The book: “Power, Politics and People’s Welfare: The Magnetron Technology- A New Window in Power Generation,” written by Alamu Muda-Ayeni (2021, Austin Macauley Publishers, London) is laid out in seven chapters, preceded by an author’s preface, and a synopsis page.
Each chapter of this 95-page book is on a topic in an organic format, each a slice of the author’s thematic preoccupation.
The author opens the book, Power, Politics and People’s Welfare, by preparing the reader for an exploratory venture, the venture of properly diagnosing and proffering solutions to the existential problems militating against individual and communal development in third world countries, especially in Africa. He also writes that the book is to appreciate the indispensable role of electricity in human life and how to generate it in a more efficient way.
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In the preface, Muda-Ayeni makes it clear that he is basically interested in a world where innovative, thinking and responsible leadership holds the torchlight which shows the way to sustainable development for all, especially the people of Africa. So after recalling the American venture in space and after the excitement had ended, their need to make the welfare of the occupants of the earth became their priority. In short, making earth more habitable became the ultimate: emphasis has shifted to the general wellbeing of citizens.
Thus building on this, he writes: “This American example of focused, responsive governance (typical of other governments in Europe and the Far East) is an eye-opener to political leaders in charge of state affairs, especially in black Africa where nothing seems to work for lack of foresight, inspiration, social responsibility and personal integrity of leaders. …leadership must change from the insipid set of psychotic treasury looters to an enlightened and service-oriented crop of administrators.”
For the author, there are twin obligations of a responsible government. They are protection of life and property, and provision of guaranteed means of livelihood which essentially bring about “sane planning and conscientious execution of beneficial social programmes that can stand the test of time.”
In the book, the author explores the impact of science and technology on the evolution of the industrial revolution. The author travels through the inventions of pace-setting individuals, their attempts to increase cost-saving productions of goods and services, boost in sales, and their attendant challenges, chief of which is the availability of power to drive the gigantic inventions. The concern here is how the governments of African countries specifically, can make life better and entrench sustainable development through a proper meshing of science and governance.
While the protection of life and property is easily possible through the equipping and organising of defence and law enforcement agencies, the author thinks (Pp. 19-20) that the creation of employment opportunities “involves the full mobilisation of inventive and innovative talents for purposes of industrialisation, and it is in meeting this latter requirement that governments usually commit a breach of the social contract by failing to provide citizens with diversified means of livelihood owing either to low or non-development of available natural and human resources. In effect, therefore, the generally low level of social and economic development in African countries is traceable to the utter disregard with which African governments treat the all-important element of creativity in the process of nation-building.”
The recurring theme of the book has to do with application of thought to the solution of problems. The author is apparently preoccupied with the glaring failure of leadership on the African continent to make a mixture of knowledge, science, innovation, and selfless service work to emancipate the continent. He sees the failure of the intelligentsia and education to make this happen, specifically blaming the fact that education merely breeds incompetent humans whose ultimate achievement is the acquisition of certificates which only graduates the holder to the class of the clueless.
A damning verdict announced by the author is that, even those with some education have no innovative sense, to the extent that they cannot discover anything, including those in their backyards, without the help and prompting of the West. He is also bothered that we have not developed because innovators are crowded out, what he describes as “Nigeria’s characteristic official torpidity.” (P30)
In what seems to be an extension of the author’s thematic preoccupation, the work avers (P37): “The lasting solution to technological backwardness and the approach to self-reliance as well, therefore, lies not in ‘buying, borrowing or stealing’, nor in ‘transfer of technology’. It lies pointedly in the government’s ability to sift the chaff from corn – to mobilise all available talents and organise diverse research in a manner that gives hope for positive results.” And it has to do with making the environment conducive for scientists and a production of inventors; a large dose (if possible) an overdose of research, scientific research, and funding of real scientists who are gifted, dedicated, patient and persevering.
In this book, Muda-Ayeni devotes a large span of pages to underscoring the prime place of power, or electricity in the total survival, life, industrial and socioeconomic progress of humankind. In chapter two, he writes that all technological inventions are practically useless and lifeless without electricity. But he notes that while electricity generation from fossil fuels has helped in the cause of progress, it has also constituted a ubiquitous nuisance, threatening the world ecosystem. The paradox here is this: electricity generated from fossil fuels is critical to the sustenance of industry and life, but it is equally making the earth largely unsafe for human habitation on account of both local health hazards and the disastrous greenhouse effects of global warming occasioned by widespread gas discharge pollution.
In chapter three, the author focuses on: “The Magnetron: A New Concept on Faraday’s Discovery.” In this chapter, the author tells us the story of the discovery of electricity, and traces the trajectory of inventions and personalities involved at every juncture. But this has led humanity gasping for air that is clean. So the author has been searching for a better, more viable technology for power generation, and that is what he set out before us in this book. In chapter five and chapter six, the author introduces to us his own contribution to help deal with declining power supply which holds the promise of ending the large-scale environmental pollution. This invention is named the SS Magnetron. So in the succeeding pages of the book, the author meticulously breaks down the nitty-gritty of his invention, the Magnetron, which he says is a follow up on the work of Michael Faraday. The solid-state alternator called the SS Magnetron, which “operates without such environmental pollutants as noise and smoke, and requires minimal attention in service.” (P54) is the product of his over two decades of research.
Writing further in praise of his invention, the author gleefully announces that the SS Magnetron will “alter the rural landscape and urbanise the erstwhile slums and jungles of the earth! Agriculture will be revolutionised everywhere (with increased food supply) as villages are lit up and farm processes are mechanised; industries will spring up in multiples to generate mass employment, while the quality of life, in general, will be much better enhanced.” (P55)
In chapter seven, the author discusses the idea of a solar and hydro power generation system, the possibility of renewable resources that will guarantee the stability of power supply and which will significantly reduce the environmental risks. That is a fusion of solar and non-combustion power technologies. And he therefore proposes a hybrid generation system of power supply in which renewable terrestrial and celestial resources are harnessed in alternative seasons to provide year-round electrical power for each country of the world.
In the final analysis, the book Power, Politics and People’s Welfare: The Magnetron Technology- A New Window in Power Generation, is a well researched work, which the author has carefully written for the appreciation of all readers, even those with no science backgrounds. The book agitates the precincts of the academia, calling them out and pinching them to the enormity of the work on their table, including the done, the undone, and the must do, challenging Africans on the imperatives of service-based and thinking leadership which gives life to sustainable development.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan; he can be reached via molatunbosun@splashfm1055.com, on X and Instagram: @miketunbosun.