Come all to AI: A review of ‘Makemation’

Lined up to offer you a most scintillating welcome to the electronic universe are renowned Nigerian techies like Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and even your age-old likeable artists and innovation enthusiasts. All are united to serve you delicacies of dimensions of artificial intelligence and technology to the extent of inciting you, or better still, making you imagine yourself as an already cultivated techie. Timeously so, it seems.

Without any inkling on the likelihood of the proclamation, Nigeria just woke up to the recent announcement on its rating as being foremost in tech startups in the world. This came on the heels of the yet to be contested claim that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, is foremost in the use of technology in the world in the conduct of examination. But how does Nigeria sustain these outstanding positions?

Tech skills acquisition scheme must be urgently radicalized and made accessible to all across socio-economic and gender divides. How?

These and other knotty questions are what the producers of Makemation have made efforts to answer in a two and a half hour-long film. To emphasize the film’s emphatic focus on future, it was probably the most special feature of this year’s edition of Children’s Day in Lagos.

Big names here and there in Makemation, the film for the future, but the protagonist is a neophyte absolutely intentional to appropriate the world to herself daring all daunting tackles.

Sonia Sodangi was born and raised in a slum where most of her neighbours only manage to access minimum education obviously because of the suffocating poverty. Sonia spots a great future in the offerings of the competitive Makemation Tech Institute and feels highly motivated and excited. She applies for admission and gets a place. But she is alone in her excitement and aspiration. Mother’s love is strong but far below the required financial requirement.

Diseased daddy is even impervious to the idea of educating girls and would rather prefer preparing them for kitchen roles and marriage. With the bits gathered from everywhere, Sonia’s mother sweated out some money to enroll the daughter and to also equip her with a laptop.

Makemation Tech Institute presents a well organized outlook in a decent environment. The classroom parades a most fitting and functional set of facilities with ample space for demonstrative teaching even as it has roomy adjoining corridors and some other ultramodern facilities supportive of basic comfort for young and active learners. This is not to talk of a well stocked library and computer laboratory endowed enough to loan out computers to students that may have challenges with their personal systems.

The Institute is no less supported by highly credentialed personnel with inspiring personalities. Students at Makemation need to work  hard to do well even as a classmate of Sonia, Babajide Gomez, keeps attracting applause from all on account of his brilliant performance across all subjects.

Yet, in place of the badly needed encouragement from home and all, ceaselessly coughing welder dad of Sonia remains unyielding in her relentless severe criticism of Sonia. Sodangi also resent’s the simplest and most innocent explanation from her daughter: “You mean you can do a shouting match with me? Instead of getting married to a responsible rich man that can help the family you choose to indulge in time wasting of schooling. Me I cannot understand fah.”

Sodangi is even indifferent to all persuasion from Sonia’s mother who believed a middle of the night plea may convince her hard hearted sweetheart. Far, indeed very far from Sonia’s vision, siblings and many neighbours in her age bracket and beyond also found her thoughts as some hard knock.

Timid Sonia also has to fight social shockers among peers in school who seem to have clearer vision for their respective futures. Deciding of applications to develop as projects did not seem any bid deal even as they are not any significantly more brilliant than Sonia.

Overwhelmed by her dad’s illness and the low performance of her laptop, Sonia switched her project a few times but seemed divinely guided to remain on her modest tracks of StemGees and Helchetics, Health Check Analytics.  Stemgees is the app designed to enhance girls’ understanding of the sciences and reach to all possible heights uninhibited.

Sonia hopes to replicate may of her types in future as she explains to the panel of assessors. Luckily, the sentiment resonates with the female members of the panel and this seems to deeply fulfils Sonia’s long nursed ambition of helping many young girls who may have to contend with the cultural obstacles of undue discrimination she narrowly escaped but which her mother laments till date.

Helchetics is the app to ease diagnosis of ailments and accelerate prescription. The idea of this app derived from the seeming ceaseless deepening of her father’s tuberculosis. It was the main distraction her mother has pulling her away from the exciting progress Sonia keeps making at the Institute. Sonia trudges on to turn the trial to triumph. Apparently too weak to cope, Sonia’s first presentation of the health app is not quite thrilling.

She is duly advised to do thorough revision to enable her have a finer grasp of the breadth and depth of the presentation. She ultimately gets a full grip even as the father is still on admission at the hospital. Like her dad, Sonia’s fate hangs in the balance.

On the graduation ceremony day the best prize expectedly goes to Babajide Gomez thunderously applauded by fellow graduands and others alike. But there is yet another prize and the winner is Sonia! Her app for health did the magic. The prize came with N10 million Naira cash. Sonia finally becomes daddy’s girl.  Her victory is a sweet one daddy relishes with pride lifting his spirit so visibly on the sick bed.

Sonia’s fighting spirit wins her two big victories, both seminal.

Indeed, almost all viable output of AI and technology offer seminal reliance, hence the need to massively explore that knowledge realm to address our civilizational experiences and  yearnings alike. More concerning is the need for the female gender to get seriously involved so they can always relativise their innovations to the unique needs of their gender. The logic is that no matter how compassionate a man may be, he is always likely to fall short in thinking for the other gender especially in a patriarchal society.

Makemation is  a film that skilfully weaves trendy themes of technology so invitingly especially for young people who only need the society to properly demystify gender discrimination  so deeply rooted through generations. Makemation offers the model, so it is possible.

The film is interestingly neatly punctuated by the right measures of love as for instance exemplified by Sonia and Dave who finally (resumed?) starts work at Meta4. It further radiates globalised fashion sense as well as ethnic interdependence which plays out by the day in Nigeria.

For those who may have to struggle with the inspiring accent of the English Language therein, the subtitling fills the gap. However, some slight slips are manifest in the subtitling which do not constitute serious issue as such. On the whole, Makemation is a loud call to AI for All. Just dare and you win.

Tunde Akanni is a professor of journalism and development communications at the Lagos State University. Connect with him on X:@AkintundeAakanni