THE United States President-elect, Joe Biden’s appointment of three young Nigerians into his cabinet is replete with lessons, not just for Nigeria, but for the entire African continent. Biden first appointed 39-year-old Adewale Adeyemo, who was the first President of the Obama Foundation, as United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Next, Biden appointed 26-year-old Miss Osaremen Okolo, who hails from Ewohimi in Esan South East Local Council of Edo State, as his COVID-19 Policy Advisor. Miss Okolo is a graduate of Harvard University and a former Senior Health Policy Advisor in the US House of Representatives. The latest Nigerian young talent Biden has found worthy of appointment is Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo whom he appointed White House Counsel. Badejo, a lawyer and an alumnus of Berkeley Law College in the US, has served as a counsel for policy to the Assistant Attorney-General in the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice, Ethics Counsel at the White House Counsel’s Office. She was also Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Obama-Biden administration. These appointments are restatements of Nigerian youths’ ingenuity and brilliance which have long been established by their forerunners in various fields of human endeavour. Many brilliant minds whom Nigeria lost, mostly to the United States through the well-known brain drain syndrome, include Saheed Adepoju, inventor of the INYE-1&2 tablet computers designed for the African market; Seyi Oyesola, co-inventor of CompactOR, a solar powered life-saving operating room nicknamed “Hospital in a box”; Jelani Aliyu, designer of Chevrolet Volt for General Motors, a leading auto brand. There is also Ndubuisi Ekekwe, developer of microchips used in minimally invasive surgical robots; Cyprain Emeka Uzoh, who holds more than 126 United States-issued patents and over 160 patents worldwide in semiconductor technology; Kunle Olukotun, who led the…
