YESTERDAY VERSUS TODAY

According to lexicographers, Yesterday is the day before today. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow.

Every man in the present world, looks forward to bringing a replica of himself  and on the long run, expects that the new generation will give birth to other successive generations, thus, making the reality of today. Based on this, it simply shows that there can never be today without yesterday; undoubtedly, there will never be tomorrow.

            Various systems in practice today stemmed out from yesterday’s input by men and women who saw the future in their hands and decided to take the bull by the horn. The philosophized, hypothesized, tested, theorized, simulated and invented things we use in the world today are from people of yesterday. Michael Faraday, a 19^th century scientist, studied the nature of electricity and discovered that electricity could be made by moving a magnet inside a coil; hence, he was able to build the first electric motor, generator and transformer. He introduced several words that we still use today to discuss electricity: ion, electrode, cathode and anode.

Another scientist of yesterday is Alexander Graham Bell, the man who at the age of 29 invented the telephone. Apart from this landmark achievement, he also invented the photo phone, a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light. This invention reveals the principle upon which today’s laser and fibre optic communication systems are founded. Other personalities of yesterday include Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and many others.

            Does this mean that there are no Nigerian nationals making the nation proud? Does this mean that everything needed for man’s use has been discovered or invented already? Does this mean that people are no longer interested in making new discoveries and inventions? The simple answer to these questions is No!

Coming back home is the scientist of the African Diaspora called Philip Emeaguali. He is known as “father of the internet”. A Nigerian-born engineer and computer scientist/geologist, who programmed the connection machine to compute a world record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors to simulate oil reservoirs. Another renowned personality of the African origin is Professor Gabriel A. Oyibo, who obtained his Ph. D in Aeronautics and mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, New York, where he worked for four years on NASA/AFSOR sponsored research and made several contributions in aircraft design, aerodynamics, aero elasticity, Mathematics, and taught several courses. He found the Unified Field Theory, the Holy Grail of Physics and Mathematics. His theorem, GOD ALMIGHTY’S GRAND UNIFIED THEOREM (GAGUT) is used to prove Einstein’s most famous theory: E=mc². He is the first to complete the task that challenged Einstein and many other luminaries in science. There are still many people of today making waves in their various disciplines. What are you waiting for?

            There was little or no advancement in technology yesterday; yet, these personalities saw the need to bring changes that would affect the entire world. They had sleepless nights; some had little education, while some could not afford it at all due to their poor background, yet, had feats in their various disciplines.

Today’s technology is such that every child has an access to the computer, hence, they know its uses beyond the elementary being taught in schools. They operate sophisticated mobile phones and can troubleshoot within few seconds- the knowledge of technology.

            Shouldn't this give today’s people the impetus to effect changes? My problem with today’s people is that they are under utilizing today’s technology. With today’s technology, we can build cars powered by compressed air and not just by hydrocarbons; design a simulation for diffusing bomb used by terrorists before the detonating time; design a program to determine the solid mineral reserves in an area within the shortest period of time. We can also design tape recorders which will allow us to record our thoughts during the day. Youth today dwell mostly on social media like Facebook, twitter and many others. All sorts of social vices are committed using today’s technology. Culture disorder is equally rampant with today’s technology.

            What then should we do? Somewhere in the Holy Bible says “as a man thinkest, so is he…” what do you feed your mind with? How much of what you studied in school do you know? How much do you know about engineering, finance, humanities, management, and so on? Do you occupy your mind with provoking thoughts that will effect changes in our society? I would say “learn to know little things about everything, so as to proffer solutions not only to today’s technology, but also, the future.