The Nation Newspaper

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  • Ogun PDP writes IGP over invasion of secretariat by ‘thugs’

    Ogun PDP writes IGP over invasion of secretariat by ‘thugs’

    The Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar and the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr. Ita Ekpeyong to save the state from being plunged into crisis.

    In a statement yesterday by its Chairman, Adebayo Dayo, the party said some hoodlums, acting on the instructions of “some powerful persons”, invaded the party secretariat and seized it.

    The statement reads in part: “At about 6a.m. today, about 50 hoodlums, armed with various weapons, invaded our party secretariat on IBB Boulevard, Kobape Road, Abeokuta, Ogun State, shooting sporadically. They fired gun shots at the security men on duty, over-powered them and seized the secretariat.

    “When the news got to the party leadership, as law-abiding citizens, we went to the Ogun State Police Command, Eleweran, Abeokuta, to complain. Armed with a petition, stating our case, we had audience with the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikemefuna Okoye. We told him those behind the invasion are agent-provocateurs who do not have respect for the rule of law and constituted authority.

    “We told him that being the validly elected State Executive Committee (Exco) members recognised by the National leadership of the party, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and all the other relevant bodies, several court judgments have affirmed and re-affirmed our position.

    “But to our utmost surprise, CP Okoye merely told us that he has heard us and that he will look into our complaint. Meanwhile, these hoodlums who have forcefully seized our party secretariat are still there, branding dangerous weapons and boasting that they have the backing of the Police.”

    Dayo said much as the party leadership does not want to believe such claims, it urged Abubakar to wade into the matter, describing him as a “thorough bred professional who has brought a breath of fresh air into the Police”.

    He expressed the hope that the IG will give the issue the “immediate attention it requires, especially when our teeming members have given the party leadership 24 hours to resolve the matter, otherwise they have threatened to resist the invaders,”the statement added.

  • IBB Campaign gave me money for office, says bomb suspect

    IBB Campaign gave me money for office, says bomb suspect

    A suspect, Edmund Ebiware, who is standing trial over the October 1, 2010, twin bombings in Abuja yesterday admitted collecting money from former military president Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organisation.

    Denying that the money was in connection with the violence, the suspect said the N4 million was to open an office in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, which, according to him, was purely business and not politics.

    Ebiware was testifying in his trial before Justice Gabriel Kolawole.

    He also told the court that Petroleum Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke prompted him to link her with Henry Okah to stop pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta.

    Also yeserday, former Presidential Adviser on Niger Delta Timi Alaibe raid he had no information about the Independence Day bombings, as claimed by one of the suspects.

    During cross examination, Alaibe said the only time he came in contact with Ebiware was when he assisted the amnesty office in Delta State.

    Ebiware had told the court that he met Alaibe on the need to disarm ex-militants in the Niger Delta as well as on the death threat he received from suspected bomber Henry Okah

    Justice Kolawole gave parties 14 days each to file their written addresses which will be adopted on November 12.

    Others standing trial are Charles Okah and Obi Nwabueze.

    The fourth accused, Tiemkemfa Osuvwo, died in Kuje Prison.

    The accused are standing trial over their alleged involvement in the Independence Day Abuja twin-bombings.

    They are accused of levying war against the State in order to intimidate President Goodluck Jonathan, an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 37(1) of the Criminal Code, Cap 77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 1990.

    They are also accused of terrorism and conspiracy to commit treason, contrary to Section 40 (2) of the Criminal Code CAP 77, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 1990.

    Ebiware was specifically accused of withholding information on the planned attack by not using reasonable means to leak the information to the President and Peace Officer to foil the planned attack.

  • School celebrates Nigeria at 52

    School celebrates Nigeria at 52

    Pupils of Pampers Private School, Alaka, Lagos put up a colourful programme to celebrate Nigeria’s 52nd Independence anniversary Friday, last week.

    Clad in black jeans and red tops, the pupils had miniature flags which they waved while the programme lasted on the assembly ground.

    Aside rendering various songs, and poetry, the pupils presented a playlet entitled: The way forward. It focused on how Nigeria could find her way out of the challenges of underdevelopment.

    The Head Teacher, Mrs Yemi Ladeinde, said the event was packaged to encourage children, considered future leaders, to understand the Nigerian society and the roles they can play when they become leaders.

    ”It is important to make the future leaders understand more about where they belong to because some of them have been to other countries to see things, though they might be listening to bad things about the country, but they need to understand that it is not all that bad.

    ”At this stage when they are little, they had better understand and therefore plan how to make the country better if some of them became leaders in future.”

    Pampers Director of Studies Mrs Phyl Ojudo said the aim of the programme was to teach the pupils patriotism.

    ”As portrayed in the drama staged by the pupils, some set of people believe that since independence the country has not in any way developed, but to some extent there is fair changes in development,” she said.

    Nine-year-old Moyosoreoluwa Olatosi of Higher Grade 5 spoke about what she learnt from the programme.

    ”I understood more about the country, especially the second part of the drama which said Nigeria is not as bad as I usually heard, and that there is hope if everyone is ready to play their part,” she said.

  • CU alumni honour Chancellor Oyedepo

    CU alumni honour Chancellor Oyedepo

    IT would not have been out of place if a big party was organised to celebrate the 58th birthday of Bishop David Oyedepo, Chancellor of Covenant University, Ota Thursday last week.

    However, the alumni association of the institution decided to set the day aside for service to humanity.

    In the quiet of the African leadership Development Centre of the university, members of the alumni who launched a new initiative tagged: Dr David Oyedepo Day of Service (DODOS), which president of the group, Muyiwa Fadugba said will focus on providing environmental, health, education, social services to communities.

    “Today, we are gathered to institute the lifestyle of Dr David Oyedepo as a legacy for generations to come. We have come to establish our commitment to be the extension of his hands and heart, as we subscribe to an annual day of service to humanity. We have come in this manner today to bring to birth the desires of Dr Oyedepo that we would do greater things than he has done in his lifetime. We have come to identify with a man who has demonstrated the greatest value in life- loving people and serving them. We have come to pledge our allegiance and followership to his philosophy of taking the lead in meeting the needs of others,” he said.

    Fadugba added that non-CU alumni interested in participating can register their interest on a website dedicated to the intiative (www.davidoyedepodayofservice.com).

    Eulogizing Oyedepo, Pastor Abraham Ojeme, Vice President (Foreign Missions) of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, owners of Covenant University, said, “service is not just doing; service is a lifestyle. He is an embodiment of the love for God and love for man; the whole of his heart panting after God and after men. He is an enigma, and the way we can have more of him is to reproduce his own spirit so that we can have more of him in our own lives and this world will be a better place.”

    Speaking earlier, The CU Vice-Chancellor Prof Aize Obayan who commended CULCA’s initiative said the gesture is also an extension of the three key mantra of a university.

    “Universities all over the world are known for teaching, research community service. Even education must translate into contributions. A university cannot just celebrate its certificates, its contributions that come out of its graduates, research findings by its teachers are also able to add to the society.”

    “It’s commendable of the alumni association to flag this day particularly for the Chancellor who has given his whole life for service even from childhood. Now our eagles are all over the world, carrying out the light of education. So, this service mentality is the mentality to think others which we have seen in the life of the Chancellor who has given himself to working 16 18 hours a day.”

  • Mini memoir of a Corper

    Mini memoir of a Corper

    A new book by a colleague I served with in Ebonyi State eight years ago brought back nostalgic memories of the one-year national service coordinated by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

    I congratulate Joe Agbro Jr for writing the book, Served, which chronicles his experience during the service year. I was yet to finish with it as I wrote this piece but the part I read was entertaining and educative, making me ashamed of my ignorance of Amudo community in Ezza East Local Government Area of Ebonyi State where I also undertook the national service.

    From the book, I discovered my eyes and probably my mind were closed for most part of the year to many of the activities in the Community Secondary School, Izzikworo where I served as well as the community I lived. Beyond teaching in the school, I did not make too much effort to cross the cultural barriers, something I regret now. Back then, I would have loved to learn to cook their local recipes but because of the language barrier, I related mostly with fellow corps members. I also remember I nursed a desire to shoot a documentary on rice farming in Ebonyi, and the Rural Rugged crusades and the National Conference of the Nigeria Christian Corpers Fellowship (NCCF) but did not pursue them beyond the idea.

    Unlike Agbro, I was not receptive to eating Jackie meat as donkey/horse meat, a regular fare of the Ebonyi people, was called. I was not also as adventurous as him in exploring the community because I did not venture beyond the school and the Oriegbe Market which I visited with my roommates on the Orie market day. We ladies preferred to visit friends in other communities rather than explore ours.

    My own memoir remains unfinished. I stumbled on a piece I wrote shortly after my service year in 2005 months ago and I laughed reading it because it reminded me of how I felt when I got my posting. I did not want to go to the north. My dream state for the service was Cross River because my younger brother had told me it was a beautiful place (he saw it on TV when Nigeria hosted the Miss World beauty pageant in 2002). But I ended up with Ebonyi on my call-up letter. I remember looking for a map of Nigeria to ascertain where the state was located.

    I survived one year in Amudo, which for a long time afterwards I fondly called my village. I am not a sickly person but while there, I was down with malaria almost every month. The mosquitoes were designer mosquitoes. They were not only bigger than normal, they did not die, no matter how much insecticide my roommates, Kate Fiepre Dambo and Bolanle Abe sprayed every night. But that did not stop me from falling in love or getting heartbroken towards the end of my service year. On the whole, I left Ebonyi State in January 2005 a better person than when I got there.

    I agree with Joe Agbro that the NYSC scheme should continue. But for the security challenges in some parts of the country, the initiative is a laudable one that exposes young graduates to other states apart from where they reside. They also get to meet people, learn about other cultures and languages. It broadens their perspective of the country and such exposure help people make better decisions.

    However, the scheme needs to be improved. Facilities in many of the orientation camps are poor. The government can do a lot to improve the comfort of corps members by investing in quality camp facilities. All camps should have adequate spaces for parade, sports, lecture halls, dining rooms. Hostels should be roomy, equipped with relevant facilities, while toileting facilities need to be adequate and well maintained.

    Also, with the economy now favouring entrepreneurship and skills, the NYSC authorities should also focus on infusing technical and vocational skills programme into the three-week orientation programme. The training should be one the corps members can continue afterwards so that those of them that find themselves posted to local governments where they only go once a week to warm the sits, would be gainfully occupied.

    Corps members should also be guided on how to run businesses and manage their finances – skills that will put them in good stead by the end of the service year.

    Rather than lament their posting, I will advise serving and prospective corps members to count their blessings, learn from the experience – and – write a book. It will surely enrich our national experience.

  • Kwankwaso lays foundation of Northwest Varsity

    Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State has laid the foundation of Northwest University, the second state-owned university.

    At the ceremony at the permanent site in Kano, the governor said that his administration decided to build the university on the 137.9 hectares of land given to the Libyan government long before 1999 for a university, which it failed to develop.

    Already, contracts have been awarded for the construction of two faculty complexes while some structures on the site will be converted to appropriate university structure.

    Kwankwaso said the new institution would offer all programmes – unlike the other university in Wudil, which focuses on technology.

    He justified the need for more universities in Kano, saying the Kano State University of Technology, Wudil, and the Bayero University, Kano, cannot cope with the growing student population.

    As its name implies, the governor said the new university will cater for students from the Northwest region of the country, appealing to other governors in the zone to support Kano in sustaining the institution.

    In his speech earlier, the chairman of the Implementation Committee of the university, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, said the committee worked tirelessly to articulate the framework of the institution, pointing out that it is the fastest university in the country to receive NUC recognition, having been granted recognition within six months of its conception.

    Abubakar said the institution would take off with an initial six faculties and would introduce more departments and programmes including a postgraduate school in subsequent years. He added that principal officers have been appointed for the university and thanked the NUC for speedily certifying the institution.

    The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyat Ahmed Rufa’i, who was represented on the occasion by Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas, assured the State of her ministry’s support for the project.

    She praised Kwankwaso for sponsoring 501 Kano indigenes to acquire post-graduate degrees abroad, to enable them man the institutions established by the government. She said the initiative was praiseworthy.

    Senate President, David Mark, the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and the governors of Kaduna and Katsina states sent goodwill messages on the occasion.

  • Pupil wins national art competition

    A final year pupil of Delta Steel Company (DSC) Technical High School, Warri, Delta State, Edijana Presteen, has won the 2012 edition of the National Art Competition for Nigerian Secondary Schools.

    Presteen, 18, topped the 20 pupils who made it to the finals of the competition organised by NNPC/Chevron JV in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education.

    In the art competition whose theme was The Strength in our Diversity, Presteen impressed the judges with his work whose concept is Nigeria, the strength in our diversity. He told reporters that: “In Nigeria, we have different people, different cultures but how strong are we in that diversity.”

    At the award and exhibition ceremony in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Presteen was presented with N100,000 scholarship, a plaque and certificate. He will receive the amount annually until he completes his secondary education.

    The first runner-up, a 15-year-old SS 1 pupil of the University of Benin Demonstration Secondary School, Master Edede Daniel, would enjoy N75,000 scholarship annually, while the second runner-up, a 16-year-old SS 2 pupil, Master Bisioye Onanuga, from Whitesands School, Lekki, Lagos would get N60,000 scholarship. S

    The Chairman/Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Ltd (CNL), Mr Andrew Fawthrop, said the theme was “aimed at communicating the fact that there is strength in our differences” which is why diversity is a core value in his company.

    Represented by the Director of Business Services, Mr Emmanuel Imafidon, Fawthrop said the theme would help “to instil in our children the right values of unity, team work and diversity orientation as citizens of this great country”.

    The Community Development Supervisor of NAPIMS, Mr Harry Agbor, and a representative of NNPC, Mr Graham Smith, lauded the competition which they noted is a way of bringing secondary school students together from different parts of the country.

  • Sokoto spends N46m for ICT pilot

    Sokoto State government through its Information Communication Technology (ICT) unit, has rolled out a plan for the pilot programme of one laptop per child worth N46 million for primary and secondary schools.

    The pilot programme is expected to cover five schools each with 100 laptops.

    Speaking to reporters on the development, Special Adviser to the Governor on ICT Alhaji Nasiru Zarumai said the project was in tune with the globalisation initiative to fast-track computer knowledge among the citizens.

    He said:”We want to ensure and facilitate basic computer training for the young and those in the civil service.

    “It will enhance and effectively simplify efficiency and productivity in system operations and guarantee quality of service,” he said.

    According to Zarumai, arrangements has reached advanced stage for the expansion and establishment of a comprehensive IT and software laboratory for home-made applications, especially in managing hospital services.

    “Already, we have domesticated an existing data base centre for the state civil service with full capacity to guide against multiple enrolment in the state service and check the issue of ghost workers as well as payments.”

    He said additional resource centres would be provided as a solution to ensuring productivity. Currently, 30 of our engineers and scientists are on two weeks training as approved by the National Information Technology Development Agency.

    “We have mobilised modern digital IT facilities to support our course”, he said.

  • Sociologists in Education hold conference

    Young academics in the field of Education Sociology will get an opportunity to develop themselves during the 6th Annual Conference of the Association of Sociologists of Education of Nigeria (ASEN) coming up between 16 and 19 of this month at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    This is because Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the conference, Dr Soji Oni said there would be a pre-academic conference to address salient issue in the field of scholarly writing on October 16.

    In an interview with The Nation, Oni said this is the first time such a programme will be incorporated into the annual conference of ASEN and assured interested participants of the quality of facilitators that would teach them practical ways to go about publishing their academic articles.

    “This is the first time we are adding a pre-academic conference to expose budding scholars to scholarly writing. It is a way of encouraging masters and PhD students as well as scholars in the early stages of their careers. The workshop will feature different presentations and practical demonstrations. For instance, different journals have different requirements,” he said.

    Meanwhile about 250 participants from faculties of education and sociology departments of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are expected to attend the conference, which has as theme: “Education and Social Violence in Nigeria”.

    Oni said the LOC has received more than 100 abstracts for the conference, which keynote address will be delivered by Prof Abubakar Momoh of the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, Ojo.

  • ‘No funds for workers’ allowances’

    THE Vice-Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Prof. Femi Mimiko, has said the university has no funds to pay the arrears of hazard allowances some workers of the university are agitating for.

    The Vice-Chancellor is also claiming that the three-day protest by the workers on the platform of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which became violent, was politically motivated.

    The workers belong to the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the National Association of Academic Technicians (NAAT).

    In an interview with The Nation, Mimiko said AAUA is one of the few universities that pay the allowances to all categories of staff. But the university cannot afford to pay arrears that would cost billions of naira,” he said.

    “The University cannot use funds meant for capital projects to pay the arrears of the allowance which the three non- teaching unions of the institution were agitating for their members,” he said

    The VC noted that it was true that the allowance was negotiated by the Federal Government but that only 10 of the 124 universities in the country, including AAUA, had started implementing the payment.

    He also said that AAUA was the first state university to pay the allowance to all categories of workers in the institution instead of only those who carry out duties considered to be hazardous. Mimiko added that five out of the universities in the country including his institution had fully implemented the payment.

    He said, “While many of these universities that are paying the allowance paid only to few of their staff, our own university was one of the five that is paying to all non teaching staff and full payment started since April 2012. The payment of the hazard allowance was in addition to the implementation of the peculiar allowance that the university started paying in April 2010, which many conventional universities have not even paid.”

    Mimiko expressed concern that the workers rejected all the options presented to them to allow him impute it into the government’s supplementary budget if any or include it in the next year’s budget of the institution fell on the deaf ears of the unions.

    Mimiko said “there is nowhere such money could be raised in this last quarter of the year to pay the 33 months arrears which runs into billions of naira.”

    He also accused the workers of embarking on a protest not backed by the national leadership of the unions, who he had met over their grievances.

    During the protest, the workers had paralysed academic activities as they chanted songs against the management of the institution headed by Prof. Femi Mimiko, a younger brother to the state Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko

    In a letter of notice earlier sent to the Vice-Chancellor by the NASU chairman, Mr. Bamidele Aguda, the unions agitated for better condition of service and career structure, complained of inconclusive 2010/2011 session promotion, retirement of staff at 60 years, and implementation of financial policies and its arrears.

    Other grievances are non payment of peculiar arrears to retirees and selective victimization of staff.

    Other union leaders that were among the protesters were SSANU chairman, Mr. Ayo Falade and that of NAAT, Mr. Samuel Giwa.

    The aggrieved AAUA workers, vowed to resist any attempt by the University authority to deny them their entitlements saying “we will make the institution unconducive for academic activities, if all our needs are not met.

    The protest took a dramatic dimension when the aggrieved workers held Mimiko and his the management team hostage for hours, throwing stones and other dangerous objects at the building that houses his office. He was finally able to leave when some top officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) intervened but two of the security officials were also rough-handled.

    In his address to the striking workers, the Joint Action Committee[JAC] Chairman, Ayo Falade, had said that his members would leave no stone unturned to collect the arrears, noting that contrary to the claim by the University management, his union, SSANU, indeed had the approval of its national executive to embark on the protest.