trip atleast, it'l quench your hunger

I am presently operating from planet Mars and will have to land on planet Earth first, before locating where Abriba is.

Spyder880,

I know you have your own schedules and plans, but please can you by any means get photos of Abiriba in Abia State? That town has been called small London by some people. But I have searched far and wide for any evidence to support that claim.

Thank you.

FSU

A season of murders
By:
CHARLES ADEGBITE, Ado-Ekiti
Date:
Fri, 07/27/2012 - 19:27


Call it a harvest of the morbid, even heinous type. In the last one month, Ekiti State, the “Land of Honour,” has recorded at least five incidents of killing. One of them is suspected to be for rituals. All of this has created serious apprehension among the people and concern to government and security agencies.

The new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Sotonye Wakama, had barely settled down in office, when a female teacher, Mrs. Rafatu Agboola, was nabbed for allegedly killing her husband. She is currently detained at the police command headquarters in Ado-Ekiti.


The lady had submitted herself to the police in Usi-Ekiti. She told the security agency that she butchered her own husband (also a teacher) at night on June 12 while he was sleeping in his room. The police are, however, suspecting that the woman may be suffering from psychiatric problems, as there was apparently no motive for the murder. The couple got married in 2009 after a period of courtship and they had been living peaceably until the tragic incident.


However, when her family could not produce any convincing medical history to give impetus to the suspicion of psychiatric condition, the police had to drag her to court.


Barely two weeks earlier, a 35-year-old lunatic named Kehinde (aka Efunmi lowo Okan yin abale o) was found dead in a public primary school in Ado-Ekiti, where he used to sleep until then. He was found with his head cut off, fuelling the suggestion that he might have been killed for ritual.

The murder of this famous madman generated a lot of controversies. Accusing fingers pointed at a pastor of one of the new generation churches. People claimed that the pastor, before the murder, had shaven the madman’s head on two occasions and taken the hairs away, claiming that he was administering deliverance on the man. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr. Victor Babayemi, however, said this was a mere rumour.


He said that the corpse the madman had been deposited at the mortuary. However, he added that the police had not begun an investigation because people concerned were not ready to give information. Towards the end of June, a 70-year-old woman, Mrs. Rebecca Adewumi, was tortured to death by some youths allegedly master-minded by some traditionalists over an alleged confession of a young lady that the old woman was a witch. The Adewumi family, through their lawyers, Messrs Dele Omotoso and Company, in a petition dated July 5, 2012, said the deceased was subjected to trial by ordeal, after she was accused of causing the sickness of one Ola, her stepson.


According to the eldest daughter of the deceased, Mrs. Grace Smith, the ordeal of her mother started on May 9, 2012 when her mother was taken to the palace of the Olomuo of Omuo-Ekiti, Oba Noah Omonigbehin, charged with being a member of a coven.



Mrs. Smith said: “After a series of questioning and being asked to UnCloth completely even to the pants, my mother was given a concoction (Obo leave) said to make witches confess and die and was told that she would die within seven days if she was involved in Ola’s matter. Nine days passed and nothing happened and I left for my base in Lagos.


“Three weeks after, precisely June 26, 2012, some youths in the town went to our house and brought out my mother and forced her to drink a poisonous item and took her outside into the rain where she was beaten and subjected to serious torture and when she was almost dying they took her back into her room and laid her on the bed. She died on June 30, 2012,” Mrs. Smith explained.



She said further that while the old woman was being beaten, some youths went to the house of her younger sister, Mrs. Anike Orojo, and beat her for daring to cater for her mother. “Right now, no member of the family knows where the corpse has been taken to and we want the police to investigate her death as well as the assault on her sister,” she added.


The state government, appalled by the act, has asked the police to apprehend those involved killing. The government is doing that through state Ministry of Women Affairs and Gender Empowerment. While this was still being discussed, news broke from Aramoko in Ekiti West Local Government Area of the state that one Mrs. Bose Edijana Lucky had been beheaded. It was Thursday July 6, 2012.


The woman was murdered around 9:30a.m, that fateful day along a footpath leading to her husband, Mr. Naefenwa Lucky’s farm. She was on her way to the farm with the man’s meal, it was said. It was further said that when her husband discovered what had happened, he rushed to the town to inform other Urhobo natives. He told them that his wife had been beheaded by those he suspected to be ritual killers.


There and then, the community leader, together with other elders went straight to the palace of Alara of Aramoko, Oba Olu Adeyemi and reported the incident to him. Thereafter, the police drove to the scene of the incident to remover the remains of the victim.

But cops were shocked to discover that the head with the neck had been severed, as well as her arms and a chunk of her buttocks sliced. The husband was taken to the police station where he made statements and was subsequently detained as, according to the Urhobo community leader, he was suspected to have known something about the killing of his wife.

The couple were said to be of Urhobo tribe from Warri in Delta State and Bose, who was said to be about 40 years old, had four children. The eldest child, Samson, 12, is in primary five and the last, Endurance, six, is in primary one.


The Ekiti State Command of the Nigeria Police said about four persons had arrested in connection with the death. Speaking with journalists in Ado-Ekiti on the issue, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) ASP Victor Babayemi, said the four men arrested in connection with the murder case were already in their custody. He disclosed that the police have engaged the services of forensic experts and the force was waiting for the autopsy reports.


While the police were still busy trying to unravel the mysterious death of the beheaded mother of four, news reached newsmen that another murder case had occurred at Erijiyan Ekiti. This time, it was a student of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, Mr. Boluwaji Olarinoye. It was alleged that he was stabbed to death by his friend, Mr. Wale Adewumi.


The incident occurred at Erijiyan in Ekiti West Local Government Area of the State on Friday night while the student was said to be demanding for N50,000 his friend owed him. Adewunmi, who is said to have been on the run since killing, has been declared wanted by the police.


The man was said to have called Olarinoye to his house that night over issues related to a N50,000 he (Adewunmi) borrowed from the student to support his timber business. Saturday Sun gathered that Olarinoye took the money from the school fees his father gave to him, preparatory to the second semester examinations of EKSU.


Olarinoye’s father told a radio station in Ado Ekiti last Saturday that his son told him that he lent N50,000 to his friend and added that on the fateful night, Adewumi invited his son to his house. The victim’s father added that his son left the food he was eating that night to answer the call. He said: “Boluwaji left for Wale’s house with the hope that Wale was ready to settle the debt. But minutes later, I heard people shouting and were lamenting that Wale and a group of his friends had matcheted Boluwaji, leaving a deep cut on his throat,” the elderly Olarionye told the radio station.


Following the death of Boluwaji, angry members of the community set Adewumi’s house on fire. It was also said that the suspect’s household fled shortly after the incident. However, an intensive manhunt by the Ekiti State Police Command has led to the arrest of the suspect at Ikere-Ekiti and he is being detained at the headquarters of the command.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/article/season-murders

Spyder880
Please kill the idea. This thread is something everyone (Igbos, I mean) will regret in the end as it will derail and gain unnecessary attention. The Yoruba notorious tribalists are waiting on the wings to send you (the thread) to the gallows. There are Igbo forums where you can discuss this without any external interference.

Did Rawlings violate the African ethic of not speaking ill of the dead or was he being realistic that a sick president is invariably disfunctional and should leave? Remember sick Yaradua and how his inability to govern almost brought Nigeria to its knees?

Rawlings’ Comments On Ghana’s Ex-Leader Were Unfortunate
By Francis Xavier Tuokuu July 27, 2012 1 Comment

Listening to former president Jerry John Rawlings on BBC Focus on Africa in far away Congo on the demise of Ghana’s president John Mills, makes one wonder whether ex-president Rawlings has lost his African values.



The African culture does not permit one to speak ill of the death no matter how evil the person was in his life time. This president Rawlings defied in his interview granted to BBC. In any case, Prof. John Mills lived a descent, humble, affable and honest life and this has been attested by even his enemies and detractors.



What did Jerry John Rawlings say on BBC? The ex-president Rawlings said he was shocked but not surprised to hear of the death of president Mills on Tuesday, 24th July, 2012, which occurred at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.



According to him, “quite frankly had he (Mills) been advised and done something wiser, he could probably have survived another six seven months I guess”.



He added that, he had been battling with cancer for a long time and he was unable to sit at meetings for more than three hours because the cancer had affected his sight and hearing. “It was quite a shock to both my wife and I because he’s been battling the cancer for quite a while but this is certainly the wrong time for him to go because we have elections around the corner in December”, he said.



The funny thing was when the former president was asked about the legacy of president Mills, he remarked, “he’s played his part. As my Vice President, he was one of the finest but there again, considering that the cancer affected his eyes and ears, he couldn’t sustain more than three hours a day so it was naturally going to affect his performance.”



On his opinion about the leadership qualities of John Mahama (who was immediately sworn in as president of Ghana in fulfillment of Article 60(6) of the 1992 constitution) and whether or not he can lead the country, he said, “I don’t know but I hope so”.



What the former president does not know is that, no one, not even medical doctors can postpone their death. God gives and takes and it is HE who has certainly called president Mills to HIS bosom.

http://tekedia.com/45450/rawlings-comments-on-ghanas-ex-leader-were-unfortunate/

Jerry John Rawlings (President of Ghana 1993-2001)
John Kuffour (President of Ghana 2001-2009)
John Atta Mills (President of Ghana 2009-2012)
John Dramani Mahama (President of Ghana, from today on)
John Henry Martey Newman (Govt official who announced John Atta Mills' death)

All these fake Mr Integrities we are having to deal with. Na waoh!!!!

Like Farouk, Like Femi Gbajabiamila, As New Mr. Integrity's Fraudulent Past Is Revealed!

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Femi Gbaja



The Representative now angling to take over from Farouk Lawan as the new Mr. Intergrity in the house, Hon (?) Femi Gbajabiamila, has been exposed as a fraud who admitted to theft of his clients funds while serving as an attorney in the U.S. State of Georgia.

Femi Gbaja as he then was known later resurrected as Femi Gbajabiamila perhaps to hide his fraudulent past and is now positioning himself as an integrity activist in the House of Representatives.

The punishment for Femi Gbaja’s offence would have been outright debarment, however he played dead before a full panel of the Supreme Court of Georgia led by Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears,before the court could rule on the petition from his client, he filed a petition for Voluntary Discipline, filed under bar rule 4-227(b) in which he fully admitted to stealing $25,000 from his client.


The name Femi Gbaja being the name he was being referred to in the case file, accepted payment of $25,000 as a personal injury claims and deposited those funds in his attorney trust account in January 2003. He failed to disburse the funds to his client; instead he withdrew the funds, closed his practice and left for Nigeria where he ran for elections to represent Surulere I Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representative under the banner of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 2003. Upon arrival in Nigeria, curiously, Mr. Femi Gbaja added another name to avoid detection, he is known in Nigeria with a compound name “Femi Gbaja-Biamila”.

In the Georgia Attorney Directory, Femi Gbaja gave his address as 20, Mercy Eneli Street Surulere, Lagos. He is said to have refunded the clients money ($25,000) in 2006 and his lawyers have already submitted a certification of compliance of the Supreme Court ruling as of March 2007. Making him ineligible to practice law in the State of Georgia until February.

http://www.naijapundit.com/news/like-farouk-like-femi-gbajabiamila-as-new-mr-integrity-s-fraudulent-past-is-revealed

''N’Assembly receives 45 requests for new states''

http://www.punchng.com/news/nassembly-receives-45-requests-for-new-states/

Only an incorrigible slowpoke like Torkaka, the Tiv monkey, will single out one group out of 100s asking for more states. No worry, your hausa fulani masters will soon chop off your head.

Lawal, Y BH, willing to sacrifice his own people to please his H-F masters?

torkaka: nobody is going to give you benue, i 'm just pointing out the flaw in the igbo argument for another state!
NIGERIA DOES NOT NEED ANYMORE STATES!!

No we need Benue (your state) so we can convert them, yes, convert them, to Igbos. Anu mpama

So are Igbos the only ones asking for more states? Are yorubas with 7 states (as you mischieviously/ignorantly put it) not still asking for me? This OP needs to take otapiapia and die.

Fotitiri tawzan naira.
Exactly how they pronounce it is how they write it.

We would prefer Benue instead. Please bring Benue to the SE, after al they are closer to us than Kogi and we can more easily convert them, yes, convert them, to Igbos. Anu mpama

What do you need his nairaland name for? So you can kidnap him cyberly?

Please don't ask me his nairaland name, but his real name is Ahaoma Kanu. He is a journalist with National Daily, and he is from Abia State
He is also involved heavily in the DSAN initiative.

This award ceremony held earlier today in Lusaka Zambia.

Emerging trend of social almajiri in Yorubaland
By Hakeem Jamiu

There is a social malaise which is gradually creeping into the lexicon of Yorubaland and this is the ugly spectre of hungry children begging for food and alms at social events. Older women are equally not left out in this ugly but strange practice in Yorubaland. It is strange in Yorubaland because the concept of almajiri which simply means street urchin is common in the Northern part of the country. Yorubas use to refer derisively to anybody soliciting for arms in Yorubaland in the olden days as almajiri. The almajiri of the North are usually children between the age bracket of 7 and 20 in most cases. Almajiris are so desperate for food that any unsuspecting visitor to the Northern part of the country who goes to a restaurant to eat but mistakenly left his food to wash his hands is likely to lose such to waiting almajiris before he comes back for the food.


I first noticed this ugly trend at a ceremony I attended a few months ago at Ayetoro Ekiti. Elderly and middle aged able bodied women from Kwara, Osun and Oyo states invaded the burial ceremony uninvited and were embarrassing guests who refused to give them money. Also noticeable were children with their begging bowls who thronged the venue of the ceremony soliciting for left over food and alms. The children were a pitiable sight. Poverty was clearly written on their faces. I have attended many social functions after that and the same trend was noticeable. But I became worried a few days ago, when I attended the burial ceremony of a friend's father in Ilesha , Osun State . They came in various groups and employ different methods in soliciting for alms. There were the elderly women who were busy harassing guests in the name of praise singing and would not leave until you part with money, there were the men with their public address system which they use in praise singing but which is disturbance and yet, there were Yoruba children in the mould of almajiris with their begging bowls scrambling for left-over and at the same time soliciting for alms.


Fellow guests on my table at the event who were also journalists expressed their concern in unison about the growing trend of almajiri of various categories in Yorubaland. They all agreed that it has become a social problem. We started discussing and realised that the culture of begging in the mould of almajiris is alien to Yoruba culture. In those days before the advent of the British, the Yorubas are a proud people known for their hard work and industry. They practiced hoe agriculture and were well known as traders and for their crafts. Yoruba artists have produced masterpieces of woodcarving and bronze casting, some of which date from as early as the 13th century. Many of Nigeria 's best-known artists and writers are Yoruba. Other occupation of the Yorubas at that time were drumming and masquerading which would now be called showbiz. They engage in all the foregoing occupation but a Yoruba man or woman (able bodied) would not beg for alms as it is considered shameful and something akin to a curse. The Yorubas cherish their oriki (folklore) which is a poetic version of eulogizing the exploits of their progenitors which is an incentive for them to excel and even surpass their progenitors. The Yorubas have harsh words for lazy people. Such people are objects of ridicule and butt of jokes in the society. With this background, it is understandable why we became worried with the array of beggars at the Ilesha ceremony.


After leaving the party, I reflected on the scenario of the almajiris in Ilesha and I was able to draw a relationship between Political almajiris and social almajiris. I discovered that social almajiri had its root in the advent of the politics of do -or-die introduced into the political lexicon of Yorubaland by apostles of mainstream politics especially ex-President Obasanjo. The grand Patron of political almajiris who recently passed away was Chief Lamidi Adedibu. Many have argued that his death has led to the proliferation of almajiris in Yorubaland. This is because those he hitherto dole handouts to must look for other means of survival since he is no more. These political almajiris are ready to exchange their mothers for few coins. A new political class of men without integrity and anything goes was created and they became political almajiris who survive on crumbs from their masters. They would rig, kill, maim and do all sort of things to acquire political power. With the ascension of these men in power, good governance became a thing of the past. Our collective patrimony was squandered by these political almajiris. Nigeria has never been so blessed with petro dollar with oil selling for $156 dollars per barrel but Nigeria has never been so poor with a chunk of the population living below poverty line. So versions of the political almajiris are the social almajiris that now invade ceremonies in Yorubaland. With these children begging for alms, a ready made market for thuggery and other social vices is assured. The activities of the beggars are not limited to parties. At bus stops in our cities, it is a common sight to see women most of who are still in their mid thirties, who would strap a baby at their backs and approach men with stories of despair to solicit for alms. Many of them would end up in bed with such men. This is another brand of alamajiri and these are Yoruba women. A violent version of almajiri but which is gradually being tackled in Lagos is the 'Area Boys' syndrome. These are Yoruba street urchins who are semi- armed robbers.


The underlying factor in this new trend is failure of the Nigerian State on one part and the laziness on the part of these women. Most of them don't want to work, In those days, when everybody's occupation was farming you dare not beg. You must find something to do. But these days, our women and children are too lazy. It is either they steal or beg. In most cases a mother and child become almajiris at social events. So the question now is can a Yoruba man now refer derisively to a Hausa beggar as almajiri when we have many of them now in Yorubaland? The answer is no! This trend must be arrested before it goes out of hand. The almajiris in the North these days engage in novel forms of drug abuse like sniffing of gutter water to get intoxicated, sniffing of adhesives and other drugs so that they are ever ready to unleash terror on the rest of the society whenever they are called upon to do so by the political wing of almajiris. I strongly recommend that guests at public functions must stop encouraging almajiris by giving them money.


But can government which itself owns the political wing of almajiris arrest this trend? Time will tell.

https://www.nairaland.com/149827/emerging-social-almajiris-yorubaland

The Special Adviser also added that 12 beggars were deported to Niger Republic ; two to Chad Republic and one to Cote D’voire while 2,580 others were handed over to their relations for integration.

These ones in bold must be Lagosians.

And this one

Ekiti evacuates beggars, lunatics from streets

Written by Doyin Adebusuyi, Ado Ekiti Friday, 20 July 2012 05:00

The Ekiti State government has commenced the evacuation of beggars and lunatics from the streets of Ado Ekiti, with a plan to return them to their states of origin.

The state’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Folorunso Olabode, who supervised the exercise, said the measure was to check the security challenges in the country. The commissioner said the beggars and lunatics were capable of being manipulated by evil people. Olabode said the measure was also in line with the desire of the state government to make the streets of the state capital beautiful, adding that the beggars and sundry undesirable elements constitute nuisance.

Ekiti beggars were deported from Lagos and now Ekiti is deporting other beggards. I wager that most of the beggars will be Yorubas. Who wants to travel from Kano to go and beg in poverty-stricken Ekiti?

Lagos deports 15 foreign beggars, 3,029 to other States

By Miriam Ndikanwu13/05/2011 00:13:00

Font size:


Beggars

The government of Lagos State in Nigeria has in the last four years deported 15 foreign beggars and 3,029 from different states across the country in order to address the challenge of social miscreants.

Special Adviser to Governor Babatunder Fashola on Youth and Social Development, Dr. Dolapo Badru, stated this today. He also said government gave out 152 children for adoption in several foreign countries.

According to him, “at least, 3,044 persons were either transferred to other states or country or released to their relations for re-integration between January 2010 and now”.

He explained that 196 beggars were deported to Sokoto State; 83 to Oyo State; 75 to Kano State; 67 to Osun State while 21 were deported to Ekiti State and seven to Ondo State.

The Special Adviser also added that 12 beggars were deported to Niger Republic ; two to Chad Republic and one to Cote D’voire [b]while 2,580 others were handed over to their relations for integration.
[/b]http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news-update/5930-lagos-deports-15-foreign-beggars-3-029-to-other-states.html

Research & Devt: Our solar refrigerator ready for commercialisation – Prof Enibe

Education Thursday, July 19, 2012

By Ebele Orakpo

…Says Nigeria’s industrial base is weak

If Nigeria must progress, her industrial base needs to be strengthened. Talk of the great nations of the world; they are nations with great industrial bases. Although Nigerian scientists are doing their bit in their laboratories, but the people seem not to feel the impact.


Professor Samuel Enibe

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In this chat with Vanguard Learning, Professor Samuel Ogbonna Enibe, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka spoke on his research work on solar refrigerator and says there is usually a problem between laboratory work and the market place. Excerpts:

Using the energy of the sun to provide cooling:

Said Prof. Enibe: "Most of my research works centre on energy both renewable and conventional and more recently, the modelling of systems and dissemination of the information to the general public."

Prof. Enibe started his work on solar refrigerator by building on an earlier work done by his colleague, Prof. O. C Iloeje who did experimental work using calcium chloride (similar to common salt) which has the capacity to absorb a gas called ammonia at ordinary temperatures.

"He then developed a system such that we built a solar collector so that when you expose the calcium chloride that has absorbed ammonia to the solar collector, the solar collector heats it up to the extent that the temperature becomes very high. We got temperatures of up to 100oC. At that temperature, the gas will leave the salt (the absorbent) and act as a refrigerant.

“In a conventional refrigerator, there is a gas inside called a refrigerant, so in this case, ammonia can be used as such a gas. Once you release that ammonia from the salt at very high temperature and pressure, it becomes a very useful raw material.

“We then developed another circuit where that gas will go and change into liquid. When it changes to liquid, it will be like when alcohol touches your hand, it evaporates and cools the hand. So in the same way, the ammonia passes through the inside of a refrigerator coil and cools whatever is there and produces ice," he said.

System modeling:

Not satisfied with that achievement, Prof. Enibe went further to study and understand the system more. He said: "These days, we do not stop at building a system. After building a system, you will like to understand the internal dynamics of that system. What will happen if you change the temperature or pressure or environment or like this one that is powered by solar energy, what will happen if the sun is not enough or when it is too much?

Although you can usually find out these things by doing experiments, but in our modern world, we normally back up experiments with what we call modeling. What I did was to study this system that has been built and tested, study all its components and then convert the performance of each component into mathematical equations. That is modeling. For each component, you write mathematical equations to describe the performance, all the input and output, you model them mathematically and at the end of it all, you write a computer software that will calculate everything from the beginning to the end for may be, one year.

Having written the computer programme which was the topic of my PhD thesis, we compared the results we got with experimental data because when you have done a mathematical model, you convert it to computer algorithm, whatever results you get (since we believe more in the things we can see), you compare it with the experiment and that gives you the assurance that you have done the model correctly.

So when we did that and found that the results generated by the experimental model and the computer model were in agreement, we were very happy. Next, we used the computer model we have built to find out how the system will perform in various parts of the world. When you have done a good model, sometimes you may not even need to take it to a physical location, once you get data for that location, you can test the performance of that system for that location.

Testing the product:

With the computer model we developed, we tested the performance of the refrigerator in all parts of Nigeria for the entire year and then we extended it to major cities in Africa. We did not have to carry the refrigerator from town to town. Because we built the computer model, we were able to test it in Sudan, South Africa, Egypt and all the major climatic areas in Africa. We confirmed that it will perform in most of the places. Of course, there were areas – the very cold areas - that it could not do well like Cape Town during winter. In places like Juba, Sudan which has high temperatures, the performance was quite good," he stated.

Optimization:

Continuing, Enibe said they went on to optimize. "In optimization, what you do is that having tested something by experiment or computer programme over a very wide range of conditions, you will want to find out the best set of operating conditions that will give you best performance. Example, those who make cars have to make the car first, it has to be beautiful so that those who like good things will appreciate it.

“At the same time, the price has to be low enough so that ordinary people can afford it because if you have a very beautiful car but it is too expensive, then it will not sell. You look at all the input materials, all the things that affect it and put them all together and find out what you really want. Do you want something at very low cost or very high performance etc? So we found out the conditions under which the refrigerator will perform optimally."

Commercialisation:

He regretted that although the refrigerator was ready for commercialisation "but it has not been commercialised because in Nigeria, there is usually a problem between laboratory work and the market place. Many times, you do a very fine job in the laboratory and you are sure the thing works but bringing it to the market often requires an industrial base and our industrial base is weak so that is what is delaying the commercialisation of a number of things that have proven technically feasible. But we have worked out the technical things and they are okay but because of lack of industrial base, we have not brought it to a stage whereby it will be available in every market," he stated.

“Other things we have done are in the area of energy consumption modeling in Nigeria which as an oil-producing nation, doesn't consume much. We compared the energy consumption of the average person in Nigeria with that of others in many countries of the world and we discovered that the per capita energy consumption in Nigeria is very low, lower than Ghana, South Africa, Egypt etc.

The reason is that industrial production base is very low and in most countries, the key energy consumer is industrial production like automobile and steel factories. Because the heavy industries are not operating here, the nation's energy consumption is low.

http://odili.net/news/source/2012/jul/19/332.html

Research & Devt: Our solar refrigerator ready for commercialisation – Prof Enibe

Education Thursday, July 19, 2012

By Ebele Orakpo

…Says Nigeria’s industrial base is weak

If Nigeria must progress, her industrial base needs to be strengthened. Talk of the great nations of the world; they are nations with great industrial bases. Although Nigerian scientists are doing their bit in their laboratories, but the people seem not to feel the impact.


Professor Samuel Enibe

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In this chat with Vanguard Learning, Professor Samuel Ogbonna Enibe, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka spoke on his research work on solar refrigerator and says there is usually a problem between laboratory work and the market place. Excerpts:

Using the energy of the sun to provide cooling:

Said Prof. Enibe: "Most of my research works centre on energy both renewable and conventional and more recently, the modelling of systems and dissemination of the information to the general public."

Prof. Enibe started his work on solar refrigerator by building on an earlier work done by his colleague, Prof. O. C Iloeje who did experimental work using calcium chloride (similar to common salt) which has the capacity to absorb a gas called ammonia at ordinary temperatures.

"He then developed a system such that we built a solar collector so that when you expose the calcium chloride that has absorbed ammonia to the solar collector, the solar collector heats it up to the extent that the temperature becomes very high. We got temperatures of up to 100oC. At that temperature, the gas will leave the salt (the absorbent) and act as a refrigerant.

“In a conventional refrigerator, there is a gas inside called a refrigerant, so in this case, ammonia can be used as such a gas. Once you release that ammonia from the salt at very high temperature and pressure, it becomes a very useful raw material.

“We then developed another circuit where that gas will go and change into liquid. When it changes to liquid, it will be like when alcohol touches your hand, it evaporates and cools the hand. So in the same way, the ammonia passes through the inside of a refrigerator coil and cools whatever is there and produces ice," he said.

System modeling:

Not satisfied with that achievement, Prof. Enibe went further to study and understand the system more. He said: "These days, we do not stop at building a system. After building a system, you will like to understand the internal dynamics of that system. What will happen if you change the temperature or pressure or environment or like this one that is powered by solar energy, what will happen if the sun is not enough or when it is too much?

Although you can usually find out these things by doing experiments, but in our modern world, we normally back up experiments with what we call modeling. What I did was to study this system that has been built and tested, study all its components and then convert the performance of each component into mathematical equations. That is modeling. For each component, you write mathematical equations to describe the performance, all the input and output, you model them mathematically and at the end of it all, you write a computer software that will calculate everything from the beginning to the end for may be, one year.

Having written the computer programme which was the topic of my PhD thesis, we compared the results we got with experimental data because when you have done a mathematical model, you convert it to computer algorithm, whatever results you get (since we believe more in the things we can see), you compare it with the experiment and that gives you the assurance that you have done the model correctly.

So when we did that and found that the results generated by the experimental model and the computer model were in agreement, we were very happy. Next, we used the computer model we have built to find out how the system will perform in various parts of the world. When you have done a good model, sometimes you may not even need to take it to a physical location, once you get data for that location, you can test the performance of that system for that location.

Testing the product:

With the computer model we developed, we tested the performance of the refrigerator in all parts of Nigeria for the entire year and then we extended it to major cities in Africa. We did not have to carry the refrigerator from town to town. Because we built the computer model, we were able to test it in Sudan, South Africa, Egypt and all the major climatic areas in Africa. We confirmed that it will perform in most of the places. Of course, there were areas – the very cold areas - that it could not do well like Cape Town during winter. In places like Juba, Sudan which has high temperatures, the performance was quite good," he stated.

Optimization:

Continuing, Enibe said they went on to optimize. "In optimization, what you do is that having tested something by experiment or computer programme over a very wide range of conditions, you will want to find out the best set of operating conditions that will give you best performance. Example, those who make cars have to make the car first, it has to be beautiful so that those who like good things will appreciate it.

“At the same time, the price has to be low enough so that ordinary people can afford it because if you have a very beautiful car but it is too expensive, then it will not sell. You look at all the input materials, all the things that affect it and put them all together and find out what you really want. Do you want something at very low cost or very high performance etc? So we found out the conditions under which the refrigerator will perform optimally."

Commercialisation:

He regretted that although the refrigerator was ready for commercialisation "but it has not been commercialised because in Nigeria, there is usually a problem between laboratory work and the market place. Many times, you do a very fine job in the laboratory and you are sure the thing works but bringing it to the market often requires an industrial base and our industrial base is weak so that is what is delaying the commercialisation of a number of things that have proven technically feasible. But we have worked out the technical things and they are okay but because of lack of industrial base, we have not brought it to a stage whereby it will be available in every market," he stated.

“Other things we have done are in the area of energy consumption modeling in Nigeria which as an oil-producing nation, doesn't consume much. We compared the energy consumption of the average person in Nigeria with that of others in many countries of the world and we discovered that the per capita energy consumption in Nigeria is very low, lower than Ghana, South Africa, Egypt etc.

The reason is that industrial production base is very low and in most countries, the key energy consumer is industrial production like automobile and steel factories. Because the heavy industries are not operating here, the nation's energy consumption is low.

http://odili.net/news/source/2012/jul/19/332.html