George Asuelinmen is a 70-year-old retired lecturer and Dean of School of Engineering at Ogun State Institute of Technology(OGITECH) Igbesa. He bagged Ph.D degrees alongside 144 others at the 52nd convocation ceremonies of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka.
Asuelinmen made history as the oldest graduate at the 2019/2020 convocation. He is the second oldest person to bag a Ph.D in the history of the institution. The first was Felicia Marinze, a 71-year-old woman who had hers in French Language.
Asuelinmen was head of the department, Mechanical Engineering; Director, Academic Planning, and Dean, School of Engineering, at Ogun State Institute of Technology (OGITECH), Igbesa (2006-2017). Before he joined OGITECH in 2006, he had worked mainly in the motor industry for about 25 years.
The Edo-born septuagenarian, who acquired a PhD in Mechanical Engineering against all odds, reveals how he achieved the feat.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
I worked in the industry for about 25 years, including at Leyland Motors, Leventis Motors and Anammco. I worked at Beta Glass for two years before I was laid off. I had to look for something else to do. In the process, I got a job as a lecturer at Ogun State Institute of Technology, ICT Polytechnic, Igbesa. I spent 11 years at the institution, when I clocked 65, I had to retire and you know that is the retirement age. I was the head of the department. I established the Mechanical Engineering Department in ICT Polytechnic, Igbesa. Before working at the institution, I already obtained my BSc and M.A Business but did not have an M.Sc. I needed an M.Sc to be qualified to fit perfectly into the environment. So, I considered the M.Sc programme, that is how I went back to school, within one or two years I finished. I discovered that I was qualified for a PhD, so I decided to enrol for the programme.
WHAT INFORMED MY PHD THESIS
I worked with Leventis Moniya in Ibadan. Our job was majorly bodybuilding, vehicle assembling. I worked in an automotive engineering company in Enugu, I have also worked with Leyland Motors. So, when we learnt that Julius Berger was interested in these moulds, we made a design for them. I was the one that spearheaded it, we made the design and sent the proposal to them. At the time we finished the design, we were given IPO, when we finish as well, we got more IPO. That’s how the company became very prosperous. In the Federal Capital Territory, the authorities over there instructed Julius Berger to stop carrying its workers with containers. That was what led to this. We wanted to expand the business within Abuja; we met the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory, to produce this kind of bus. We were told to confirm that the vehicle would be stable. We took it to them and they confirmed that the vehicle was stable. They drove the vehicle and it was stable. So, when I left for OGITECH to work, we built a three-wheel scooter taxi, with a body, even if it rains, passengers won’t get wet inside. Then, in the process of reading newspapers, I discovered that there were complaints that the vehicle was unstable. Since I was planning to enrol for my PhD, I said to myself, why not pick the topic and look at it at my PhD level? That was how I picked the topic “Stability of three-wheel scooter taxi.” That was how the research work started. But the final title that was approved was “Stability: Analysis and redesign of three-wheel scooter taxi in Nigeria.” That’s how the journey started. I had two good supervisors.
SUPERVISORS TREATED ME WITH HONOUR
They called me Baba, they saw me as an elderly person. Prof. S.J. Ojolo and Prof. O.O. Ajayi supervised my thesis. They are very intelligent scholars. We had mutual respect. I was taken as a student as such. I was treated well. I was also treated as an elderly person. We were able to work together.
I NEVER THOUGHT OF GIVING UP
I am not the type of person that gives up. If I decide to do something, I have to finish it. Nobody can discourage me, even if I quarrel with somebody, I have a way of coming back and reconciling with the person. Some people will make some comments, maybe your relations, what am I still looking for? But I pretend as if I don’t hear such comments.
MY FEELINGS…
Assume I had my PhD at 30, I would be very excited and enthusiastic. You know, your parents and everybody would want to celebrate you. But at 70, if you tell someone that you graduated at 70, I am not sure they are too ready to celebrate you. What I know is I am happy to have achieved it. Not only that, I still have plans. My wife and children did. My supervisors congratulated me. My children wished me well, the four of them.
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION: THEN AND NOW
It might be difficult for me to compare because I am no longer an undergraduate. It is the same tough situation. What I am saying, obtaining a Master’s, you have to read, study excessively and work hard. The PhD too, it’s not a joke, not a child’s play. You must contribute to knowledge. The project in my undergraduate era was simpler:
“Design and producing a blanking machine.” Now you are talking of making models of stability. Analyzing the vehicle whether it is stable or not. Talking of redesign, modification and stability of the vehicle. You have to work hard. I don’t interact with them as such, but with my experience at my school, it is the same standard: if you fail, you fail. If others compromise, that is their business, I don’t compromise. Even the students are still talking about me to date because of the project I did with them. If you are not good, you fail.
NEXT CONQUEST AFTER PHD
I want to see what I can do myself, based on this knowledge I have acquired. I don’t need to work but in terms of contribution to the country. My first goal is the stability of the three-wheel scooter taxi. My own is to see how we can come up with the standard of design, production, regulation and importation of this vehicle because the vehicle is unstable. And the reason why it’s unstable is because of the high centre of gravity of the sitting position. It’s very high, compared to Jeep. Although Jeep is unstable the instability is lower compared with this tricycle. Those things need to be corrected; we need to work with some bodies like the Federal Road Safety, Standard Organization of Nigeria, National Automobile Design and Development Council. We need to put our heads together to see what we can do. We still need to liaise with the centre for automotive development with the view of sending them a proposal, both for design and to design a stable three-wheel scooter taxi. At the end of the day, it is the safety of Nigerians lives we are pursuing. That is the main focus of the PhD thesis.
