Lagos — Philip Emeagwali is no ordinary Nigerian. His achievements in the world of informatics are revolutionary and invites the superlatives. His is the case of a prophet who is fabulously famous abroad but was hardly known in his native country.

Before the recent visit of the American President Mr. Bill Clinton to Nigeria, only a handful of Nigerians could boast of any awareness of the exploits of a certain compatriot by name Philip Emeagwali in the United States. All that changed after Clinton had taken time out to eulogise Philip Emeagwali for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of the American oil industry and indeed, economy.

According to Clinton, Emeagwali is "one of the great minds of the information age."

That was not all. President Clinton went a step further to compare Emeagwali to America's king of computer technology, Bill Gates.

For Clinton, Emeagwali is "Bill Gates of Africa." All these compliments, coming from an American President, are certainly not a ruse. At least, as far as improvements to the computer are concerned, Emeagwali is indeed Bill Gates' equal.

His scientific formula which "lets computers make 3.1 billion calculations per second" is hailed as perhaps the greatest computer-related invention of all time, second only to Gates' work with Windows.

Had Emeagwali been differently weaned, perhaps his superlative achievements might not have received the attention of the world's most powerful man.

However, as Clinton himself pointed out, Emeagwali's beginnings were most humble and difficult. He grew up in a family which was nearly reduced to a destitute existence in Onitsha, Anambra State between 1967 and 1970. In his speech at the joint session of the National Assembly, Clinton underlined Emeagwali's triumph over difficult circumstance when he observed that the computer wizard "had to leave school because his parents couldn't pay the fees.

He lived in a refugee camp during your civil war." It is significant enough that Clinton considered these facts worthy of mention but the story of Emeagwali goes a lot deeper than that.

Philip had begun demonstrating his genius at a very tender age. His father, James Emeagwali, had recognised the superior intelligence that Philip had and took special interest in nurturing the young lad.

Philip recalls instances when his father would sit him down at home after school and drill him with complex mathematical problems at a time his mates were out playing soccer in the streets of Onitsha.

In an article written on him in South African-based Drum magazine in 1998, Philip recalls how his father would sit him down and bombard him with a minimum of a hundred aptitude questions per hour. Philip says he invariably got most of them right despite the fact that he had just 34 seconds to answer each question.

And this in spite of the fact that he, sometimes, found concentration difficult at these sessions because he was always wishing he was playing football with his friends.

It was not just at home that Philip was able to demonstrate his high IQ. At school, his classmates had given him the name 'Calculus,' a metaphor for extraordinary aptitude in Maths.

While most of his classmates were busy writing down questions asked, Philip would have the answer. So good was he that most of his teachers and school mates began accusing him of using some magical power to solve complex mathematical problems.

Philip was not affected by any of these taunts.

Even though he could barely understand how he was able to get solutions to problems others could not, he knew that his was gifted. His popularity soared so much that, according to him, "some of them didn't even know my real name.

"To this day, if I hear someone call me 'Calculus' I know without looking, it's an old friend from home," he says.

By the time Philip got to Standard 4, there was no doubts left in anyone's mind that he was a genius. So highly did his teachers and classmates regard him that they believed that he had the power to solve such advanced mathematics as geometry, trigonometry and algebra.

It was also not long before his teachers began referring to him as 'young Chike Obi' after the famous Nigerian mathematical wizard.

Philip recalls an event that happened during his school days. He explains that his mathematics teacher had, one day, appeared in a fix as to how to solve a particular mathematical equation.

Ever the adventurous genius, Philip stood up, walked up to his teacher, collected the chalk from his hand and proceeded to solve the equation. He of course became an instant hero.

From that time onwards, even his headmaster recognised his genius when he began to let him teach his mates mathematics whenever his maths teacher was unavailable.

Like with all good things, even Philips genius once worked against him.

In 1965 when he was just ten, Philip suffered for being so brilliant. At that time, he had been accused of cheating during the entrance examinations into the prestigious St.

George's Grammar School, Obinomba, Delta State. His offence was interesting. The school authorities could not understand how a 10 year old kid could finish a one hour examination in five minutes and even get all the questions correctly. The next highest score was 57 per cent.

Despite his brilliance in mathematics, Philip had to drop out of the famous Christ the King College (CKC) Onitsha because his father could no longer afford the school fees.

However, knowing the quality of his son's IQ, James Emeagwali made sure that he constantly taught Philip at home. He had to stop after a while when it dawned on him that the young lad knew much more than he did.

Philip then studied on his own and then sat for and passed the General Certificate of Education examination of the University of London.

Growing up in the east during the Nigerian civil war had psychologically equipped Philip for a life of adventure. So at age 17, he left the shores of Nigeria for the United States, amidst protest from his family, having won a scholarship to Oregon State university where he studied Mathematics.

He then proceeded to George Washington University where he picked two masters degrees: the first in Civil and Environmental Engineering and another in Ocean, Coastal and Marine Engineering. He also bagged a masters degree in Mathematics from the University of Maryland.

This solid academic background prepared Philip for the role he is currently playing in the technological development of his adopted country, the United States of America.

Philip's worth as a computer genius is measured by his invention, a radical new computer he programmed to solve important problems.

It is called the Connection Machine. The invention is celebrated globally because it can work faster and do more work than any computer on earth.

His creation was not the whiff of any brain wave. He is said to have got the idea for programming the Connection Machine by watching bees build their honeycombs.

He reassured that no other creature on earth works more efficiently than a community of bees building a honeycomb. He proceeded to adopt this orderly efficiency into a programme to connect 65,000 small computers in such a way that, as a single unit, they could do more work than computers could have been able to do. His latest invention, it was discovered, allowed computers to do some 3.1 billion calculations a second.

This is three times faster than the best computers had been able to do. It also set a new world record.

Philip Emeagwali has used this invention of his to solve some of the most complex problems in the world, including improved oil exploration techniques.

Emeagwali's super computer is not only used to find oil, it has found relevance in several other areas, including improving the accuracy of weather predictions, AIDS research, tracking the flow of blood in human hearts and determining the long term effects of gases in the air. Emeagwali' s exploits in science and computing have brought him honours.

He is the recipient of dozens of awards.

In 1991, the National Society of Black Engineers in the United States voted him its Distinguished Scientist of the year. He also received the Computer Scientist of the year Award from America's National Technical Association in 1993.

In the same year and continuing till 1996, he received the Distinguished Visitor Award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Other awards he has received include the Nigerian Achiever of the year (1994), One of America's Distinguished top six scientists by the National Technical Associations (1995), Eagle Achievement (1996), Africa's Best Scientist (1996), America's Best and Brightest Inventor (1996) and Pioneer of the Year by the National Society of Black Engineers in the United States (1997).

He also won the Nigeria Prize (1998), the highest form of recognition that can be awarded a scholar by the Federal Republic of Nigeria. However, before all these, Emeagwali had won what is regarded as the computer world's Nobel Prize.

The Gordon Bell Prize, in 1989. It was presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Philip is married to Dale, a professor at the Morgan State university, Baltimore, Maryland. She was also once voted the 1996 Scientist of the year by America' s National Technical Association.

Their union is blessed with kids.

Though America has become his adopted country having lived there since the early 70s, Emeagwali has not forgotten his roots. In the past 14 years, he has brought 18 relatives, including all members of his nuclear family to live in the United States.

Philip attributes his success to his Igbo background and a spirit of adventure, qualities he wants to pass on to his children.

Publication Date: September 28, 2000