Former President Robert Mugabe’s birthday, Feb. 21, is now a public holiday after the Zimbabwean Government gazetted it as Robert Gabriel Mugabe National Youth Day, the state-controlled media reported on Monday.
The designation of the day as a public holiday comes after the government adopted the decision in August following intense lobbying by the ruling ZANU-PF Youth League.
The day has been previously commemorated as the 21st February Movement by the party in celebration of the principles and ideals of the former president.
The party youths pushed for the birthday to be declared a holiday in recognition of Mugabe’s efforts in empowering the youths.
Mugabe resigned on Nov. 21 after military and public pressure, ending his 37 year stay in power.
Twelve of the 30 pioneer medical students of the University of Abuja ( UNIABUJA ), who enrolled in 2005, failed their final examinations, an official has said.
Mr Waziri Garba, Deputy Registrar UNIABUJA in charge of Information and Publications, made this known in an interview in Abuja on Monday.
He said that results of the students’ final professional examinations, released on Nov. 24, showed that five of the 18 successful medical students passed with distinction in surgery.
Garba said that the 18 successful students would be inducted on Dec. 2.
According to him, the induction is significant since the students were the first set.
“The induction ceremony, which will hold at the main campus of the university, will feature a lecture by a renowned member of the medical profession, Prof. Adetokumbo Ademola.
“Ademola is a Professor of Public Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology,’’ he said.
Garba said that the pioneer Provost of the University’s College of Health Sciences, Prof. Jam Otubu, would be honoured at the event.
NAN reports that the pioneer medical students could not graduate all the while due to non-accreditation the university’s medicine and surgery course, by the National Universities Commission.
The course has, however, secured full accreditation.
The then Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, in April 2012, announced suspension of medicine, agriculture, veterinary medicine and engineering courses in the university, after a panel set up to assess needs of universities visited the institution.
The students had sometimes staged peaceful protests against their continued stay in school, demanding to be transferred to other universities.
Auchi Polytechnic staff on Monday said they had implicit confidence that the acting Rector, Dr Sanusi Jimah, would redeem his pledge to liquidate arrears of the inherited N1.8 billion owed to unions at the institution.
The three unions in the institution in March, suspended their month-old strike following an inaugural meeting with Jimah over the outstanding indebtedness of N1.8 billion owed to the unions by the previous administration of Dr Philipa Idogo.
The unions include: the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics ( ASUP ), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics ( SSANIP ) and the Non Academic Staff union of Polytechnics ( NASUP ).
Some nine months since his assumption of office, the leadership of the unions, who described the acting Rector as “a man with a progressive heart,’’ confirmed that he had commenced the process of liquidating the outstanding debt.
In telephone interviews in Benin, the union leaders, who commended Jimah’s policies and programmes, expressed implicit confidence in his leadership style.
ASUP chairman, Mr Justin Momodu, said “I must say that all three unions have been enjoying a very cordial relationship with the acting Rector.
“He has treated workers’ welfare with utmost priority, often times, even a step ahead of us.
“For instance, even before we asked, he had tabled the issue of some of our sacked members before the Polytechnic’s Council.
“Council granted the union’s appeal for their recall, and those recalled, who already attained retirement age, had their full benefits restored.
“WIth a management that has Jimah as acting Rector, at its helm, workers do not have cause to complain or nurse any fear.
“May I add that for now, workers have implicit confidence in his leadership style,’’ he said.
SSANIP chairman, Mr Godwin Ikhide, confirmed that “following management’s agreement with the unions, the acting Rector has paid five per cent of the outstanding N1.8 billion owed to them by the previous management.
“We are glad that he is fulfiling his commitment on his agreement with the unions. What happened was that the previous management, instead of remitting workers’ deducted funds to the union’s welfare account, was re-circulating it to pay staff whose employments were neither approved nor cash-backed.
“This was what accumulated in two years to N1.8 billion, which the previous management left behind.
“But the acting Rector is trying to liquidate this debt with internally generated revenue and is also taking steps to regularise the issue of unapproved employment of staff that has put the institution into this quagmire,’’ he said.
NAN reports that members of ASUP are now on a nationwide strike, to demand for the enrolment of their members into CONTISS 15 migration salary structure for levels 11 downwards, and the payment of their promotion arrears.
The Secretary of the Nigeria Traditional Boxing Premier League, Ahmed Jada, said on Monday that Sokoto State would host the fourth edition of the traditional boxing tournament next month.
Jada made this known in Abuja that the tournament would hold at the Trade Fair Complex on Old Airport Road in Sokoto.
He said the event was earlier scheduled to hold from Dec. 7 to Dec. 10 but was shifted to Dec. 14 to Dec. 17, due to some circumstances.
He said that the tournament was previously billed to hold in Kebbi but was moved to Sokoto, due to unavailability of venue in Kebbi.
“Everything has been put in place to start the fourth event of the year; the competition will go round the eight participating states.
“The first phase was held in Kastina State in August, Ogun State hosted the second phase in September; Kaduna State hosted the third phase in November and now Sokoto State is hosting the fourth phase.
“Kano State won the trophy in Katsina and Kaduna, the battle is open for other participating states to win the trophy.
“This is the best way to propagate the game in the country, we are working hard to meet the international standards of the game in Nigeria.’’
He said that the league started with eight states – Katsina, Niger, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Ogun and the FCT.
He said that funding had been the major challenge of the league, pleading that the federation needed support from government and private companies.
Oyo State High Court 1, Ringroad, Ibadan, has sentenced an accused husband killer, Yewande Oyediran, to seven years imprisonment for finding her guilty of the death of her husband.
The term is to run from the day of her arrest.
The court which held that although, evidences showed that she was responsible for the death of her husband, none of the witnesses was about to establish the intent of the accused or described seeing her commit the crime.
It however noted that the killing was done without intent going by the fact that the couple were married at the time of the incident.
The accused was alleged to have stabbed her late husband, Lowo Oyediran, on February 2, 2016 at their number 30, Adeniyi Layout, Abidi-odan, Akobo, Ibadan residence, following a misunderstanding that broke out late in the night
Yewande was arraigned on a lone count charge of allegedly killing her husband with knife.
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 316 and punishable under section 319 of the laws of Oyo State.
The accused however pleaded not guilty to the charge when the count was read to her in court.
The Court presided over by Chief Justice Muntar Abimbola who earlier apologised to the court for deferring the judgement initially slated for Friday, said other official engagement at the Nigerian Judicial Commission necessitated the postponement of the judgement till Monday
Noting that the incident was a fall out of a spontaneous fight between the couple, the court said none of the witnesses was able to establish the case of intent in the incident that led to the injury that caused the death.
Justifying the reason for the sentence, the judge maintained that there was no need for a second attack on the deceased as given by the oral evidences of the witnesses.
According to the judge, the witnesses had told the court that there had been an initial attacked where Yewande was said to have stabbed the late husband with scissors but that the matter was settled before the one that led to the death of the deceased couples of hours later.
Details later……
Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, on Monday, said his administration had given more than N15 billion loans to 350, 000 people in the state, especially women, in the last seven years.
Aregbesola made this disclosure in a state-wide broadcast in Osogbo to mark his seventh anniversary in office.
The governor said his administration had also engaged more than 40,000 youths in public works through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme ( OYES ).
“Most of them eventually got soft-landing in teaching, agriculture, information and communication technology among other others.
“For this reason, the incidents of crimes have drastically reduced in the state”.
In the area of education, Aregbesola said his administration had constructed 20 elementary schools, 22 middle schools and 11 high schools.
“In addition, we rehabilitated existing schools and created a decent environment for learning.
“We have, for more than five years, been feeding 262,000 elementary school pupils with nutritious meals. We also gave free uniforms to all pupils in public schools”.
On agriculture, the governor said his administration had provided assistance to farmers, sent peasant farmers on training abroad and laid the foundation for agriculture to boom.
He also said that in the last seven years, his administration had constructed more than 1,500 kilometres of roads in the nooks and crannies of the state.
The governor said his administration also given protection and succour to the elders, by giving them access to health care as well as put them on a monthly allowance.
“We took care of the destitute and the mentally challenged by giving them medical care, rehabilitated them and resettled or reunited them with their families.
“We have come and seen the challenges and conquered poverty, ignorance, disease and fear of the known and unknown these seven years”.
“In the remaining one year, I will be committed to the service of the people; to accelerate the pace of development and increase our efforts at ushering in prosperity in the state,” he added.
In the wake of immersive journalism, otherwise called 360 journalism, there have been calls on Journalists on the need to begin to employ multimedia tools and data in their storytelling to tell important stories in new ways.
Facilitators comprising multimedia journalists, IT and tech experts made this plea at a training session tagged “Hacks/Hacker Lagos,” organised by Code for Nigeria, a member of the continental Code for Africa federation.
Code for Nigeria on using storytelling
The training which attracted print and broadcast journalists as well as Mass Communication undergraduates from the University of Lagos ( UNILAG ) and Lagos State University ( LASU ) held on Saturday at Civic Hub, Yaba, Lagos.
Yemisi Adegoke, a multimedia journalist and documentary film urged journalists to intensify efforts at building their capacity in research and investigation in order to tell unique stories.
Noting that investigative journalism helped to unravel the problems confronting our society, she said it was imperative for journalists to use modern technologies to their advantage in proffering sustainable solutions.
Flourish Chukwurah, a freelance multimedia journalist noted that immersive storytelling is the future of journalism saying it was high time journalists keyed into the idea.
“We must begin to demonstrate this new form of journalism as well as significant technical, storytelling, ethical and cultural challenges that immersive storytelling – from 360 degree video to VR - present to journalists and media organizations.”
“Journalists must be equipped with engaging narrative techniques, video editing skill, and ethics among others.”
She urged media organizations to in teaching learning and teaching of multimedia journalism.
“At this point, the media should facilitate online and in-person workshops, events and trainings to encourage more journalists, journalism educators and newsrooms to use tools available from various technology platforms to explore emerging forms of visual storytelling and to engage users,” she said.
Speaking on How to Use Data in Story, Blaise Aboh, a Code for Nigeria Innovation fellow, said journalists need to double efforts at probing government functionaries and corporate institutions on the data they provide to the public.
Noting that journalists are provided with abundant repository of data online, Aboh urged journalists to always verify and validate data before publishing their stories to ensure open data and open government system.
He said, “There is need to change the power dynamics that govern our society, giving ordinary citizens more and deeper information in real time, along with digital tools for engaging citizens and with those in positions of power.”
He added that journalists should go beyond the data generated by the government and explore more repositories of data in the course of discharging their constitutional duty.
The country lead for Code for Nigeria, Nkechi Okwuone, noted that the goal of the training was to build capacity and expand the community of media and technology professionals.
She said the organization would continue to help journalists explore opportunities and combat the challenges 21st century through the evolving form of journalism.
She added that Code for Africa seeks to empower active citizenry and strengthen civic watchdogs to help government shape and improve its services to citizens.
“Our goal is to bring experience supporting communities of journalists committed to learning and exploring how technology can strengthen reporting and storytelling,” she said.
Nigeria Referees Association ( NRA ) has fixed Dec. 4 for the commencement of fitness test for referees and match assessors nationwide.
The test is to be conducted at the National Stadium in Abuja.
The General-Secretary of the NRA, Moroof Oluwa, made the disclosure in an interview in Abuja on Monday.
Oluwa said the fitness test was imperative for healthier and better officiating of matches.
He said that the physical test, which would be preceded by medical tests, would be done in batches of north and south groups.
“All Premier League referees from the southern states are to report for medical test on Dec. 3; undertake physical test on Dec. 4 and seminar on Dec. 5 and Dec.6.
“Northern states would do their medical test on Dec.5 and undertake physical fitness test on Dec. 6 while seminar would be Dec. 7 and Dec. 8 for them,” he said.
It can be recalled that the Nigeria Football Federation had postponed the fitness test, scheduled earlier for Nov. 6 indefinitely on medical grounds.
A final year student of law was at the weekend shot dead with many others injured in Bayelsa State following a bloody clash that broke out in an election organised by the National Association of Nigerian Students ( NANS ).
It was gathered that the election, which was held in Otuoke, the hometown of former President Goodluck Jonathan, snowballed into a cult war as students fight with assorted rifles, machetes and other weapons.
