Friday, 11 November 2016

EXCITING : UNIVERSITY STUDENTS BUILD OIL REFINERY..... By Dotun George






In our clime it is the political news of division, hatred and retrogress that sell and dominate our media and millions of our people have been conditioned to see life from that dangerous position and perspective. Many people would have come across this kind of news but it does interest them because it is not the news of APC and PDP.  So many things need to change in our clime before this country can breakthrough.

Ahmadu Bello University students build 1-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Kaduna. This is one of the best news that usually excite and appeal to me than the news of looting and plundering that have become the mainstream media headlines and subject of discussion. I have been reading, working on and do a lot of discovery in the recent times over different news and stories of possibilities and exploits coming from our clime at the time we are being told by Donald Trump that we need second colonization and we have no intelligence for new things.

 We need to do a little X-ray of this feat and extraordinary achievement. Two days ago i wrote a piece about two brothers from the same state who manufactured security vehicles, in that write up, i posed a challenge to the state Governor and Federal Government and here is another challenge for the government of our country, University Commission, Vice Chancellors and rector of various tertiary institutions across the country.

The achievement can be traced to the department of chemical engineering of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and honestly it has made history. The students of the department built a refinery with a capacity to process one barrel of crude oil per day. The refinery would be used mainly for the training of students The department of chemical engineering of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, has built a refinery with a capacity to process one barrel of crude oil per day.


Since this technology advancement is designed now for training however I have confirmed from a source that the department had the manpower to build a refinery that would be bigger than that of Kaduna if it had government support. So what is our government waiting for?  Waiting for advanced development countries to help us and transfer technology to us will not avail us or better still, it will make the condition worse than what is it. Firstly, we must take ownership of change and development we are yearning and desiring to see.

Government must as a matter of urgency and policy should begin to invest heavily on research, innovative and creative ventures. Having consider the project work under reviews, the initial idea and plans from the onset was to construct a 1,000 barrel-capacity refinery, but lack of funding limited it to this one, where they would now be refining one barrel per day.

Checking the make and the configuration of this refinery, it is going to amaze you that only the controls were sourced from Hong Kong. No expatriate was hired from abroad. All those that were engaged in this project are Nigerians. Therefore, this mini refinery is a product of Nigerian brains. If government can come in, to support academic research, innovative and creative education, redesign our curriculum to meet the demands of now, if we can review our methodology and delivery approach, this country has the ability to do wonderful things, not only refinery but other technical and technological developments .

To drive change and bring about a true development in any nation, practical, innovative, technical and purposeful education is very critical and there is no how we try to downgrade it, it is still one of the solution out of the quagmire and out of the woods. With purposeful living, thoughtful strategies and intelligent planning er can change the course of this country.




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Dotun George
A motivational & public speaker. A social crusader, a life coach and a trainer
E-mail: dotungeorge009@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dotun.george
Blog: www.dotungeorge009.blogspot.com
Twitter : @dotungeorge

INNOVATION.. SECURITY VEHICLE MADE BY TWO NIGERIANS.. By Dotun George





As I surf and peruse virtually all news portal daily, it is not all the news that attracted and make sense to me, some are distractions so i ignore them, while other give inspiration and hope in the midst of the recession, hard times, global confusion and decaying world. One of the beautiful news that ignited my passion and made me add to the volumes of books i am writing and motivational talk that i have to bring to the younger generation is this interesting story of the two brothers from the state of Ekiti in Nigeria who added application to knowledge, and decided to break out from the mould and stereotype of being people of low intelligence and third world nation.


The two brothers have broken the jinx of many years in our clime, and putting up this innovative and creative venture should be commendable by all and sundry. Government must rise up to the big challenge posed to them these Ekiti brothers telling all of us that there is no impossibility anywhere except the one an individual sees to create in his or her mind.

Where the government of Ekiti state and federal government need to come in, is to ensure this ingenuity didn't die with these two intelligent men. They need financial, moral and educational support in terms of research and development. Can we do it?  Yes Nigeria has all that it takes to do the needful and offer the best assistance to the Henry Ford of our country.


Nigerians will always strike us as talented and brilliant people. There are so many sides to the people of this nation.

We live in an hostile environment, an environment that abhor positive thinking, mental exploit, innovation and attempt to break the mould that have restricted many people in our clime. The story and the reality of this invention is a possibility story of what we are made for and what we are capable of doing.

We all have potential, human content is the same everywhere in the world, it is the environment that conditioned so many people in our clime to think low of themselves. There is giant waiting for showdown inside every mortal man.

We are on the campaign since last year on advancing local production and patronizing local made products, this is the best time to put to practice what we are preaching. This story of possibilities must not die on the pages of newspapers, just celebrating the individuals and acknowledging their work, we must leverage on this exploits and innovative achievement to set a new standard for our  nation and educational sector because information is the baseline for any great feat we can talk about.

We must take our science, engineering and technology students in all tertiary institutions, who only go to school to cram theory and definitions without application to the kind of workshop set up by these men to learn the real application of knowledge. And at the same time, we can get replicate across our institutions.



Monday, 7 November 2016

QUALITY TEACHERS, GREAT NATION. By Dotun George.

The caption of this write up is a slogan I got at the matriculation ceremony of National Teacher’s Institute, Ogun state Office I was invited to. My assignment during the ceremony was to give a goodwill address (message) and to wish the matriculating students well.
Immediately I heard the slogan “Quality teachers, great nation”, in my characteristics manner and approach to issue of life, I began to ponder on what the slogan connote. I have come to understand that, what makes a great nation from generations to generations is the quality of the teachers produced by that nation. If a nation has unproductive, lazy, mentally retarded, and unqualified teachers, they will definitely produce students after their kind. That is the law of genesis and life. Who and what made great empires the world have seen all through ages? Great, qualitative, innovative, creative and productive minds in there produce great empires and great nations.

When I was growing up in life, as a little boys, all I know about teaching profession and teachers generally are known to be men and women who are disciplined, people who knows what they want and how to goes for it and get it, people of high moral and ethical standard, people of high integrity, they are honourable  and model to the younger generations. In every community, pre and post-independence, whenever they need someone to represent a community both in government and all other national or societal duties, there is no other place to look into, than the teachers within the community and sometime, they look in the direction of the clergymen. That was then and now reverse is the case. That does not mean, everyone in that profession has fallen short of the standard but the system and structure in our polity had wreak havoc for this noble profession.

I believe that you can’t give what you don’t have, therefore, people who ought to opt for teaching profession are the best and the brightest in our clime and not those who have lost all hope of going to tertiary institution or the rejected ones. If you understand the connotation behind the cutoff mark, then you will agree with me that, what they are driving at is that, Colleges of Education are for those who could not make it to universities and polytechnic.

If Nigeria will ever regain her lost glory, if we will be able to preserve the legacy and good heritage of our ancestors and build a nation that we can all be proud of, then we need to as a matter of urgency, begin to invest much in the teachers this country turns out every year. At the nursery and primary schools, we must ensure our best teachers are there to lay a solid foundation for the future we are all yearning for. A nation who looks down on its teachers, who fails to invest in them and fails to recognize their noble job, such nation is a disaster going somewhere to happen. To produce great nation, we need qualities teacher. We must begin to train and retrain the current one to meet up and cope with the challenges of the 21st century.