Aniemeka: Air Man with Unwavering Passion for Scientific Knowledge

As the Nigerian military advance technologically and in strategic planning, the need for military officers to advance in knowledge has also become imperative. For Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Enem Theophilus Aniemeka, the pursuit of scientific knowledge is key to delivering on the goals of the military. His recent award of an academic Doctor of Philosophy by the Babcock University underscores the new order of change within the Nigerian military. Paul Obi writes

Beyond the modern day military training given to officers, the intellectual and strategic training of today’s soldier has also been key in defence matters. As the world becomes more digitalised and scientifically driven, soldiers are also expected to embrace the wave of change. For Master Warrant Officer, Enem Theophilus Aniemeka, seeking knowledge has constantly been the bedrock of his goals.

And as regimented as the military is, this has not deterred him from reaching the peak of his academic desire. It is this singular act that recently came to a crescendo when Aniemeka was awarded Ph.D in Computer Science (Networking and Telecommunication) by the Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State.

Aniemeka , who was born on 23 September 1964 in Enugu, hails from Eke in Udi Local Government of Enugu State. He had his early education at Colliery Primary School, Iva-Valley Enugu (1973 – 1979) and College of Immaculate Conception Enugu (1980 – 1984). He thereafter enlisted into the Nigerian Air Force as a member of 85A Set on 4th of February 1985 and completed his Initial Basic Training Course at Ground Training Group Kaduna on 9th of August 1985. He has served in several NAF units and held several appointments, some of which are Computer Analyst, Personal Assistant at both the Unit and Command level.

At present, he is the Supervisor Computer Centre of 051 Personnel Management Group Lagos, an appointment he has held since 2008. In addition, he acts as the System Administrator at the 051 Personnel Management Group Computer Centre whenever the incumbent is unavailable due to service exigency.

From the cradle, MWO Aniemeka has an insatiable taste for knowledge and has always used any opportunity at his disposal to acquire knowledge and skills which improves his service delivery to the Nigerian Air Force. He had his B.Sc. (Hons) Computer Science at University of Benin from 1992-1995, M.Sc (Information Technology) at National Open University of Nigeria Lagos from 2008-2010 before proceeding to Babcock University Ilishan-Remo from 2012-2016 for Ph.D in Computer Science (Networking and Telecommunication). He is a member of Computer Society of Nigeria. It is pertinent to note that he acquired his Msc and Ph.D through self-effort.

In his doctoral research with the title ‘Transmission Control Protocol’s Initial Congestion Window for Web Latency Reduction and Speedy Flows’, Aniemeka dissected the dynamics of transmission control and how they impact on web latency. The research outcome and result from his thesis indicated that the developed Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) model in varying the congestion window size from 2 to 48 was achieved.

The developed Random Early Detection (RED) algorithms were able to reduce the transmission timer and also increase the congestion window size. Thus, the result showed that the Round Trip Time, throughput and web latency of Microsoft Windows 8 and 8.1 gave the best result compared to other operating systems (OS). The packet loss reduced from 23 bytes to 18 bytes and the Round Trip Time was reduced from 189ms to 10ms at TCP congestion window of 32. Hence, the TCP congestion window was increased to 32 segments.

According to him, “the research was also able to solve the problems of short-lived connections in the current Internet network. Also, the speedy flows and web latency reduction on Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for various OS improved and thereby reduced packet loss and delay. This study recommended that the Initial Congestion Window for TCP be adopted by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Nigeria to give Internet users better service by reducing latency and improving page load time which are the factors influencing user satisfaction and website visit.”

At the Air Force service front, Aniemeka has earned the Forces Service Star, Silver Jubilee Medal and Golden Jubilee Medal. Late last year, he won the Best Graduating Student Award at the Leadership and Management Course 1/2016 held at Ground Training Centre Kaduna. On 4 June 2017, he won the Best Graduating Doctorate Award with overall highest Cumulative Grade Point Aggregate (CGPA) at the Doctor of Philosophy Level from Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State.

Speaking to THISDAY, Aniemeka explained that his “zeal for academic pursuit lies on my quest to succeed academically and otherwise as an Oscar Romeo. And also to key into one of CAS key drivers on personnel academic enhancement.” He added that the “research work which centred on web latency reduction and speedy flows has to do with reducing latency and increasing data flow speed within the Transmission Control Protocol stack. It also reduced packet loss on transit.”

On how the Nigerian Air Force will benefit from the knowledge he had acquired with the Ph.D, he stressed that “NAF will benefit immensely from work by adopting my recommendations or subscribing to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that is using my work.”
Personally, Aniemeka believes that his ”life has been something like a go for excellence. Strive for perfection, if any task is worth doing, it is worth doing well. I got this drive from from NAF core value that stipulates that integrity, service before self and excellence in all you do should be the driving forces for all airmen. I have a passion for teaching. I desire to go into lecturing work, where I will add value to humanity.”