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Tag: SON

  • My shoe size is bigger than my father’s, but I’m nowhere near his feats -Yomi, Sunday Awoniyi’s son

    My shoe size is bigger than my father’s, but I’m nowhere near his feats -Yomi, Sunday Awoniyi’s son

    HE definitely would not be pleased that he lost his bid to return as the Deputy Governor of Kogi State in the last gubernatorial election in the state to an opposition party, Architect Yomi Awoniyi has nonetheless realised that it is not the end of the world. So the youthful looking third son of Chief Sunday Awoniyi, the First and Second republics politician and ebullient statesman, is looking beyond politics as he strives to find his feet in life outside government house.

    Although he did not come across to many as a man of the wits, sagacity and carriage of his late father upon his emergence on the political stage in Kogi State, his years in office as deputy governor has caused many to acknowledge his nature as an urbane gentleman who did not only inherit the political genes of his father but would in all probability toe the line of the political genius.

    Our correspondent caught up with him in the rural community of Iyah Gbede, Kogi State where he had gone to pay his last respects to the late mother of former military governor of the old Western State comprising the present Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Ekiti and Osun states, Gen. David Jemibewon. Here, the former deputy governor spoke about life after office, his lifestyle and other issues.

    First, we asked him if he is pleased with his experience in politics so far and if he considers himself capable of wearing the shoes his father left behind. After a deep thought about the question, he said jokingly: “My shoe size was bigger than my dad’s while he was alive. He wore size eight while I wear ten. So my shoes are much bigger.”

    Amid laughter, he continued: “But on a serious note, there is no way I can describe my father or even try to fit totally into his shoes, because the very essence of his being was very close to utopia for somebody like me! I wouldn’t even try to match that! He was indeed a very respectable man.”

    Urged further to elaborate on who his father really was, especially as it relates to the controversy on his father’s identity as a northerner or a southerner, Awoniyi looked up and declared: “My father was a northern Christian called Sunday Awoniyi, from a village down the road called Mopa. Having said so, I believe and want you to know that he was a major inspiration and influence in my life. He educated me, nurtured me, I think that he instilled some profound values in me, which have stood me in good stead in all my life.”

    Asked about life outside government house, he retorted: “Don’t I look a little more relaxed?” The smile that accompanied his question remained on his lips for some time before he continued. “There is actually nothing strange or different about being in power and being out of power. You go into power with a strong belief in the knowledge that one day you will leave the office. That, of course, is if you are wise enough to go into power with such a belief.

    “Yes, we are out of power right now. Yes again, we have battles that we are fighting at the Supreme Court. But having said that, I actually give thanks to God who took me in there and brought me out. I give thanks to God Almighty for giving me the benefit of having served at that level. It opened my eyes to so many things. My political horizon has been further deepened by serving as the Deputy Governor of Kogi State.”

    But doesn’t he miss the perks and perquisites of office?

    “No,” he retorted with a vehement shake of the head.

    What then is his message for the people of Kogi State?

    “I wish everybody well on my own, I cherish the respect that I am presently getting from having served at that level in the state. I have however reclaimed my private life. As you can see, I feel very well rested.”

    In the cool air that pervaded the serene atmosphere of the rather obscure Iyah Gbede community, we asked the former deputy governor about his mother and what influence she had on his life.

    He said: “Like any other mother, she has had a very profound influence on me. As you can see, I am really picky with my words and response about my mum because no one has ever asked me this question. My mum has been very humane to me; very loving, very accommodating and always wanting to carry everybody along. Oh yes, she is still very much around and alive. She is presently in Canada holidaying.”

    Considering his diction and the ease with which he spoke the English language, our correspondent was compelled to ask how much of his life he has spent abroad. It was another question he appeared not to have expected as he held his breath for a while before saying: “If you think I lived most of my life abroad, you are making a very big mistake. I schooled in Balewa College, Zaria and I studied Architecture at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I am a fully homely educated Nigerian.

    “My late father made it compulsory for us to listen to the BBC and to VOA while growing up, and you know when you listen much to radio, you definitely pick one or two things. But sincerely, I do not see anything strange about my accent at all. I am a thoroughbred Nigerian. It is just an evidence of what education was in my own time.”

    Does the current state of the education sector make him sad then?

    Again, he chose his words: “Yes, it does make me sad. I feel sad. Even after serving in Kogi State, I have come to realise that unless we come to reality, education cannot be free. We must pay tuition. That is because when education is free, it loses its content and quality. Our experience has shown that free education is not qualitative. When I see what our universities are charging as school fees, there is no way they can deliver.”

    Reminded that people are complaining that the private universities are charging bogus fees and asked if their operations should be regulated, he said: “No. I even think that the private universities are being considerate with what they charge. We should remember that education is not cheap. A university anywhere in the world charges about $35,000 per annum. But here in our universities, some of them charge N35,000 for the whole year.”

    Yomi’s father, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, was reputed as one of the longest serving politicians and public office holders since the First Republic. We asked Yomi if that translated to having a privileged background and why dad insisted that he should study in Nigeria.

    “I don’t think you are right there,” he said. “My father was just a civil servant. He was never a rich person. So the option of schooling abroad didn’t even exist. Secondly, when we went to school, believe me, Ahmadu Bello University was just as good as Oxford University. It was that good! I mean, most of my lecturers were expatriates from Poland, UK and education was very sound. It was later in life when it was time to do my master’s that my father said, ‘Okay, expose yourself to the UK.’ So I went to the University College of London.”

    As an educated handsome man with reasonable political clout, we asked the former deputy governor how he copes with pressure from the opposite sex. The question provoked him into serious laughter. Then he said: “I am very, very much married to a beautiful woman! I don’t have to be on my toes at all. In her, I already have everything I need. Right now, she is at the Redeemed Camp because this week is our church’s annual convention. If it wasn’t for General David Jemibewon’s event this week, I would have been right there by her side at the camp.”

    He further shared the joy of his sweet home and marital bliss.

    On how he met his wife, he said: “Our families have been friends for long. We had known ourselves for long too. Our families have been interacting too for a very long time. Incidentally, the day my mother met her mother, she was being christened. I was strapped on my mum’s back. They said that somebody from Kabba was christening her daughter. My mum went there, and when she saw her mother, she jokingly told the woman, ‘Omo mi lo maa fe omo yin o (it’s my son that will marry your daughter). Behold, those words became prophetic and it happened.

    Asked how his marriage has fared over the years, he replied in the mood of one who has found happiness and contentment. “It has been 29 years and it has been fantastic.”

    The former Deputy Governor took time to comment on the lots of marriages that have suffered breakages in recent times, offering advice to couples, young and old, on ways to keep their marriages going. He also seized the opportunity too to touch on the secrets that have sustained his marriage through the years.

    He said: “Married couples just have to be very patient with each other. For me, I pray that God gives every man enablement to be able to provide for their wives. That is my prayer for every man. That is, may God give you enablement, to be the provider for your family. Anybody who tells you that the ability to provide for the family is not fundamental to marriage is just deceiving you.

    “Having said so, it is very good and helpful to have a wife who understands, because life is like this, today you are up and the next day you could be down. May God give you the patience and may God give you a wife who is very forgiving.”

    Since Yomi Awoniyi attends The Redeemed Christian Church led by Pastor Enoch Adeboye, it became pertinent to recall the pastor’s recent advice to young men to marry women who can cook and can pray for one hour, at least. Does Awoniyi’s wife pray like that, and can she cook?

    It turned out an easy question for him. He smiled joyously and responded: “Oh yes, she does. My wife is a prayer warrior. She is a worker in our church parish (laughs). Surprisingly, when we first got married, I was the one that was more of a prayer warrior. But in recent times, she has found so much of peace in prayer. When she prays now, I become tongue-tied.”

    How stylish is the ex-deputy governor?

    “I don’t know if I am that stylish, but I know that I have a very good tailor in Abuja. He has a gift. He is very talented at what he does. I do not even think of a style or design for what I wear. That is because he knows what to do for me. He only tells me that he wants to do so and so for me and I give him the go ahead. But one thing with me is that whatever I decide to wear, I want it to be well sewn. The lines straight with nice curves; very decent and not necessarily frayed.”

    Take it or leave it, there are people who believe that the former deputy governor could still become the governor of the state. Confronted with a question on this, he shook his head in the negative. “I don’t think so, because I know it doesn’t work that way,” he said.

    But is it possible for him to still return to service in Kogi State?

    “I decline to answer for now,” he said.

    Asked if he has a role model, he said: “Sunday Awoniyi was and is my role model.”

  • Father and son

    Father and son

    What intrigues writers and philosophers about King Oedipus was not just that he killed his father and married his mother. It was that he didn’t mean to marry his mother and kill his father. He meant well for his people and himself. Dramatists say he had a ‘tragic flaw.” As the play winds down, you feel sorry for the man as his impetuous flamboyance leaves him. He is onstage, tottering, wailing, blind, flailing, dying, and arriving at the knowledge of his epic folly.

    When our own Ola Rotimi adapted that play to Yorubaland, he called his work, The Gods are not to Blame, and up till today, critics still wonder what happened to the king. I, too, wonder today as I look at the political incarnation of father and son in conflict in Yorubaland today.

    More intriguing is that Jimi Agbaje will be the last to call Bode George father. Yet, not long ago, the evidence compelled otherwise. George sees himself in a regal way in PDP politics in Lagos. Therefore, anyone who wants to ride on the party ticket must first bow at his portal. So, when Agbaje pooh-poohed progressives to duel Akinwunmi Ambode for Lagos governor, he enjoyed George’s nod.

    Even while the gubernatorial battle wore on, tensions bled between father and son. Agbaje and his men had sniffed a victory. They began to share the spoils before the game fell. In their premature celebration, they plotted to sideline the former military officer and party wheel horse. George, on his part, baited him. Not knowing they would be pole-axed by the diligent former Lagos technocrat, both waited for the polls. They salivated in vain for victory. Ambode bested Agbaje. Father and son sulked in silence. George had promised to flee the land after a loss but his feet and wings froze in Lagos.

    Until a new game beckoned. The PDP looked for a party chairman. A storm started brewing between both men. Both are eying the meaty prize. No one is ready to relent. They are spilling blood in public. It is official: son has divorced father, and father is irate at the vaulting ambition of the son. It had not been a great relationship between father and son. They never witnessed Shakespeare’s wish: “when a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.”

    Son did not acknowledge father gave him a platform to run for office. But we are witnesses to how George invoked his regal might to checkmate another renegade known as Obanikoro or Koro. Koro knew he was rigged out of the helmsman’s position in the primaries. He invoked all the deities of party and society. He fought with money and law and influence. He lost.

    George saw a gladiator in Agbaje to fulfil his selfish dream to own Lagos. He knew he could not do it himself. He wanted his son to do it. He probably had read writer Frank A. Clark that “a father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.” Agbaje sold his progressive convictions for a mess of ambition and sought to fell his foes that serially defeated him in the past. Father wanted to ride son and son wanted to ride father. No one had the opportunity to mount the saddle. Both had a common enemy in the APC in Lagos. But they were not friends enough to fight the enemy.  So, both fell and never laughed nor cried together in public. Rather, they are eating their own flesh. An Agbaje sees George as ‘agbaya’, while George sees Agbaje as wayward and prodigal, or “omo ti o leko” (a spoilt child). Youth scowls up at age; age drips with contempt. He may be lamenting like Shakespeare in his play, The Tempest, that “good wombs have borne bad sons.” That is assuming that he has a good political womb.

    The Agbaje-George slugfest reflects the existential duel within the bigger PDP. It is a battle between interlopers and the mainstays, between renegades and faithful, between old guard and new feathers, between the worms and the bones, between the moles and the moulding. It is a battle between two morally fetid enemies. The end is not good. With one convention after another clipped by the court, by a technically happy judge and another imperious judge, the PDP is fighting over a carcass. Ali Modu Sheriff, who was a renegade in the APC before the PDP governors called him to be a legitimate renegade, planted himself into a mainstay. He rebuilt the party when the governors like Fayose, Wike and Mimiko, could not. Now, they seem to have found their rhythm, and they want him out. They used him and wanted to spit him out. They are coming back to their own vomit.

    It is not different from the case of George and Agbaje. They made Agbaje a factor in Lagos PDP, and they want to flush out the worm. George is paying for his opportunism just as the bigger party is paying for bringing a flawed character like Sheriff, with all his Boko Haram baggage, to head the “greatest party in Africa.” They gave two carpet baggers, Sheriff and Agbaje, the main floor to dance, and they want to pull the rug underneath. There will be consequences. The party is paying for its self-indulgence and opportunism.

    It all shows that George does not know how to be a father and Agbaje does not know how to be a son. History and literature abound with clashes like this. James Baldwin in his opus, Go Tell it on the Mountain, where father Gabriel never confesses he is Royal’s father before he died. Okonkwo was never wanted to talk or be like his father Unoka in Things fall Apart. Elesin Oba and his son belong to two worlds in Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, expertly performed with binary flavour at the Freedom Square by Crown Troupe recently. Or Turgenev’s Basarov who dies disavowing his father’s world in his novel Fathers and Sons. Literary artists, like journalists, are fascinated with such dramas when father fails son and vice versa. But the United States had founding fathers whose sons we see prosper from generation to generation up to Obama. It can work.

    But the bigger PDP is fighting a more potent father: its ghost. It is at war with what PDP used to be, a swaggering, corrupt, bullying behemoth awash with money. They are holding on to a carcass. Just like a scene in the novel, Revenant, where the protagonist in cold weather hollows out the inside of a dead horse and slips inside and turns the carcass into a sleeping bag.

    If Sheriff will hang around, the PDP will hang. He will not give up, and the courts are there to give him mercy. Eventually, they will understand that PDP is an expiring brand and each of them could form different parties. My wonder, though: If PDP wins in either Edo or Ondo, who will be the authentic governor? Shall we have an interregnum while the courts nod to one candidate today and another tomorrow?

    Perhaps the answer is with King Oedipus or filicide. If father kills son or son father, perhaps there will be peace. That may not be solution, though. We shall have peace of the graveyard.

  • NAFDAC, SON, others hail La Casera for keeping standards

    NAFDAC, SON, others hail La Casera for keeping standards

    NAFDAC, SON, others hail La Casera for keeping standards

    The National Agency for Food, Drug, Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has commended the La Casera Company Plc for maintaining a high quality standard in the production of Carbonated Soft Drinks (CSD) in Nigeria.

    Similarly, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) praised the beverage company for its full compliance with regulations regarding food and beverage manufacturing processes in the country.

    In his keynote speech, the Managing Director of the La Casera Company, Mr. Roland Ebelt, expressed the company’s delight at the factory inspection and noted that the visit would afford the company the opportunity to showcase its upgraded world class production lines.

    Ebelt said he was pleased that NAFDAC, MAN and SON executives visited the plant to witness the high premium it places on producing innovative products, maintaining high quality products and its high security measures put in place to protect members of staff.

    Also speaking, the Director-General of the NAFDAC,  Mrs. Yetunde Oni expressed great delight at the level of compliance and strict adherence to modern food and beverage production guidelines.

    Mrs Oni, who was represented by the Special Assistant, Mr William Effiok, after the tour of La Casera production facility at Mile 2 in Lagos, also laid great emphasis on the firm’s ultra-modern production line which though covering a large expanse, and having several units such as the bottle blowing section, filling, capping and packaging units, operated under very hygienic conditions, and worked under minimal human interference, with a state-of-the-art automation process which can be compared to those operated in other developed nations around the world.

    “What we have witnessed today reaffirms La Casera’s commitment to producing a premium Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) with a product quality which satisfies all quality and safety requirement required for any beverage. Food handling and contact which happens to be a major entry point for contaminants in food processing and production, has also been grossly eliminated in La Casera’ production process, thereby making it safe, nutritious, and fit for human consumption.”

    The DG therefore urged teeming consumers to disregard misleading information in any form especially those emanating from Social media, as the product has the NAFDAC seal for quality, which implies it has been subject to thorough product check and analysis, and has been duly certified.

    Also responding after the facility tour, the Director, Product Certification, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr Bayo Adigun said: “We appreciate the management team of The La Casera Company for hosting us on this visit and would like to state that this kind of partnership between regulators and manufacturers are aimed at supporting companies in making sure that they maintain their standard. We are partners and we would seek ways to protect the brand of respected companies like The La Casera Company,” he stated.

    The Acting DG, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who was also present at the tour, appreciated the management of the La Casera Company for its doggedness even during times such as this when several companies are closing shop due to several economic reasons and in the face of limiting factors to business growth.

    He also extolled the company on its visibly huge financial investment in the food and beverage sector, and therefore encouraged them not to relent in its effort.

  • My son brought Nigeria Olympic team luck in Rio – Shehu

    My son brought Nigeria Olympic team luck in Rio – Shehu

    Dream Team VI star, Shehu Abdullahi has told AfricanFootball.com  that the birth of his son brought luck to the team for them to beat Japan 5-4 just hours after they arrived Brazil from Atlanta.

    Shehu’s wife delivered a baby boy hours before the Uniao de Madeira of Portugal ace featured in Nigeria’s opening Rio 2016 Group B game against Japan in Manaus.

    “I am happy to be a father, it’s a thing of joy to me and the entire family. My son will be named Shehu Abdullahi Junior. He brought us luck in our first game against Japan because he was born few hours before the game,” Shehu told AfricanFootball.com.

  • ‘Help my son to get this surgery done’

    ‘Help my son to get this surgery done’

    The dream of Master Wokanjo Tobechi, a 16-year-old boy to become a medical doctor is in the nozzle, as a protrusion of his left eye is not making him comfortable or even to socialise well.  That has forced his parents to change schools for him.

    The story of the left eye protrusion started from birth when, according to his mother, Mrs Zita Wokanjo who is in her mid 40, doctors called attention to a softness on the eyebrow of her baby’s.  She said she was told that the baby head (nasal bridge) was just forming and it will eventually harden.

    But by age nine, the father, Chris, a teacher and his wife knew all was not well and took her son to Lagos University Teaching Hospital, where he is being attending to till date. As a mother, Mrs Wokanjo a teacher in a private school, said she is not tired of seeking the best treatment for her son. “But now that we need to take him abroad for the reconstruction, we can’t readily afford it hence my appealing to all good will people to help me out. My son even desires to be a medical doctor. He is brilliant and the Headboy of his set. He has completed his SSS classes, we are awaiting the results,” said Mrs Wokanjo.

    Giving the prognosis of Master Wokanjo, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon and Paediatric Ophthamologist, Dr K.O Musa said the patient presented in the outpatient clinic nine years ago on account of protusion of the left eye of one year duration. The ocular protusion was said to be painless and gradually increasing in size. There was no associated history of fever, weight loss or preceding trauma. There was no change in size of swelling with straining or crying. However, the patient’s health problem started from birth when a swelling was noticed on his nasal bridge and the left side of the forehead. He was said to have developed another swelling on the left cheek at the age of nine months. He was initially being co-managed by the Paediatrician and the Oral and Maxilllofacial Surgeon as a case of haemangioma necessitating injections of sclerosing agents (hype?pmoc saline) into the forehead and cheek masses with some improvement only for the mass to recur with associated protusion of the left eye one year prior to presentation.

    Physical examination revealed a visual acuity of 6/9 and 6/12 in the right and left eye respectively. There was a left facial swelling involving the forehead, cheek as well as proptosis. The cheek mass was firm (10mmx15mm), freely mobile and non-tender. There was 10mm left eye axial proptosis (Hertel’s Exolphthalmometer: right eye = 15mm, left eye = 25mm). There was positive retropulsion but no pulsation or bruit. There was a mild reduction in ocular motility but the anterior segment and fundoscopic findings were normal. The right eye was essentially normal.

    Dr Musa said the patient defaulted thereafter only to represent three years later with similar findings except for slight increase in left proptosis (which became non-axial) to 27mm and the development of papillomatous left upper lid mass. The light brightness appreciation and colour desaturation were comparable in both eyes. Also, the visual acuity was 6/6 in each eye. The Computerized Tomography (CT) scan done on 30th January, 2009 revealed a soft tissue mass filling the left orbital cavity with no calcification and no involvement of the orbital wall. A clinical diagnosis of left orbital? Capillary haemangioma with? Left infraorbital dermoid cyst was made. Consequently, he had an excisional biopsy of the left cheek mass, intralesional injection of triamcinolone into the left orbit and shave excision of the left upper lid papillomatous growth.

    As at the last clinic visit, the visual acuity was 6/5 and 6/9 in the right and left eye respectively. The other findings in the left eye were severe, non-axial proptosis, inferior conjunctival xerosis, inferior exposure keratopathy, moderate restriction of ocular motility, normal papillary reaction and normal fundoscopic findings. The last C.T scan done on 12th September, 2014 showed huge soft tissue mass involving the extraconal intraconal part of the left orbit with focal calcification. Infilteration into the periorbital and supraorbital soft tissue was noted but no bony destruction or intracranial extension. In the light of foregoing, this patient will benefit from a possible orbital debulking surgery necessitating this referral. The reconstruction will be done outside the country. The estimated amount involved is N3.5m. If you are moved to assist, please pay into: Master Wokanjo Tobechi, GTBank- A/c No:  0209513364.

    This is because the histopathological report of the excised left cheek and lid masses were suggestive of cavernous haemangioma and squamous papilloma respectively. He has since being followed up in the clinic with repeated intralesional injection of tramcinolone with fluntuating response. He is presently on tab propranolol 40mg twice daily.

  • Police arrest fleeing pastor for torturing son

    The police in Ogun State have arrested a 40-year-old Pastor, Francis Taiwo, who chained his nine-year-old son, Korede, to a log of wood and left him to starve for weeks.

    Taiwo, who was arrested yesterday by the police with the help of members of the Celestial Church of Christ in Ota, maltreated his son whom he accused of stealing his money.

    The boy was rescued on Friday by security operatives from a room around the church after they were tipped-off by a member of the community.

    The cleric, who hails from Benin Republic, but was born in Ota, Ogun State, into the Celestial Church, was ordained as a pastor in 2012.

    Police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said the pastor had two wives before he married Kehinde Taiwo – Korede’s step mother, who is also a suspect in the matter.

    “Francis, father of five, confirmed that Korede’s mother, Marine Taiwo, who hailed from Delta State, is late. And that she had four children for him – two boys and two girls – before she divorced him in 2007, just after she gave birth to Korede.

    “Investigation showed that none of Korede’s siblings stays with the pastor. And he confirmed that he chained  Korede because he felt he’s possessed and he’s not comfortable  with his stealing habit.

    “The case will be transferred to the command’s Anti-human trafficking and Child Labour Unit for investigation and actions on the welfare of Korede as directed by the Assistant Inspector General(AIG) of Police in charge of Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos, Abdulmajid Ali,” Adejobi said.

  • Agric products, others get boost, says SON chief

    Agric products, others get boost, says SON chief

    Nigerian agricultural and allied products now have a major boost in regional and international markets following a  harmonisation of standards exercise by the Africa Regional Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO).

    Thi is coming against the background of calls to make the continent’s agricultural sector competitive at globally.

    At a ARSO General Assembly, Tanzania, the Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Paul Angya, a member of ARSO, said the next step would be for the nation to prioritise its agricultural sector by making standards available to it.

    This, he said, would prepare our agricultural products to meet the standards stipulated by the association.

    Angya said Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) must realise the importance of standards application to their businesses, saying that the sector also has a vital role to play in ensuring that the nation’s non-oil exports are exportable.

    The SON boss said Nigeria had been applauded for its role in ARSO’s development, adding that the nation’s contributions were in the areas of technical work and policy administration.

    Angya said:  “SMEs must realise the importance of standards’ application to their own personal enterprises, the capacity of standards to improve their productivity and their profits. We have embarked on massive sensitisation and education. We have also engaged in training the SMEs.

    “We have trained them in standards application, management systems and they have realised that application of these standards will improve their overall profit margin. That is why they are coming in groups to join the band wagon of SON.”

    He said SON had discussed with institutions about supporting Shea butter producers and that the agency would inform the SMEs about the approval of the project.

    Also, an expert on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) of the ACP TBT programme of the European Union, Mrs. Idinakide Eva, said the programme was not only for women development, but also for the development and facilitation of trade.

    She noted that the programme had three dimensions, which include supporting quality infrastructure, supporting the private sector and disseminating information to support the development of relevant data uploading on the website of ARSO.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Industries, Ebonyi North, Senator Sam Egwu, said he had been better informed about the SON, urging Nigerians to adhere to standards.

    He said the Senate recently approved a bill to make it mandatory for all government procurements to be locally sourced to conserve the nation’s hard-earned foreign exchange and boost locally made products.

    According to him, there is need to understand the importance of SON as it obtains in other parts of the world.

    Meanwhile, the European Union (EU), through its expert on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) of the ACP TBT programme, has stated plans to equip Nigerian women with the requisite skills and support to boost Shea butter production.

  • LATE HENRIETTA KOSOKO’S SON RELEASES ‘MAMA’

    FEW weeks after the demise of his mother, Taiwo Olowu, known as LT has release a new single titled Mama; a tribute to the late actress who died few days after her 53rd birthday.

    In his words: “I had issues expressing how I feel, I had issues putting them in words, I didn’t know whether to cry, or to break a brick wall or to scream. Because nobody likes an unannounced exit, it’s not fair but it’s clear that you’ll always be there.

    “I hope we were good kids, I hope we made you proud. I wish I can tell what the dead is thinking; I will cheat by reading your thoughts. This emptiness I feel inside echoes more than a striking thunder, I promise to make you proud, and I’m proud to call you my mother.

    “This song is dedicated to my loving mother, Mrs. Henrietta Kosoko and to everyone who has lost a mum. I know your death is a blessing in disguise and you will always be in our hearts, he added.

    It will be recalled that during the wake keeping service for the Nollywood actress, held on June 9, 2016 at LTV 8, Agidingbi, Ikeja, LT, who is also a rising musician, gave a tribute performance.

    Taiwo Olowu, popularly known as LT, is a rising pop act, while his twin brother is a budding music producer. They are in their early 20s and are graduates of Houdegbe North American University, Benin Republic.

  • SON raids iron rod outlets in Ekiti

    SON raids iron rod outlets in Ekiti

    THE Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has raided iron rod outlets in Ado-Ekiti with the aim of curbing incidences of building collapse.

    The State SON Coordinator, Mrs. Sarah Idowu, told reporters during the raid that the exercise was a marching order from the Federal Government to sanitise the building sector.

    She said it was aimed at crackdown on manufacturers and distributors of fake and substandard products.

    She said her office received directives from the Director-General of SON in Abuja,Dr. Paul Angya, for a nationwide raid of all outlets, where iron rods are sold, with the sole aim of identifying sellers that are fronting for fake manufacturers.

    The SON enforcement officers was accompanied by men of the police and Department of State Service (DSS) and carried out inspections on samples of iron found on display.

    Some were taken for laboratory examinations.

  • Locally made cables safest, says SON

    Locally made cables safest, says SON

    The Acting Director-General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Paul Angya yesterday said cables made in Nigeria are globally acknowledged as the best and safest, adding that it explained why they are sought after by Europe and other developed countries.

    The Angya spoke during a courtesy visit to the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crime Commission, (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu  in Abuja. He added that the organisation would like to partner with the EFCC to curb the deadly corruption going on with importers of substandard products.

    He said: “People keep amassing wealth through importation of substandard products while consumers are dying; these people avoid paying duties for the products they bring into the country.

    “We need EFCC to assist the organisation by checkmating the activities of  importers of substandard products.”