The Lions Clubs International District 404A2 Nigeria, on Friday said it has concluded plans to build an Eye Care Complex at the General Hospital, Minna, Niger State.

District Governor, The Lions Clubs International District 404A2, Nigeria, Jide Bello, stated this at a news conference yesterday in Abuja.

He said the construction of the Lions Eye Care Complex would be the major project of the organisation this year.

Bello said the organisation had already secured approval from the State Government and board of the hospital for the building project.

He said: “This is our major project of the year. We have met with the hospital board, and the governor and they have given us the necessary approval.

“We visited the governor of Niger State. We presented the drawing and budget to him. He was amazed. He promised to support us with his friends and senators from the state.

“The governor has assured us that in the next six to seven months, this project will be ready.

“We are going to conduct eye care in selected secondary schools in each of our district states.”

Bello also revealed plans by the organisation to conduct a massive eye care assessment outreach across selected secondary schools in each state and conduct at least 50 cataract surgeries.

According to him, the organisation plans to provide refractive error intervention to 400 children in secondary schools.

The Taraba State Commissioner for Education Johannes Jigem has described the media report alleging the expulsion of six secondary school students for protesting as a mischievous act against the good works of the Taraba State Government.

A broadcast media had, on its social media platform, reported that six students of Salihu Dogo Secondary School Jalingo were expelled for protesting over the poor state of facilities in the institution, which prompted the authorities to verify the fact of the matter.

During a media briefing in his office yesterday, Jigem expressed the government’s disappointment over the report. He said a committee was set up to verify the report and it was discovered that the report was false.

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“We are disappointed by some media organisations that reported that six students were expelled which resulted in students going on protest. Before you expel, you must follow procedures. You must invite the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), religious associations, and the ministry. It is fake and not true. There was no iota of suspension let alone expulsion.

“When we received that report, we set up a committee and the report of the committee showed that it was not true,” he said.

While blaming the report on politics, the commissioner said the government had renovated and constructed facilities but that unfortunately, some hoodlums stole and vandalised them. He gave the example of Central Primary School which was burnt by vandals.

Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari yesterday re-appointed two commissioners and two Special Advisers who had earlier resigned their appointments to contest various positions during the just-concluded primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Nation recalled that former Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Farouk Lawal Jobe and the Commissioner for Rural Development Mustapha Mahmud had resigned their appointments to contest the governorship seats.

During the swearing-in ceremony held at the Government House, Governor Masari said he had little to say other than to welcome them back.

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He said: ”They left to contest various elective positions and they were not successful. However, they remained part of us wherever they are and we feel the best thing we can do is to request them to come back and they are willing to come back and continue from where they stopped.’

“So, welcome back to the cabinet of which you are foundation members.

“When the Deputy Governor wanted to contest the office of the Governor, he relinquished his position and assignment as Commissioner for Agriculture which we realised later was not necessary.

“With the new Electoral Act, everybody wanted to play safe and he did.”

“I have directed the Secretary to the State Government that the Deputy Governor should continue his assignment as Commissioner for Agriculture and he doesn’t need to be sworn in.

“We still have two more vacancies, the replacement of late the Nasir Rabe and the Commissioner for Sports Development. In the next one or two weeks, we should be able to fill the two vacancies.”

The Kaduna State Government said it has concluded plans to recruit 10,000 primary school teachers to replace disengaged ones and improve the teacher-pupil ratio.

Deputy Governor Dr Hadiza Balarabe made this known in Kaduna yesterday at the inauguration of the distribution of learning materials to pupils in 4,260 public primary schools and 838 learning centres.

The state government had, on June 19, announced the sack of 2,357 primary school teachers for failing the government’s competency tests.

The state government had, in 2018, sacked 21,780, for failing a similar test while 233 others were sacked in December 2021 for allegedly presenting fake certificates.

According to the deputy governor, the government shall continue to weed out unqualified teachers in public schools and no amount of distraction will stop it.

“The quality of instruction is very important in determining the educational outcomes of our children and we cannot allow only the children of a few to steal the advantage that education provides.

“Nor shall we continue to allow poor quality education to be available to the children of the weak and vulnerable in our society, who attends public schools.

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“Children of the poor also deserve competent teachers, and it is our sworn responsibility to ensure that they get it,” he said.

Balarabe said the state government had renovated more than 500 public primary and secondary schools and provided perimeter fencing in many schools as required by United Nations (UN) agencies for the security of children.

She added that new schools were built including new science secondary schools and many blocks of classrooms constructed in primary and other secondary schools across the state.

Balarabe said the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) and the state primary education development projects had ensured the construction of more classrooms at the primary school level.

This, according to her, is to accommodate the return of out-of-school children to classes.

“However, as important as classrooms and physical structures are in creating conducive learning environments, lack of access to books poses an even greater challenge to learning.

“Therefore, our free book policy is to increase access to textbooks, exercise books, sandals, sharpeners, pencils, erasers, school bags and magnetic boards.”

She said when poor children were exposed to books early, they would learn to read better, adding that the more children had access to books the more likely they would learn better.

She noted that the problems in education were “simply overwhelming” adding that the government alone could not bear the burden.

Learning materials would be distributed under the BESDA programme to ensure quality teaching and learning.

A former Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede and other stakeholders have called for the implementation of a national policy to promote digital learning.

Jegede noted that no country would achieve a proficient digital economy without digital skills.

He and other stakeholders spoke at a two-day workshop on policy initiatives for digital learning in Nigerian universities which commenced on Tuesday in Abuja and was attended by 19 vice-chancellors and 13 directors of Africa Centres of Excellence from different locations in the country.

The workshop was organised by the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDO) (NOUN) in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning in Vancouver Canada and the African Centre of Excellence on Technology-enhanced Learning (ACETEL).

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Jegede said: “All over the world people have embraced technology much more than we think; there is nothing you can do now without technology. Technology has taken over all parts of our system.

“It has become imperative to appreciate the role of technology in teaching and learning so that the next generation will be better placed in appreciating the world and being trained for the workforce and better entrepreneurs.

“The world is now depending on the digital economy, so this is what the policy is advocating, that the universities should appreciate the use of digital learning in today’s world.

“The professors, and lecturers can use digital learning for teaching, assessment, exams, interact with students and send their messages across and bring students together for them to have their group discussions.

“Digital literacy is actually saying we should understand how to use all these technologies, how to use them to access information and how to produce information through them.

“Nobody in the developing world now is being given a job unless you show your level of digital literacy education and I’m glad Nigeria has said that in 2030 all our schools must establish digital literacy.”

The United Kingdom (UK) Government will spend 6.2 million Pounds on health, education and core governance, through the Mutual Accountability Framework in Kano State this year.

The Director of Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Development Dr Chris Pycroft stated this yesterday, adding that good progress has been made in the mutual accountability framework because, in 2021, FCDO committed £5.5 five million in support of Kano development ambitions.

Pycroft spoke during the second Mutual Accountability Framework Strategic Dialogue meeting between the Kano State Government and the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office held in the Government House, Kano.

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He said the Mutual Accountability Framework and Strategic Dialogue are a clear statement of the United Kingdom’s commitment and support to the government and people of Kano State.

Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the aim of the meeting was to review the commitment of the first Kano Mutual Accountability Framework which was signed last year to ascertain the journey so far with regard to the implementation of crucial activities.

Ganduje, who was represented by his deputy, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, said “the Kano Mutual Accountability Framework sets out the reform initiatives the State Government introduced and the support FCDO will provide to drive overall growth and development of Kano State.”

Gawuna added that “the revised Kano Mutual Accountability Framework will continue to monitor concrete reforms that will support good governance, improvement in economic recovery and investment and also reduce poverty through human capital development, particularly on health, education and social protection.”

The Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON) yesterday said that importers of substances related to chemistry, especially chemicals, will need to get certified and licensed by it before they can import chemicals.

It further said while this new direction is meant to safeguard the lives of Nigerians, especially against chemical disasters and accidents, it would also improve the economic indices of the country and create more jobs because every importing company now needs to employ the services of a chartered chemist as an additional requirement for importation.

The President and Chairman of the Council of the ICCON, Prof. Fanna Abdulrahaman, made this known in Abuja during its 16th workshop, induction and investiture, with the theme “Safety and Health in the Use of Chemicals.”

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She said: “I am glad to mention that the office of the National Security Adviser has commenced the implementation of the regulation on the inclusion of ICCON certified chemists as technical officers for the application of End User Certificate to import high priority chemicals.

“There are very important key chemicals that are being imported all the time, for which the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has the sole responsibility of certifying that those chemicals coming in are the right ones.

“From our collaboration with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), things that are specific to chemistry have been removed from there and every company that is to import some specific chemicals will now need certification from us. They will also need a technical officer who is also a chartered chemist. Otherwise, they will not get the license to import.”

The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ICCON, Jwalshik Wilford added: “We have 220 people being inducted; about 78 are technical officers from corporate companies that have registered with us. For the membership, we have about 98 of them, while 46 are fellows.”

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has advised the 23 sworn-in 23 council chairmen who were currently sworn in to carry everyone along in running the administration of their respective local government areas.

The governor gave the advice yesterday while inaugurating the elected local government chairmen at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi.

He urged the chairmen to imbibe the culture of operating an inclusive administration, pointing out that they must always involve all Council members, stakeholders as well as the local government legislative members in decision-making in order to succeed.

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The governor further urged the chairmen to give priority to payment of primary school teachers, local government area traditional councils, stressing that “these and other statutory obligations should be put on first line charge to ensure the seamless operations of the local government councils.”

He said: “With your swearing-in, you should bear in mind that the days of playing politics are over. Now is the time to concentrate on giving the electorate quality service because that is the reason for giving you their mandate.

“It is important for all of you to note at all times that we are in office because of the electorate and not for ourselves. We must therefore serve them faithfully, diligently and conscientiously because there is always the day to give an account of our stewardship,” Governor Ortom said.