While Nigerians Cook and Dance Their Way to the Guinness Book, China, the U.S., Japan, and Others Invent and Innovate Through Them
Recently, Nigerians have found a new attention-grabbing stream. The Guinness Book of Records. The only difference is that their entry into the prestigious Guinness Book of Records was not due to their intellectual prowess, but rather through frivolous achievements. While Nigerians are busy dancing, cooking, and singing, others are busy inventing and innovating to better the world and their people’s lives. Given its recognition for intellectual contributions, no one would care if the United States danced, cooked, and sang its way into the Guinness Book of Records. However, when 230 million people focus on dancing, cooking, and singing or strive to achieve pointless feats that contribute nothing to the poverty-ridden country, I question whether our priorities are shifting in the opposite direction.
Let’s compare China, the U.S., and Japan’s recent top five records with Nigeria’s. Firstly, we would start with Nigeria.
Nigeria:
1. Hilda Baci in May 2023
Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, entered the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon.
Now 27-year-old Hilda Effiong Bassey cooking her way through the Guinness Record
2. Gbenga Ezekiel in October 2022
Ezekiel achieved the most skips in one minute on one leg (278), breaking his own record of 265, and the most double under skips in one minute on one leg (144), beating the previous record of 132, set by India’s Himanshu Prajapati in 2021.
3. Chukwuebuka Ezugha and Victor Richard Kipo in March 2022
The most consecutive passes of a football (soccer ball) between the head and soles (team of two) is 252, achieved by Chukwuebuka Ezugha and Victor Richard Kipo (both Nigeria) in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, on 11 March 2022.
4. Tunde Onakoya April 2024
Tunde Onakoya is the latest Nigerian to break the Guinness World Record after an unprecedented and uninterrupted 58-hour chess session, achieving the 57-hour mark.
5. Munachimso Brian Nwana
Content creator and food consultant Munachimso Brian Nwana has set the record for the most visited fast food restaurant in 24 hours. According to the Guinness World Records, the 22-year-old travelled 25 kilometres on foot whilst visiting 150 fast food restaurants.
Munachimso Brian Nwana, 22, is eating his way through the Guiness Record
China:
1. Longest Monorail
Chongqing’s Line 3 Rail Transit system has since been extended to 67.09 km, running past the airport in the north, through the city centre, to the southern suburbs. Chongqing’s Line 3 was a concerted effort to rely on local talent, leading to 100 new patents and a line that outpaced the length of the previous record-holder in Japan. It carries a million passengers a day.
2. Longest Bridge Spanning Open Sea
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge spans open water to connect two cities.
The Hangzhou Bay Bridge, China
Traversing 36 km of open sea to connect the two Ningbo and Jiaxing coastal cities, the Hangzhou Bay Bridge was built to shorten the overland journey from Ningbo to Shanghai by 120 km.
3. The Largest Solar Energy Building—the Chinese “Sun Dial”
Dezhou, China: Shaped like an enormous sundial, the “Sun Dial” building opened in Shandong Province in north China and has a total area of 807,000 sq. ft. (75,000 square metres), setting the world record for the Largest Solar Energy Building.
4. Largest Automated Container Terminal: World Record Set in Shanghai
Shanghai, China: Located south of Donghai Bridge, phase 4 of the Yangshan Port covers 2.23 million square metres. It has a 2,350-metre shoreline, thus setting the new world record for the largest automated container terminal.
5. Largest amphibious aircraft: China breaks the Guinness World Record
Shanghai, China: China has completed production of the world’s largest amphibious aircraft after seven years of work, which it plans to use to perform marine rescue missions and fight forest fires. The AG600, which is about the size of a Boeing 737 and was developed by state aircraft maker Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), has a maximum flight range of 4,500 km and can collect 12 tonnes of water in 20 seconds; it has a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes, according to the World Record Academy.
The AVIC AG600 is the largest amphibious aircraft developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC)Â
USA:
1. Restoring brain cells, Stanford University
Scientists have found a way to repair brain cells impaired by a rare genetic disorder. A study published in the journal Nature found that a drug called antisense oligonucleotide allowed human neurones to develop normally despite carrying a mutation due to a genetic disorder called Timothy syndrome. “It’s the beginning of a new era for many of these diseases that we first thought were untreatable,” Dr. Huda Zoghbi, a Baylor College of Medicine professor, said to NPR.
2. Cell therapy for melanoma, Stanford Medicine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first cellular therapy for aggressive forms of melanoma. The treatment, called Amtagvi, is “designed to fight off advanced forms of melanoma by extracting and replicating T cells derived from a patient’s tumour,” said NPR. These cells are also called tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). T cells are integral in the immune system but can become “dysfunctional inside tumours.”
3. Inverse vaccines, University of Chicago
Scientists may have found a way to calm immune responses for those with autoimmune disorders using an “inverse vaccine,” said a study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The immune system responds to specific identifying markers on invaders like viruses and bacteria called antigens, “but some immune cells react to self-antigens,” which are “molecules from our own cells,” said science. “In autoimmune diseases, these misguided immune cells turn against patients’ tissues.”
4. Sequencing the Y-chromosome, (NHGRI)Â National Human Genome Research Institute
Scientists have finally sequenced the entire Y chromosome, one of the human sex chromosomes present in those assigned males at birth. The feat has been “notoriously difficult” because of the Y chromosome’s “complex repeat structure,” said a research paper published in the journal Nature.
5. Menstrual blood as a diagnostic tool, Qvin
Menstrual blood can be used to measure blood sugar. In early 2024, the U S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new diagnostic menstrual pad called the Q-Pad and A1C Test by the biotechnology research company Qvin. The Q-Pad is an organic cotton period pad that “collects the blood, which a laboratory then uses to analyse the individual’s average blood sugar over three weeks through the A1C biomarker,” said Forbes.
Japan:
1. Tokyo Skytree: The world’s tallest tower
The Tokyo Skytree, Tokyo, JapanÂ
2. They hold the record for the longest average life expectancy in the world, thanks to their lifestyle, healthcare, and social system.
3. Tokyo is the city with the most Michelin-starred restaurants, offering the best food in the world.
4. Japan has the biggest mobile humanoid robot.
5. Japan has the most vending machines per capita.
Conclusion:
Why aren’t 230 million Nigerians thinking about innovating in science, medicine, technology, and other areas that are needed to transform Nigeria from a poverty-ridden country into one that can feed its burgeoning population? We have the highest number of poor people in the world and the highest number of homeless in the world. We live to run away (japa) from our country for anywhere. On average, no other people flee their country as frequently as Nigerians. Our people are the laughing stock everywhere you go; our civil servants are amongst the least paid in the world, yet we dance, cook, and sing our way through everything like that would make a dent in improving our abysmal state of affairs in Nigeria.
If we do not address our lack of leadership, weak or irrelevant curriculum, reform our legal and security system, and unite the diverse Nigerian society into a harmonious nationhood, the downward trend will only accelerate, leaving Nigerians as the epicentre of poverty and the target of global ridicule.
By Ikechukwu ORJI
