During the Nigeria Civil war, the Biafrans were ingenious. They made things from little and survived the worst condition. Nonetheless, they were technologically advancing. It’s also possible that the COVID19 pandemic can bring the best in us.
But do we know we are at war now?
The War
The Civil war brought out the best in the people of the Eastern region. Unfortunately for Nigeria and Africa, the Nigerian govt shut down a huge opportunity after the war. The government of Nigeria shut down the engineering department of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). Their research works grounded. Also, the government closed down PRODA and similar projects for no clear reasons even with the breakthrough works.
Today, the world is at war with COVID19 and facing a serious pandemic. Nigerians have been coming up with ideas and products that could reshape our medical responses to the pandemic. Some of these assemblages or integration of proven technologies will mean that we don’t have to import medical or tech devices. We can use our best people and ideas to respond from within!
The Ideas
Some of the ideas and works are Ventilators, a Mobile device, and herbs. This ventilator was produced at the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro in Ogun State Nigeria. It was made using materials sourced locally. Another tool is a mobile device developed by some students of FUTO. The device prevents reinfection through face touching notification and auto hand sanitization reminder. The device can access the user for temperature spike and advice/report actions to take. And just recently COVID19 gets a herbal beating as some researchers from the University of Ibadan proposed a herbal remedy. The researchers recommended a plant called Euphorbia Hirta as a herbal alternative to mitigating some of the diseases associated with COVID19. And recently, Madagascar is in the news for homegrown herbal solutions against the covid19.
Nigeria can now look at other areas of opportunity. For instance, Agro technologies, auto tech devices etc.
It’s time to see what good that this pandemic can bring out of us. Also, it is important to see if the govt will see value in this or if the private sector will take all the value and govt takes 7.5% VAT and CIT only.
Let us pull out the ideas
