₦airaland Forum

"The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate from our great grand father Usman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent any change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools and the south as conquered territories and never allow them to have control of their future". - Ahmadu Bello.

Andre Uweh:
Thank you my brother. Some of the people here does not know what Ohanaeze stands for, their leaders etc. One even claimed that they are retired generals, and shameless politicians. But I released a list of just few Ohanaeze executives and say how they have failed the public, they could not do it.
One of the executives, Eng Issac Mahonwu from Rivers state is a mate to Chibuike Amechi. This engineer has put in a lot of his fortunes in promoting Igbo culture and activities in Rivers state, yet some people ignorantly label them as old men and retired politicians.
Don't worry, I will soon publish the ages and occupations of this our leaders for all to read. I deal with facts.

Welldone brother. More power to your elbow.

"The new nation called Nigeria should be an estate from our great grand father Usman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent any change of power. We must use the minorities in the North as willing tools and the south as conquered territories and never allow them to have control of their future".  - Ahmadu Bello.

It is mindblowing to see distinguished Igbomen believe that the North is sincere about rotating power to the SE or that Atiku will do only one term. Just mark it somewhere. New phrases will pop up in 2015 as zoning is holding sway now. Things like 'renomination of the incumbent', 'will of Allah', 'Force majeure', 'muslims cant vote for a christian' and even things like military and palace coup may show up. The North is scared of the Nyamiris rulling Nigeria because of  funny fears of reprisals of the '60s and after events and tampering with their religion and sharia and will craftly find a way as in 99 to deny them power. It is better Igbos strenghten their regions ie SS and SE by rallying roung GEJ and  by so doing become so powerful that power coming to them will not be by a supposed  but insincere concession, if the other Zones do not see the fairness of power-rotation among GZones, but by sheer clout and on their terms even  though there will be understandings with all the zones.

It is mindblowing to see distinguished Igbomen believe that the North is sincere about rotating power to the SE or that Atiku will do only one term. Just mark it somewhere. New phrases will pop up in 2015 as zoning is holding sway now. Things like 'renomination of the incumbent', 'will of Allah', 'Force majeure', 'muslims cant vote for a chrtistian' and even things like military and palace coup may show up. The North is scared of the Nyamiris rulling Nigeria because of  funny fears of reprisals of the '60s  and after events and tampering with their religion and sharia and will craftly find a way like in '99 to deny them power. It is better Igbos strenghten their regions ie SS and SE by rallying roung GEJ and  by so doing become so powerful that power coming to them will not be by a supposed  but insincere concession, if the other Zones do not see the fairness of power-rotation among GZones, but by sheer clout and on their terms even  though there will be understandings with all the zones.

MetalGong4:
It is time for Ndigbo to apply the Bismarckian type of diplomacy by supporting a Northerner - a move that would probably benefit them more than any alliance with a Southerner like GEJ. . . .  As for me, Atiku already has my vote so long as he picks someone like Prof Soludo or Ken Nnamani as his running mate.

africanist:
This is a welcome development. This means more jobs and admissions. The university is not designed to produce job-seekers rather researchers. It is a place for the talented, who are ready to sacrifice economic gains for scholarship. The motto is research for the fun of it. 90% of adult population in Finland are university grad and about half are phDs. If a tiny Finland can achieve this then, what is wrong with Nigeria achieving same fit? Again, the University system is not meant for a jobber, whose sole aim is marketing his certificate after graduation. The University certificate must not be a meal ticket rather a calling. Dividends of well educated populace include, merit driven politics, inter-tribal integration and viable manpower.Thank God the FG decides to invest rightly.

I
hear you well well.

Guy what is really your problem about Bayelsa or Otuoke having a federal University. Are they not entitled to that? WTH? You prefer Jonathasn shipping the money to a Switz account? By all means let Bayelsa have ten Universities. The more the better for students seeking admission. What folks should be talking about is improving the qaulity also not just the qauntity of Universities and then developing the economy to absorb their products after school.

ladi02:
@Slap1

Please open your eyes man!. . . .Here is today's News

Jonathan’s village gets federal varsity


The Bayelsa State government will donate 200 hectare of land at Otuoke, President Goodluck Jonathan’s village, for the commencement of the new federal university to be sited in the state, Timipre Sylva, the state governor has said.

The site allocation was unveiled on Wednesday, when the minister of state for education, Kenneth Gbagi, paid a visit to the governor in Yenagoa, requesting for allocation of space for the university, which is one of the six which was recently approved by the Federal Executive Council.

Mr. Sylva also promised to relocate every structure around the site at Otuoke to pave way for the immediate take-off of the university. The governor expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for siting one of the six new federal universities in Bayelsa, describing it as a quick response to the educational needs of the people.

The minister had earlier told the governor that the new federal university, which was allocated to Bayelsa State, would be located at Otuoke, in Ogbia local government area of the state.

With a little more than 20,000 people, Otuoke and Oloibiri, the communities where crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in Nigeria, belong to Ogbia local government area of Bayelsa State.

Read More: http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5646235-146/jonathans_village_gets_federal_varsity_.csp

safariman:
Good idea for more unis, we should maintain the current ones and provide infrastructure for private job creation

What is bad about the locations? If not for Ekiti, I think the states mentioned are educationally disadvantaged in their Gzones and so warant the locations.

It is naive for folks to go to sleep thinking that all is well. I think folks should hold vigils, and prayers or sleep with one eye open because clearly some people have something in mind.According to the Bible,'When men slept, the enemy came and planted tares'. 'Nuff said.

TRUCE THEN. It is no do-or die. Bear in mind though that those organizations that were '419ed' according to you also had experts who knew stuff about the WWW and Internet and yet allowed themselves to be so 419ed. BTW I assure you that if he had also or alternatively being hyped for any considerable fame in the oil industry which BTW is a huge and distinguished one, a lot of research would also have been carried out to discredit him by some.

DapoBear:
Simply put, looks like millions of people (including Time, CNN, BBC, Bill Clinton) got 419ed. This will not be the first or the last time that it happens, unfortunately.

Your Opinion and I respect it now be humble and respect others' opinion.

sbeezy8:
Thats the problem IF there is zoning the north believes it is between north and south not 6 zones, Jonathan said there is no zoning so would make the SE or north think it will come to any of them automaatically?

Everything in Nigeria is north and south 4 get all the BS, zones exists really in the south . the zoning that "was before" was based on agreement of all political zones. the difference is the NORTH which has 3 zones said its based on North and South, Obj returned power back to the north which implied to them it was north vs south.After yaradua it was suppose to be Jonathan (SS) which also says its between north and south.

[[b]b]SE zone has a problem when there was zoning NC+NW+NE+SS+SW saw the zoning between north and south- thats clear.

NO ONE GEOPOLTICAL ONE CAN SET TERMS FOR ZONING. and all geopolitical zones (except SE) before the death of yaradua implied it based on North vs South.
[/b]

[/b]

PLEASE EDUCATE ME WHEN ALL THE ZONES AGREED THAT ZONING IS BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH WITH THE SOUTH EAST IN DISAGREEMENT. PLEASE PROVIDE LINKS TOO.AND NOT BEER PARLOUR RHETORIC. NO OFFENCE INTENDED

DapoBear:
I hate to say it, some of you guys don't know how to reason.

What is the matter of semantics here? What technology did Emeagwali invent that is being used? If he is/was a father of the internet, where is the fruit of his works and labors?

Any of the other "founders of the internet", you can name specifically how their technology is being used to access nairaland.com, for example.

How come we cannot say anything specific for Emeagwali? Put sentiment aside, use your brains and REASON. Thinking a little bit won't kill you.

Great Thinker. I think you should at least go through other postings before you start belittling others' mental capacities. Insults just wont cut it. Even if you are Aristotle or Socrates, have some humility. Read at least his take on the Internet Father issue posted not long from your post. If you cant or wont, sorry I do not have to repeat issues that have been already trashed to every poster.

So it is now a matter of semantics. Haba.

@Jason.
No wahala if you do not want to heed my advice and call it insult instead. BTW Where did Ohaneze say that Jonathan will zone the presidency to them? That is why you need to read up on Ndigbo. You underestimate them far too much by the views you peddle around about them. You sound as if the world is coming to an end by 2015 and 2019. Ndigbo have survived many things you do not know and will survive those years too. Their tactical approach to Nigeria is only known to them. 8, 20, even 100 years is small in the life of a Nation. Their strategic plans for those years are what matters even if their are dissenters as their must be. If however you insist on crying more than the bereaved by continuing your postings instead of heeding my advice to acquire more knowledge and wisdom., so be it.

vislabraye:
If Philip Emegwali has 3 degrees and a masters, thats good enough. No one will complain. But why should he lie to it?

For those people defending him, Integrity and a good name is better than silver and gold.

And has this been proved beyond a shadow of doubt or you are basing your conclusion on an internet post that has not been substantiated in any way. Patience brother till the jury comes back from their deliberations.

passyjango:
@hercules07 your definition of who a father of internet is, is obviously different from my definition and that of Emeagwali. However, your definition of who a father of the internet is does not count here. It is Emeagwali's definition that counts since he is the one on trial. What did he mean when he claims he is a father of the internet? To me and to Emeagwali any one who has in any way contributed to the advancement of the internet is a father of the internet. The internet is not just devices connected to a network. Inside those devices there are ICs, processors. Without those devices there will be no internet. Without the proliferation of cheap computer, thanks to IBM there will be no internet no matter how nicely you define the protocol. Without GPRS and EDGE and now 3G how many of us will be using the internet today all the great men and women who worked in these technologies as far as I and Emeagwali are concerned are all fathers of the internet. Even men and women who invested their money to develop the technologies that makeup the internet are all fathers of the internet if you ask me, because they believed in what they cannot see. So, they are visionaries.

The founders of Google made it easier for us to find information on the internet; they are fathers of the internet. The founder of facebook is a father of the internet and believe me hercules07 if you can open up your definition of who a father of the internet is one day you may even be worthy to lay claim to being a father of the internet. The internet is still evolving and there is still room for more fathers and mothers. So, my friends the internet is not just protocols.

I could not have put it any better.

@ All and Ohaneze chieftains, I want to reiterate this earlier post

As for Mikeansy and other neutral and uninfluenced/-able Igbos, they will come round. However. I disagree with the word 'plot against North'. I just think that Ohaneze should not go to sleep now. They still need to reach out actively to the other regional groups in the North and South especially to seek support for GEJ now and an Igbo presidency after him whether it is 2015 or 2019 with  their variation of rotational presidency  as per Zones . They should try and lead in a negotiation between North and South to break the current impasse by arguing persuasively for all to support  their agenda for the sake of fairness in power-sharing and not on any concocted and artificial North South rotation. I believe that Uwechue with his long years in diplomacy and journalism, and his team, has the sagacity to pull it of.


Ohaneze has a lot of work to do now mobilizing first the SE and SS, then colaborating with SW and NC and then seeking Raproachment with NE and NW over Jonathan and a future Igbo President. It is a load of work, lobbyings, horse tradings and collaborations if they are really serious about emerging from a laidback leadership.

@ Chinenye, Abagworo and Mikeansy.

You are actually entitled to your opinion about Ohaneze's non- partisanship. I had similiar misgivings but I believe that Ndigbo needs strong leadership now and that laidback method is not what is needed now. I remember Chinenye the following post I made to you on a previous thread about this matter.

Posted oct 17
Bros the only thing constant in life is change. The Dinosaur knows too well the disadvantages of the contrary. Semantics are what they are - semantics. I actually have nothing wrong with this self re-invention or transition especially if they have discovered that the old order is not working anymore as it did in the times of Justice Eze Ozobu and Prof Nwabueze. What they needed to transit is wide consultation with the Oha and Eze which they said they did. It is the same army that transforms itself from a defensive formation to an offensive one in the blink of an eye. One is only concerned whether the time is now but with respect to the Nigerian project, the question is not if but when. The transition was inevitable

Leadership is not static but must be dynamic

@ Lestat.

Thank you. Just hoping to free the thread of prejudice and setting all back to giving him the benefit of doubt till more proofs of his innocence or otherwise come in.

Actually you cannot deny that the silicon -discoverer contributed to the Internet's development. So yes you might call him a father thereof.
You are entitled to hold your views on Emeagwali but should still remember the phrase 'innocent till proven guilty' and so should allow others hold their views on him. We have many heroes yet unsong like the Olutokun guy you mentioned. Let's give all the benefit of doubt till an incontrovertible verdict finally comes in.

hercules07:
@passyjango and houvest

Why dont we take it further and say that the man who discovered silicon is also a father of the internet, when someone is described as the father of something, he must have done a lot to make such a thing happen, as I have always said, Radia Perlman is the mother of the internet ( she gave us STP and link state protocols and so many other stuff), our Emeagwali has no patents to his name, did not write any of the protocols and he takes adulation for being called what he is not, that my dear guys is fraud, he has had opportunities to set the record straight. Radia Perlman has over 50 patents yet she does not go about trumpeting her achievements, infact, I am sure a lot of people outside the technical world do not know her. Please do a google search on Tunde Olukotun and his Niagara Processor, this is a man we should be proud of. This link will help you http://www-hydra.stanford.edu/~kunle/ .

@ Jason

I really do not know what to tell you that you wont feel bad. Sometimes you come across as sincere, at other times, naive, others plain dumb, at other times cerebral. Please, it will be advisable to really study Nigerian politics and history before you embark on this tall order of helping Igbos in particular and Nigerian unity in general. Take out time to study., say one month before further posts. In some of your posts you might be sincerely caring for Igbos, but you actually end up seriously insulting them. Just my two kobo.

Thanks for the compliment but I see the reference to him as a father of the internet more as someone whose work has made a contribution to the development of the internet not necessarily an originator thereof and in that sense, I do not think you need a patent or PHD to be a contributor to the Internet's development.But your assertion that he has done nothing to warrant patents or a PHD are your opinions which many including PE do not agree. If he did not feel cheated  in the matter of the PHD why did he go to court to challenge the issue.That he lost the case does not make it a fact but knowing that the law is an a.s.s, it can be argued that he could have won under other circumstances so it remains your opinion. And  your verdict that he should not be on the stamp is a matter for the Nigerian Govt to decide when the investigation is concluded not yours or mine  as it was their decision ab initio to put him there without consulting any of us.
See his own words about the internet brouhaha.


Am I "A Father of the Internet?"



First, I demonstrated that the original blueprint for the international network only applies to a flat Earth and invented a global network that applies to a round Earth. Second, the United States government acknowledged that I used the NSFnet (precursor of the Internet) to break the barriers of space and time. The latter was hailed as an NSFnet "success story." Third, I developed the first personal Web site on the NSFnet. Fourth, I contributed to the development of parallel processing technology, which provides the horsepower that runs Web sites. Fifth, I demonstrated the power of parallel computing, a technology that is now accepted and is widely used on the Internet.



However, the most significant aspect of my contribution is that I worked alone over a period of 27 years. As a result, I have won more prizes and awards than any contemporary scientist who worked alone. As the discoverer of penicillin, Sir Alexander Flemming, wrote, "It is the lone worker who makes the first advance in a subject: The details may be worked out by a team, but the prime idea is due to the enterprise, thought and perception of an individual."



For the above reasons, I have been described as "one of the fathers of the Internet," a phrase that recognizes that many people contributed to the invention of the Internet. I agree and believe that any recognition of an individual as "A Father of the Internet," should be qualified by stating that the Internet has many fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts.

AND AGAIN

The supercomputer began as a crazy idea to tie computers together. It began as a science fiction article, written in 1922, to use 64,000 human computers to forecast the weather for the whole Earth. Ignored for 50 years, that article inspired me to design a scheme for using 64,000 electronic computers to forecast the weather for the whole Earth.

They laughed when I proposed that 64,000 computers could be tied together ,  But when I won the Gordon Bell Prize, 15 years later, for programming 64,000 processors , 

….

Inspired by Richardson's article on 64000 human computers, I invented an international network that uses 64000 electronic computers. My network was rejected (in the 1970s) and rediscovered (in the 1980s) and called an "idea that was ahead of its time" and "a germinal seed of the Internet."

…

The seed that planted the idea of “out of many, one” computer was planted in my head when I read excerpts from a book published in 1922. In that book, Lewis Richardson, a pioneer meteorologist, proposed a computing theater with 64,000 human computers. Even Richardson considered his proposal impractical and called it a "fantasy." In 1975, I said that it could be done with 64,000 electronic computers, instead of the human computers proposed previously. My proposal was dismissed as "foolish."

duduspace:
Of all the write ups put up in Emeagwali's defence, the one from Houvest sounds most reasonable,  Emeagwali is indeed a man with more achievement than most of the posters here and he does have some claim to fame, it is quite wrong to compare him to Tim Berners Lee who came up with the initial idea for HTTP which did form the basis for a standard way of presenting information through browsers which subsequently led to the explosion of interest in the world wide web which we all still use today.

To be honest, I don't think he has done anything more than blow his trumpet a bit too loud, if those degrees he claimed to have are found to be fraudulent though, then he might also have to answer to the law.

Going by what I've now read about the research he did and judging by the fact that he has no technical patents, I don't think there is any basis whatsoever for anyone to refer to him as a "Father of the internet", that is total misinformation and it still amazes me that some creditable newsmedia and important personalities like CNN and Bill Clinton helped fuel these massive exaggerations of the truth, I'd like to believe they were also hoodwinked as I must say I also was initially.

Emeagwali trained as a Supercomputing engineer, won a price which is in no way near a Nobel price and contributed his bit to the advancement of knowledge in his own little way, he however did not do anything considered worthy of being patented or worthy of being awarded a PhD for, these are facts and not opinions which should be accepted by any educated Nigerian whether you are Hausa/Ibo/Yoruba or not even a Nigerian at all.

Emeagwali is a brilliant mind no doubt, even to be able to hype his meagre contribution to world wide fame requires a brilliant albeit not so sincere mind. The question is, should his image be on a Nigerian stamp as an example of what any young Nigerian should dream and aspire towards?  NO, I think not.

[b]Chioma Chielo: A Propagandist Disguising as Emeagwali's Kinsman on a Mission to Rubbish his Accomplishments!Back to Philip Emeagwali: The Great Black Scientist You Never Hear About!.Discussion BoardTopic view.Topic: Chioma Chielo: A Propagandist Disguising as Emeagwali's Kinsman on a Mission to Rubbish his Accomplishments!.Displaying all 5 posts, Ovbiedo


Why should one draw on the baseless propaganda and absurd mediocrity of a criticism being pandered by a non-existent Chioma Ezeilo to destroy the image of a scientist that is good enough to be awarded Gordon Bell Prize; worthy of an honorable mention by an American president; accomplished enough to be acknowledged by reputable American media such as CNN and Time magazine?

The name, Chioma Ezeilo, raises suspicion as to who really the persona is and his or her intentions. Chioma Ezeilo claims to be from Utah. According to Robert Merckel (whose article excerpt you can read below), from all background checks conducted, there is no such name as Chioma K. Ezeilo in the United States, let alone Utah. So, could it be that someone who has personal issues with Philip Emeagwali is disguising as Chioma Ezeilo to rubbish this scientist's name? Isn't that possible? In fact, by using this Pseudonym, this persona disguising as Chioma Ezeilo is ironically emblematic of "the abuse of cyber pseudo-anonymity," (which is the sub-title of his/her frivolous article about Emeagwali.

Another ridiculous thing is that all the false claims that this non-existent Chioma makes are not backed up by sources. Instead "Chioma Ezeilo" tries to maliciously discredit the acknowledgement of Emeagwali's accomplishments by CNN, Time magazine, and President Clinton. Chioma did not research how CNN got their information about Emeagwali, instead "she" assumes that CNN used an intern to get flawed information about Emeagwali. "She" also assumes that President Bill Clinton stupidly mentioned Emeagwlai as "a great mind of the information age." Chioma disregards the fact that presidential speeches are reviewed by experts for accuracy before they are presented.

"The History of the Internet," a book published by scholars who have done their research was discredited by Chioma because the authors acknowledged Emeagwali's achievements. "Her" criticisms of this book, like other criticisms of hers, were neither based on a counter-research nor on any form of facts and evidence, but on assumptions.

Chioma also went ahead to make unsubstantiated claims that the process for recognizing black achievers for the Black history month (during which emeagwali was recognized) is flawed. After making such a claim, Chioma refused to give reasons and/or evidence for making this grand assertion. Could it be that Chioma belongs to the ilk of those who concoct propaganda and rubbish the achievements of other Black acchievers like Martin Luther King Jr.?

All Chioma's claims are frivolous, malicious, unsubstantiated, misleading, derisive, destructive, absurd, concocted, and contorted. They have to be taken for what they are: an attempt to intellectually despoil right thinking human beings who believe in giving credit to whom credit is due.

Whoever disguises as Chioma Ezeilo is a coward, who could not come out to put up a sound and logical argument substantiated by facts and evidences. Chioma (whoever he/she is) presents a quarrel and not an argumant about Emeagwali. Only the weak-minded can buy into Chioma Ezeilo's quarrel, or at best, sophistry!

See below for excerpts from Robert Merckel's refutation of Chioma's claims:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Robert_Merkel/archive_3#Philip_Emeagwali

"Check your facts!

Remember the WIKI rule: "Please cite your sources so others can check your work." You cited fictitious and anonymous authors, ignoring documents from the IEEE, Association for Computing Machinery, the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, The White House, seven universities (including the University of Michigan), dozens of books in Amazon.com Don't reintroduce these factual inaccuracies. They will be deleted!

Below are numerous examples of factual inaccuracies. There are many many more inaccuracies to be revealed later.

FALSE STATEMENT (first sentence)

He "was one of five winners of the 1989 Gordon Bell prize."

THE FACT:

Emeagwali did not share the Gordon Bell Prize with five people. He won it alone.

You have given honorary authorship to five unknown and unnamed scientists. He was the only individual to win the Gordon Bell Prize alone while eight researchers from MIT shared the other Gordon Bell Prize. The fact is that an 8-man MIT team tied with only one-man, but you revised it to read that he shared with five people.




FACT CHECK on SECOND PARAGRAGH

You quoted two fictitious authors (Ezeilo and anonymous) and ignored published testimonials from leading computer scientist and ignored the President of the United States who (you'll guess) had computer scientists review the transcript of his televised speech for technical accuracy.

The NEW AFRICAN is the TIME magazine of Africa. You ignored their ranking of Emeagwali but choose to quote websites

published by anonymous authors.


FALSE STATEMENT

"Emeagwali heavily promotes himself as a speaker for conferences."

FACT CHECK He declines most speaking engagements and has never spoken in Africa in 31 years.


FALSE STATEMENT

A large number of websites [2] [3] named after famous inventors and other great achievers, particularly African ones, have been created to promote Emeagwali. They feature brief biographies of them (copied verbatim from sources such as Project Gutenberg public domain texts and the World Book Encyclopedia), surrounded by many links to Emeagwali's site.

The large number of links to Emeagwali's main site also boosts the prominence of it in search engines. The relevant domain name whois records list Donita Brown, Emeagwali's wife, as the technical and administrative contact.

FACT CHECK

According to Google, it is impossible for a billion low PageRank pages to boost a website that is already ranked high.


FACT CHECK

The WHOIS record does not list Donita Brown in the your "large number of websites." And his wedding page did not list Donita Brown either. Only Wiki lists Donita Brown as his wife.


FALSE STATEMENT

According to his website, Emeagwali was born in a "remote Nigerian village" in 1954. He dropped out of school in 1967 because of the Nigerian civil war. When he turned fourteen, he was conscripted into the Biafran army. After the end of the war, He completed a high-school equivalency through self-study and came to the United States to study at university under a scholarship scheme.

FACT CHECK

You left out four graduate degrees in four different fields ,  PLEASE CONTINUE to ENLIGHTEN US ,  You intentionally skipped four graduate degrees ,

Thomas Edison (the greatest American inventor of the 20th century) had only sixth-grade education and is found of stating that that he would rather hire a hard worker than a college graduate. Albert Einstein (Time magazine's Person of the Century) did not even have four graduate degrees. And Isaac Newton graduated at the bottom of his class. Your revered Tim Berneers Lee is an MIT professor that never went to graduate school. You know that Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and half of leading computer pioneers merely earned a high school diploma.


FALSE STATEMENT

Emeagwali studied for a Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan from 1987 through 1991. His thesis was not accepted by a committee of internal and external examiners and was thus not awarded the degree. Emeagwali filed a court challenge, claiming that the decision was a violation of his civil rights and that the university had discriminated against him in several ways because of his race. The court challenge was dismissed, as was an appeal to the Michigan state Court of Appeals.

FACT CHECK

There were no thesis "internal examiners." The "external examiners" did not reject his thesis. Instead, they awarded it the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize. [Now that I have named the external examiners and I look forward to your priving me wrong by naming the internal examiners and renaming the external examiners.]


FACT CHECK

There is not no lawsuit for a Ph.D. degree in civil engineering. A complaint for a denied "Ph.D. degree in civil engineering" must be filed with a lower court. Find an original complaint and this information will be corrected. In the real world primary document takes precedence over secondary documents. The primary documents were ignored in favor of a secondary document that contradicts what was in the primary document.

FACT CHECK

We found that a dozen University of Michigan publications hailed Emeagwali as a genius whom the university officials spent three years courting. In the citiation below, the university's flagship publication called "Michigan Today" (February 1991) devoted a special issue on his work. The latter issue on Emeagwali was mailed to the university's 400,000 alumni.


FALSE STATEMENT

Emeagwali, on his website, claims that the Gordon Bell prize has been called "supercomputing's Nobel Prize".

While it is a significant prize in the relatively narrow field of supercomputing, it is not in any way comparable in financial rewards, prestige, or recognition to the Nobel Prizes.

FACT CHECK

Supercomputing is not a "narrow field." Historically, the supercomputer of today is the computer of tomorrow. The supercomputer is to the computer what the heavy champion is to boxing. The latter may not be pound-for-pound the best fighter, but punch-for-punch he is the toughest.

FACT CHECK

The Gordon Bell prize has $5,000 while the Turing has $25,000 while the Nobel Prize has one million dollars. The Field's Medal is called the Nobel Prize of mathematics yet it has zero financial reward.


FALSE STATEMENT

"In the wider field of computing, the Turing Award is regarded as by far the most prestigious award."


FACT CHECK

You are comparing apples and oranges, the Turing Award is not a supercomputing award. The Turing has a 15-year waiting period but you expect Emeagwali to do Turing prize-winning discovery while in high school and earn the Turing Award in 1989 at the ripe old age of 34. For the record, the Gordon Bell prize is supercomputing's top prize and by default the Nobel Prize of supercomputing. The IEEE Gordon Bell Prize-winning works are published in IEEE publications and publicly defended at the annual Supercomputing conference which draws 10,000 attendees. The Turing Award is a private closed-door selection process.


FALSE STATEMENT

Emeagwali also claims to have performed the "world's fastest computation of 3.1 billion calculations per second in 1989" [4]. This is false;

FACT CHECK

Please cite your sources. The keyword is "1989." Your proof is a latter date. He explained his "world's fastest computation" at http://emeagwali.com/speeches/globalization/the-truth-about-globalization/my-supercomputer-discovery.pdf


FALSE STATEMENT

Some web sites state that he holds patents, for instance an article at the Lemelson-MIT inventor program [5], states that he "holds more than 30 patents". He is not listed in the USPTO patent database, which holds fully searchable records of all US patents dating back to 1976, nor in its pending application database, as of April 2004.


FACT CHECK

Your key phrase is "Some web sites." Now tell us what he claimed in his website [6] or in his 1057-page Gordon Bell Prize report or in his off-line interviews and writings. One could find a website out of 50,000 inauthorized website. [Even Bill Clinton maintains several unauthorized blogs written by conservative republican webmasters].


FACT CHECK

His biography [emeagwali.info] claimed "41 discoveries" while your secondary sources claimed "30 patents." However, you prefer to cite your secondary sources. You did not devote a sentence to any of the "41 discoveries."

Do you understand the difference between a "discovery" and an "invention?" Do you understand that it was illegal to patent discoveries in the United States of America. You have to search in countries that allow the patenting of discoveries.

FALSE STATEMENT

"In subsequent years, various supercomputers have been used to perform computations far faster and more cost-effectively than Emeagwali as the inevitable result of Moore's Law and improvement in programming techniques."

FACT CHECK

Emeagwali programmed 65,536 processors to outperform supercomputers. That's not "Moore's Law." The most powerful supercomputer built by IBM also uses 65,536, not powered by Moore's Law


ANOTHER FICITIOUS CITATION

* http://magazine.biafranigeriaworld.com/cezeilo/2003nov09.html - an article that highly critically examines Emeagwali's claims, describing them as "disingenuous".


FACT CHECK

Your primary source author "Chioma Ezeilo" claims to live in Utah. Yet extensive search of United States driving records/databases shows that it was a fictitious person. existed. Nigerian newsgroups are speculating that Chioma Ezeilo is a pen-name for a person indirectly responsible for the death of eight African villagers.


ANOTHER FICITIOUS CITATION

* http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/emeag.html - a page dedicated to refuting "Emeagwali myths".

This "Black Inventions Myth" website is written by an anonymous author who debunked the contributions of nearly all significant black inventors. The only true inventors, we are led to believe, are white geniuses such as like Thomas Edison "the father of the light buld."

FACT CHECK

A "White Inventions Myth" site could also debunk any major white inventor. Take for example, Thomas Edison. His patent on the light bulb was declared null and void by a United States court, three years after it was issued.


FALSE STATEMENT

COURT CASE

You've made this a legal biography, instead of scientific biography


FACT CHECK

You searched for papers and ended up writing about a complaint that was never filed in any United States court of law.


FALSE STATEMENT

A large number of websites [1] (http://www.leonardo-davinci.info/leonardo-da-vinci/) [2] (http://nelson-mandela.info/nelson-mandela/nelson-rolihlahla-mandela-biography-picture-quote-speech-apartheid-photo-biografia-7.shtml) named after famous inventors and other great achievers, particularly African ones, have been created to promote Emeagwali. They feature brief biographies of them (copied verbatim from sources such as Project Gutenberg public domain texts and the World Book Encyclopedia), surrounded by many links to Emeagwali's site. The large number of links to Emeagwali's main site also boosts the prominence of it in search engines. The relevant domain name WHOIS record list Donita Brown, Emeagwali's wife, as the technical and administrative contact.


FACT CHECK

Google will spend billions on these public domain texts. He was thinking ahead of google.


FACT CHECK

You never bothered to check WHOIS. Did you? The whois fact is that only "emeagwali" domains are owned by Donita Brown.


FALSE STATEMENT

Self Promotion -- Alfred Nobel, Gordon Bell and others who named prizes after themselves are more self-promoting than the recipients of the awards. Gordon Bell should have named his awards after the "IEEE," instead of self-promoting his name. Naming awards after oneself more self-promotion than receiving them.


FALSE STATEMENT

The Nigerian press ,  BLAH BLAH ,

FACT CHECK

The Nigerian Press were repeating what IEEE, American and White House told them. Emeagwali has never been to Nigeria in 31 years.

Besides the American press promotes the Wright Brothers while the Brazilian press promotes Santos who achieved the first flight.

The American press promotes Thomas Edison as the father of the light bulb while the British press promotes Joseph Swan as the inventor of the light bulb, even though the US court ruled in favor of Joseph Swan. Alan Turing is promoted by the Gay press as a martyr who committed suicide to avoid trial for child molestation. Do you know why the Gay press promotes Isaac Newton [Hint: he died a bachelor] And so on.


FINALLY

You must check your facts! You have to understand the subject matter and his contributions write a biography that provides both scientific content and context. I will provide additional factual information, including illustrations at a latter date. wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Robert_Merkel/archive_3#Philip_Emeagwali [/b]


Source: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=32882693536&topic=5117

hercules07:
The guy is not the father of the internet, he had no hand in the protocols that make the internet work, he has not been on any of the committees of the IEEE or OSI or any of the companies that defined the internet. The claim of father of the internet is a fraud

Who made that claim? Emeagwali or CNN? And it is 'a' not 'the' See other accolades by other media before you come out here and say he claimed them.


"The Web owes much of its existence to Philip Emeagwali" - TIME magazine
"A father of the Internet" - CNN
"One of the great minds of the Information Age", "Bill Gates of Africa" - Bill Clinton (The White House)
BBC Hails Emeagwali as "Digital Giant"


See a rebutal posted on another NL thread?

[b]
Djcn
Posts: 188

Offline

  Re: Philip Emeagwali – Genius Or Crook?
« #24 on: October 12, 2008, 09:46 PM » 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, this is a nice and interesting topic, but funny enough i can be on any side and still give facts for my posts.
Actually, the man has some controversial history and that is so because of various writters and views.
In the light of the above, it is very easy to get the facts, for one i always tell anyone that the internet has more falsehood than truth in it, and so the fact that a website contains some information does not necessarily mean it is true. I can create a website and feed it with whatever information i like.

even at that, there are sites which are official sites, and they contain authentic information,
Well, i dont want to be involved in a debate with anyone, but i find some flaws almost in every posts in this thread concerning Philip Emeagwali.

Starting with the poster, Philip Emeagwali won the Gordon Bell prize alone in the year he won it. He was the only individual to win the Gordon Bell Prize alone while eight researchers from MIT shared the other Gordon Bell Prize. The fact is that an 8-man MIT team tied with only one-man. Check the Gordon site for details.

The word "fastest computer" can be used in a relative sense and could sometimes be a confusing term. For those who care, check out facts about fastest supercomputers ever built and you will see that most times it depends on the purpose of the comp and who the criterias used for assessment.

As far as I'm aware, he's never designed or built a computer in his life, and there is no claim to that even in his website. The Gordon Bell prize he won was for a numerical achievement; the highest number of floating point operations per second achieved when using the computer for a particular application domain. In other words, at the time he won the award, he had his computer cranking over more numbers per second for doing geophysical simulations than anyone else had in the past. This was not an influencial project because there was no published papers for this research.

The Gordon bell's prize can be viewed as a "supercomputing's Nobel Prize". The Gordon Bell prize has $5,000 while the Turing has $25,000 while the Nobel Prize has one million dollars. The Field's Medal is called the Nobel Prize of mathematics yet it has zero financial reward. So the cash rewards doesn't matter.

The Turing Award is not a supercomputing award. For the record, the Gordon Bell prize is supercomputing's top prize and by default the Nobel Prize of supercomputing. The IEEE Gordon Bell Prize-winning works are published in IEEE publications and publicly defended at the annual Supercomputing conference which draws 10,000 attendees. The Turing Award is a private closed-door selection process.
Both awards are of different classes, has a link with ACM and the Turing awards also boasts of the equivalent nobel in computing.

His biography [emeagwali.info] claimed "41 discoveries" while  secondary sources claimed " patents."  The fact remains that he filed patents has never been disputed by any sources even the USPTO.

You have submitted 41 inventions to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office concerning seven technologies. Can you give us expanded details?

Philip Emeagwali - Inventors are reluctant to provided expanded details of their inventions until they receive full patent protection. The reason is that the Patent and Trademark Office can deny patents to inventors that publicly provided details of their invention. More on the inventors site

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111097a.htm


Philip Emeagwali was never a "father of the Internet" and made no significant contributions to the Internet's development. Philip Emeagwali did not invent the Internet. Pls don't forget that there are myths that about Tim Berners-Lee, and Al Gore also inventing the internet. No one invented the internet. Contributors includes

Leonard Kleinrock
J.C.R. Licklider 
Larry G. Roberts .
Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf
Radia Perlman

There is a difference between the web and the internet, someone is credited for inventing the car but wheels were already in existence even before the car was dreamed of, and so it goes. The web is the most integral part of the internet. The Time magazine, CNN, BBC and white house could not all have been wrong. They acknowledge his contributions to the internet.

If he is hailed as one of the fathers of the internet? The question i often ask is who are those hailing him? If the professionals are those hailing him then everyone should keep his mouth shut, otherwise the reverse also becomes true.

Nevertheless, based on the Bell Prize, he has since received numerous further awards, ranging from one from the World Bank-IMF Africa Club to being voted the "35th-greatest African of all time" in a survey by New African magazine. He has a number of awards.

His achievements were quoted in a speech by Bill Clinton as an example of what Nigerians could achieve when given the opportunity. The President of the United States as you know has computer scientists review the transcript of his televised speech for technical accuracy.

There are a dozen University of Michigan publications hailed Emeagwali as a genius whom the university officials spent three years courting. In the citiation below, the university's flagship publication called "Michigan Today" (February 1991) devoted a special issue on his work. The latter issue on Emeagwali was mailed to the university's 400,000 alumni.

Americans promotes theirs, the Britons do the same and sometimes i always come to realize that there is so much hype by western media of their nationals, many of which are untrue and we are forced to believe such. If nobody hypes Philip, his records speakes for himself and he has managed to survived in a stiffed-neked American society, who can sometimes view blacks as non-achievers.
Most of the websites serves as distractions and this applies to many others, if u read some posts about Bill gates, Steve Jobs, Linux Tolvards and others u think they not accomplished anything in this world. I know you would understand better.

SOURCES: Documents from the IEEE, Association for Computing Machinery, the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, The White House, seven universities (including the University of Michigan), dozens of books in Amazon.com.

Pls some persons are used to quoting from websites published by anonymous authors. Confirm such claims first.
If the university of michigan says he was a genius, i would not argue.

I believe everyone is a genuis.

Corrections are welcomed.[/b]

Tokotaya:
Truth has no tribe. If this guy has fraudulently advanced himself, he does not deserve the accolade he has received and neither does he deserve anybody's support, be they Igbo, Yoruba or Fulani. What a fraudulent claim brings home to us all at the end of the day is collective shame. We are not a country of fraudsters and conmen. We have men and women who have toiled and genuinely achieved greatness from across the world. Those ones deserve to be on our stamps. A fraudulent person should not supplant them on those stamps.

The million dollar condition but alas 'innocent till proven guilty' has been expunged from NL phrases by the spambot.

dayokanu:
The first Emeagwali thread I saw on NL was opened by Ugwumba and 4play

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-19285.0.html
4play and Ugwumba are Igbo guys, Those were the days when Intellectuals were on NL not these bunch that cant even make an intelligent argument.

Simple question Is Emeagwali guilty of embellishing his credentials ot not? Even the Minister of Information who is Igbo  has something to say to that effect. Yet loafers on NL come here to play the tribal card

Its a simple case of what is true and whats not.

If you find out that Soyinka, Chike Obi, Okonjo-Iweala, Segun Aganga etc lied about their achievements bring it out,

I am curious if the Emeagwali supporters here ever condemned or criticized Salisu Buhari who did the same thing?

So if an Hausa man stole we should all scream that its tribal witch hunting?

Do two guys open a thread or one? Confusing.  I checked your link and found it was only one person that opened the thread as it should be, 4  play. You should have said Ugwumba argued against Emeagwali not that both of them opened the thread. So simple question. Are you guilty of embelishing your post or not and does that now make you a fraud? As much as I do not agree with allegations of  a tribal gang-up against Emeagwali, the discourse is tilting more and more  that way and your post does not help matters here. Even the Minister you mentioned has/d a running battle with Soludo, his brother-in-law, showing that neigbhours do disagree even those from the same womb. Besides she has not indicted Emeagwali before the verdict of the enquiry comes in or are you already taking an investigation to mean a condemnation? What you should encourage is a search for the truth by everyone not dropping names here and there that prove nothing and surreptitiously making innuendoes. The whole matter is still in the realm of allegation. No proofs yet. It is possible Igbomen and women were the first to post on these allegations and went ahead and argued against Emeagwali but I know that Yoruba and other  ethnics joined back then to defend him, but what are we seeing here. The defence appear one-sided and  the attack same. So it is boiling down to tribal loyalties. In such a fiasco, room for logical deductions ceases as well as our search for the next Nigerian Gordon Bell Prize winner.

I am still wondering what leads to ban on NL. If such hate posts are treated cavalierly, what of the death threats to the president and innocent citizensjust because a man wants to exercise his God-given rights. I doubt how long folks will remain on NL when they share the same forum with hate spewing bigots without cautions of any type.

As for Mikeansy and other neutral and uninfluenced/-able Igbos, they will come round. However. I disagree with the word 'plot against North'. I just think that Ohaneze should not go to sleep now. They still need to reach out actively to the other regional groups in the North and South especially to seek support for GEJ now and an Igbo presidency after him whether it is 2015 or 2019 with  their variation of rotational presidency as per Zones . They should try and lead in a negotiation between North and South to break the current impasse by arguing persuasively for all to support  their agenda for the sake of fairness in power-sharing and not on any concocted and artificial North South rotation. I believe that Uwechue with his long years in diplomacy and journalism, and his team, has the sagacity to pull it of.

Beside these , I have South/South friends among whom many have realized the folly of working against the Igbo and are calling for a raproachment between the two. Many of my friends say the same of their South south friends and some say that even the militants aproached them in those heydays seeking igbo support saying they had realized the folly of their parents and know now that they cannot do it alone.
see this recent Quote from Asari Dokubo.

That is the best decision that we (Igbo) have made. I said we Igbo because I can conveniently say I am 40 per cent Igbo, 60 per cent Ijaw. The founder of the house on the stool I sit is an Igbo man from Abom in Abam in Abia State. So, for me, it is the best decision. For the first time in so many years, we are now; the Igbo and other people, of the south is coming together. I feel very sorry for people like Odumegwu Ojukwu.

My family supported Biafra. My grand uncle, King Fredrick Princewill Amakiri, VIII abdicated the throne of Kalabari because of his support for Biafra. My grandmother was almost executed by firing squad due to her ardent support for Biafra. .My family supported Biafra and I have support for Biafra, This is the first time the Igbo, as the senior brother of other nationalities in the old Eastern region, have taken a decisive step, to bring all of us together to fight a common cause. And I think it is the best decision they have ever taken.

Posted Nov 14

I agree with you here but do not agree that they trump Igbo presidency. i would rather say that those and a few others will pave way for Igbo Presidency in the near future.

Beside all those, supporting Jonathan is a matter of principle. Ohaneze has always believed in power rotation among the zones and not between North and South till all zones benefit therefrom. So I do not understand why some folks here see this endorsement as against power rotation. It is just against the type of power rotation that the North wants but promotes the type the Ohaneze has always advocated. It is unfortunate that some posters here do not see this stand on principle and are only talking about political gains of the endorsement for the Igbo. I believe the political gains are needed but principles must be stood up for no matter who eventually wins. Even if Jonathan eventually loses ( which is quite improbable) as people are scared of, It is better to stand for the principles of rotating power among the zones than between North and South if the question of power rotation is to address the lopsidedness of power sharing so far in the Nations history. This matter which nearly torpedoed the 1994 constitutional conference was heatedly discussed to a stalemate. Why would Ohaneze today come and support a principle it has always fought against. The only way Ohaneze could have supported zoning between North and South was if it were enshrined in the constitution. But the North and IBB was in the best position than any other section to, but did not, push for this under A. Abubakar that gave us the present constitution who incidentally was an IBB boy. If they had, even if it was the North/South variation, The whole country would have really seen them as sincere to share power given the Aburi and June 12 experiences. Ohaneze could then have surrendered their principle even if temporarily to the constitution. But the situation is such that zoning as is adopted by PDP is quite amorphous, not well articulated with timelines vis-a-vis zones and allows lacunnae that led to the present seeming impasse.Above all, the unconstitututionality of zoning makes it a tool that can be discarded any day by those who dont need it any more and puts the whole gargantum of adherence on the sincerety of parties which in the Nigerian experience is nothing to write home about.

I believe that Ohaneze by this endoresement has scored many points.
1/ Stood boldly by their principle( without any equivocation) even if their man loses.
2/Garnered respect as a principled body that you can deal with without a long spoon since you know where they will always stand.
3/ Assured the minority groups that they can give way to them even though they represent a majority tribe thereby debunking myths of a domineering tribe crafted by other parts of Nigeria to drive the knife between the Igbo and their immediate neigbours before, during and after the civil war using the Eyo Itta/ Zik case as an exagerated example.
4/Will go a long way in restoring Igbo/ Ijaw relations that were shattered by the events of the civil war and beyond.
5/ Puts them on a moral highground by showing that Ndigbo are not vindictive and can forgive and accomodate a wayward neigbhour and effectively gives the Ijaw a long rope to reciprocate or not in future. This can provide the required momentum for the Igbo to complete the job of forgiving all other groups in the Nigerian Nation, a huge albatross that is better gotten rid off to increase their already forward momentum in National and international prominence.
6/ Makes a strong case for restructuring the Nation and for an Igbo president in the near future.
7/ Helps give GEJ a very strong home base and will discourage anybody from trifling with him as he will not only have to contend with the Ijaws but also their Igbo neigbours,etc.

is the prerogative of a leader to lead and of a follower to follow. No one can be coerced to do either. But the fact is that NDIGBO NEEDS STRONG LEADERSHIP NOW AND OHANEZE IS PROVIDING THAT.
A wise, vissionary and charismatic leadership will certainly take Ndigbo to their rightful place in the 21st century Nigeria, Africa and in the comity of Nations.