Stories about an acclaimed Nigerian Scientist

The first time I heard about him, it was during a course I took in the last semester (before the ASUU strike of course) which was about patents and inventions. It mentioned his name as one of the foremost Africans who made great impact in their fields and in the computing field in this particular case.

The man I’m talking about is no other than Phillip Chukwurah Emeagwali. Basic details on him: Emeagwali was born in the Nigerian city of Akure on the 23rd of August, 1954 to James and Agatha Emeagwali.

Phillip Emeagwali. Image: emeagwali.com

He started his education in the city but could not finish his secondary education due to the Civil war that broke out in Nigeria at the time.

His father was taking him mathematics at home and this gave him a very good training in the subject. He developed to the extent that he could solve 100 maths problems in 1 hour and even knew maths more than his father according to him on Emeagwali.com.

Due to his independent readings, he was able to write an equivalent of a school-leaving examination which gave him the opportunity of a scholarship to the Oregon State University at the age of 19.

As he stated, computer science was not an interest to him initially as he was interested in Maths and Physics. He developed an interest when he had to use the computer to aid some of his works in mathematics.

With his different work on connection machines, he was able to set a world record of most calculations per second. He was able to use 65,000 computer processors to make 3.1 billion calculations per second.

This made him a worthy candidate of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Gordon Bell Prize in 1988. This was his first major award and he received a $1000 reward for it.

He was also able to simulate a model that allows more oil to be extracted from oil fields. This was reported to have a potential of saving up to $400 million per annum on an oil block. According to reports, the U. S. government had considered this problem among the 20 most difficult in the computing field.

He was voted in the New African magazine as the 35th greatest African of all time and the greatest African scientist ever. Former U. S. President Bill Clinton when he came to Nigeria, addressed Emeagwali as “one of the greatest minds of the information age”.

However, Emeagwali has also been enmeshed in controversies over the years. There is no doubt that Mr. Emeagwali is good at what he does but he is an expert at overhyping himself.

To back up this motion, I’ll reveal some of his exaggerations. He claims on his website (which most websites use as source for their stories about him) the Gordon Bell Prize is an equivalent of a ‘Nobel Prize in computing’.

This to put it simply, is wide off the marks. The most prestigious prize in computing is the Turing award which can be fairly called the ‘Nobel Prize in computing’.

There are also some articles on his site (linked from other websites) which claims that Emeagwali is ‘a father of internet’. Anyone who knows the history of internet will know that this is not only an exaggeration, but it is false.

Some other sites have dubbed him ‘Bill Gates of Africa’. He promotes this on his website which means he approves it. I still wonder how he can be called the Bill Gates of Africa. Bill Gates co-founded one of the biggest software companies in the world. Emeagwali doesn’t even have a company or work for one!

Profiles about him also claim that he has been an independent consultant since 1993. What does this say about him? He is not a staff of a prestigious university neither is he an integral staff of a computing company. The great movers I know today are either of the two; they are not ‘independent consultant’ for twenty years of their active lives.

Even in history, people like Max Planck and Albert Einstein were prominent staffs of great universities. Thomas Edison had his company.

On his website (sorry, that’s the major source of information about him online), a part declared ‘Emeagwali (with IQ 190) defeats Albert Einstein (with IQ)’.

What is he trying to achieve with this statement? That he is as great as Albert Einstein or greater? For starters, Albert Einstein is the TIME magazine person of the 20th century.

Who cares what IQ score Thomas Edison had? Who cares what IQ score Henry Ford had? Who cares what IQ score Albert Einstein had? We care about the theory of relativity. We also care about the photoelectric effect. Bulbs light up houses today. Automobiles move us from one place to another not a 190 IQ without innovation.

How many patents does a man of IQ 190 and the “Bill Gates of Africa” have? Only the trademark for his website emeagwali.com. Yet he is on a postage stamp in Nigeria which is an exaggeration of his impact.

One thing Emeagwali has been using as leverage is his black descent. He claimed his achievements have served as inspiration for Africans that they can also have an impact on technology. Yes that’s true, but what is wrong about a black man looking up to a white man? What’s wrong in a white man looking up to an Asian? His claim only mean to relegate Africans because it only means Africans are not expected to make innovations.

He has used that to brainwash many people who thinks he’s an African hero. Sahara Reporters wrote a very long (yes, very very long) article about him in 2010 giving details about how he lied his way into stardom. As much as I think the article was critical, it stated some facts which cannot be pushed away just because Emeagwali is a Nigerian.

This is not a personal attack on his personality, but there are many cloudy details about him which makes it difficult to declare him as the greatest African scientist ever.

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