A SCARY but heart-warming incident happened in Imo State on September 27, 2013. Two teenagers, Gideon Emenike and Chibuisi Nwafor, aged between 16 and 17 years, performed a feat which not only shocked their rural community of Umuchima Ubaha, Okigwe LGA, but the whole state. It also had the state Police Commissioner, Mohammed Katsina, scampering to the community. The teenagers launched a rocket, which both of them fabricated, into space.
Thirty minutes, and over five kilometres later, it crashed into the backyard of Augustine Eke, a pensioner. The sound was deafening. And the villagers did an Usain Bolt.
The first report Katsina got was that a bomb, the handiwork of some hoodlums, had exploded in the area. So, he went prepared. But on arrival, he was taken aback. Hoodlums were not at work. It was two gifted teenagers, putting their God-given talents into practice. Katsina described their action as “excessively reckless,” but noted: “It was an exercise into the world of science and technology by some adventurous, skillful, and intelligent young boys with incredible creativity.”
Secondary school graduates
Here is the story of Gideon and Ndubuisi. The two are secondary school graduates who passed out in 2012. Due to financial constraints, they have not been able to go further. The road to their feat, according to one of them, Gideon, who attended Federal Government College, Okigwe, started when he was still in school. While in SS1, he was asked to do a school project. He built a helicopter. In SS2, he built a rocket which he took to a national competition in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. He was adjudged the second best. At another competition organised by the Society for Science and Technology, he again came second. At an Olympiad competition, he also came second, and was told that he would represent Nigeria at a competition in Brazil. That never happened. His school principal, he said, called him one day and told him he was no longer going to be Nigeria’s representative. He holds it against the principal. “I still dont know why the principal cancelled the trip. This frustrated me somehow, but later, I picked up from where I dropped, and started again,” he says.
Please is this state not APC control state? Where are the progressives? Share your opinion of this photos.
