By Moses Emorinken, Abuja

 

With Nigeria’s health sector mired in a myriad of issues, telemedicine holds a great promise in terms of alleviating problems at the primary healthcare level.

This antidote was provided by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Medflit, Adeyinka Adeniran. Medflit is a health information technology platform that proffers solutions to problems through telemedicine, online pharmacy, hospital booking and home health services to Nigerians, .

Speaking in an interview,  Adeniran stressed that any country that is desirous of providing access to healthcare services to all citizens needs to pay serious attention to its primary healthcare system because, being at the base of healthcare pyramid, primary healthcare is pivotal towards achieving  universal healthcare coverage for all individuals and families.

“The aim of primary healthcare is to take care of less critical medical issues in the attainment of better health services for all.

Effective delivery of healthcare services at all levels, however, requires availability of adequate infrastructure, diagnostic medical equipment, drugs and well-trained medical personnel. Unfortunately, Nigeria cannot fully boast these requirements essential for quality healthcare delivery,” he said.

While emphasising on the many benefits of telemedicine, especially how it is being used in many parts of the world to improve access to quality healthcare services, the telemedicine expert stated that the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology holds a great promise to alleviate primary healthcare problems in the country by providing primary healthcare to Nigerians in the comfort of their homes.

“Patients can reach healthcare professionals for evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of less critical conditions at a distance, which in turn reduces demand on primary health facilities.

Primary healthcare services, including medical counseling, review of screenings and laboratory results, medication management and provision of ongoing care can all be accessed via telemedicine,” he said.

Adeniran further explained that telemedicine will enable people access healthcare readily at an affordable rate cheaper than the cost of hospital visits, adding that telemedicine provides an added advantage in its ability to cater to the needs of patients anywhere and at any given time.

Read Also: Edo brings healthcare to frontburner

With the use of telemedicine, patients do not need to travel long distance to receive medical care; the prompt delivery of healthcare services would ultimately save lives, he said.

“We have successfully provided people with connections to physicians for consultations, quality home service with unlimited video and voice calls, doctor’s prescription with no waiting lines, flexible bookings and access to a variety of hospitals.

The overwhelming positive feedback we have received from individuals who use the platform has been gratifying to me and the team. Our vision is to build a platform where people can access quality healthcare at minimal cost and we will continue to innovate to fulfill this vision.

“We are also looking forward to starting a TV program soon to educate Nigerians on health related topics while debunking myths and fake information about health.

Our beliefs, culture, and access to information can shape how we think about our health and having the wrong information can be extremely harmful.

In line with its vision to improve access to quality healthcare at an affordable rate, our telemedicine platform has taken up a mandate to educate Nigerians on prevalent disease conditions, prevention and early detection.

Our recently introduced array of educational health materials and resources will equip users with knowledge on prevention and management of diseases,” he said.

Onimisi Alao, Yola

Improved primary health care delivery has impacted on maternal and child safety as well as rate of birth registration in Adamawa State.

Our correspondent, who made a working tour of primary health services in Numan Local Government Area of the state, found that concerted efforts of community leaders and United Nations agencies are complementing statutory government institutions to make a difference in services available to citizens.

“Maternal mortality has reduced drastically,” Gunnin Joseph, the Facility Manager of Sabon Pegi Health Centre, Numan, told our correspondent.

She added: “Women have been well enlightened on safety precaution. They are encouraged to start antenatal care on the first sign of pregnancy and to continue to delivery time.

“They are motivated to the extent that after delivery, mothers are given token gift apart from the free antenatal care they receive.”

Our correspondent found that maternal and child heath, as in most primary health issues in Numan and the rest of Adamawa State, is driven by a tripartite responsibility mix in which community, state and non-state actors collaborate.

While the Adamawa State Primary Health Care Agency determines that every ward should have at least a primary health centre, benefitting communities provide the building while the government provides the staff and basic furniture and equipment.

Over time and currently, the European Union and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stepped in “to make the health centres more functional,” as Gunnin Joseph put it.

A Ward Development Committee (WDC) Chairman in Numan, Mr Jonah Thompson, who attested to this, explained how it works.

READ ALSO:APC candidates reject Adamawa council election

He said: “The EU/UNICEF help by giving us money. With the money we buy drugs which we give to patients at highly subsidized rate to maintain a revolving fund and sustain the intervention programme.”

The intervention has maternal and child health as one of its focus areas, according to Mr Thompson who, as Sabon Pegi Ward Chairman, supervises the two primary health care centres in the ward on behalf of the people.

He said: ‘You need to see the beauty of our labour rooms. The EU tiled the maternity sections, acquired delivery beds and baby beds and so on. This is in addition to renovating entire centres and providing other facilities.

Also speaking on the state of primary health care in Numan LGA, the Executive Secretary of the Adamawa Primary Health Care Development Agency in charge of the LGA, Asalina Apasa, disclosed that the LGA has 13 centres in which the EU/UNICEF is intervening in Numan.

In executing its intervention to women and children attending the 13 health facilities, much attention is paid to maternity and labouratories, such that in many of the centres, they facilitate the establishment of maternity and lab in furtherinng healthcare for pregnant women and children.

Increased hospital deliveries, Mr Thompson said, has automatically increased rate of birth registration

 

 

We live in a predictable, gigantic world intelligently governed by unbending laws of creation, one of which is the LAW OF BALANCE. We encounter the law of balance, for example, every where we turn everyday. It is present  in the shape of a tree, the rocky mountains, in counter balancing beams and pillars in the structure of a building, matching colours of a woman’s dress, wheel balancing or tyre guage, rotational movement of the solar systems and of the planets, and in even our EYES and how it enables us to see or  not to see. But we do not always pay serious attention to this law, if we do at all.

Therefore, I like to knock off in bed at night after prayers, feeling like a part of the universe. As I explained this  week to a gentleman who complained of regular bad dreams, swinging with the universe just before sleep  is one natural  medicine which helps me not to be chased  about in my dreams by phantoms and demons, products of negative human energy or volition. If you wonder how all of these add up to the protection of the eye with power or energy eye glasses, the subject of this column, I will quickly say that lifting  up the soul in bed  for night sleep takes us to the realms of those  law of creation by which only “birds of a feather flock together” or “likes” find likes” or echo to “likes”. Some people call it the Law of  Attraction of Hemogeneous Species. In other words, we are homogenous or the same with the environment in which we find ourselves.

The bottom line for many people, including me, is that: we make our environment; our environment does not make us…. we lie on the beds we lay. Thus, to rise beyond the world  of demons and phantoms in my sleep, and to find myself in beautiful environment in my dreams, I think of one  aspect of Creation before sleep. Often, it is of the REELING EARTH.  It is rotating on its axis at high speed to give us day and night, and we are not falling  off into space.

Simultaneously, it is rovolving at high speed around the sun to give us the various seasons and the  fruits, seeds, nuts, vegetables, tuber and other food and cash crops they bring . We are like aboard a space ship in a huge space where other space vehicles have not collided with ours since I was born 69 year ago.

We are  not static in any zone of this huge space. The earth belong to a family of planets which form a solar system around  our sun, and there are uncountable solar systems in their  trillions in this huge space revolving around a central power base in the universe in a cosmic cycle which, we are told, they complete every 26,000 years or thereabout.  What power holds them together as one family and prevents or abhors chaotic or disorderly proceedings if it is not THE LAW OF BALANCE? of course, behind this law and other laws, stand, adamantine, the ALMIGHTY AUTHOR  OF THIS WONDERFUL  CREATION , who stands outside it, permeating the minutest of forms and the most gigantic of structures with His Laws.

The human eye cannot escape governance by these laws. The cells of the various compartments and           structures are homogenous with their own species and different from the  others. The LAW OF MOTION, like the other laws of creation, governs the eye as well. Although the eye appears small in  size compared to some  other organs, it is reported to consume the largest amount of blood in circulation. If  blood circulation to the eye slows down, in a breach of the Law of Motion which compels everything in existence to be on the move, the eye may  begin to deterriorate and to degenerate.

If the eye is  over flooded with blood in breach of the  Law of Balance, another calamity may befall it. This breach is one of the causes of GLAUCOMA, a dangerous eye challenge. In  this condition, the eye may be over producing fluid at the back of  the eye which may not  drain off fast through the front, usually because the drainage channel is  blocked or has collapsed,  causing a build-up of fluid in the back chamber which, without notice, may damage sensitive nerves and other organs.

Many glaucoma patients are armed with this knowledge by their opthalmogists to fight the  condition with eye drops which help to drain off the fluid build-up. Many are  not told their challenge may go beyond sluggish blood and  fluid circulation in their eye(s), and that sunlight, which enables us to see, can be a double-edged sword which may also make us go blind. But trust mother Nature, which fashioned the eye to see in the knowledge of these laws of Creation.

She also put into the eyes natural chemical substances,as we shall soon see, which neutralise the harmful aspects of sunlight. With every day’s use of the eyes, the  stock of these substances is depleted. And we have the responsibility to restock them through the “right kinds of foods and  drinks”. Where we fail to do so,  we breach all the laws, especially the Law of Balance, and we dearly pay for it.

 

Energy eyeglasses

Many of us are careless with our health, well meaning as we  may be. And, in many cases, our eyes suffer the  most. I am guilty, as charged! I was able to easily  ride over the storms of  GLAUCOMA in 1995, using the florets of Marigold plant which are the commercial sources of vision protecting carotenoids such as  leuthin, Zeanzanthin and Astanzathin. Today, these carotenoids are present in many  in eye health care food supplements.  Soon after recovery,  I forgot about them until I had a new bout about seven years ago.

Visiting public eye clinics over the years, and being a lay member of the Lagos Eye Foundation for some  time, courtesy of my  opthamologiest, I learned  one lesson which I wish to share with you…In Europe and America where sunlight is less harsh than it is in Nigeria, almost everyone protects his or her eyes with eye glasses which  help  to prevent the entry of ULTRA VIOLET ( UV) rays of light into the eyes

It is these rays, or rather the  BLUE spectrum of the SEVEN colours of light ( Red, Orange, yellow, Green, Indigo and Violet) which “cooks” the lens of the  eyes into cateracts and causes photo-oxidative stress and damage which may present as glaucoma and other problems

In public hospitals around Lagos, and perhaps elsewhere, patients arrive to see  their doctors as early as about five  in the morning, otherwise the doctor may not see  them that day.  Hundreds of patients besiege eyes clinics every day.

Some clinics do not see  more than  100 patients in one day. Some of the patients bribe their ways unto the register. At the Catholic Hospital, Ijebu-Igbo, thousands of cateract surgeries are carried out every month.

The natural”cooked” lens is removed and not replaced in many cases. This is why  very thick “  optical lenses”       are prescribed.

Where the patient is lucky,  may be  because he or she can afford it, plastic artificial  lens  is inserted  into the  natural lens holding sack.

Even, then, many  people can afford only those made in India or  China which are cheap.  Even then, plastics in the body have  their  own issues!

Observe many people on Nigerian roads on a scorchy, sunny day. They do not protect their  eyes with  face caps or eye glasses. Many who wear dark eyes glasses wear only cheap glasses which are not treated to keep the  UV rays away from the eyes. Those cheap glasses are merely darkened. I, too, once used them.

I decided to share these experiences after the visit of one of my cousins to me at home this week. She said she was now seeing with only one eye. I know many  people who are going through this experience. For many people, the vision has deteriorated from 180 degrees with both eyes at work into tunnel vision in which side vision is gradually lost in one or both eyes.

It is, therefore, absolutely important to consult an opthalmologist, optometrist or optician today for an anti-glare, anti UV pair of glasses. Photochromic glasses alone may not protect the eyes in the Nigerian Scorching sun. I doubt if they would also offer enough protection of the eyes for the eyes against electro pollution from the glare of computer, cell phone and television light to which many people are subject today for many hours

I got my anti-glare, anti UV pair of glasses this week after saving for it over about six months. It  cost me 36,000. But it is not available  for sale at that cost. It comes as a gift when you join an E COMMRECE business group at a cost of N106,000.

It is an investment I had to make to earn more money on the N106,000 than if I kept it in a fixed deposit in a bank.   I have done Treasury bills since the 1980s for children’s school fees and all that. At no time has treasury bill interest rate fallen  so low as I found it about two weeks ago.

The  rates had fallen from about eight  percent a few months ago for a million naira to about five percent.  Fixed deposit interest rate at the banks had fallen by about one percentage point below treasury bills.

We are told the government wanted to discourage “ sleeping” or dormant cash in the vaults and encouraged active and direct investment, which is why it is not borrowing at home but abroad to finance many of its major projects.

Even at five percent interest rate  a year (365days) fixed deposit in the banks, my N106,000 will earn only N435 in 30 days.

This e-Commerce groups offers N15,000 interest every mouth on N106,000 invested. The investor does not  need to “buy and sell” personally. The group buys and sells on-line and pays the interest every Friday.

This is for investments  that  are on  AUTO- DRIVE, my own choice, because the profit drops automatically every 10 days.

As a gift for joining the E- COMMERCE group at this level,  the participant is given an anti-glare, anti-UV eye glasses as a welcome present or gift.  Every 10 days of trading brings back N5,000 profit.

Little drops of water, we say, makes the ocean. At N5,000 in 10 days or N15,000 in one month,  there is a 100 percent return on the N106,000 investment in seven months. But the 100% return  can be made in only one month by an active investors….

• When you invest N106,000 at today’s exchange rate of N360 to the United States Dollar in the parallel market, the e-Commerce Company removed N36,000 for registration expenses. This leaves you with a trading capital or investment of N70,000 on the automatic recycling drive. the N70,000 brings you a trading profit of N5,000 every 10 days or N15,000 in 30 days. That is not all. If you introduced any investor to the company you will earn 20 per cent referral bonus on his or her N70,000 trading capital.

That is an extra N14,000. Should you make five referrals in one month, as many people do, that means N70,000 in one month.

Added to your cycling bonus of N15,000 in 30 days, that N70,000 referrals bonus may bring your income in 30 days to N85,000. That, again, is not the end of the earning streak. For you are also entitled to three percent bonus on the trading of each of your referrals every 10 days.

This works out at N2,100 per person in 10 days or N6,300 in 30days. For five referrals, this builds up to N31,500 in 30days. If, altogether in 30 days, we add N15,000,N70,000 and N31,500 the result is N116,500. This is more than your investment of N106,000 and without capital loss. There is no end to any of this earning for as long as your capital continue to work for you. The bigger your referrals list, the bigger your income.

Read Also: Vision 2020 empowers pupils

 

During this period,  there are smaller presents or  gifts given to the participants at every cycling -in, every 10 days.

Many of us have multiples of N106,000 sitting idle in current accounts, earning no interest and depreciated every months by inflation and all sort of legitimate and illegitimate bank charges.

While  I see this E- COMMERCE offer as one  way through which one may protect  one’s   vision, I do not suggest in any  way that one abandon the responsibility to  safeguard one’s vision through other measures such as through  food  supplements, healthy diet, avoidance of environmental hazards such as vehicular traffic smoke e.t.c and, of course, the eye doctor’s prescriptions.

As I have tried to explain, I have not only obtained a N36,000 eye glasses free of cost to protected my vision, I am earning N15,000 every month on an investment of N106,000 recoverable in seven months simply because I am helping other people to protect their vision.

The eye glasses is named QUATUM ENERGY GLASS. It is advertised as based on four technologies…

• To relieve eye fatigue and to protect the eyes
• To promote micro circulation within the eye and to repair micro circulation process
• To eliminate toxins ( such as those from automobile exhaust) and free radicals
• To correct eye defects.

The manufacturer says:

“Standing wave technology with quantum energy transfer. After 48 hours quantum implantation, the glasses can carry quantum energy and promote eye micro circulation.

“Anti-blue ray protects eyes (with) AR Anti – reflecting coating. Clear the diffuse fluids reflection of the glass. Effectively removes all kinds of stray of light  and glare, improves the visual quality of the lens, make the vision clearer, prevent the aggravation of mayopia.

“Anion glasses is a new measure to protect the health of the eyes. Through technology, mineral ”high oxygen compound health additive” is added into the material of the frame. The frame of anion glasses is  made of TOURMALINE ( medicinal stone, tomaline and volcanic magma).

“Far infraed ray  is  called” life  light  wave”, it  is a section of wave length ray, because far infared ray can permeate human body hypodermic 4 to 5cm depth after far infared is absorbed by human  body, can make inside body water molecule produces resonance, make water molecules activation.

 

Contra indications

It is suggested  that the glasses be worn  with caution by four group of users…

1. hypothyroidics B.Patients with fundus bleeding

1. Patients with postoperative bleeding
2. Epileptics patients shouldus With the best wishes for our health and work

 

Other packages

Other than investment in power or energy glasses, there are other investment windows. They cost more, and earn more. There is, for example, a window for energy stockings which are required by elderly people who suffer from cool legs and cramps due to poor blood circulation, or nerve pain.

There is another window for boxers for men and women. It is reported to help men with prostate gland problems, low sperm count ( oligospermia) and no sperm( Azospermia) etc.

For  women the energy under brief is said to help questions such as painful menstruation,  delay menstruation, absent menstruation, uterine fibro, block tubes etc.

Nigerian Alternative Medicine growth in 2019, through E-Commerce trading, is set for growth rebounds in 2020. This will provide investment opportunity for more people to look after their health and pay next to nothing for doing so through returns on investment by teaching other people to take care of their health at Zero expense.

This falls in line with another law of creation….THE LAW OF GIVING AND TAKING. It is only when we give that we can receive.

When we exhale ( breath out air) (we can inhale breath in air). Ditto eating, drinking and voiding. The Lord Jesus taught us that it is better to GIVE than to RECEIVE. So, share these thought today with someone.

 

 

By Justina Asishana, Minna

 

Twenty-three students would graduate with First Class during the third combined convocation of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai holding Saturday.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Muhammad Nasiru Maiturare told reporters in Minna during the pre-convocation briefing that 3,212 students would graduate during the ceremony.

Of the number, 700 made second class upper; 1,990 second class lower; 470 had third class; and 29 graduated with pass.

He said the graduates cut across six faculties which include Education and Arts, Natural Sciences, Languages and Communication studies, Agriculture, Faculty Management and Social Sciences.

Read Also: 20 get First Class at Southwestern varsity

 

The Vice-Chancellor further said 91 students would graduate with Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) and Masters degrees.

He also said that the institution would award honorary degrees to the late governor of the state, Abdullahi Abdulkadir Kure and immediate past Chief Judge, Justice Maria Sanda Dzukogi.

Maiturare said that there has been an increase in enrolment of female students from 33 percent in 2017 to 40 percent in 2019.

 

By Damola Kola-Dare

 

Former Registrar, University of Ibadan, Mr Olujimi Olukoya has urged members of the registry staff of Federal College of Education, Technical, Akoka, Lagos, to imbibe the spirit of excellence and avoid being complacent to make headway in their careers.

He delivered a lecture entitled: “Becoming your best ever: A pursuit of excellence”, last week during the Registry Staff Association’s third Public Lecture and Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Olukoya, who is a visiting Registrar to the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja, charged them to work relentlessly to realise their potential.

“To excel in life, we should know that excellence does not consist in doing something once. It is not even in doing sporadic occasional engagement but what we repeatedly do. It is a formed habit,” he noted.

Quoting John Mason’s ‘An Enemy called Average’ he stressed the need for them to use their talents at optimal level.

He said: “We have been wired by God with great potential, and if only we would cooperate with Him, unlearn bad habits that choke excellence in us, and develop healthy habits of excellence, we would break free from the stronghold of failure and mediocrity to becoming our best ever.”

Read Also: Masters Energy Group repositions for excellence

 

He advised them to take positive steps towards being goal-oriented as administrators while charging them to be proactive in their various endeavours.

“As administrators, you have to initiate, create, be focused and expect the desired results. You can be like the eagle, which symbolises courage, determination, bravery and grace,”he urged.

Earlier in his speech, Provost of the institution, Dr Wahab Azeez, noted that for any institution to grow rapidly its Registry must perform excellently; hence he called for the support of members of staff to move the institution to greater heights.

He said: “For any institution to develop faster, the Registry of such must be at its best. Therefore, I am calling for your  support to bring new ideas into the system and take the institution to greater heights.”

Commenting on the essence of the lecture, the Registrar, Mr Rasheed Dada, noted that it was aimed at promoting professionalism and keeping up with the latest trends in administration.

By Damisi Ojo, Akure

 

Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, will lead the third governing council of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State.

The Council was inaugurated recently by the founder of the University, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, who said he set up the institution to help reverse the exodus of Nigerian youths to other countries, by making available at home, what they are seeking abroad.

He called on the Council to do more to forge a closer relationship with the town for the benefit of the students.

The chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited said: “I also want to breed pure Nigerian graduates to an essentially Nigerian atmosphere but with new attitude of service to one’s community, for me acquisition of knowledge is useless if not actively applied.

“Therefore, I would like the university under this new governing council to forge a strong link between itself, the business world and government, and its parastatals, realising that at the end of their studies, the students will invariably be found in all these sectors.

Read Also: University Press alerts investors on profit decline

 

“I, therefore, urge you all to come along with me and build Elizade University to an enviable height”.

Chief Ade-Ojo disclosed that he had invested over N28 billion in the institution, promising to continue doing his best until it becomes self sustainable.

He said his ambition within the next five years was to see the university ranking as one of the best 10 among the 179 universities in the country.

He urged all stakeholders to begin to think of a viable endowment launch for the university for the purpose of assisting the founder, who is the sole financier of the university at this point in time.

Responding, Bamiro promised to look into the challenges highlighted by the founder.

He promised to adopt strategic plan to guide the council in its dealings, stressing that with good planning and commitment  to the vision for the establishment of the University would be realised.

Bamiro spoke of the need for the Council, Board of Trustees(BoT) and the Vice Chancellor, Prof Oladipo Amund to align in order to uplift the university.

 

By Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

 

The Vice-Chancellor of the Christian University of Mkar, Mkar, Prof. Iorwuese Gernah, has called on the National Assembly to amend TETFund Act to accommodate private universities.

Gernah made the appeal during a press conference to announce activities for the 4th combined convocation of the University located in Benue State.

The University of Mkar is based in Gboko Local Government Area and funded by NKST church worldwide.

The Vice-Chancellor said the need to amend TEFund Act became imperative because at the time the law was enacted there were no private universities in the country.

On the controversy surrounding IPPIS, Gernah said that Nigerian University needed one another to achieve academic excellence using the available manpower and the introduction of IPPIS would place hardship on small universities like UMM that are funded through levies from church coffers.

Read Also: TETFund to deepen research in tertiary institutions

 

During the convocation, Gemah said 22 students would graduate with first class in various degrees, out of the 1, 177 undergraduates and 59 post graduate degree holders.

He stressed further that the biggest challenge of the university was infrastructural development and funding.

The VC called on the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom and others to support the university, especially in the construction of the two main roads leading to institution which he said were in dilapidated condition.

During the convocation, The vice Chancellor said senator Barnabas Gemade would be installed as the chancellor of the University, while Honorary degrees would be conferred on three prominent Nigerians.

 

By Adesoji Adeniyi, Osogbo

 

As the world celebrates this year’s Soil Day, Bowen University, Iwo in Osun State has charged Nigerians to do away with deforestation and overgrazing to prevent climate change.

A senior lecturer at the College of Agriculture of the university, Dr. Vincent Ishola, said that it was expected that climate change would disrupt world by causing extinction of some species, adding that the Africa would be more vulnerable than other continents.

Speaking on the theme: Stop Soil Erosion, Save Our Future, to celebrate the 2019 World Soil Day, he said that 33 percent of the fertile soil had been washed away by erosion which according to him, could be prevented by planting grasses.

Ishola charged the government to sensitise people on how to prevent and control soil erosion in their localities, saying: “We join the rest of the world to celebrate the Soil Day and ask the government to raise awareness among the people about the soil health.

Our experience has shown that erosion is a problem to crop production and if we fail to prevent it, it will destroy the present and coming generations.

Read Also: Obaseki tasks world leaders on collaboration to fight desertification

 

“We can stop soil erosion through conservation including best agronomic practices. We can reduce tillage or no-tillage, permanent organic cover by retaining crop residue and crop rotations. All these practices will help mitigate climate change effect.

“Soil sequestration can be achieved by enhancing concentration and pools of SOC and soil inorganic as a secondary carbonates through land use conversion and adoption of recommended management practices in agriculture and pasture grasslands and forest ecosystems, restoration of degraded and drastically disturbed soils.”

Also speaking, the coordinator for Bachelor of Agriculture Programme in the university, Dr. Lawal Tunde, urged people to guard against anything that could decrease value of the soil for good living of human beings.

According to him, plants and animals are living things that depend on soil, saying “there is no way we can have life without soil. Plants grow from soil to produce oxygen that animals share.”

 

By Gilbert Alasa

 

An Educationist, Kunle Lawore, has called on the government to give education financing the same kind of special treatment that agriculture and industry enjoys.

In an interview with The Nation, Lawore, who runs RiseUp Schools and Colleges, in Lagos, said private school owners go through a lot to raise funds for infrastructure.  However, given the complementary role they play in providing education, he said they deserved more support from the government.

He said: “One key challenge which I believe everyone involved in education in Nigeria will relate to is infrastructure. It costs a great deal to have appropriate facilities in place to run a school in Nigeria.

You have to generate power and that costs a great deal if you use technologies like audio visuals.

“Requirements by banks are highly prohibitive. I strongly believe that government needs to have a different mindset towards education considering its potential impact on the economy of the nation.

If special banks can be set up for Agriculture and Industry, nothing stops government from doing same for the educational sector.”

Lawore urged the government to set up education banks that could offer single-digit interest loans to proprietors.

“School owners are very important stakeholders in nation building, and efforts should be concerted by way of policy to aid them in capacity building which will have multiplier effect on the economy in the long run.

This can be achieved by ensuring these banks give loans at single digits. It will also naturally drive down cost of offering educational services,” he said.

Read Also: Bedbugs of education

 

Lawore, an Archaeologist, said he was motivated to get involved in education because of his passion for youths.

He said this passion was sustained from when he started out as a tutorial centre teacher before his university education to when he owned a centre which later metarmophosed into a full-fledged school.

He said: “Sometime in early July 2004, I realised I could make significant impact by being involved with youths.

Before I gained admission to the university, I had been involved with teaching secondary school students on private basis and in tutorial centres, particularly those preparing for their Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).

I continued this even as an undergraduate especially when on holidays. So, I had experience dealing with youths at this level. I realised I could make significant impact by starting a tutorial centre while building my mentoring capacity.”

Regarding adoption of technology by schools, Lawore said schools needed to do more.

“For schools integrating technologies as integral part of instruction and engagements with stakeholders within the school value chain including use of software to track performance and provide critical analytics,

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

 

Four Professors of English who served as judges in the 2019 National Essay Competition organised by the UBA Foundation have warned against the use of abbreviations or social media short cuts in formal writing.

The Judges, led by Prof Ini Uko of the Directorate of Pre-Degree Studies, University of Uyo (UNIUYO), noted the damaging implication of such wrong usage on the level of expertise of young people in the use of the English language during the presentation of awards to winners on Monday at the UBA headquarters in Marina, Lagos.

“Short message Service is still having extensive damaging implication on Nigerian youths’ usage of language.  There were spelling errors, unnecessary contractions, sentence fragments and more,” she said.

The judges, however, praised many of the 5,000 entries adjudging them better than last year’s edition.

The secondary school pupils wrote on the topic: “What do you think  government should do to control fraud in Nigeria?”

After screening out entries that were disqualified for not meeting the required guidelines (length; handwritten; etc), Prof. Uko said the judges selected the best 12 based on the following criteria: Content (40), Expression (30); Organisation (15) and Mechanical Accuracy (15).

The 12 finalists were invited to Lagos to write a second essay in a live environment to determine they were the authors of the original entries.

Prof. Uko said their performance in the second essay titled: “If you could be an entrepreneur with unlimited resources, what will you do to change the world?” showed that their entries were genuine – unlike in past editions where there was substantial disparity in performance between the first and second essays.

Uko praised the UBA Foundation for providing a platform for the pupils to express their creative abilities.

Eight of the 12 finalists were girls.  It was therefore no surprise that girls won the top three prizes.

Oluwatoroti Otokini of Louisville Girls High School, Ijebu Itele, Ogun State, won the grand prize of N2 million scholarship grant, a trophy, certificate and laptop.

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She was followed by Precious Ifeoma Okey of Oladipo Alayande School of Science, Oyo State, in the second position with a N1,500,000 educational grant. In third place with N1,000,000 prize was Aimeé Okoko of Beautiful Beginning Academy, FCT Abuja.

All 12 finalists received brand new laptops from the UBA Foundation.

Livingstone School, Lagos, also won a prize of N1 million for filing the highest number of entries for the competition.

The winner, Oluwatoroti said she did not know much about the competition until she made it to the second stage and had to google about it.

She said she was happy to have won.

“My school did not put in a lot of emphasis on the competition.  It was just like another essay competition,” she said, adding that she had no sleep the night before she wrote the second essay.

Her teacher, Josephine Oladipo, said the school’s mantra to its pupils is that they be prepared for anything.

“We just prepare them to be ever ready.  The present JSS1 pupils have already been told to write down the type of competitions they would like to enter for,” she said.

In her remarks, the MD/CEO of UBA Foundation, Bola Atta, praised the winners for their exceptional brilliance, while encouraging others who did not win to try again.

“For those that did not win, I would say do not be discouraged. Take it as a challenge to perfect your writing skills and enter for the competition again in 2020,” she said.

While presenting the prizes, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of UBA Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka praised girls for excelling in the competition but also called for support for boys too.