The Bayelsa State Government on Friday buried the late Government House photographer, Reginald Dei and Ward Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Seidougha Taribi, who were reportedly killed by soldiers during the last elections in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
The World Bank has said it will invest 15 billion dollars into human capital projects in Africa by the year 2023.
Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for Africa said this in a statement issued in Nairobi.
“The projects are part of World Bank’s new plan to help promote skills development for African youth and enhance their competitiveness in a digitalising global economy.
According to the World Bank’s Africa Human Capital Plan, the programme aims at a reduction in child mortality to save 4 million lives and averting stunting among 11 million children.
Others are increasing learning outcomes for girls and boys in school by 20 per cent by 2023.
By doing so, it will increase African workers’ productivity by 13 per cent.
“Preventing a child from fulfilling his or her potential is not only fundamentally unjust, but it also limits the growth of economies whose future workers are held back,” Ghanem said.
“GDP per worker in Sub-Saharan Africa could be 2.5 times higher if everyone were healthy and enjoyed a good education from pre-school to secondary school,” he added.
According to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan African region scores the lowest on the World Bank’s Human Capital Index which gauges whether countries have adequately invested in the next generation of workers.
NAN
Media personality, Wendy William has filed for divorce from her husband Kelvin Hunter after 22 years of marriage over ‘irreconcilable differences’.
The media personality served him the papers at the studio they both run together as host and manager under tight security just in case the situation got out of control which didn’t actually happen, says TMZ news platform.
The divorce document states a “breakdown” of the marriage over a period of at least 6 months, requesting the court to determine an “appropriate amount” of child support to their over 18 years-old son, Kelvin.
The TV show star has been struggling to keep up with her marriage to Hunter, which has been embroiled with infidelity accusations.
There have been reports of Hunter’s relationship with his mistress, Sharina Hudson and there have been the rumors of the two of them welcoming a child together.
Hunter and Hudson have been alleged to be in a relationship for over 10 years.
This relationship has affected Williams’s health to a large extent.
NAN
Speaker of the Edo House of Assembly, Hon Kabiru Adjoto and a former Speaker, Victor Edoror, have traded blames over Friday’s sporadic shootings at the legislative quarters.
It was gathered that Edoror has been questioned by the police and asked to return on Monday for further interrogation.
Sources said resident in the lawmakers’ quarters heard sporadic shootings and the police was invited after which Edoror was invited.
The source claimed the shootings were carried out by boys invited by Edoror during the naming ceremony of his new baby boy.
Edoror however accused Adjoto of orchestrating the shooting to put criminal charges on him despite not paying him salary for many months.
He said it was not possible for him to celebrate the birth of a son and caused mayhem at the same time.
The former Speaker urged the police to investigate the allegation and urged his detractors to stop putting idols in their heart.
“My wife gave birth to a baby boy and I celebrated it. They are doing this despite not paying my salaries and I still won election,” he stated.
Speaker Adjoto, on his part, said whoever is on suspension is not supposed to be seen within the quarters.
“He brought cultists and they were shooting sporadically. When the security could not control them I called the Police Commissioner who came to chase them away.”
On the complains about non payment of salaries by the former Speaker, Adjoto said he is not in charge of salary payment and that the matter is before the court.
A 2012/2013 First Class graduate of Chemistry from Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Stella Emelife Chinelo has broken a 100- year academic record at the 99th convocation ceremony of the Mysore University India to emerge overall best graduating student.
For the record -breaking performance, she earned 20 gold medals and five cash prize awards.
Disclosing the development on Friday at the 35th, 36th and 37th combined convocation awards of degrees, diplomas and certificates, Vice Chancellor of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Professor Abdullahi Abdu Zuru, noted academic excellence and standard remain the focus of the institution.
He said any of the current students and graduands could replicate Chinelo’s feat, stating “just always remember that learning is a lifelong endeavour and its key ingredients are observation, thinking, consultation and decision making.”
Zuru said for the first time since inception, the university is producing a female first class graduate in Physics, Zainab Abdullahi Bashir from Katsina state with CGPA of 4.81in the 2017/2018 academic session.
Others with similar performance grades include: Okek Obinna Kingsley B. of Forestry with CGPA of 4.81 in the 2015/2016 session while Andulahi Saminu Mujammad B. Fisheries earned 4.84 CGPA in 2016/2017 session and Ojo Suleiman Adebowale BSc Mathematics who graduated in 2017/2018 session with 4.91 CGPA respectively.
While expressing gratitude to God, Zuru told the graduands to count themselves fortunate for passing through the university.
“I say congratulations to our beloved graduands. You must also keep in mind that the world out there is a tough, rough, rewarding or punitive terrain depending on how you navigate it,” he stated.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC ) says trending social media report of an impending fuel scarcity due to purported refusal by some oil marketers to lift products from depots was false.
The NNPC in a statement, in Abuja, on Friday by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu appealed to Nigerians to disregard the rumour.
He explained that the tale was fabricated by mischief makers with intent to create undue panic in the prevailing sanity in the fuel supply and distribution matrix across the country.
He said that the NNPC has over one billion litres of petrol in stock while Imports of 48 vessels of 50million litres each have been committed for the month of April 2019 alone.
He noted that there was no need for panic buying or hoarding of petroleum products in anticipation of a phantom scarcity.
Ughamadu reiterated that the pump price of petrol remained N145 per litre.
A check by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja revealed that few queues were building up in some filling stations at the Central Business district but most station around the city still run normal services to motorists.
Edo State Acting Governor, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu, has said the state government’s focus on the primary healthcare sector is aimed at meeting basic health needs and relieving pressure on tertiary healthcare institutions in the state.
Shaibu said this during a courtesy visit by a delegation of the Congolese Embassy led by the Congolese Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Jacques Obinza, at the Government House, in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
The acting governor said any nation that wants to survive must invest in its people, noting, “We are taking our Primary healthcare seriously. We are experimenting with 20 Primary Healthcare Centres across the state. Our focus is to bring quality and affordable healthcare closer to the people. Success in this will mean a lot for the tertiary healthcare sector.”
“We welcome you to our state and we are happy that you are here for a cause we believe in, which is bone marrow transplant. We are equally happy that our son is at the forefront, leading research on bone marrow transplant.”
The acting governor assured the Congolese Ambassador of the state government’s readiness to collaborate with his country to drive development, noting, “We are building infrastructure to ensure we create the enabling environment to woo investors to the state. If we are able to collaborate and do exchange programmes, the African economy will certainly grow.”
Ambassador Jacques Obinza said he is in the state to assess the facilities at the privately-managed sickle cell centre, CELLTEK Health Care Center, which has recorded successes in bone marrow transplant, so as finetune arrangement on collaboration and training, with a bid to ensuring a similar centre is established in Congo.
Obinza said, “I am here to ensure improvement in the health sector of the Congo. I am here to visit the sickle cell centre in Benin City, to see the facilities on ground and possibly sign an agreement to train our people in bone marrow transplant.”
Medical Director, CELLTEK, Prof. Godwin Bazuaye said the visit was a follow-up to his visit to the Congo where he delivered a paper on bone marrow transplant, which attracted the country’s interest in wanting to collaborate with Nigeria to assist them in establishing a sickle cell centre to treat bone marrow issues.
Prof. Bazuaye said the first bone marrow transplant was done at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Nigeria in 2011 on a seven-year-old girl. He said the process was on for four years but stopped due to funding and logistics.
“We have done six successful bone marrow transplants in CELLTEK in Benin City and have achieved 100 per cent success. We have patients from Ghana and two other African countries. We intend to make Edo State a hub of bone marrow transplant in Africa,” he added.
Onyedi Ojiabor, Abuja
The National Assembly leadership Friday released details of its 2018 budget.
The release of the details of the fiscal document followed the directive of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who asked the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Omolori, to publish the budget details with line items for the interest of Nigerians.
Saraki also mandated the Clerk to make details of the National Assembly 2019 budget available for passage into law.
In a letter addressed to the CNA dated 26 March, 2019, Saraki said that full details of the National Assembly budget with necessary line items should be made ready for passage as part of the National budget.
The letter signed by the Chief of Staff to the Senate President, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, is entitled, “Subject: NASS budget details.”
It read in part, “The President of the Senate has asked me to request you to please ensure that the NASS Budget Details with all the line items are ready for passage along with the National Budget when Senate resumes next week. Thank you.”
The breakdown of the N139,500,000,000 showed that the National Assembly office was allocated N 8,576,260,225 for total personnel cost, N4,536,048,933 for total overhead cost, total recurrent cost is N13,112,309,158 while the sum of N2,276,926,754 as total capital amounting to N15,389,235,912.
For the Senate, N1, 856,510,517 was voted for personnel cost, N28,791,110,014 for overhead, N30,647,620,531 for recurrent expendiyure. N4,934,465,168 for capital vote amounting to a total of N35,582,085,699.
For the House of Representatives, the sum of N4,923,743,127 was voted for personnel cost, N47,735,756,179 earmarked for overhead, N52,659,499,306 for recurrent expenditure, N4,765,638,487 for capital vote amounting to a total of N57,425,137,793.
The National Assembly Service Commission was allocated N1,175,626,305 as personnel cost, N1,250,662,999, N2,426,289,304 recurrent, N309,791,962 capital budget, a total of N2,736,081,266.
The controversial Legislative Aides have a budgetary provision of N9,517,127,214 personnel cost, N534,968,714 overhead cost, N10,052,095,928 recurrent, N150,000,000 capital, a total of N10,202,095,928.
Curiously, the legislative aides have always been at daggers drawn with the leadership of the National Assembly over alleged unpaid allowances.
It is not clear whether the purchase of computer for legislative aides, allocated N100 million and the another of purchase of computers also allocated N100million are parts of the breakdown of the budget.
Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was allocated N118, 970,215 for overhead cost, N118, 970,215 for recurrent amount to a total of N118, 970,215.
For the House of Representatives PAC, N142, 764,258 was voted for overhead cost, N142, 764,258 recurrent a total of N142, 764,258.
General services received N8,967,743,268 for overhead cost, N8,967,743,268 for recurrent, N3,416,928,811 capital vote, a total of N12,384,672,079.
National Assembly Legislative Institute got N433,771,911 as personnel cost, N1,223,988,826 as overhead cost, N1,657,760,737 recurrent cost, N2,716,052,859 as capital vote amounting to a total of N4,373,813,596.
Service Wide Vote received N1, 145,143,254.
Total allocation -N26,483,039,299 as personnel cost, N93,302,013,406 as overhead cost, N119,785,052,705 recurrent, N18,569,804,041 capital vote amounting to a grand total of N139,500,000,000 as the National Assembly 2018 budget.
Other break down of the budget showed that furniture and fittings received N214.55m; photocopying machine and other office equipment N368.674m, health and medical equipment N191.501, purchase of power generating sets and upgrade of power supply equipment—, Purchase of learning and teaching aid equipment N5million; purchase of library books and equipment N60million; purchase of motor vehicles N657.394 million, purchase of security equipment N440 million; rehabilitation/ repair of office buildings N232.805 million
Some candidates in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) have called for the upgrade of the computer systems to provide mathematical calculations for the examination.
A cross-section of the candidates made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday, during the 2019 UTME Computer-Based Test (CBT) in Umuahia, the Abia capital.
The candidates, who wrote Mathematics and other science subjects, regretted that the computer did not have scientific calculator.
According to them, since candidates were not allowed to carry calculator and other writing materials into the examination hall, it was difficult for them to solve some problems.
They said that in most cases, they engaged in guess work, whether right or wrong.
Jennifer Onyeka, a candidate of Computer Science, said that although she was proficient in the use of computer, yet “the computer calculator is not scientific.”
Onyeka said: “It is elementary calculator and cannot be used to solve the kind of questions we had in the exam yet we were not allowed to use biro and other writing materials.
“It became difficult to do calculations involving Mathematics, Physcis and Chemistry.”
Also, David Uruakpa, a Banking and Finance candidate, who sat for Mathematics, also complained that he could not solve some of the Mathematics calculations with the in-built calculator.
He said that because there was neither paper nor space to solve the questions, he resorted to guess work in some cases.
Christian Nzubechi, who intended to study Business Administration, said that he encountered challenges in Mathematics because there were no tools to work with.
Nzubechi said: “I really commend JAMB for this CBT method.
“It is better than the former paperwork, but it should consider candidates doing calculations, by installing an application that will assist them.”
Amarachi Okoronkwo, a candidate of Economics, lauded JAMB for a hitch-free examination but said there was still room for improvement.
Okoronkwo said: “I sat for this exam last year but this year’s own was more organised than the previous ones.
“I think JAMB should upgrade the software package to accommodate scientific calculator in the interest of candidates in Mathematics and other science subjects.”
Collins Nweke, however, told NAN that he did not have any difficulty with the use of the computer.
Other respondents also identified the lack of computer skills by some candidates as setback.
Mr Lawrence Ezeigbo, a CBT coordinator for Clems Business Systems Ltd., Umuahia, advised candidates to endeavour to acquire adequate computer skills before entering for UTME.
Ezeigbo, whose centre is accredited for the examination in the state, decried the poor computer literacy level of most candidates.
He said that many candidates lacked the technical skill to write the examination.
He said: “My technical staffs have been going around, assisting those of them that have technical challenge.
“I advise that these candidates should undertake training on how to use computers to write examination.”
He commended JAMB for providing adequate facilities needed for the examination.
Mr Umecheme Ogboso, a JAMB supervisor at the centre, also said that some of the candidates were not familiar with use of the systems.
Ogboso commended JAMB for ensuring that the examination was hitch-free, describing the exercise as the best examination JAMB had ever organised.
He said that the adoption of the CBT helped to eliminate examination malpractice.
NAN reports that there were visible presence of security operatives in most of the centres visited in Umuahia.
NAN
The Umuezechieamalu Family of Obosi Kingdom in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra has rejected the suspension of their representative, Chief Hyacinth Udemba, from the King’s Cabinet (“Eze na Ndi Ichie Obosi”).
The family which expressed their rejection on Friday after they met to deliberate the matter.
It will be recalled that Obosi monarch, Igwe Chidubem Iweka, had in March suspended three members of the cabinet for allegedly joining domes youths to take dead bodies of two Obosi youths to his palace.
The act, he said, was considered sacrilegious as Obosi customs forbids the traditional ruler from seeing human corpse.
Others suspended were Chief Osita Chidoka (Ike Obosi) and Chief Linus Mgbakaogu (Atta Obosi).
But the Umuezechieamalu Family in a statement by Mr. Obiora Arinze and Mr Tony Arinze, Chairman and Secretary respectively said they were disappointed with the way they had been treated in spite of their contributions to the traditional institution.
They noted that members of Ndi Ichie had immunity from committing sacrileges as the customs of Obosi covers them under (“One abu Nso”), adding that only the particular family that performs cleansing rites had the right to declare an act a sacrilege.
“It is therefore, painful that the only reward for the indispensable role we have the in crowning of Eze Obosi has in recent time been the impunity of arbitrarily suspending of our Ndi Ichie without reference to our family being stakeholders in kingship institution
“In view of the above, we disagree with the suspension of “Akamkposi Obosi” by a nonentity in the Eze na Ndi Ichie relationship.
“We wish to state that the Igwe has been proved not to possess the powers to suspend or expel Ndi Ichie Obosi as earlier attempts were unsuccessful and of no effect whatsoever,” they said.
Umuezechieamalu Family therefor, calls for the immediate reversal of the suspension and urged that due process be followed if there was need.
“We urge the public to discountenance the various media propaganda by any individual or group which are meant to tarnish the image of our well revered son, obviously to divert attention from the heinous crimes and murders going on in our community.
“Finally, we pray that men of good conscience and you Igwe should initiate a process that will resolve the various escalating crisis in Obosi to enthrone peaceful co-existence among our people,” they said.