Clay Mathematics Institute, U.S. For The Sake Of What Is Right And Wrong Confirm Prof Opeyemi Or Disprove Him Now

By Okechukwu Okugo

For those scoffing that a Nigerian cannot provide solution to a 156-year-old mathematical problem with a prize tag of $1 million let me remind them the international prowess of Nigerians in the mathematical field.

Firstly, they should remember that a Nigerian professor had already set a harder record by solving a 361-year-old maths puzzle, courtesy of Prof Chike Obi (died in March 2008); whom the African Mathematics Union suggests was the first sub-Saharan African to hold a doctorate in mathematics.

Akin Jimoh in an article in this site: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PEEPS/obi-chike-fermat.html, reported that Professor Chike Obi, 

"A Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science, the world renowned mathematics scholar won the Ecklund Prize from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics for original work in Differential Equations, and pioneering works in mathematics in Africa. He had earned his doctoral degree in 1950, specialising in Non-linear Differential Equations at the Pembrooke College, University of Cambridge, England.

By plain brainwork and without the use of modern technological aid such as computers, world acclaimed Nigerian mathematician, Prof. Chike Obi, has given scientific proof to a 361-year old mathematical puzzle known as Fermat's Last Theorem."

Late Prof Chike Obi 

Another powerful proof to show that Nigeria is home of many mathematical geniuses and virtuosos is that of Ekong Ufot who broke a 50-year-record in Japan, graduating with a first class degree and the best graduating student of Tokai University, Tokyo, Japan.

It is also on record that just in his very first semester in Tokai University, Ufot solved a mathematical equation that has not been able to crack since 30 years. Today Ufot works with Nissan and has two patents for electronic car design to his name.  

  Ufot Ekong in his patented car design

Ufot holding his patents for his 2 electronic car designs

These two people are just a tip of the iceberg and shows that Nigerians are not mathematical clowns. There are numerous other great Nigerian achievers in high academic fields.

This is the why the Clay Mathematics Institute, USA that has been canvassing earnestly and seeking for anyone who will be able to solve any of the seven Millennium mathematical problems, each tagged with a whooping $1 million should not keep mute when Professor Opoyemi Enoch is claiming that he has gotten the solution to one of the puzzles known as The Riemann Hypothesis, first proposed by German mathematician Benhard Riemann in 1859, a 156-year-old mathematical problem that has to do with the distribution of prime numbers. 

Prof Opeyemi is a lecturer at the Federal University of Oye, Ekiti in Nigeria. 

Despite the fact that the Federal University's website where he has been lecturing outlined how Prof Enoch solved the historic mathematical puzzle, and the Prof himself holding many academic exercises to display his proof of the solution via conference and online, the US -based Clay Mathematics Institute has refused to confirm the news of Enoch's solution. 

 

 Nigerians are not mathematical clowns and moreover, what the world need is a solution; it does not matter who purveys it. Or does it matter?   

Rather the Clay Mathematics Institute who put out the prize for the solution are allowing unauthorized bodies to be "digging on Enoch and his claim." And saying, "According to the mathematics blog, Enoch is apparently taking credit for someone else's paper on the Riemann Hypothesis." According to www.newser.com. 

But what they forgot was that Wiles and Taylor  two western researchers, in solving Fermat's Last Theorem using modern technological aid in 1994 had used other people's works and their solution was accepted. 

Thus Akin Jimoh, on the same website quoted above reported that:  "Wiles and Taylor in their proof made use of the work of Taniyama - Shimura - Weil conjecture for semi-stable elliptic curves, as well as the results of Frey, Serve and Ribbat."

What's interesting is that even critics have either indirectly or directly accepted that Prof Enoch did discover something. 

www.newser.com wrote that Prof Enoch "did discover a scientific method..." 

What the Clay Mathematics Institute USA should do now as a matter of what is right or wrong, and for the sake of humanity because what mankind needs now is solutions and not problems, is to thoroughly verify Opeyemi's solution. 

Even the claims of plagiarism against him should not be overlooked and appropriate sanction given him if he truly plagiarized. After all plagiarism in the academic field is a serious offence and should be punished accordingly.

Prof Opeyemi is not a greenhorn with mathematical researches. The Telegraph reported that:

 

"Dr Enoch has reportedly previously worked on mathematical models for generating electricity from sound, thunder, and ocean bodies."  

Prof Opeyemi Enoch waiting for concrete answers from Clay Mathematics Institute U.S.A.

It is not morally right for the Clay Mathematics Institute to continue displaying the Riemann Hypothesis on the lists of unsolved problems when a solution purveyed has not been thoroughly refuted by them.

Even if he is wrong who knows by looking into it, they themselves might connect the link.  

The time for the Clay Mathematics Institute to either confirm or disprove Prof Opeyemi's solution is now!