Okey Ndiribe
4 January 2009
In a country where almost every road is filled with potholes, an invention, the type made by Dr Ebenezer Ajibola Meshida, geologist and scientist, should have been an instant hit, adopted by those in government without fuss to solve the problem of bad roads.
Lateralite, as his baby, is a powder "composed of small particles which induce electrical activities in laterite soil." The invention won him the NLNG award in 2008. But that is the biggest interest anyone in the country has shown about the project.
Meshida, who is now a senior research fellow at the University of Lagos, obtained his first degree in English, History and Geography from the University of Ibadan in 1967. In 1968, he returned to the university to start a preliminary degree programme in geology. He completed the programme and earned another degree in geology in 1971. He then went to the University of Lagos to study engineering sciences encompassing soil, applied and rock mechanics. He later joined Nigerian Soil Engineering Co. Ltd. as an engineering geologist in-charge of site investigations and foundations. Ever since, he has been an engineering geologist and lecturer in foundation engineering at UNILAG. He spoke to Sunday Vanguard on his project.
'MY invention is made up of minerals mixed together in the form of a powder composed of small particles which induce electrical activities in laterite soil. It is called Lateralite. The reaction of the powder is scientific. We believe that if you apply this powder to our laterite soil- which has been giving us problems- water won't be able to get to the foundation of the road. We won't have pot holes on our roads anymore. The reaction would be such that water would not be able to penetrate the laterite soil. When you compact the laterite soil, the soil maintains that compacted nature. Water would not reduce the compacted strength. If we now take all this into consideration, and we use the powder to stabilise our soil, being used for road construction, we would have roads that water cannot trouble.
"The road construction industry can take advantage of this. This is because soil stabilised with the powder will not develop pot-holes. What this means is that when you put the asphalt on such a treated soil, there is no way water can be a nuisance anymore. We would make the base course relatively thick enough to be able to transmit the stresses induced by vehicle tyres appropriately. This means that our roads would have the advantage of not getting spoilt over a long time. Everything would be the way you have put it even when the area is water-logged.
That is the advantage of the powder. I am not sure what cost reduction or increment means in the Nigerian road construction industry. As far as I am concerned, we haven't had roads in Nigeria. All these things we call roads are just bush tracks introduced by the colonial masters when they were here. They do not have the type of what we have here as roads in their own countries.
We have witnessed how roads are constructed over there and we don't have it here. The joy I have now is that Lagos State in particular has constructed some standard roads in the state. These include Abiola Road and new Lekki Road. Majority of what we call roads are no roads. So when we are talking about cost, I don't know what standard we are using. But if we have to use this stabiliser, the roads have to be completely designed as standard roads are designed abroad.
An example is what is obtainable in road design and construction in London. London soil is much worse than ours but when their roads are designed, the cost is made. When we say we design here, I am not sure of what type of design we do. When a road is constructed, nobody supervises and no standard is maintained. In fact, it is difficult for me to find words to adequately convey what I mean so that it doesn't seem as if I am condemning what everybody else is doing. But, academically, I think we must stick to the truth.
"My powder is the first of its kind which is made for laterite soils. There are many stabilisers invented for other countries across the world. Our soils have their own composition. Among the common compounds found in them are iron oxide and aluminum oxide and they have their own problems when water comes in contact with them. All my work has been to study the chemical composition of our laterite soil and to study what minerals could be put into it to remove the problems it manifests.
If you use the powder to stabilise our roads, we won't have the problem of destabilisation any longer.
"Bitumen would still be required in road construction even after lateralite is applied. It is like a paint on the wall. When you build a house and you want to protect the walls from attack of the weather, you paint it. When bitumen is applied on the road, it is for the purpose of preventing the weather from affecting the road. Bitumen would be helpful to protect whatever you have laid underneath. But the bitumen we normally use here are very inferior in quality.
For instance, there is no reason there should be any pot-hole on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos. This is because the base is concrete and not soil. But because inferior bitumen was put there during the construction, pot-holes that can burst your tyres have developed. So, if we have the standard bitumen to put on top of treated soil, then we are talking of standard roads.
"My expectation from the Federal Government is for them to send their engineers, so that we could have experimental stretches of roads constructed with Lateralite, even if it is a very difficult terrain. All we need is to be allowed to construct an experimental road even if is only 10 feet. We should then watch such a stretch of road for three years. There must be engineers assigned from government ministries who would check the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of the powder.
The Council for Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN) has to establish a forum for the review of inventions. If COREN takes it upon itself to look at inventions like mine, there has to be a forum like a seminar organised by the COREN or Nigeria Society of Engineers. But various university departments and the ministries of works of some state governments have been coming for the powder. For instance, the ministry of works in Ondo State came for the powder and replied with very positive comments.
"The University of Lagos as a body has not reacted to my invention. But the Department of Civil Engineering where I have been lecturing for the past seven years has used the powder in student projects at the post-graduate and doctoral levels. We generated a lot of data over the years. I am not a regular staff of the university.
I retired from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in 1991. I am an associate lecturer of the University of Lagos - a semi external and semi-internal staff. Although my appointment is not an ideal one, I expect that the university should evolve a policy whereby any lecturer at all, whether internal or external who has made an invention, would be asked to present his invention to such a body.
"I can produce an experimental quantity of Lateralite if it is needed. But for it to be produced in commercial quantity, it would require the establishment of a factory. As a scientist, what I am itching for is experimental construction. For now, the issue is not whether I want to make millions of naira from this invention. But if an experimental road construction could be executed during my life time, I would be satisfied. If this could be done, the younger ones would pick it up. I could have started a commercial business with my invention, but that would take a lot of money and time and you know I am getting old.
Commercial quantity
"I have to be very cautious in the sense that, as you get older, you cannot be as active as you were when you were younger. My strength now is not like my strength 10 years ago. I have involved younger lecturers and researchers to continue with the research so that the powder could be produced in commercial quantity.
I patented this invention with the Federal Government in 2005. I am trying to play down the interest foreign companies and groups have shown in my invention. It is actually a sore-point for me and the nation. For instance, when I was looking for a mixer and I approached a Chinese firm in Lagos, they readily offered to buy the product and the formula. I laughed at them and rejected their offer. I have also received letters of invitation from foreign countries to come over as a scientist or as a research fellow. But I always emphasised the issue of age. If I didn't go to Canada when I was 25 years old, I can't do that now when I am 65.
"If I go over there, they would give me assignments to do but it won't be on our own soil type. It would also mean that a foreign country would take over my skill and intellectual production. But it is strange that even though my invention was made for the Nigerian soil, everybody has kept quiet. My children have told me to sell off my invention if somebody offers me $1 million because they believe the Nigerian system would waste me.
"If I die now in this country, I don't think my life would have been a wasted one. I have contributed something. So if those in government like, let them use it, if they don't like let them ignore it. Only posterity would judge. The breakthrough was achieved in 2001. That was the year I started lecturing in this department. Ever since Lateralite has undergone a lot of tests and experiments and lot of data has been collected. It is well known in my department and students call it the magic powder.
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