DINO MELAYE DUMPS APC TO PDP

BREAKING: Rowdy Senate session as Dino Melaye ‘decamps’

Embattled Kogi West senator, Dino Melaye, attended the Senate plenary on Wednesday after some weeks absence.

Mr Melaye has been bed-ridden since he landed in hospital after a failed attempt to evade being taken to Kogi State by the Nigerian police.

Mr Melaye, raising a point of order on Wednesday thanked his colleagues, members of the House of Representatives, his constituents and the NIgerian populace for standing by him during his travails.

Mr Melaye also thanked the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for its support.

Mr Melaye, who attended the chamber with a neck support, also asked the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to mandate the sergeant-at-arms to create a seat for him at the opposition wing of the chamber.

Thereafter, he announced he would sit beside former Senate President, David Mark, pending the time a seat would be allocated to him.

He was thereafter aided by some of his colleagues to his preffered seat.

He is, however, yet to formally join the PDP.

To do so officially, Mr Melaye would have to write the Senate president of his decision to leave his party and join the opposition.

The letter would then be read during Senate plenary.


More details later…

BUHARIS 3 YEARS IN OFFICE; BY GARBA SHEHU

THE REAL PRICE OF “CHANGE THE CHANGE” CAMPAIGN (2)

By Garba Shehu

On Tuesday, May 29, 2018, the Buhari/Osinbajo led government will clock three years in office. With elections less than a year ahead, this period of people-oriented governance has been a great success. The administration has fared very well in various policy fronts. There is a long list of achievements to flaunt.

The popular support for the administration, especially among the poor and disadvantaged is still holding up and is unlikely to significantly wane. In fact trends from our internal polling suggest that this should hold up, or even grow all the way to 2019, the reason being that the ordinary citizens concede it to the president that he is trying to do his best for the country. His concerns for the poor citizens and the nation are among his greatest assets. This is why he has led the country through difficult changes, such as the increase in the pump price of fuel and the landmark steps to stabilize the Naira, at grave risk to political capital, but measures that had become necessary for the benefit of the nation.

The distinguishing characteristic of the administration is its habit of not being bombastic. Look at the simple programme drawn up to celebrate the third anniversary: prayers in mosques on Friday and churches on Sunday; Democracy Day Lecture by Professor Attahiru Jega, erstwhile chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the morning of Monday, 28th and a banquet in the evening on Tuesday 29th, at which event the country is also expected to say farewell to the Super Eagles of Nigeria, one of the teams representing Africa in the 2018 World Cup tournament in Russia.

The most telling event of the day is expected to be the broadcast on radio and TV by the President at 7:00 in the morning.

To mark the occasion, some ministers and senior officials of government are expected to be on radio and TV for much of the day, parading what has been achieved by the government in the three years. While the claims will be verifiable, the opposition is expected to continue their political jibes much of it unfortunately, promoting hate and intolerance that does not fit with the traditions of modern democracy.

When they ran the government at the centre, the opposition PDP showed aptitude in only one thing: the toppling of elected state governments using the police and secret service under their control. A five-man legislature met at 6:00 am and “impeached” Governor Dariye in Plateau; 18 members out of 32 removed Governor Ladoja of Oyo from office; in Anambra, APGA’s Governor Obi was equally impeached at 5:00 a.m. by members who did not meet the two-thirds required by the constitution.

His offence was that he refused to inflate the state’s budget. The lawmakers had reportedly met with representatives of the President in Asaba , Delta State and then  accompanied to Awka by heavy security provided by the police Mobile Unit. The PDP President at that time had reportedly told Obi to forget re-election in 2007 if he did not join the PDP because he (the President) would not support a non-PDP member.

In Ekiti, Governor Fayose in his first term faced allegations of financial corruption and murder. Following the failure to heed the instruction of the presidency to impeach only Fayose and spare the deputy, Madam Olujimi, now a senator, the PDP President declared that there was a breakdown of law and order in the state and  declared a state of emergency. He appointed Brig-Gen. Adetunji Olurin (rtd) as the sole administrator of the state on October 19, 2006. In an earlier incident in Anambra, it took an insider collaboration to thwart the unseating of Governor Ngige by a powerful thug sponsored by the PDP administration. The parliament at the centre seized the law-making powers of the Rivers State House of Assembly as a way to save Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the then chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum from impeachment by the PDP presidency. Thank God for Buhari, none of these absurdities has happened under his watch but the PDP is indicating their boredom with his meticulous observance of the constitution by calling for a return to the old order.

If not for “dry eyes,” as said in our common parlance, what is it that would push this party to write a letter to the United Nations, laying false claims to constitutionality and alleging that democracy is presently under threat?

But then, we all understand that by its tone, this is an angry opposition unhappy about the loss of privileges they desperately want to hang on to, privileges now abolished by the prudent, austere Buhari Administration. The former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, shocked the world by the revelation in her new book, titled, Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines, that they paid N17 billion bribe to the National Assembly to get them pass the 2015 budget.

President Buhari’s first budget in 2016 was the first year of passing the budget without the bribery of legislators. He came to power to clean up the mess and has so far managed a cleaner government than all of the past administrations.

As we said in the first part of this article, the beneficiaries of the old order have since been complaining that they are being starved. Four more years of Buhari?

If by chance or accident you have a USD 16 billion question hanging on your neck, money large enough to construct the Lagos-Port Harcourt standard gauge railway and the massive Mambila power plant put together without borrowing a kobo, then you see a capacity in the change administration to end the shenanigans and get to the root of what happened with the money in that exercise, what do you do? Most people will say start running, scream it: that this change we voted for has gone too far. Foxy generals don’t wait to be caught.

It is the same thing with the narrative of suffering and hunger in the land, the blame which is unfairly being heaped on this administration. Understood in its proper meaning, it is just a way of saying that the country’s ghastly and complicated corruption industry, which provides inestimable amounts of disposable incomes to public servants and elected officials is being shut down. What government has done in the trade and investment sector, and in other processes of government are illustrative of this. Government has been streamlining systems as a result of which there is transparency and fewer rules. That’s what the ease of doing business is all about, measures that have brought a lot of international compliment to Nigeria and for which there is a Presidential Enabling Business Council. As a result of this work Nigeria moved 24 places on the World Bank ease of doing business rankings, and earned a place on the list of 10 most improved economies in 2017. A prospective investor unjustly denied visa to visit Nigeria by a consular officer in a Nigerian mission can today hop into a plane and obtain his/her visa on arrival. New businesses which took years upon years to register now have a maximum of a 48-hour waiting period to be certified.

“Change the Change,” cries will continue to ring from elected officials and the beneficiaries of the old order who enjoy grinding the ordinary citizens into the dust and denying them access to the basics of government. These are the real losers who are rooting for the reversal of the change.

The Buhari Administration has since 2017 issued five Executive Orders, all of them to enhance the ease of doing business, increase local content and forcing businesses to use trained Nigerians in place of foreign labour and skills. Tell me, will all those who procure and sell expatriate quotas; the ones who bring in substandard furniture and electrical goods; fake drugs and the others engaged in the dumping of goods that threaten local agriculture and industry, not be happy to change the change?

These Executive Orders are already having a positive impact on Nigeria’s business and manufacturing sectors. The “bad” thing about them however is that they have dealt a devastating blow to officialdom, not just one having to do with petty bribes but scams to the tune of billions of Naira that highlight a political-industry nexus which, if not checked, would continue to hold down the economy in an underdeveloped state.

In a country that traditionally plundered its resources and wasted its best opportunities, it is a remarkable departure that this administration continues to do more with fewer resources. Despite the fall in oil price on the global markets and the cut in local output due to sabotage unleashed on the nation’s oil assets, more than N1.2 trillion was released for capital expenditure in the 2016 budget, and 1.476 trillion, so far, in the 2017 budget, making a total of 2.7 trillion (about $9 billion) in two years. This investment has enabled the resumption of work on several stalled projects — road, rail and power projects — across the country. At the same time, savings continue to be recorded with:

Ø Nigeria’s External Reserves doubled from $24 billion in October 2016 to $48 billion at present

Ø The Sovereign Wealth Fund seeing inflows of US$500m in 2016 and 2017 (the first inflows since the original US$1bn that established the fund in 2012)

The Buhari Administration has demonstrated a single-minded commitment to upgrading and developing Nigeria’s transport, power and health infrastructure.

In May 2018 the Federal Government launched the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), under the management of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). The PIDF is kicking off with seed funding of $650 million and will soon hit $1 billion.

Priority projects to be funded include the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the East-West (Lagos-Port Harcourt) expressway, the new Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressway, the Second Niger Bridge and the Mambila power project.

In March 2018, the NSIA invested US$10m to establish a world-class Cancer Treatment Centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and $5m each in the Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital and the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, to establish modern diagnostic centres. These centres will be completed before the end of 2018.

It is also noteworthy that in 2017, the Buhari administration invested N127 billion in the transport sector, N130 billion  in agriculture & water sector and N325 billion in power, works & housing sectors compared with the then Federal Government in 2014 that spent a paltry N14 billion   on transport, N34 billion on agriculture & water and N106 billion  on power, works & housing.

Road projects are on-going across every State of the country; many of these projects had been abandoned in recent years because of mounting debts owed by the Federal Government to contractors.

Our predecessors in office made a lot of political capital out of the fact that they are from Niger Delta and had the exclusive right to properly handle the affairs of the region. As it turned out, this was a big, big swindle as nothing came out of it. Money came; money went and passed through Niger Delta with nothing to show for it.

The Buhari administration’s ‘New Vision for the Niger Delta’ brings together a robust set of promises, solutions, targets and initiatives aimed at ensuring that the people of the Niger Delta benefit maximally from the region’s oil wealth.

The New Vision offers a detailed response to the 16-point Demand Agenda submitted to President Buhari by the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in November 2016. Tangible results of the New Vision so far include:

Ø Take-off of the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkoko, Delta State. The University was granted approval in January 2018 by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to commence undergraduate degree programmes effective 2017/18 session, and academic activities on April 12, 2018.

Ø In 2017, President Buhari had approved an increase in the take-off grant allocated to the Maritime University from N2 billion earlier announced, to N5 billion. Similarly, in November 2017, an additional N1 billion was approved by the President to support essential infrastructure works and staff recruitment in the University.

Ø $170m seed funding for the Ogoni Clean Up, in an Escrow Account established for that purpose. The Escrow Agreement Signing ceremony took place in April 2018.

Ø Approval by President Buhari for an additional N35 billion for the 2016 budget of the Presidential Amnesty Programme

Ø Approval for the establishment of Modular Refineries across the nine States of the Niger Delta – one such refinery has been commissioned and two others will be completed by the end of 2018

Ø Resumption of construction work on abandoned projects across the Niger Delta, including the all-important East-West Road.

On agriculture, even our worst critics will [reluctantly] accept that the agricultural revolution is real. A food importing nation spending more than one trillion Naira annually, in the past, on food imports is now proudly producing nearly all that is needed to take care of herself. The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria has substantially raised local production of rice, yielding from 2-3 tonnes per hectare to as high as 5 - 6 tonnes per hectare), and produced a model agricultural collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi States.

Between 2016 and 2018, eight new rice mills have come on-stream; and Nigeria’s paddy production and productivity has doubled compared to 2014 levels. Nigeria’s milled rice production has increased from 2.5MT to about 4MT, and rice exports from Thailand to Nigeria dropped from 1.23 million MT in 2014 to 23,192 MT as of November 2017.

The Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (which includes a partnership with the Government of Morocco, for the supply of phosphate), has resulted in the revitalization of 14 blending plants across the country, with a total installed capacity in excess of 2 million MT. The benefits include annual savings of US$200 million in foreign exchange, and N 60 billion annually in budgetary provisions for fertilizer subsidies. The Scheme has also made it possible for farmers to purchase fertilizer at prices between 30 to 100 per cent cheaper than previously bought.

Through agriculture, millions of our citizens, especially the unemployed youths are being brought into the growth trajectory.

EVER SEEN A LYING PASTOR?

“Pastor” Reno Omokri is forcing me to do what I don’t do. I don’t react to published criticisms. I have spent my entire career in the media and as one who criticizes others; you must be ready to take criticism.

This is about exposing a liar masquerading as a pastor. By the way, I have known and worked with exemplary pastors who are decent and from whom you learned more of the etiquette of truth telling.

Take for example Pastor Emeka Izeze and his brother, Pastor Ifeanyi, or his friend, Pastor Segun Babatope. And lately, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President and Pastor Femi Adesina.

For those Reno tried to mislead, yes it is a fact that I worked in the media office of a PDP administration. Not for five years as the new-day pastor published but only for six months at which point it was announced on NTA news, to my surprise, that my letter of resignation had been accepted when I hadn’t written any. I learned of course that I was fired because the head of the country at that time, who believed that every published criticism was sponsored by an insider, read the weekly magazine, The News, and didn’t like what was written about him.

Another point the “Pastor” keeps making is that he was my colleague at that time. No, he wasn’t. His boss was. The Reno I knew was a Personal Assistant (PA) to a Principal Officer like me. He didn’t attend meetings and didn’t receive official briefings as we did but ran errands for his boss.

Not being a principal officer by status, he could not have had an office opposite my own. He may, however, have perched on a stool in one of those offices but I didn’t take particular notice of which one. He was, however, very personable at that time.

“Pastor’’ Reno lied by calling me an AGIP - meaning an unprincipled person ready to serve any government in power. The period he was referring to was one in which my boss ran into bad political weather and some of us around him were scapegoated. I was locked in DSS detention many times, my houses in Kano and Abuja broken into and valuables, including cash some of which were never returned were seized. I was going to court for two years and for the most part of which I didn’t have a passport. In the course of that trial, the judge presiding called back my lawyers, Niyi Akintola, SAN and Rickey Tarfa, SAN, after an adjournment to say that “I didn’t mean that he should be kept in DSS detention. I said he should be taken to Kuje Prison,” and that’s where I was kept. Under detention in the DSS I was stripped down to the pants and photographed head to toe. All that didn’t make one to capitulate.

When they lost to Muhammadu Buhari in the party primaries, the candidates in that race, Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, Waziri Atiku Abubakar, Rochas Okorocha and Sam Nda-Isaiah surrendered their media assets to the winner who had the grace to ask me to lead the media team. When we won, he (then President-elect Buhari) invited me to serve as one of his two spokespersons and I pledged 100 per cent loyalty to him and that’s where I am. This cannot be AGIP by any standards.

Reno should stop lying, if only to help the pastoral calling to retain its good name. Otherwise he should quit the ministry.

Garba Shehu is Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)

May 27, 2018

SALATUT-TASBIHI F (S. A W. S)

ASSALAMU ALAIKUM WA RAHMATULLAHI WA BARAKATUHU

How to pray Salatul Tasbih –
Method & Benefits

Our Beloved Prophet Mohammed (SAW) once said to his uncle
(father’s brother) Sayyiduna Abbass (may Allah be pleased with him).
“Oh, uncle! Shall I not give you Shall I not grant you Shall not award
you Shall not do mercy on you. When you do ten things Allah will
forgive your sins of the future, and of the past; new and old; those
you have forgotten and those you did knowingly; big and small;
hidden and revealed”. He then (SAW) clarified the way how to pray
Salatul Tasbih. He said the person who prays this Salah one in a day
or every Friday or one in every month or only one Time in a whole
year and if this is not possible then at least one time in a lifetime.
(Abu’Dawood and Tirimzi)

How to pray Salatul Tasbih?
Salatul Tasbih has four Rakat, and it can be pray and read at any
time a day. But do not pray (Namaz) on away time and sunrise
sunset makrooh time because Islam does not allow to pray in these
times. So, keep in your mind theses forbidden times for performing
Salat (namaaz). But it is preferred before Zuhr (Fatawa Alamgeeri)
The Tasbih to be read in Salatul Tasbih:
“Subhan Allahi Wal Hamdulillahi Wa Laa ilaha illal Laahu Wallahu
Akbar.”

Method:
Here is the method of how to pray Salatul Tasbih . The goal is to
recite above Tasbih 300 times in Four Rakah with the following
method.
In the first rakaat, after reading Sana “Subhaana Kallahumma…”,
read the above Tasbeeh 15 times.Now recite Aaoz “Aoozubillah…”,
Bismillah “Bismillah…”, Then read sura Fatiha and a Surah or
minimum of three small Ayayhs then read the Tasbeeh 10 times
again. Go to Roku saying Takbeer (Allah Hoo Akbar), after reciting
“Subhaana Rabbiyal Azeem” minimum of three times read
the Tasbeeh 10 times in Ruku. Saying “Samee Allahu Liman
Hamidah Rabbana Lakal Hamdh” gets up from ruku to qiyam
position.
Now read the tasbih Tasbeeh 10 times. Go to Sajdah saying Takbeer
(Allah Hoo Akbar) and after reciting “Subhaana Rabbiyal A’la”
minimum of three times read the tas Tasbeehbih ten times in Sajdah.
Now go after first Sajdah go to Jalsa (sitting position) saying Takbeer
(Allah Hoo Akbar). Sit in Jalsa read Tasbeeh ten times. Go to Saju
again saying Takbeer (Allah Hoo Akbar) and after reciting “Subhaana
Rabbiyal A’la” minimum of three times read the Tasbeeh ten times
in Sajdah again.
Get up to begin 2nd rakat saying Takbeer (Allah Hoo Akbar).
Do rakah #2 in the same fashion, but before reading Bismillah
“Bismillah…”, and Surah Fatiha, read the Tasbeeh 15 times. Follow
the rest as you did in first Rakat. After second Sajdah of Second
Rakat sits in Qaidah Oola (first sitting) read Attahiyat, Durood and
Dua then get up for 3rd rakaat without saying Salam.
Begin third Rakat, just like the first Rakat, with Sana “Subhaana
Kallahumma…”, read the above Tasbeeh 15 times. Follow the rest as
you did in first Rakat until you sit for Qaidah Akihra (last sitting)
after the second sajdah of fourth Rakah.
In Qaidah Akihra Attahiyat, Durood, Dua finish Salah with Salam.
Hope you all know that how to pray Salatul Tasbih. No doubt this
Salah has many rewards. So, being a Muslim try to pray Salatul
Tasbih.

Nigerian leaders needs to learn from Malaysian former head of state. NIGERIA MISSES THIS PHENOMENA

Mahathir Mohamad in His Own Words

(for those asking for the source of the story of how he objected to being flown abroad for heart surgery in 1989):

“I was admitted into the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital on the night of 17 January 1989. There, Datuk Dr Robaayah Zambahari confirmed that I had had a heart attack and gave me an injection to relieve the pain. She told Hasmah to call our family, which made us realise how serious the situation was. She also called Tun Ghafar Baba, then the Deputy Prime Minister, waking him up from his sleep to tell him what was happening.

“After completing the standard checks, they decided that I needed an angiogram. Coincidentally, Dr Simon Stertzer, a heart specialist from California, was in the region and he was asked to be present for the procedure. He and Dr Robaayah concluded that I had had an infarction and needed a bypass. They gave me a choice of either going to the US for the operation or having it done in Kuala Lumpur. Without hesitation, I decided I would have it done here. I had to have faith in our Malaysian doctors and knew that if I didn’t make an example of myself, no one else would have confidence in our medical service. Previously, all our VIPs had gone abroad, but I knew that Datuk Dr Rozali Wathooth had performed these operations successfully at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital. He had already left Government service to work at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre, but there were other heart specialists at the General Hospital, including Tan Sri Dr Yahya Awang. I knew that Dr Yahya was quite experienced and I decided to entrust my life to him.

“As a doctor myself, I knew the risks. I knew there was a possibility that I might not survive the operation as it was not, at that time, a common procedure. People still feared letting doctors open up their chests and fiddle with their hearts. But I told myself that if I was going to die, then that was it—I would leave it to Allah and the skill of the surgeon. It may sound dramatic now that so many people have successfully undergone heart surgery, but once I had accepted the possibility of death, I felt quite calm.”

From “A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” Chapter 43, Oga 89.

Aryabhata World's greatest Mathematician, Astronaut you where never told about.

Aryabhata was an acclaimed mathematician-astronomer. He was born in
Kusumapura (present day Patna) in Bihar, India. His contribution to
mathematics, science and astronomy is immense, and yet he has not been
accorded the recognition in the world history of science. At the age of 24, he
wrote his famed “Aryabhatiya”. He was aware of the concept of zero, as well
as the use of large numbers up to 1018. He was the first to calculate the
value for ‘pi’ accurately to the fourth decimal point. He devised the formula
for calculating areas of triangles and circles. He calculated the circumference
of the earth as 62,832 miles, which is an excellent approximation, and
suggested that the apparent rotation of the heavens was due to the axial
rotation of the earth on its axis. He was the first known astronomer to devise
a continuous counting of solar days, designating each day with a number. He
asserted that the planets shine due to the reflection of sunlight, and that the
eclipses occur due to the shadows of moon and earth. His observations
discount the “flat earth” concept, and lay the foundation for the belief that
earth and other planets orbit the sun.

Childhood & Early Life
Aryabhata’s birthplace is uncertain, but it may have been in the area known
in ancient texts as Ashmaka, which may have been Maharashtra or Dhaka
or in Kusumapura in present day Patna.
Some archaeological evidence suggests that he came from the present day
Kodungallur, the historical capital city of Thiruvanchikkulam of ancient
Kerala - this theory is strengthened by the several commentaries on him
having come from Kerala.
He went to Kusumapura for advanced studies and lived there for some time.
Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as well as Bhāskara I, the 7th Century
mathematician, identify Kusumapura as modern Patna.

Career & Later Life
A verse mentions that Aryabhata was the head of an institution (kulapa) at
Kusumapura. Since, the University of Nalanda was in Pataliputra, and had
an astronomical observatory; it is probable that he was its head too.
Direct details of his work are known only from the Aryabhatiya. His disciple
Bhaskara I calls it Ashmakatantra (or the treatise from the Ashmaka).
The Aryabhatiya is also occasionally referred to as Arya-shatas-aShTa
(literally, Aryabhata’s 108), because there are 108 verses in the text. It
also has 13 introductory verses, and is divided into four pādas or chapters.
Aryabhatiya’s first chapter, Gitikapada, with its large units of time — kalpa,
manvantra, and Yuga — introduces a different cosmology. The duration of
the planetary revolutions during a mahayuga is given as 4.32 million years.
Ganitapada, the second chapter of Aryabhatiya has 33 verses covering
mensuration (kṣetra vyāvahāra), arithmetic and geometric progressions,
gnomon or shadows (shanku-chhAyA), simple, quadratic, simultaneous, and
indeterminate equations.
Aryabhatiya’s third chapter Kalakriyapada explains different units of time, a
method for determining the positions of planets for a given day, and a
seven-day week with names for the days of week.
The last chapter of the Aryabhatiya, Golapada describes Geometric/
trigonometric aspects of the celestial sphere, features of the ecliptic,
celestial equator, shape of the earth, cause of day and night, and zodiacal
signs on horizon.

He did not use a symbol for zero; its knowledge was implicit in his place-
value system as a place holder for the powers of ten with null coefficients.
He did not use the Brahmi numerals, and continued the Sanskritic tradition
from Vedic times of using letters of the alphabet to denote numbers,
expressing quantities in a mnemonic form.
He worked on the approximation for pi thus — add four to 100, multiply by
eight, and then add 62,000, the circumference of a circle with a diameter of
20,000 can be approached.
It is speculated that Aryabhata used the word āsanna (approaching), to
mean that not only is this an approximation, but that the value is
incommensurable or irrational.
In Ganitapada, he gives the area of a triangle as: “for a triangle, the result
of a perpendicular with the half-side is the area”. He discussed ‘sine’ by the
name of ardha-jya or half-chord.
Like other ancient Indian mathematicians, he too was interested in finding
integer solutions to Diophantine equations with the form ax + by = c; he
called it the kuṭṭaka (meaning breaking into pieces) method.
His contribution to the study of Algebra is immense. In Aryabhatiya,
Aryabhata provided elegant results for the summation of series of squares
and cubes through well tried formulae.
His system of astronomy was called the audayaka system, in which days
are reckoned from uday, dawn at lanka or “equator”. His later writings,
which apparently proposed the ardha-rAtrikA, or midnight model, are lost.
He correctly believed that the earth rotates about its axis daily, and that the
apparent movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation
of the earth, challenging the prevailing view.
In Aryabhatiya, he writes that ‘setting and rising of planets’ is a perception
similar to that of someone in a boat going forward sees an unmoving
(object) going backward.
He correctly asserted that the planets shine due to the reflection of
sunlight, and that the eclipses occur due to the shadows of moon and
earth, and not caused by a demon called “Rahu”!
He correctly deduced that the orbits of the planets are ellipses; this is
another great discovery not credited to him but to Johannes Kepler (a
German astronomer, born AD 1571).
Major Works
Aryabhata’s major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and
astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical
literature, and has survived to modern times. The Aryabhatiya covers
arithmetic, algebra, and trigonometry.
Personal Life & Legacy
Aryabhata’s work was of great influence in the Indian astronomical tradition
and influenced several neighboring cultures through translations. Some of
his works are cited by Al-Khwarizmi, and in the 10th century by Al-Biruni.
The Aryabhata Knowledge University (AKU), Patna, has been established by
the Government of Bihar in his honor for the development and management
of educational infrastructure related to technical, medical, management and
allied professional education.
India’s first satellite Aryabhata is named in his honor.
At the Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIOS) near
Nainital, India, research in astronomy, astrophysics and atmospheric
sciences is conducted.
Trivia
Named after the great Indian astronomer of the same name, India’s first
satellite’s image used to appear on the reverse of Indian 2 rupee
banknotes.
Named after the great Indian astronomer is the remnant of a lunar impact
crater located in the eastern Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. Submerged by
lava-flow, now only an arc-shaped ridge remains.
Top 10 Facts You Did Not Know About Aryabhata
Aryabhata is credited to have set up an observatory at the Sun temple in
Taregana, Bihar.
Some sources suggest that Kerala was Aryabhata's main place of life and
activity but others refute this statement.
He served as the head of an institution (kulapa) at Kusumapura and might
have also been the head of the Nalanda university.
Some scholars claim that the Arabic text ‘Al ntf’ or ‘Al-nanf’ is a translation
of one of his works.
His most famous text, ‘Aryabhatiya’, consists of 108 verses and 13
introductory verses.
Aryabhata did not use the Brahmi numerals; he used letters of the alphabet
to denote numbers.
It is probable that he might have come to the conclusion that 'pi' is
irrational.
He discussed the concept of ‘sine’ in his work by the name of “ardha-jya”,
which literally means "half-chord".
Calendric calculations devised by Aryabhata are used for fixing the
‘Panchangam’ (the Hindu Calendar).
He correctly stated that the earth rotates about its axis daily.