SHOWCASING 23 IGEDE PERSONALITIES EN ROUTE TO 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS – First Edition
PROFESSOR JOHNSON IHYEH AGBINYA, B.Sc. (Hons) Ife; MSc (Glasgow); Ph.D (Melbourne)
A very warm welcome to the month of September. Happy new month to all of us. I pray that this month would be favourable to all of us in Jesus’ name 🙏
I sincerely appreciate all my reading audience, especially those of you who have been calling and sending messages to appreciate my little efforts in birthing a new conversation towards deepening Igede socio-political culture and fair representation. All your words of encouragement, kind suggestions and critiques are deeply appreciated.
This week, in continuation of my series on the above captioned subject, my searchlight has again shone on another worthy son of Agba. He is no any other person than our amiable and erudite PROFESSOR JOHNSON IHYEH AGBINYA, B.Sc. (Hons) Ife; MSc (Glasgow); Ph.D (Melbourne).
Prof. Agbinya was born at Anyuwogbu Ibilla Igede to Mr. and Mrs. Agbinya Isaiah Awurwu. He attended Ibilla Central Primary School for his primary school education and finished in 1962. Before the young Agbinya could enroll for his secondary school education, he lost his mother to the cold hands of death. To cushion the gap created by the death of his lovely mother, he briefly took up a job of a houseboy and assistant translator for Dick Bergman and Martin Leigh who were sent to Igede by Wycliffe Bible Translators to translate the Igede Bible. In 1966, he eventually enrolled at Wesley High School, Otukpo, for his secondary school education, and two years into the school, he again lost his father, leaving the young boy’s fate hanging in the balance. Determined not to give up his passion for education, he took his destiny in own hands and out of sheer determination and hard work, he completed his secondary school in flying colours, winning many awards as the school’s best WAEC graduating student in science subjects.
From Wesley High School, Prof. Agbinya and few of his classmates, namely, Ejembi Eko (now Hon. Justice Ejembi Eko of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, whom I have had the honour and privilege to appear before a couple of times as a lawyer at the Supreme Court) and David Ashebu (now General David Abiola Ashebu (rtd)) were selected to go to Government College Keffi for HSC. After HSC, Prof. Agbinya taught briefly for one year at Wesley High School Otukpo before he was given a university scholarship by Benue/Plateau State to study Electronic/Electrical Engineering at the University of Ife where he graduated in 1977. (Good old days, you know! These days, I doubt if most States in Nigeria still provide such scholarships for exceptional students like Prof. Agbinya any more).
Upon completing his Bachelor degree in Electronic/Electrical Engineering, Prof. Agbinya secured the Benue State Scholarship to the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, to undertake MSc research and he completed the programme in 1980. From the University of Strathclyde, he joined the newly established University of Technology Makurdi in 1982 (now Uniagric or Joseph Tarka University) in the department of Electronic/Electrical Engineering where he rose to be Head of Department.
In 1989 Prof Agbinya secured a partial scholarship for his Ph.D programme at La Trobe University, Melbourne and was subsequently conferred with his Ph.D in 1994. During his Ph.D studies he designed and built the first experimental FMCW radar system in response to a grant secured by his supervisor Prof John Devlin through DSTO (Defence Science and Technology Organisation). The radar he designed has developed to be the OTH (Over the Horizon) radar used as the perimeter radar protecting Australian coasts, country wide. Its digital form is used by several military establishments through the allies. It is also used for survey of the Antarctic region. It is also used by Allies and the digital form by Boeings and British Aerospace. Prof. Agbinya was eventually elevated to the status of Professor in 2010 by the same La Trobe University, Melbourne.
MAJOR PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
1. Professor of telecommunications and remote sensing
2. Research Professor at the Sudan University of Science and Technology, Khartoum
3. Adjunct Professor of ICT at Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology, Arusha Tanzania
4. Adjunct Professor, French South African Research Institute (FSATI), TUT, Pretoria, South Africa
5. Adjunct Professor of ICT at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
6. Extraordinary Professor in Computer Science, University of the Western Cape
7. Extraordinary Professor in telecommunications, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa
8. Current Head of School of Information Technology and Engineering at Melbourne Institute of Technology with two campuses in Melbourne and Sydney with over 80 staff members most of whom have doctorate degrees.
9. Head of School of IT and Engineering establishing a private institution
10. Developed curricular for 12 accredited degrees and graduate certificate courses
11. Current Editor of Remote Sensing Journal, Journal of Mobile Multimedia and serve in several editorial boards, among others.
MAJOR POSITIONS AND POLICIES CONTRIBUTIONS
1. With a Ph.D in electronic remote sensing, he joined Australia’s premier research institute called Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in the Telecommunications division where he rose to become a Senior Research Scientist in telecommunications. At CSIRO they obtained two joint patents in speech compression and face recognition systems. In addition to research, he wrote the software in C and Assembly languages after which he implemented the algorithms after testing them in Matlab.
2. In 2000 he was head hunted as a Principal Engineer by Vodafone Australia to lead her industry research in applied telecommunication. He was part of the 5-man team which designed the 3G network for Vodafone Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.
3. He wrote the blueprint for Nigeria IT Development Agency (NITDA) for Prof G O Ajayi, his former professor from Ife which led to the establishment of NITDA and provision of internet services in Nigeria by President Olusegun Obasanjo
4. Development of Face recognition in a crowd (at CSIRO)
5. Development of Passport Recognition (patented, used by Australian immigration)
6. Development of Speech compression (for Iridium satellites, at CSIRO AdCOM project, patented)
7. Author of more than 11 internationally recognized Textbooks in Electronic Communications and Internet
8. Former President, Association of Nigerians Abroad (ANA) which established Radio Kudirat to serve as international voice for NADECO and like organisations during the regime of Gen. Sani Abacha.
9. Founder of IB2COM international conference in telecommunications
10. Founder of Pan African Conference in Science, Computing and Telecommunications (PACT)
11. Founder of Igede Health Intervention Fund (IHIF)
12. Founder of Agba National Festival (ANF).
13. General Secretary of ASUU at the University of Technology (University of Agric) Makurdi, among others too numerous to mention.
MAJOR HUMAN AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
1. Prof Agbinya currently has two Igede graduates, male and female, whom he employed as lecturers, one in Sydney, the other in Melbourne; one from Obi and the other from Oju Local Government Areas; currently running four (4) Igede graduates scholarships with Dr Inakwu Odeh (deceased); One orphan currently studying in Benin Republic and one orphan currently studying engineering at Uniagric/Joseph Tarka University, Makurdi.
2. Prof Agbinya was the first contributor for the Alaide-Itogo-Obarike Road Rehabilitation being handled by Igede in 2023 Movement, to ease the suffering of Igede and other commuters, following the closure of Awajir-Oju road due to the age-long boundary dispute between Bonta of Konshisha and Ukpute of Oju LGAs; and his personal humongous monetary contribution still remains the highest till date. With all sense of responsibility and modesty, even our political leaders did not come close to beating that record till date. Indeed, other Igede sons and daughters made painstaking sacrifice in that regard, some of whom will be featured in my subsequent series.
3. Prof. Agbinya founded IHIF and ANF and both NGOs have jointly started a Sick Bay in Agidegbe for IDPs (August 2021) and a huge sum of money was donated for the clinic. IHIF is also set up to fund anyone who is unable to pay medical bills (indigent people) within the hospitals in Oju metropolis.
4. Sinking of 3 boreholes at Anyuwogbu with the support from two Igede sons of like minds; four (4) bore holes under construction for Igwe, Ega, Ibillalukpo and Barracks, expected to be completed by November this year, among other intervention projects to ease the sufferings of Igede nation in particular and human society in general.
The above is an abridged version of Prof Agbinya’s resume. Unarguably, the story of Prof Agbinya is a semblance of the story of most Igede sons and daughters. He, like most of his counterparts from Igede nation, was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. However, from a very humbled background, coupled with death of his both parents at a young age, Prof Agbinya navigated the ridges of life to become who he is today through the grace of God and sheer determination and hard work. In all his endeavours, he strived for mastery, putting behind all the daunting challenges that came his ways, and today, he has left an indelible mark in the sands of time, for all to emulate. Prof Agbinya pursued mastery and now he is a MASTER in his chosen career. In the emerging world of electronic and internet communications, his name has been written in gold. This is the spirit of most Igede sons and daughters all over the globe.
There is no any amount of panegyric I can possibly put forward in this article that can sell this son of Agba to any person or ethnic group than his tall credentials, his competence, his track records and his personality. Prof. Agbinya is more than fitted in the class of people of 3c – character, courage and charisma.
Beyond his contributions to the development of Igede nation, Prof. Agbinya has made strides in his chosen career that have impacted humanity in general. He is a pacesetter. Therefore, in this renewed conversation for power sharing in Benue State and Zone C in 2023, Igede nation can leverage on this exceptional son by queuing him up among the discussants to present the position of Igede nation in the political permutations, equations and negotiations for power sharing as we are en route to 2023 general elections.
I don’t know if Prof. Agbinya belongs to any political party or has any political ambition at the moment. Moreover, my write up is not aimed at profiling any person for any personal political ambition per se, but the collective interest of Igede nation for a fair and equitable political representation. But given the above soaring resume of Prof. Agbinya and the uncommon respect his colleagues and contemporaries from other tribes have for him as a rare gem, I believe, he has the capacity, the charisma and all the necessary skills of a good leader, to present/represent Igede’s position/interest before other ethnic nationalities, for fair and equitable distribution of political positions in Benue State, come 2023 and beyond. His experience, capacity, connections, resources, track records and excellent character are, in my view, indispensable for Igede nation at the moment. I can authoritatively say that PROFESSOR JOHNSON IHYEH AGBINYA’s love and passion for Igede nation are second to none. So, let us close-ranks him together with the other well-meaning Igede sons and daughters in this renewed conversation for power sharing for the greater good of Igede nation. Let us use our best to tell our story!
Igede Ihiooo!
LOOK FORWARD TO THE 5TH IGEDE BOLD PERSONALITY….
James Udor Ebe, Esq
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in this write up are strictly those of the author, based on his personal convictions, research and information sourced from relevant materials about the individual(s). It is not a sponsored or paid advert for any personal, clannish or political interest. The author takes personal responsibility for any information about any personality that is inaccurately stated and/or typographical or grammatical errors contained therein.
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