By Abdu Rafiu
A great many must have been held spell-bound on Saturday watching a nine-year-old girl on television dazzle the world with her disarming display of her knowledge in mathematics. It was a spectacle, the kind of story you watch or read about in faraway lands. Charlotte Muritala shot into the consciousness of Channels Television viewers, blowing minds as she broke complex mathematical questions into very simple matters, making what is usually dreaded as a no-go area to be seen in a new light. Charlotte Muritala who is a JSS pupil at Iyeru Okin African Church Secondary School, Offa, Kwara State, answered 19 mathematics questions in only 60 seconds. Channels Television beaming her tackling an algebra subject says: “…the young tutor is helping her peers, and even adults, see mathematics in a new light, challenging the idea that the subject has to be difficult.” It is said of her that she turns TikTok into a classroom, teaching mathematics to other children.
As shown on television, she uses a whiteboard, marker and cell phone to record lessons. She explains topics such as algebra, and simplifies fractions in the lowest common denominators. This has made her to attract attention with 80,000 followers already. That she is a prodigy burst out at the age of five when she developed interest in mathematics from her love for numbers. In her own words: “I started liking mathematics when I was small, I love mathematics because I enjoy numbers.” She said mathematics is enjoyable and not a burden. In tackling seemingly difficult questions, she said: “First, I like breaking them into small parts. That makes it easier for me. So, I break it into small parts, then I solve it. Once I start solving the hard problem, if I am not getting it, I will go and choose the best method and start solving it step by step.”
Giving credit to her mother, she said: “My mum created another platform for me to share what I know with other children. I feel very happy and proud of myself.” Her father, Azeez Muritala, said although she enjoys playing like children of her age, she loves reading and is always with mathematics. “Every time, she’s always learning, reading every time. She’s a child, and she’s still nine years old. Sometimes she plays, but when it comes to reading, she doesn’t joke with it.”
Her mathematics teacher described her as outstanding with exceptional skills and a strong passion for solving problems.
For her outstanding performance in a competition, she was awarded a N6 million scholarship by the National Mathematical Centre, Abuja. She has won seven international mathematics competitions from the American Mathematics Competition to Comodo Math Festival. She received a LIMCA Award for memorising 673 binary numbers in less than nine minutes at Memory Championship. MAN awarded her a full six-year scholarship to Evergreen College, Enugu, according to an internet report. Now, Chalotte has become the talk of the town. She is the latest prodigy in town and at home here in Nigeria,
The emergence of a whiz kid will always intrigue our world. We may wish to remember Soborno Isaac Bari, said to be the youngest Professor in 2023. He was described as incredible in a citation by a university in South Africa that gave him an award for what was described as his insight into complex problems. He was nine years old. He flew from the United States to South Africa accompanied by his parents to collect the award.
As I did state in 2018 when we experienced a phenomenon of this kind, the audience is transfixed. Viewers watch in absolute disbelief and many sometimes with tears rolling down their cheeks in utter amazement and admiration when a three-ear-old boy, for example, saunters, as it were, onto the stage as if in need of help, but only to dazzle the audience with his dexterity on the keyboard of a piano, or when a Chopin or Mozart at the age of 12 walks briskly onto the dais, mounting a concert and sweeping the gathering off their feet with their exceptional abilities and gifts in music. What do we say about a barely three-year-old polyglot who speaks 12 languages? They all perform to a rousing applause, to a standing ovation.
They are the talk of the town for months on end. Who are they, the audience would ask? From where are they? If it is a sole performance, who is he? We hazard a guess: He is the great grandson of Ludwig Van Beethoven more simply called Beethoven (1770-1827). Oh, beg your pardon, he is the grandson of Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti (Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s father) who composed the Egba National Anthem. He got it from his old man. And the conversation triggered by awe continues. Who is he? And we remain askance!
A great many got familiar with the case of Blind Tom, son of a Black woman sold at a slave auction. Blind Tom whose full name was Thomas Green Bethune warded off his adversity and performed at a concert in Columbus, United States at the age of seven. By the time he was 15, he was playing Bach and Beethoven and took part in concerts in several places including outside the United States. Take the case of Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring. She started her literary career at the age of 10. If we say that is unusual, what do we say of a child, a polyglot barely three years who shocked the world with his ability to speak 12 languages—German, Russia, Welsh, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Visaya and English? And when he was to sign off, he spoke in Portuguese which brings the total to 13! Yes, scientists and linguists and those concerned with child development say every child is capable of mastering and speaking 16 languages. In normal development, yes. The difference here is the age –barely three years old.
It appears, as I did state in 2018, we are beginning to see the emergence of more of these prodigies now. Many who pre-occupy themselves with the development must be wondering why this is so and who prodigies are! They are being brought out by the social media. They manifest in the world of Arts, music and sciences. This should not surprise us; these are activities not tied to the cerebrum, that is the frontal brain which is the seat of the intellect. In other words, not to the intellect, but to the cerebellum, the hind brain. Are we not told that there is music and there is dancing in Heaven? And in the higher knowledge spreading on earth in these times, we learn that Artists have the most soil for promptings from higher planes. They are more open and receptive to vibrations from there.
At the time I wrote, it was an 11-year-old boy who blew minds, who tore into our consciousness. In the report captioned “The wonder boy of Hyderabad”, I stated as follows: “Mohammed Hassan Ali is his name. It is a story of an enigmatic 11-year-old boy in Hyderabad. The report appeared in the social media. He is self-taught and is teaching engineering –civil, mechanical and electrical in designing and drafting –to Bachelor’s and Master’s degree students. His college students as of now number 30 whom he lectures free of charge. His phenomenal aim is to improve standards in India and he plans to teach no fewer than 100, 000 by the end of 2020.”
The story of Esther Okade is another wonder and it reads: “Esther Okade (13-year-old British-Nigerian girl) is set to do the unimaginable. She will receive her PhD in financial mathematics this year 2018. She started university at 10 years old and always emerged at the top of her class. Esther is officially certified as a genius.”
And now this nine-year-old Soborno Isaac Bari! Soborno, according to his citation, received his letter of recognition from the then President of the United States, Barack Obama, in 2016 when he was barely four years old, also from New York State Governor as well as from the President of Harvard University. He earned his first salary from the University of Mumbai when he was seven years old. Internet says of him that he was an eight-year-old brilliant boy. He started showing exceptional skills when he was just one and can now solve higher mathematics and physics problems easily. The child prodigy was that year known as ‘Einstein of our time.’ It was even suggested that Isaac his middle name was taken from Isaac Newton, the renowned scientist. It was said that he also loved chemistry. He was planning to write a book to help students overcome their anxiety over mathematics. In 2026, our own nine-year-old Charlotte Muritala gave a similar admonition to allay fears about mathematics. She said children struggling with mathematics should keep practising and not be afraid of making mistakes.
Soborno won the Global Child Prodigy Award in January 2020. At that also emerged another genius by name Kautilya Pandit, aged 13. It was said of him that he “knows about everything in the universe.” As of 2022, there were altogether 100 child prodigies in the world.
It is only to be expected that the question will be asked: Wither our world and what lies behind the phenomenon of prodigies? What makes a prodigy different from non-prodigies?
Understanding who man is, his nature, our world and the purpose of our sojourn in it are what can unravel the mystery that is a prodigy child. Who we are as human beings has been discussed in these pages many times now and so has the purpose of our lives on earth. If I may summarise: Human beings go beyond the body we behold. The body is a cloak and a tool for the real being which is spirit. Being in the material world, the body can only be fashioned with material as his veritable covering to manifest and be anchored on earth. It is the spirit that works through the body, animating it for the purpose of its journey on this planet. It is encased in lighter materials that constitute the soul before the heavier one which is the body. Don’t we wonder why a dead body, say of an adult, is unsuspectingly heavy that a single man is hardly ever able to lift it and carry it? It is because the animating core that makes him light and spritely has withdrawn from it!
The spirit thus goes through re-embodiments which are called reincarnation to correct failings and make progress towards perfection, the only condition that can afford him entry into Paradise our real Home rendered as Jerusalem our Home Above in a song. Various Prophets, Teachers of Mankind and the Son of the All-Highest, a Part of Him have had to come to show us the way to improving on ourselves and making progress which can be described as moving from one class to the next higher one, that is from one level of development to the other. All the coverings have their organs of hearing, seeing and so on. When we exit the earth, dropping the coarser coverings, we are souls bearing human form except where there are deformities brought about by sordid conduct, heinous crimes and envy while on earth. Those who do not believe in the existence of God are in fact blind and deaf. They are closed to the possibility of help. They hit their heads on sharp objects trying to move about.
As we are in the Age of the Holy Spirit and together with His own special Star called the Great Comet, revealed in higher knowledge as the Return of the Star of Bethlehem, our world is under tremendous pressure, evidently referred to as Light Pressure. This pressure which is Radiation Power of the Holy Spirit is bringing about awakening in the world, such that in man, all that is slumbering or dead is activated. At the same time, goodness is reinforced and abilities and talents are animated to flourish to the zenith of blossoming. Awakened weaknesses, indeed evil, too, will rise to disgusting crescendo so that it can be identified and crushed, shattered to sink its bearers with unrelenting devastation, to perdition. It is a period long foreseen by Prophet Isaiah as a time of unprecedented horrors such as flooding, leading to multiplicity of conferences that will lead to nowhere. It is the closing of the cycle brought about by the Pressure that we are witnessing overpopulation by a great many in the beyond who have become conscious of the signs and are making frantic efforts to return to the earth to make amends and improvements in their lives. Since the weaknesses are also awakened there is uncanny loose living; the bridge is let down for burdened and dark souls mushrooming and crossing over to fill parts of the earth to pollute same.
It is at the same time that in the blossoming of this epoch that the period is witnessing the emergence of whiz kids in unprecedented numbers, in music, the arts, technology and scientific discoveries. There is now a rush because of the closing of the cycle of our universe, Ephesus and the attendant state of our planet earth.
It is a special grace borne out of the mercy, love and justice of the Most High Creator that the possibility of reincarnation is worked into His mechanisms. Reincarnation is to facilitate the furtherance of our development so we can drop all weaknesses, get our inner being matured through mastering the Will of God and living It. This leads to polish of our inner being and attainment of a high degree of perfection to be able to pass the final examination to graduate from the school of life, that our world is, and as we strike the peak of perfection in the Beyond, head home in the Light Region commonly referred to as Paradise.
As reincarnation proves that life is a continuum, it is, therefore possible for a person to carry over certain abilities in certain areas from his previous earth lives. These abilities break out early mostly when such people are children and they are thus called prodigies. They are abilities carried in their spirits, not in their brains which are perishable and which go back to dust. Upon reincarnation, however, new brains are fashioned to be used as vehicles to ventilate what flows from within.
Come to think of it: When Chike Obi comes back will it surprise anyone if at the age of three, he solves a most complex mathematical problem and propound a new theorem? Will it surprise anyone if Ayodele Awojobi returns in another bodily guise and begins to design unheard of models of automobiles from the age of six?
TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK
The Guardian
