The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Senior

  • Senior Advocate ordained

    Senior Advocate ordained

    A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), John Olusola Baiyeshea, has been ordained a Reverend of United Missionary Church of Africa (UMCA) in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. The former counsel of University of Ilorin and three others, David Abolarin, Samuel Adesina and Sola Babatunde, were chosen as priests in a colourful ceremony.

    Baiyeshea described their choice to serve as “a matter of absolute privilege for us”.

    The newly ordained reverends were senior pastors of the church.

    Before performing the ordination, President of UMCA, Rev Paul Awojobi urged members of the congregation that was predisposed to any secret sins that could disqualify then would-be reverends to come up with such.

    Rev Awojobi added that ordained child of God should “not be self-willed; not so angry; not giving to wine; not a striver; not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality; a lover of good measure; sober; just; holy and temperate.”

    In his message entitled: “I will build my church,” the guest lecturer, Rev Sunday Chini said their ordination was meant to assist in the building of the church.

    Admonishing the new reverends, Rev. Chini said that ministry work is not avenue to amass wealth, but opportunity for the extending the frontiers of the kingdom of God on earth.

    “If you are concerned about the church you will relate with all members equally. Jesus Christ came into this world because of the church. Everyman that wants peace in his life should not take any step that will trouble the church. But if you are looking for confusion and challenges in life then begin to take step to affect the church negatively,” the lecturer said.

    Responding on behalf of his colleagues, the Ilorin-based lawyer said in the reckoning of man they were the least qualified.

    His words: “On behalf of my colleagues and our wives, I stand here for the first time after our ordination to address the congregation of the people. Beyond that it is a period of very sober reflection for us. We just imagine ourselves coming into the church; hide in some corner just to worship God; jump out after service and go to our houses. Come again next Sunday make be during the week if there is programme you come again.

    “Just quietly hideaway and go; but God said no. We don’t know how it happened. God is awesome and He just used his people to fish us out from our hiding places and bring us where we are today. The journey really started seven years ago. It is what God orders that He makes all through. So we have become reverends by his will not by our own qualifications at all. Because, if it were so we wouldn’t have been considered at all. As there are by far several more qualified people on ground, but God has chosen to visit us.

    “Our response majorly and mainly is to appreciate God in our lives and in the life of the congregation. We want to thank you all for your patient and waiting since morning.

    We acknowledge the presence of our lord Jesus Christ in the order of the church and who has assured us that he would build the church and the gate of hell will never be able to prevail.

    Actually, one thing I would have taken away from the occasion of today is that whereas some people may wear their own promotion on their shoulders wherever they go by way of pride to showcase their pride all over the place. Our own is hanging on our throats. In fact, it is hanging on our necks, but I know by his grace and your prayers we shall not be strangulated.

    We want to thank our elders and leaders of faith; people whom God has used ahead of time to go ahead of us as good examples for us to follow.

    “We were privileged to be trained for five years at the theological college. That is the most difficult aspect of the training we ever had in all the schools we attended. Professors, engineers and lawyers are there but not enough for that place.

    We needed to put that aside. Not because you are a lawyer and a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN). When you get there you will discover that there is more than the position you carry. We thank you for supporting and raising us.”

  • 48 senior officers, others conclude course

    48 senior officers, others conclude course

    Forty-eight senior non-commissioned officers (SNCOs) and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) from the three services of the Armed Forces at the weekend completed the highest clerical staff duty course in Jaji, Kaduna State.

    The Commandant of the college, Air Vice-Marshal John Chris Ifemeje, urged them to always protect Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

    He stressed the need for the officers to further build on their knowledge, adding that the more enlightened they were, the more efficient they would function.

    Ifemeje said: “As supervisors, chief clerks and personal assistants, it is important to know that your superiors will depend on the knowledge you have gained here and, sometimes, the lives of your colleagues and innocent citizens of this country would depend on the decisions you make.”

  • Senior civil servants shut Unity schools

    Senior civil servants shut Unity schools

    The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has shut the 104 Federal Government Colleges.

    This followed a nationwide strike embarked on by education officers in the Federal Ministry of Education and the Inspectorate departments under the association’s umbrella, to prevail on the Federal Government to pay them their salary and promotion arrears.

    In a statement in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, at the weekend, signed by the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, ASCSN said the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Education and the Inspectorate departments would also be shut from today.

    “The issues in dispute include but not limited to the non-payment of outstanding promotion arrears from 2007 to 2010 and the balance of 2011 promotion arrears, promotion arrears from 2012 to 2013, unpaid workers’ salaries for July, August, September, and October 2013, end-of-year incentives, non-payment of the first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, 2010 Head of Service-organised mandatory training allowance, repatriation allowance, duty tour allowance, non-placement of promoted officers, etc,” the union said.

    It said the Federal Ministry of Education admitted that N1.8 billion was released to it this year to settle liabilities including salaries and allowances.

    ASCSN wondered if the money had entered into a “voice mail” as usual.

    “On August 20, the leadership of the union met the permanent secretary and other top officials of the ministry and they promised that arrears of promotion would be paid on or before August 31.

    “However, the leadership gave the ministry till September 12 to effect the payment,” the statement said.

    The union noted that when it became apparent that the ministry had not started paying promotion arrears and outstanding salaries , the national leadership of the association wrote a letter, including a reminder to their last  agreement.

    It said the  ministry fixed a meeting with  the association for September 17 at 12pm.

    “When the leadership turned up for the meeting at the headquarters of the ministry, neither the minister, the permanent secretary nor any top ministry official was available,” ASCSN added.

  • Council fetes senior citizens

    They came gaily dressed in white lace and beautiful head gears. For the men, it was a locally sewn blue cap; the women had a pink head gear known to the locals as gele of the same fabric. Something else was common to all of them; they were old men and women, the least, being 60 years old. They had all congregated at the events centre of the Ifako Ijaiye Local Government Area, where the wife of the council chairman Pastor (Mrs) Modupe Oke and her husband, Oloruntoba had thought it fit to celebrate them as part of the activities marking the World Aged Day.

    It wasn’t really the first time they had been so gathered. They had been gathering monthly for the past three years. Their coming together then was financed solely by a midwife, Mrs. Folorunso Lawal, who had been transferred to another council. Mrs. Oke adopted the initiative and continued from where she stopped; ensuring that the elderly meet monthly in a relaxed atmosphere, undergo light exercises to improve their health and give them health tips as well as check their vital signs.

    That was not all, Mrs. Oke ensures they get appropriate drugs and food such as wheat, sugar and salt as well as groundnut oil.

    But the recent event was different. The crowd of the elderly that came was way above the number that usually showed up monthly. Not less than 1,000 of them came, as a council official said they had to get names of more aged from the various Community Development Associations, (CDAs), wards, and community leaders.

    Oke, who confirmed this, said the council had taken the step to ensure that as many elderly as possible were feted at the ceremony which marked a day set aside globally to draw attention to issues affecting them in the society.

    The chairman, who expressed happiness at seeing most of them in good health, thanked God for preserving them, even as he praised his wife for having a thought for the aged.

    He said celebrating the elderly on a day set aside globally to draw attention to their plight, is a very good way of giving back to those who have laboured in their youth, adding that the celebration further underscored his administration’s determination to ensure that their labours were never forgotten.

    He added that though the welfare of the aged had been a major item of his campaign, he had been unable to kick-start the welfare package he had due to “paucity of funds.”

    He said: “Most of you would remember that the welfare of the aged had been one of the major items on my campaign for this office. However, we have not been able to start what we had in store due to the state of account of the council; but we cannot continue to be moaning our circumstances. If care is not taken, we may not get anything done if we continue on that path as we would be marking our second year in office soon. That is why we decided to buy into this event this year and begin what we had in store for the elderly.”

    Oke, therefore, announced the take-off of a N2, 000 monthly welfare package for all aged in the council area beginning from November.

    “Let me assure you all here today that this council, beginning from November, will give the sum of N2,000 to our aged as part of our welfare packages. This is in addition to our regular food, drugs, and check-up which would continue on a monthly basis. We would continue to give them drugs, food items, and look after their general welfare. But, in addition to all these, we shall be giving them N2, 000,” Oke added.

    Though admitting the amount might be small, Oke said the council will, at no time, give anything lower than N2,000, even as he said his office already has a register of about 2,000 people that would benefit from the scheme.

    “What we intend to do is that every month, precisely on the 10th of every month, those whose names are already on our register would receive an alert and would be promptly paid anytime they come to our office,” the council chief further added.

    In her welcome address, Mrs Modupe said she took over the initiative as part of her determination to give back to the aged for their service and as one who is also “looking forward to getting to that age someday.”

    She said her non-government organisation – Nightingale Care of the Aged has been gathering these elderly together once a month under a congenial atmosphere in order to counsel them and take their vital signs while a medical doctor is always on hand to give them health tips. She said this has helped greatly in ensuring that many of them continue to be in good health, even as they are given wheat among other light food items.

    “For over one year, the Nightingale Care of the Aged has attended to the needs of over 800 senior citizens through its monthly meetings. The meeting, it must be stated, has afforded the NGO the opportunity to constantly interface with our aged people where issues bothering on their well-being such as health, nutritional advice, health exercises are given attention, while food items are also given to them free,” she said.

    She said her group’s commitment to the care of the aged is further underscored by this year’s theme: “Say no to Discrimination of the Elderly,” even as she urged more individuals and groups to show more concern to the aged. She praised the council for buying into the initiative and giving more vive to the event through the introduction of the welfare package.

    The Special Adviser to the council chairman Elder Ezekiel Ojo who also doubles as the council’s coordinator of the elderly, said no fewer than 2,000 elderly people would be accommodated by the scheme, even as he disclosed that the number would be continuously reviewed to accommodate as many as could be found residing in the council.

    “That amount looks small, but it certainly cannot be lower, and if this can go on for the next four years, it would have gone a long way in adding to the economy of these indigent people,” Ojo said.

    He said the chairman decided to introduce monetary package to further cushion the effects of the economy on the aged most of whose children are still battling with unemployment.

    Dr. Anthony Ewodage took time to educate the elderly on what to do to avoid high blood pressure and diabetes, two diseases he described as “silent killers.”

    He advised the reduction in the consumption of salt, alcohol and drug abuse, even as he encouraged regular exercises, including strolling, walking or jogging, as well as regular check up of blood pressure at least twice a month for anyone above the age of 60.

    The health instructor for the aged Mr Olumide Bello praised Mrs. Oke for sustaining the care of the elderly, adding that the monthly meeting where these people gather and often do light exercises had gone a long way in improving the health conditions of many aged people in the council.

    One of the beneficiaries Venerable Lawrence Ogunsipe, thanked the council for taking a major step in the welfare of the aged.

    Ogunsipe, 74, and a former teacher of the council chairman said the package would go a long way in making life better for majority of the elderly who looked up to nothing and had never benefitted from the government.

  • Senior lawyers lament delay in justice administration

    The Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria yesterday decried what it described as the delay in the country’s administration of justice process.

    It called for urgent measures to reverse the trend and ensure quick and efficient justice delivery system.

    Louis Mbanefo (SAN), who represented the body at an event in Lagos, also condemned a practice whereby lawyers are only informed in courts on the date scheduled for the hearing of cases that the courts are not sitting.

    He spoke at a valedictory court service held in honour of the retiring Justice Gloria Okeke of the Federal High Court.

    Mbanefo said the practice whereby lawyers would not be notified that their cases would not go on must stop.

    He appealed to judges of the Federal High Court to endeavour to notify counsel in the event that the court would not sit.

    Lagos State Attorney-General, Ade Ipaye, decried a situation where judges are criticised in the media because of the judgments they deliver.

    He said: “In the event that a party loses at the trial court, or a decision is not what the public or press expects, the practice of castigating judges in the media must be deprecated.

    “They must be left to take their decisions as they feel it should be done. After all, this is why the appellate courts are there. The point is that every commentary that tends to denigrate the judiciary drags our society downwards. Loss of faith in the judiciary may be the beginning of the loss of this civilisation, which we hold so dear.”

    Goodwill messages were presented by eminent people including the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta; Attorney-General of Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN); Chair, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Lagos, Taiwo Taiwo; and Chair, NBA Ikeja branch, Monday Ubani.

    They eulogised the retiring judge, praising her sterling qualities.