The Nation Newspaper

Tag: laments

  • Maku laments negative image

    Maku laments negative image

    The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, has attributed the increasing negative perception of Nigeria to the Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping and other crimes.

    He spoke in Abuja yesterday during the 43rd National Council on Information Conference with the theme: “Information Management for Good Governance and National Transformation”.

    Maku said: “We cannot deny the fact of the persistence of negative stories about our country. Boko Haram, high-profile kidnapping, corruption, oil subsidy scandal, ethnic and religious strife, negative politics and politicking are some of the issues that smear our national image at home and abroad.”

    He recalled that the ministry has within available resources mounted campaigns to tackle the perception challenges.

    According to him, “in July last year, there was an extraordinary National Council on Information meeting that fashioned public enlightenment response strategy to the Boko Haram insurgency.”

    The minister, while urging Nigerians to continue in propagating the scope and intensity of the messages, said the challenges of Nigeria’s image is the responsibility of all and not the Federal Government alone.

    Said he: “There appears to be a feeling that the challenges of the nation’s image are the sole responsibility of the Federal Government. On the contrary, to the extent that our national image is the aggregate of the respective image of our federating units, each of us has a piece of the assignment.”

  • England laments Moses’ loss to Nigeria

    England laments Moses’ loss to Nigeria

    England Under 21 coach Stuart Pearce has been singled out for blame after Chelsea’s dual-nationality forward Victor Moses chose to play for Nigeria rather than England.

    Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan, who oversaw Moses’s development at Selhurst Park, says the often taciturn Pearce should have done more to make the 21-year-old welcome during his time with his England side.

    And managers Neil Warnock and Roberto Martinez, who had Moses in their respective teams at Palace and Wigan, have also criticised the FA for not persuading the player to pick England.

    Jordan’s faith in Moses’s potential extended to the multi-millionaire football chairman having a £50,000 bet with former Arsenal forward Paul Merson that Moses would win more England caps than Merson’s tally of 21 — although that wager has been voided by the Nigeria decision.

    The FA strongly defend Pearce’s interactions with Moses, saying that a lot of effort was made to keep the player in the national set-up. And they point to plenty of other young internationals opting for England when given a choice.

    Roy Hodgson’s assistant Gary Neville was asked about Moses snubbing England while he was doing the Sky co-commentary of the Chelsea-Manchester City game last Sunday.

    Neville shifted the blame on to the system that allows England to develop youngsters through junior sides only to lose them at senior level.

  • Fasanmi laments Lam’s death

    Fasanmi laments Lam’s death

    Afenifere Deputy Leader Senator Ayo Fasanmi yesterday described the death of Alhaji Lam Adesina as a terrible blow to the progressives in the country.

    The elder statesman said the former federal legislator and governor of Oyo State was a democrat per excellence and committed Awoist, adding that he always exhibited frankness and candour no matter whose ox is gored.

    Fasanmi, who spoke on phone with our correspondent, said: “He was a titan. I have known him as a columnist in The Tribune for over 40 years. When he was in the House of Representatives, I was a senator and the late Senator Jonathan Odebiyi was our leader. Lam was the secretary of the UPM parliamentary caucus. He was a mass mobiliser, transparent and a man of exceptional character. His son, the young commissioner, I believe, will keep the flag flying”.

  • GUS 9: Uzor Osimpka laments

    THE Council of Elders decided to smile on the remaining 10 contenders by giving them what they craved for several days: food! Earlier in the day, Paschal Ojezele and Udodi Priscillia were rewarded with a cooking pot and cow brain for emerging victorious in the day’s task.

    The cooking of the rice and vegetable meal was peaceful, while an argument ensued between Adah James and Bonford Patience over the distribution of cutlery; which was actually carved out of bamboo. Bonford felt not all the contenders should have access to the cutlery, since not all took part in the carving.

    After tempers flared, all contenders settled down to have a peaceful meal and even sang themselves to sleep. Perhaps they learnt lessons from the day’s task Raise Your Flag.

    The game involved fitting braces on two long bamboo sticks to make ladders. The contenders were then required to climb up the ladder, and cut an artificial weight to raise their flags. The contenders had to compete it in pairs. To get to the ladders, they had to go through an obstacle course which involved running under ropes, passing through a wooden maze and walking over a beam to get to where the braces were kept. They would then climb the ladder to the platform and the first team to raise the flag won the task.

    Without mincing words, Uzor Osimpka says the game was deadly: “The detailed account of today’s task was death. I thought I was going to die. Earlier today, I said yesterday’s task was the most tedious. I was wrong. Today’s task took the cake, the icing and the knife. I fell during one of the times that we had to run back to get the braces to build our ladder. And that slowed me down besides the fact that I was already slowed down because it was a lot of work being connected to somebody else and you had to run within a short space, run together at the same time, get the log at the same time, do everything together at the same time. Nobody should ever come and say anything about Gulder Ultimate Search being an adventure. It’s more than that. They have no idea. Today’s task was crazy.”

    Running since 2004, Gulder Ultimate Search is a flagship adventure reality show of Gulder, a brand of Nigerian Breweries Plc. The Nigeria’s longest-running 100 per cent local content reality has prided itself with a unique format of stretching man beyond the limits of endurance. Its current edition; The Gatekeepers’ Fortune airs every night on AIT, African Magic World (DSTV) and Real Star (Star Times) at 10pm, with returnee anchorman, Chidi Mokeme at the helms of affairs.

  • Lawmaker laments state of Kirikiri Prisons

    Vice chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights, Rotimi Makinde, has described as appalling the condition at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons in Lagos.

    Makinde, who spoke with The Nation after the conclusion of his Committee’s annual prison audit, decried the non-conducive working conditions of the prisons’ staff and the lamentable welfare of the inmates.

    He said: “The structures there are dilapidated and the environment generally is in sorry state. We also interacted with some of the inmates and warders and discovered that something urgent needed to be done to improve the welfare of both the inmates and the warders for the system to truly serve its reformatory role. A situation whereby warders contribute money to feed the inmates out of their meagre salaries is unhealthy.

    “Most of the inmates have stopped their education at the National Open University (NOUN) because of funds. Why should they pay school fees in the same country where their counterparts who are free are being given scholarships and bursary awards? How can they be reformed in that situation?

    “We found out there are situations where inmates who had been condemned to death are still languishing in the prisons simply because the governor of the state would not sign their death warrant. Countless inmates are there awaiting trial.”