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A special
megaphone of CyberschuulNews
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A File on
Excellence, Service and Patriotism
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A
Genius Remembered
July 14, 2008
11:39
Late Professor Ayodele Awojobi, famous engineer and social
crusader, comes alive in Lagos
By Sylvester Asoya, THE NEWS MAGAZINE
It
was a well deserved honour for late Professor Ayodele
Awojobi, renowned scholar, mechanical engineer, inventor and
social crusader. The event which had in attendance,
principal officers of the University of Lagos, friends,
relatives and past students of Awojobi which included Gbenga
Daniel, governor of Ogun State, sought to immortalise his
genius and inventions that have suffered neglect over the
years.
The University of Lagos Engineering class of 1972 should be
commended for keeping the memory of their departed teacher
alive. In fact, they inspired the celebration and properly
entitled it: Commemoration of the Life and Times of Late
Professor Ayodele Awojobi.
But it is also instructive to note that the situation under
which the decision to honour Awojobi by the 1972 class came
rather accidentally. Engineer Titi Omo-Ettu,
Secretary-General of the class, recalled how the idea to
revisit Awojobi’s life came about during one of the usual
visits by past engineering students like him who regularly
visit the faculty in a bid to improve the content and
quality of the engineering programme. According to him,
during one of such interactive sessions, reference was made
to Awojobi in respect of his many postulations and
inventions. But the students went blank as they could
neither relate with the erudite professor’s contribution to
Analytical Methods in Geo-Mechanics nor his inventions like
his famous Autonov. So, Omo-Ettu and his colleagues resolved
to once again return the memories of Awojobi to the
consciousness of engineering students in particular and the
Nigerian public in general.
On Wednesday 9 July, part of this dream of perpetuating the
life and times of Awojobi took off grand style at the
Engineering Lecture Theatre of the University of Lagos with
a lecture entitled: Excellence, Service and Patriotism. It
was delivered by Professor Akin Oyebode.
Oyebode, a professor of law at the University of Lagos,
praised the organisers for honouring their teacher and
mentor. For the guest lecturer, Awojobi was a full man and
half, that special breed of humans who appear only once in a
century “Death could only take away great men but it will
not take away their good works,” he said. The paper on
Excellence, Service and Patriotism also dwelt on the
leadership crisis in Nigeria and how the country is
afflicted by the cult of mediocrity. Oyebode warned that
only the best is good for Nigerians. He therefore urged the
people to insist on having the best as their
representatives.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, the chairman of the
occasion, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi had told the
gathering that Awojobi did not die in vain after all. He
described the scholar as a researcher who diligently
searched for the truth both within and outside the
University of Lagos where he taught for many years. The
chairman regretted that it took so long to recognise the
works of Awojobi, mainly because he was a Nigerian. Nigeria,
according to him, is a giant killer. In Nigeria, when one
dies, he dies with his dream and ideals, then he is buried
and forgotten, unlike in other parts of the world where a
man’s worth is appreciated long after his earthly journey.
Responding, the widow, Bode Ayo Awojobi, thanked her late
husband’s friends and associates for remembering him. “I
feel overwhelmed. We are indeed very grateful for what you
have done to our husband and our father. May God bless you
all,” she prayed.
Later, a spokesperson for the family told the gathering that
a prize in honour of their son will take effect from the
next academic year. The award which will be presented to the
best graduating student in mechanical engineering will
attract the sum of N25,000. But in a swift reaction to the
proposal, Gbenga Daniel promised to underwrite the expenses
of the award. The Ogun State governor also pledged to
support an annual lecture and the completion of a building
to be named after Awojobi.
The occasion was indeed, a commemoration of a good life,
though short, but well spent in the service of humanity. And
this was evident with the presence of practically every
member of Unilag Engineering Class of 1972 led by Engineer
Tunde Adebanjo, a strong representation from the university
made up of Professors Modupe Ogunlesi, Tokunbo Sofoluwe and
Oye Ibidapo-Obe, the immediate past Vice-Chancellor.
Reactions also came from his former classmates, colleagues
and admirers who spoke glowingly about him and how he
touched lives in different ways. Awojobi was fondly called
“Professor Dead Easy” because he simplified difficult
mathematical problems, while he was referred to as “The
Giant of Akoka” because he fought and defended the rights of
the underprivileged. In fact, the activist had dedicated his
entire life to positively affecting people. Speaking on his
plans for the future during an interview on the Nigerian
Television Authority, NTA, in 1981, Awojobi had declared:
“At the age of 65, I will have built the infrastructure.
There would be very few illiterates in Nigeria when I mount
the soapbox. Then, I will go into proper politics.”
He never lived to be 65 but he will be remembered forever by
his students who unveiled the bust of the late professor at
the Faculty Quadrangle with such endearing words like
“Beloved Teacher”, “Erudite Scholar” and “Great Patriot”.
The occasion also featured the exhibition of his
ground-breaking automobile novelty known as “Autonov 1″.
This special armoured vehicle that has the capability of
moving in both directions was hailed because it provided a
solution to emergency retreat during wars.
Unfortunately, nobody until the arrival of his students
seemed interested in advancing his creative frontiers
despite his invention’s uniqueness. Now, the genius is being
celebrated.
Born on 12 March 1937, Professor Awojobi attended St.
Peter’s Faji Primary School, Ajele, Lagos; C.M.S. Grammar
School, Lagos; Nigerian College of Arts, Science and
Technology, Ibadan; and Nigerian College of Arts, Science
and Technology, Zaria, where he obtained a first class
degree in Mechanical Engineering. He proceeded to Imperial
College of Science and Technology at the University of
London, where he bagged a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering.
He set a record by becoming, at the age of 37, the youngest
lecturer in the University of Lagos to become a professor.
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Call for
Ayo
Awojobi Centre
to pursue Excellence in Engineering Training and Research
A befitting
centre for learning and research in engineering has been canvassed to immortalise the
name of late resourceful professor of mechanical engineering, Prof. Ayo
Awojobi. This emerged from a presentation made by Prof. O A Fakilede on
behalf of the Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos where the late
professor worked for 19 years till he died in 1984 at 47.
The call for Ayo
Awojobi Centre was hailed by an audience which included very top
engineers and university administrators at an event to commemorate the
life and times of late Prof. Awojobi.
In the audience
were top engineers including Prof VOS Olunloyo, President of Nigeria
Academy of Engineering; Kashim Ali, President of Nigerian Society of
Engineers, NSE; and Bayo Adeola, President, Association of Consulting
Engineers, Nigeria, ACEN. Although The Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Lagos, Prof. Tolu Odugbemi, was overseas on duty tour, all other principal officers of the
University including Two Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Registrar, Bursar,
Librarian, Director of Works and Services and several Deans of
Faculties, Colleges
and Schools were present. Also present were serving and retired
practising engineers including two retired Commandants of the Nigerian
Army Corps of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers Gen. M.S Toki [Rtd.],
and Gen. Tunde Adebanjo [Rtd].
According to
several accounts of highly rated speakers at the event, if Ayo Awojobi had
lived to old age, he would have been seventy-one years old now. Having
completed his PhD in 1964 - two years after a Bachelors degree, he came
in as one of the pioneers of the then new Faculty of Engineering,
University of Lagos in 1965. Professor Ayo Awojobi died at the
relatively young age of 47 in the heat of the battle for a better
Nigeria. That battle still rages on. 'Sometimes', says Fakilede, 'one shudders at the risk
and other things Awojobi would have done under the Abacha regime he did
not live to see'.
The audience had
earlier listened to a Lecture by Prof Akin Oyebode, himself an
accomplished academic, who in the lecture, identifies
the crying and urgent need to trust our own ability by deploying local
expertise in confronting the critical problems of the day. He insists
that 'adopting a
turn-key approach, for example, in the design and construction of
projects constitutes a shameful and unacceptable vote of no confidence
in our engineers' suggesting therefore, a new policy which would
think Nigeria first before enlisting the help of the so-called foreign
development partners. According to Oyebode, 'If other developing countries which have since
turned the bend in their developmental efforts had relied so much on
foreigners as we do, it is unlikely that they would be exuding the
capability, self-confidence and competitiveness which have today made
them objects of envy even by the technologically advanced countries of
the West'.
Prof Akin Oyebode sees late Professor
Ayodele Awojobi as 'undoubtedly one of the most gifted and insightful
teachers that have ever paraded the precincts of (this) great citadel of
learning'. He says ‘anyone who had had the good fortune to encounter the
incredibly talented and prodigious polyvalent academic, would agree that Awojobi was indeed a man and a half, the likes of whom appear, perhaps,
only once in a generation’.
Ogun Sate Governor, Otunba Gbenga
Daniel who studied mechanical engineering under the tutelage of the late
genius said he came to read engineering because he wanted to read
whatever Ayo Awojobi read. He was Special Guest of Honour at the
Event.
Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, renown phamacist,
lawyer, entrepreneur and former Minister of Health as chairman of the
Lecture told the audience which also included Mrs. 'Bode Ayo-Awojobi, widow of
the late genius, to
always celebrate our stars so that common idiots do not end up starring
for our society.
The event to Commemorate the Life
and Times of Late Prof. Ayo Awojobi was packaged by the students whom he
taught engineering in the years of 1969 -72 at the university of Lagos.
Gen. Tunde Adebanjo [Rtd.] who is President of the association of the
students said they would use their influence to drive the implementation
of the recommendations which emerged from the Lecture. He said a bust of
late Prof Ayo Awojobi is being erected in the Faculty to enable future
generations of students remember that Nigeria had stars and it is not
only common criminals who will occupy all the pages of our history
books.
Several works done by the late
professor and books written by him were on exhibition and copies of the
books he wrote on social engineering were given to those who were
present.
The organisers of the Event asked
those who desire to have the books to contact
titiomoettu@yahoo.co.uk
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Excellence, Service and Patriotism
by
Akin Oyebode
Text of a Lecture delivered
at the Commemoration of the
Life and Times of Late Professor Ayodele
Awojobi,
organized by the University of Lagos
Engineering Class 69-72 on July 9, 2008
at the Julius Berger Auditorium, University
of Lagos.
Akin Oyebode is Professor and Head,
Department of Jurisprudence and
International Law, University of Lagos
Introduction
In the great universities of the world, the
memories of great scholars and scientists
are usually kept alive by having structures
or chairs named after them as a means of
inspiring on-coming generations to strive to
attain or even surpass their
larger-than-life statures and exploits. It
does not appear as if Nigerian universities
have fully appreciated these norms since we
are yet to evince sufficient acknowledgement
of the contributions of the great minds that
it has pleased Providence to allow to pass
through the portals of our higher
institutions.
It is, therefore, my intention to begin this
presentation by saluting the 1969-72
Mechanical Engineering set of the University
of Lagos for their high sense of history and
awareness of the need to acknowledge and
celebrate our great men and women of
learning by deeming it fit and proper to
host events commemorating the life and times
of the late Professor Ayodele Awojobi,
undoubtedly, one of the most gifted and
insightful teachers that have ever paraded
the precincts of this great citadel of
learning. Anyone who had had the good
fortune to encounter the incredibly talented
and prodigious polyvalent academic, would
agree that Awojobi was indeed a man and a
half, the likes of whom appear, perhaps,
only once in a generation.
The man in whose honour we are here gathered
today, the late Ayodele Awojobi, was an
uncommon academic, engineer, inventor,
author, social commentator and political
activist. It is no exaggeration to say that
in Awojobi, we were presented with a man who
approximated a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci
and Albert Einstein rolled in one. It was as
if our late Professor had a premonition that
his sojourn on this planet was going to be
brief. For, he packed so much into his life
and thereby succeeded in leaving his
footprints on the sands of time.
Professor Ayodele Awojobi, as we all know,
had graduated with a First Class in
Mechanical Engineering from the Ahmadu Bello
University and ended with a Ph.D. and D.Sc.
from the Imperial College of Science and
Technology, University of London. He became
a Professor at 37 and died at 47, that is,
for just 10 years during which period he
demonstrated thorough grounding especially
in mechanical vibrations and numerous
academic disciplines, so much so that he
soared so high in public consciousness as
both a consummate engineer and critical
social analyst, the omission of whose
exploits would be clearly inexcusable in any
chronicle of people and events in Nigeria of
his time and beyond.
Professor Awojobi showed through his uncanny
intellect, uncompromising attitude towards
academic excellence and dogged commitment to
the betterment of the society the promise
and possibilities of Nigeria. His heritage
is a perpetual challenge and inspiration to
succeeding generations that the best is
actually possible if only we are ready and
willing to put things right in this country.
The fact that we are today reminiscing about
the exploits of the great man 24 years after
his demise is sufficient proof, if there was
any need for such, that death can only take
away great men but it cannot destroy their
good works.
Our prayer is that may Nigeria be blessed
with more persons like Awojobi who would be
well placed to illuminate the path towards a
better Nigeria and constitute a searing and
veritable scourge to evil-doers, negative
forces and all those that do not wish the
nation and the people well.
The Quest for Excellence
The theme of today's lecture is particularly
apt because Awojobi can be considered an
epitome of all that is excellent, patriotic
and in the public interest. However, the
beginning of the discourse should be the
struggle to attain excellence in both our
private and public lives. Without what
Subomi Balogun had characterized as "the
culture of excellence," it is doubtful if we
can ever play in the big leagues. The nation
seems to be afflicted with the tyranny of
mediocrity at almost every facet of human
endeavour and except and unless and only to
the extent that we as a people decide to
imbibe the sense of best practices in all
that we do, the nation would continue to be
caught up in the labyrinths of diffidence,
self-doubt, stunted growth and hopelessness.
The search for excellence should perforce
begin with ensuring that only the best is
good for Nigeria and the only way to do this
is by insisting that our best and brightest
occupy the highest positions of power,
influence and authority in the country. A
rigidly enforced meritocracy in the
dispensing of preferment is apt to lift the
country up from its present morass of
poverty, underdevelopment and
disillusionment. Accordingly, the pursuit of
excellence should start from the process of
recruitment of the nation's elite and the
placing of round pegs in round holes.
Right from the kindergarten to the
university, we need to encourage and promote
a culture of reward and advancement based on
merit and intellect. To the extent that the
quality of life of the people depends on the
quality of those manning our institutions,
to that extent should we have to insist that
the best persons available are put in charge
of our affairs without heed for extraneous
considerations such as ethnic origin, creed
or gender. In other words, we have to
inculcate in our people the sense of
excellence such as to accept the desideratum
of perfection or near-perfection, especially
in our public institutions manned, as is
being here suggested, by the most capable
and competent hands available.
Excellence, undoubtedly, abounds everywhere
in the country What has been lacking
hitherto has been a deliberate and conscious
effort to seek it out. Of course, excellence
carries a high price tag but if we possess
the will to entrench it in our national
life, we should be prepared to pay the price
without caring whose ox is gored. It is
instructive that the foundations laid by the
Mandarinate system during the Chi'n dynasty
in ancient China formed the leitmotif for
the current successes being scored by
present-day China. Same can be said of the
preparations laid during the Meiji period of
Japanese history which account, to a
considerable extent, for the Japanese
ascendancy in the current global political
economy. Thus, an enlightened ruling class
would make a conscious policy decision to
cultivate excellence by way of developing
the country's human capital in order to
ensure the emergence of a self-propelled and
competitive economy in an increasingly
difficult, uncaring, beggar-thy-neighbour
world.
In a situation where only bones are left for
late-comers, time is definitely not on the
side of a country such as ours which
continually leaves undone what it ought to
do. We can no longer afford to be sending
forth our "third eleven," to borrow Chinua
Achebe's words in a harsh economic climate
where victorious generals do not like taking
prisoners. This explains why sloganeering on
Nigeria becoming one of the 20 most
developed economies by 2020 is little more
than hot air. As a wiseacre remarked
recently, at the end of the day, we might
actually end up among the bottom 20
economies in the world if the much-needed
drastic action is not taken in critical
areas of the economy. If there is no firm
commitment to excellence and insistence on
the best and brightest for positions in both
the public and private sectors, we would
only continue to move round in circles,
with, as our people say, all motion, no
movement.
Nigeria is amply gifted with resources, both
natural and human. Nevertheless, the
Nigerian predicament has been lack of a
clear and focused leadership ready, willing
and able to put square pegs in square holes
with a view to moving the country to the
next level of socio-economic and political
transformation. The moment the country
becomes blessed with the right kind of
leadership, imbued with a sense of
excellence and a tenacity of purpose,
Nigeria should be able to square the
nation's circles and make visible progress
towards growth and development. The pursuit
of excellence in all its ramifications,
based on a clear-cut vision and mission
would definitely launch the country along
the path of finally realizing its incredible
potentials.
While pockets of excellence and original
thinking may exist in different areas of
human endeavour, there is a definite need
for coalescence of all the talents and
informed views in the country within a
holistic framework in order to impact in a
meaningful way on the effort towards
nation-building and improvement of the lot
of the common man. It is the extent to which
policies and activities are harnessed within
a broad, national strategy that can help
make a difference between success and
failure. The multidimensional scope of the
search for excellence compels new thinking
by the powers-that-be on prioritization of
the goals, objectives and strategic choices
confronting the nation. Policies, programmes
and actions need to be constantly fine-tuned
and possibly, re-worked or re-configured in
order to ensure proper focus and relevance.
It hardly requires re-stating that such an
exercise requires tremendous intellect and
savvy in order for excellence to be
achieved. Without the necessary strategic
sensing and deliberate policy decisions, the
nation cannot achieve optimal growth and
development, regardless of pious
declarations of intent.
In the final analysis, to recall the
statement of Joseph de Maistre, a people get
the government they deserve. Therefore, a
well-informed society is apt to appreciate
the necessity for excellence in the
different facets of human activity. If this
is so, we cannot stress too strongly the
need of our people for greater appreciation
of excellence in both our private and public
lives if we seriously wish to number among
the more enlightened members of the human
race. Accordingly, every effort should be
invested into nurturing a culture for
excellence among our people. They should be
ready and willing to decry any manifestation
of indolence, corruption and mediocrity in
our national life and hold themselves out
and able to strive for a better society
despite the risks associated with such a
mind-set in contemporary Nigeria.
The devastation wrought on our psyche and
developmental process by pervasive
corruption is, quite simply, unimaginable.
It is bad enough that we still rank among
the most corrupt people in the universe. A
situation where the cost of engineering
projects in Nigeria is in multiples of what
they cost elsewhere is definitely untenable.
That the presentation of the Nigerian
passport and travel documents at various
foreign destinations would most often invite
opprobrium and suspicion of some malfeasance
or the other, should be enough to put all
and sundry on notice regarding the world's
perception of our country and ourselves.
This brings into bold relief the necessity
to inculcate new societal values, especially
in relation to public service, which is our
next issue of focus.
Serving the Common Interest
Nigerians tend to be self-seeking and
self-serving when placed in positions of
public service. In the face of a government
that generally does not seem to care for
anyone, it is quite understandable why our
people have to fend for themselves and make
self-interest their categorical imperative
at every available opportunity. In a
situation bordering on the hobbesian state
of nature where life was "solitary, nasty,
brutish and short," where every man cared
for himself while the devil took the
hindermost, it would be most imprudent, if
not, in fact, downright suicidal for people
not to be motivated by self-interest instead
of an elusive and ill-defined public
interest. Self-preservation, as we all know,
is the first law in nature.
However, the truth of the matter is that
no-one is or can really be an island to
himself. Man lives in and is of society. The
social Darwinist society foisted on us by
votaries of free enterprise capitalism which
extols individual freedom and liberties at
the expense of the common good and the
common cause can effectively lead to social
disintegration and anarchy. It is for this
reason that the privileged few must always
spare a thought for the needs and interests
of the larger society. More importantly, as
Africans, we are basically a communal
people, more attuned to thinking in the
collective and communal than the dog-eat-dog
notion bequeathed to us by our erstwhile
conquistadores. Even in the advanced
capitalist societies of the West which
trumpet the advantages of freedom of
contract and private property, it has been
considered necessary to pay credence to
feelings of solidarity and the utilitarian
values of the welfare state in a bid to
ensure a wholesome society.
Accordingly, whenever the issue of service
crops up, it is imperative to pose the
following questions : In whose interest?
Should we continue to seek and pursue our
individual interests whenever we are called
upon to render service to the nation or the
community? What should be put in place to
check the propensity of members of the
governing class for filthy lucre? Is it
feasible to attempt a bridging of the gap
between public and private morality? etc.
To some, man exists in this world,
basically, to maximize his potentialities
even if through a rabid and relentless
pursuit of his interest. In fact,
considerable jurisprudential ink has been
wasted to justify the egoistic nature of
man, sometimes, in fact, anchored on
biblical injunctions. Quite often, the
argument is along the line that man being
the best judge of his interest, he is better
placed than the state or the community to
defend or pursue same. As J. S. Mill once
opined, over his body and mind man is
sovereign!
However, ranged against this body of opinion
is the viewpoint which stresses the social
nature of man and, therefore, places him
under the superintendence of society. In the
words of Jeremy Bentham, for example, the
greatest happiness of the greatest number
should be the acid test of all governmental
activity. Thus, leaving man to serve himself
can only lead him to perdition. Within this
perspective, society must always act in
order to save man from himself which would,
therefore, entail the enactment and
enforcement of legislation founded on the
ideals of social utilitarianism.
In considering these two diametrically
opposed views, everything would seem to
depend on one's perception of the nature of
man and his purpose here on earth. If all
there was to life was the need to satisfy
one's epicurean tastes, then, perhaps, there
would be no felt need for individuals to
worry or care about societal interests.
However, to the extent that man is a social
animal, to that extent can it be said that
he must pursue his interests with full
cognizance of the needs and goals of society
at large. Accordingly, there is an argument
to be made in favour of dedicating one's
life to the betterment of society.
Self-interest can, by no stretch of the
imagination, be considered as being in the
public or social interest except in pursuit
thereof certain benefits are conferred on
the public or society as a whole. The
individual utilitarian could, of course,
attempt to pass off his happiness for that
of society but no-one is deceived except,
perhaps, the unwary. Service to society, its
needs and interests is, therefore, laudable
and worthwhile. A life committed to social
well-being is, surely, a life well-lived and
worthy of emulation by the rest of society.
Service to humanity has always been
extolled. From the saying of the ancients
that it is fit and sweet to die for one's
country to the biblical statement that there
was no greater love than for a man to lay
down his life for his friends, the sense of
sacrifice of the self for the majority is
clearly one of the highest of human values.
It should be emphasized that by paying the
supreme price in the service of the common
cause, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, Alhaja Kudirat
Abiola and innumerable heroes of the
struggle to entrench democracy in Nigeria
would be etched forever in the memories of
the masses and indeed the Nigerian nation to
the chagrin of the enemies of freedom and
the open society.
Regrettably, the overly individualistic
ethos which informs inter-personal relations
in contemporary Nigeria mocks anyone
actuated by feelings of brotherhood or love
for the common cause and commitment to the
public interest. This attitude should be
seen as being both dysfunctional and
counter-productive. Doing things for society
without expectation of any reward is an
attitude that should be encouraged
especially among the young who labour under
distorted values, lack of faith in the
future and considerable despair and
disillusionment. If Nigeria is ever going to
make it as a wholesome and well- structured
society, it is definitely not too early to
start canvassing a re-orientation of values,
advocating greater emphasis on, to
paraphrase the late American President John
F. Kennedy, what we all can do for the
country rather than what the country can do
for us. It is if, and only if we can
implement this bit of social re-armament
that we can rest assured that we are in the
right track towards a better and more
cohesive society.
Interestingly, leadership in the country
hardly connotes service; rather, those in
leadership positions expect to be served and
tend to live off society without any qualms
whatsoever. The arrival on the national
political stage by a President who announced
that he would like to be seen as a
'servant-leader' was met with considerable
doubt and cynicism. The implication of this
is that we are yet to come to terms with the
idea that leadership connotes service and
for as long as people see those in
leadership positions as rulers or bosses
instead of servants (which they really are),
for that long would the country be enmeshed
in authoritarianism, lack of transparency
and non-accountability. Service to humanity
is indeed one of the highest of human values
and the earlier Nigerians apprehended this
fact, the better for the future of the
country. Altruism and love of fellow man are
some of the enduring values of a good
society. Regrettably, the jury is still out
on whether or not the Nigerian leadership is
prepared to imbibe such values.
The Catechism of the Patriot
Although, in the words of Samuel Johnson,
patriotism was the last refuge of a
scoundrel, there is a lot to say for love of
country and commitment to the cause of the
fatherland. In our own circumstance, where
the country has remained largely a
geographical expression, as Chief Obafemi
Awolowo had characterized Nigeria over 60
years ago, patriotic feelings and an avowed
commitment to the national cause are
relatively scarce commodities among the
population. Whenever discussions on the fate
of the country arise, there is, more often
than not, a consensus that Nigeria was not
worth dying for.
Admittedly, institutions such as the armed
forces, security and para-military
organisations like the Police, Customs,
Immigration Department and the Nigerian
Security and Civil Defence Corps, the
National Orientation Agency and even the
National Youth Service Corps operate on the
premise of patriotism and the desideratum of
coherence in nation-building. However, there
is ample room for improvement so far as
patriotic sentiments go. While patriotism
has more to do with a deepened consciousness
of and commitment to the nation and its
defence and protection at all times, it
should not be allowed to degenerate into
jingoism or xenophobia which are clearly
antithetical to good neighbourliness and
social well-being. The excesses of fascism
and Nazism in the last century have taught
the world the necessity never again to
succumb to uncontrolled nationalist fervour.
This is why the recent outburst in South
Africa against immigrants from other African
countries should be deprecated in no
uncertain terms.
Of course, healthy patriotism evidenced by
the emotions of football fans during World
Cup or regional championships or indeed
athletic contests in the Olympics and other
global tournaments is, perhaps, the
acceptable limit of the avowal of
nationalist sentiments in today's world.
Even then, some football fans have tended to
carry things too far so much so that matches
have sometimes had to be re-located to
neutral venues in a bid to avoid mishaps.
However, in an age of the obsolescence of
the nation-state in favour of larger
economic integration units across the world,
patriotic sentiments are becoming gradually
subdued and muted except, perhaps in Africa
and the rest of the developing world whose
romance with nationalism and patriotism is,
generally speaking, of recent vintage and
could be expected to endure for much longer.
In a sense, therefore, patriotism can be
considered an unhealthy, if not, in fact,
dangerous and inimical to international
solidarity as well as social well-being. It
needs to be given a short leash in order to
curb its more deleterious aspects. Yet, it
should be acknowledged that patriotism
fulfills a positive role as a means of
social mobilization and consolidation of
efforts at nation-building.
A Peep into the Future
Nigeria occupies an incredibly strategic
position in the scheme of things in the
world. With abundant human and material
endowments, Nigeria is better placed than
most countries on the African continent to
make the transition from the Third World to
the First. The prospects of Nigeria are, to
put it mildly, staggering. With over 90
universities, albeit at different stages of
disrepair, countless polytechnics and
colleges of education, Nigeria can be truly
said to be at the take-off stage for
socio-economic transformation.
The emphasis here on human capital
development rather than reciting the
statistics on oil production and export is
deliberate in view of the reality of
petroleum being a wasting asset, more so as
the industrialized consumer economies are
now fully seized of the task of inventing
substitutes including bio-fuel, wind and
water as energy sources in the face of
prohibitive cost of oil imports. We should
realize that our oil would dry up one day
and even the abundant gas with which we are
endowed might prove no solution to our
developmental needs except we start planning
right away. The observation by the late
Claude Ake and Bade Onimode that Nigeria
runs a 'disarticulate' economy, that is, an
economy that produces what it does not
consume and consumes what it does not
produce is as poignant as ever. According to
them, except, unless and only to the extent
that Nigeria is able to link its production
to its consumption can the country get a
reprieve from its present position of
stagnation, squalor and underdevelopment and
assume its rightful place within the family
of nations.
The very fact that successive
administrations in the country have been
unable to elaborate a feasible master plan
for the country's rapid socio-economic
transformation and instead concentrated on
massive pillage of the nation's resources
bespeaks a conscienceless political
leadership, motivated solely by avarice and
naked self-interest rather than the public
interest and social amity. It is obvious
that the present governing class lacks both
the ideological and intellectual wherewithal
and requisite commitment to steer the
national ship to a safe berth. What is even
more bothersome is the abysmal ignorance or
unawareness of what needs to be done within
a rigorous and well-thought out and
realizable blueprint. Latching on to
exogenous frameworks such as the Vision
20-2020 and other stratagems inspired by
Policy Support Instruments of the Bretton
Woods institutions, would only seem to
suggest mental laziness and an insufferable
inability to harness local expertise and
know-how in the task of creating a new
Nigeria.
What it all boils down to is the crying and
urgent need to trust our own ability by
deploying local expertise in confronting the
critical problems of the day. Adopting a
turn-key approach, for example, in the
design and construction of projects
constitutes a shameful and unacceptable vote
of no confidence in our engineers. A new
policy is, therefore, called for which would
think Nigeria first before enlisting the
help of the so-called foreign development
partners. If other developing countries
which have since turned the bend in their
developmental efforts had relied so much on
foreigners as we do, it is unlikely that
they would be exuding the capability,
self-confidence and competitiveness which
have today made them objects of envy even by
the technologically advanced countries of
the West.
Our future, therefore, lies in self-reliance
rather than an unthinking, wholesale
imitation and concession of both our thought
processes and institutions to those whose
interests might not necessarily coincide
with ours. We have the capability to create
our own El Dorado. So much have the Arab
Gulf states and Asian tigers demonstrated.
What we have lacked hitherto is the will to
attain self-actualization. There is no doubt
in my mind that a dogged self-reliance and
endogamous development strategy would
unleash our creative genius and launch
Nigeria along the path of self-discovery,
modernization, national pride and
self-fulfillment.
The argument usually made is that we do not
need to re-invent the wheel and should,
therefore, feel free to take advantage of
the state of the art technology of the
western countries. The point, however, is
that there is a lot to be gained in learning
by doing, aside from the issue of
self-worth, satisfaction and self-confidence
derivable from products emanating from our
own imagination and ingenuity.
Unfortunately, a leadership that runs abroad
for routine medical tests cannot be expected
to grasp the benefits of entrusting its own
experts with the task of providing solutions
to the urgent problems of the day.
Conclusion
Eight years into the 21st century, Nigeria
is still enmeshed in general incompetence,
illogicality and mass disillusionment. The
fact stares us all in the face that the lack
of the correct attitude to excellence,
service and patriotism has been the bane of
all our efforts towards national
development. Although there are oases of
promise and growth within the Nigerian
firmament, such positive phenomena are,
regrettably, few and far between.
The world has never known any such thing as
a free lunch. Therefore, Nigerians must be
prepared to lift themselves up by their
bootstraps. We are equally endowed like
other people in the rest of the world and,
therefore, possess the ability to transform
our country into a more wholesome
environment. What has hitherto been lacking
has been a leadership that would radiate a
passion for excellence, service and a high
level of patriotism. With the correct
leadership, Nigeria should be able to turn
the page on poverty, squalor and
underdevelopment.
However, we need to keep hope alive and
believe that in fullness of time, Nigeria's
backwardness would become history. With many
more Awojobis in different areas of our
national endeavour, Nigeria would indeed be
able to transcend its present niggardly
circumstances and claim its deserved
position in the international community.
I am done. I thank you very kindly for your
attention.
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The Man
AYODELE AWOJOBI
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(1937 – 1984) |
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‘Prof.
Ayodele Awojobi is, undoubtedly, one of the most gifted and
insightful teachers that have ever paraded the precincts of this
great citadel of learning. Anyone who had had the good fortune
to encounter the incredibly talented and prodigious polyvalent
academic, would agree that Awojobi was indeed a man and a half,
the likes of whom appear, perhaps, only once in a generation’
........Akin
Oyebode
‘At the
University of Lagos in the late 70’s and early 80’s Professor Awojobi had held sway the University’s community with his
seminal lectures like ‘Nigeria in search of a social order’,
‘where our oil money has gone’, "In search of a political order"
and "Nigeria Today" amongst others which had made Awojobi an
emerging participant of a literary insights of those days.’
........Paul Mamza
"I
became attracted to Ayodele Awojobi. And believe me, it is for
this reason that I went to the faculty of Engineering and
studied mechanical engineering. You see, I would not survive a
day without reading all the newspapers. I met Awojobi in the
journal... and I became attracted to him. And so I decided that
I was going to study whatever course this man read..."
......Justus Olugbenga Daniel
(a.k.a
OGD)
"Awojobi
came to Park Lane (where Awolowo's residence was located in
Apapa, Lagos) to argue with the leader. He would pick on any
topic and argue with Chief Awolowo as if they were colleagues.
He started buying books on law and was planning to do a degree
in law so as to match Awolowo on points of law,"
......Odia
Ofeimun
‘.I can
only talk of Prof. Ayo Awojobi in the present. In Awojobi you
see a thoroughly brilliant, confident, selfless and patriotic
academic whose horizon is very wide. In the Faculty, he is
primus inter pares. He is different things to different
observers. A guy tells you if you can be an engineer, you can be
any other thing you choose to be. If you end up being an
engineer, you will love him and say he is brilliant. If you are
unable to make it, you will hate him and call him a braggart. He
is all of the above.’
......
Titi Omo-Ettu
…the
late Professor (Ayodele Awojobi)
established a sound
and worthy reputation as a gifted scientist but one with a
social conscience as evident in his revolutionary interrogation
of the Nigerian State in the media."
......Reuben Abati
'...I
thought if by chance I found myself in the position of power, I
would honour this man who, even in death, endured verbal attacks
from those he fought for....
......
Kunle Awobodu
‘Prof.
Ayo Awojobi, in his life-time, was a rare Nigerian, part of a
special breed whose major interest was the welfare of others and
indeed, of the Nigerian nation at large. He was truly respected
and highly revered by his students for his uncommon brilliance
and uncanny ability to reduce the rigours of engineering science
to simple logic and easy vocation. At another plane, he fought
relentlessly for the institution of probity and accountability
in government and transparency and focus in governance.
.........Temilola Kehinde
‘If
Ayo Awojobi had lived to old age, he would have been seventy-one
years old now. Having completed his PhD in 1964, two years after
a Bachelors degree, he came in as one of the pioneers of the
then new Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos in 1965.
Professor Ayo Awojobi died at the relatively young age of 47 in
the heat of the battle for a better Nigeria. That battle still
rages on. Sometimes one shudders at the risk and other things
Awojobi would have done under the Abacha regime he did not live
to see’
...........O A. Fakilede
To
be a social crusader in favour of the amelioration of the human
condition is normally a courageous selfless feat. To be
iconoclastic in challenging the rulership of the day for not
living up to popular yearnings, that takes exceptional courage.
The late Prof. Awojobi was not only exceptionally selfless and
courageous, he was both an epitome and personification of
encyclopaedic intellectual ingenuity. He was, therefore, a
quintensential role model.
.........Adebayo
Ninalowo
There is a generation of
Nigerians who do not know anything about Prof Awojobi, it is
incumbent and imperative that his memory is not besmirched by
specious comparisons because if we do not set the records
straight, who the hell will?
.........Tunde Bilesanmi,
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Celebrating an Icon:
A Proposal for the
Ayodele
Awojobi Centre:
An Engineering Teaching & Learning Centre,
University of Lagos
by
Adegbenro, Professor
O (Class of 1972)
Aiyesimoju, Dr. KO
(Class of 1981)
Mowete, Dr. AI
(Class of 1980)
Damisa, Dr. OO
(Class of 1973)
Fakinlede, Professor
OA (Class of 1977)
Introduction
If he
had lived to old age, the late Professor
Ayodele Awojobi – Nigeria's first professor
of Mechanical Engineering would have been
seventy-one years old now. Having completed
his PhD in 1964 (two years after Bachelor's
degree), he came in as one of the pioneers
of the new faculty of engineering in the
following year. It is a welcome development
that classes of University of Lagos
engineering alumni are gathering to honour
him at this point in time. Professor Ayodele
Awojobi died at the relatively young age of
47 in the heat of the battle for a better
Nigeria. That battle still rages on.
Sometimes one shudders at the risks and
other things Awojobi would have done under
the Abacha regime he did not live to see!
The University of Lagos of his time
consisted of a star-studded faculty of many
who remain house-hold names till this day.
Several did not live to old age (Professors
Olakanpo, Fagbemi etc were in that class)
From the Faculty of Engineering, Ayodele
Awojobi was the quintessence of that
generation and our faculty's best brand. It
is not too late in the day to celebrate our
icon.
Professor Awojobi was always an all-round
student all his life. Mathematics and
History were studied with equal vigor and
passion. He could start an argument with a
freshman (today's JAMBite) on religion or
psychology and he exhibited that academic
tradition of allowing superior argument to
win. It is no wonder that his influence
transcended engineering and Unilag to become
one of the most famous university professors
in Nigeria. Many will remember him as the
major witness during the twelve two thirds
political wizardry of a pre-Maurice Iwu
electoral magic. Awojobi shouted himself
hoarse telling Nigeria what the allegedly
missing 2.8 billion Naira would do to
educating Nigerian youths if the money had
been spent in that way. Lucky man, he left
the scene before the money stolen from
public purse went to a higher order of
magnitude! Awojobi was loved with passion.
Students loved him and would carry him
shoulder high anytime he tried to give a
public lecture! He was also hated the same
way. On his fortieth birthday, March 1977,
he organized what he called Birthday
Lectures. Daily Times, the highest
Circulating Daily at that time wrote a
condemnatory editorial arguing among other
things that Awojobi was “talking when older
and wiser men were quiet!” He was Head of
the Mechanical Engineering in my final year.
We went to complain that we did not have a
lecturer for a particular course. Awojobi
had convinced us there was no problem within
five minutes of our reaching his office and
gave us a political lecture for thirty
minutes after. We completely forgot the ire
with which we went to his office initially.
State of
the Faculty
The
faculty of engineering at the peak period in
Awojobi's time boasted a star-studded class
of professors and lecturers up to fifty in
number from the best engineering schools the
world over. A cursory look at the Faculty of
Engineering prospectus of the 70's reveals a
list of degrees from the top ten
universities in today's world rankings. Even
among this group, Awojobi, with a D.Sc from
the famous Imperial College of Science &
Technology was a man apart.
Something untoward happened to our
engineering faculty in the intervening
years. The student population in 1973 was
about 300 students in four departments.
Today, we have nearly ten times that number
in twice as many departments. The famous
drawing offices at rooms 106, 115 and 206
did not graduate to become technical
computing and graphics laboratories;
instead, they are poorly equipped,
overcrowded and leaky classrooms. Many
returning alumni will recognise some old
equipment and laboratories only that the
former are obsolete, in a state of near
disrepair and the rooms may be leaking and
certainly inadequate for their present
mandate. Surely, the faculty of engineering
needs a new lease of life!
It has
not all been bad news. The faculty that
Awojobi left has been there up in front –
leading other Nigerian engineering schools
in many ways. The NLNG prize in Engineering
for this year was won by Dr. Meshida of the
Department of Civil Engineering just as
Professor Susu and Dr Abhulimen of Chemical
Engineering had done a few years before.
Professor Susu of Chemical Engineering,
Distinguished Professor Olunloyo of Systems
Engineering as well as Emeritus Professors
Oladapo and Orangun of Civil Engineering
have all won the National Order of Merit
Awards. Unilag engineering graduates are
doing very well indeed both locally and
internationally. Yet, it is time to raise
our game beyond the local context. We need
to move beyond rejoicing that we have had
teachers from the world's top universities
to a point where we too can be justifiably
described as a member of that same league.
That journey is a long one. A new Centre for
Teaching and learning within this faculty
may be the best way to start that. Naming it
after such an icon as Professor Awojobi
creates an avenue to immortalize our best
brand and make his achievements and value
part of the lives of present and future
students of this great faculty.
Proposed Centre
This
short tract proposes to initiate a change of
this situation by providing better
facilities for the faculty of engineering in
a teaching and learning centre named for the
late professor - “The Ayodele Awojobi
Centre”. This will consist of a block of
four storey buildings of laboratories,
Seminar and Lecture rooms as well as a
Lecture Theatre. Our estimated cost for the
physical structure is two hundred million
Naira while three hundred million Naira is
our estimate for the equipment. It is hereby
proposed that this sum of five hundred
million Naira (N500,000,000.00) be raised
for building and equipping the Ayodele
Awojobi Centre as a starting point of a
wholesale rebuilding and rebranding of the
University of Lagos Faculty of Engineering.
Challenge to this gathering
There is
the need for a powerful International
Coordinating Committee to oversee the
fund-raising and delivery of this Centre.
The local committee can serve as secretariat
of the whole process and will be able to
provide all the support services. Alumni,
students, parents, staff, friends and all
other well wishers of this faculty who are
in positions of power and influence can
deliver this product in a very short time.
Such people are hereby invited and
encouraged to give generously to this
project. Leaders of corporate bodies may
even be able to do much more than making
personal gifts and interventions. Such
people are also needed to be part of the
National coordinating committee who will
later constitute or appoint the governing
board for the Ayodele Awojobi Centre. We
will also be grateful for additional ideas
and suggestions of what we can add to the
present proposition to achieve the set
objectives of the Centre. |
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AYODELE
OLUTUMINU AWOJOBI
LIVES ON!!
BSc, PhD, DIC,
DSc (Lond)
‘Ayus
Perchlorate
Hyperchlorisa’
‘Macbeth’
‘Giant of Akoka’
‘Professor Dead
Easy’
‘Romeo’
Engineering
Genius
by
’Busola and ’Yombo Awojobi
9th July 2008.
Ayodele
Olutuminu Awojobi was born on Friday the
12th of March, 1937 at Oshodi, Lagos State.
His father was the late Chief Daniel Adekoya
Awojobi of Itun-Elepe, Ijomu Quarters, Aga
Ward, Ikorodu, Lagos State, a retired
stationmaster with the Nigeria Railway and
the former President of the Christian Union
of Ikorodu and the Environs from 1977 to
1986. His mother was the late Madam Comfort
Bamidele Awojobi (nee Adetunji) a petty
trader from Modakeke, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Young Ayodele spent his early life with his
brothers and sisters in Lagos under the
watchful eyes of our mother as he attended
St. Peter’s Primary School, Faji, Lagos from
1942 to 1947. Like his siblings, he was
literate in Yoruba, knew the first hundred
numerals and the alphabets in English before
he was five years old. We were taught by our
mother who, as a house girl, learnt to read
and write from the children of her master
and mistress in Lagos.
Like most geniuses who pass on without
writing their biographies, his teenage years
are encapsulated in the words of Professor
Olajide O Ajayi, CON, a classmate of our
elder brother, Engineer Oluyinka Awojobi, at
a recent lecture:
These brilliant performances later
culminated in his setting the school’s new
record at the then West African School
Certificate Examination, when he scored
eight distinctions in the 1955 examinations.
This result remained as the school’s record
until 1967 when it was improved upon by one
of Ayodele’s younger brothers – Oluyombo.
Brother ’Yinka would call Ayodele ‘Ayus
perchlorate hyperchlorisa’ (coined from
Latin and Chemistry) because they often
engaged in seminal discussions till the
early hours of the morning.
The late Revd Canon B A Adelaja, the twenty
year-long-serving Principal of our alma
mater wrote in the 1969 annual school
report:
Seven more Awojobis were educated at CMS
Grammar School. The thirteenth graduated in
2003 with excellent grade. Altogether, four
generations of Awojobis have passed through
the school from 1937. No other family can
lay claim to that feat in the oldest and the
best grammar school in Nigeria.
In 1955, which was Ayodele’s final year at
the Grammar School, the Dramatic Society of
the School, of which he was a member, staged
William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”.
Ayodele was asked to play the lead role of
Macbeth when the original actor took ill one
week before the premiere. It was claimed by
many of his colleagues that, in playing the
role of Macbeth, Ayodele, in fact, committed
to memory the whole of “Macbeth”. Thus,
during rehearsals, he was able to prompt
other actors in their lines.
After leaving C.M.S. Grammar School, Lagos,
Ayodele worked briefly at the Federal
Government Secretariat, Broad Street, Lagos
before he left for the Nigerian College of
Arts Science and Technology, Ibadan to read
for the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) in Physics,
Pure and Applied Mathematics. Needless to
say, he successfully completed this course
by scoring distinctions in the three
subjects in June 1958. This brilliant result
earned him a Federal Government scholarship
to study Mechanical Engineering at the then
Nigerian College of Arts, Science and
Technology, Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria).
His academic brilliance was again evident
throughout his Engineering course, obtaining
his first degree of BSc. (Eng.) London with
First Class Honours in 1962.
Later in 1962, again with the award of a
Federal Government scholarship “On Merit”,
Ayodele left the shores of Nigeria for
University of London’s prestigious Imperial
College for his post-graduate course in
Mechanical Engineering. Late in 1965, he
submitted his thesis and this was
successfully defended. He was awarded his
PhD in 1966.
In March1963, Ayodele got married in London
to Miss Mabel Abiola Iyabode Odetunde also
of Ikorodu. The marriage was blessed with
children most of whom have graduated from
the University of Lagos.
In 1966, Dr. Ayodele Awojobi returned to
Nigeria and was encouraged by his former
lecturer at Nigerian College of Arts, Zaria,
Prof. S.A. Adekola, to join the academic
staff of the Faculty of Engineering,
University of Lagos, Akoka. These were the
early years of the University and as a
Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering
Dr. Ayodele Awojobi contributed immensely to
the growth and subsequent worldwide
recognition of the University’s Faculty of
Engineering.
In 1974, Ayodele had the honour and singular
distinction of being the first African to be
awarded the post-doctorate degree of Doctor
of Science, DSc, by examinations by the
University of London. This great achievement
contributed in no small measure to his being
appointed a Professor by the Senate of the
University a week after his promotion to the
grade of Associate Professor.
He was 37 years old, one of three
authorities in the whole world in his field,
“Mechanical Vibrations and Resonance in
Rigid Structures”. The other two were a
Russian and an English.
When in 1972, Nigeria was going to change
from left-to-right-hand driving, Ayodele,
working with some of his students and
technicians in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, successfully converted a Jeep
from right to left hand steering. This
fabrication he named AUTONOV 1 (from
Automobile Novelty)
This is what the present governor of Ogun
State, Engineer ’Gbenga Daniel, said about
Brother Ayo in an interview published in The
Guardian of Nigeria on 24th May 2003:
His younger brothers, ’Busola (civil
engineer) and ’Yombo (medical engineer), who
were taught Physics and Mathematics at the
CMS Grammar School by Ayodele, have
proceeded to
•
fabricate Autonov 3 which is the
conversion of the conventional motor
cycle to a tricycle that serves as a
personnel carrier or as a village
ambulance,
• invent a manual haematocrit centrifuge
from the rear wheel of the bicycle. This
centrifuge revolves at 5 400rpm with a
centrifugal force of 3 360g. It is more
efficient and five times cheaper than
the imported electric model.
• fabricate a portable concrete mixer
using the back axle of the car and which
can rotate 360° like the swivel chair.
• construct an operating table which is
80% wooden and 20% metal but functions
like the imported brand made of cast
iron and costs 90% less.
• produce a furnace that is fuelled by
the dry maize cobs, coal or wood.
• fashion a water distiller from
domestic gas cylinder and helical copper
tubing. It is powered by the furnace and
produces 10 litres of distilled water in
an hour.
In
academic circles, he was called ‘Professor
Dead Easy’ as he would solve all
mathematical problems without recourse to a
textbook, eight-figure table or the slide
rule!!
On the political and social scene he was
‘The Giant of Akoka’ because he defended the
rights of the downtrodden during the
military era and would defeat the lawyers to
their game in the courts while the judge
saved the latter’s face by ruling that he
had no locus standi in the case!!
Professor Ayodele Olutuminu Awojobi’s sun
eventually set in the morning of Sunday 23rd
day of September, 1984 in his official
residence at the University of Lagos, Akoka.
The ‘Macbeth‘ took the final bow in the
manner of another Shakespeare’s works, Romeo
and Juliet, but his good works have not been
interred with his bones.
On his future…
“At the age of 65, I will have built the
infrastructure. There would be very few
illiterates in Nigeria when I mount the
soapbox. Then, I will go into proper
politics.”
- Ayodele Awojobi in an NTA interview
programme in 1981.
- Courtesy November SPEAR 1984 magazine
Some food for thought……
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AYODELE OLUTUMINU AWOJOBI LIVES ON!!
by
Oluyombo A Awojobi
WELCOME AUTONOV 4!!!
Ayodele
Olutuminu Awojobi (1937 – 1984) was a renowned
Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Lagos, a dramatist, scholar,
mathematician, inventor, social critique and an
engineering genius. “He
earned the nickname ‘Dead Easy’, not out of
arrogance but simply because, in truth, his superior
intellect saw the apparently easy side, hidden from
many, in the solution of most problems.”
One of his several inventions was
Autonov 2 (from Automobile Novelty) a vehicle that
could reverse using all the forward gears!! (Figure
1)
Mr. Kunle Awobodu has kept the
ideals of Ayo alive by organizing an annual
symposium. During the 2007 symposium, a senior
professor in the Faculty of Engineering, University
of Lagos, also a student of Ayodele, had this to say
about him and Autonov 2:
“Awojobi single-handedly constructed
Autonov 2. It was his brainchild and the idea took
place during the Nigerian civil war (1967 – 1970)
when military men were going somewhere and then
there might be an ambush and they could not reverse
by turning back. There was the dual wheel gear that
allowed the vehicle to reverse using all the forward
gears.
“The late professor did not leave
any blue print behind. It would have been developed
if it were in a developed country. However, the
vehicle is there in the workshop deteriorating. It
is like having any mechanical engine or machine left
for 20 years. We are meeting over it. We want to
keep it. I have looked into the records whether we
can improve on it. Unfortunately, we could not get
the records. Except one
dismantles it and develops it, but it is difficult.”
Asked why it was difficult to
dismantle or study the engine.
The professor stressed further:
“Well,
the fact is that it depends on what is on the mind
of the inventor. For example, he did not have a
patent. He tried to keep it
secret to himself so that another man will not steal
the idea from him. Perhaps we have to respect him;
he knew what he was doing. Death caught us
unawares.”
Earlier in 2003, in a newspaper
interview, the present governor of Ogun State,
Engineer Gbenga Daniel, also a student of Ayodele,
said:
“A
lot of people have forgotten that Awojobi invented
so many things. ‘Autonov 2’ is still at the
University of Lagos. It is now a relic. That
‘Autonov’ is the vehicle that has the capability of
moving in both directions on all gears!
But while we in Nigeria have
abandoned the invention, Americans and Russians have
taken it over and have produced so many variants.”
On 9th July 2008, the
1969/72 set of Ayo’s students celebrated his life
and times by unveiling his bust in the quadrangle of
the Faculty and displaying Autonov 2. As a younger
brother and his student in our alma mater, the CMS
Grammar School, Bariga, Lagos, I was expected at the
grand event but could not attend due to pressing
clinical problems at Awojobi Clinic Eruwa. Hence, I
sent my mechanic, fabricator and agricultural
engineer cousin to inspect Autonov 2 and take many
pictures of it (Figure 1). I was intent on
replicating the machine, as it was certain the
university would not release it to the Awojobi
Family museum.
On their return, I interviewed them
and critically looked at the pictures, about 50 of
them. However, I could not get a clue as to what my
brother invented but I was determined to reproduce
it. Also, I had several discussions with my elder
brother, ‘Busola, a structural engineer. About a
year ago, we had constructed a portable concrete
mixer using the back axle of the car and which can
rotate 360° like the swivel chair.
I requested my mechanic to dismantle
a gearbox and show me the workings of it. While
ruminating over his demonstration, it occurred to me
that all that was needed to use the forward gears
for reversing the car was to insert another device
that would change the rotational direction of the
driving shaft. That additional device was another
gearbox!!
And so two months later, with my
mechanic and fabricator, Autonov 4 was fabricated
from the 30-year old Datsun 180B car of my wife,
Atinuke. Figures 2 and 3. This car reversed uphill
using the four forward gears on 13th
August 2008.
I do not intend to keep the car as a
museum piece as it has no application in civil life.
I am pressing further to convert it to a lawn mower
to keep the grounds of Awojobi Clinic Eruwa ‘low
cut’ for six months of the rainy season.
In
2001, after our trip to India where Atinuke and I
attended the conference of the Association of Rural
Surgeons of India, I fabricated Autonov 3 which is
the conversion of the conventional motor cycle to a
tricycle that serves as a village ambulance or as a
personnel carrier.
My dear teachers, friends and loved
ones, Ayodele Olutuminu Awojobi surely lives on!!
And welcome Autonov 4.
Oluyombo
A Awojobi
27th September 2008.
|
| |
BEYOND
RESONANCE
An Inaugural Lecture delivered at the University of Lagos
on
Friday, 25 February 1977.
by
A O
AWOJOBI, D.Sc (Eng.) London
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of Lagos.
NEWTON
AND MOTION
The elementary Principle of Inertia first enunciated
by Sir Isaac Newton late in the 17th century
needs to be recalled here as a prelude to the
fascinating science associated with the resonance of
mechanical systems:
“Every
body remains at rest or continues its uniform motion in
a straight line unless otherwise impressed upon by an
external force".
The statement conversely shows that in the absence of an
externally impressed force, every body is either at rest
or is moving with constant speed in a straight line.
It is a paradox of the motion of a class of systems
subjected to mechanical vibrations that the first law of
Newton is not true. The motion of a vibrating body is
time-dependent and when the body is passing through its
position of stable equilibrium there is instantaneously
no external force impressed on it but it is neither at
rest nor moving with uniform speed even when it is
moving in a straight line.
Similarly when the body is at rest in either of its extreme
positions of vibration, the externally impressed force
does not vanish as the First Law dictates but,
ironically, reaches its maximum value.
While the First Law is not true at such moments, we,
adherents of Newtonian Mechanics, are relieved by the
“Second Law” which clarifies the paradox of the motion
of such a body.
Perhaps, were Sir Isaac Newton living in the
hyper-legalistic society of contemporary times, he would
have carefully framed his First Law to read:
"Subject to the provisions of the Second Law stated
hereunder, every body remains at rest etc…"
We require also to direct attention to another aspect of the
First Law - the “force” whose existence is needed to
cause motion.
In
considering this causal relation between force and
motion, two related preliminary questions are necessary
here: "What is motion? Does every type of force set a
body into motion?”
Newton
assumed that there would be motion as soon as there was
a net force on the body, since to him, force and motion
- like Siamese twins - were an inseparable pair. Indeed,
according to Newton, there was no time-lag or
phase-difference between force and the motion it caused.
Again, the fascinating science of resonance in mechanical
vibrations shows that this is not true.
Motion, in Newtonian times, was conceived principally as a
bodily movement and early experiments to verify the
theory or Newtonian philosophical thought were based on
rigid body apparatus. Contrary to Newtonian thought, a
body on elastic suspension can be observed to be
motionless indefinitely when a periodic force in a
certain frequency range acts on it. With similar
fascination does one watch a body suspended from a
Wilberforce-spring continuously wandering from
positions of linear motion to perfect rest to angular
motion and back to linear motion. With relish also does
one observe, the transfer of motion from one body to
another, coupled by a flexible connection as the system
exhibits the well-known phenomenon of "beats".
In these examples, there comes a time in the motion of the
system when there is a sympathetic reaction to an
externally impressed action at which time the beauty of
resonance unfolds itself to our most curious gaze.
It is, therefore, appropriate at this juncture to ask: "What
is this resonance that tends to shake our faith in
Newton, the father of Mechanics, or unavoidably impels
us to search and research the profundity of his ancient
postulates”?
RESONANCE
The
human body is a fine specimen of a network of vibratory
motions: heart beats pound at regular intervals under
the action of the restoring forces of cardiac muscles;
at lower frequency; the chest is raised and lowered by
the vibratory motion of the lungs; the limbs oscillate
about appropriate joints whether in walking, trotting,
jogging or running; the teeth chatter in cold, bitter
weather at very high frequency, albeit in transient
motion; finally, all the muscles are set into this
characteristic to-and-fro motion during any type of
physical exercise be it random or formalised as in Yoga
or the athletic routine set out in the curriculum of our
University Department of Physical Education !
In these examples, it is easy to count the number of
oscillations made per second to give us the most
important and fundamental parameter of vibratory motion
- the natural frequency.
However, a body does not have to be in motion to possess
this property of natural frequency. Indeed, a system is
usually at rest in some position of stable equilibrium
but it has a natural frequency because it is a property
of the system. It is a matter of simple experiment to
estimate the natural frequency of such a system by
displacing it from its position of stable equilibrium
and counting the number of oscillations it makes within
a known time interval.
Two problems immediately arise - the system may come to rest
so quickly due to imbalance in the relative values of
its inertia, stiffness and damping that no estimate can
be made of its natural frequency. Secondly, its inertia
may be so large that it cannot be displaced from its
position of stable equilibrium even by a hammering blow.
Whether or not we could find the natural frequency of a
system by experimental methods, our first assumption is
that every mechanical system, be it in motion or at
rest, possesses at least a natural frequency.
In like manner, every mechanical system at one time
or the other will come under the influence of some
external excitation or generalized force. When the
excitation is of a periodic nature it subjects the
system to vibratory motions at the frequency of the
external excitation. Such motions set up vibratory
strains and stresses which generally result in fatigue
leading sooner or later to failure of some component of
the system depending on the level of the fatigue strains
or stresses
The primary interest of vibration engineers is the
undesirable situation when the variable frequency of the
external excitation happens to coincide with a natural
frequency of the system which is fixed by properties
inherent in the system. It is known that under this
condition, the level of fatigue stress is at its peak,
the system vibrates with highly magnified amplitudes of
motion in sympathy with the external excitation and,
damage comes much sooner than later - a state of
resonance has been reached by the system. .
Our modern concept of resonance heightens interest in its
study for we consider the situation when the amplitude
of the periodic external force is decreased until it
becomes vanishingly small. It is found for this small
periodic force that for all frequencies away from the
neighbourhood of resonance, the system - for all
practical purposes - is at rest, but when this small
force is tuned to resonant frequency, waves of
appreciable amplitude are propagated throughout the
entire system.
Perhaps it is necessary to accentuate the magnitude of the
disaster that is associated with very small forces
exciting a system at resonance by some historical
references to collapse of bridges due to wind action
rather than collapses during construction due to
negligence of any or all of the building team - civil
engineers, architects, technicians, craftsmen,
contractors and businessmen.
The effect of wind on stability of bridges has been a
formidable problem and started attracting attention
after the catastrophe of the first Tay-bridge
built by Sir Thomas Bouch in 1877. The bridge
spanning two miles (or 3.22 km) was completely destroyed
by a gale eighteen months after its completion while 75
passengers with their Edinburgh mail train perished in
the disaster.
Whilst this example arising from sheer brute force of the
wind would not interest the vibration engineer, it
serves as a good comparison for the same effect being
produced by the action of very small forces as depicted
by the next two examples.
The Broughton suspension bridge suffered collapse as a
result of military action - a body of troops marching in
unison and creating periodic impacts that coincided with
its natural frequency of transverse vibrations !
The singular example of the collapse in 1940 of the 2,800 ft
span (or 854.4m) Tacoma Narrows bridge in the
USA a few months after its completion was the real
genesis of research into the problem of small wind
forces on bridges. Investigations conducted showed that
the collapse resulted from torsional oscillations
of the bridge about its longitudinal axis due to
the steadily growing periodic aerodynamic reactions of a
gentle wind in the eddies of the wake downstream
of the flow. This unexpected large effect of initially
small disturbances has ever since taught traditionally
static civil engineering designers to consult vibration
engineers to make careful checks of the dynamic
stability of any large structure like a bridge, dam,
skyscraper or tower for each of its six degrees of
freedom of motion before commissioning a half-baked
design of a structure for use by the client.
After this introductory definition of 'resonance' we may
still be wondering by asking ourselves: "What is the
relationship between Resonance and a Chair of Mechanical
Engineering which is being celebrated by this Inaugural
Lecture"?
Mechanical Engineering as a subject largely devoted to
machines and prime movers depends for its existence on
the presence of forces acting on components of machinery
and engines or in general, mechanical systems. In most
cases, the effect of these forces is to set the
component or system into motion which can either be
unidirectional or oscillatory. The fact that most
mechanical systems deal with cyclic processes or
repetitive actions makes a study connected with forces
producing oscillatory motion to be pre-eminently
dominant and, therefore, of fundamental interest to
mechanical engineers. The failure in service of
components of mechanica1 systems is almost without
exception due to strains and stresses arising from
transient or sustained vibrations.
The field of study provided by the resonance of mechanical
systems is practically unbounded and the choice of the
class of systems in which a budding researcher might
wish to specialize. I dare prescribe, would depend on
his own natural frequency! By some natural inclination,
I found myself fifteen years ago fascinated by the
varied class of systems characterized by the vibrations
of large-sized bodies on elastic soils. I was introduced
at that time to a consultancy on the design of the
Magla Dam to be built then in Pakistan.
3
STATICS AND THE
CIVIL ENGINEERING DESIGNER
Until recent times, the design of structures on soils is
regarded as the domain of Civil Engineers.
Unfortunately, the Civil Engineering designer lives in
a static world. He seems to be so awed by the massive
structures of his buildings, dams, bridges, towers and
skyscrapers that he can very rarely conceive of their
mobility. The static settlement of such structures is to
him an invariant. Their mobility is very much
inconceivable except for natural disasters like a
landslide of the subsoil or the
un-kind forces of earthquake, hurricane or volcanic
eruptions. Such microwave movements of structures
resulting from earth tremors due to traffic disturbances
on buildings and bridges or propagation of waves due to
distant explosion, impact of tidal waves on dams and
embankments, effect of running machinery on industrial
houses, rocking of skyscrapers due to unbalanced dynamic
forces generated within them are all dangerously ignored
by the traditional Civil Engineering designer or, at
best accounted for by rules of the thumb and arbitrary
factors of safety, based on partially known,
wholly unknown or wrongly assumed controlling
parameters.
In short, the design of structures on soils, as a domain of
Civil Engineers, has been largely treated as a branch of
soil statics for which the work of Karl
Terzaghi has been a prominent text. However, it has
now been fully established that the tools of statics
are grossly inadequate for tackling the problems of such
structures especially in this modern world subjected to
the fits and starts of nuclear explosion and the many
external excitations some of which have been mentioned
earlier.
In order to solve the problems, either the Mechanical
Engineer, whose world is traditionally dynamic, invades
the territory of the static Civil Engineer or he begins
a crusade to activate and convert his proverbially
sedentary colleague.
Advances in the last decade have been made possible by a
combination of the two alternative attacks resulting in
a gradual replacement of arbitrary methods of solution
by a systematized scheme of theoretical study confirmed,
when possible, by experimental investigation.
THEORY
OR EXPERIMENT
Let us go back to the established importance of natural
frequency in the science of resonance. The fundamental
question that has dominated the course of my own
research is: "What will be the resonant frequency of a
given structure on an elastic soil when it is set into a
prescribed form of vibratory motion"?
This question shows that our study must be capable of
predicting a result if it has to be regarded as useful.
If the structure is yet to be built, the frequency of
possible external excitation such as the impact of tidal
waves at the proposed site of a dam is usually known and
the design of the structure would be guided by a
prediction of natural frequency based on the system
parameters which are at the disposal of the designer so
that the natural frequency of the structure can be kept
away from the known frequency of the external
excitation to avoid resonance.
Conversely, if the structure has been built, resonance can
be avoided either by a prescription of the frequency of
imposed excitation, if this is within control, or an
adjustment of the system parameters to ensure a natural
frequency away from resonance.
What has made theory supreme in this class of study is the
intrinsic fact that the dynamic elastic modulus of soil
is known to be very different from and greater than the
static modulus. Laboratory tests based on soil statics
using a tri-axial machine were used in 1965 to confirm
this result which had been observed earlier by
Bernhard (1953).
In other words, a unique nature of this class of
problems is that a basic parameter of the system, the
dynamic elastic modulus, is in itself an unknown
quantity. A direct measurement by experimental methods
using wave propagation was only known but this was
accepted to be unsatisfactory because it can only give
an average over a very large area rather than in the
dominant region which is the vicinity of the vibrating
structure.
Due to the absence of accurate theory, faulty experiments
were designed and carried out by Jones (1958) in
Britain and the United States Army
Engineers as recorded in the Technical Report of the
Corps of Engineers in July 1963. The use of these
results to determine measured dynamic modulus from their
measured resonant frequencies gave errors in some cases
of up to 100%.
Thus, our resort to theory thus becomes inescapable not only
for establishing a relationship between the natural
frequency and the system parameters but of finding out
in the same exercise a method of determining the dynamic
elastic modulus. Similarly, in an elegant manner static
solutions are recovered from the dynamic results by
considering the limit when the frequency of harmonic
vibrations tends to zero.
HISTORICAL SURVEY
Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, with your kind permission I would
like to say that we have hitherto been climbing the
resonance curve of this lecture from the left-hand side
and we should now attempt to be tuned to resonance by
proceeding to the actual text of the Inaugural
Lecture. .
First, it is appropriate I pay tribute to earlier workers
through a brief historical survey. The first attempt to
solve the problem of the vibration of a rigid body on
elastic media seems to have been made by Reissner (1936)
who considered the case of the vertical vibrations of a
rigid circular body on the free surface of a semi
infinite elastic isotropic medium. He made the
assumption that the stress distribution under the rigid
body was uniform and derived the displacement for the
rigid body under this assumption.
An improvement over this assumption was, later made by
Sung (1953) and, Quinlan (1963). Both assumed
that the stress distribution under dynamic conditions
was similar to the known static stress distribution.
Before resorting to this assumed stress distribution,
Quinlan remarked: "It is hopeless to attempt to solve
the boundary-value problem for a rigid base.
However, some information may be obtained by
investigating the vibrations produced by a load
distribution under a static rigid base”. In
their separate solutions, they assumed further that the
displacement of the centre of the rigid body - derived
from the assumed stress distribution - should represent
the displacement of the whole base of the rigid body.
Miller and Pursey (1954), writing in the Proceedings of the
Royal Society, London, assumed a constant stress
distribution for vertical translation and a stress
proportional to radial distance for rotation about an
axis normal to the surface. Realising that the (linear
or angular displacement derived from these assumed
stress distributions would not be constant under the
rigid body as demanded from physical considerations,
they took a simple average of the displacement under the
rigid body to represent the actual displacement of the
contact base.
Yet another improvement came from Arnold, Bycroft
and Warburton (1955) who considered vibrations of
a rigid circular body on both a semi-infinite medium and
an elastic stratum for the four modes of vertical,
horizontal, torsional and rocking vibrations. Further
work, on the stratum problem for vertical vibrations was
later done by Warburton (1957). Their approach was to
assume a stress distribution similar to the static case
and to take a “weighted” average of the resulting
displacement under the rigid body. The weighting
function for displacement was proportional to the
assumed stress distribution. Other authors who worked on
the assumption of a stress distribution proportional to
that obtained from consideration of static loading alone
include Biot (1943) and Hsieh (1962).
.
The only work among the earlier models which solved one
aspect of the problem without assuming a stress
distribution was by Reissner and Sagoci
(1944) who considered the case of the torsional
oscillations of a circular rigid body on an elastic
half-space. Unfortunately, the use of Legendre's
functions and oblate spheroidal coordinates which
they employed is limited only to this one-dimensional
problem. Reissner and Sagoci (1944) in this work had
erroneously remarked that to solve the problem otherwise
would require solving an infinite number of simultaneous
equations involving Bessel's functions. In a note
correcting this false notion, Sneddon (1947)
reformulated the problem of the dynamic stress
distribution for only this torsional mode in terms of
dual integral equations which he, however, did not
solve.
Miller and Pursey (1955) in their second paper to the Royal
Society, although adhering to the assumption of a
constant stress distribution under the rigid body,
hinted that a superior approach would have been to start
from the known displacement distribution. A single
integral equation of the Fredholm type and first
kind involving the unknown stress distribution was
derived but not solved and the hope was expressed that
some future work might achieve this end. A review of
some other earlier theories all of which were very
similar to the above appeared in a French publication by
Dawance and Guillot (1963).
Difficulties encountered either in the theoretical
formulation of the problem or in the solution of the
analytical model led other workers to experimental and
semi-empirical investigations. The approach of this
class was first based on the common experience that one
main difference between a rigid body resting on a medium
and the same body vibrating is that part of the medium
in the latter case is also in motion. Therefore it
follows, they argued, that a static stress distribution
can be used to some
extent to predict the resonant frequency of the rigid body
if some mass of the medium were added on to the mass of
the rigid body. The question that naturally follows is:
“What proportion of the medium is to be added"?
The
idea of making allowance for the inertia of a vibrating
system taking part in the motion is well known in
mechanical vibrations. It is clear, however, that energy
methods will be very tedious and perhaps impossible for
the present problem since displacement functions in the
medium (from which velocities are to be derived) are yet
unknown as these depend on the unknown stress
distribution under the rigid body.
In order to answer this question of equivalent inertia of
the medium, a number of empirical and semi-empirical
methods were evolved. Jacobson and Ayre
(1953) suggested, for a rectangular base, that the mass
of the medium to be added to the rigid body is that
contained in a half of the semi-ellipsoid which has two
of its semi-axes equal to half the length of the base
and the third, half the width. This was clearly a
rule-of-the-thumb absolutely without quantitative
validity.
Another school of thought introduced the “bulb of
pressure”concept which considered the mass of the
medium participating in the motion to be within a
certain pressure zone subtended by the rigid body. A few
prominent exponents of this idea were Crockett
and Hammond (1949), Eastwood(1953) Rao
and Nagaraj (1960).
One other idea closely associated with the problem of the
equivalent mass is the concept of the “subgrade
reaction” by which the elastic effect of soil on
which the rigid body is resting is visualized in the
form of spring reactions or spring rates. The
coefficients of subgrade reactions are defined in terms
of load per unit deflexion (horizontal or vertical) per
unit area. This concept was used, for example, by
Terzaghi (1942) and later by Hsieh (1962).
In all these attempts, it is sufficient to summarize that,
like the question of the equivalent inertia of the
medium, nobody succeeded in giving a satisfactory answer
to the magnitude of the coefficient of subgrade reaction
in relation to the dimensions of the base of the rigid
body, its mode of vibration and the elastic properties
of the soil under dynamic conditions.
Finally, there was another empirical method strongly
favoured by Lorenz (e.g. 1950), Tschebotarioff
(e.g. 1951) and Alpan (1961) which disregards
completely the mass of the participating medium but
studies the motion of the machine-foundation mass under
the influence of the soil reaction in the form of
restoring and dissipative forces. Also, isotropy or
homogeneity of soil is considered not important. The
value of this approach is lost when one observes that,
despite the experimental 1abours involved in determining
the nature of the restoring and dissipative forces, the
reliability of the results of the tedious exercise is an
independent variable.
DUAL
INTEGRAL EQUATIONS AND THE MIXED
BOUNDARY-VALUE PROBLEM
The problem of a rigid body vibrating on an elastic medium
is now known to be best expressed in terms of dual
integral equations because they readily depict the mixed
nature of the boundary conditions at the surface - a
constant displacement at the contact base and a
vanishing of surface stresses outside the loaded domain.
The pair of equations derived from the governing elastic
equations for the vibrating medium takes the form:

where F(η) represents the non-dimensional transform of the
unknown dynamic stress distribution under the rigid body
and g(x) the displacement function of the contact base.
Consequently, the first of the equations expresses the
boundary condition on displacement and the second, the
vanishing of stress outside the loaded domain.
The task in the last fifteen years therefore can be divided
into five:
(i)
The
formulation of the governing dual integral equations for
the given system from the
elastic equations of motion of the medium using
appropriate transform calculus;
(ii)
The
solution of these equations by some appropriate method
which makes it possible to
design
experiments and interpret experimental data in a readily
usable form;
(iii)
The
evolution of equivalent analytical models so that a
given model can be reduced to an
analytically less difficult model for study;
(iv)
The
emergence of a well, established conclusion that surface
dynamic elastic constants
are
the dominant parameters;
(v)
The
consequent resonance method for determining surface
shear modulus from the
torsional oscillator irrespective of the Poisson's
ratio of the medium, the stratum depth
or the
nature of the heterogeneity of the subsoil.
A detailed bibliography of these works is given after the
list of references: the chronological order of the works
gives a reflection of the graded study beginning with
homogenous elastic half-space and stratum and the
stratum with a hyperbolic variation of shear modulus
with depth. In all these works any or all of the
following modes of vibration are considered:
(i)
vertical vibration of circular body
(ii)
vertical vibration of long rectangular body
(iii)
rocking of long rectangular body
(iv)
torsional oscillation of a circular body
(v)
vertical vibration of a body with rectangular base of finite
dimensions.
7
NOVEL
RESULTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST
The supremacy of theory over experimentation in this study
is justified by the following examples which were
unknown before the establishment of the results and,
indeed, unknowable through experimental
methods:
(i)
In ordinary spring-mass system it is known that the smaller the mass the
higher the resonant frequency. The results of earlier
authors which were geared towards this known result were
first contradicted by the analytical model of Awojobi
and Grootenhuis (1965) that there is indeed a
turning point in mass-resonant frequency curve leading
to the two enigmatic results that the resonant frequency
of a massless body on an elastic medium is zero (not
infinity) and that there is a resonant frequency beyond
which no resonance can be observed irrespective of
the mass of the body. These results were also
explained as arising from the dispersion of waves which
gives rise to damping irrespective of inherent thermal
damping in the elastic medium due to relative
displacement of adjacent particles.
(ii)
A body vibrating on a stratum behaves as if it were a body of
known increased mass vibrating at a known lower
frequency on a half-space having the same elastic
properties. This compensating effect was established
from a discovery that while the approximations for the
hyperbolic sine and cosine are true

for small values of x, the hyperbolic tangent arising from a
quotient of these approximate results

is true for all real values of x (Awojobi, 1969) and more
important, the result remains true for the slopes of the
two curves throughout the whole range of x.
(iii)
The
Winkler model of theoretical soil statics has been
regarded for over a century as a purely theoretical or
academic model with no relevance to the reality of
practical soils. This myth was first exploded by Gibson
(1967) by his discovery that the two assumptions he
imposed ab initio on a half-space that its
modulus of elasticity should increase linearly with
depth from zero at the surface and that its Poisson's
ratio should be 0.5 (i.e. the medium should be
incompressible) make the half-space behave as a perfect
Winkler model. It was indeed an unexpected result to
discover that Gibson's result is true even for a stratum
of arbitrary depth provided it rests on a frictionless
bed, (Awojobi, 1974).
The importance of this latter discovery is that whilst
result requires that a very thick bed of saturated clay
is required to approach a half-space, the depth of the
stratum in comparison with the dimensions of the base of
the body is irrelevant for ensuring that the saturated
deposit of clay approaches the Winkler model.
(iv)
Finally, the latest works have moved to a study of
heterogeneous soils in which the shear modulus varies
hyperbolically with depth such that a stratum emerges
into a rigid bed at its base. It has been established by
this variation that irrespective of the rate of
heterogeneity of the soil with depth, providing two
soils have the same surface elastic properties, the
difference in the response of a rigid body vibrating on
either soil is indeed negligible.
The study recorded here is by no means exhaustive. It only
indicates the complex nature of the problems considered
even after such major assumptions have been made that
only one rigid body exists on the infinitely wide
surface-area of the medium and that the body is
perfectly subjected to only one mode of vibration thus
avoiding the further complication of coupled modes of
vibration. However, by appropriate design of a vibrator
and its base plate, these two assumptions can be
realised in practice when testing a site for the
determination of its dynamic elastic constant which can
then be used to estimate the response of a vibrating
rigid body on it or to predict the response of a
proposed structure ever before it is built.
In each case, resonant frequency can be predicted and
appropriate advice can be given for the design or
operating frequency of machinery to be installed in
buildings. Similarly, advice can be given on the design
of dams and foundations of large structures based on the
known frequency of the external disturbances.
RELEVANCE TO NIGERIAN ENGINEERING INDUSTRY
Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, it now gives me great pleasure to
end on a note of the relevance of this study to the
engineering industry in Nigeria. This is
important because a technologically underdeveloped
country like Nigeria cannot afford the luxury of the
philosophy of knowledge for its own sake in the main
part of the curricular of her Universities, or, indeed,
the entire educational system and certainly not in the
field of engineering.
There
must be a conscious effort through a deliberate policy
to ensure that the product of academic research is,
first, of localised interest to Nigeria rather than the
more popular approach of being seen as a contribution to
the universal stock of knowledge. This popular approach
has been exclusively to the benefit of only the
developed countries because they have tremendous human
and material resources to exploit fully and immediately
the benefits of such research.
On
this crucial point, especially in the field of science
and technology, it is essential that the underdeveloped
world evolve its own policy for dealing with this grave
situation. The strategy and tactics of such a policy is
indeed a security matter, which is outside the confines
of a public lecture of this nature. It should be
emphasized, however, that a study of local interest is
not synonymous with an insignificant contribution to
knowledge at the universal level. Therefore, Nigerian
Universities must not fall into the danger of
encouraging half-baked output or production of poor
standard materials under the guise of solving local
problems.
This warning is the main intention of the following
illustration which brings us back to the issue of
relevance of the subject of this lecture to the Nigerian
engineering industry. Although the universal nature of
the applicability of mechanical vibrations like most
scientific subjects has been adequately illustrated
earlier in the lecture, yet the aspect of the lecture
which is of immediate and direct relevance lies in the
golden oil-age to which Nigeria now belongs. This is
because prospecting for oil requires the detonation of
buried explosives from which waves are propagated thus
setting buildings and structures in the vicinity of the
explosion into vibration. In this connection, the
Department of Mechanical Engineering was approached
about six years ago by a leading foreign-owned
oil company in Nigeria to carry out some routine study
of an empirical and semi-empirical nature as a means of
providing some defence against spurious claims arising
from court actions instituted by landlords in
oil-prospecting states of Nigeria against the oil
company.
Briefly, the company was receiving complaints that the
vibrations set up by the detonation of charges in oil
fields were having adverse effects on buildings and
farm-houses. Allegations were made that cracks which
could ultimately lead to collapse of buildings were
being initiated due to earth tremors arising from the
oil prospecting operations.
Although an opportunity presented itself for very cheap
consultancy, the proposal of carrying out routine field
tests followed by semi-empirical analyses was the least
attractive because it is of little or no academic value.
The problem involved was recognized not only as
academically challenging but of direct relevance to the
future of Nigerian oil industry. It was therefore
suggested to the company that it sponsor a full-time
research student in order that a proper theoretical and
experimental study be carried out to find out whether
international standards relevant to oil fields of Europe
and America required any modification in respect of the
soil properties and geology of the oil states of
Nigeria.
The major findings of this work completed in three years of
study including extensive fieldwork in the Rivers State
showed that the international standard of 2in/sec. (or
5.1cm/sec.) damage criterion for peak velocity requires
to be reduced to 1in/sec. (or 2.54cm/sec.) in Nigerian
oil fields. Furthermore, a novel relationship was found
for the safe weight of the explosive and the depth to
which it should be buried in order not to exceed the
safe peak velocity of 1in/sec. for a building situated
at a specified radial distance from the buried source.
Finally, an interesting result was discovered that
contrary to the expectation of the surface vibrations or
peak velocity of a building decreasing continuously as
the depth of the buried charge increases, there exists
first a depth at which the vibration reaches a minimum
and begins to increase with further increase in the
depth of the buried explosive and then a maximum beyond
which the vibration progressively decreases.
These results - being established for the first time since
previous works had been limited only to surface
explosives which are appropriate to quarry blasting and
which theoretically were relatively easy to analyse -
found ready acceptance in the International Journal
of Earthquake Engineering in which they were
published in two parts in 1974 and in 1977.
BEYOND
RESONANCE
Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, distinguished scholars and
colleagues, it is now appropriate to end by recalling
the title of this lecture: "Beyond Resonance".
Throughout the lecture the emphasis hitherto has been on
the dominant vibration term "RESONANCE" with no
reference whatsoever to the significance of the word
'BEYOND'.
It is in the modifying word 'BEYOND' lies the skill and
genius of a vibration engineer. In the context of
vibrations of elastic soil it had been generally
believed, as discussed earlier, that the resonant
frequency increases as the inertia of the system
decreases. However, it is equally known that a system
without inertia does not vibrate, i.e., it is static.
Philosophically, a static body can be conceived as vibrating
either at zero frequency, with an infinitely large time
period which implies it is too sluggish to leave its
position of rest and, therefore, takes indefinite time
to complete a cycle or at an infinitely large frequency
since it will be passing through its mean position an
infinite number of times per second. It can only perform
either motion if, and only if, it does not leave its
position of stable equilibrium at any moment of time.
If the alternative of inifinitely large frequency were
the correct interpretation of statics then there would
have been no problem in accepting the older theory that
the resonant frequency increases as the inertia
decreases which is the expected result. If, however, the
body without inertia vibrates at zero frequency then a
problem arises because a discontinuity would exist in
the curve of inertia against resonant frequency. This
simple philosophical analysis indeed gave impetus to a
deeper study of the problem.
The dilemma was resolved by establishing a turning point
which exists at some value of the decreasing inertia
which brings the curve back to the origin in the limit
when the inertia vanishes. This turning point
establishes the range of frequencies beyond which
resonance does not exist for a rigid body on a
homogeneous elastic half-space. The study becomes more
interesting when equivalent systems can be found with
other types of media as have been shown earlier.
The beauty of the discovery is derived from its simplicity-
that the frequency factor beyond which resonance
does not occur independent of the inertia of the body is
just less than unity thereby giving the basic simple
criterion for the design of the dimensions of the base
of structures vibrating on elastic soils in order to
ensure that the structure is not excited beyond
resonance as
c2
R > - (4)
Ω
where c2 is the velocity of shear waves in
the medium. Ω the exciting angular frequency or
pulsatance, and R is the required mean radius of the
foundation base.
Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir, distinguished scholars and
colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I now wish to end by
noting that there exists a correlation between the
subject of this lecture and social engineering which I
define as the art and science of ruling a sophisticated
society like a University: men in power succeed only
when they govern firmly and fairly without double
standards- this they do if, and only if, they learn to
run the machinery of government well BEYOND
RESONANCE!
REFERENCES
Alpan, I., 1961, Geotechnique, 95.
Arnold, R. N., Bycroft. G. N. and Warburton, G. B., 1965,
J.Appl. Mech. 22. 391.
Awojobi, A. O. and Grootenhuis, P: 1965, Proc, Roy. Soc.
A, 287, 127.
Awojobi, A. 0., 1969, Int. J. Solids Structures, 5,
359.
--------- - 1974, Geotechnique. 24, No.3, 359.
Awojobi, A. O. and Sobayo, O. A, 1974, Earthquake
Eng. and Structural Dynamics. Vol. 3, 171.
Awojobi, A. O. and Sobayo, O. A 1977, Earthquake Eng.
and Structural Dynamics. Vol. 5, 131,
Bernhard, R. K., 1953, A.S. T.M.. S. T.P. No.
156, 225.
Biot, M. A, 1943, Trans. AMer, Soc. Civ. Engrs.. 103,
365.
Crockett, J. H. A. and Hammond. R. E. R. 1949, Proc.
Inst. Mech. Engrs., 163, 512.
Dawance, G. and Guillot, M.. 1963, Ann. Inst. Tech.
Bat. Travaux Publics.. 16. 185. 3511. Eastwood. W..
1953. Structural Engr.. 82.
Gibson, R. E., 1967, Geotechnique. 17. No.1. 58.
Hsieh,
T. !(.. 1962. Proc. Inst. C;;v. Engrs. 22, 211.
Jacobson. L. S. and Ayre, R. S.. 1958, Engineering
Vibrations.McGraw Hill, N.Y.
Jones, R., 1958. Geotechnique. 8, 1.
Lorenz, H., 1950, Proc. 3rd Int. Cont. Soil Mech..
Zurich. 1,46.
Miller, G. F. and Pursey, H., 1954, Proc. Roy., Soc. A..
223. 521.
-------------- 1955, Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 233, 55.
Quinlan, P. M, 1953, A.S. T.M., S. T.P. No.
156, 3.
Rao, H. A B. and Nagaraj, C. N., 1960, Structural Engr..
310.
Reissner, E., 1936, Ing. -Archiv., 7, 381.
Reissner, E. and Sagoci, H. F., 1944, J. Appl. Phy.
15,652.
Sueddon, I. N., 1947, J. Appl. Phy. .18, 130.
Sung, T. Y., 1953, AS. T.M.. S. T.P. No. 156,
35.
Terzaghi, K., 1942, Theoretical Soil Mechanics.
Tschebotarioff, G. P., 1951, Soil Mechanics Foundation
and Earth Structure, McGraw Hill,
N.Y.
U.S.
Army Engr. Waterways Expt. Station Corps of Engrs.,
Tech. Report 1, July 1963.
Warburton, G. B. 1957, J. Appl. Mech., 24; 55.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Awojobi, A. O. and Grootenhuis, P. 1965, Proc. Roy. Soc.
A 287, 27. I
Grootenhuis, P. and Awojobi, A. 0., 1965, "Vibrations in
Civil Engineering", Proc. Int. Association Earthquake
Engineering. Session V, P. 181. .
I
Awojobi, A. O. 1966, J. Appl. Mech., 33, 547.
-----------------
1969,
lnt. J. Solids Structures 5, 369.
------------------ 1970, Int. J. Solids Structures
6, 315.
------------------ 1971, J. Appl. Mech. 38, 111.
------------------ 1972, Geotechnique 22, 333.
------------------ 1972, Int. J. Solids Structures
8, 759.
------------------ 1973, Geotechnique 23, 23.
------------------ 1973, Quart. J. Mech. & Appl.
Math. XXVI, 235.
Awojobi & Gibson, R. E. 1973, Quart. J. Mech. &
Appl. Math. XXVI, 285. .
Awojobi. A. O. 1973, Quart J. Mech. & Appl. Math.
XXVI, 483.
Awojobi. A. O. 1974, Geotechnique 24. 359.
----------------- 1974, Geotechnique 24. 655.
----------------- 1975. Int. J. Solids &
Structures 11, 467.
----------------- 1975. Geotechnique 25, 221.
Awojobi, A. O. & Tabiowo. P. H. 1976. Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics 4, 439.
Awojobi, A. O. 1976, Int. J. Solids & Structures
12, 739.
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LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT TO IMMORTALISE
PROF. AYODELE AWOJOBI
by
Kunle Awobodu
Prof. Ayodele
Awojobi, who was born on March 12, 1937 in Lagos and
died at the University of Lagos on September 23, 1984,
has turned out to be a source of guilt in every
conscientious Nigerian that followed his activities.
To refresh our
memories, who was Prof. Ayodele Awojobi? He was an
exceptionally gifted human being, a prodigy that
recorded excellent results throughout his academic
career at C.M.S Grammar School, Lagos, then Nigerian
College of Arts, Science and Technology, Ibadan and
Zaria, and the Imperial College of Science and
Technology of University of London where he obtained
D.I.C. and Ph.D., and proceeded to become the first
African to be awarded a Doctor of Science Degree in the
field of Vibration in Applied Mechanics. At the
University of Lagos (Unilag) he set a record of being
the first lecturer to become a professor at the age of
thirty-seven and within a nine year period of
lectureship.
Prof. Ayodele
Awojobi as exemplified by his various inventions, was a
confluence of theory and practice. His unique teaching
techniques, in a general testimony, contributed
immensely to the success of many of his students who now
occupy exalted positions in various organisations,
including government.
Awojobi’s decision
to become a social crusader that led to his early demise
has now been vindicated by Barack Obama’s victory in
America. As an optimist, he believed if he, as a
Blackman had been equated to Isaac Newton and Albert
Einstein by academics, then good leaders that would turn
Nigeria into Britain could emerge here in an enabling
environment.
The pan Africanist
philosophy and patriotism made him reject all entreaties
to his returning to Europe to make a better use of his
talents. He set out to fight societal ills such as
corruption that has been the bane of Nigeria, making the
poor poorer. As a strong believer in the rule of law, he
identified the judiciary as the arm that could save the
nation from mismanagement. Hence, he became a private
law student of late Chief Rotimi Williams. Having
acquired some knowledge in law, he began to institute
legal actions against those whom he believed were clog
in the wheel of the Nigeria of his dream.
In his naivety, he
underestimated the crudeness that characterized the
Nigerian politics. During his case against Governor Akin
Omoboriowo of Ondo State, whom he alleged to have come
to power through electoral fraud in 1983, he was
attacked by political thugs in Akure. The professor, who
never believed in charms, remembered that one of the
thugs used a mysterious object to thump him in the chest
and his body system immediately became disorganised. He
never recovered from the illness caused by the attack as
he died a few months later at a young age of 47.
The death of this
foremost pro-democracy activist during a military
regime, especially the one that had just seized power
from a civilian government would of course not attract
government sympathy. Hence, the clamour for
immortalisation of Prof. Awojobi by the public did not
make any meaning to Buhari – Idiagbon junta that had
just sent Awojobi’s close associate in social crusading,
Dr. Tai Solarin to jail.
Since then all
efforts to make government immortalise Awojobi’s name
never materialised. The irony was that Awojobi’s
admirers and followers in the academics and
pro-democracy circles, and even his students who found
themselves in positions of power failed to do something
commemorative of this man. A mistake every one of them
had always lamented and/or regretted after leaving
office. A sad and painful collective amnesia.
However, those of us
who have been championing the cause for the
immortalisation of the Professor would not relent. Last
year, Awojobi’s students led by Gen. Tunde Adebanjo (Rtd.)
and Engr. Titi Omo-Ettu organised a memorial programme
for him at the University of Lagos with the mounting of
his bust in the institution.
In those days, Prof.
Awojobi had large following among students as he
delivered lectures tirelessly from campus to campus in
Nigeria. He became the godfather of students. In his
selfless struggle for the promotion of education, he
designed mobile science laboratories free of charge for
the free education programme of Chief Obafemi Awolowo
and his governors. Identifying challenges of students on
campus, he designed a bed that could be converted to
desk and chair.
Each time an
academic institution was renamed after a dead
politician, student leaders had always wondered why such
gesture was not extended to this unique educationist,
Prof. Ayodele Awojobi. Naming a higher institution after
the late educationist, Dr. Tai Solarin was one of the
best decisions taken by the government to appreciate the
work of a good teacher, the character moulder of future
leaders.
Disillusion rivalled
hope as many political office holders who promised to
immortalise the professor reneged on the noble cause,
while efforts to name the road that leads to Unilag
after him failed. In a letter written to this writer
nine years ago, Prof. Wole Soyinka lamented the fate of
Prof. Awojobi, describing him as an unsung genius of our
times. Prof. Akin Oyebode, while delivering a memorial
lecture for Awojobi last year, emphasized the need to
acknowledge and celebrate our great men and women of
learning.
Now our call has met
a receptive ear in Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. Just
a single letter written to him by Ayodele Awojobi
Foundation ignited a process. The Lagos State government
has commenced work in earnest on the remembrance of the
Professor. The work includes the sculpturing of his
statue that will be mounted in a garden at Iwaya,
towards Unilag second gate. This will be unveiled by the
Governor on September 23, 2009 to mark the silver
anniversary of his death.
The seriousness
attached to this project by the Commissioner of the
Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire and the Director of
Conservation and Ecology, Mrs. Adebola Afun reveals the
level of discipline in the Fashola Government. Any
statue that does not show a striking resemblance with
Awojobi will be unacceptable to the governor. Anxiety in
the court of the sculptors!
Prof. Ayodele
Awojobi had really come ahead of his time. The kind of
discipline he recommended for a leader that could change
our society is now manifesting in a Fashola. Whatever we
do today becomes a record for future reference, either
positively or otherwise.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kunle Awobodu,
C.E.O, Reo-Habilis Construction Ltd, 70d, Allen Avenue,
Ikeja.
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