Diasporans engage inventors of smart bra, diabetes app, inventors’ hub, Bolarinwa, Sulu, Ikechukwu

Nigerians home and abroad are exceptionally talented with extraordinary skills. They use those skills and talents to solve global human problems in their individual spaces.

Three of these exceptional Nigerians, Kemisola Bolariwa, Diekola A Sulu and Edwin Ikechukwu were, on Monday, May 30, 2022, highlighted at the Nigerian American Public Affairs Committee USA (NAPAC USA)’s “Innovative Nigerians ” virtual platform.

NAPAC USA is the leading US based political advocacy platform that identifies, supports, educates and mentors Nigerian Americans and friends of Nigeria in the areas of policies and politics, education, health, culture, science and technology, among others.

The three innovators, who are operating in different areas, using technology to provide solutions to knotty global health and human development challenges, shared their inspiring breakthrough stories with those that logged into the program from different parts of America and beyond.

Anchored by Dr. Nelson Aluya,  the President of NAPAC USA, the program introduced the young inventors to leaders of the Nigerian community in the Diaspora as well as some of those in Nigeria who could use their expertise, experience and worldwide contacts to advance the groundbreaking work that the youths are doing.

Kemishola Bolarinwa, a robotics engineer, is a Nigerian-based innovator who has invented a smart bra to help women to have painless, stress-free breast cancer self-screening.

Her invention is targeted at assisting women to tackle the monster of breast cancer and, the first of its kind, the product is already causing great excitement in the health and technology sectors as a result of its novel features.

It has become so popular that she was recently featured on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) program, and according to her, several foreign interests have been approaching her to buy off the patent that she currently has.

The Nigerian government which, she said, promised her some financial assistance since last year to help her advance the invention, has, however, up till the day of the program, not made good its promise.

She is still working hard towards perfecting her invention, which has, so far, been certified 87 per cent accurate.

Diekola A Sulu, otherwise called DAS, on his part, has blazed a trail in diabetes education, prevention and management. A Health Administrator, who started off in the United Kingdom (U.K) where he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 26, he relocated to Qatar, where he intensified research into the debilitating disease to the point that he assisted the government of Qatar to set up a National Program for Diabetes.

In the cause of his studies, he identified that the Middle East had the same Diabetes challenge as Nigeria and started working with some other young people to evolve accessible and affordable platforms for dissemination of information on prevention and management strategies for diabetes, including dietary interventions.

He invented an app, ManageAm, and is still working, not only to finetune the app but to generally bring to the doorsteps of everyone worldwide, through technology, information on how to avoid diabetes and how to manage it if it sets in, insisting that the disease is not a death sentence.

Edwin Ikechukwu, on his part, has set up a platform that is linking up inventors across Africa, with the aim of encouraging more inventors to sprout in the continent and provide solutions to the many challenges facing Africa and by extension, the world.

He said, for instance, that they currently have “a DC cooker which will help households to cook without gas or kerosene but will be solar-powered; we have gadgets just like an inverter that powers households; we have a lot of things on ground. We are working on. Just trying our best,” he stressed.

The many diaspora leaders, who logged into the zoom platform that was well coordinated by Dr. Aluya, who was recently appointed Chief Medical Officer of a leading health chain in New Jersey, were all highly impressed by the strides of the young innovators and assured that they would do all in their power to advance the inventions through collaboration, investment in and publicizing of the milestones.

Ideas on how they could secure their patents at a global level, including with the United Nations (UN) were also shared with the young pathfinders who, clearly, were also motivated by the interest showed in their activities by their compatriots, most of who are leading professionals in their own rights, including medical and technology experts.

The Consul General of Nigeria in New York, Ambassador Peter Lot Egopija was also part of the audience.