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Tag: integrity

  • PDP Chairmanship race: Discipline, integrity stands Adeniran out says Ciroma

    In what is unmistakably a huge  endorsement of the PDP chairmanship ambition of Prof. Tunde Adeniran, a founding  member of the Peoples Democratic Party  and elder statesman, Mallam Adamu  Ciroma has  described the former Minister of  Education as a man that can be trusted, judging by his pedigree, track-record of discipline, integrity and loyalty  to the  course of the party and Nigeria at  large.

    Speaking over the weekend when the  Adeniran’s campaign train paid him a  courtesy visit in his Abuja’s residence, Mallam Ciroma extolled Adeniran’s  leadership qualities, saying he had  followed with  keen interest the aspirant’s career  since his days as a lecturer at the University of Ibadan and also when he  served as Secretary of the Mass  Mobilisation for Self Reliance, Social  Justice and Economic Recovery  (MAMSER) era.

    In press release issued by the Director of Media and Publicity of the Tunde Adeniran Campaign Organisation (TACO), Taiwo Akeju, the former Governor of the  Central Bank of Nigeria was quoted to  have said: “I am happy to receive you  all in my house this afternoon. It is a privilege also for me to see all  these great Nigerians like Prof. Jerry Gana, former deputy Senate  President, Ibrahim Mantu, former  Ministers (Fidelia) Njeze, (Zainab) Maina,  (Tom Aguiyi) Ironsi, Senator UgochukwuUba,  the Director-General of  the campaign, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, and arrays of former  Senators, members of the House of Representatives and state assemblies,  commissioners and advisers from the various geo-political zones coming  together to work for a common goal of rescuing our great party after the 2015  electoral defeat. With what I see today, it is very clear that the dream  of the founding fathers of the PDP  is very much alive and that means there  is hope for our party and Nigeria  as a whole.”

    On the need to promote the unity and oneness of Nigeria, Mallam Ciroma charged  Prof. Adeniran and his team to remember  that the dream of Nigeria’s  founding fathers, which is built on the  principle of unity in diversity,  were the core values and principles on  which the PDP was formed. The elders statesman therefore urged all Nigerians to continue to promote the unity  and progress of the country in every  position they might find themselves. In  his words, “it is because we  see ourselves as one nation that gave me the  opportunity to obtain my degree at the  University of Ibadan. Today I do not  see myself as only a Hausa man. I see  myself as a Yoruba man, based on the  relationships that I built while in the university,” he said.

    Earlier, Prof. Gana had extolled the  leadership qualities of Prof. Adeniran. According to him, “when the time to contest for the party chairmanship came, many  of the leaders of the party, including all of us here carried out a detailed  study of the kind of  leadership the PDP needs at this  material time. We went round the country  to ask questions from the people so  that we can avoid the mistake of the  past. The result of the exercise shows  that the PDP needs a transparent,  disciplined, dedicated, experienced and  loyal leader. Also integrity was  considered. It was at this point that  we all came to the conclusion that for the party to regain her place in  Nigeria political space, Prof.  Adeniran is the man that possesses all the qualities that were listed.

    Therefore, we are here today to present the most favoured, qualified and trusted candidate for the job of the chairman of our great party to you for your blessing,” he said.

    It was all encomiums and praises for  Prof. Adeniran during the visit.

    Earlier in the week, the campaign train had visited the PDP caucus in the  National Assembly where the party’s lawmakers pledged their support for Prof. Adeniran because of his dedication,  loyalty and  contributions to the party since its  inception in 1998.

    They also described him as a man who  does not have any baggage that  the opposition  can latch on for negative propaganda, which is what the party direly

    requires now.

    The campaign train will be in the  Northeast this week in continuation of its zonal tour towards the December 9 National Convention.

     

     

  • Salami—and they say integrity isn’t everything?

    Remember Justice Ayo Salami, the jurist the Jonathan presidency loved to hate, simply because his immaculate integrity sharply rebuked the blotchy blots that earned the Jonathan era its epochal notoriety?

    Well, the rampaging fires of that opaque regime moved to consume and subdue Salami’s placid waters of quiet but stubborn principle; even as the jurist stood, alone and naked, before the so-called federal might.

    Well, Jonathan and gang hounded Salami, then president of the Court of Appeal, out of office.  His crime?  For presiding over a court that sacked one-two-three-four Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun, for stealing the vote; and reinstating the rightful winners.

    That high-wire plot involved Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) who suborned the National Judicial Council (NJC) in the get-rid-of-Salami-by-all- means-necessary plot.  Even when when CJN Dahiru Musdapher later clear Salami of any wrongdoing, returning the suspended Appeal Court president to his post became a mission impossible, till his term elapsed.

    Well, that has turned a Pyrrhic victory, for the corps of conspirators.

    For starters, on the institutional scale, the NJC plowed from its Olympic height of reverence, a body once even touted as near-almighty arbiter, to help install a fair and credible electoral chief, after Maurice Iwu had dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into the thick mud of infamy.  After the Salami affair, NJC shed its slough of immaculateness, exposing yet another chamber of unending hustling and intrigues.

    But more satisfying on a personal scale, Justice Salami is back, as trusted ombudsman to certify NJC’s new anti-corruption exertions as wholesome.  It is true as they say: he who laughs last, laughs best!  It is another triumph for integrity, in a society that was sinking without trace in its ruinous opacity.

    For this, kudos to CJN Walter Onnoghen.

    Which brings the discourse back to the integrity question.  In not a few circles, particularly among sour-grapers, whose world of free-loading has since collapsed with President Muhammadu Buhari’s fierce anti-corruption war, is to play the supercilious camel and piously declare: integrity isn’t enough!  Really?

    In 2015, Jonathan and gang, no thanks to endless looting, had brought the Nigerian ruling class to the end of their tether.  The “stupid” and docile masses were already seeing what they were not supposed to see; and saying what they were not supposed to say!

    Only one man, PMB bailed out this troubled ruling class.  His tool?  His shining armour of probity and integrity.

    Under PMB, agencies hitherto the bastion of sleaze, are beginning to post in the government coffers what they should.  It started with the Nigerian Customs Service.  Then, of recent, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), and  the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).  Other things being equal, others may soon follow suit.  And still, no rapid overhauling of the opaque Nigerian system, beyond the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

    Even CJN Onnoghen, who started out with the body language of understanding, if not outright excusing, a judiciary in the eye of the storm, appears changing tack.  His crowing symbolism: the return of Justice Salami!

    So, integrity isn’t everything?  You can tell that to the marines!

  • Okogie, others rewarded for integrity, hard work

    Okogie, others rewarded for integrity, hard work

    Hallmark of Labour Foundation has honoured three personalities, Prof. Itse Sagay, Archbishop Emeritus of the Metropolitan See of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie and Ambassador Olu Adeniji, in its book entitled: Hallmark of Labour, Volume 8. OLATUNDE ODEBIYI was at the book’s presentation on April 27 at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos.

    Hallmark of Labour Foundation identifies Nigerians who have achieved success through hard work, honesty and integrity in their fields of endeavour….We project them as role models of rewarding and fulfilling honest labour. We promote positive attitudes among the youth in particular, as we encourage them to shun fraud, greed and impropriety as means of success.

    It was a gathering of the high and the mighty at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos at the public presentation of Hallmark of Labour, Volume 8. Written by Patricia Otuedon-Arawore.

    The book, as the tradition of the foundation has been in the past eight years, again honoured three personalities who have distinguished themselves in honesty, integrity and hard work in the attainment of success.

    Prof. Itse Sagay, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie and Ambassador Olu Adeniji, stood tall among the crowd. Otuedon-Arawore said the book focuses on people who have succeeded through dint of hard work and integrity.

    “The whole idea is to make this category of people known and enable younger ones to know them and follow their footsteps. When the young ones have role models as these to follow, it would contribute to national development.”

    She said Hallmark of Labour Foundation identifies Nigerians who have achieved success through hard work, honesty and integrity in their fields of endeavour.

    “We project them as role models of rewarding and fulfilling honest labour. We promote positive attitudes among the youth in particular, as we encourage them to shun fraud, greed and impropriety as means of success. We help to redirect Nigerians’ mindset from crummy lifestyle to restoration of decency in a society that deserves the respect and accolade of the international community.”

    The wife of Lagos State governor, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, represented by Jumoke Benson, urged youths to consider positive sides in Nigeria’s current challenges.

    Mrs. Ambode said Nigerians must emulate the exemplary life of those honoured and draw inspiration from their records as featured in the book.

    She also said those honoured put in the best in their respective careers which enabled them to attain excellence.

    Mrs. Ambode said the book is a great intellectual accomplishment that points the right and honorable direction for the youth in particular and Nigerians in general.

    “Many Nigerians have given up on the virtues of honesty and integrity as the most honourable vehicle to wealth and success. Many think success can only come through crooked and fraudulent means.

    “But the distinguished personalities in the book have proved these notions wrong. They are integrity personified, going by the record of their public life.  They have also shown that we can rely on hard work to attain coveted status in the society,” she said.

    Special Guest of Honour and representative of the Chairman of the occasion, Dr Christopher Kolade, Prof Emeritus Oladipo Akinkugbe, welcomed guests to the book presentation, in a short speech, rich in reminiscences from his days in Government College, Ibadan, when he, (Dr. Kolade), and Prof. Wole Soyinka were classmates.

    He said Nigeria must return to old ways of value, adding that integrity should be the norm as elsewhere, rather than the opposite as it obtains now.

    He said the book presentation is significant, adding that the three personalities are role models that must be emulated.

    “The personalities have shown that we must work hard, be disciplined, have a sense of achievement and believe that the country would move forward,” he said.

    He commended the author’s initiative, saying she is touching an area that has long been ignored. The book, he said, is a way of going back to old values to see people’s good works and enabling others to learn from them.

    Prof. Sagay said he felt honored, adding that the book is a great elevation for him which he appreciated.

    He urged youths to be principled. “In anything you do, be principled, don’t go for convenience, opportunism or immediate gratification. At the end of the day honour will come; you will be appreciated and put in positions where you will survive comfortably. There is no need selling your integrity and honour to make money.”

    The book reviewer and Head of the Department of International Politics (NIIA), Prof. Ostia Agbu, offered a rare insight into the evolving years of the three personalities that were honoured: how Prof. Sagay had to get the riot act from his strict father to take his education seriously; how Anthony Cardinal Okogie made history to transit from a choir boy at St. Michael’s Catholic Church, Lafiaji, Lagos to become ordained priest in the same city, rising to be Archbishop of Lagos and later Cardinal and Prince of the Catholic Church; and how Ambassador Adeniji wrote Africa has Come of Age, the fiery speech by the late Head of State, Gen. Murtala Mohammed, made in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1975, to support the MPLA, one of the contending freedom fighter groups in Angola’s bitter war of independence against Portugal.

    He, among other things, spoke on why Prof. Itse Sagay and Dr. Christopher Kolade, didn’t get along.

    He said: “Kolade was, in secondary school, Sagay’s Latin teacher. Latin wasn’t Sagay’s favourite subject, unlike English and English Literature; and teacher Kolade didn’t think much of Sagay’s abilities.

    “In a parallel to British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill whose teachers often told him he was a never-do-well, Kolade, according to revelations from the book, must have been shocked at Sagay’s latter-day blooming as a silk and legal intellectual of class.”

    The reviewer lamented the waning societal values, adding that honouring authentic heroes such as the three would help the country to recapture old values that have turned them into role models, worth celebrating.”

  • Dome of integrity

    SIR: Opinions are divided in Ondo State on the performance of outgoing Governor, Olusegun Mimiko in his eight years of being in charge of the state. Many believe he did well particularly with his Caring Heart Schools, the Mother and Child Hospitals and the good number of roads he has built in the state. However, civil servants in the state whose arrears of salaries have not been paid have a contrary view.

    One of Mimiko’s most enduring legacies should be the post-modern International Conference Centre popularly called The Dome in the heart of Akure, the state capital. Last week, the governor hosted hundreds of guests in The Dome as his biography written by Professor Olu Obafemi was presented to the public. A play written by Obafemi based on Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa’s Aditu Olodumare was staged in the night of February 14 which was the night before the book presentation.

    While the play was on, I took time off to ease myself in the toilet. While on my way back to the hotel around midnight, I felt light and checked my pockets only to discover that my wallet was missing. Going back to the Centre at that time of the night was out of the question.

    I had just about N5,000 in the wallet but more importantly, my identity and debit cards were in the missing purse. The loss was heavy on my heart through the night but I woke up in the morning feeling a sense of relief. The Lord registered it in my mind that I would recover the wallet.

    Shortly, my cousin who lives in Akure came to join me in the hotel and I narrated my ordeal to him.

    Raphael (that’s his name) was so sure I would recover the purse and asked that we left for The Dome immediately. As we got there, he inquired about it from one of the cleaners who immediately excused himself. The young man reappeared a few minutes later with the purse explaining that he spent part of the night trying to reach the owner by calling all the numbers he found on the documents in the purse.

    The money, debit cards and other documents in it were intact.

    That was a demonstration of integrity at Mimiko’s Dome. As we made our way out of the facility, I told myself that there was still some hope for my country.

     

    • Tunde Ipinmisho, FNGE,

    Abuja.

  • FRC CEO wins African Leader of Integrity Merit award

    The Executive Secretary of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRC), Jim Obazee, has won African Leader of Integrity Merit Award for exemplary leadership and Economic Development in Africa.

    In a statement by FRC’s Media/Communications Consultant, Mack Ogbamosa, said the award was bestowed on Obazee in recognition of his enormous contributions to the nation’s economy, through his resolved efforts in entrenching transparency and accountability in financial reporting. The award ceremony held at  the University of Ghana, Legon.

    While Conferring the award on the FRC chief, who was represented by Adeshola Amao of the Directorate of Corporate Governance of the Council at the 13th Africa Leadership Development Conference and Awards Gala Night, the President of Proven Integrity Communications Network Limited, the organisers of the award, Onwordi Onichabor, said the award was for those Distinguished and Notable Personalities who have excelled greatly in their respective businesses and professional endeavours.

    He also said Obazee was particularly recognized because of his relentless efforts at sanitizing the financial sector of the country through formulation and enforcement of financial standards.

    The recipient, while receiving the award, thanked the organisers for the recognition and dedicated the award to members of staff of the FRC, adding that the honour was not only in recognition of his personal efforts, but also that of the entire staff of the Council.

    The FRC boss noted that the impact of the Council’s enforcement of accounting, auditing, actuarial and valuation standards as well as entrenchment of good corporate governance is already manifesting in this era of adherence to rules, regulations and standards as the hallmark of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Obazee has won many awards both within and outside the shores of the country for his doggedness and ground-breaking achievements with the Council in ensuring that businesses are conducted in the country in accordance with laid down rules.

    These awards include among others, African Par Excellence Award 2015, Public Administrator of the Year award, Lifetime Achievement Award for Competency/Distinctiveness in Public Service by Nigeria Media Nite-out Award 2015, CEO of the Year by Ikeja City Award 2016 as well as Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria, CRAN Award of Excellence for service.

    Established under the Financial Reporting Council Act No 6, 2011, the FRC is charged with regulating accounting, auditing, actuarial and valuation standards as well as development, issuance and enforcement of code of corporate governance to ensure transparency, probity and accountability in both public and private sectors of the nation’s economy.

  • Ortom: I ‘won’t compromise Christian integrity 

    Ortom: I ‘won’t compromise Christian integrity 

    Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has assured the Christian community that he would not compromise the Christian integrity in the discharge of his duties.

    He spoke at the dedication of his adopted daughter, Destiny Eunice Iwueseter Ortom, at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Mega Parish, Makurdi.

    Ortom said God prepared him for leadership at a time like this, noting that divine intervention would help the people to surmount challenges.

    He said though he had been prudent with the management of state resources, the recession had made it difficult for Benue and 33 other states to pay salaries.

    The governor said baby Destiny was a special gift from God, hinting that she had increased happiness in the home and exhibited signs that she was a precious child.

    Ortom’s wife, Eunice, said she was inspired to adopt Destiny who was abandoned in the bush. She acknowledged as divine providence, the fact that Destiny shares the same blood details with her and her other children.

    Provincial Pastor Mike Ayanbode urged Christians to acknowledge the blessings of God and never take such for granted.

  • The integrity of brutes and eternal wildlings

    Nigeria is not the greatest country in Africa. ‘It’ is not the greatest country in the world. ‘It’ is a creature borne of incest. But it is hardly the ‘contraption’ frequently alluded to by generations of revolutionary poseurs and armchair Trotskys – it is piteous and ideologically shallow of them to wish our problems away simply by calling for an end to the ‘forced marriage’ of cultures and ethnicities, an enterprise which blame they lay solely at the feet of the country’s colonial predators.

    Nigeria fails as a nation because we fail as a people and progenitors of African civilisation. Rather than project a superior culture of nationhood and society, we choose to curate the worst that our forebears dared espouse, coating it as the ‘Nigerian factor,’ and our flamboyant code of conduct.

    Thus we covet an incestuous relationship with self – the dark, chthonian parts of our innate nature. We mould our clan where racial foolery fraternizes with vile. Senior citizenry molest our young in a never-ending cycle of sleaze and moral pedophilia. But the young are hardly the prey we think they are. Every second, they morph from starry-eyed victims to eager participants in our dehumanising ritual of violence, mental and biological aberration.

    Ours is a classic tale of Darwinian waste and mayhem, the squalor and rot of Nigerianness; a distortion of African civilisation. But we block the true import and consequences of this hideous cycle on our psyches and our future as a nation, that we might retain our integrity as brutes and eternal wildlings.

    Western science and cultural aesthetics predictably become apparatus in our frantic attempt to revise the Nigerian horror into imaginatively palatable form. Notwithstanding our frantic lunge for substance and acclaim on frontiers where the world’s more advanced civilisations project their race and oneness, Nigeria remains hideous in name and status. While we make exaggerated gestures in fields of space science, information technology, industry, sports, and so on, Nigerian children die at birth and thousands of mothers die in painful labour. The youth are unemployed. Public officers loot public coffers with impunity and disregard for Rule of Law. Law enforcement officers turn violent affliction on the citizenry and society they are meant to protect. The executive, legislative and judicial arms of government mesh in a fetid whirl of strife and plunder. Anarchy rules our hinterlands and metropolitan Nigeria.

    Within such stew and stink, Nigeria ranks 152nd of 188 countries in the 2016 African Human Development Index (HDI) according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Thus we are back at the crossroads of vile and extinction. There has been no improvement in our plight.

    While this piece too, resounds as hackneyed howl and lamentation; a regurgitation of grotesqueness we inflict on our fatherland and the towering monstrosities we have become.

    Our ultimate nemesis is the Nigerian youth. The youth epitomise the nub of discord and deathly rally ripping the tide and march to progress of our fatherland. But why do promising youth evolve like brutes and loathsome trolls? How did our once incandescent spokes of dawn erupt in moonshine?

    Many have attributed the afflictions of the Nigerian youth to bad leadership, nonstop dominance of the predatory ruling class and tiring recalcitrance of the younger generation to engage in communal and national politics in a beneficial manner. Many more would readily diagnose the maladies of the nation’s youth to structural banes and the perverse culture of citizenship by which they are weaned and ushered into adulthood.

    In the wake of plausible and often farfetched analyses, too many ‘patriots’ conveniently excuse themselves from the nexus of blame and severally propound the sad realization that Nigerians are innately incapable of self-determination and self-governance. Many have recommended the American example, the British palliative, the Chinese abracadabra and Malaysian ingenuity to mention a few, as the ultimate measures to resolve the nation’s ills. How?

    These arguments have overtime, attained a language of their own and thus evolved as a dialect of dissent and exaggerated self-abnegation. The nation’s academic elite, political and economic ruling classes frequently marshal clashing precepts as solutions and justifiable putdown of the ruling class and the lower working class as their politics dictate.

    A more damning view identifies the breadlines’ persistent ‘claims to victimhood and sense of entitlement’ as whiny and symptomatic of a dense and irresponsible citizenry. Between the conflict of hyperboles and sentimental vituperation, Nigeria suffers the affliction of intellectual miscreants and promising youth-turned-foetal-adults.

    As youths, the coordinated tragedies afflicting our consciousness daily append the only real structure to our lives as impoverished Nigerians. The burdensome reality of fast slipping youth, the recurrent rites of bigotry and ethical quandary of coping with the strict moral code of adulthood and ideal society, obscures our understanding of life’s ultimate purpose and meaning. It spurs millions of misguided Nigerian youth to engage in a mad, desperate pursuit of fast and fleeting riches even as ripples of their actions keep hundreds of millions more in the doldrums and binds of despair.

    Consequently, the revolutionary dissent that sprouts from oppression is pitiless and unbending. It radically splits our world into ‘insensitive ruling class’ and ‘clueless lower class,’ ‘elite’ and ‘downtrodden,’ ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’ It fosters even more fragmented discord that continually pits Nigerian Christians against Muslims, Hausa against Igbo, Igbo against Yoruba, Yoruba against Ijaw. It fosters spurious segmentation of our society into moral and amoral,  good against evil, and apostates versus believers. Within this poisonous clime, the Nigerian child is born. If he survives birth hour, he is violently thrust into adolescence and misshapen adulthood.

    From Boko Haram and Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) terrorism, internet fraud, cyber-terrorism, financial/bankers’ terrorism and political terrorism emblematic of the ruling class, recent developments in the country present a sad prologue to a heinous and wider conflict between the nation’s rich ruling class and the impoverished majority of the breadlines and disappearing middle-class.

    A bloody and protracted war thus ensues: this war, caused by diminishing resources, chronic unemployment, substandard health facilities, rising food prices, big business and government conspiracies against the Nigerian state, manifest at alarming proportions daily and by the second.

    Thus our society is flung rudderless on a seething sea of sleaze. Now that our world as we have made it, begins to collapse, we withdraw from the possibility of rebirth, and choose to exploit ‘infinite possibilities’ in our fragility and doomsday predictions.

    The youth predictably become prominent actors in the theatre of ruin and discord. They become the muscle to actualise the ruling class’ blueprint of collapse. But if we consider our plight deeply enough, we would find that no child of the ruling class is co-opted in the drama of violence and bloodshed. They are tucked safely abroad.

    Picture the NDA, Boko Haram, MASSOB, IPOB, OPC, and so on without youth drawn from the breadlines and society’s boondocks. Will our governors, legislators, the presidency and aristocratic divide people these groups with their sons, daughters and wives?

    It’s about time we shunned the politics of retrogression, spurious militancy, bloodshed and devastation to embrace growth and immense possibilities achievable in progressive endeavour, like a youth movement cum political platform mooted by the youth, for the youth and Nigeria’s future.

  • Youths urged on integrity

    The Vine Branch Church, Mokola Ibadan Oyo State,  celebrated the first anniversary of the Stag Project,  a youth programme that imparts values that will help them to realise their potential. The lecture was anchored by the Pro-Chancellor, Bowen University and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Meristem Securities, Wole Abegunde.

    Tagged Men of Honour, the programme began at 11:00 p.m. Over 830 young men within the age brackets of 12 and 25 from different parts of the city attended the event.

    Intended as a platform for social re-engineering, the Stag Project is a continuous developmental programme initiated by the church to bring up young men in the way of the Lord.

    More striking was that those that attended the programme cut across different social strata and age groups. Artisans, undergraduates and graduates came together to share ideas.

    Sharing her grass-to-grace story, Pastor Bridget Iguehi Kolade enlightened her audience on how she rose from very humble beginning to become a woman of honour.

    Continuing in her thought-provoking lecture, she educated them on the essence of being a man of honour, what it takes to become a man of honour, the pitfalls to look out for while climbing the ladder of progress, and most importantly, how to remain a man of honour after achieving success.

    She posited that integrity and righteousness are the foundations of honour, saying that honour will always bring wealth.

    Advising the participants not to pursue wealth, she said: “With integrity and righteousness, you are sure of becoming a man of honour. A man of honour will also be a man of wealth because honour brings wealth. Wealth will not always bring you honour, but wealth is a bye-product of honour. You have to pursue the main product before you can have the bye-product.”

    She also advised the youth not to give in to negative peer influences, saying they should rather seek positive peers who share the same plan and purpose with them.

    She reeled off some distractions that bedeviled young men to include the lure of the opposite sex, the get-rich-quick syndrome, fashion and television, among others. She advised them to remain steadfast.

    She said: “Don’t be distracted. These distractions are potholes that will derail you from getting to your destination as a man of honour.”

    Just as a pothole can destroy a car, she explained that illegal sex is the number one distraction against the male destiny, which has brought down many wealthy men, men of honour and even clergymen.

    Speaking to Southwest Report, Pastor Kolade said: “The ministry was envisioned by Rev. Sola Kolade, and was targeted at grooming young men to become what God wants them to be.” Speaking on the impact the ministry has on the society vis-a-vis the pervasive notion that the religiosity of the average Nigerian is not reflected in the lifestyles of the people across board, she said: “It is not churches that change society but people; people who are doers of God’s Word; not just those who go to church.”

    Continuing she said “you go to church, but live like the devil. That does not change the society. The church is the building, but it is the people who can go out and change society by being doers of God’s Word. What we see are people who go to church but not people who do God’s Word. It is obedience to God’s word that brings about change. That is what the Stag Project is all about.”

  • ‘Customs service collected over N95b in August’

    ‘Customs service collected over N95b in August’

    The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in August generated N95,760,763,642.04 which has been documented as the highest in the last 10 months .

    The Public Relations Unit of the NCS made this known on its website on Monday, saying: “Last month, August 2016, the Service recorded the highest revenue in 10 years despite the Forex difficulty, low imports and general economic downturn. The Service generated N95,760,763,642.04, a feat that points to the efficacy of the Comptroller-General’s policy thrust.”

    According to statement, the strong stance of the CGC on issues of Discipline, Integrity and Strict adherence to Customs Codes and Clearance procedures is yielding positive results in the areas of suppression of smuggling and revenue collection.

    The statement reads in part: “Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) on assumption of office as the Comptroller-General of Customs August last year arrived with a three prone Presidential mandate, namely:- Reform, Restructure and Raise revenue.

    “To achieve these, he drew his policy thrust, which harped, on Honesty, Integrity and Transparency as bases for achieving the mandate. Starting from the Headquarters and then to all Customs formations across the Country.

    “Knowing that reform and restructuring are activities within the Nigeria Customs Service, while raising the much needed revenue requires cooperation and Compliance from the part of Stakeholders, the CGC embarked on Stakeholders visitations to secure their buy into the new way of doing business with the Service.

    After one year at the helm of affairs, the Nigeria Customs Service, revenue generation profile has continued to be on the rise.

     

  • Ex-UNILAG VC counsels workers on integrity

    For about 90 minutes, Prof Tolu Odugbemi returned to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where he served as vice chancellor (2007-2010) to give valuable advice to registry and bursary workers recently.

    The programme, “An Hour with the Doyen”, an initiative of the bursary and registry units of the university, provides opportunity for workers of both units to learn from past administrators of the institution.

    The Senate Chambers of the institution was packed such that a large number of workers of both units had to stay in the foyer while Odugbemi, spoke on “The Pivotal Role of Administration in a University – Reflections”.

    Odugbemi, who also served as the vice chancellor of the Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH) after UNILAG, underscored the importance of imbibing such values as honesty, hard work, team work, and integrity, which he said were crucial to the smooth running of a university.

    He shared his experiences as an administrator with the audience, which also included some principal officers like the Registrar, Mrs Taiwo Ipaye; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Research), Prof Toyin Ogundipe; the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof Duro Oni, and the Provost, College of Medicine, Prof Folashade Ogunsola and other dons.

    Prof Odugbemi advised the workers to ensure they put the interest of the community above self in all their official dealings as selfishness causes underdevelopment.

    “The Nigerian education sector has numerous challenges.  Discipline is very important in attaining any significant achievement in society.  Nigeria is at cross-roads.  Instead of our present educational system helping to propel us forward in development, we face a gloomy state of decay because of wrong ideas and teachings that made ‘self’ instead of ‘society’ the centre of development.  The over-development of ‘self’ in positive ways would not have harmed the nation but the greed attached to ‘self-development’ has,” he said.

    Participants told The Nation they learnt a lot from the lecture.

    Mrs Adeola Akinyeye, senior assistant registrar with the senate, said: “I also learnt about integrity, courage – that these are the values that we need to imbibe as administrators and they will help us to contribute our quota to the development of the university. So I intend to do that and also make use of his word of wisdom in my day-to-day activities.”

    Prof Ogundipe said: “I learnt that you must put integrity, sincerity and be purposeful in whatever we are doing to move the university forward. The university is to help the community and the society the other way round, so if there are problems in the society the university should be able to help.”

    Prof Ogunsola said the Odugbemi’s lecture re-instated what she already knew about integrity and other values.

    “I have known him for a long time and understand the importance of the things he mentioned – courage in particular and integrity. In Nigeria you may have integrity but you will constantly have to defend it because everything around you is struggling to break it,” she said.

    Oluwaseun Ajidabga of the Information Unit said many people came to hear Odugbemi because of his integrity while in office.

    “The turnout has never been this high in the history of an hour with the doyen.  The people who were outside where more than the people who were inside, which goes to show the love they have for the former vice chancellor; and I am sure people will put what he has said to good use,” he said.

    Dr Ipaye said the programme has been invaluable in tapping into the knowledge of veteran administrators.

    “We felt that inviting veterans to come and share with us their experience in the office and to receive their guidance will stimulate most of us.  We have been having very stimulating experiences from the vice chancellors, registrars.  It is an opportunity to tap from their wealth of experience so that we can work towards an enduring legacy,” she said.