The 43rd Inaugural Lecture of the Ekiti State University (EKSU) will hold on June 14, 2016.
The lecture will be delivered by the Dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, Patrick Oladele, a professor of Business Administration.
The topic of the lecture, which would hold at the university auditorium, is Luxury of Customer Satisfaction: Untangling the Quandary in the Service Industry in Nigeria.
The EKSU Vice Chancellor, Prof Sam Oye Bandele, will chair the occasion.
A Catholic priest has been scheduled to deliver the 19th inaugural lecture of University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
The lecture series were introduced 39 years ago by the institution’s Governing Council to stimulate robust research and academic excellence.
The lecture, which only involves academic staff who have attained the status of professor, provides them the platform to showcase their intellectual prowess in their fields before the university community.
A statement from the senate ceremonials committee of the University of Nigeria, said a famous economist and catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Prof. Hyacinth Eme Ichoku, will deliver the historic 99th inaugural lecture series on Thursday, next week, September 17.
The lecture entitled “Health and Economic Development in Reverse Causality”, will attempt to x-ray the relationship between health and economic outcomes, as conventional wisdom and scientific evidence produced in the 1980s suggested that improved income leads to improved health of the population.
The release said, “As the standard of living of the people improves, people tend to live healthier and longer lives, thus, it is said that the wealthier the healthier, implying that richer individuals tend to be healthier and richer nations tend on average to live healthier and have longer life expectancy. However, there are new scientific evidence suggesting that improved health leads to improved productivity, therefore, that improved health is a major determinant and contributor to economic growth and development.
The Vice Chancellor of the institution Prof. Chukwuma Ozumba will chair the occasion, scheduled for the Princess Alexandra Auditorium, on the Nsukka campus on Thursday, September 17th.
The UNN 99th inaugural lecturer, Prof. Hyacinth Eme Ichoku who was ordained catholic priest in 1988, joined the university in 2001 as a lecturer and rose rapidly to the status of professor in 2012, after securing a doctorate degree in economics at the university of Cape Town South Africa in 2006.
A group, Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN), the umbrella body of PR firms in Nigeria, has announced plans to host the inaugural edition of its monthly Breakfast Meeting.
The event, which comes up next Tuesday, will feature Mr. Kufre Ekanem, Corporate Affairs Adviser of Nigerian Breweries Plc. as special guest speaker.
He will be speaking on “Culture: The next PR frontier”.
Its President, Mr. John Ehiguese, said:“The PRCAN Monthly Breakfast Meeting was conceived as a forum for our members to interact and share ideas with senior executives on the client side. “As PR consultants, we invariably work for clients, and there are issues in client relationship, which come up from time to time, and which may not be adequately addressed in the course of our day-to-day work.”
The meeting provides a platform for such issues to be discussed in a quasi-formal atmosphere, and in such a way that enables us, not only to see things from the client’s perspective, but also to learn from each others’ experiences.
The meeting will be attended by senior agency executives, and will feature a guest speaker who has the liberty of choosing a topic to speak on.
Afterwards, there will be a discussion.
Professor Ambrose Isah has delivered the 149th inaugural lecture of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) last Thursday. The consultant of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics spoke on: The Clinical Pharmacologist: Sentry, ombudsman, arbiter, and custodian of therapeutic care in health care system in the lecture held at the Akin Deko Auditorium.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Friday Orumwense, represented by his deputy on Administration, Prof Lawrence Ezemwonye, congratulated the lecturer, noting that inaugural lectures were avenue through which scholars educate the public about their achievements in research.
Prof Isah said he took interest in clinical pharmacology after he read a journal titled: Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin at the Prof Latunde Odeku Memorial Library at the University of Ibadan (UI) in 1977. He said as an arbiter, clinical pharmacologist served as a gatekeeper on the drugs entering market.
The role of the clinical pharmacologist, he said, is important if people must have safe drugs. He said the clinical pharmacologist should act as an ombudsman to regulate movement of drugs in the society.
The lecturer urged government to address cost of drugs and tariff of medicine. He said drug information must be made available to people, while charging government to support the National Agency for Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC) with workable legislation and fund to carry out its function as required by law.
Prof Isah told the audience that his involvement in drug research led to the establishment of the Pharmacovigilance Center at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), which he said was the first of its kind in the Niger Delta region. He was decorated with a medal for the lecture.
Nwaobi Oge, president of the UNIBEN Medical Students Association (UBEMSA) hailed Prof Isah for the lecture, saying: “The lecturer just proved that he is scholar in the field of drug regulation; government should wakeup to its responsibility because the challenge is beyond legislating laws but implementation that matters.”
Prof Isah studied Medicine and Surgery at the University of Ibadan and proceeded to the University of Newcastle for training in clinic pharmacology. He was the Dean and Head of Department of Medicine at the UNIBEN and a fellow of the West African College of Physician and the Royal College of Physician.
The 1st Inaugural Lecture of UNILAG for the 2014/2015 Academic Session entitled: Cancer The Unwanted Guest That May Visit will hold on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at the Main Auditorium, of the university.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Rahamon A. Bello, will preside over the lecture which will be delivered by the Head, Department of Radiation Biology, Radiotherapy, Radiodiagnosis and Radiography in the College of Medicine, Prof Aderemi Tajudeen Ajekigbe.
Members of the Student Representatives’ Council (SRC) of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) have held their inaugural sitting.
The parliament, which comprises 44 members representing each department, began its sitting with a prayer.
The Speaker, Matthew Obinna, a student of Architecture, urged members to be courteous in making their views known on the floor of the house.
Members introduced themselves starting from the principal officers to the Hon members. The principal officers include Rt Hon. Matthew Royal Obinna(Speaker). Rt Hon Ibeawuchi Chidiebere(Deputy Speaker). Hon Noble Enwerem Chukwuka(Chief Whip), and Obetta Rowland Chiemezie(Ag. Clerk).
The parliament moved into a plenary session, after which members made resolutions and constituted house committees, which included ethics and finance. Members also named the parliament as “House of Credibility”.
It was perhaps predictable that the inauguration of Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose on October 16 would feature acrobatic stunts, especially by the new helmsman who lived up to his reputation for attention-grabbing and self-projecting performance. In the countdown to the swearing-in, following his controversial electoral victory in June, it was a drama of claims and counter-claims by his critics and supporters about what is to be expected when he eventually takes up the reins of office.
Interestingly, Fayose gave a useful insight into what to expect from him this time, eight years after he first governed the state from May 2003 to October 2006 when his four-year term was aborted by his impeachment and removal. To start with, Fayose may pay more attention to the metaphysical these days, given his expressed intention on the eve of the inaugural ceremony. He reportedly said, during a programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Ado-Ekiti: “I am expecting all clerics. They would first be at the Government House to carry out a thorough spiritual cleansing before we enter the building.” He continued: “Even if they are up to 1,000, they are all welcome for the cleansing. But anyone who is not sure of his calling shouldn’t come. They would be in front, we shall follow them. Our men of God would use the power of prayer to conquer all evil.”
With such a symbolic beginning, it won’t be surprising if Fayose should expand the focus and scope of the so-called “thorough spiritual cleansing” to include the state’s 16 local government areas, given that his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, must have stepped on their soil during his time in the saddle and may have made them “impure”.
This spiritual dimension introduces a fascinating and thought-provoking perspective that deserves contemplation. Such thinking, particularly in the context of a high political office like the position of governor, may unfortunately encourage a socially unhelpful approach to the spiritualisation of politics and governance, which, in itself, is not negative. Indeed, it would probably be a positive development if more of the country’s political leaders should be guided by values that transcend the worldly and materialistic, for such orientation may likely prompt a greater concentration on possibly the overriding governmental purpose, which is “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”.
It is noteworthy that Fayose did not clarify the religious platform of the clerics expected to perform the decontamination, whether they would be exclusively Christians because he is a Christian, or whether the spiritual cleansers would include priests of other faiths, for instance, Islam and indigenous religions. This highlights the spreading problem of religionised politics and governance in the country; and it should be disturbing that Fayose may be about to infect Ekiti State with the virus. Furthermore, if his words, “all clerics”, meant unrestricted inclusiveness, does this suggest that, when it comes to religion, his administration would be disinterested?
There is an aspect of this planned cleansing that fundamentally mirrors Fayose’s concept of governance. It is the implication of money, which the participants are likely to be paid in return for their services; or to put it euphemistically, which they will probably be offered for their prayers. Such reward, after all, is what Fayose’s buzzword is all about : “stomach infrastructure”.
It is instructive to note that among the first appointments Fayose announced is the “personal adviser to the governor on special duties and stomach infrastructure”, which has helped in defining not only the seriousness he brings to the funny phrase, but also his thinking on good governance. In his inaugural address, he said: “I have forgiven Ekiti for removing me unjustly and I declare peace, prosperity, progress, employment, food, and stomach infrastructure. You can put tar on the road but if I don’t have a car and I’m hungry, then that tar is meaningless. Tarring our road is wonderful but putting food inside this stomach is very important.” He added: “Already, I am grooming your chicken for Christmas. I am getting your rice ready to do stomach infrastructure. When I defeated them, they said it was as a result of stomach infrastructure. I will banish hunger in your midst. I will work hard to put food on your table.”
This inaugural address is a study in self-definition, and even self-clarification. The governor’s effort in making sure that nothing is perhaps left to the imagination in the presentation of his personality must be commended. At least, it gives the people standards to judge him by, never mind if the standards bespeak pedestrianism.
Fayose, who is 53 years old, said: “They want me to look like the governor of their imagination but I am governor of your own imagination, the governor that eats boli (roasted plantain) with you, the governor that drinks agbo jedi (local herbal mixture) with you, the governor that knows that the resources of this state belong to you.” He went on: “When I come to buy boli tomorrow, I will drop something. I will look after you. They are too clean in their own eyes to go to the jedi sector and that is why you voted them out. Whether they call it stomach infrastructure, it is their business, because I am going to appoint a special adviser for stomach infrastructure.”
As things stand, Fayose would need to continue to eat boli and drink jedi as a way of socialising; and he would also have to “drop something”, that is, pay far more for them than they are worth in order to make the street vendors happy and demonstrate that he is a “good governor”. It is relevant to wonder what might happen when boli is out of season. Maybe Fayose would then switch to agbado yiyan (roasted corn). Or isu yiyan (roasted yam). So, he is likely to continually make seasonal changes in his eating habits to show that he is, as they say, “a grassroots politician”.
Certainly, it would have been out of character if Fayose had not seized the moment for self-glorification. He said: “By the grace of God, I am the first son of Ekiti to be governor here twice and the first Nigerian politician to defeat two incumbents and all former governors of this state that have served at one point or the other.” Congratulations, Your Excellency!
LEADERS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Southeast rose from a two-day meeting in Owerri, the Imo State capital, with a resolve to mobilise the zone for the new party.
At the parley were chieftains of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the Democratic Peoples Party(DPP), Civil Society Organisations and professional bodies.
They unanimously agreed to have a united APC in the zone.
At the meeting that was held at the Government House, the parties mandated the APC in the Southeast to address the marginalisation of Ndigbo by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) -controlled Federal Government.
The parties said: “The fact is no person of Igbo extraction is occupying any of the five major positions in the country.
“The Office of the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker and Chief Justice of the Federation is a testimony of the marginalisation of the zone which will be addressed on the platform of the APC.”
They regretted how the hope raised by the country’s return to democracy in 1999 was dashed and how at every election the people of the Southeast had voted massively for the PDP and how it has failed to redeem its promises to the zone.
At the end of the deliberations, the parties resolved to embrace theAPC.
They urged the electorate to join the party and to raise funds for the immediate and urgent grassroot sensitisation and enlightenment of the people.
They urged people in the zone to embrace the new party which they argued has what it takes to take the nation into loftier heights.
In attendance were: Governor Rochas Okorocha; Senator Chris Ngige; Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; Chief Achike Udenwa; Chief George Moghalu; Ododo Charles; Ezekiel Izuogu; Uche Onyeagocha; Sen Osita Izunaso; Sen Julius Ucha; Adaugo Obi; Princess Frances Mgbada; Val Nnaedozie and Okey Ezea.
Others are: Peter Okonkwo; Peter Edeh; Chief Livinus Nwambe; Chief Nnamdi Olebara; Prince Marshal Okafor-Anyanwu; Stanley Ohajuruka; Chief Nath Ikeocha; Dr. Nyerere Anyim; Ezenwa Onyebuchi; and Mathew Omegara.