Category: Uncategorized

Duku JOEL, Damaturu

The Executive Chairman of Yobe State Universal Basic Education, Prof Musa Alabe Monday began teaching at his alma mater.

The Yobe SUBEB boss who is the immediate past Vice Chancellor of Yobe State University and former Dean Faculty of Engineering at Bayero University Kano was at his own old boy primary school, Njiwaji Primary School, Damaturu where he began his primary education 51 years ago.

Alabe interacted with the student after taking a lesson with them in Mathematics.

The class as monitored by our correspondent was highly interactive as the professor took time to answer their question, the same way the students also responded to his questions.

He had earlier met with members of staff of the school to know the grey areas so as to address the challenges.

During an interactive session with journalists, Prof. Alabe said he was nostalgic seeing especially seeing the faces of the young ones.

“Seeing the faces of these young pupils takes me down memory lane when I began my school here at their age about 51 one years ago. I feel very nostalgic looking at them. It’s really a home coming and a thing of joy. This is why I will have to work hard to secure their future. We cannot mortgage the future of these children for anything.

“We must work hard to see to the policy direction of Gov. Mai Mala Buni and ensure that we deliver his objectives with a maximum percentage. His declaration of a state of emergency in this area (education) is not by accident. The Governor has studied the situation critical and arrived at this point, therefore, those of us that are choosing to deliver this mandate must not be found wanting in the discharge of our duties,” Prof. Alabe said.

He also condemned the late coming of pupils and members of staff to school, warning that the trend must be stopped.

READ ALSO: Yobe SUBEB chair, Prof Alabe takes teaching job at primary school

“I have observed with dismay that the late coming in this school both by the teachers and the student is so bad. How can teachers and pupils be coming to school up to 9.00am this is unacceptable and that trend must stop,” the SUBEB boss warned.

Another problem that worried the Yobe SUBEB boss is the overcrowding of pupils in the classroom some of which he noted do not have futures.

Prof. Alabe while commenting on his initiative to commence the teaching said; I want to inspire both the teachers and the pupils to become more serious with the jobs and their studies.”

He also promised that his board in line with the recommendations of the Task Force of the revitalization of Education in the State, commence an aggressive capacity building for the teachers which he observed is “very critical”.

The Nation reports that Prof. Alabe, the new Chairman of Yobe State Universal Education Board had during his takeover of the board promised to take up teaching at the primary school in the state.

Rasaq Ibrahim, Ado Ekiti

There is palpable fear in Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti as the university management was alleged of making underground moves to sack over 500 staff of the institution.

The Nation gathered that the staff are those employed by the immediate past Vice Chancellor, Prof. Samuel Oye Bandele during his tenure.

It was also learnt that some professors and workers who were unduly promoted during that time might be demoted over allegation that academic due process was not strictly adhered to in their elevations.

One of the affected staff who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Nation that the new management, chaired by Pro- Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Prof Bamitale Omole, had consistently been complaining that over bloated workforce exists in the university and that prompt action must be taken to correct it.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, EKSU chapter, had in September threatened to embark on strike owing to inability to pay their salaries and other benefits.

READ ALSO: Ekiti varsity bows to pressure, suspends new tax policy

The ASUU chairman, Dr Kayode Arogundade, disclosed that the monthly wage bill of the university had increased from N380 million to over N502 million, while the monthly subvention from government stood at N260 million, leaving the university to grapple hard to make up for the N262m shortfall internally.

The source, who was employed as an academic staff said: “I can confirm to you authoritatively that efforts are at the top gear by the university management to issue out sack letters to over 500 staff because of complains that the university was overstaffed.

“We have been notified and anytime from now, the letters of disengagement will be distributed and this has been creating panic and tension in the university,” he said.

In a swift reaction, the EKSU’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Bode Olofinmuagun, said the management has no plan to sack or demote any worker.

“There is no tension on campus over sack issue; I am on campus as I speak with you. The university is peaceful and I am not aware of any such plan,” he said.

Moses Emorinken, Abuja

The Federal Government in close collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the Noma Policy Document and National Triennial Action Plan Monday in Abuja to scale up awareness of the Noma disease, its prevention and care.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who launched the policy document at this year’s National Noma Day, sponsored by the Hilfsaktion Noma e.V, with theme: ‘timely recognition averts deformity’, explained that Noma is an infectious disease which is generally associated with people living in extreme poverty.

He explained that the disease evolves from small inflammations of the gum of the teeth and grows rapidly to severely destroy the soft tissue around the mouth, lips and face, creating bizarre and often terrifying orofacial disfigurements. Untreated, the mortality rate can be as high 80 per cent.

According to him, “It is a disease that was once common around the world, but is now seen mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Indian subcontinent. Noma is much more prevalent in communities with low nutrition status, poor personal hygiene and poor environmental sanitation standards.

“The disease typically spreads quickly from and beyond its original location in the gum, to surrounding tissues; therefore, early detection and treatment are critical to preventing progression, especially since it responds relatively well to antibiotic treatment at the initial acute phase”.

He explained that diseases that commonly precede development of Noma includes: measles, malaria, diarrhea and ulcerative gingivitis (infection around the teeth); any of which compromises immunity in a complex interaction between poor oral hygiene, malnutrition and infection.

“Noma occurrence can be reduced and even prevented, first by promoting national awareness of the disease, improving nutrition, including promoting exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6months of a child’s life, education on prenatal care and personal hygiene, timely immunization against common childhood diseases, improving environmental sanitation and poverty reduction. Detecting Noma early and treating it can halt and largely reverse the devastating impacts of the disease.

“According to data from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Noma is found everywhere in Nigeria, predominant in the Northwest.

“We have embarked on a number of national trainings, step down trainings and sensitisation activities in high burden States such as Kebbi. Sokoto, Jigawa and Akwa Ibom, in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency and Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, to increase surveillance, case finding and prompt disease reporting”.

READ ALSO: Federal Government eyes 45million tax net

The Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders developed the National Noma Policy Document and the Triennial Noma Control Action Plan (2019-2021), which was approved at the National Council on Health in August this year.

The National NOMA Day is commemorated annually to raise awareness to the Nigerian populace on NOMA, to reinforce actions to prevent NOMA and to develop avenues for common actions to eventually eradicate this preventable disease.

The Head of Dentistry Division of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Boladale Alonge, said, “We found out that the awareness for Noma is so low, that is why we created the National Noma Day. In recent years, we have more people coming down with Noma that is why we are raising the awareness, especially in the rural areas”.

The Country Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Clement Peter, reiterated that the WHO is willing to support the FG in all its effort to address, reduce and prevent the prevalence of Noma in the country, especially in the Northwest region.

“Noma should be a disease of the past and not a disease of the current generation; we need to get it out,” he said.

By: Moses Emorinken, Abuja

In its effort to combat the menacing occurrences of measles and meningitis among children, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), World Health Organisation (WHO), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance have kicked off a campaign to reach more than 28 million children with lifesaving vaccines.

This campaign is designed for 19 states in the Northern region, including Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Kano, Katsina, Plateau, Taraba, Niger, Adamawa, Kaduna and Sokoto.

Others are: Gombe Jigawa, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory.

Speaking on the campaign, the Director of Disease Control and Immunization, NPHCDA, Dr Joseph Oteri, said: “Measles is a highly contagious respiratory viral disease with increased mortality and morbidity in children under five years, and Nigeria has experienced repeated outbreaks of measles in recent years due to low routine immunization coverage.

“In addition, Nigeria is within the meningitis belt, where the incidence rate is very high, especially in the North”.

He further stated: “Government is committed to ensuring every eligible child is reached with these lifesaving vaccines. We will go to markets, schools, churches, mosques and everywhere we can get good catchment to reach our target population. No child deserves to die from any vaccine preventable disease”.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease. It remains an important cause of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.

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Under the Global Vaccine Action Plan, measles and rubella are targeted for elimination in five WHO Regions by 2020. WHO is the lead technical agency responsible for coordination of immunization and surveillance activities supporting all countries to achieve this goal.

“Gavi is committed to supporting Nigeria in achieving its goal of improved immunisation coverage. Diseases like measles are both devastating and easily preventable – more than 21 million lives around the world have been saved with the measles vaccine,” said Thabani Maphosa, Gavi Country Programmes Managing Director.

“Furthermore, with so many Nigerians at risk from meningitis every year, immunisation with the MenA vaccine can help to limit outbreaks. Gavi’s work vaccinating more than 279 million children in Africa’s meningitis belt has shown the ability of the vaccine to reduce prevalence of the disease”.

Gavi is supporting the Government of Nigeria by funding measles and MenA vaccines, as well as operational costs for these campaigns.

These resources are provided for integrated MenA and Measles campaigns in 17 states and in Kano (Measles and MenA stand-alone), Yobe (Measles) and five other southern states (e.g., Oyo, Imo, Cross River, Eboyni and Anambra) that are planning MenA campaigns in December 2019.

For its part, WHO Nigeria has trained over 44,000 health workers and is mobilizing over 17,000 vaccination teams to support these campaigns.

Dr Fiona Braka, the WHO Team Lead of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) reiterated that, “The measles vaccine remains the most cost effective preventive measure against measles and WHO is committed to supporting the Nigerian government in reaching every eligible child in the country with the needed vaccines irrespective of their location.”

Omolara Akintoye

The Operators of Computer-Based Test Centres in Lagos have dissociated themselves from the pronouncement by a certain group purported to be CBT operators in the country referred to as The Computer-Based Test Centres Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (CPAN).

Speaking on behalf of the group at a press conference held in Lagos, Director, Universal White Hall CBT Centre, Yaba, Lagos, Ogedengbe Alexander, who made reference to the publication that says failure of biometric and browsers provided by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board for the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination was responsible for the inability of some candidates to sit for the examination, pointed out that CBT operators in Lagos State are not part of the group.

“We hereby state categorically that the CBT operators in Lagos State are not part of the group, we are not aware of the conference, hence we dissociate ourselves entirely from the publication. To be specific on the issue raised, the biometric of the candidates on the conduct of the 2019 UTME examination, to our knowledge, the rule of biometric was very clear as stipulated by the examination board JAMB. For candidates who cannot be captured directly by the biometric scanning machine, JAMB provided an alternative to write the examination. According to them, such a case including the details of the candidates should be reported to the board immediately,” said Ogedengbe.

According to him, the instruction from JAMB stated categorically that a day was scheduled for the candidates for the examination. “Moreover, we the CBT operators have no jurisdiction over the biometrics of the candidates. The officer saddled with the responsibilities, to our knowledge, discharged the duties reasonably.”

Another issue raised by the group, Ogedengbe said, has to do with the examination browser.

“According to JAMB, the security of the examination is paramount to them, hence they have the right to decide and to deploy the type of browser needed to achieve their objectives. The board sent information to all the centres to delete the old browser and download the new browser meant for 2019 examination. The challenges arose at the centres that did not comply with these instructions or where the specifications of the system were not met. It is true that the timeline given to us was short but the board explained the reason for the short time, which has to do with the security of the examination,” he said.

Also speaking at the event on the issue of examination malpractices, the Director, Brain Point College, Austin Chinedu Ohaekele, pointed out that the act is alien to Lagos CBT centres. “We detest it, we hate it and we refuse to be identified with it in Lagos. This singular objective of conducting examination free without any examination malpractices has been the major objective of Professor Is’haq Oloyede and his board since his appointment as the Registrar JAMB, he has brought sanity to the UTME. We in Lagos have not witnessed any act by the board to compromise the examination, the same way CBT operators have tried to ensure that we are hundred per cent aligned to the objectives of the board,” he said.

“On the issue of N600 revenue to the centre per candidate, CBT owners have made a good representation to the registrar. He paid the participating CBT centres a sum of N1000 as against N600 per candidate in the last recruitment examination in the month of June 2019. This is an indication that he is already considering our request positively. Without any prejudice to the registrar, he always holds meeting with all CBT operators to intimate us of his new plans for UTME in the following year, hence we dissociate ourselves from such publication,” he concluded.

Olaitan Ganiu

Babies born too early may have more health issues than babies born on time, and may face long-term health problems that affect the brain, the lungs, hearing or vision, an experts Dr Segun Ebitanmi has said.

World Prematurity Day (WPD) is marked globally on November 17 raises awareness of this serious health crisis. The theme for 2019 is: ‘Born too Soon: Providing the right care, at the right time, in the right place.’

The Chief Operating Officer, Dr Ebitanmi, during a WPD Walk and Preterm Party organised by Outreach Women and Children’s Hospital, Festac Town in Lagos, said premature birth is a very serious health problem that the government and parents need to adopt strategies that would help prevent deaths.

According to him these babies don’t need to die because there are ways and techniques, tools and technologies that can be used to keep them alive.

In the same vein, the Chief Executive Officer, Dr Efunbo Dosekun, urged governments to work with specialists in the private sector so that the health system could be more responsive to the needs of babies born prematurely.

Efunbo added that innovations in neonatal service delivery were already being adopted in developed countries for the care of preterm babies

“Science has created devices, strategies that can help these babies live and it’s high time we imbibe it; because they are born too early does not mean they should die.

“We need to be able to rise to this challenge, other countries that are not so well endowed as Nigeria have been able to have better outcomes,” she said.

READ ALSO: World is failing newborn babies, says UNICEF

Mrs Aisha Abari, a mother whose baby was born prematurely while narrating her ordeal said it wasn’t easy for her watching her baby passed through all the pain she did but expressed joy in being able to take her baby home.

According to her, she had a history of miscarriage, so abstained from sexual intercourse during pregnancy and had a cerclage – a surgical procedure to stitch the cervix to prevent miscarriage – but still had her baby at 29 weeks.

“During the pregnancy, I would go to the hospital for every little pain; I was very careful and so sure nothing would go wrong but at the end of the day, it still happened,” she said.

Abari, however, advised parents with premature babies to ensure they go to a good hospital with specialists and keep praying.

Shouts of  ‘The Law! The Law!’ by old people rent the air at the Faculty of Law building, Lead City University, Ibadan, which turned out a new set of graduates last week. They were hailing their friend and neighbour, Lt. Col. Olayiwola Adegunju (rtd), who just graduated in Law from the private university at the age of 80 years. He will turn 81 years on December 27.

The octogenarian was first acknowledged by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kabiru Adeyemo, while giving his convocation speech to the crowds of graduands, parents and well wishers who filled Adeline Hall to the brim. From the convocation hall, Adegunju acknowledged cheers from well wishers and his classmates, who hailed: ‘Grandpa! Grandpa!’ as the happy old man grinned from ear to ear while walking with gale to the Law Faculty where his family, friends and neighbours were waiting to wine, dine and take photographs with him.

Pa Adegunju never missed a moment. He walked like a true soldier and was full of smiles in spite of his age. It was a fulfilling moment and he savoured every bit of it. When this reporter eventually tracked him down for an interview, he made it fun as he recalled his fond memories with nostalgia.

His journey into Law as a career

Lt. Colonel Olayiwola Aderemi Adegunju retired from the Nigerian Army in December, 1990. But he started nursing the ambition to study Law since 1964, the year he graduated from the North Western Polytechnic, London, where he studied British Constitution, Economics and General Principles of English Law. He joined the Nigerian Army as a full lieutenant in 1972.

“When I finished my three ‘A’ Level subjects at the bNorth Western Polytechnic in London, that was 1964,  I passed British Constitution, Economics and General Principles of English Law. Then I started to study for the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of London. I qualified in 1968. I worked in England up till 1971 with the Temperance  Permanent Building Society, Sussex. I came back in 1971 and joined the Army in 1972 as a full lieutenant,” he fondly recalled.

Though he has interest in studying Law, Adegunju explained that he chose to join the Army due to his interest in the British Territorial Army where people served on part-time basis in Britain at the time. “That was where I developed interest in the military,” he quipped.

As the octogenarian rose through the ranks to become Lieutenant Colonel, he said he kept applying to study Law at various places of posting but never had the opportunity to complete the degree programme.

He said: “In 1978, I was serving at Akure; I applied to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), I was admitted for Law. It was a three-year programme then but I couldn’t continue because of the nature of our job. I had to go back to my unit at 6 Brigade, Akure.  I didn’t lose hope; I knew God’s time is always the best. I would still do this thing later. Later on, I was also admitted to the University of Lagos; I couldn’t go because of my job. In 1985,  I was also admitted for the part-time Law degree at the  University of Lagos part-time programme. I did well for the first year but because of the nature of my job, I couldn’t continue in the second year but God so good, in 1991, I reapplied, I was readmitted but you know one thing, the tuition fee had gone to N25,000. I couldn’t pay it, I couldn’t pay N25,000 but I knew that God’s time is the best, that there will still be a time I would have the opportunity to do this thing.”

He said he kept the hope of becoming a lawyer alive by the inspiration he got from some leading lights in the profession who he regards as mentors. They include the late Chief Adaramaja (SAN), who was the first to encourage him; Barrister Babawale whose father was also a retired military officer and Chief M.L. Lagunju , who wrote a recommendation for him to enroll as a student of Law Society of England and Wales. “Those are my mentors and there are still other lawyers who encouraged me,” he declared gleefully.

After graduating at the age of 81 years, Adegunju insisted that he would practise. He hinted that he would proceed to the Law School in order to be able to be called into the Bar and subsequently start practising.

The new Law graduate disclosed that he had already secured a chamber where he will practise. “Yes. I got a chamber where I will go,” he disclosed.

Who will engage an 81-year old as his counsel or what difference can an 81-year old make in legal practice? Many may ask. But the elated graduate disclosed that he would offer free legal services to the poor because he no longer needs to amass any wealth at his age.

His words: “Well, there is what we call pro bono. We defend defenseless people, poor people who cannot afford the services of legal practitioners. What else do I want in life? I am not looking for  money again. God has provided what I will eat till I die. I am very grateful to the Army, the Nigerian government for keeping me alive for the past 29 years when I retired. So, I am very very happy.

“I am very very happy that God spared my life to go through the rigours of four years studying in this university. The lecturers are very kind and supportive. The students assisted me, my fellow students who can pass for my grandchildren.

My nickname is ‘Grandpa’ and that’s what they call me at home. Everybody in this university knows me.”

The octogenarian explained that he did not have difficulty studying at his age because he has never left reading since he became an adult.