By Chris Njoku, Owerri

Management of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and Federal Polytechnic, Nekede Owerri have sent their staff on CONTEDISS 11 and below home following the Federal Government directive on the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

The affected staff are directed to stay at home for a period of five weeks effective 23 December 2020 and wait for further directives.

The Polytechnic Registrar, Anuna EC in a memo, said the affected staff are expected to perform their duties from home within the period.

READ ALSO: Imo workers not owed salary, says Uzodimma

She said that officers on CONTEDISS 12 and above are expected to report to duty but they are to adhere strictly to Covid-19 preventive measures while performing their duties which include physical distancing, regular washing and sanitizing of hands, wearing of facemasks and reducing the number of visitors to their offices.

It directed the institution’s Covid-19 response team to monitor and ensure strict compliance of the preventive measures.

Also, the public relations officer of FUTO, Uche Nwaelu confirmed the institution’s directive saying that management staff on grade level 14 and above including those on essential duties are to report to work.

The National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America (NANNNA) surprised nurses at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Lagos with an elaborate breakfast ceremony.

The event indeed lifted the morale of nurses in attendance and others across the country, as it showed their presence is being respected and valued.

Nurses in the Nigerian healthcare system have had to brace up to more challenges amid a shortfall in resources at their disposal to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

As designated care-giver, the year 2020 has only served to fully elaborate the crucial role that nurses all over the world and Nigeria in particular played at the frontier of the health care system.

With 2020 previously being declared as the ‘Year of the Nurse and the Midwife’ by the World Health Organisation, the relevance of the nurse to human health and wellbeing only continues to soar.

Prior to the hosting of this event, NANNNA donated 5, 000 protective face shields to nurses nationwide as a show of solidarity and support.

These acts of camaraderie haven’t gone unnoticed as several prominent figures in the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives duly acknowledged the impact of these gestures at the breakfast event.

Read Also: U.S. nurse tests positive after receiving vaccine

One of nurses, who equally doubles as the Director of Nursing Services, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Nurse Dorcas Shonibare, said of the organisers: “The fact the NANNNA thought it fit to stretch out a helping hand to us is truly commendable. With Lagos being the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, NANNNA’s aid has indeed been instrumental to helping nurses carrying out their duty.”

Shonibare recalled regardless of professional hazards, her colleagues have always been up and standing, adding that it is such a kind gestures by NANNNA, which usually inspires them towards greater performances.

Shonibare continued: “As caregivers, we have no choice but to go in and offer assistance, even when other medical professionals refuse to do so. It is support like this that helps us do the good work we do.”

The Director of Nursing Services, Health Service Commission, Nurse Olaide Animashaun, likened NANNNA’s gesture as a way of recognising the relevance of the sterling work that nurses in the field do.

“The simple fact that an international body is thinking (and supporting) the work we do is worthy of applause, ” Animashaun added.

Even doctors were not left out of the appreciations.

Chief Medical Director of IDH Yaba, Lagos Bowale Abimbola, thanked NANNNA for coming to the rescue in these times.

Abimbola appealed to the public to follow the example laid by NANNNA so that health care in the country can improve even more.

Our Reporter

Africa’s first cryptocurrency, Zugacoin has risen high in demand as United States Government direct Banks to start accepting Cryptocurrency.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had issued a letter approving U.S. banks to use public blockchain networks.

The letter addressed national banks and federal savings associations participating as nodes on a blockchain and storing or validating payments made in native digital assets or stablecoins.

The OCC’s letter stands in contrast to a bill introduced in the last Congressional session that would have required stablecoin issuers to obtain bank charters. That aggressively anti-stablecoin proposal resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations sent to the leading cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center.

Just like Zugacoin, other Cryptocurrencies rose and became high in demand.

Bitcoin gained nearly 13% already in 2021 at last check, trading hands above $34,000. Ether is trading just below $1,100, roughly 25% below its record high of $1,448, while Zugacoin traded above 48,000 Dollars, making it the highest best seller in the world.

READ ALSO: Benue Gov adopts Zugacoin

The currency which is the first of it’s kind in Africa Specially created to help Nigerians and other Africans at large to tackle poverty in terms of buying and trading with Zugacoin owned by Archbishop Dr Sam Zuga a Tiv Indigene of Benue State, Nigeria is expected to hit 100,000 Dollars before the end of 2021.

“So, you are strongly advised to invest in ZUGACOIN for a brighter financial future by buying on indoex, Coingeko, coinmarketcap and other exchange platforms,” Sam Zuga noted.

The founder, Archbishop Sam Zuga added, “We are going to teach State Governments in Nigeria and the Federal Government how to increase their IGR by 300% through ZUGACOIN in 2021. We will start giving loans to all African countries in 2022. Nigerians would get financial stability through ZUGACOIN. We have many projects that will improve the lives of Nigerians. If God is for us, who can be against us?”

As 2020, the year like no other ends today, KOFOWOROLA BELO-OSAGIE, DAMOLA KOLA-DARE and YEMISI OLAOSUN examine three issues that would remain indelible for a long time to come. 

 

COVID-19  School closures

If a year could have been skipped, 2020 is that year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The pandemic dealt a heavy blow on the global school system and caused a disruption of a magnitude that experts have described as unprecedented. According to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), over 1.5 billion learners in 165 schools representing about 87 per cent of the world’s school population were affected by school closures caused by the pandemic

In Nigeria, the impact was felt disproportionately at all levels of the school eco-system – from pre-school to tertiary. Schools were closed for at least six months from March 23, 2020 when the Federal Government directed for school closures to check the spread of the virus. While primary and secondary schools resumed from October, resumption at tertiary level depended on the institutions’ ownership structure. Many private tertiary institutions, state universities, polytechnics and colleges of education implemented staggered resumption dates and classes in line with the COVID-19 safety protocols set by the Nigerian Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC), students attending the 44 federal universities could not resume because of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which lasted nine months. They would now have to wait longer than anticipated to get back to school because the Federal Government announced that universities should suspend academic activities from December 25, 2020 till further notice. The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss Mustapha, also said schools would remain shut until at least January 18, 2020 because a second wave of the virus had led to a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Nigeria.

E-Learning

The school closures exposed the deficit of e-learning infrastructure/system in Nigeria and sent the government, donor agencies, NGOs and private sector scurrying to provide students with alternative learning solutions when physical classes cannot hold.

United Nations agencies such as UNICEF and UNESCO provided a plethora of digital resources that countries, schools and parents could access to help students keep learning while at home.

For example, UNICEF collaborated with HITCH to boost children’s education during the pandemic through a dynamic online/offline educational and vocational video platform; UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning supported educational planners, policy-makers, and others by providing resources and materials to address the learning crisis.

The Federal Government of Nigeria also partnered with various digital solutions providers from internationally-recognised bodies like Microsoft and IBM to other local solutions providers like Skool Media, schoolgate.ng and mobileclassroom.com.ng to make digital training available to learners at little or no cost. The Telecommunications companies were also brought onboard to offer data-free access to such content to reduce the burden on parents.

In addition to these, many other state-government-driven and private-sector driven initiatives were introduced.  Many state governments such as  Lagos, Ekiti, and Ogun started airing classes on television and radio with such content also available to learners online.  Some states, like Lagos and Edo partnered with organisations like Bridge International Academies to device means to support learning at home.

There were also e-learning interventions at school level – with various schools using platforms suitable for their clientele to continue teaching their pupils at home.  From low-technology platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram to more sophisticated platforms like Zoom, Google classrooms, Microsoft Teams, among others, schools found a way to continue teaching.

However, many public tertiary institutions were unable to cope with the demands of online learning compared to the primary and secondary levels. The virtual learning infrastructure of most public tertiary institutions was almost non-existent such that some schools did not even attempt virtual classes.  Those that started were unable to continue as a result of poor network, high cost of data, and poor handling of course content, among others.

Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Kayode Soremekun said virtual learning was not feasible in the institution because there was no infrastructure to aid such.

“I have read it that some universities have switched to the other mode of learning. But I do not think that this can obtain in Nigeria for now.

“We lack the infrastructural network for virtual mode of learning. For instance, a basic resource like power is not available. So how then can we switch suddenly to this mode of learning?  Putting in place this mode of learning is not instant coffee! So what is to be done can only be feasible in a long-term context,” he said.

Generally, how effective e-learning interventions were was another matter. Many parents complained about the high cost of accessing e-learning classes on a daily basis in a period when job and income losses were rife. From cost of devices and data for internet access to providing alternative power sources, and fueling generators, many parents could not cope and gave up along the line.  Even for those who could afford to provide e-learning, playing the dual roles of parent and teacher at the same time proved too difficult and learning took a back seat.

 

Nine-month ASUU STRIKE

On December 23, 2020, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suspended its strike that it started March 23 – about the same time the Federal Government first closed schools.

The strike was the longest strike in the history of the country since 1999. Academic activities were halted for nine months.

The union went on over the non-implementation of its 2009 agreement and a 2013 follow up with the Federal Government. The main issue was that the Federal Governemnt had defaulted in payment of earned academic allowances to the lecturers as well as failed to pay the N200 billion it promised to revitalise infrastructure of public universities.

The disagreement over the Federal Government’s insistence on placing all its workers on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) was also a major reason for the strike. The union refused to get on the system, claiming that it centralised corruption and did not understand the peculiarities of the mobility enjoyed by university teachers.

The union directed it members not to enrol on IPPIS because it would erode university autonomy. In the place of IPPIS, ASUU came up with its own solution – the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) – which the Federal Government is currently testing through the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

After almost nine months of negotiations, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, said Federal Government finally agreed to pay N40 billion as earned allowances this month and inject N30 billion into universities by January 31, 2020. National President of the union, Prof.Biodun Ogunyemi however said ASUU would not hesitate to resume the strike if the government fails to keep its promises.

He said: “The time frame is a bit elastic. There are some items that are supposed to be addressed in January. There are some others that will drag till March or thereabout.

“What we have done is to give the government the benefit of doubt and that is why we have added the caveat. Should the government renege, our members are not tired of withdrawing their services.”

However, even though ASUU has suspended its own strike, the chances of a quick resumption of academic activities once COVID-19 closure is lifted may not materialize as the three other workers’ unions in the university (the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities – SSANU; the National Association of Academic Technologists – NAAT; and the Non-Academic Staff Union –  NASU) have kicked against the sharing formula for the earned allowances – which allocates 75 per cent to ASUU and 25 per cent to the other unions to share.  The unions may begin another battle about the sharing formula next year which may further extend the closure of universities.

 

Kankara Boys’ abduction

 

Gunmen on motorcycles had invaded the premises of Government Science Boys’ Secondary School, Kankara, Kaduna State, on December 11, 2020 and abducted about 344 students after a gun battle with a few security personnel attached to the school.

The abduction took place some hours after President Muhammadu Buhari arrived in Daura, Katsina for a week-long private visit.

Over 800 students were at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, when it was attacked.

A huge outcry followed the mass abduction and called attention to the issue of safety in schools.  Many groups pressured the federal and state governments to ensure the release of the students to avoid the repeat of the Chibok Girls Secondary School saga of 2014 (many of the 276 girls have not been found).

Though the Boko Haram claimed to have been responsible for the kidnap on December 15, the boys were released two days later.  They met with President Buhari on December 17 before being allowed home.

There have been claims since then that the kidnap was stage managed.

The Kankara students’ abduction is not the first in the history of the country. Gun men  had in the past abducted hundreds of secondary school girls from Chibok, in Borno State  and Dapchi in Yobe State. Some of them later regained freedom while a number of them were detained in the camps  of their abductors.

 

Honourable mention –

UNILAG CRISIS

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) is one of 44 Federal-Government owned universities in Nigeria.  But the crisis that engulfed the institution this year reverberated across the country.

The removal of Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as the institution’s Vice-Chancellor by the Wale-Babalakin led Governing Council on August 12, 2020, was not the first done by a governing council in recent times.  It had happened at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in March 2020 when the Council told the VC, Prof. Ibrahim Garba to proceed on leave ahead of the April 30, 2020 expiration date of his tenure; and at the University of Port Harcourt.  But Ogundipe was the only one who was reinstated after a battle that involved the academic community on the one hand and the Council and non-teaching members of staff on the other.

The crisis that led to Ogundipe’s removal had been building up for months.  The first sign of a glaring crack in the affairs of the university was the unceremonious postponement of the institution’s 51st Convocation on March 5, 2020 after an elaborate announcement of same two days earlier by the VC.

Though the directive to the university management to postpone the convocation was contained in a letter by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education (FME), Mr. Solomon Echono through the National Universities Commission (NUC), it was actually influenced by Babalakin who had written to the Education Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu that the Council had not approved the programme.

Babalakin had previously accused Ogundipe and other principal officers past and present of financial misappropriation.  These allegations eventually led to Ogundipe’s removal in controversial circumstances during a Council meeting that held in Abuja.  Babalakin shortly named Prof. Omololu Soyombo of the Faculty of Social Sciences as Acting Vice-Chancellor.

But UNILAG-ASUU would have none of it.  The Union had already declared Babalakin a persona non-grata for suspending the convocation and had warned him not to step on the university campus.  It backed Ogundipe, saying his removal did not follow due process. The institution’s Senate also faulted the VC’s removal and petitioned the Visitor, President Muhammadu Buhari about the issue and it not being allowed to play its role in the selection of an Ag. VC.

Soyombo could not immediately occupy the office of the VC following his appointment on August 13 because of the controversy and Ogundipe’s insistence that he was still the rightful occupier of the office.  He finally made a grand entry to the office six days later only to be asked by the Federal Government to step down on August 23.  Babalakin and Ogundipe were also asked to step aside to allow the special visitation panel chaired by Prof. Tukur Sa’ad.

Ogundipe was reinstated on November 11, 2020 following the panel’s report stating that he was wrongly removed by the Governing Council.

Since resuming, Ogundipe said the crisis cost the university to lose research grants worth millions of dollars – $40 million in one case.

From Adamu Suleiman, Sokoto

 

Former Niger State Governor, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu has lamented the dwindling fortunes of educaiton in the northern states, calling for a holistic approach to address the problem with commensurate qualified teachers.

He decried how the National Certificate in Education (NCE) was left too exposed to those who venture into the course as alternative to nothing to hold on to.

“We need to conduct a thorough research to know the impact of cancelling Grade II certificate.”

Aliyu who was Guest Speaker during the 22nd Convocation of the prestigious Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, while delivering a paper under the theme: “Place of COEs in the Development of Nigeria” said the north needed to pay attention to not only raising standards but ensure the place of the teaching profession was adequately promoted and protected .

He said: “It is disheartening to note that no state in the north can boast of 50 per cent qualified teachers.

“More saddening, 80 per cent of out-of-school children are in the north – with Kebbi having the highest cut.”

Calling for change, Aliyu shared an experience he had of the level of teacher deficit when he was governor.

“I visited a school where more than 70 pupils were jam-packed with only two teachers in the school and another using a classroom for different arms of classes. I was left in shock as to how the pupils will cope in such a discouraging environment and condition,” he said.

Aliyu, who also holds the royal title of Taliban Minna, pointed out that the principles of education should be taught in schools to further create avenue for evolving a concept on Grade II or something better to propel quality teaching.

“All we need is to have committed professional teachers who will promote education, morals, growth and development to change the narrative “, he said.