Meet the Nigerian man who builds drones for the US military

folarin okunola

March 9, 2016 12:39 PM

The good doctor is also the founder of Open Engineering University, a tuition-free engineering institution.

Dr. Osatohanmwen Osemwingie

Every once in a while, you hear of a Nigerian doing wonderful things in another country (most likely the US or somewhere in Europe) and you wonder why you have never heard of these people before.

I think they probably like to stay under the radar because they don't want the wahala of their village people or maybe they just don't want hypocritical Nigerians coming at them with the whole "you're not a patriotic Nigerian" BS.

Anyways, it's an Internet world now and these amazing 'hidden' Nigerians who are accomplishing so much in foreign countries are finding it harder and harder to stay under the radar. Which brings me to the reason for this article.

Dr. Osatohanmwen Osemwingie is an Edo State born Nigerian man who makes drones for the US military. For those who don't know what drones are, they are small (incredibly expensive) gadgets which can be used by almost anybody for varying purposes.

For example, intelligence and national security forces can use to detect and take out terrorist camps and fortresses. Think Boko Haram and the likes.

So why didn't you know of this man before? Well, Dr. Osemwingie keeps such a low profile, Wale (the rapper) would probably be jealous. But like I said earlier, It's the Internet age and it is not as easy to keep a low profile anymore.

Away from being an engineer, Dr. Osemwingie is also a very successful academic. The man has a doctorate degree in Curriculum and Instructions from the University of Cincinnati; four graduate degrees, and is currently working on two more Master's degrees (ahn ahn!).

One of those Master's degrees he's working on is in Software Engineering from Regis University, and the other is in Information Systems at the Keller Graduate School of Management. He's obviously an high achiever.

The good doctor is also the founder of Open Engineering University, a tuition-free engineering institution. The university, which is powered by Google+, is the first of its kind, and students in any university as well as professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics can apply.

Can you imagine the kind of value this man could have added to Nigeria as a whole? Maybe we would have won the Boko Haram war some many years back. Or maybe his innovations would have gone unrecognized and he would be poor and unknown. What do you think? Let me know in the poll below or just drop a comment.

folarin okunola