I thank Alhaji Saka Abdulkadir of Bauchi (08060354098), a computer science graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State and Mr. Nicholas Ogbonna (08130208896), of a town in the Orlu area of Imo State, for appreciating my series on Akure-born Professor (Mrs) Adenike Oyinlola Osofisan (nee Adedipe). Like me, they too believe that she deserves to be honoured with a national award by the Federal Government as the first female in Nigeria to have Bsc, Msc and Phd degrees in computer science and the pioneer woman professor in the discipline.
A technical subject in which 41 years after she had her first degree (in 1979) and 31 years after bagging her Phd (in 1989) there are still less than 30 women graduates with only seven of them as professors. Alhaji Saka even believes that as has happened to some academics that she also deserves more than the general awards given to Nigerians and foreigners annually which l had recommended. Because in his text he made reference to the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM).
This is an award exclusive to academics and which attracts a cash prize of ten thousand or one hundred thousand United States’ dollars. At the time l wrote this l could not verify the exact amount.
In the five years he has been in office President Muhammadu Buhari has only given out the NNOM award once. This was on Thursday, December 6, 2018 when Professor Olu Obafemi was honoured. So, one cannot be sure that he would do so before he leaves office on May 28, 2023.
Some academics had been honoured with one of the annual national awards and the NNOM. So, it would not be unusual if apart from the annual award l had recommended, if Professor (Mrs) Osofisan is also considered for the NNOM award Alhaji Saka has suggested.
This is more than the fact that she was the first female graduate and pioneer woman professor of computer science in Nigeria. But also because as stated in my earlier articles on her, she is an inventor and an academic who had brought honour to the country and Nigerians with the awards she had received from universities and organizations in some African countries, the United States, Australia and China.
Next week: God and the emegence of our Heads of State from 1993 to date. This will let people know the three of the six of the period the Lord brought into office and have better understanding of destiny.
Still on Romans 13 & my critic (08035967609)
I do not write about the critics of my column until they have become a nuisance and it’s the only way to stop them. They are people who send three to ten abusive text messages to me. L do not react to their first two messages. I do so with the third one, informing them to stop sending their messages because any other one that comes in would be deleted unread. Some would comply while others would not. But when they do not get replies to one or two of their texts they would come to their senses.
But the impertinently insultive ones would wait until l write about them and put them to shame with their poor English and mistakes.The latest of the incorrigible ones l wrote about last week was sending messages to me through GSM number 08035967609. But when l did not reply the next two he sent, he realized l must have kept to my promise to delete his messages unread. I had stored his number in my set, so l knew the texts coming from him. He was the only one sending text messages during that period of day. So, when the next message came in from GSM number 08059683276 l suspected it might have come from him. As a result l deleted the message on read. I have since last week come to know that the man’s name is John.
He could not disprove the point l made that the emperors and authorities at the time the Books in the New Testament were written were pagans and that Apostle Paul could not have had it in his Book that God brought them to power and that people should therefore obey them. Especially as he and Apostle Peter were executed by Emperor Nero, an idol worshipper. The way l see it, my critic is likely to be a pastor. The King James Version of the Bible published in the 17th century during the reign of King James ll of England (1685-88), a Christian and the oldest of the Holy Books we have now, has it that Apostle Paul was talking of Church elders as people God made leaders of Christians. It was not state authorities as latter versions of the Bible published in the 20th century have made it. Probably with the influence of a king or political leader.
Consequently, he is worried that l have shown that clerics cannot validly use Romans 13:1-3 to tell politicians, kings and others they attained positions because God willed it. In other words, that l am out to block one of the ways they make money.
I believe my article of last week in which l drew attention to his horrible English and silly errors has gotten him to become sensible. This was because he did not react to my article. Although his name and phone number were not published, he knew it was his message that l published. If l had not made him to become a refined and reasonable person he would, as usual, had sent me a cheeky text that l did not courage to provide his details. I hope he would now remain a sensible person realizing that any text he sends to me would be deleted unread.
COVID-19: It’s shut down not lockdown
It is true that American, British and European leaders in general and the newspapers, radio and televisions in the countries have been calling the situation we are in lockdown. But the truth is that the word is not in many a dictionary, if any at all. It is not in the Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English published by Clarendon Press Oxford of Great Britain (England) that I use. Lockdown is not even among the various ways the word lock can be used.
These are lock forward, lock-keeper, lock-knit, lock-out and lock-stitch. It is also not among the versions of lock words that stand alone. I’m referring to lockjaw, locksmith and lock-up. If the wrongly used lockdown had been a legitimate word it would have been written as either lock down or lock-down, the way I made use of it in last week column. [The situation we are in with the COVID-19 pandemic is called shut down not lockdown or lock down or lock-down. Shut down as defined in the dictionary is cease operation (of factory) or cease working. Shut down with hyphen (shut-down) is the process of doing it.
NB: President Buhari had not addressed the nation as the time my articles were sent in on Monday. So, it is next week I can comment on his broadcast if other columnists had not written about all the aspects he dealt with.