Our Reporter 

Students of Vivian Fowler memorial College have featured in the FTC APOC 2021 global robotics competition as the only girl-child African School.

FIRST is the world’s leading youth-serving nonprofit advancing STEM education and inspires young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators.

Vivian Fowler Memorial College was part of the 40 FTC teams around the globe that participated in a remote event hosted by faculty of science and Engineering, Macquarie University in Sydney Australia.

The event had live robot rounds, alliances, judging, and getting to meet amazing people that are all excited about robots and STEM!

Director of the College, Mrs. Olufunke Fowler-Amba, stated the future is technology and as a result, the curriculum has to be redirected.

Read Also: UNIZIK beats UNILAG to emerge top in Chinese Bridge competition

The college, according to her, has been engaging in collaboration to provide qualitative educational delivery.

She said: “We need a curriculum that prepares students for the 21st century. The school included robotics in her curriculum in 2017 and partnered with organisations to support the programme.

“The school also has a synergy within its community to coordinate the teachers. Teachers with background in technology are sourced more in view of the need to develop a more enriching curriculum.

“We are poised to become a technologically oriented team and schools changing the face of women in the work force. We are raising successful women in career and in all spheres of life.”

Leader of the Vivian Fowler College’s 15-member team, Adeyimika Adebayo, said robotics has allowed them to pay attention to details and plan appropriately.

Leaders of builders of the robots presented for the competition Leila Eneche and Harriet Ariyo said they pushed themselves beyond the limit to construct their robots and make them unique for the competition.

They pointed out they had to work tirelessly with the support of the school to construct their innovative robots for the competition.

• Provost engages soldiers
• community ignores police order

 

The Ijolu community in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State has accused the College of Health Technology Ilese of encroaching on its land and using intimidation to keep it out of it, ERNEST NWOKOLO reports from Abeokuta.

 

Trouble is brewing between the state -owned College of Health Technology, Ilese, in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State, and its host, the Ijolu community.

The source of the trouble is over 21.55 hectares of land which are in contest between the college and Ijolu community. There are concerns that if it is not resolved in the spirit justice, the tenuous peace between the two parties may snap soon.

When the pioneer training college for health care was to be established in 1976, communities around the area, particularly Ilese and Ijolu, donated land to the state government for the take-off of the project and everything went well afterwards until lately when security situation around the institution deteriorated.

There was also a directive by the government to administrators of public schools in the state to take measures to tighten security around them following cases of kidnapping of school children in parts of the country.

Attempts by the college to erect a perimeter fence around the college, to secure the students and staff, pitted the two parties  – Ijolu community and the 45-year-old institution against each other amid accusations and counter-accusations of encroachment.

The Nation gathered that the feud over the land took a worrisome dimension when the college mobilised soldiers to the land, ostensibly to provide security.

The community claimed the college invited the soldiers to intimidate and harass them in desperation to take possession of their land.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ijolu Board of Trustees, Mr. Adedoyin Ademola, who disclosed their ordeals to The Nation, recalled that the community gave a large portion of its land on which the college was built to the state government in 1976 but lamented that, decades after, the institution began to encroach on their land and was determined to also dispossess them of it.

Also, in a petition dated June 3, 2021, written by their counsel, Kemi Osisanya, of Kemi Osisanya & Co law firm, and addressed to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Defence Headquarters, Ministry of Defence, Garki, Abuja, they stated that after the establishment of the school, the state government released 21.55 hectares of unused portion of the donated land back to the Ijolu community.

The counsel stated that since the release of the unused portion, the college had continuously and persistently encroached on the land with the Provost, Dr. Abiodun Oladunjoye, making steady efforts in the last three years to expand the “school beyond the portion donated” by the community.

The lawyer said in the petition: “In the bid of the Provost to carry out the unlawful act, the Provost has engaged and employed the services of Nigerian Army personnel from Sappers Barracks,  Nigerian Army Engineers,  Ilese-Ijebu to intimidate and harass civilians who lawfully purchased of the land from Ijolu community.”

Also in the said petition written on behalf of the community, under the aegis of Ijolu  community and Ijolu  community  landlords in Ilese-Ijebu, and copied to the Commandant, Sappers’ Barracks,   Nigerian Army Engineers,  Ilese-Ijebu,  the petitioner urged the COAS to call his personnel to order and compel them to act within the scope of their functions.

Our correspondent contacted the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, through phone calls and WhatApps message, seeking clarification on the land dispute but he has not responded.

But the Provost, Oladunjoye, told The Nation that the Ijolu community had no documents to show that the state government gave back any portion of the land.

Oladunjoye said: “The college was established in 1976.  The Ilese community gave the land to the government.  I am just being a custodian of what the government has given me and when I assumed the headship, I maintained everything as I had. But along the line, they are having some encroachment from people.  Later they brought a letter from one Ijolu community that they (Ijolu community) have met the state government and that the state government had given some portions of the land to them.

“So, if the government had given them some portions of the land, I think the onus lies on them to be able to bring a letter they wrote to the government and the letter the government wrote to them as response showing ‘that this land we have given it to you.’  Is that not OK ?

“But we have the original survey that was given to the government in 1978 which is the original and authentic one and it has not been revoked. So, when we had all these encroachment coming in by some people, I went to the ministry of education and the ministry directed me to the ministry of land so that they can help ascertain what portion of that land belongs to us.

“So, I went to land ministry and, coincidentally, by January this year, the Ijolu community wrote through a lawyer that I should call for a meeting with the community at the ministry of land. So, we were there. I presented my own documents (the college documents pertaining to the land) but they were not able to provide theirs because they asked them to do so.  They began to inquire where did we get our survey, and it was government survey dated 1978. They couldn’t contest it.”

Oladunjoye said soldiers were invited by the college to provide security for officials of the Bureau of Lands and Survey who came to mark illegal structures on the land and denied allegation of any harassment or intimidation of civilians.  He said the land officials were invited as the college wanted to build a fence because of increased insecurity across the nation.

He said: “If the government had given them some portions of the land, they should go and bring their own paper, they were not able to produce anything. And because of all these kidnappings and other crimes, and you know in the North, they usually go to schools. So, I approached the ministry and they gave me the authority to be able to fence the land so that the lives of the students will be safe.

“We approached people from Land – the Urban and Regional Planning Unit.  They told us that they would come and work to see who have encroached on the land. It requires that they go there and mark it but these people from the Urban and Regional Planning said they can’t go there without any security and that they might be attacked.

“As at that time, the Divisional Police Officer in my place, when I called him, said he was at Ikorodu in Lagos and that he won’t be around. Meanwhile, the officials from the Urban and Regional Planning had arrived at my office and we were to show them the place; and I don’t want them to just come and leave without working so, I went to Ilese Barracks and begged them to help provide security for those people.  They gave me soldiers for those that came and the Urban and Regional Planning people just marked the houses and left.”

On what transpired at the police station, Oladunjoye said both the college and the community were told to stop work on the land. However, he said Ijolu community did not obey the directive.

“They invited me to the police station at Igbeba Police Area Command. I was there and I gave them all the information and we were told that everybody should calm down,  that no work should continue on the land.  But they (Ijolu community) still continued to work and I have not even started digging the land for the fence. I have obeyed the Police. That is the situation of things. “Responding to the Provost’s claims, the Public Relations Officer of the Ijolu Board of Trustees, Mr Adedoyin Ademola, acknowledged that the soldiers were not on the site any more.  He, however, said he was disappointed about the college’s alleged poor treatment of the community.

Adedoyin said: “The soldiers are not on site anymore. We are also going there now to work because it is our land.  Nobody can prevent us from going there. It is only court injunction that can prevent us from going there and there is no court injunction. We have equally submitted our documents to the Ministry of Lands.

“We don’t know why the school is acting the way it is  over our land. We gave the land and the state government paid us N150,000 then as compensation and now the school wants to dispossess us of the excess land that the government returned to us.

“We do not want bloodshed, that is why we reported the matter to the police. We all met at the police station in Igbeba. The police cautioned the school against inviting soldiers and that the soldiers don’t have business in such matter.

“The police did not say we (Ijolu community)  should not go to our land;  they only advised whoever has claim on the land should approach the Ministry of Lands with relevant documents and we have done that and equally written to the ministry through our lawyer. It is our land that is why we can’t stop going there.

On his part, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ogun Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, acknowledged that the matter was reported to the Police  and all the parties were advised to maintain peace and that existing structure or on going  structure should not be brought down pending when the Ministry of Lands and Survey identify and demarcate the land to determine areas of encroachment while any party having claims on the land, should approach the relevant ministry of the Ogun State government for clarifications.

 

What the records say

The Nation got the minutes of a meeting held January 27, 1994 at the Principal’s office, Ogun State College of Health Technology, Ilese between the Ijolu community and state government officials, which throws more light on the land tussle.

The following people represented the  government and school team: Mrs O.I. Olatunji (Assistant Director, Ministry of Health), O.M.Awolesi (AG, Principal of the school),  Mr C.O. Olusanya (Assistant, Chief planning officer), Mr. B.A. Adelaja (Survey Division) and four others.

Representatives of the community included Olisa Kola Osunsanya  (Agunloye 11 of Ilese), Mr. Sunday Adesanya, Mr. Sunmola Lawal and two others.

Narrating how the land was given to the school, the Olisa said that the site was owned by three communities and that the communities willingly agreed to release a land of about 50acres for the development of the school but the communities later discovered that the school authority had taken more than the 50 acres released to it making it to encroach   on the traditional shrines located at the Southern boundary of the site.

Olisa said for this reason  the community requested for the exclusion of the portion that contained their shrines.

He also tendered at the time,  a survey prepared by surveyor Banjo who was the school surveyor then.  A copy of it was given to each of the Bureau of lands and Minister of Health in 1994.

The surveyor explained details of the survey plan at the meeting and it was observed that he had already demarcated the survey plan into  parcels “A” and “B.”

It was explained that parcel “A” represents the school while parcel “B” represents portion proposed for excision.

After the examination of the survey plan, attendees of the meeting toured the site with the school surveyor, Banjo, as guide and they all agreed on the demarcation after minor adjustment was made.

The adjustment pertained to the shifting of point “B” on the survey plan which was found to be too close to the female hostel downward of a distance of about 200metres.

It was then unanimously agreed that the school authority should not embark on shifting of boundary line until it receives the directive from the Bureau of Lands, Survey and Town Planning.

By Toba Adedeji, Osogbo

 

The Osun State government has placed the state on red alert, as two patients lost their lives to the new variant of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Oyo State.

The state government yesterday harped on adherence to safety protocols and non-pharmaceutical guidelines to prevent the virus.

A statement by the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced last Friday that it had confirmed a case of the SARS-CoV-2, known as the Delta variant in Nigeria, adding that the variant had been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a variant of concern.

“We enjoin citizens to continue to take personal responsibility for their safety. Non-adherence to safety protocols among citizens may produce unpleasant outcomes. We advise residents not to let down their guard or be lured into a false sense of security that the world is totally out of the grips of COVID-19.

Read Also: BREAKING: UNILAG Senate directs students to vacate hostels over third wave

 

“The arrival of the new Delta variant is a signal to us that we cannot let down our guards. It has ushered in the third wave in other parts of the world, and its strain has been found in Nigeria – as a matter of fact, in Oyo State.

“Therefore, we cannot pretend that Osun is an island considering our people engage in trade and social activities with this neighbouring state.

“We should also be aware that the new variant has a high rate of mutation and it is deadlier. The worst part is that it does not have the same symptoms as the variants experienced in the first and second wave. It presents just as body ache, devoid of dry cough and fever. So, we need to be mindful of the symptoms and go to the hospital when we feel unwell.”

 

By Ernest Nwokolo,  Abeokuta

 

Ogun State government yesterday stated that the state has recorded two deaths in the last three weeks from COVID – 19 and 15 new cases within two weeks.

Commissioner for Health  Dr. Tomi  Coker, who stated this in a statement, said Ogun State has experienced gradual rise in COVID – 19 new cases within the said period compared to two cases witnessed in the whole month of June.

According to her,  four persons are currently being managed in the isolation centre that hitherto was empty in the last one month.

She noted that given that many lands cross one another, and the fact that eight of  local government areas (LGAs) in the state share boarder with Lagos State with a major international airport and the highly mobile community between them, it becomes pertinent for Ogun State government to proactively curtail the spread of COVID-19 virus among the people.

Read Also: Plateau’s cholera death toll hits 17 out of 1,004 cases

 

“While NCDC is currently working frantically to ensure surveillance of the variants in the country, Ogun State Government is re-energising her response team at State and LGA level for prompt and effective response. Risk communication is being embarked upon at community level through the LGA rapid response team.

She said : “We are working with the Federal Port Health Authority to ensure passengers are screened at the land crossings in the State.  Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) focal persons in our health facilities have been alerted to step up IPC measures while we have deployed Rapid test Kits to major secondary and tertiary Health facilities to test patients who are to undergo surgeries, patients with symptoms suggestive of COVID 19 and persons who want to know their status.

“We are also embarking on mobilisation for test at our five-high burdened LGAs (Abeokuta South, Ado-Odo/Ota, Ikenne, Obafemi Owode and Sagamu).

“We urge all Ogun State residents to ensure strict adherence to public health and social measures in place.”

 

By Moses Emorinken, Abuja

 

The Stop Tuberculosis Partnership has stated that funding constraints remain the key challenge towards combating and eradicating tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria.

It noted that in 2020, of the $384 million required to implement the National Strategic Plan for tuberculosis, only 30 per cent was made available to all implementers. This leaves a funding gap of 70 per cent, that is, at least $268 million ($268,800,000) to tackle the deadly disease in the country

Worse still is the fact that 23 per cent of the available funding came from international donors. Only a meagre 7 per cent was sourced domestically.

Furthermore, it noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has had varying short and long-term impacts on health, including TB services in the country, such as disruption of access to TB services as a result of prolonged periods of lockdown, treatment interruption potentially breeding drug-resistance, as well as the effects of stigma for both healthcare workers and clients among many others.

The Chair of the Central Planning Committee of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria and Executive Director of KNCV Nigeria, Dr. Bethrand Odume made these known during a briefing in Abuja yesterday to announce the forthcoming National Tuberculosis Conference scheduled to hold between November 9 to 11, 2021. He, therefore, called on stakeholders, especially at the state level, to invest more in the funding for tuberculosis.

He said: “As we all know, funding constraints have remained the key challenge towards combating this deadly disease in Nigeria, and over the past five years, it has been driven largely by external funding sources.

Read Also: FG takes tuberculosis advocacy to Abuja community

 

“To meet the estimated funding gap along with other pertinent issues, there is a need to create an avenue to foster access to research, technologies, innovations and build collaborations/partnership for tuberculosis control in Nigeria.

“To this end, the 2021 National TB Conference provides a platform for the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) and all stakeholders to deliberate on the magnitude and dimensions of the effects of the pandemic and other diseases on TB control in Nigeria. It will also create an opportunity to learn lessons from experiences within and other countries, and to come up with strategies to address tuberculosis control during the current and future pandemics.”

In his remarks, the Acting Board Chairman of Stop TB Partnership, Dr. Ayodele Awe, stated that last year, there was a 15 per cent increase in tuberculosis case detection due to common symptoms being shared between COVID-19 and tuberculosis.

“We saw at the end of the year, after analysing our data, that we had 15 percent increase in tuberculosis cases; higher than the previous year, and that is the highest number we have ever had in Nigeria. We had about 138,000 cases and the previous year was about 110,000 or 120,000 cases. We are doing this in collaboration with the Federal Government, with concerted efforts with all the partners particularly the private sectors,” he said.

The Ibile Microfinance Bank, Lagos, has called for investment in the education and empowerment of children of from indigent backgrounds so that they will not continue to be a social menace in the society.

Head of Audit and Compliance, Ibile MFB, Mr Paul Olaoye, said this while presenting money and other items to 18-year-old Goodness Musa and her amputee mother, Joy, who lost four children and husband in a Boko haram attack in Plateau State.

“If children of the indigents are not empowered or educated, they will become touts, armed robber and make life miserable for the privileged,” Olaoye said.

Read Also: UNIZIK students, others enjoy U.S. free empowerment

 

Explaining how the bank connected with the Musas, Olaoye said, “There was a programme held on radio and meant to advertise our products. She made a call after the programme requesting for a loan of N20,000.  She told us she needed it to set up her daughter in the natural drink business. She lost her husband, four children and leg to Boko Haram attack in Plateau state.  So we raised funds for her as part of our CSR.  We decided to raise more money, we gave her the things needed for the business, we bought food stuff and kept the remaining in the bank for her to come and withdraw when she decides on a vocation she wishes to learn. The mother cannot walk, so the daughter needs to help her.

Head, Public sector, Mr. Rasheed Ajalaruru, said, “We will open an account for the girl as part of CSR. We also want to encourage the private sector to assist her and people in her shoes.”

Mrs. Musa said she had been finding it difficult to train the only daughter she had left because of her amputated leg, in which she still feels excruciating pain.

On her part, Goodness thanked the Bank for the gesture, saying it would assist her fend for herself and mother.

 

By Toba Adedeji, Osogbo

 

The Orangun of Ila, Oba Wahab Oyedotun, has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State for granting the community’s demand to make it a university town.

The community noted that Federal Government’s approval to site a university in the hometown of Chief Bisi Akande satisfied the yearning of over 40 years.

The Ila-Orangun Elders’ Consultative Forum, on behalf of the community, led by its chairman, Pa Gabriel Oyinlola, during a press conference said: “We celebrate President Buhari, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State and Chief Bisi Akande, indigenes and non-indigenes of Ila-Orangun that have played their parts to make Ila-Orangun a university town.

Read Also: Katsina varsity set to run part-time programmes

 

“The quest of our community for a university has spanned over four decades (1989-2021). In this regard, while Mrs.Lydia Oyewumi Abimbola was the Commissioner for Education in the old Oyo State, her performance so impressed the Military Governor, Col. Adedeji Oresanya that he was determined to site the state university in Ila-Orangun but for the order from the above that caused that university to be sited in Ogbomoso which is now known as the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.

“We express our heartfelt gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government of Nigeria, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State, the Asiwaju of Ila-Orangun Chief Bisi Akande and others who have played their parts in having the institution of higher learning sited in Ila-Orangun. We are very ready to volunteer our lands and for the siting of the university.”

By  Adekunle Jimoh , Ilorin

 

Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Prof. Noah Yusuf, has urged university administrators to de-emphasise paper certification.

Instead, Yusuf canvassed practical skill acquisition and all-round university education.

The professor of sociology said this in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, during the commemorate of his first anniversary in office.

He sought for the establishment of more universities to match the growing prospective admission seekers in the country.

He said: “The proliferation of universities in Nigeria may not necessarily demean quality education in the country. If one considers the population of prospective candidates yearning for university education vis-a- vis the number of existing universities in Nigeria, one may have no other option but to conclude that there is the need for more. On an annual basis, over 1.2 million candidates are known to sit for UTME in the country while on the average the existing admission placement is less than 450,000. Obviously, the existing admission quota cannot meet the ever growing demands of candidates.

“However, the emphasis of university education should be on practical skill acquisition and all round education rather than paper certification.If this emphasis is achieved, then, the country would have been seen to justify the large number of existing universities.”

Read Also: Consider Nkari as location for Technology varsity, says lawmaker

 

The former director of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies also made a case for more more faith-based tertiary institutions.

He said: “While the conventional universities focused on nominal training to the students. faith-based universities perform additional role for the society through emphasis on the morality and spiritual education of the students.

“This becomes highly important in contemporary Nigerian society which is contending with the challenge of drug abuse, cultism, etc. Further, private universities complement the public universities in making university education accessible to the teeming Nigerian youths desirous of quality.”

Yusuf concluded by calling on the government to support private universities.

He said: “I would like to end this address by re-echoing the appeal to the Federal Government of Nigeria to take proactive action towards granting financial and logistic support to private universities. As emphasised earlier in my address, private universities are playing a very significant role in the country in terms of expansion of university education to the teeming Nigerian youths and also serve to check and prevent social upheaval and youth restiveness by ensuring uninterrupted academic calendar.

“In another sense, if the Federal Government can bail out banks to prevent financial distress, the same could be extended to private universities, to prevent youth restiveness and attendant social dis-equilibrium. Both are geared towards national stability!”

 

Interswitch Group, the organisers of InterswitchSPAK National Science competition, has announced the release of the results of the National Qualifying Examination for the InterswitchSPAK Nigeria 3.0 which held nationwide on Friday, May 28 and Saturday, May 29, 2021.

A total of 18,274 students registered for the national qualifying examination but 10,502 pupils wrote the examination online. Fifty per cent of the candidates were from the Southwest.

About 35 per cent of the registrants came from public schools, while 65 per cent was from private schools. Fifteen-year-old Alao Oluwateniola from Divine Step College, Lagos State had the highest score of 93 per cent.  The second highest score was 92 per cent by 15-year-old Okoro Halimah of Taidob College, Ogun State.

Results are available on the InterswitchSPAK portal.

Group Chief Marketing and Communication Officer at Interswitch Cherry Eromosele expressed excitement about interest in the competition despite the pandemic.

“It is impressive to see the level of participation at this year’s edition of InterswitchSPAK. Despite the pandemic which led to the deferment of the competition last year, I am particularly excited to see that students and schools have adapted to the new normal of virtual learning and online classes. This year’s qualifying examinations was written online, yet, we recorded a high rate of participation from both private and public schools. This just goes to show that truly, the only thing constant in life is change”, she said.

The top 81 finalists will compete in the InterswitchSPAK TV quiz competition. The prize at stake are scholarship funds worth N12.5 million to the top three winners.

The overall winner will be awarded a five-year scholarship in any tertiary institution, a laptop, a plaque and monthly stipends throughout the duration of the scholarship, all totaling N7.5 million. The second-place winner will be awarded a three-year scholarship, a laptop, a plaque and monthly stipends for the three years totaling N4 million; while the third-place winner will receive a year-long scholarship worth N1 million, a laptop, and a plaque.

This is the third edition of the InterswitchSPAK Nigeria competition. The competition, tagged ‘InterswitchSPAK SWITCH-A-FUTURE’, is a CSR initiative of the company. The second edition was concluded in February 2020.