ODB/GhostFaceKillah/etc. the legendary troll, in as much as your argument is flawed - I'm quite impressed with this delivery. It seems you have stepped it up a bit.
Peace to the Gods, my favourite troll.
Yes, it is rather refreshing to see BackDatAssUp parlaying some useful information on this thread.
i'm actually in love are you married? considering a 2nd or 3rd wife?
erm, your cerebral inputs on these boards have not gone unnoticed...
Despite what Shymmex said earlier, the simply truth is; I have been weighing up a return to the ways of our forebearers Once all ducks are fully aligned in a row, do not be surprised if I make a sudden move in your direction Any gesture will of course be honourable. I wouldn't want to go lowering our esteemed standards in SE15
Sir, you have got time to waste on these roasted brain cells having illiterates. I have never seen a bill more ambiguous than the useless bill passed by those pedos.
Once you understand legal terms - their intentions are as clear as daylight.
Exactimo Shymm3x. Nah, I had to go put that thug in his rightful place - because I knew how things were likely to unfold from that point onwards.
With the legendary Kats, Pukkah, takedat, and so many others, missing around these parts; I am afraid I have been forced to forego my non-confrontational approach of late, to address the incessant vitriol coming from a particular group.
omazus: Mr. Man, must you defend everything. In one swoop you suspect Senator Anyanwu's mastery of English but in another you profess your ignorance of legal language. What if Anyanwu's language equates to the legal language/meaning you do not understand. Please Soyinka goofed. He is a highly respected scholar, but we cannot doubt that old age is dealing him some blows. Instead f Soyinka now being the conscience of the nation, he abdicates that role to the mob. Anyanwu is right that Soyinka should have gone through the bill and not rely on third person's view. Please and please, Soyinka is one Nigerian HERO I do not want to encounter the legendary fall of all heroes of the western world as shown in their literature. May Soyinks remain great. And may he not be so much in a haste to join the bandwagon. I beg of you my model.
Again I ask; how do you know Soyinka did not go through the bill? But wait, even if we assume he did not, does the same apply to Barr.Falana (SAN)?
I'm not under any obligation to rebut any arguements or whatsoever from Falana, the post is a rejoinder by Senator Chris Anyawu to Wole Soyinka's article.
Of course you are under no obligation to do anything. It is enough to glibly assert that Soyinka was simply following hordes of social media commentators?
I mean, why would Soyinka not put his reputation on line, by refusing to consult legal birds, before voicing his concerns openly. After all, according to the Maxymillianos of this world, Soyinka is easily given to making ill-informed remarks? At least so the retaarded logic goes?
Maxymilliano and others of his ilk would of course meander around Falana's take, while giving pride of place to Anyanwu's Op-ED? That the former provides a clearer timeline of events is of absolutely no material consequence - Tyranny of the tribe!
Maxymilliano: A brilliant and straight forward piece by the Senator.
The bitter truth here is that one need to have all facts before taking position on issues, and not the usual herded mentality of following the crowd, particularly the crowd on social media ...
Why not rebut Falana's argument with your own elevated thoughts - assuming you have any?
In legal parlance, especially when dealing with criminal or penal legislation, the term "liable" is used because the final interpretation, judgement and conviction rests on proving beyond reasonable doubt that a crime was committed and that the accused was found guilty.
"Liable" in this instance is thus the recommended sentence or punishment.
Remember all accused remain innocent until proven guilty.
I Rest my case
But that's the point - In legal parlance, especially when dealing with criminal or penal legislation, the term "liable" is used because the final interpretation, judgement and conviction...
Why make the law absolutely water-tight for children up to the age of 11 but then open the same law to the caprices of moneybags for those who are older?
Now tell what other interpretation can be ascribed to the defilement of teenagers? Isn't this precisely the kind of latitude the Yerimas of the world seek?
We've all seen our senators indulge in the same type of chicanery in the past. The rest of the sane world certainly has...
Thanks to a legal loophole, the average age of marriage for girls in Kebbi State, northern Nigeria, is 11 years old. The law is often manipulated and exploited for perverse ends, but it's rare that one forgotten detail in legislation can affect an entire mass of people quite so profoundly.
Section 29 of the Nigerian constitution allows any Nigerian of full age (18 or above) to renounce his or her citizenship. However, a subsection of that law adds that women can only be deemed of full age when they get married—a convenient loophole that's become easy to exploit by any adult man in the mood to snatch himself up a child bride.
Wole Soyinka is an old fool who sees nothing good in others and has too much of a high opinion of himself.
Chris tactfully put the old fool in his place
I am afraid that even with my limited understanding (I am more a numbers person), it is clear that Senator Anyanwu's mastery of the English language is highly suspect. This was a point I tried to impart on a different thread... ============================================================ Naptu Sir, you know that I have never found any of your posts disagreeable up till this point. But I beg to disagree on this one.
Let me explain why...
6.-(1) A person Who commits an act which causes penetration with a child aged Sexual activity with a child eleven years or less shall upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for life.
^^^No wiggle room - the language is clear and unambiguous
(2) A person who engages in sexual activity with a child between the age of twelve and fifteen years is liable upon conviction be sentenced to imprisonment for life.
^^^ By inserting the word "liable", wiggle room was provided here
Now I am no legal bird but I think changing shall to liable leaves clause 2 open to interpretation
"Liable to" is less definitive than "Shall" - that's my point.
What stopped the Senate from putting a clear and unambiguous stake in the ground eh?
Furthermore, why was threshold even lowered in a graduated form?
Nigeria’s proposed sexual offences law obnoxious – Falana
...The Sexual Offences Bill, 2015, was among the 46 bills passed by the 7th Senate in a last minute flurry of activities last week.
In his letter, Mr. Falana said that the Bill had not been forwarded to the president for his assent as it had not been passed by the House of Representatives.
“However, it would be recalled that Senator Chris Anyanwu who sponsored the Sexual Offences Bill had justified the urgent need to pass it to save our girls and women from sexual exploitation and molestation,” said Mr. Falana.
[b]“When the Bill was unanimously passed for a second reading by the Senate on November 21, 2013, it sought to prescribe a penalty of life imprisonment for the offence of defilement of children less than 18 years of age.
“It also provided for compulsory documentation, supervision of sexual offenders and medical treatment for rape victims while it strengthened the weak protection offered victims and witnesses in trials for sexual offences.”
The minimum age of 18 years stated in the original Bill was in line with the provisions of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003, according to Mr. Soyinka, and the Child’s Rights Convention of the United Nations which had been ratified by Nigeria.
The Bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters for further legislative work.
It was that Committee that illegally removed the age of 18 years and replaced it with 11 years, said Mr. Falana.
“The inserted clause is inconsistent with Section 29(4)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution which provides that ‘full age’ means the age of 18 years and above.”[/b]
Mekus68: That's my senator. I love this Bill. Haters of this Bill have bad intentions against little kids and young girls. They want to be abusing our future wives wih impunity, leaving chaff for us for marriage. E no go work for them.
Like the haters described below?
Tyranny of the tribe has a way of negating reason.
Why should I believe an article in Punch newspaper made up of rhetoric rather than the woman who sponsored the bill? Here is what she said:
The statement given by a SAN is quoted verbatim, so you can stick your thinly disguised persecution complex - the one induced by an amorphous "Lagos-Ibadan Media Axis" - where the sun don't shine.
Soyinka should have read the bill before commenting, at 80yrs plus, I hope the great playwright is not waning.
How do you know he did not read the bill, Mr Attention Seeker? Have you taken the time to review it yourself?
But Falana said the illegal removal of 18 years from the original bill and its replacement with 11 years was inconsistent with the provisions of section 29(4)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution.
The minimum age of 18 years in the original Bill was in line with the provisions of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003 and the Child’s Rights Convention of the United Nations which has been ratified by Nigeria. The Bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters for further legislative work. It was that Committee that illegally removed the age of 18 years and replaced it with 11 years.
“The inserted clause is inconsistent with section 29(4)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution which provides that ‘full age’ means the age of 18 years and above.
“Having passed the Bill the Senate cannot plead non est factum in the circumstance. It has to bear full responsibility for the legislative negligence.
“But since the obnoxious provision was illegally inserted by the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters without approval, the Senate ought to reverse itself and amend the relevant provisions of the Sexual Offences Bill, 2015. Our Law firm has made a request to that effect,” the statement said.
To find myself again in Kingston on a lecture engagement in 1990, for the first time in nearly fifteen years, just as the entire city was emptying itself out for Mandela, was already more than sufficient. It was a symbolic gift that I regarded as personal, not shared with the millions of ecstatic hordes that has laboured for, and now celebrated his freedom. To discover a portion of my own homeland in that far-off place at the same time - now, as that was a miracle that could only be wrought by a Mandelan Avatar.
For it was only on this visit, my second over to that island, that I was made aware of a slave settlement called Bekuta, a name that immediately resonated in my head as none other than the name of my hometown, Abeokuta. This centuries-wide reunion with my own history sent a tingle down my vertebrae - an encounter with descendants from my own hometown, Abeokuta, on a far-flung Caribbean Island, in the hills of a once slave settlement called Jamaica?"
Source: Soyinka, W. (2007). You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir (Reprint edition). New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.
But Falana said the illegal removal of 18 years from the original bill and its replacement with 11 years was inconsistent with the provisions of section 29(4)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution.
The minimum age of 18 years in the original Bill was in line with the provisions of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003 and the Child’s Rights Convention of the United Nations which has been ratified by Nigeria. The Bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters for further legislative work. It was that Committee that illegally removed the age of 18 years and replaced it with 11 years.
“The inserted clause is inconsistent with section 29(4)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution which provides that ‘full age’ means the age of 18 years and above.
“Having passed the Bill the Senate cannot plead non est factum in the circumstance. It has to bear full responsibility for the legislative negligence.
Very Important-Please broadcast - Petroleum Marketers are fighting back by exposing some of the subsidy deals.
They say Nigeria must know that Haruna Momoh the MD of PPMC and Deziani Allison Madueke Minister for Petroleum has been demanding and pocketing N50 per litre of Kero and petrol produced by local Refineries since Jan 2011 till date. The reason they gave to marketers is that it was marketers contribution to Jonathan's election, but it has continued even after the elections.
That the govt should probe Nezor SA and Tridax SA two companies owned by the Peroleum Minister run by her junior brother. This two companies in the last 16 month of her tenure has from nowhere become one of the few companies lifting crude oil and one of the largest beneficiary of the subsidy.
The marketers want Nigeria to probe the new list of briefcase companies now lifting crude oil because they paid minimum of $1 million to Momoh and Deziani.
I think we hv started seeing the real faces of the cabals!
Someone's briefcase companies are about to be slammed to the wall
Tridax Energy Ltd and Mezcor Ltd each have a Swiss subsidiary, Tridax SA and Mezcor SA. Both were created on 1 December 2010 and have Richard Levinson and Daniel Roy Joanes as directors.91 Only the address differs, although originally both were located at Place du Port 1, in Geneva.On 11 July 2011, the two partners then created Lynear SA, situated at 19, rue Prévost-Martin, in Geneva.
Neither Tridax nor Mezcor cooperated with the auditors, while the first was additionally criticised for having received 15.9 million dollars without having imported the petroleum products that it was supposed to bring into the country. Surprisingly, Mezcor and Tridax both received their permits from the Nigerian authorities to import products before having requested them.
[b]Rumours relayed by the Handelszeitung support the idea that Tridax was connected with the younger brother of the Petroleum Minister, Dieziani Allison-Madueke. These rumours were never confirmed, but the sudden appearance of these two “completely unknown firms” both in the export of crude oil and the import of petroleum products, and for quantities that the major Swiss traders would not deny, raises questions. The explanation could come from the presence, as 49% shareholder of Mezcor Limited in Nigeria, of a certain Donald Chidi Amamegbo. The latter practised law in California and, according to our information, also in Nigeria. But of particular note is the fact he studied law at Howard University (Washington, DC) at the time when the current Nigerian Petroleum Minister, Dieziani Allison-Madueke,was studying architecture there.The 51% remaining shareholding is attributed to Mezcor SA, the Swiss entity, “represented by Daniel Joanes.” However, as the Swiss Trade Register does not give any indication about the shareholding of companies, it is not possible to know to whom this share of 51% really belongs.[/b]
One thing is certain: like others, Tridax and Mezcor have continued to be allocated oil for export.It shouldbe noted that Lynear, the third company founded in Geneva by the Joanes-Levinson pair, made its entrance in 2012 among the exporters of Nigerian crude oil. Contacted by the BD, Tridax and Mezcor did not wish to respond to our questions. A source close to these companies,however, refuted any allegation connecting them with the Nigerian Petroleum Minister and affirmed that they have never been active in the importing of petroleum products. The mention of Tridax in the Parliament’s report concerning the 15.9 million dollars referred, according to this source, to a subsidy that was never received. The source added that the companies would fare “much better if they benefited from political support.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has begun a massive investigation into suspected fraud associated with oil swap contracts by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Daily Trust on Sunday can reveal.
Checks at the NNPC showed that the anti-corruption agency’s operatives have in the last four weeks been asking official questions over crude oil swap contracts with refined petroleum products. It is suspected that the refined products supplied by the companies who received the contracts may not correspondent with the refined products supplied.
A source at the NNPC said the EFCC operatives activities were in continuation of a probe started during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, to fish out some irregular deals at the oil company.
The source alleged that the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Maduekwe, during her tenure, was suspected to have used the NNPC as a conduit pipe to give out many directives to the officials in transactions the NNPC authorities did not approve.
Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that the EFCC was investigating some documents in the Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD), the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and the Corporate Services Division.
In line with the investigation, the anti-corruption agency has made many requests to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for details of companies that have been involved in oil contracts with the NNPC.
Checks by our reporter at the CAC revealed that the staff of the Commission have been pre-occupied with the search for details of many such companies based of EFCC’s requests in the past three weeks.
“The EFCC has made so many requests that all of our staff involved in searching for registration status and details of corporations have been overwhelmed. Only few other staff are available for search requests by other agencies and individuals,” a staff of CAC told our reporter at the weekend.
A report by Reuters on the probe of the oil swap contract by EFCC indicated that government may have lost money through opaque contracts in which crude oil worth billions of dollars is given to traders in exchange for refined imports, mainly gasoline, international and domestic watchdogs have said.
Reuters quoted authorities at NNPC as saying that both the EFCC and Department of State Security were involved in the investigation since last month.
However, when we contacted Mr Wilson Uwujaren, the spokesman for the EFCC, he told our reporter that he could not comment on the probe because “I’ve not been given a brief by my superior” on the matter.
Reuters quoted a security source with knowledge of the matter as saying the DSS wanted to find out how the value of the crude and products was computed.
“It appears that the value of the crude was more than the value of the refined imported,” the security source said.
According to Reuters, “the contracts, known as offshore processing agreements (OPAs) are between Pipelines and Product Marketing Co. (PPMC), a subsidiary of state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and three oil trading companies: Sahara Group, Aiteo and Duke Oil, the trading subsidiary of NNPC.
“Expired contracts with Swiss trader Trafigura, Taleveras, Ontario Oil and Gas are also being examined, the sources said.
“The PPMC head was among the NNPC and company officials called in the investigating agencies in the past two weeks to answer questions about the agreements, the NNPC sources said.
“It started about two weeks ago...he was called in to the DSS everyday since Thursday and before that by the EFCC,” one senior official at the company said.
“A statement from the NNPC said some of its officials were invited by the agencies “to shed light” on the contracts and that none had been detained or arrested as part of this investigation.
“The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has said there was a revenue loss of at least $600 million due to a discrepancy between the value of the crude and the products delivered. The figure was taken from its 2009-2011 and 2012 audits of the oil and gas industry, the latest was released this year.
“Some contract-holders have said that the discrepancies in value were reconciled.
“Sahara, which receives 90,000 barrels per day for processing through an agreement with the Societe Ivorienne de Raffinage (SIR), said it was invited to the EFCC and submitted information to show that its contract was justified.
“Aiteo, which also has a 90,000 bpd contract, could not be reached for comment. There was no response to a Reuters email and no telephone details were given on its website.
“Duke Oil, an NNPC subsidiary, which has a 30,000 bpd contract, could also not be reached for comment. The listed phone number led to NNPC and it did not respond to an email.
“A spokesman for Taleveras, that held a crude swaps contract between 2011 and December 2014 via Duke Oil, said that the company did not owe any money and it would deliver gasoline until June this year to balance out what it received in crude.
“A spokesman for Trafigura said that the EFCC had requested information about their swap contract and it was provided by the company in the past month. Trafigura held a Refined Products Exchange Agreement, or swap contract, between Oct. 2010 and Dec. 2014.
“Despite Trafigura facing extensive logistical challenges in delivering refined product into Nigeria...delivery would typically precede the corresponding swap of crude oil by an order of weeks - sometimes months,” the spokesman said.
“This reality led to ongoing supply imbalances...and ultimately reconciled, every two months over the duration of the term.”
Nigeria relies on imports for the bulk of its domestic gasoline demand, which is met by gasoline coming via the crude exchanges and through a subsidy scheme that was at the root of acute fuel shortages at the end of May.
The new administration of Muhammadu Buhari came into power on an anti-corruption platform and the EFCC is keen show it has teeth. Right after Buhari’s inauguration on May 29, six central bankers and 16 commercial bank staf f were accused of currency fraud by the EFCC, the agency said.
The EFCC has investigated various oil scandals in the recent past, namely a fuel subsidy fraud costing the government $6.8 billion between 2009-2011. But due to a lack of political will from the top, only a handful were prosecuted with little result.”
These folks are just noise-makers getting gassed off their own unnecessary noise. Not even denying the fact that the man might be talented and extremely intelligent. However, he's the architect of his own misfortunes and, being unnecessarily conceited for lack of achievement was his Achilles' heel.
He performed a simple task and rather than consolidate on that, he decided to start blowing his own trumpet everywhere as the "father of the internet" when even Tim Berners-Lee and a lot of other folks already built things much more groundbreaking than what he did. And isn't it shocking that he hasn't done anything since then apart from seminars about how he's the father of the internet, and that atrocious website?
I don't even know much about his wife...I'll check her out.
Can't fake the funk...
Biographies of Scientists: Dale Brown Emeagwali - Microbiologist and Community Leader Rating: 2 votes, 5.00 average. 0 Comments by jackie , 09-15-2014 at 09:44 PM (151 Views) Dale Brown Emeagwali was born December 24, 1954, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents are Leon and Doris Brown. Mr. Brown worked for the publication AFRO-American, and Mrs. Brown was a teacher with the Baltimore city school system. They encouraged her studies and provided an outlet for her interest in science.
She attended Alexander Hamilton Elementary School and Northwestern High School, graduating in 1972. She enrolled at Coppin State College, an historically black college in Baltimore that is part of the University System of Maryland, and graduated in 1976. Emeagwali credits her later successes to "good teachers as good training" at Coppin State. After her first class in microbiology, she decided on a biology major.
She then attended Georgetown University School of Medicine, in Washington, DC, receiving her Ph.D. in microbiology in 1981. Her work involved bacteria found in soil, as well as viruses and protozoans.
While living in Minneapolis, working as a research fellow at the University of Minnesota, she worked on the African American Science Day, encouraging students to study science.
In an interview by Megan Sullivan for the National Science Teachers Association, Emeagwali states:
The overall goal of my work has always been to answer fundamental questions about cellular processes. I also like my work to have potential significant applications in the medical field. Thus, my interests lead me to conduct research in various areas including microbial physiology, virology, biochemistry, and molecular biology. A typical day involves checking on previous experiments, setting up new investigations, and analyzing data. While I find my work fun, it does get busy at times. The reward of obtaining new data makes it worth the effort. In addition to laboratory research, time must also be spent writing papers and reading to keep up with new developments.
Her work in cancer research includes the discovery that antisense methodology can inhibit cancer-gene expression. She has also demonstrated that isozymes of kynurenine formamidase exist in Streptomyces parvulus, a bacterium.
Emeagwali is currently an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Dr. Emeagwali is married to Philip Emeagwali, a computer scientist. They have one son.
Honors and Awards:
Scientist of the Year, USA National Technical Association, 1996 Fellowship, Uniformed Services University Health Sciences Fellowship, National Institutes of Health Fellowship, Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund Fellowship, American Cancer Society Fellowship, National Science Foundation
Lol.You and I know that Emegwali is a fraud and he didn't invent anything.
Heck, even Tim Berners-Lee who was much more instrumental in the creation of the internet, especially WWW never gets credited for it. The yanks always credit Robert Kahn. Now imagine a guy who failed his Ph.D claiming he invented what has absolutely nothing to do with him - hysterical.
Even the other Nigerian, Dr. Oyibo, and his useless GAGUT theorem gets more ratings than this clown.
Bare jokes!
You know what really riles the mind? His wife who is demonstratively a more rounded scientist - with patents and many publications to her name - would never be acknowledged by the ethnocentric scallywags shooting their mouths off here. Her sins? Being an AA woman as opposed to the 'real deal'.
chinolization: Guy you are killing them with facts. Gosh!
Facts are sacred but lies are not!
...Why Emeagwali Is Bad For Nigeria/Africa
Some people acknowledge Emeagwali’s deception but suggest that it should be understood in the context of America’s broader culture of self-promotion, deceptive enterprise, profit-motivated lies, and self-misrepresentation. It is true that this culture makes it easier for people like Emeagwali to thrive and inflict their fraud on society. But ultimately, Emeagwali, like everyone else, has to be held personally responsible for his transgressions.
Other Nigerians argue that Emeagwali’s scam has not hurt anyone personally, that it is a victimless fraud. By this logic, exposing Emeagwali’s fraud hurts the image of Nigerians and black people more than it helps it. There is some technical veracity in that argument. But the cost of non-exposure to Nigeria is much greater. There are now as many web postings and videos clearly exposing the intellectual con artistry of Mr. Emeagwali as there are websites and web postings celebrating him. Every time his scam is highlighted, his Nigerian nationality is mentioned to reinforce the stereotypical notion that Nigerians are shifty, lying frauds. His Africanness and blackness also become factors that are invoked to explain his fraudulent ways. So, image-wise, every hard working, honest, achieving Nigerian (intellectual or otherwise, scientist or not) is sullied by Emeagwali’s scam. Every discussion of Emeagwali’s fraudulent self-promotion casts a dark shadow on Nigerians with hard-earned reputations; their genuine achievements are put on trial with every discussion of Emeagwali’s serial dishonesty. They are victims of Emeagwali’s fraudulent activities. His fraud taints Nigeria and Nigerians.
Emeagwali’s quest for a short cut to fame and recognition and his subsequent refusal to take responsibility for his misguided actions and inactions has hurt black people everywhere. Experts on racism believe that every false, frivolous racism allegation or lawsuit actually harms the struggle for racial equality and justice because it makes future, genuine allegations of racism less believable and less credible in the eyes of the dominant white power and judicial structure. This is the damage that Emeagwali’s frivolous recourse to the racism card in his Michigan travails has inflicted on the struggle of black people for equality in America and elsewhere.
[b]Some people argue that Emeagwali should not be denigrated because of his failure to finish his PhD and that many of the giants of the information revolution do not have PhDs. This is true. Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Danny Hills, Vint Cerf, and the founders of Google all do not have PhDs. Yet they have gone on to do great things that have transformed the world, as we know it. But the difference between these people and Philip Emeagwali is like night and day. Unlike Emeagwali, these are actual pioneers of various technologies and protocols with documented patents to truly pioneering and innovative technologies. These people celebrate the fact that they do not have doctorate degrees, wearing it as a badge of honor, thereby intensifying the inspirational effect of their life stories and accomplishments. They don’t go around calling themselves “Dr.” and “Professor” like Mr. Emeagwali. In fact, the most well known of these information age pioneers, Bill Gates, proudly proclaims the fact that he dropped out of college to pursue his dream. Unlike Emeagwali, these people do not go around claiming to have patents that they do not have.[/b]
The fact is that one does not need a PhD to contribute to scientific knowledge or to invent technologies and techniques that improve human life. That is precisely why Emeagwali’s false claim of being a PhD holder and a professor is so galling. He has a Masters Degree in Engineering from a respected university and does not need a PhD to pursue his intellectual or scientific dreams. He could get a job with his qualification and earn a respectable, honest, decent living. Yet he felt the need to misrepresent himself as a “doctor” and “Professor.” This shows that his fraud is clearly not motivated by necessity, self-preservation, or survival, but by greed and a desire to secure unearned gratifications.
In 1987, the University of Michigan accepted him as a pre-candidate doctoral student of the College of Engineering. Two years later, he won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for his work in super computing. Using more than sixty-five thousand processors, he programmed "the connection machine to compute 3.1 billion calculations per second…to simulate oil reservoirs." Image
Nigerians heard of this amazing feat by one of their own and celebrated it. We have heard other wonderful stories about Phillip Emeagwali, the Nigerian born computer scientist. Many wonderful things have been written about him in the media, especially the Internet. CNN has been quoted as calling him one of the fathers of the Internet. Only problem with that claim is that nobody knows which anchor or reporter and on what show Emeagwali was described as one of the fathers of the Internet.
Genuine stories about Phillip Emeagwali have not garnered the same level of publicity. These include his suit against the University of Michigan for refusing to award him a doctorate degree in super computing or engineering. On the morning of Friday, 1 August 1991, Emeagwali had a meeting with Erdogan Gulari, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Engineering. At the said meeting Gulari told Emeagwali that for him to be considered for a PhD, he had to submit his dissertation by 1 October 1991. This was in addition to other requirements. Emeagwali agreed to this condition. Sometime in the middle of 1992, Emeagwali submitted his dissertation.
Emeagwali's dissertation was reviewed by a panel which comprised of people within the University of Michigan and some external academics. They concluded that Emeagwali's work did not merit a Ph.D. In 1996, he sued the University, alleging racial discrimination. The suit was summarily dismissed. In October 1999, Emeagwali appealed and the Michigan Court of Appeals which comprised of William B. Murphy, Donald E. Holbrook, J., and Hilda R. Gage, concurred with the lower court and dismissed his appeal.
Phillip Emeagwali has been described by some websites as one of the most popular of Africans. He is ranked in achievement and popularity with the likes of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Nelson Mandela. Yet, some writers have suggested that these claims are misleading and dubious. Why? Most of these websites crediting Emeagwali with these glowing tributes are owned by him, or his wife.
In an interview with one Mary Bellis, Emeagwali claims to have been homeless from 1967-1970. While that claim is true, he fails to mention that millions of other Nigerians from the East were homeless too, as the area was a war zone at the time. There are many lingering questions which this reporter wants answered. Is Emeagwali an icon of his time, or a con man who has engaged in a very sophisticated public relations campaign that has been sustained for over a decade?
We contacted Phillip Emeagwali's office and emailed Dr. Donita Brown, who is claimed to be a curator on one of the Emeagwali web sites. Our calls to "Emeagwali research" were answered by a lady who promised to forward our calls to him. And Dr. Brown responded to our email as follows:
Jonathan:
I am sorry we did not respond to your previous emails. Some emails get misdirected or filtered by our anti-spam software.
He prefers that we not forward interview requests to him. He only gives about one African-media interview in five years and has not travelled to Africa in 18 years.
The URLs below contain 250 pages of his answers to FAIQs (Frequently Asked Interview Questions) regarding his scientific work and his thoughts on contemporary issues.
We plan a major update (100 additional pages) in late September 2005. Best wishes on your story.
Regards, Webmaster, emeagwali.com
As a rule we, at Elendureports.com, do not take excerpts from answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in lieu of an interview. However, the email reproduced verbatim, except for the web links, has raised more questions than it answered.
Emeagwali has described himself as “the Bill Gates of Africa,” yet he has not set foot on African soil in eighteen years. The real Bill Gates has spent more time in Africa in the past twenty years than Emeagwali. How have Africa and its diverse population benefited from Emeagwali's success? The email response states that he grants one interview every five years to an African media. While the answer may be true, albeit preposterous, it suggests the mindset of an individual who has a bloated estimate of his own worth.
Claims of Emeagwali holding patents to forty-one inventions are splashed on his websites. We searched for these patents at the appropriate places and came up with nothing to corroborate those claims. Where are these patents registered? Who in the scientific community is aware of these inventions? Could it be that the computer on which I am writing this story was invented by my tribesman and I don't know? "I have expertise in five different fields which helps me to easily understand the analogy between my scientific problems and those occurring in nature. First, I identify an analogous problem in nature and borrow from it. It is smarter to borrow from nature than to reinvent the wheels." What are these five areas of expertise? If the University of Michigan did not award Phillip Emeagwali a Ph.D., then where did he obtain his doctorate degree? In the same interview with Mary Bellis he claims to work with a fifty-five million dollar computer. Where does Emeagwali practice his trade? "Today, I have access to a $55 million super computer while many African scientists do not have access to a personal computer. The greater opportunity enabled me to make important discoveries and inventions" he told Mary Bellis.
Emeagwali has been married to Dale Emeagwali since 1981. Is Dale Emeagwali the same person as Dr. Donita Brown? Our research indicates that Donita Brown is Dale Emeagwali. Isn’t it curious that while she is called Dale Emeagwali on their family website, she is called Donita Brown other websites registered either by herself, or her husband, Phillip? Certainly none of these websites were registered before 1981. When asked if Donita Brown, the lady we spoke to in Emeagwali's office told us she did not Phillip Emeagwali's relationship with Donita Brown. Pray, this person works in Emeagwali's office and knows Donita Brown! The natural question is why does Emeagwali's wife have two identities?
We were also curious to find out how a man who claims to love Africa and its people so much, and have given speeches on the "brain drain" syndrome proudly exhibit as one of his greatest achievements, the thirty-five members of his immediate and extended families he relocated to America. There are no records to indicate that these people went back to Africa after their studies. From all available records, Emeagwali's five siblings live in the United States as do his parents. Yet, the man has no qualms giving speeches on the harmful effects of "brain drain" on the continent of Africa and what can be done to stem the tide.
Even more curious is that a man, who positions himself as a serious scientist, has a website dedicated to showing off his family photos, yet there is no website dedicated to showing his inventions. Nobody should quarrel with a man who wants to spend time and resources showing off his wardrobe, wife, and son. However, other writers have suggested that such behavior is at odds with the characteristics of a serious-minded scientist. Is Philip Emeagwali a showman, who has set up virtual edifices to bolster his ego, or a scientist with too much time on his hands?
A critic of Emeagwali, Chioma K. Ezeilo in a piece entitled, "Self-Promotion and Self-Authentication…," spoke to Emeagwali's showmanship: "I understand that Hollywood stars and musicians and others of that ilk have what they term their official website, where fans can read all about them and learn what these individuals have accomplished professionally…Philip Emeagwali is not a celebrity by any stretch of the imagination, so I wonder why he believes it necessary to build this online shrine to himself." But she was more concerned about another matter, as she states, "The thing that bothered me was the outright lies, half-truths, and numerous unsubstantiated claims that permeated the website." Elendureports.com tried to contact Chioma K. Ezeilo, but our efforts yielded no fruit. Mary Bellis did not respond to our request for interview before press time.
Since we published our story on Prof Gabriel Oyibo, we have been inundated with emails asking all kinds of questions about this gentleman. There have also been questions about Nigerians who are supposed to be very accomplished, yet, making fraudulent claims that astonish their colleagues and contemporaries. While a fair minded person would be inclined to believe that the jury is still out on Phillip Emeagawli and his accomplishments, there is a question that needs to be asked and answered: Is it greed, ego, criminal ignorance, or in-built self destructive tendencies that lead our people to make claims that cannot be substantiated easily?
True. . .you are more exposed to rumors, tribalism, hatred, bigotry and general backwardness. Keep enslaving yourself to gambari.
Your attempt to disguise mutton as lamb is puerile. Get this into your bigoted mind: the truth cannot be mortgaged by a thousand fake imhoteps.
The truth about Philip Emeagwali - we must expose this charlatan « #7 on: August 27, 2006, 02:27 AM »
CNN has unknowingly aided one of the biggest intellectual frauds of the century. A self-proclaimed 'Father of the internet', Philip Emeagwali indicates on his website that this 'title' was given to him by CNN.
Nigerian professional engineers and scientists have been alarmed by the fraud perpetrated by the self-declared 'Dr.' Philip Emeagwali, who self-promotes himself as one of Africa's most talented scientists. The shame of this, is that, while the international scientific community treats Emeagwali with caution and 'near' disdain, journalists and non-scientists continue to laud him. We understand that this fraud has been carried so far that he now has Nigerian stamps in his name (as he claims on his website), has been voted as one of the top 100 Africans of the last century amongst other honorable mention as the 'father of the internet'. The facts are however very different and can be verified independently.
1. Philip Emeagwali was NEVER awarded a PhD by the University of Michigan, because, apart from twice failing his doctorate examinations, he had his PhD dissertation declared unworthy of the award of a doctorate by both internal and external assesors. Emeagwali usually resorts to a claim of racial bias against him, when challenged, and in the case of his PhD, sued the University, claiming racial bias. The suit was dismissed both by the court of first arbitration and later on appeal, for lacking any merit.
2. The 'so-called' achievements for which Philip Emeagwali shared a 1989 Gordon Bell prize with many other groups can, at best, be regarded as 'graduate level' scientific achievement and not the ground breaking work of a top scientist. Emeagwali has promoted this prize, which awarded him a paltry cash sum of $1,000, to be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize of computing. This is an insult to the achievement of Africa's foremost Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. The 'real' computing 'Nobel Prize' is the $100,000 A.M.Turin Prize, which is awarded by the same ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) that awards the lesser Gordon Bell's prize.
3. Using the internet and his personal website, Philip Emeagwali has spread this falsehood about himself to the chagrin of the professional scientific community, such that any reference to him comes up with these false claims of excellence. The claims build up a 'chain-reaction' much like in a nuclear reactor, such that, over time they take on a life of their own, and even reputable organizations like CNN and President Bill Clinton are unable to unearth the massive deception being carried out. This is the equivalent of an intellectual 'pyramid-scheme'.
4. Mr. Emeagwali's claim to having carried out the fastest computations using parallel computing, is a bare-faced lie. In the same Gordon Bell's award, this prize was actually awarded to a team from Mobil whose computations were twice as fast as Emeagwali's and he actually received the award (in layman's terms) for the most economic use of high speed computing. The award to him was actually due to a technicality in the ACM award rules which disallows more than one award for each entry. The same Mobil team actually achieved a price efficiency of about 20% more than Emeagwali's.
5. Emeagwali promotes himself as having helped to develop supercomputing, but his only work of note was in the use of existing supercomputers to achieve a faster (not the fastest) speed.
6. Another bare-faced lie is the over 30 patents he is supposed to own. Unless these are unregistered (which begs the question of how they can be called patents), there are zero patents in his name with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) from 1976 to date. He has been challenged several times to send information that can be used to verify any patents he holds and has refused to do so.
We all would be doing the world a great service by investigating further and exposing this falsehood.
There still seem to be people who are convinced that Emeagwali is a 'worthy ambassador' of Nigeria, so I will take pains to put more critical info at your disposal.
Before you read this, let me first debunk some of the usual attacks by Emeagwali fans (have been used on one of the earliest challengers of Emeagwali - Chioma Ezeilo).
1. Pull Him down - I have nothing to gain by this, as I think Nigeria needs authentic (please note my choice of words) heroes and role models. I was also an early admirer.
2. Not knowleadgeable - I am a theoretical physicist with over 22 years post-graduate teaching and working experience and have taught quantum mechanics, computational physics and nuclear physics at undergraduate and graduate level. I have been involved in oil reservoir modelling and simulation for the last ten years.
3. Misguided - I only act on facts that can be irrefutably established (something Emeagwali's fans seem to disregard).
4. White supremacist - I am black (and proud).
5. Tribalist - I am Ibo (from the same tribe as Emeagwali).
Nigeria, Africa and the black 'world' need authentic heroes and within the sciences we have many - Animalu, Balogun, Awele Maduemizia, Ade Amusa, Allotey, Chike Obi (and sons) and a host of other very honorable and less self-serving people. Emeagwali is NOT in the same class as these people.
Below are additional misrepresentations, half-truths and barefaced lies by Emeagwali and friends. I will continue to provide more information until this myth is debunked. This is my cross, and I will bear it with honour.
(a) In the 'Timeline' on his website, Emeagwali states the following: "1989 Emeagwali rejects Darcy's Law and develops nine equations that unifies Fillunger's equations and Newton's second law of motion and invents nine algorithms that enable 65,536 cooperating processors to increase the amount of oil recovered".
This is another bare-faced lie. For any professional, the process for 'rejecting' a law, theorem or hypothesis is clear and requires no further enumeration here - there are no publications by Emeagwali related to Darcy's law, Newton's laws and, for that matter, any known law/s in the Sciences. How Emeagwali draws a relationship between the 'solving power and speed' of the work he did on supercomputers and the 'rejecting' or 'unification' of laws/ equations befuddles the mind. There are NO scholarly articles (except in Emegwali's mind) relating any work he has done to Fillunger's equations. All references to this achievement have been initiated by Emeagwali himself (please do an Internet check yourself) and, as is his usual style, picked up by some non-scientific media (e.g. Africa Source) and if not stopped now will take on a life of their own.
(b) Emeagwali also claims to have been an IEEE 'Distinguished visitor' and provides a link to the IEEE website - http://www.ieee.org/portal/site
A search (please select IEEE Ultraseek to avoid being transferred to an Emeagwali 'posting') on Emeagwali yields only one article (no conferences) and, as if this is not bad enough, authored by Emeagwali I. I cannot confirm this is Philip and suspect his usual games are being played here. Further, the advanced search indicates that 'Distinguished' and 'Emeagwali' cannot be used in the same sentence.
We ask that you judge his 'commercial' approach (selling mugs, T-shirts, clocks etc.) against any ethical standards of professional organizations you belong to.
One of my earlier posts on the same subject, right here on NL
This is not a particularly difficult task if you are prepared to spend time trawling through earlier revisions of his web site: http://wayback.archive.org
The simple truth is; Emeagwali was never awarded a PhD, and certainly does not hold a Professorship at any college That could have been an exceptionally brilliant scientist is not in dispute. But it is also true to say he has displayed a penchant for stretching credulity, or at the very least allowing others to do so on his behalf, over the years.
A friend of mine who authored a book on black inventors wrote to him ahead of publication, to verify facts concerning his public biography several years ago. Did he see fit to issue any clarification on the points that have since maligned his otherwise scholarly reputation? No! Just think about the number of similar opportunities not seized, to clear up erroneous assumptions which were later to take on a life form. . .
At a certain level, I actually do feel sorry for him. Our quest for heroes often creates personality cults that eventually subsume the very object of affection, so I understand how he might also have missed some of the warning signs. The internet was markedly different back in the 90s, that he possibly might not have foreseen the era of drive-by critics (detractors) who - for good or bad - leave no stone unturned.
Still, it needs to be said that posterity would probably have been less ambivalent in its appraisal; if only he had he adopted a clearer road map – motivational speaking and/or academia and/or author and/or poet – in earlier years.
Here is the question you need to ponder over: at what point are you prepared to call a spade a spade?
Try. . . Just try to lower your level of bad belle. Na you go dey get high blood pressure for nothing.
Listen, I've got no time to go back and forth with a dimwit. If it helps, you can continue consoling yourself with lies. It is really no skin off my nose.
Well let's just say I am little more exposed than you think. Furthermore, no amount of emotional convulsion on your part can negate the incontrovertible truth - that Emeagwali has repeatedly touted claims which make a mockery of serious scholarship.
That excerpt you provided earlier carries as much weight as the one provided below, which a friend of mine once published. Once again, I call Emeagwali a fraud because I know that he was sent the bio shown in my screen shot before it was ever published.
Weldone jare. This is kind of educative post i like to read. People should always do their research very well before coming out to disgrace themselves in a public forum as this.
Politics / Re: Open Letter To Prof. Wole Soyinka On Sexual Bill. By Chris Anyanwu by TheOtherview: 1:29pm On Jun 15, 2015 
