Contrary to what many people believe, Nigeria is full of many brilliant minds, who, if given the opportunities afforded their foreign counterparts, will go on to change the world with their ideas. Doubt this? The following inventors are proof.
1) The girls who invented a urine-powered generator.
Back in 2012, Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and Bello Eniola, four teenage girls in secondary school developed a generator that’s powered with urine and showcased it at Maker Faire Africa. According to the girls, this is how the contraption works:
- Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into hydrogen, nitrogen, and water.
- The hydrogen is purified with a water filter and is pushed into the gas cylinder.
- The gas cylinder pushes the hydrogen into a cylinder borax, which removes moisture from the hydrogen gas.
- The purified hydrogen is then pushed into the generator.
1 litre of urine gives 6 hours of electricity.
2) The 13-year-old creator of the Blue Wind fans.
In 2016, Michael Ukoma created a battery-operated fan that, when fully charged, can last up to nineteen hours. He calls them “The Blue Wind Fans” and they come in different sizes e.g. tabletop, free-standing, etc. The materials he uses – mostly aluminium, wires, and old cartons for packaging – makes his fans affordable for low-income households. He hopes to have his own company one day so he can start creating engines and aircraft.
3) The fifteen-year-old creator of the hydraulic toys.
Fascinated with toys, Gerald Odo decided to create his own line of toys with scrap materials. Using painted plywood, syringes, water, wire, small tubes along with a motorcycle battery to power the whole thing, he made a dump truck, excavator, and a helicopter.
4) The engineer who built a customized tractor.
UK-trained Nigerian engineer Timothy Addigi Terfa built what he termed the”100% Nigerian” tractor in 2016. He named it ‘Ijodo’, meaning ‘labour’ in his native Tiv language. According to Terfa, the tractor was built with materials sourced in Nigeria and was designed with the ability to cover a wide variety of farm jobs due to different attachments.
All we’ve said here today shows that when it comes to making things better in a society, you don’t always have to look too far. We have more innate abilities to create than we give ourselves credit for. Sometimes, the answer is within you. All you have to do is turn it up!
Speaking of turning it up, here’s a video made by MTN that perfectly expresses what the phrase “turn it up” means in the context described above. Watch and be inspired: