CNN Interviews 9-Year-Old Aspiring Nigerian Scientist, Basil Okpara, After He Did This
Nigerian kid, Basil Okpara Jr is a shining example of what can be achieved, age notwithstanding. The 9-year-old picked up valuable lessons when he attended a five-day boot camp organised for children aged five to 15 and has gone ahead to become a serial game developer applying what he learnt at the boot camp.
Giant media network, CNN interviewed young Basil at his family home in Lagos when the young lad revealed that his interest in creating games became more pronounced when he was seven years old. As at that time, he was often scolded by his parents for spending all of his time playing games on the phone until his father enrolled him at a camp organized by Codefest International.
READ ALSO: Why The World Is Celebrating 33-Year-Old Computer Programmer, Abisoye-Ajayi-Akinfolarin
The camp was put in place to give children like Basil access to emerging technologies like robotics and virtual reality. The 9-year-old has built games with the help of a free programming application called Scratch 2 which allows users to create games, animations, and stories online or offline. It takes Basil just 30 minutes to create a mobile game.
So far, Basil has used it to generate more than 30 mobile games. Speaking on his newfound love, he told CNN:
“I learned how to build games at a boot camp. Now, I build to keep me busy when I am bored.”
His father, Basil Okpara Sr, spoke of his son’s love for mobile games. He said:
“Growing up, Basil used to play a lot of mobile games says his father. I bought him a tablet when he was four years old because I saw that he was always grabbing phones to play games with. He played Candy Crush and Temple Run a lot.”
READ ALSO: Meet Nigeria’s 12-Year-Old Fathia Who Built Robot That Folds Laundry
Speaking further he explained that:
“There was this day he was on the tablet, as usual, he was so carried away with the game he was playing that I got upset with him.
Out of annoyance, I said to him, ‘you are always playing games, can’t you think about building your own games so others can play yours too?’I was angry when I said it, and I did not know he took it seriously.”
Basil took up his father’s challenge and paid more attention and interest to learning how to make his own games. This prompted his parents to buy him a laptop and register him to learn the first steps to building games. He titles his games based on what they are about.
His proud father shared the video of the interview with CNN on his Instagram. Watch below: