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Tag: laurels

  • Winners get laurels at awards

    Winners get laurels at awards

    Continental Reinsurance Plc, has announced the winners of the 10th Pan-African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards in Cape Town, South Africa. The event coincided with the company’s 10th CEO Summit, marking a decade of recognising journalistic excellence in the re/insurance industry.

    Patrick Alushula of Nation Media Group (Kenya) has been named the Overall Winner, also clinching the English Print Category Award for his incisive article that provides a strong analysis of the rising cybercrime risks in Kenya and the growing adoption of cyber insurance.

    Patrick’s article, titled “Data privacy penalties’ pain fuels uptake of cyber insurance,” also earned him the Overall Winner Award.

    For the English Broadcast Category, Blessing Enebeli – Voice of Nigeria (Nigeria) emerged the winner. Her compelling report on the impact of fuel subsidy removal on health insurance in Oyo State was lauded for its clarity, depth, and engaging storytelling.

    Read Also: Ogun: A governor’s many laurels

    Congratulating all winners and entrants, the Group CEO of Continental Re Holdings, Lawrence Nazare, stated, “The 2025 awards mark our decade of celebrating journalistic talent and excellence within the re/insurance industry. This milestone reinforces our long-standing commitment to advancing quality reporting and raising awareness about the value of insurance across the continent.”

    At the awards  all winners received certificates, cash prizes, trophies, and recognition for their outstanding contributions in bringing critical insurance-related issues to the forefront across the continent.

    Speaking at the event, Chief Judge, Michael Wilson commented: “This year’s entries showcased impressive diversity, covering everything from core areas like motor, health, and agriculture insurance to emerging themes such as AI, cyber insurance, insuretech, and ESG. We also saw insightful reporting on travel, pet, political violence, and gender-focused insurance. This breadth reflects not only the dynamism of the re/insurance industry but also journalism’s vital role in making these topics accessible and relevant across Africa.’’

  • Victorious UNILORIN debate team presents laurels to VC

    Members of the Unilorin contingent that won the maiden Genesis Debate Tournament and the Tedder Hall Literacy Debate in Ghana have presented the trophy, cash prizes and plaque they won to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sulyman Age Abdulkareem.

    Presenting the team and the awards to the Vice-Chancellor in his office last Tuesday (January 16),  the Dean of Student Affairs, Prof. Tajudeen Ajibade, said the students surpassed their colleagues from other universities across sub-Sahara African countries because of their dedication and zeal for success.

    Ajibade, however, said the champions have dedicated the awards to the Vice-Chancellor, Principal Officers, Deans, Heads of Departments, staff and students of the better by far university.

    Receiving the team, Prof. Abdulkareem said he was excited and full of joy that the debate and quiz teams of the University of Ilorin were achieving such a wonderful feat.

    Prof. Abdulkareem said he liked the fact that University of Ilorin shone everywhere it went nationally and internationally.

    Describing the triple award as things of joy, he pledged his continuous support to the Quiz and Debate Committee to ensure it wins more laurels.

    On the team were the Sub-Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr. Alex Akanmu, the Head of the Unilorin Quiz and Debate Committee, Dr. R.O. Arise, the team’s coach, Mr. David Ejim, and a Students’ Affairs Officer, Mr. Ahmed Lawal.

    The maiden Genesis Debate tournament was an open tournament held between January 4 and 7, 2018 in Accra, Ghana. It featured undergraduate and postgraduate participants from Nigeria, Ghana and Mauritius. Also, the Tedder Hall Literacy Debate was the initiative of Tedder Hall Literacy and Debating Society, University of Ibadan.

    Members of the team included Omotayo Jimoh, Hawau Abikan, and Abolarin Muhammed.

    The students that won the Tedder Hall Literacy Debate are Adeyemo Ifedolapo and Kalejaiye Musa.

  • ‘How to win academic laurels’

    Members of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) chapter of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) have held a three-day rally to promote mutual understanding with Christians and other religious groups on the campus. The rally was part of the activities marking the society’s yearly Week.

    Its Amir, Muhibdeen Bolakale, said the outreach was necessary to sensitise members of the university community on the need to promote peaceful coexistence and encourage interactions among religious groups.

    He stressed the need for love, oneness and tolerance, saying adherents of all religions were created by one God.

    The event tagged: Jihad Fisabilillah and general misconceptions in Islam, attracted participants from many institutions in the Southeast.

    Receiving the MSSN members in his office, the society’s Staff Adviser, Shuaibu Abdulahi, urged them to turn to Allah in times of despair and in repentance. He charged the students to elevate their spiritual life, adding that hard work and prayers remained the way to achieve  academic laurels.

    Abdulahi also advised the students to uphold teachings of Islam and perform its obligations. Religious harmony, he said, would be entrenched on the campus if the students show their colleagues the beauty of Islam through their attitude and deeds.

    As part of activities marking the event, the MSSN students held sanitation and cleaned up notable places on campus. They also visited the school hostels to meet Christian colleagues in discussion to promote peace. The event featured a lecture on Islamic view management by Abdul Mu’min Issah.

    Other highlights included medical outreach and award presentation.

     

  • Winning more sporting laurels

    President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement last month hinted of a strong bond between him and football as he declared that football loves him.

    His claim was not only based on the laurels won in the round leather game under his administrations as a military Head of State and as a civilian President, but also because of the awards that came his way for championing a leadership that supported sports.

    Buhari was conferred with the Glo/Confederation of African Football (CAF) Platinum Award for Good Leadership in December.

    It will not be out of place here to remind Mr. President that it is not only football that loves him but all the sporting events in the country.

    Under his administration as a military Head of State, Nigeria won the maiden edition of the Under-17 World Cup in China in 1985.

    Also under his administration as a civilian President in the last eight months, the country has started to receive global and continental laurels in various sporting events.

    In 2015, Nigeria won the Under-17 World Cup in Chile,  the Under-23 African Cup of Nations in Senegal, and Afro-Basketball Tournament in Tunisia.

    Athletes in other various sporting events also won laurels for the country at major championships in the year 2015.

    But different administrations over the years have handled such victorious athletes in various ways including honouring them with Presidential handshake and or monetary and other gifts.

    Besides various gifts for the athletes from the Federal Government, some state governments and the private sector had also announced different gift for them, individually or collectively in the past.

    Such gifts will go a long way to boost their morale and make them go all out to win more laurels for the country in the future.

    It will also show that the government is not paying lip service but actually rewarding hardwork and dedication to the country.

    The gifts and encouragement will also continue to spur upcoming athletes to achieve greater performances.

    Indirectly, the gifts will make Nigeria never to be short of supply of talented youths that will make Nigeria second to none in all global and continental sporting events.

    It is also good for the athletes to get whatever they can get out of sports while still active as there are many cases where injured and permanently disabled athletes were abandoned and left to carry their cross after sustaining the injuries.

    Under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s civilian administration, the athletes who won laurels for the country got presidential handshake, some of them also got shares and houses.

    The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan who had many laurels and achievements to show in sports handled the athletes in his own style.

    Besides presidential handshakes, Jonathan timely host and announced financial and material gifts for victorious sports men and women.

    Apart from elaborate presidential reception for the athletes, Jonathan also did not fail to encourage state governments and the private sector to toe the path of the Federal Government by doing something tangible for the athletes.

    President Buhari, no doubt, is not new to the terrain and last week Thursday announced N2 million gift for each Golden Eaglets player that won the maiden edition of the FIFA Under-17 World Championship in China 31 years ago.

    Even though he also announced various cash gifts for players and athletes who excelled in 2015, some sports analysts have noted that they were far below what similar athletes got in cash and kind, especially under the last administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

    They couldn’t be far from the truth as President Buhari himself noted during the Presidential reception that the financial resources of Nigeria have been dwindling since last year.

    While oil prices in the international market were mostly above $100 per barrel under Jonathan, the prices have crashed as low as $34 per barrel under Buhari.

    “Hence what we are offering you today, is not payment or compensation for winning laurels for your country, rather, it is a token of appreciation for your efforts and patriotism while competing for your fatherland.” he told the athletes.

    The players and athletes at the old Banquet Hall of the State House last Thursday, no doubt, understood that they would have gotten more from the government if the economy was doing well.

    Even though there is need for improved funding of sporting infratructures and athletes’ training to ensure Nigeria remains at the top of global and continental competitions in sporting events, more definitely needs to be done to encourage sporting men and women to give their ‘all’ to sports.

    This is not to say that the athletes should not be proud and consider themselves fortunate to be selected. And be part of those to wear the Nigeria’s green-white-green outfit at national and international competitions.

     

    Armed Forces

    Remembrance in style

    The January 15th Armed Forces Remembrance Day is a day most leaders in the country often look forward to.

    The annual ritual gives the leaders opportunity to honour and lay wreaths in remembrance of soldiers who have died in service in Nigeria and during international engagements abroad.

    The day is also dedicated to appreciating surviving Nigerian military men who have retired from active service.

    President Muhammadu Buhari, who honoured the heroes for the first time on the 15th of January, 2016 as a democratically elected President of Nigeria, did it in style.

    Past Presidents normally inspect guards of honour, lay wreath, sign register, and release white pigeons before departing the National Arcade venue of the ceremony at the Three Arms Zone in Abuja.

    The leaders don’t make speeches during the duration of the ceremony.

    But Buhari, a fortnight ago, introduced a new dimension to the ceremony.

    After releasing the white pigeons, Buhari inspected a military technology known as the Eagle Mobile Command Post where he was linked to troops at the war fronts in Borno State.

    Through the technology, Buhari watched soldiers live on a device and spoke with the officers who in turn briefed him on the operation.

     

  • ‘How Kwara can win more laurels at Qu’ran contest’

    ‘How Kwara can win more laurels at Qu’ran contest’

    The Kwara State government has been urged to support its contingent to subsequent edition of the yearly Qur’anic Memorisation Competition to enable them perform better.

    Alhaji Abdulsalam Ayilara said in Ilorin, the state capital, that such support would boost the contingent’s morale.

    Ayilara urged the government to set up Quran memorisation centres with facilities as obtained in other northern states.

    He noted that the success of the state contingent’s to last year’s competition was due to prayers.

    He lamented the half-hearted support the committee has received from successive administrations over the years, adding that such support was incapable of winning any laurels at the just-concluded National Qur’an Memorisation Competition in Jigawa State.

    Speaking at the presentation of prizes to the contingent who won laurels at the competition, Ayilara said the committee “relied on Allah and prayers” for the representatives to excel at the competition, which Kaduna State won.

    He said: “The kind of support we get during our preparation for the competition cannot win laurels.”

    Ayilara, who donated an apartment of his house for camping of the participants, said that those who won laurels deserved better support from government and individuals.

    The state coordinator of the Qur’an recitation committee, Alhaji Waliullahi Kamal, regretted that the committee had not received attention it deserves since inception 28 years ago.

    He urged the government to redeem its pledge of an Arabic board.

    The Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Alhaji Saka Onimago, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Alhaji Abdulhamid Alabi said the participants had done the state proud despite the little support they received.

    In the memorisation of two-third of the Quran and two hizbs categories, two of the participants, Sodiq Atolagbe and Hajarat imam-Fulani from Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state took first and second positions respectively. Each won a Hyundai car.

    They are also to represent Nigeria at the International Quran Recitation Committee billed for October in Saudi Arabia, even as they will benefit from the scholarship scheme of the Jigawa State governor Alhaji Sule Lamido whose state hosted the competition.

  • Orji’s harvest of laurels

    One of the supreme ironies of freedom and comfort is the tendency to quickly forget the unbearable conditions and the ugly past that hitherto pervaded the socio-political landscape; which necessitated and triggered emancipation struggles. At the time Governor T.A. Orji took over the reins of governance, Abia was on the bottom rung of the ladder of nation’s politics. The run-of-the-mill performance of his predecessor equally complicated matters.

    A major challenge that faced his administration was the issue of insecurity. Abia’s ugly experience and the fine sense of operational strategies adopted to stem the tide became a cloud with a silver lining. At the peak of the first tenure of Governor T.A. Orji, kidnappings and other violent crimes shook the state to its foundation. Abia hit the headlines as hotbed of heinous crimes.  In fact, well-to-do individuals and top government officials became ready targets for kidnappings. Banks were shut down during the peak of business hours especially in Aba, the commercial nerve-centre. Ostentatious living became a liability. Those who had the means relocated from Aba and Ukwa-Ngwa axis, where the hydra-headed monster loomed large and appeared intractable. Security agencies lost some of their field men who were confronted with assorted and sophisticated weapons of the bandits.

    But the nasty scenario reached a climax when a group of school children were kidnapped on their way to the school in a school bus. As would be expected, the already battered image of the state got messier nationally and internationally. The water-boarding of Abia security apparatus by the bare-faced test of government might occasioned by the abduction of innocent school children prompted a re-jig of security measures.

    Governor Orji acquired over 100 patrol vehicles with modern security and information gadgets, and distributed them to all security formations in the state. In an unprecedented manner, security officials were provided with logistics and mouth-watering motivational packages that boosted their morale in tackling the menace of kidnapping.

    The healthy working relationship between Abia State government and the Federal Government played a key role in restoring normalcy in the troubled zone. The military was drafted to clean up the Augean stables. The barracks long abandoned in Ohafia, a sub-urban area of the state, was renovated by the state government and this brought about a restoration of the military base with a full complement of artillery brigade. The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Onyeabor Ihejirika, who is a son of the soil, collaborated finely with Governor Orji in mobilizing the military to flush out the kidnapping gangsters.

    The flashpoints were cordoned off while the thick forests that served as temporary abode for the kidnappers were ransacked by the courageous men of Nigerian Army. Peace automatically returned to the besieged area as the perpetrators took to their heels. Not leaving anything to chances, strategic points in the state have since been manned with Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and combat-ready soldiers and policemen, to contain any threat of resurgence of the violent crimes. Abia has since acquired the status of investors’ haven as its security architecture in now a model.

    The main lesson from Abia State security experience is that with right leadership, agility, rationality, political will and striking of healthy alliances with appropriate institutions, no socio-economic nay political challenge can remain insurmountable. Abia is today showered with encomiums on account of her feat in security tending. It was therefore not surprising that the Security Watch Africa in Ghana festooned Governor Orji with the award of the Best Governor on Security Matters in Nigeria in 2012.

    Interestingly enough, the management of two reputable national media houses, Daily Champion and Daily Independent Newspapers considered and festooned Governor Orji with the awards of Icon of Democracy in 2012 and Man of the Year Award in 2013 respectively.

    The state government runs a tuition-free primary and secondary schools to enable the poor and the vulnerable groups to have access to formal education. The moribund State Scholarship Scheme was also reactivated by Governor Orji to assist brilliant but indigent students in the tertiary institutions at home and abroad. Through the State Youth Empowerment Scheme, Ochendo has equally provided job opportunities for hundreds of idle youths in the transport sector. Hundreds of vehicles (buses and cars) and tricycles are periodically given to the youths across the LGAs without any strings attached. This is besides the monthly payment of N15,000 stipends to about 4500 youths  in the state to cushion the harsh economic challenges of apprenticeship and studentship. In workers friendliness, it is needless to belabour the fact that Governor Orji, at the inception of his government promoted all cadres of workers to the next salary Grade Level and it is on record that Abia State pays the highest minimum wage in the country. But the greatest of these accomplishments is Governor Orji’s rare courage in yanking off the affairs of the state from a tiny cabal that held her by the jugular. Top government officials and political appointees are no longer emasculated with demonic oath-taking to extract subservience needed to service the over-bloated ego of a pocket tyrant with vaulting ambitions.

    Good governance indeed has no borders. Of course, with the sophistication of modern telecommunications that has shrunk our world to a global village, peoples across nations can access information from far places on a shoestring with just a click. Even the Ndigbo in Diaspora (USA) is not left in appreciating the giant strides of the present administration in the State. They gave Governor Orji an Excellence Award in Governance as a result of his pacesetting efforts at rebuilding Abia from the scratch and the preponderance of legacy projects. Abia is today a huge construction site: new office complexes, new government house, gigantic international conference centre, new court halls, e-library complex, new classroom blocks, network of roads, new modern markets and industrial clusters for SMEs and a robust policy of tackling youth unemployment.

    In appraising the modest efforts of the administration in building solid road infrastructure, the Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Works, Hon. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi and his team declared during their oversight visit to Abia that the only standard federal roads in Abia are the ones rehabilitated by Governor Orji. Both the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal had equally commended Ochendo’s visionary leadership when they commissioned the new Amokwe Housing Estate and new office complex for the State Environmental Protection Agency respectively.

    Recently, the National Association of Optometrists gave Governor Orji the award of the Prime Ambassador of Health Care. His policies on health matters attracted the newest honour which include but not limited to the building of 250 primary health centres across the State, the building of Abia State Specialist and Diagnostic Centre with seven dialysis machines in Umuahia and Aba, renovation and upgrading of Amachara Specialist Hospital with new structures and doctors quarters; and the erection of nine 100-bed capacity hospitals at strategic locations in the three senatorial zones of the state. The Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu capped these endeavours by commissioning the new dialysis centre on July 22. The dialysis centre will drastically reduce the huge amount of money spent by Nigerians on medical tourism to India.

    It is indeed the wish of Abians that this momentum of good governance would be sustained to leapfrog the state from the pangs of underdevelopment.

    • Uche, a public affairs analyst wrote in from Isuochi, Abia State.