Group partners Google, ‎Obasanjo to fund science education in Africa

As part of mission to produce another name in the science and technology practice on the continent of Africa such as Albert Einstein, the World-renowned scientist, a group of scientists under the auspices of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) has entered into partnership with Google, a US-based multinational internet-related services and Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) to fund Science and Technology Education in Africa.

The African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) also partners some institutions in Nigeria, including Johnson and Johnson Innovation, Taidob College among others in order to realize its plans to discover, nurture, mentor and fund young scientists from all categories of educational levels, namely, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary education under the tagged name,”The Next Einstein Forum, (NEF)”.

Speaking in Abeokuta after series of activities held at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) to mark “African Science Week”, Olatunbosun Sojinu, a PhD holder in Organic Geochemistry, declared that‎ The Next Einstein Forum is aimed at enabling Africa to get onto the global scientific stage and instilling the benefits of Science in young African scientists.

The Senior Lecturer in Chemistry Department at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNNAB) noted that The Next Einstein Forum was pioneered in thirteen African countries to provide funding and academic support for young, up and coming scientists in Africa in every field of Pure and Applied Science, Engineering, Technology, Clinical, Basic Medical Sciences, Pharmacy, Mathematical Sciences, among others.

When Nigerian Ambassador of The Next Einstein ‎Forum was asked about the rationale behind the establishment of the group and its activities on the continent, Sojinu said, “African Science Week was conceptualised by African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in collaboration with Robert Bosch Foundation and some other Foundations, the idea is that this generation should have The Next Einstein coming from Africa.

“The impacts of Einstein in the World cannot be over-emphasised, the discoveries which we are leveraging on today in Science actually came from him and the World has not witnessed in Science any other person that he is as close as Einstein and this body feels that the next person who will be blessed by God or Nature like Einstein should come from Africa, and to achieve that so many initiatives have to come up, one of these is African Science Week to showcase inherent potentials in scientists in Africa.

“The aim is to look at how African Science is doing and propel African Science into World relevance, and this is crrently taking place in thirteen African countries – Congo Brazzaville, Cameroun, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, Ghana and other African countries. We are thirteen African countries.

“Olusegun Obasanjo‎ Presidential Library (OOPL) is hosting us, they are magnanimous enough to host us, they support us with logistics and we have entered into an MoU with them for the next three years, they are going to support us even in fund raising. Google and other ones are sponsoring our parent body – The Next Einstein Forum – and they are giving a seed fund as well.”

 

RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta