Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari has said the state needs a teaching hospital to serve its university and offer courses in medical services.
Masari, who spoke with reporters on his two-week business trip to China and India, added that over 600 workers will be recruited in the health facilities already in place.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will now engage assistant coaches of the various national teams on part-time basis so as to lessen the financial burden the salaries of the coaches have caused them.
A top official disclosed: “The assistant coaches will now be on part time, strictly for when there is a tournament concerning their respective teams.
“They will therefore be free to work with the clubs when they are now with the national teams.
“We have to be realistic, we have been paying many people for many years without doing anything and the financial obligation caused by just salaries of the coaches is just too huge.
“There is one of the Eagles assistant coaches who has insisted he is owed over N18million from salaries and what have you over the years.”
It was also revealed that one of the Eagles assistant coaches has not been paid for the past nine months.
The NFF have already decided that developmental teams from U-17 downwards will no longer be entitled to match bonuses as they save on costs.
Tunde Adelakun may mean so many things to some Nigerians, especially those that have followed the five years’ corruption charges levelled against former chieftains of the NFF led by Sani Lulu Abdullahi.
Adelakun was said to have chartered the aircraft that was to lift the Super Eagles from their training camp in London to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. The aircraft developed a fault before take off at London’s Heathrow Airport.
SportingLife caught up with the Oyo State-born Chartered Surveyor in London recently and he took time to explain the incident that led to the cancelation of the flight, accusing the powers that be of overblowing the issue.
“My name is Tunde Adelakun, I hail from Ibadan in Oyo State. I stand for the development and progress of football in Africa. I started for African football in 1996, and this is contrary to what many Nigerians have been made to believe. I have no journalistic experience. I have not worked in any newspaper house in Nigeria. I only send some personal opinion stories to newspapers in the country, which, out of every ten, one is published.
“I am a Chartered Surveyor. It was after the exploits of Nigeria in Atlanta that I approached the BBC for internship to enable me practice a little journalism, while I do my regular job as evaluation officer at the inland revenue office. They were so excited because Nigeria just won the Olympic gold medal in football, and it got bigger than I expected. That was my interaction with sports.
“My passion to give back to sports that made me what I am. That is what I stand for, and that is what I have been doing over the years. I do my work with CAF, where I am in charge of African Football Museum and African Football Hall of Fame via a letter signed by CAF Secretary-General Hicham El Amrani dated May 29th, 2012. I also do some jobs for FIFA and the English FA”.
Continuing, the official biographer of CAF President, Issa Hayatou, said: “I can say little about the aircraft issue because it is still a subject of litigation in court in Nigeria. But what I can say is that everything about hiring of the aircraft was done totally above board. The documents are with the British Home Office, British High Commission in Nigeria and every legal person that has something to do with that case.
“There was nothing wrong with the aircraft issue, rather what I would call decision-making by the powers that be. As you know, everything is machine-operated, and things can go wrong at any point in time. That is exactly what happened in this case. The aircraft developed a fault, they put it in order, and were ready to go, but the people refused to go. So, if they refused to go and the pilot gave them the assurance that the aircraft is in order, what is my own fault there? I have to thank SportingLife for giving me the opportunity for the first time to talk on it. Even the investigative body that was constituted wanted facts, and I told them the facts were ready. They said they wanted to come to London to meet me, so I could take them to the airline company. I accepted, and even facilitated their visa to Britain but at the end of the day, they did not come. I have all the facts, and nobody is asking for them,” he said.
To stem the falling standard of education, particularly in secondary schools, employers must ensure that qualified teachers are engaged in secondary schools across the nation.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigerian Turkish International Colleges (NTIC), Mr. Mehmet Basturk, stated this in Abuja, while receiving the Best Mathematics Award from the National Mathematical Centre.
Basturk, who received the Mathematics and other science awards on behalf of the NTIC, attributed the superlative performance of the NTIC students to the engagement of qualified teachers by the colleges.
Basturk said the NTIC always ensured the recruitment of qualified teachers, adding “its management usually undertakes training and retraining of teachers for optimum performance.”
He restated the commitment of the school to improving on the excellent performance by its products at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
The NTIC was honoured by the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) for winning no fewer than 12 awards in national and international Mathematics and Science Olympiads.
At the award ceremony in Abuja, the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Mathematical Centre, Prof Adewale Solarin, expressed satisfaction with the quality system put in place in all NTIC schools which has seen the students winning laurels.
Prof. Solarin said: “I am very impressed with the kind of system the NTIC has in place, so I am not surprised that we have to celebrate their achievements”.
He commended the partnership between Mathematical Centre and the NTIC, saying that the symbiotic collaboration has led to enormous gains in stimulating students’ interest in Mathematics.
Solarin continued: “The NTIC has been a formidable partner of the NMC. If we want to look at the achievements we have made so far in international competitions, starting from the Pan-Africa Olympiad, the NTIC contributed significantly to the number of medals we have.
“If we look at the international Mathematics Olympiads and Physics Olympiads which we had six medals so far, five of the medals can be associated to the NTIC.
“At the national level, in every state that the NTIC has a school, it is always on the fore front of the award. Usually, we give plaques to first three positions and the best schools, and in those states, the NTIC is always on the top”.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, while presenting the awards, described the performance of the NTIC students as wonderful and commended the school for its numerous achievements in Mathematics and the sciences.
The minister, who was represented by the Director, Basic and Secondary Education in the Ministry, Mr. Chike Uwazuoke, said the emergence of NTIC as one of the best schools in Nigeria in the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) in the 2013 and 2014 showed that the school’s excellent performance in Olympiads is not a fluke.
“This is a school (NTIC) that has made so much mark in Mathematics and Sciences. I am the Chairman of WAEC board in Nigeria. Last December at Minna, the usual practice whenever we have our annual meetings is to reward schools that did very well in School Certificate Examinations. The NTIC was among the best three schools in Nigeria for WAEC in 2013 or 2014”, the Minister said.
Worried by the serious unemployment in the country, the Federal Government has announced plans to employ more Ph.D holders to address the shortfalls in the Nigerian University System (NUS).
Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) Prof. Julius Okojie disclosed this in Abuja while presenting provisional licences to nine new private universities approved by the Federal Executive Council, (FEC).
He said:”I was amazed when some Ph.D holders came to my office, saying they had no jobs; so if you know any Ph.D holder let them come to us”.
The new universities are: Augustine University, Ilara, Lagos State; Chrisland University, Owode, Ogun State; Christopher University, Mowe, Ogun State; Hallmark University,Ijebu-Itele,Ogun State; Kings University, Ode-Omu, Osun State; Michael & Cecilia Ibru University, Owhrode, Delta State; Mountain Top University, Makogi-Oba,Ogun State; Ritman University, Ikot-Ekpene, Akwa-Ibom State; and Summit University, Offa, Kwara State.
They bring the number of universities to 138 – 40 owned by the Federal Government; 39 by various state governments; and 59 by the private sector.
Okojie cautioned the universities to adhere strictly to the guidelines and procedures set out by the regulatory body, stressing that owning and running a successful university goes beyond providing an excellent academic brief.
Minister of Education Ibrahim Shekarau, who presented the licenses, said the need to open up more admission spaces for the swelling population of candidates seeking university education informed the establishment of additional universities.
“Prior to this approval, Nigeria had 129 universities, serving a population of over 170 million people, in comparison to countries like Brazil and Mexico which have 1,648 and 1,250 universities to service populations of 203 million and 120million respectively. The gross inadequacy of this figure in relation to population size becomes glaring,” he said.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Education, Prof Viola Onwuliri, criticised Nigerians who send their wards abroad to acquire university education, saying they were contributing to negative image of Nigeria.
She said many Nigerians who studied in the country up to their Ph.D have proved themselves at local and international fora.
Tunde Adelakun may mean so many things to some Nigerians, especially those that have followed the five years’ corruption charges levelled against former chieftains of the NFF led by Sani Lulu Abdullahi.
Adelakun was said to have chartered the aircraft that was to lift the Super Eagles from their training camp in London to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. The aircraft developed a fault before take off at London’s Heathrow Airport.
SportingLife caught up with the Oyo State-born Chartered Surveyor in London recently and he took time to explain the incident that led to the cancelation of the flight, accusing the powers that be of overblowing the issue.
“My name is Tunde Adelakun, I hail from Ibadan in Oyo State. I stand for the development and progress of football in Africa. I started for African football in 1996, and this is contrary to what many Nigerians have been made to believe. I have no journalistic experience. I have not worked in any newspaper house in Nigeria. I only send some personal opinion stories to newspapers in the country, which, out of every ten, one is published.
“I am a Chartered Surveyor. It was after the exploits of Nigeria in Atlanta that I approached the BBC for internship to enable me practice a little journalism, while I do my regular job as evaluation officer at the inland revenue office. They were so excited because Nigeria just won the Olympic gold medal in football, and it got bigger than I expected. That was my interaction with sports.
“My passion to give back to sports that made me what I am. That is what I stand for, and that is what I have been doing over the years. I do my work with CAF, where I am in charge of African Football Museum and African Football Hall of Fame via a letter signed by CAF Secretary-General Hicham El Amrani dated May 29th, 2012. I also do some jobs for FIFA and the English FA”.
Continuing, the official biographer of CAF President, Issa Hayatou, said: “I can say little about the aircraft issue because it is still a subject of litigation in court in Nigeria. But what I can say is that everything about hiring of the aircraft was done totally above board. The documents are with the British Home Office, British High Commission in Nigeria and every legal person that has something to do with that case.
“There was nothing wrong with the aircraft issue, rather what I would call decision-making by the powers that be. As you know, everything is machine-operated, and things can go wrong at any point in time. That is exactly what happened in this case. The aircraft developed a fault, they put it in order, and were ready to go, but the people refused to go. So, if they refused to go and the pilot gave them the assurance that the aircraft is in order, what is my own fault there? I have to thank SportingLife for giving me the opportunity for the first time to talk on it. Even the investigative body that was constituted wanted facts, and I told them the facts were ready. They said they wanted to come to London to meet me, so I could take them to the airline company. I accepted, and even facilitated their visa to Britain but at the end of the day, they did not come. I have all the facts, and nobody is asking for them,” he said.