NIGERIAN 200-LEVEL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT MAKING VENTILATORS WITH INDIGENOUS MATERIALS TO SUPPORT NIGERIA’S FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19.

by Duke Magazine

Going down to the general saying “Necessity is the mother of invention”, it is no doubt that this English proverb is playing down at this time of global health crisis, as the world is reaching out to all available means in containing the coronavirus pandemic. The use of ventilators is one of the dire need to fight the infection.

With the exponential increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nigeria which is presently peaked at 665, the country is short of the availability of the ventilators with about 500 ventilators across all the states and federal capital territory. This is unarguably causing concerns for the most populated black continent.

This shortage has led to the stardom of an inventor with name Usman Dalhatu, a 200- level student of Mechanical Engineering at the prestigious Ahmadu Belle University, Zaria.

In line with other prospecting Nigerian innovators, Dalhatu, age 20, constructed a local ventilator, which he has now manufactured into an exceptionally portable ultra-modern E-vent automatic ventilator. Dalhatu then named the ventilator RESPIRE-19.

It is estimated that approximately 6% of people who contract the coronavirus will require an intensive care, and about 1 out of 4 may require the use ventilator to help their breathing capability.

It was then reported sometime last week about the young innovators in persons of Dr. Yunusa Muhammad Garba, working at the Human Anatomy Department, Gombe State University and Aliyu Hassan, a graduate of Mechatronics Engineering presented the newly invented RESPIRE-19 to the governor of Gombe State, His Excellencey, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya.

Yahaya commended the trio saying: “We are indeed proud of you,” The Punch Newspaper wrote: “If we can go back to the rudiments, pursue and improve on what we have, we can be like Japan and China who utilized their local talents to achieve greatness. We have the brains and intellectual resources to become a reference point like other developed nations.”

In an exclusive interview with the news portal of the Ahmadu Bello University, Dalhatu expressed his ambition to becoming a renowned mechanical engineer after his studies, creating wonderful inventions to make life easier for people.

 “I have equally manufactured an electric cooking stove. I have several projects I am presently working on. But I am appealing to the government to patronize my products, and also assist me in any other relevant way,” he stated.

Head of Bio-fuel Engines and Emission Research Group, Dr. Kaisan Muhammad Usman, have a clearer insight that the materials used in building the ventilator were locally found and made.

Dalhatu then joins the likes of bright minded technicians like Williams Gyang and Nura Jibril, who have saddled the responsibility upon themselves to repair faulty ventilators across Nigeria without charges to ensure an easy access to the equipment in Nigeria during this global health challenge.

Image Credit: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

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