kundayo Evangelical Ministry has begun a seven-day power-packed vigil at the church auditorium, 4 Adebakin Street, off Aladelola, Ikosi, Ketu Lagos. The programme which began on September a ends on September 15, runs from 12am till 3am daily. There will be a thanksgiving service on September 16.
Speaking on the programme, the host, Lady Evangelist Toyin Ekundayo, implored people to attend as God is ready to have compassion on their problems.
Traders in Mushin market have pledged to give maximum support to the development of the popular Mushin market if the construction works will be carried out in phrases. This assurance was given when the Mushin Local Government leadership held a consultative meeting with all the 33 sectional leaders in the market.
According to their spokesperson, all the traders will love to see development in the market provided it will not bring hardship to them. They, therefore, appealed to the chairman of the council, Hon Olatunde Adepitan, to ensure that after the construction of the market, the current crop of traders would be considered first for allocation before the money bags deny the traders the opportunity to return to the shops.
The traders also demanded for more time to enable them prepare for the new challenges while insisting that their leaders did not inform them of the previous meeting held with the local government in relation to the reconstruction of the market.
Replying, Hon.Adepitan assured the traders that adequate arrangement had been made to mitigate any inconveniences as an alternative arrangement had been made to cushion the effects of the reconstruction exercise .
He immediately directed the councillors to enact a bye-law that will enable the traders to operate without any inhibition around the streets in the area pending when the construction work would have been concluded.
Adepitan said since the beginning of the year, he had directed the council officials to stop the collection of tolls from Mushin market, this was meant to prepare the traders for the eventual temporary relocation from their present state.
He further explained that the representatives of the traders should constantly liaise with the contractor handling the job to ensure that the time frame for the completion of the job is met.
Mr. Adefusika Adeojo, the Legal Adviser to Mushin Market traders advised the council authority to abide by all the terms of agreements concerning the comfort of the traders.
The traders had protested the plan demolition of their market last week due to the short notice for them to vacate their shops. The chairman explained that they had close to a year to move their wares away having met with the market leader ship several times before the final notice was issued.
Title: MOVING IN CIRCLES, a Collection of the Selected Columns
Author: Dan Agbese, Soji Akinrinade, Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Mohammed.
Year of Publication: 2012
Pagination: 385
Publisher: May Five Media
Reviewer: Chidi Amuta
The birth of a new book is for me always a significant event. Not only does it extend the frontiers of knowledge but more importantly, it transforms the body of knowledge and information it carries from the perishable to the immutable and the permanent. A book once published becomes part of the eternal inheritance of our common humanity.
In our recent history, book presentations have become a regular feature of our celebrity hungry social scene and growing national preoccupation with the moment. Authors of all hues cherish the day of presentation or launch if only to savour the few hours of fame and celebrity. Some bring in traditional dancers and drag the village chief to far away Lagos or Abuja to witness the ‘arrival’ of one of his own into reckoning.
Others look forward to the day of launch for the pecuniary benefits of the event. At least some embarrassing debts can be defrayed. With luck, a new or almost new car could crown the labours of the warrior. May be, that much delayed holiday trip to Dubai could happen in this lifetime. More importantly, if the author is a man, he could regain the commanding heights of family life by handing ‘She who must be obeyed’ a cheque that may not be subject to ‘drawer’s attention’ at the bank!
But I believe the book for which we are here gathered is somewhat different. The authors of the essays here collected have had their moments of celebrity and remain celebrities in their own right on account of the valiant struggles they have waged on behalf of fellow Nigerians. I am therefore of the view that this occasion is designed for a different purpose
For me, it marks the transformation of essays that would have been lost in the isolation of the episodes and editions in which they were first published from the transient to the permanent. The book for which we are gathered here today will tomorrow form part of the cumulative knowledge heritage of our nation and our common humanity.
The decision to gather these seminal essays is indeed an important one and the May Five collective must be commended. When we chronicle history through reporting and commentary, we do so momentarily. Unless we later on gather these comments in book form as the authors of this book have done, the risk is that they may be lost to posterity. In this form, we have something to treasure and refer to for all time because books are ageless and we have no way of knowing how far in time and space they may travel.
The columns here gathered and for which these gentlemen as founders of Newswatch magazine have become national icons stand out for a number of reasons. They are first timely interrogations of national history. Secondly, they are courageous encounters with the powers of the days in which they were published even in the days when it was mortally dangerous to speak truth to power. At the level of the art of expression, they happen to represent some of the finest pieces of writing in our journalistic history.
As I read through the book, I was reminded of a question, which I have been confronted with in recent times. Someone sent me an e-mail after reading one of my recent Thisday pieces, lamenting the declining quality of writing in our journals and asking me the morbid question: after you guys have gone, what shall we read? In response, I told the fellow that every generation writes the script of its own encounter with history in its own idiom. My final words to the fellow were somewhat thus: Write your own script. We have written ours.
As newspaper or magazine columns, these pieces fall into place when we consider the old maxim that the pen is mightier than the sword. Journalism as the fraternity of the pen is at its most threatening to those who wield the sword when it is in the form of opinion essays, commentary, treatises or monographs. News is easier for people of power to deal with. It is either true or false. If it is true but inconvenient, those in authority find ways to create an alternative truth or deny the truth. At the worst, they make another news quickly to supersede and override the one in question. If it is a falsehood, it is rebutted with superior facts or the relevant law is invoked to sanction the publication or the reporter.
But an authoritative column shapes opinion. The more influential and believable the columnist, the more the danger. Columnists are the unconsecrated prophets of an unnamed religion. They command followership among the many. They are the magisterial voices of an unnamed court, the court of public opinion. Therefore, the columnist must be knowledgeable about the subjects he chooses to dwell on and must come across as not only convinced but very impeccably convincing.
The tyranny of the columnist all over the world was at its height in the days before the viral spread of the information age. For centuries, the hard copy newspaper was the main source of news and opinion in addition to radio and television. Columnists and news anchors on major networks became like deities. Their friendship and tacit support was courted just as their endorsements made presidents and prime ministers.
But alas that tyranny has virtually been smashed by the strides of the information age. The pen is dead, almost. In its place is the keyboard of the computer or the cell phone and thousands of other hand held devices through which news, information, images and opinion assail millions on a moment by moment basis wherever we may be. You no longer have to send for the day’s paper at the newsstand. The news invades the privacy of your living room or comes packaged to you via your cell phone, pc or tablet.
You may not want to have much to do with the news or the opinions of others. But wherever you may be, they will find you and either make or mar your day. Enter the columnist or journalist as avatar, everyman’s notifier, town crier or just plain free spirit. The spontaneous journalist of the information age is the quintessential avatar, the free spirit of our ancestors come back to haunt us all.
In reference to the essays in this volume, I would say that in many ways, they are founded on the assumptions of an age in which a few good men (and women) held the monopoly of informing, educating and moulding the opinions of others. That is the foregrounding required to understand and appreciate the sometimes magisterial condescension and definitive attitude of some of the essays. So, if you find some of the essays preachy, that is because the authors used to be part of a priesthood of the pen.. If you find some somewhat arrogant, it is also the arrogance of men who once bestrode their world with the footsteps of giants with a near monopoly of conventional wisdom, control of a powerful medium and armed with skill and reach.
The unifying theme of the essays here collected is the recurring nature of Nigerian history and society as well as the repetitive profile of our problems. To see that the things that irked us more than three decades ago still dominate our public discourse today would justify the title of this volume. Unreliable power supply, bad hospitals, rising inflation, falling education standards, corruption in high and low places, incompetent governance, decay in infrastructure, the celebration of decadent values, neglect of the welfare of the masses are all themes that will not go away.
This is not peculiarly Nigerian. It is perhaps global. But what is most distressing in the Nigerian instance is that the mistakes of the past in dealing with these matters are repeated while the intensity of some of the avoidable ills like corruption has increased with time.
In that sense, these essays trace a trajectory of our history as a nation. But more importantly, they also tell a tragic story of the travails of public opinion and the media in general in our country. The governing theme of this volume is perhaps the death of public opinion. We live in a society that has become inured to public opinion. What the public feels is no longer important to those chosen to decide for us. What we write no longer matters. The ideas and suggestions that the media constantly proffers no longer impress the few who decide the plight of the many.
How we got to this pass is traceable. At first, journalists were regarded as ‘press boys’, better left forgotten at the corridors. Then from the late 1970s, we re-invented ourselves and our profession by recruiting better qualified personnel and raising the quality of news and opinion. Then we graduated to ‘press men and women’ or media executives. We were even seen in the mid 1980s as potential ‘partners in power’. This is the rise of the so-called fourth estate of the realm, corresponding roughly to the birth and flowering of independent media.
The courting of the media high command by the military high command reached its high point with the regime of President Babangida. Some senior journalists were recruited by government to beef up its manpower profile. Others were appointed to boards, committees and task forces. The military was even compelled to hold periodic privileged briefings with journalists on its programmes and policies as well as sensitive national security issues. This did not last too long. What followed was predictable. Arrest and detention of journalists, closure of offending publications, criminalization of journalistic misdemeanor etc.
Subsequently, politicians realized they needed the media but in a somewhat different format. They could hire journalists as image makers and spokespersons. Or better still, they realized that political wealth could equip them to own their media outfits. It is better to own your own medium so that you can control what is said about you in and out of office. Thus came the rise of private political media: publications by politicians for the sake of political self preservation and sustained for as long as it takes for the particular political cause or project to run its cause. This only applied to politicians who cared about the media and public opinion.
The return of democracy in 1999 witnessed a different attitude to the media. A Nigerian leader that has become the prime mascot of the era was quoted as saying that he did not care what was written about him and his administration by the media. In fact, he publicly confessed that he does not read newspapers, a reflection of the very low esteem in which he held the media and its practitioners. This confession has since graduated to the ruling doctrine of politicians.
Still we were respected until we became assailed by the values of politicians and the new breed emergency oligarchs. Today, we have become indistinguishable from those who should be the targets of our self- imposed messianism.
In his last recorded media chat on national television, President Jonathan was asked why he would not declare his assets publicly. His answer was that he does not give ‘a damn’ what you media feel. Only last week, the President was again quoted, while signing a performance contract with his ministers, as saying that he could no longer rely on the media to get a realistic assessment of his ministers. Reason? The media has become indistinguishable from other self-seeking sectors of the society as some of its leading lights are now buying private jets!
As we celebrate the work of these outstanding journalists, therefore, we may as well raise the question as to whether the messianism that informs these essays is still valid. Is messianism even called for? Is there any calling left to be called journalism as a profession, seriously and strictly speaking? In the era of blogs and spontaneous reporting, of i-reports and u-tube- there is no journalist left in the traditional sense. We are living in an era in which everyman is now a journalist. The values that fuelled our original positions now need to be re-assessed.
And yet humanity has not ceased to depend on those who make it their business to disseminate information and transmit the news or inform us or indeed set the agenda. News media organizations have increased in direct proportion with the dilution of journalism as a distinct professional category.
The essays collected in this volume span a good part of nearly four decades. These are four decades in which the authors shared a single overriding preoccupation- Nigeria. They lived through some of the most turbulent and most eventful years of our national history. These were years of political changes and great social upheaval. They were years of trial and great tribulation at private and communal levels; years of thunder and years of turbulence, of blood and avoidable calamities.
The essays are therefore journalistic interrogations of national history by and large. They share the increasing dissatisfaction with military rule in its original format as symbolised by the Gowon regime.
They also partake in the optimism and patriotic fervor that greeted the brief Murtala regime as well as the hope that the return to civilian led democracy would draw on the lessons of the past and resume the journey to national greatness. They take us through the politics of the NPN and UPN days in the Second Republic and the inevitable return of the military. From the draconian frown of the Buhari/Idiagbon combination therapy to the ubiquitous smile of Babangida’s imperious suzerainty, these essays sketch, as it were, the outlines of journalism’s encounter with misrule and anomy as well as with society’s burden of adjustment to incoherent policies and conflicting, even confusing programmes.
This is a period in which Nigerians had to learn an ever changing political vocabulary to cope with the ever changing predilections of an ever changing cast of political actors and their costumes. We learnt to insist that things be done ‘with immediate effect and automatic alacrity’, that we should grow our own food in our back gardens in line with ‘green revolution’. We were reminded of the trite truism that ‘we have no other country but Nigeria’ with the added injunction; ‘let us stay here and salvage it together’.
The same people were to instruct us that in line with the spirit of globalization, we should embrace the international mobility of labour by seeking economic succour abroad if necessary. Skilled Nigerians fled to all corners of the universe in search of jobs and livelihood as economic conditions at home became more dire. Thus was born the Nigerian diaspora, which today remits home an average of $4 billion and harbours some of the most strategic skills and competences that we need to salvage our country.
The preoccupations of these essays vary. But they can be categorized as either timeless or contemporary in relevance. For instance, Dan Agbese in ‘As K.O. Leaves’ (P.41) dwells on the retirement from active politics of the inimitable K.O. Mbadiwe. He celebrates the comic relief often associated with Mbadiwe’s trade mark bombast but also laments the imminent loss of his vast experience from the political landscape. The moral of the essay descends on us with a relevance that resonates in 2012 Nigeria: ‘Nigeria is a frustrated nation: frustrated by bad dreams; frustrated by its increasing loss of faith in itself. Therefore, the search for scapegoats has become a national obsession.’ (p.44).
Similarly, Ray Ekpu in ‘A Hangman is a Hangman’, (p.283), throws in a timely warning as early as September, 1986 on the increasing securitization of the society as a result of a subtle effort by the then administration of President Babangida to give the secret service a human face in order to deepen its culture of repression.
In an even more contemporary piece (December 2009), ‘Living in Interesting Times’ (P.179) Soji Akinrinade interrogates the ambiguity of late President Yar’dua’s approach to the recurrent matter of corruption among political leaders. While the late president insisted that he was preoccupied with fighting corruption, some of his closest political associates were persons who had been found guilty of monumental corruption by agencies of the state. In a reference that would astonish the optimists of today, hear Akinrinade: ‘The President has told us he will give us 6,000 megawatts of electricity this month. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan confirmed this when he said recently in Kaduna that no Nigerian will depend on generator in 2010.’!
The recent recourse of politicians to violence to advance their political interests receives the attention of Yakubu Mohammed in ‘The Jos Madness’ (p.373). Mohammed is at pains to recall the symbolism of the city of Jos before the onset of the politics of violence as the peaceful melting pot of Nigeria’s example of peaceful co-existence of Christians and Moslems in an idyllic environment.
This volume recommends itself as a record of a vital aspect of journalism in the service of a nation in quick transition. More importantly, it is an important indirect historical source book for those who want to get a better understanding of the ideas and views that lay at the back of the media’s constant friction with the powers that have been. Future generations will read these essays and at least understand that we spoke to the challenges of our age in an idiom dictated by our strengths and limitations.
Thank you.
Chidi Amuta
Lagos
September 3, 2012.
kano State Commissioner for Land and Physical Planning, Surveyor Muhammadu Nadu Yahaya has warned that the state government may sanction any contractor involved in the execution of shoddy jobs.
Yahaya, who gave the warning in Kano during his one-day inspection and monitoring tour of road projects in the state, said the expansion and dualisation of road networks in the state have recorded 45 per cent progress, particularly the N3 billion Gwarzo/ Kofar Kabuga/BUK new site road, over which he expressed satisfaction.
Yahaya was greeted with complaints from the contractors at different points, ranging from the torrential rain to non-removal of electric poles, underground doctile pipes and heavy traffic, which has taken its toll on the pace of work.
He, however, promised to redouble his efforts to ensure speedy completion of the project when the rains subside.
The contractor handling the expansion and dualisation of Sheik Jafar Mahmud Adam Road (fomerly Chalawa road) told the inspection team that his greatest challenge remains the underground doctile pipe on both sides of the road which hinders the progress of work.
Apart from the heavy traffic on the road, the contractor also told the commissioner that the road design was altered several times, resulting in the slow pace of work on the project.
He, however, promised to work harder particularly now that he has received a final redesign of the project.
At the Hadejia road( Murtala Mohammed Way/Ahmadu Bello Way roundabout), the commissioner expressed satisfaction with the quality and pace of work but urged the contractor to redouble his efforts to ensure that he meets the completion deadline.
The team, however, expressed dismay at the slow pace of work on Zaria Road and urged them brace up with the challenges, so as to complete the project on schedule.
The tour also took the Commissioner to the Southern Terminus project site at Gundutse, at the end of which he expressed satisfaction with the pace of work .
However at the Upgrading/Dualization of Independence Road project, which is been handled by SDY Engineering, the Commissioner frowned at the disruption of traffic and charged the Contractor to open up some part of the road to ensure flow of traffic, instead of complete blockage of the road.
At the end of the inspection tour, Nadu urged the Contractor to redouble his efforts, so as to complete the project on schedule and reduce the untold hardship motorists plying the route are currently experiencing.
The Niger State branch of the Nigeria Cassava Processors Association and Marketers (NCPM) has appealed to the state government to assist its members with machinery and equipment for the production of high quality cassava flour for bread making.
Mr Jamiu Lawal, the association’s chairman who made the appeal in an interview with reporters in Minna, said that the state government’s assistance would also go a long way in encouraging cassava chips export.
“The Federal Government is encouraging the the production of high quality cassava flour to produce bread and we cannot achieve that without the necessary machinery and equipment which are quite expensive for the peasant farmer.
“So we are calling on the state government to come to our aid by supporting us to procure these machinery and equipment on loan, to enable us meet the demand for high quality cassava flour.’’
He said that the call became imperative as the association nationwide, found it difficult to access the N500 million loan set aside for cassava growers and processors across the country.
“We are finding it difficult to access the N500 million loan set aside by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration for cassava growers and processors nationwide.’’
According to him, N300 million of the fund is voted for cassava processors in the country.
He, however, expressed regret that the association found it difficult to access the money due to bottlenecks by banks administering the loan, adding that access to credit constituted a major challenge to the production of high quality cassava flour.
“We have cassava in large quantity in Niger State but since we do not have the processing technologies, we find it difficult to meet the international quality standard for cassava chips and flour,’’ he said.
In their efforts to encourage good social vaues in the nation’s institutions, the DM9 Deluxe Magazine,Smooth Guy Entertain Charlian Entertainment will be staging a Miss Institute Pageant on September 16.
According to the coordinator of the pprogramme, pIyssah Iybrahymm (aka Deluxwizzy), the pageant is organised to make Nigerian students have focus.
“We are going into this pageant to give the Nigeria institution a focus; a pageant that will tell Nigerian girls what they stand for in the society,” he said.
He said the pageant will be taking to different institutions in the country with the aim of reducing social vices ranging from cultism and touting among others.
“We are taking this project into the institutions one after the other; the winner of the pageant is going to take campaign into the Nigeria institutions and our campaign is to reduce social vices,” he said.
Stating further, Iybrahymm said “Miss Institute Nigeria pageant is to project modesty; to bring out colour to values, they are not putting on bikinis; the kind of dressing that we are projecting for the grand finale is going to tell people outside there that this pageant stands for uniqueness. And aside that we want people to see something good in being a model; it is not until you dressed half naked or until you showcase your sensitive parts that you are a model; you can be a model in the society in a more good way without being naked”.
The Coordinator condemns the act of going almost naked by Nigerian girls. “If you are going naked what Godliness is in that, what impact will your nakedness have on the society,”he asked.
“It is going to be a yearly programme; We call on the government and corporate organisations to support our course of bringing modesty back to our institutions in Nigeria”, the coordinator said
In an effort to reduce poverty, the Millennium Development Goals office and the Sokoto State government have provided N300 million for a comprehensive programme within communities in the state.
The programme will give emphasis to widows with the burden of children and those abandoned by their husbands as a result of health problems such as Vesico Vaginal Fistula(VVF).The third category are parents that are incapacitated.
Speaking at the inauguration of committees from eight local government councils in the Sokoto Central Senatorial zone at the Giginya-Coral five-star Hotel, the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Farouk Malami Yabo said the programme is aimed at empowering the residents particularly the poor at the grassroots.
According to him, both the state government and MDGs office will provide their counterpart funds of 50 per cent each for the programme.
The councils whose committees have been given one week to come up with lists of 20 qualified would-be beneficiaries each include: Wamakko, Sokoto North, Sokoto South, Silame, Binji, Tangaza, Gudu and Kware respectively.
Alhaji Yabo explained that the programme is expected to reach 2,300 beneficiaries across the 23 local government areas in form of trainings and take-off capital to support their respective trades.
“ Our target is 50,000 beneficiaries because our vision is for the fold to keep multiplying while beneficiaries extend support to others,”he said.
However, Yabo said the emphasis of the first phase which comprises of 120 communities would be on poultry farming and cattle breeding, adding that the training will be for three days and transportation has been provided to convey beneficiaries who will be entitled to N5000 as monthly allowances for 12 months.
“ Already we have Skills acquisition centres at designated areas across the state where the training exercise will be carried out accordingly”, he added.
Yabo explained that the essence is to responsively explore more efficient and effective avenues as poultry farming and cattle breeding for quick yield within the shortest possible time.
“ It will enable the beneficiaries run at rapid gain in terms of egg production which can be of support to women beneficiaries as means of livelihood”, he pointed out.
He urged would be beneficiaries to avail themselves the opportunity and ensure the success of the partnership.
As the Holy Bible says, “our body is the temple of God” and so we must treat it with a lot of respect and adoration. Going to church, praying every day, reading the bible, and engaging in all other spiritual exercise have proven to be indeed not enough for God, and this is why Yomi Ogbaro, Pastor of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries wrote the book, God’s Dietary Prescription. He says that taking care of our bodies physically is also needed. In line with God’s re
ality or perception, we need to stop abusing our bodies with the wrong choices we make every day in terms of what we eat and what we drink as well as our general habits.
Pastor Yomi made reference to Thomas Moffet, an English naturalist and physician, who is best known for his puritan beliefs and his emphasis on the importance of experience over reputation in the field of medicine. He said that, “ignorantly, today men dig their graves with their own teeth and die more by those fated instruments than by the weapons of their enemies”.
This 24 chaptered piece takes you through the divine principles of health and the steps taken to enjoy good health. It also contains the tips as well as the dos and donts of good living.
Yomi compared the human’s body to a car that lacks servicing and attention if there is consumption of junk food, improperly prepared meals, imbalanced diets, etc. He also refers to his book as nutrition 101 at the end of the introductory part. This is indeed correct as the book is a material that takes one through the instructions and guidelines on healthy living based on our diet.
God’s Dietary Prescription exposes humans on why they fall sick, its causes, and also encourages man to avoid the intake of genetically modified foods and stick to the unprocessed natural foodstuffs and fruits. Pastor Yomi also made use of tables and illustrations that should differentiate types and classes of food, their usefulness and importance to the body, He uses this to buttress his points in this mind-blowing piece. The popular saying ‘you are what you eat’, is thoroughly explained in a chapter of the book and helps clear the misconceptions people have about diets and body intakes. The informative and educative ability of the book leaves a reader with the curiosity of flipping through subsequent pages.
Pastor Yomi shows his sense of creativity in terms of the conceptualisation of the book cover and the designers. Toby Isreal and Wale Ibikunle couldn’t have done better with actualising the author’s concept of the cover page. The design of the book has the ability to attract readers’ attention and the content of the book is not disappointing at all. The cover of a book should give at least a little detail of the content of the material and God’s Dietary Prescription did not fall short in that aspect. The author’s combination of health and spirituality is highly exceptional as one might not be able to imagine the relationship both have with our everyday living. Reading a copy of this book makes me understand the fact that what the body wants is very different from what the body needs. We neglect the needs of the body on the altar of excessive junks that damage the body.
Everyone, both young and old is advised to grab a copy of the book, scholars and those in the professional fields especially health, have a lot to gain from this book as it concerns our everyday living. God’s Dietary Prescription is the perfect illustration of the saying ‘health is wealth’.
The Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Hon. Idris Lapade, has been honoured with the best information technology development chairman of the year.
The award was conferred on him at the 8th edition of Nigerian Telecom awards held in Victoria Island, Lagos, last week.
The honour went to some selected state governments, local governments, corporate bodies and individuals across the thirty three states of federation who have contributed to the development of the information technology in the country.
Lapade was the only chairman nominated for the award in Oyo State out of the 33 chairmen in the state. He was given the award as a result of his contributions to the development of ICT in the local government.
Before presentation, the chairman of the occasion and the former Minister of Information, Dr Haliru Mohammed Bello, praised the involvement of the state governors, local government administration and the other stakeholders who see the use of information technology as the only means to move the nation forward.
He commended Lapade for recognising the role of the Information technology in nation building and stressed that government parastatals have a key role to play in the development of information technology.
While reacting to the award, Lapade said he felt honoured and excited for receiving such international award on behalf of the local government and the entire people of the state.
He stressed the need for people to be encouraged to use the modern way of communicating rather than living in the past. According to him, this was why he encouraged some workers in the council to use information communication as the means of getting across to one another .
He said: ‘First and for all, I give glory to Almighty God and I dedicate this award of merit to my governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi for encouraging people to update themselves with the latest gadget in town especially the civil servants. Every aspect of our operations in the local government was invlvolves the use of information technology and use of the modern gadget to improve the workforce.
“In Ibadan North Local Government, we have organised seminars, workshops, and different training programmes for our workers for them to know the importance of the information technology in this jet age and that has prompted us to have internet facility atthe local government secretariat”.
Rotary Culb of Oke-Afa, District 9110 has donated an incubator to the Pediatric Department of Isolo General Hospital, Isolo, Lagos.The club also inaugurated a new cenotaph at Isolo-Pako roundabout.
It was a happy moment for the president of the club, Rotarian Chiejina Chinedu as he and his members expressed joy at the success of the event.
“There is always a need to affect the lives of most especially children who are sick. Children are our future and there is the need to lift them. This makes the club to donate the incubator to the hospital,” he said.
The president and his members were happy to host the Distric Governor, Mr Kamoru Omotosho and his entourage,saying: “We have a focus and a goal for the community which must be fulfilled”.
He said he had interacted with other Rotarians, most especially those in Oke-Afa to support the less-privileged within the community. “This is a club that cares for the needy and the public is encouraged to join us,”he said.
The medical director of the hospital , Dr. R. O. Aromire, thanked the club, the district governor and members for donating the equipment. He promised to always keep the tool in good shape.
The district governor advised the club and their friends to focus on their goal. “Oke-Afa club is among one of the smallest groups in rotary and they are seeing the impact to the public, most especially the old and new cenotaph at Isolo-Pako roundabout.
He urged the club to change their way of doing things and strategise more to attract more public participation