The Nation Newspaper

Tag: British

  • ‘Why we run British-Nigeria curriculum’

    Crownland International School has said it adopted the British and Nigerian curriculum to produce students who can compete globally.

    Its Director, Joel Adepoju, who spoke during their end-of-the-year party in Loburo, Mowe, Ogun State, said the school is committed to raising students who would be intellectually, morally and emotionally stable.

    He said: “Our school runs a British/Nigeria curriculum. This has not only made us relevant in our local environment, it has also placed us in good stead to impart a multilevel-structured knowledge that creates a seamless relationship with international institutions, thereby providing our students numerous options after graduating from here,” he said.

    Adepoju said the school is determined to maintain the highest standards of teaching and learning without compromising discipline.

    It plans to adopt more modern teaching aids, build new sporting and recreational facilities, provide more school buses and recruit additional teaching personnel in the new year.

    “This is because we hope to be part of the catalysts for the transformation of the educational sector in Nigeria,” the director said.

    He urged the students to demonstrate total commitment to their studies. “Time and tide wait for nobody. I, therefore, appeal to you to maximise the gains of the time you spend at Crownland and you will ever be grateful to God that you did,” Adepoju said.

    A banker, Stephen Akinbinu, who chaired the event, said he admired the school’s vision. He urged parents to invest in their children through education.

     

  • British Airways launches legal action against its pension trustees

    British Airways has launched a legal action to try to block the trustees of its deficit-laden pension scheme increasing the amount the airline must pay into the scheme.

    The airline is attempting to prevent a rise in the cost of the scheme, in a dispute that traces its history back to BA’s privatisation in the 1980s.

    BA’s Airways Pension Scheme (APS), which accounts for some 29,000 former and current staff, had its inflation-linked annual increase to payments changed in 2011.

    Instead of using the retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation, the scheme is now linked to the consumer price index (CPI), which generally rises by a smaller amount. CPI in September 2012 – the month the rise in pensions is linked to – was 2.2pc, against 2.6pc for RPI. The change to CPI was introduced by the Government for state pensions, but the APS, which was phased out in 1984 as the formerly state-owned airline prepared for privatisation, follows the same index.

    The move was met with anger by BA pensioners on the scheme, who claim they had been promised increases at RPI in 1984, when they rejected offers of a one-off payment of around a year’s salary to join a new scheme.

    In response to the change, the APS’s trustees added 0.2pc on to the annual rise. BA claims the trustees do not have the authority to implement the rise, given the APS’s £680million deficit.

    The airline filed papers in the High Court on Friday. It says that raising the pension above CPI puts the scheme at risk. “British Airways is concerned to ensure that its company pension schemes should act in the best long-term interests of scheme members,” the airline said.

    “The deficit means that the existing benefits of APS members are some way off being fully funded, even before the trustees’ decision to increase those benefits above the level promised under the scheme rules.”

    BA says the cost of the trustees’ additional increase amounts to £12m. While this is relatively insignificant compared to the total pension deficit, the airline claims that allowing the increase could set a precedent for future rises above the CPI rate.

    “We do not believe the long-term security of members’ benefits should be put at risk for the advantage of retirees who already enjoy more generous pensions than the vast majority of current employees can look forward to,” the airline said.

    “In these circumstances, we are left with no alternative but to pursue legal action with the objective of preventing the additional increase going ahead.”

  • Pension shortfalls cost UK firms £182b

    British employers have pumped £182billion into defined-benefit pension schemes since the start of quantitative easing in 2009 as they grapple with growing deficits, the latest figures show.

    Figures from the pension regulator and Pension Protection Fund reveal that in the 2012 to 2013 financial year, employers injected £29 billion of deficit reduction contributions, plus a further £18billion of special payments to plug widening shortfalls.

    While the regular contributions fell from £36billion in the previous year, the figures show employers are being forced to chip in rising amounts of special payments to tackle deficits.

    Such payments have continued to rise over the past four years from £10billion in the year Quantitative Easing (QE) was launched to £18billion in the latest year.

    Since Britain embarked on its £375billion QE blitz to boost the recovery, employers with final salary schemes have been hit by a triple whammy of depressed asset returns, rising liabilities and increased longevity.

    But, while there is growing optimism that the worst may be over, with the Bank of England signaling a possible return to rising interest rates by 2015, a new report highlights the risks from future monetary policy and the difficulties companies have in predicting future contributions.

    The report, by economics consultancy Fathom Consulting and Pension Corporation, the insurer for defined benefit schemes, outlines three possible scenarios based on the outlook for inflation and index-linked yields in the UK, a key driver of the funding position of most schemes.

    In the worst case, dubbed “financial repression” the report finds that employers could be forced to inject another £250billion over the next 10 years – a sum close to the gross operating surplus, before interest payments or tax, of all private-sector non-financial corporations in 2012.

    A second scenario recognises that the downturn has damaged UK productivity and the pick-up in demand sparks inflation. That would leave firms facing £26billion of deficit contributions.

    For employers with final-salary pensions, spare capacity in the UK economy curbs inflation, and yields normalise. This would see a funding requirement of a mere £100,000.

    • Culled from the Telegraph

  • British press freedom under threat

    British press freedom under threat

    Britain has a long tradition of a free, inquisitive press. That freedom, so essential to democratic accountability, is being challenged by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron.

    Unlike the United States, Britain has no constitutional guarantee of press freedom. Parliamentary committees and the police are now exploiting that lack of protection to harass, intimidate and possibly prosecute The Guardian newspaper for its publication of information based on National Security Agency documents that were leaked by Edward Snowden. The New York Times has published similar material, believing that the public has a clear interest in learning about and debating the N.S.A.’s out-of-control spying on private communications. That interest is shared by the British public as well.

    In the United States, some members of Congress have begun pushing for stronger privacy protections against unwarranted snooping. British parliamentarians have largely ducked their duty to ask tough questions of British intelligence agencies, which closely collaborate with the N.S.A., and have gone after The Guardian instead.

    Alan Rusbridger, the newspaper’s editor, has been summoned to appear before a parliamentary committee next month to testify about The Guardian’s internal editorial decision-making regarding the Snowden information. Members of Parliament have also demanded information on the newspaper’s decision to make some of the leaked information available to other journalists, including those at The Times. That should be none of Parliament’s business. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard detectives are pursuing a criminal investigation into The Guardian’s actions surrounding the Snowden leaks.

    These alarming developments threaten the ability of British journalists to do their jobs effectively. Britain’s press has long lacked the freedoms enjoyed by American newspapers. Now it appears they are less free from government interference than journalists in Germany, where Der Spiegel has published material from the Snowden leaks without incurring government bullying.

    The global debate now taking place about intelligence agencies collecting information on the phone calls, emails and Internet use of private citizens owes much to The Guardian’s intrepid journalism. In a free society, the price for printing uncomfortable truths should not be parliamentary and criminal inquisition.

     

    – New York Times

  • British Council holds fashion, film workshop

    The British Council, Lagos is inviting applications from filmmakers interested in exploring fashion as a theme, adding range to their body of work and contributions made to art.

    The five-day fashion and film workshop will take participants through the central aspects of the fashion filmmaking process. The workshop includes: an illustrated introduction to film language using examples of fashion film; Introductions to planning, shooting and editing a fashion film, and participants then plan, film and edit a simple sequence.

    It is open to filmmakers and their teams which should include a minimum of the following: editor and director of photography/lighting technician. The team can also include art director (optional).

    Each selected film making team will work with a design team comprising – fashion designer, stylist, hair / makeup stylist. Experienced filmmakers, especially those interested in producing short films and experimenting in the genre as well as applicants should be able to assemble the team required to produce their film.

    The workshop will be facilitated by London born film director, Grace Ladoja. Grace has worked on films for an array of clients including Nike, and has gone on to found her own production company, Ladoja & Sons. In two short years it has created a name for itself with its steady output of music videos, fashion films and personal projects, becoming a truly unique platform with a heavy creative output.

  • This British ‘pay as you go’

    This British ‘pay as you go’

    The news was like a bolt from the blue. It was shocking, surprising and amusing as well. I mean the proposed £3,000 deposit by immigrants intending to enter Britain as from November this year. Immigrants of five countries – Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – have been singled out for this unfriendly treatment. Yet, these are members of the so-called Commonwealth countries that the British is so proud to sing about.

    In history, we learnt that the Commonwealth was an empire where the sun never set, a figurative expression to describe an empire that was adjudged to be the biggest in the universe, stretching North, East, West and South of the pole. Today, though the spirit of the Commonwealth is still very much alive, the principles behind it have been tinkered with again and again to the point that it has almost completely been obliterated.

    Now, it will cost a new immigrant from Nigeria a fortune, at least, more than a million naira to venture to England. I remember in the ’70s when Nigeria’s currency was at par with the dollar, it cost just a few naira to get on board an aircraft and jet to England and back. If I am not mistaken, it was about N180. With your Basic Travelling Allowance, BTA, and others, you might only need less than N1000 to get to UK and back for holidays. Today, the story is different. You probably need to sell your child into slavery before you can raise the required money to undertake a trip to either Britain or the United States, the preferred destinations for most Nigerians.

    This is why one is not amazed at the flurry of criticism and resentment that has greeted this proposal. Olugbenga Ashiru, Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, has been at the forefront of this groundswell of opposition to a policy considered discriminatory and obnoxious. Ashiru, who has proved to be a round peg in a round hole ever since he came on board a few years ago, has been doing everything to convey the message of the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people to the British government. He has been prompt and decisive.

    The other day, Ashiru summoned Andrew Pocock, the British High Commissioner in the country, to acquaint him with the government’s indignation and exasperation against a policy which is considered highly inimical to the interest of Nigeria. While this was going on, notable leaders of the National Assembly have been spitting fire and brimstone to the effect that Nigeria will reciprocate in a similar gesture if the British should go ahead to implement the unfriendly policy. That, in itself, will be a recourse to the Mosaic law, which says “a tooth for a tooth” or tit for tat, whichever is appropriate.

    On the day the news made headlines in the Nigerian Press, a group of well-meaning Nigerians were almost cut off in the hullabaloo that followed. The Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, EO, Chapter in Nigeria, was to have a three-day training programme for both the old and new members who were recently successful in the interview conducted for them about a fortnight ago in Lagos. The three-day training was for the new intakes who would undergo what is called Forum Training, which is a cardinal operational part of the EO. As a new member, you are expected to belong to a “Forum”, which is the core of EO. That training took place at Protea Hotel, GRA, Lagos, on Thursday, June 27, from 8:00am till 5:00pm. The following day was Moderator Training, which is meant for those who intend to be moderators at various forums. While the third day, Saturday, June 29, was reserved for Strategy Training for the Board members. All with the same time duration, that is, 8a.m till 5p.m on each day.

    Julia Lankraehr, a globally-certified trainer by EO Global, was to fly in from London on Wednesday, June 26, to undertake the series of training. When she applied for entry visa, she put business as her reason for travelling to Nigeria. Then the Nigerian High Commission requested her to get a work permit to enable it to grant her a visa even though she was going to be in the country for only five days. It took a sleepless night on Monday, June 24, with officials in Nigeria making frantic calls to the High Commission in London before the matter was resolved on Tuesday, June 25. Who knows what would have happened if this crude policy had been in operation?

    The EO is a global organization that has its headquarters in Virginia, United States of America. It was founded in 1987 by some group of entrepreneurs who thought they needed a common ground and platform to discuss intimate issues concerning their businesses, family lives and other personal issues that could keep individuals endlessly awake at night. Today, the EO parades well over 9,300 members scattered all over 146 chapters in 46 countries of the world. They are everywhere. The Nigeria chapter was inaugurated in Lagos on October 4, 2012.

    Last year, the Nigeria Chapter of the EO was to attend an event hosted by EO, Cape Town, but all the delegates were denied visas in spite of the fact that all their papers, including hotel bookings, were intact. It was at the height of the diplomatic row between South Africa and Nigeria early last year. The humiliation suffered at the embassy was so much and time-wasting that I vowed never to submit any application for South African visa anymore in my life. Though I had several multiple entry visas to many countries on my passport, I paraded the place with others for more than three months before our empty passports were grudgingly returned to us without any convincing explanation. The most annoying thing there was that one could see some people whose means of livelihood or reason for travelling to South Africa could not be easily ascertained coming in and taking the visa. It was a terrible experience that I don’t find funny to relate to anyone. Even if you go to the embassy, you could be kept there for hours before you are asked to return another day. All for nothing in the end.

    I am sure if the proposal of £3,000 was still being debated in Britain, by now, David Cameron and his people should know that dire consequences await them if they go ahead with this discriminatory policy which is capable of destroying the umbilical cord of the Commonwealth family. I am not saying that Britain should throw its doors open to every Dick and Harry, but then imposing such a draconian policy will only paint the country in a bad light as far as civilisation, decency and decorum are concerned. It is the inalienable right of man that all individuals should be treated with some modicum of dignity, the colour pigmentation notwithstanding.

    It is apparent that the Britons alone cannot live in Britain. Other races must come and go. Forget that some citizens of other countries come into Britain and do menial jobs, if and when available. Britons also go to other countries to do jobs that the indigenous people could have done. After all, why do other citizens travel to other countries? Even the five countries mentioned in the new policy, you have Britons there. Why do they go there to do business rather than stay back in their country and get rotten? I have been to practically all the affected countries and there is no one where there are no Britons in their large numbers in spite of some of the atrocities these colonialists committed against the people in the past.

    The world has become a global village where all impediments to free movement should be done away with. Certainly, erecting new barriers to free movement is certainly out of the issue for now. Therefore, I will suggest that Britain should find a better and decent way to deal with her perceived immigration problems rather than stir up a hornets’ nest.

  • Akiolu berates British govt over planned 3,000 pounds visa bond

    The Oba of Lagos, Rilwanu Akiolu, has berated the decision of the British government to slam a £3,000 visa bond as a requirement for any Nigerian and citizens of some other countries, who want to travel to the country, saying the move was an insult on the country.

    Oba Akiolu spoke yesterday at a five-day training workshop, entitled: “Corporate Fraud: Insider abuse in financial institutions and the implication on developing economy”, organised by the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), held at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos.

    He said: “Nigerians do not welcome the idea and the government of the United Kingdom (UK) should do something urgently to reverse the decision.”

    However, the Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Peter Carter, who was one of the guests on the occasion, in a swift reaction, said the decision was meant to checkmate high risk applicants.

    The diplomat said the media report over the matter had caused a lot of upset.

    He said the UK Home office initiated the pilot scheme involving a lot of countries, but said no form of decision had been taken yet over the matter.

     

     

  • Thatcher and Africa

    Thatcher and Africa

     “If a man isn’t willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he’s no good”

    ― Ezra Pound

    The only authentic Iron Lady, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, died last week Monday. Since her demise she has racked up as much diverse passion as she did while alive! Her reign as the British prime minister was full of drama and tension. She governed her country with such a tough hand and mien that she became known as the Iron Lady. Her relevance to our continent was no less important and her death has awoken in many bitter feeling on how she dealt with the continent in a brutish manner.

    Many still remember how she aligned with the hated apartheid regime in South Africa and dubbed Nelson Mandela and other liberation fighters in Southern Africa as “terrorists”. In fact, her alignment with the apartheid regime led the inimitable Fela Anikulapo-Kuti to release his widely acclaimed record on the United Nations, in which he asked rhetorically “Wetin unite for United Nations?”

    In Africa, we never speak ill of the dead and that perhaps is responsible for why many have continued to pour encomiums on her. However, as one whose record in Africa is abysmal, I have no qualms in saying that she may have being a great British leader who affected her world positively, but for me as an African she was a leader who cared less for others outside her country or race.

    I still remember that it was during her reign that many Africans, nay Nigerians, who had hitherto looked at Britain as the place to get educated abandoned the country and looked towards America. She raised school fees so much that many who had then looked on American education with some level of disdain turned there in search of the then proverbial ‘golden fleece’. The British loss became America’s gain, so much that today there are more Nigerians in pursuit of education in America than in Britain.

    This was perhaps good because it made us to quickly cut off the apron string of colonialism. Well, she was only living up to name as many Britons still regard her as a veritable ‘milk snatcher’ because it was during her tenure as a minister that she stopped the serving of milk in schools across Britain.

    It was later during her reign as a prime minister that many Nigerians of my age grew up as proud Nigerians. This was epitomised in the seventies when the government of the then Gen Olusegun Obasanjo decided to nationalise the British Petroleum (BP) by naming it Africa Petroleum (AP). It was a period when we felt proud that we could challenge a powerful colonial master and get away with it. The decision to nationalise the BP perhaps sent a signal to the British and other governments around the world that our country was not to be trifled with.

    The decision led to a softening of the tough stance on the fight against freedom for the southern African countries by Britain. The Iron Lady was humbled. Another memory I have was in the eighties when she visited Nigeria. On that trip a visit to the palace of the Emir of Kano was part of her itinerary. I was then a student at the Bayero University Kano, and the Student Union had mobilised us to the vicinity of the palace to register our protest for the British government’s support for the apartheid regime.

    Although I was unable to join the crowd due to a last minute schedule I remember those who were able to make it there gave the late Thatcher a taste of the anger of the Nigerian student movement.

    In fact, a classmate of mine, a lady to the boot, was able to smuggle herself so near that she threw a raw egg at the visiting prime minster and it fell short of landing on her head but at her feet! It was a serious security breach which led to her arrest, questioning, and detention for a few hours. That was long before these days of terrorists when even we can no longer move near our local leaders not to talk of visiting heads of governments!

    But whichever way it is, Mrs Thatcher has gone down as a leader who is different things to different people. For instance, The Telegraph a day after her death came out with a banner headline saying: ‘The woman who saved the nation’ on the same day The Sun wrote: ‘The woman who divided the nation’. What an epitaph.

    But for me as an African I identify with The Sun. She not only divided her nation she divided the world.

  • British, Italian hostages: Security agents in dilemma over rescue

    British, Italian hostages: Security agents in dilemma over rescue

    Security agents are proceeding with utmost care in their search for the seven expatriates abducted by terrorists in Bauchi State penultimate Saturday, it was learnt last night.

    The agents are keen to avoid a repeat of the loss of a Briton and an Italian during a military operation to rescue them from kidnappers in Sokoto on March 8, 2012.

    Their target this time is to ensure that all the seven employees of the construction company, SETRACO, who were seized by members of the Islamic sect, Jama’atu Ansaril Muslimina fi Biladis Sudan (Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa, or simply “Ansaru”), return home alive.

    In the den of the kidnappers are five Lebanese, a Briton and an Italian.

    Sources said in Abuja that the security agencies saddled with the task of locating and setting the hostages free have adopted a ‘tactical’ approach to accomplishing the task without bloodshed.

    One of the sources said: “Certainly, we have got appreciable clues but our ultimate target is to rescue the hostages alive. All hands are on the deck to meet this target.

    “We have established that Ansaru has a link with Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. The group might have been hurt by the UN intervention in Mali. We are approaching the operation from both local and end and Mali side.

    “We have got a marching order from the presidency to ensure that this mission is successful. And it is also in our interest to carry out a successful operation.”

    It was also gathered that most construction firms with expatriate workers have resolved to adopt “limited engagement” in the 19 Northern states.

    This, according to one source, is based on security advice.

    “We have adopted a policy of limited engagement in the North. Apart from security beef up, we may carry out contracts only in safe states in the region,” sources said, adding:”Virtually all construction firms in the North have recalled their foreign expatriates until the security situation improves.”

    It was learnt that the extra security measure was put in place on the advice of several embassies and the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO).

    The latest FCO advice reads in part: “The main terrorist threat in northern Nigeria comes from Islamist extremists who aspire to establish Islamic law in Nigeria.

    “The majority of attacks occur in Borno and Yobe States, but there has been a significant increase in attacks in other Nigerian states, mainly in the north.

    “Attacks are mostly against Nigerian targets including government and security institutions, police stations and places of worship, but public places have also been targeted.

    “The attack against the United Nations building in Abuja in August 2011, which killed 23 people, shows that international and Western interests could be targeted.”

    Some British aircraft are said to have arrived Nigeria bearing security officials from London to assist their Nigerian counterparts in the operation.

    Ansaru emerged last year motivated by an anti-Nigerian Government and anti-Western agenda.

    It is believed to be broadly aligned with Al Qa’ida and responsible for the murder of British national Christopher McManus and his Italian co-worker, Franco Lamolinara, last March in Sokoto during an operation by security personnel to free them.

    The wife of one of the guards who held the Briton and an Italian hostage, Hauwa, said the two men were taken into a bathroom and shot dead during the attempt to rescue them.

    Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara were kidnapped in May 2011 while working for a construction company in Birnin Kebbi.

    Hauwa said bullets flew into the room where she and her husband were staying, killing her husband.

    “After that, there were about six men who came out of the house with the two hostages,” she said. “They came into our wing of the compound, pushed the captives into the toilet and just shot them. I screamed.”

    She said she had lived in the house for four months after her husband got a job there as a guard. But she said she never suspected anything was wrong.

    The people using the main house arrived at night and usually left very early in the morning, she said.

    Ansaru claimed responsibility for the kidnap of a French national in Katsina State on 20 December 2012. It also claimed responsibility for the attack on a detention facility of the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Abuja on 26 November 2012.

  • British Council to hold fair

    British Council to hold fair

    •Organises professional development sessions

     

    For four days next week, about 60 tertiary institutions from the United Kingdom will be in Nigeria to offer admissions, counselling, and visa application advice to Nigerian youths seeking international education during the 10th UK Education Fair organised by the British Council.

    However, this year will not be just about prospective students as the British Council has planned career development sessions for professionals seeking to reinvent their careers.

    At a briefing in Lagos last Friday, Project Manager Mrs Adetomi Soyinka said participants who pre-register and attend the courses on service management, ECOWAS, banking and currency issues, among others, will receive certificates of tertiary institutions that would deliver the modules.

    She said the professional development session, in addition to others that address living in the UK and undergraduate and graduate studies, has been included in commemoration of the 10th edition of the fair.

    She said: “The exhibition is in its 10th year and we are expecting over 60 UK institutions in Lagos and Abuja. The main purpose of the fair is to give students thinking of the UK study option the opportunity to meet with representatives of the institutions and learn what it takes. The value added this year is that we have partnered with some of the institutions to have professional development courses. We want the exhibition to be all encompassing. We want to bring up issues not normally considered about living in the UK. We have partnered with some high profile individuals who have studied/worked in the UK and are back in Nigeria. We have those who will address undergraduates and the postgraduate students – people who we know they will look up to.”

    Giving tips that can help prospective students earn scholarships or discount on tuition, as well as information to ease the visa application process, Mrs Soyinka advised them to ask representatives of the institutions about scholarships. She also counselled them to provide enough information when applying for visa.

    “All schools coming have one form of scholarship or the other. Students just have to ask. There are some that have bursaries, others, rebates. In terms of student visas, stand in the shoes of the entry clearance officer. It is better to give too much information than not enough,” she said.