Nigerian inventor, Professor Ayodele Awojobi, successfully converted his own family car, an Opel Olympia Rekord, from right-hand drive to a left-hand drive and went on to invent a second steering-wheel mechanism, adjoined to the pre-existing engine at the rear end, so that the vehicle was able to move in both forward and backward directions with all four pre-existing gears.

This gave the hybrid vehicle, which he christened Autonov 1, the ability to achieve its highest speeds at a moment’s notice, in the normal reverse direction. He highlighted the advantage this might offer to army vehicles, as an example, that might need to make a fast retreat, in a cul-de-sac or ambush situation.

Awojobi was a straight-A’s secondary school student, while at the CMS Grammar school, passing his West African School Certificate examinations with a record eight distinctions in 1955.

He proceeded to the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Ibadan, for his General Certificate of Examinations, GCE (Advanced Level), where in 1958 he sat for and obtained distinctions in all his papers: Physics, Pure Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics.

In 1962, Awojobi was awarded his first degree in Mechanical Engineering – a BSc (Eng) London, with first-class honours, at the then Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria).

After a period of teaching at the University of Lagos, he returned to Imperial College London for a research study in the field of Vibration and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, DSc. He was the first African to be awarded the Doctor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, at the College at the age of 37.

Professor Ayodele Awojobi died on the morning of Sunday, September 23, 1984. He was 47.

Credit: Wikipedia