Deep Thought

 SDG Zero Hunger Target: Ocean Farming for Global Food Security II By Prof. MK Othman As presented in the first part of this article, the earth’s surface area is 71% covered by oceanic water. The water is mainly being used for navigation, transport, and other economic and sporting activities. Today, the humanity has started using the 71 percent of the earth surface occupied by ocean for farming activities. This becomes necessary because of the environmental implication of bringing more land into cultivation as the greenhouse emission is likely to increase. So, the ocean farming is the newest innovation and one of the identifiable solutions to the challenges of greenhouse emission and attainment of global food security. Imagine crops growing in the ocean without fertilizer application, no air, no soil, no fresh water, only seawater and sunlight What is “Ocean Farming”?    Ocean farming involves growing of food in the ocean for consumption and meeting the dietary needs of h...

 SDG Zero Hunger Target: Ocean Farming for Global Food Security By Prof. MK Othman Zero Hunger is goal number two of the 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nation. The goal aims at ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition in the world by the year 2030. This means that all people – especially children and the vulnerable – have physical and socioeconomic access to sufficient and nutritious food at all year round to meet their food needs in all corners of the world. This seems to be an overambitious goal considering the current shocks threatening the food security situation in both developing and developed countries. The shocks are related to climate change, conflict, pests; such as locusts and Fall Army Worm and infectious diseases; such as African swine fever and the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in several countries including Nigeria. These shocks slowdown, in some cases, stop food production, disrupt supply chains and stress peo...

 Nigeria – 2023: Money politics and its Catastrophic Consequences By Prof. MK Othman   The year; 2023 is an election and a special year for the country, and the whole of Africa. Nigerians will have another democratic opportunity to elect leaders who will govern the nation at the states and federal levels for another period of four years. Democratically, Nigeria has spent two decades plus operating the presidential system of government in which people are ideally free to elect their leaders under a free, fair, and equitable environment. The system provides checks and balances with electorates having the last saying; elect, reelect, reject, or even recall the elected officers when they fail to meet people’s expectations. The system was first tested in the second republic when the politicians enjoyed the sweetness of the American type of democracy. The then-president and his men had executive power and an unlimited manipulative tendency to do as they like without accountability a...

 Nigeria-2023: Stripping the Presidential Hopefuls By Prof. MK Othman   On one of my trips to the USA after the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, I met a flamboyant Nigerian on transit. As we were struggling to introduce ourselves, he fished out his business card and tossed it to me. I carefully studied the card and observed a spectacular expression, written boldly “Former Presidential Aspirant in Nigeria”. I looked at the man’s face again, his name and could not place his political weightiness or relevance in Nigeria’s party politics. I was disappointedly flabbergasted at the extent some Nigerians could go to promote their image deceitfully. What the hell is “former Presidential Aspirant in Nigeria”? I concluded that the man was a huge joke and that was why he was flamboyantly dressed to advertise his Africanness. That encounter made me deeply reflect on the kind of anxiety associated with the 2015 presidential elections, which brought all sorts of people aspiring to occ...

 Solar System: Mission to Touch the Sun II   By   Prof. MK Othman,   This is a continuation of last week's article "Solar System: Mission to Touch the Sun", which might have left many readers amazed at the level of seriousness of scientists exploring the universe. One may be surprised to know that the mission is costing a princely amount of 1.5 billion US dollars to American taxpayers to make the mission possible. The level of human enthusiasm; NASA's support from American citizens and scientists worldwide; and the high level of expectation to solve the incomprehensible and mysterious mysteries surrounding this giant star known as "Sun."The mission's goal was to build Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft that would orbit the sun at a distance of 6 million kilometers from the sun's surface, between the sun and Mercury, but closer to the sun than Mercury.This is expected to happen in 2024, two years from now, and will be the closest man–made object to the ...

 Solar System: Mission to Touch the Sun   By   Prof. MK Othman   Four years ago, precisely on Sunday, 12 August 2018, the most amazing international news was NASA’s 'mission to touch the sun,' by the major International News Outlets; CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, and a host of others. NASA is the acronym for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which is a famous American agency with a clear vision of space exploration. NASA's boldly written Vision is “We reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind”. This vision is diligently being pursued with billions of US Dollars on annual basis. A space mission to the moon, Mars or any other planet may be considered a human adventure in man’s craving for acquiring terrestrial knowledge for human advancement. Thanks to this continuous adventure as the world has turned into a global village by ICT, the byproduct of this adventure. Today, many people nurse the “crazy” idea of transferring people to the...

 Nigeria’s Calamitous Movement: Which Way Out? II By Prof. MK Othman   This is a corollary to last week’s piece in which economic and security issues were discussed. Today, I am dwelling on the education and health sectors. Educationally, the drift is so glaring that Nigerians have no confidence in primary and secondary school levels of education. NECO and SSE results have lost their meanings alongside their values and importance. “Miracles centers” and high-level sharp practices have rendered the results from NECO and SSE almost useless. Some of us in the university system are no longer impressed with the number of credits a child has in his/her NECO or SSE results. some parents believe in bribing their way for their children to pass exams even at the tertiary level through monetary inducement and other gratifications. In the end, such students undergo prescribed educational programs without obtaining the relevant knowledge of the subjects. Paper qualifications without the kn...