God had destined Nigeria to be an offshoot of Israel and like Israelis, Nigerians are supposed to be blessings to Africa and the black race as well as to the world. Exodus of Nigerians from their country over the last 40 years has caused an expansion of the Kingdom of God and Nigerians are now in many countries of the world birthing the Kingdom of God in those countries including the Communist and Islamic countries.
Nigerians adapt very easily to their environment and in countries with very high corruption perception index, their personal integrity also ranks high. No wonder then that such individuals are able to excel especially as they utilize the modern technology available in such countries which were scarcely available at home although their training included getting used to utilizing such implements.
A list of Nigerians in diaspora doing well in developed countries include (this list is not all inclusive but limited to those in academia alone):
- Kunle Olukotun, computer engineer and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University and director of the Pervasive Parallelism Laboratory
- Ilesanmi Adesida, physicist and material scientist
- Christopher I. Chalokwu, geologist
- Victoria Chibuogu Nneji, computer scientist and roboticist
- Jimmy Adegoke, climatologist
- Omowunmi Sadik, chemist
- Wendy Okolo, aerospace research engineer at NASA Ames Research Center
- Akintunde Akinwande, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Samson Jenekhe, chemical engineer and professor of chemistry at University of Washington
- Oluwatoyin Asojo, biochemist
- Christopher I. Chalokwu, geologist
- Winston Wole Soboyejo, professor of mechanical engineering at Princeton University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Deji Akinwande, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
- John Dabiri, professor of aerospace engineering at the California Institute of Technology, recipient of MacArthur Fellowship
- Alexander Animalu, theoretical physicist; member of the advisory board of the Physica journal
- Francisca Oboh Ikuenobe, geologist and professor of geology at the Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Soni Oyekan, chemical engineer
- Bolaji Aluko, professor of chemical engineering at Howard University
- Lola Eniola-Adefeso, professor of chemical engineering at University of Michigan
- Ndubuisi Ekekwe, electrical and computer engineer
- Ekpe Okorafor, professor of computer science at University of Texas at Dallas and husband of Unoma Ndili Okorafor
- Unoma Ndili Okorafor, computer scientist, wife of Ekpe Okorafor, and daughter of nuclear physicist Frank Nwachukwu Ndili
- Philip Emeagwali, computer scientist and 1989 recipient of Gordon Bell Prize
- Tam David-West, academic and virologist
Medicine
- Latunde Odeku, first Nigerian neurosurgeon trained in the United States; pioneer of neurosurgery in Africa
- Chidi Chike Achebe, physician executive and son of Chinua Achebe
- Bankole Johnson, psychiatrist; discoverer of topiramate, a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) facilitator and glutamate antagonist, as an effective treatment for alcoholism.
- Olufunmilayo Olopade, hematology oncologist; director of the Cancer Risk Clinic at the University of Chicago Medical Center
- Ikenna Ihim, doctor
- Ola Akinboboye, nuclear cardiologist
- Mojisola Adeyeye, pharmacist and professor of pharmaceutics at Duquesne University
- Bennet Omalu, neuropathologist and professor at the University of California, Davis; first to discover and publish findings on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in American football players
- Nelson M. Oyesiku, vice chairman of neurological surgery and professor of endocrinology at the Emory University School of Medicine
- Charles Rotimi, geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health
- Olawale Sulaiman, neurosurgeon; professor of neurosurgery at Tulane University
- Segun Toyin Dawodu, physician and professor of pain medicine
- Samuel Dagogo-Jack, discoverer of the first radioimmunoassay for epidermal growth factor in human saliva
- Elizabeth Ofili, physician and cardiology researcher
- Chidi Chike Achebe, physician executive
- Jacqueline Nwando Olayiwola, Chair Professor of the Department of Family Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
- Clement Adebamowo, epidemiologist
- Folakemi T. Odedina, professor of pharmacy and medicine at University of Florida
Humanities and social sciences
- Kola Tubosun, linguist and founder of The YorubaName Project
- Jacob Olupona, professor of African Studies and African American Studies at Harvard University
- Abiola Irele, literary scholar and former professor at Harvard University
- Claude Ake, political scientist, former professor at Columbia University and Yale University
- Chinua Achebe, award-winning novelist, professor, literary scholar, and author of Things Fall Apart
- Nwando Achebe, historian, feminist scholar, and daughter of Chinua Achebe
- Farooq Kperogi, journalist and professor of journalism at Kennesaw State University
- Nwando Achebe, historian and feminist scholar; professor of history at Michigan State University
- Toyin Falola, historian and professor of African Studies
- Bamidele A. Ojo, political scientist and professor of Political science and International studies
- John Ogbu, anthropologist, “acting white” theorist
- Ekpo Eyo, archaeologist and professor of African arts and Archeology at University of Maryland
- Akinwumi Ogundiran, archaeologist, Chancellor’s Professor and Professor of Africana Studies, Anthropology & History at UNC Charlotte.
- Obiwu (Obioma Paul Iwuanyanwu), writer and professor of English and creating writing at Central State University
- Wendy Osefo, public affairs academic, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, and television personality
- Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze, philosopher
- Nkiru Nzegwu, philosopher and Distinguished Professor for Research at State University of New York at Binghamton
- Kalu Ndukwe Kalu, political scientist and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science and National Security Policy at Auburn University
- Stephen Adebanji Akintoye, academic, historian and writer
- Saheed Aderinto, professor of history at Western Carolina University
- Elechukwu Njaka, political scientist; author of Igbo Political Culture
- Olu Oguibe, professor of art at the University of Connecticut and senior fellow at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC
- Chika Okeke-Agulu, art historian
- Joy Ogwu, political scientist
- Leslye Obiora, professor of law at University of Arizona
Mathematics
- Nkechi Agwu, ethnomathematician and historian of mathematics
- Abba Gumel, computational mathematician and mathematical biologist, professor at Arizona State University
- Chike Obi, pure mathematician
- Kate Okikiolu, mathematical analyst
- Yewande Olubummo, mathematical analyst
- Grace Alele-Williams, professor of mathematics education
Academic administration
- Victor Ukpolo, chancellor of the Southern University at New Orleans
- Benjamin Akande, president of Champlain College and Westminster College
- Babatunde Ogunnaike, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware
- Joseph Abiodun Balogun, dean of the College of Health Sciences at Chicago State University
- Ilesanmi Adesida, dean and professor emeritus of engineering at the Grainger College of Engineering (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), provost at Nazarbayev University (in Kazakhstan)
- Johnson O. Akinleye, chancellor of North Carolina Central University
- ImeIme Umana, president of Harvard Law Review
- Nwando Achebe, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University
- Okwui Enwezor, senior vice president of San Francisco Art Institute
- John Dabiri, Centennial Chair Professor at California Institute of Technology
List was populated from Wikipedia.
ON THE HOME FRONT, NIGERIANS HAVE PLAYED THEIR TREMENDOUS PART. IN FACT MOST OF THE EXCELLENCE BY NIGERIANS ABROAD WAS GIVEN BIRTH TO AT HOME IN NIGERIA. Check out the following facts:
BRITISH Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin once noted that the University of Lagos was one of the world centres of expertise in her specialist field of chemical crystallography.
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria had the first world class computer centre in Africa. University of Ife had a notable pool of expertise in nuclear physics.
Premier University of Ibadan had an international reputation as a leading centre of excellence in tropical medicine, development economics and the historical sciences. The Saudi Royal family used to frequent UCH for medical treatment in the sixties.
The engineering scientist Ayodele Awojobi, a graduate of ABU Zaria, was a rather troubled genius. He tragically died of frustration because our environment could not contain let alone utilise, his talents.
Ishaya Shuaibu Audu, pioneer Nigerian Vice-Chancellor of ABU Zaria, collected all the prizes at St. Mary’s University Medical School London. His successor in Zaria, Iya Abubakar, was a highly talented Cambridge mathematician who became a professor at 28 and was a noted consultant to NASA.
Renowned mathematician Chike Obi solved Fermat’s 200-year old conjecture with pencil and paper while the Cambridge mathematician John Wiles achieved same with the help of a computer working over a decade.
Anne marie Imafidon earned her Oxford Masters’ in Mathematics and Computer Science when she was only 19. Today, she sits on several corporate boards and was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to science. Recently, Benue State University mathematician Atovigba Michael Vershima is believed to have solved the two centuries old Riemann Conjecture that has defied giants such as Gauss, Minkowski and Polya.
Another young man, Hallowed Olaoluwa, was one of a dozen “future Einstein” awarded postdoctoral fellowships by Harvard University. He completed a remarkable doctorate in mathematical physics at the University of Lagos age 21. While at Harvard he aims to focus on solving problems relating to “quantum ergodicity and quantum chaos”, with applications to medical imaging and robotics.
Another Unilag alumnus, Ayodele Dada, graduated with a perfect 5.0 GPA, an unprecedented feat in a Nigerian university. Victor Olalusi recently graduated with such stellar performance at the Russian Medical Research University, Moscow, and was feted the best graduate throughout the Russian Federation. Habiba Daggash, daughter of Senator Sanusi Daggash, recently graduated with a starred first in Engineering at Oxford University.
Emmanuel Ohuabunwa earned a GPA of 3.98 out of a possible 4.0 as the best overall graduate of the Ivy-League Johns Hopkins University. Stewart Hendry, Johns Hopkins Professor of Neuroscience, described the young man as having “an intellect so rare that it touches on the unique…a personality that is once-in-a-life-time”. There is also young Yemi Adesokan, postdoctoral fellow of Harvard Medical School who patented procedures for tracking the spread of viral epidemics in developing countries.
• Give thanks to God for He is good and His mercy endures for ever
• Pray for an hour for God’s special purging and also pruning for more fruits and for that will abide.