Category: Uncategorized

By Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

A student of the University of Abuja, Miss Aimalohi Ojeamiren, has emerged the overall winner of this year’s short video competition on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).

The event, organised by the European Union (EU) delegation to Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries, also produced five other winners in descending categories, all winning various prizes.

Ojeamiren got a 2020 iMAC editing suite as a grand prize for the competition.

The second prize was awarded to Miss Doris Okorie, who got a MAC laptop while the third prize of DSLR Canon Camera went to Miss Anita Abada.

David Nkwa, Ebunoluwa Oluwarinu and Ms. Twammsen Danaan from Plateau State who placed fourth, fifth and sixth positions, got cash prizes.

Head of EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, commended the finalists, saying the European Union was happy to stimulate the awareness and creativity of Nigerians on issues of gender-based violence through its short video competition.

Karlsen said he was pleased that despite the constraints and challenges occasioned by COVID-19 Pandemic, the EU received 685 entries, all creatively put together to illustrate the competitors’ understanding of sexual and gender-based violence and ways to eliminate it in society.

“To all six of you that have emerged finalists, I would like to congratulate you. If out of 685 entries you were able to make it to the top six, you are no doubt, already a winner,” Karlsen said.

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While applauding all the participants for their exceptional brilliance, he urged all distinguished participants to remember to listen to young Nigerians and victims of gender-based violence.

Ojeamiren said she was excited to be crowned the winner of the EU SGBV competition even as she urged the EU Delegation in Nigeria to sustain the initiative as a way of challenging the creativity of Nigerians while creating the needed awareness that will wipe out cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Nigeria.

“I’m excited to emerge the winner this year. My three-minute video on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence was inspired by the need to mitigate its prevalence in society through story telling,” Ojeamiren said.

The objective of the EU SGBV competition was to stimulate the awareness of Nigerians on issues of gender-based violence, ensuring that the voices of young people are heard and taken into consideration when shaping and implementing programmes and policies in Nigeria.

Entrants were asked to send in three-minute video expressing what they understood by sexual and gender-based violence and ways to eliminate it in society.

Judges were drawn from Nollywood; the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs; the EU funded Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC), EU office in Nigeria and Spotlight Initiative.

By Sanni Onogu, Abuja

Chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru, on Tuesday, denied that the National Assembly is presently relying on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to fund its activities due to cash crunch.

Basiru told reporters in Abuja that the National Assembly is not broke neither are lawmakers nor staff are being owed salaries.

He said: “The issue of cash crunch hitting the National Assembly is the figment of the imagination of the writers.

“I have just returned from my constituency where I went to supervise the projects that I facilitated and being implemented by the executive arm of government.

“There is no senator that would say he or she cannot go to their constituencies due to non-funding of their constituency projects.

“The National Assembly as far as I am concerned is not owing its staff salaries. The management is not also owing any lawmaker.

“It is totally wrong to say that the National Assembly is relying on the ministries, departments and agencies to fund its committee works. If that is even the case, that will even be conflict of interest.

“I don’t know the intention behind that story but it is concocted and a deliberate attempt to pitch the National Assembly against the executive or to pitch the public against us that we are not living up to our expectations.

“The National Assembly does not rely on the MDAs to fund our activities. We have budget for our committees and oversight.

“Also, when there is specific need in terms of consultancy services or special travels to do our jobs, the bureaucracy support such assignment.

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“It does not make sense to rely on the same MDAs we are over-sighting for funding again.
The National Assembly has a first line charge.

“There is no senator or member of the House of Representatives that can come out and say he or she had not been paid.”

Basiru also insisted that Senate would fulfill its mandatory 180 days of sitting this year despite some observed breaks.

He added: “We are in the 9th of March and we have a 12 month calendar. There is nothing that says we won’t sit for 180 days.

“It is therefore irresponsible for anybody to insinuate that we would not sit for 180 days.

“Those who are saying we won’t achieve the mandatory 180 days are just creating unnecessary tension where there is none.

“Nobody can predict that we won’t sit for 180 days, it is too early in the year to determine that. Despite last year’s lockdown, we achieved our mandatory 180 days sitting.

“There was no circular that we have reduced sitting to once in a week. We have been having sitting three times a week since the beginning of this year at the Senate.

“We have also had sittings twice a week. There is a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. We are very brisk in our business these days. When it was necessary, we had had occasions to sit on a Monday this year.

“We adjourned today without holding plenary in line with our parliamentary tradition to honour any of our deceased colleagues.

“We met twice last week and attended to several bills, and confirmation of appointment. There is no official position on the number of days that we will be sitting per week.

“Sitting at plenary does not require money. It just requires printing of order papers. We are not collecting sitting allowances.

“There is no pecuniary financial requirements for us to sit. I don’t see how finance can hinder our sitting.

“We are not collecting sitting allowance; we only collect salaries at the end of the month. We are in March and all our February salaries have been paid.

“The only thing we need during plenaries are printing of reports and the Committee on Business and Rules which is being adequately funded by the management is handling that.

“We are merely observing COVID-19 health and safety protocols and we won’t do anything that would be hazardous to the health of our members. We have never amended our rules to sit once per week.”

A foundation set up in the name of Mrs. Olaide Morenike Bisuga has given grants to women to promote their mental, emotional and physical wellness.

The foundation, which was launched on the 80th posthumous birthday of Mrs. Olaide Bisuga popularly known as Ladydon, will help struggling women find their footing by giving grants especially in the area of education and business.

It also donated musical instruments to a church because Ladydon was not only a women’s group leader when she was alive, she was a devout Christian.

At the private launch in Lagos, the foundation gave grants to six beneficiaries.

There were two education grants, two single mother grants, one orphan grant and one to the young man who helped care for Ladydon until her passing on 30 December 2019.

On the vision and mission of the foundation, her children said it was set up to promote the girl child and help her actualise her potentials; promote mental, emotional and physical wellness in women and to promote economic independence and empowerment of women.

The foundation is also expected to promote the power of forgiveness and optimism as well as positivity even in the face of adversity.

Speaking at the launch of the foundation, Mrs. Omotayo Adesanya, Ladydon’s first child, said: “Ladydon was a woman of good virtue and a disciplinarian. She loved her family, and mostly her children.

“With God by her side, she was able to succeed in training her own children and others too. She will always be in our hearts.”

“One of my mother’s favourable quote is “there is no food for the lazy man” She had a never-say-die spirit and she always believed in people.

“If she heard or saw a child without parents, she will immediately ask that child to start living with her family.”

She added: “She believed in education and she pushed all her children and many others to go to school. She fought for those who could not fight for themselves and spoke for those who couldn’t speak for themselves.

“She impacted a lot of lives when she was alive and she is doing that now that she is resting with God in Heaven.”

Also speaking at the launch, her son, Babatunde Bisuga, said the foundation represents everything his mother stood for when she was alive.

“This foundation is a mirror of my mother, she was all about equality, and she wanted people to freely exercise their rights. She also believed that people should practice their religion without fear.

He noted Ladydon promoted ethnic equality as well. “We live in times where ethnic and religious tension is high and these are two things she always spoke up about.

“She embraced all tribes and all religions and she never spoke ill of anyone. It was always love over hate for her.”

By Onimisi Alao, Yola

The Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) is contributing 11 structures for the upgrade of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Yola to a teaching hospital.

The FMC Yola has been identified for an upgrade as the teaching hospital for the Moddibo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH) Yola, which has gone far in processes for conversion to a conventional university complete with a medical degree programme.

The board and management staff of PEF, in Yola at the weekend to inspect structures it is building at the FMC which are at various stages of completion, said it is determined to help the centre achieve its determination for an upgrade to a teaching hospital.

Among the structures, the chairman and other members of the board of PEF inspected at the FMC complex, included a block of Intensive Care units, a Theatre and CSSD Complex, a Neonatal Unit, a block of Histophatology Laboratory Units, an e-Library, a CMD Block, and a Fistula Centre.

Others of the PEF projects at the FMC Yola which the PEF board and management officials inspected were a block of Doctor’s One-Bedroom Apartments, a block of Doctor’s Studio Apartments, an Overhead Tank water facility, and a huge solar energy complex for alternative power supply.

The Executive Secretary of PEF, Ahmed Bobboi, explained to FMC management and newsmen who covered the event, “We are here to inspect projects sponsored by PEF. We’ve been getting progress reports but we want to see things directly and to arrange for possible improvements.

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“We are providing other kinds of projects elsewhere in the state but the major ones are here at the FMC Yola. Having seen the excellence you are noted for, we want to assist in your task to become a teaching hospital.”

In his response to the remark of the PEF Executive Secretary, the FMC Yola Medical Director, Prof Auwal Abubakar, thanked PEF for undertaking to establish so many vital infrastructural facilities to help the Centre in its move towards being a teaching hospital.

Chairman of the board of PEF, Musa Talle, who later spoke to newsmen after the board members inspected the projects, expressed satisfaction with the quality and pace of work.

Engr Usman Arabi, Managing Director of ReliaBuild, the firm overseeing the PEF projects at the FMC Yola, said the projects, most of which are 80 to 90 percent completed, would be handed over in a couple of months’ time.

Outside the FMC Yola, PEF also inspected projects which it is funding in the nearby Adamawa State School of Nursing and Midwifery, as well as rehabilitation projects in three primary schools and a health centre elsewhere in Yola.

By Onimisi Alao, Yola

Over 900 out-of-school girls who returned to school in Adamawa State on the prompting of a pro-girlchild organisation are benefitting from a further intervention to keep them in school.

Over 600 of the girls in two focal local government areas of the state have received books, pens and pencils as well as school bags and sandals, with 300 awaiting their turn in a third LGA to be reached next week.

Africa Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) which is executing the intervention project with support from Malala Fund, said while handing out the school materials to benefitting female students in Numan at the weekend, that the current distribution programme which first took place in Song earlier in the week, will be extended to Maiha LGA next week.

Executive Director of the Centre LSD, Mr Monday Osasah, said 317 girls got the school materials in Song and that 318 were in Numan for the distribution exercise there, and that more than 300 other school girls would also benefit in Maiha when their turn comes next week.

“We are distributing these materials to girls that we encouraged to go back to school,” Mr Osasah said, explaining, “We facilitated their return to school. What we need next is to encourage them to remain in school by giving them books, pen and pencils, sandals and school bags.”

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He said his organisation had identified the beneficiaries to be among out-of-school children and had got them back in school by first creating Safe Spaces at which they interacted with in-school girls.

“If you are not in school but are interacting with people in school, you will be motivated to go to school,” he explained, adding that in all, his organisation got about 1,500 girls in the three focal LGAs to get back in school.

He said even in Numan LGA where girls generally embrace Western education, his organisation still identified and got 350 out-of-school girls to go to school.

“We are going around the three Senatorial zones via the three focal LGAs (Song for Central, Numan for Southern Zone and Maiha for the Northern Zone) to encourage young women to go to school and not get married too soon and lose the opportunity to develop their potentials,” the Centre LSD executive director said.

He disclosed that Maiha has the worst incidence of out-of-school girls while the case of Song is also bad, but that “even in Numan, where you may be inclined to think that everyone goes to school, a lot of children don’t go to school.”

He concluded that his organisation’s project is meant to increase girlchild enrolment, retention and completion of secondary schools.

Following uncertainty over his future in directing the likes of Victor Osimhen at Napoli, Coach Gennaro Gattuso has reportedly been identified as a possible target for Wolverhampton Wanderers this summer.

The Partenopei coach’s future at the Stadio Diego Maradona seems uncertain and Tuttomercatoweb claims Wolves are studying his situation and profile ahead of 2021-22.

The outlet claims the former Milan coach is more than an idea for the Premier League side, who could be ready to replace Nuno Espirito Santo after the current campaign.

Gattuso replaced Carlo Ancelotti in December 2019 and picked up the Coppa Italia in his first season with the Azzurri, but a difficult season and an icy front with President Aurelio De Laurentiis could mean the coach will have to look elsewhere this summer.

By Oyebola Owolabi

Governing Council of the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo has approved the promotion of 11 professors, 12 associate professors and other academic and non-academic staff.

A statement by coordinator of Centre for Information, Press and Publix Relations Ademola Adekoya said the council, during its 125th statutory meeting on February 18, considered and approved the promotion.

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The statement reads: “Those promoted include 41 academic staff, consisting of 11 professors, 12 associate professors and 18 others.

“Others are 266 non-academic staff, consisting of two deputy registrars and two deputy bursars.”

By Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

 

Founder and Chief Executive, Educorp World, Prof. Aderinto Adeyombo has called for more investment in education considering the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the sector.

The United States- based don, noted that the pandemic has exposed the poor infrastructure in the country’s education system, calling on government at all levels to commit money to rebuilding the sector.

“We need to put more money in education. Even before the pandemic we had problems. We have to rethink our infrastructure as a nation.

“Our investment in infrastructure is not much. Funding education is what smart countries do,” Adeyombo said in a webinar organised by the National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Abuja.

The programme was a colloquium on the current trends in education in a COVID-19 pandemic environment.

He lamented that the Nigeria’s education was regressing as a result of poor funding and other factors.

Acting Coordinator, Mathematical Sciences Education Programme at the NMC, Dr. Steve Oluwaniyi the expressed concern over the current trends in the education system amidst COVID-19 pandemic and calls for effective implementation of education policies to enhance national development.

Oluwaniyi said that there was need for the three tiers of governments to ensure that more money was spent on education to improve the education system of the country.

He said: “The time of lip service is over; there are so many things in the national policy for education that has not been implemented.

“So there should not only be policy formulation, there should also be policy implementation because it will be difficult for a country to grow and develop without proper implementation of relevant policies.

“There is need for adequate evaluation and monitoring. We need to have the passion as a nation and individual to ensure our educational system moves forward, because the difference between developed countries and developing countries is in education.”

Discussing further on the topic: “Managing the classroom environment in the COVID-19 pandemic atmosphere looking at class size, infrastructure and classroom interactions for effective learning” he expressed serious concerns over the poor state of the classrooms.

“Looking at the school environment in this situation, even before the pandemic, schools had the challenge of large class size.

“And with the large number of students it becomes a challenge to maintain social distancing as prescribed by presidential task force on COVID-19.

“Coupled with this large class size is the issue of infrastructure. Most of the schools are not well taken care of, dilapidated buildings, no good sitting arrangements,” Oluwaniyi noted.

 

 

Oluwaniyi called on the government at all levels and other non-state actors to support the education sector with more funds.

The Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) has been ranked the best one Polytechnic in Nigeria in the latest edition of webometrics ranking released in January.

The College has moved up on the Webometrics ranking quickly in the past three years.  It was ranked seventh in 2018 and within one year moved to second position, and the first this year.

The upward trend have happened under the administration of the present rector, Mr. Femi Omokungbe, an Engineer.

He attributed the positive development to peaceful and rancour free environment, stable academic calendar; conducive learning environment with massive renovation and upgrade of structures in the college to international standard; and the digitalization of the library with modern e-learning facilities, among others.

Some other positive development under Omokungbe include the inauguration of the largest Museum in Nigerian higher institutions;   creating strong linkages with the industries to determine real skills competences and level of requirement, for both staff and students and so much more.

Webometrics, a form of ranking web for world’s higher institution based on a composite indicator that takes into account both the volume of the web content and the visibility and impact of these web publication.

Omokungbe said the Yabatech Management being a responsible, responsive and proactive one is committed to improving the College ranking in the world, in line with its vision to be the leading Polytechnic in Africa.