The Nation Newspaper

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  • OGFZA gets Fed Govt’s ease-of-doing-business award

    The Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA) was at the weekend, decorated as the best parastatal of the Federal Government in the implementation of the policy on the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria by Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC).

    PEBEC which reviewed the implementation of the policy by 44 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government in 2018, ranked OGFZA number one with a score of 94 per cent. The Federal Ministry of Finance trailed it in second place.

    Managing Director of OGFZA, Mr Umana Okon Umana, was called onto the podium to receive the award in a well-attended ceremony held at the banquet hall of the State House, Abuja. The ceremony was attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who is the chairman of PEBEC, and Dr Okechukwu Enelemah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, who is the vice chairman of PEBEC.

    The Ease of Doing Business initiative, which came as Executive Order number 1, was signed into force on 18 May 2017 by Vice President Osinbajo, who was then Acting President.

    The first of a series of executive orders meant to improve governance in the country, Executive Order 1 (EO1) seeks to promote transparency and efficiency in the business environment. The PEBEC office projects that “EO 1 will transform the way the FGN and its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) serve the business community and the public at large.”

    EO1 has six directives designed to eliminate limitations in the civil and public services systems. The directives target transparency, default approval (to fuel efficiency), One government (for efficiency), entry experience of visitors and travelers, port operations and registration of businesses.

    In 2017, OGFZA won global recognition when the FDi Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times of London, named the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zones, administered by OGFZA, as world number one in incentives granted to free zone enterprises and the best in special services to investors.

     

     

  • Senate Passes Police Trust Fund Bill

    The Senate on Tuesday passed the Nigerian Police Trust Fund Bill (HB 1583).

    Recall that last week, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, had promised the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, that the Senate would fast-track its work on both the Police Trust Fund Bill and the Police Reform Bill.

    Reacting to the Senate’s passage of the Bill, which has also been passed by the House of Representatives, Saraki said: “By passing this bill, we will be creating big strides towards providing and improving security and the policing in our country.

    “One of the major concerns has always been the issue of funding. We believe that this bill will provide the funding needed for training and recruitment.

    “I am confident that by the time we lay the report on the Police Reform Bill, we would have gone a long way in moving the police in the right direction.

    Read also: Senate okays N1.64tr borrowing plan

    “It is our view that once we have these Police Bills as laws, we will relieve the burden on the military, so that it can focus on its Constitutional responsibility,” the Senate President said.

    The Police Trust Fund Bill, which was initially passed by the House of Representatives, aims to provide a legal framework for the management and control of the special intervention funds established under the Act for the training of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.

    The Trust Fund will also be utilised to enhance the skills of the personnel of the Police, in order to ensure their efficiency, overall performance, and constant improvement while they perform their duties.

    In addition to this, the Trust Fund will be used to ensure that the Nigeria Police Force has the necessary operational equipment, instructional materials, police stations and living quarters.

    The Bill will now be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.

  • Dogara and his cant

    Just as well Yakubu Dogara, “Speaker” of the House of Representatives, is a Christian.  So, he would understand the concept of the pious repetitive chant called the canticle.

    But take the piety from canticle, and all you have is empty and hollow cant — just as taking morality and decency from Dogara’s current position, and it is clear what is left is contemptible chaff of opportunism.

    It is called immorality in general concept.  In politics, in this particular situation, it is called illegitimacy.  Or how do you dub a fella that flaunted his Christian minority status, to corral the position of Speaker; and yet his Christian conscience became dead, when it was time to renounce that office, when he voluntarily became a minority legislator?

    Hardball supposes quitting an office on the nobility of high moral grounds — the minority shunning what belongs to the majority — is alien to a cabal without honour, even if the legislative conclave they belong to comes with the honorific prefix of “Honourable”.  What devastating irony!

    That was the smelly pus, issuing from Dogara’s lengthy and hollow cant, to new inductees into the soon-to-be-promulgated 9th National Assembly.

    To start with, that a Dogara would stand before any decent company, and address them as “Speaker” is a violent assault on Nigeria’s evolving democracy and its troubled parliament.  In what sane parliament, all over the world, would a minority representative say he is Speaker and continue to crow about it?

    As if that slur wasn’t enough, he went on and on and on, in meaningless humbug, on how not to choose parliamentary leaders!  Gosh!  Did he realize how shallow and hollow he sounded?

    He boasted of experience: how long he had been in the House to know how things worked — wonderful CV!  But in all of his years in there, when his present party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called the shots, did he ever recall any Alliance for Democracy, or All People’s Party (later All Nigeria People’s Party or Labour Party  — indeed, any of the minority parties — produce a Speaker?

    Or did any PDP speaker defect to other parties, yet crow before new House members, in a lecture on parliamentary leadership?

    That is exactly Hardball’s point.  That was the moral gargoyle the Speaker presented, as he gave his hollow lecture!  Still, history would dutifully record all these against his name, in this odd season, when Nigerian parliamentary democracy is really going crazy!  But these times would pass!

    By the way, Dogara appears not to have learnt from the electoral pulverization of Saraki and his putative political destruction — again, traced to high-wire parliamentary abuse that pawned institutional sanity for cynical, personal gain.

    Nor has he learnt from the grim experience of old vomit, turned new beverage, PDP.  That party abused everything decent under political sun, until it found itself languishing in opposition.  Yet, it’s not done with self, its latest suicide mission being pushing parliamentary anarchy, where the minority swallows the majority.

    Well, as our elders say, the lost dog is stone-deaf to the hunter’s whistle.

     

     

  • Empowering women to pursue innovation

    A conference designed to encourage female student entrepreneurs has been held in Lagos, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Founder, AWP Network, Mary Olushoga, is a United States-based start-up coach working for the advancement of women.

    She prepares undergraduates aspiring to found or join a startup firm to gain deep understanding of the central challenges and choices innovators face in developing their ventures.

    She does this through workshops and fora, where students and aspiring entrepreneurs learn how to use best practices to design and implement ventures for impact and scale, and learn about leadership and the financial resources needed for a new enterprise.

    Today, she supports a community of talented, ambitious women who could share vital information with one another to accelerate their progress in business.

    She was in Lagos to share her thoughts on the importance of innovation-driven entrepreneurship and the women who have made it.

    She listed the women to include Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, Tomi Otudeko, Saudat Salami, Odunayo Eweniyi, Adia Sowho and Tomi Otudeko.

    For more women to succeed, she observed that the government must create entrepreneurial sufficient entrepreneurial ecosystem that will encourage more women to go into innovative entrepreneurship.

    She was also the moderator at the just-concluded African Women in Technology (AWIT) conference in Lagos.

    The event hosted women innovators from various fields aimed at encouraging student entrepreneurs.

    A common theme at the event was the importance of doing more than just thinking about technological disruption and how to use technologies to infiltrate and yield the outcomes from the society that Nigerians want. The conference highlighted the key role technology-based innovation could play in fostering growth and to help identify evidence-based solutions.

    Learning Design & EdTech expert, Simi Lawoyin noted that innovation and artificial intelligence provide more robust environments for turning new ideas into sustainable businesses.

    A software expert, Blessing Malumi,  said innovating in any sector requires a keen understanding of artificial intelligence technology.

    She stressed the need for youths to explore transformational technologies and pursue business opportunities.

    AWIT is a network of women who are redefining the technology space in Africa.

    Founded by Anie Akpe, it has become a platform for technological advancement in Africa and beyond.

    The AWITconference has held in Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique and the United States in 2016 and has touched the lives of over 1000  women.

    Since its inception, the conference has received been sponsored by Google, Flutterwave, Renmoney, Ibom LLC, Innov8tiv, ABAN Angels, among others.

  • Ex-deputy governor sues Ondo over unpaid entitlements

    FORMER Ondo State Deputy Governor Alhaji Lasisi Oluboyo has sued the state government over non-payment of his outstanding emoluments and monthly pension.

    Oluboyo, through his counsel, Olu Ogidan, prayed the court to mandate the government to pay his gratuities and pension running into millions of Naira.

    The state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice had affirmed in a letter that Oluboyo was entitled to his gratuity.

    However, he did not make reference to his monthly pension as passed into law by the State House of Assembly.

    Oluboyo, who is from Ikare-Akoko, replaced Alhaji Ali Olanusi from the neighbouring Supare-Akoko after his impeachment by the state Assembly.

    He faulted the content of the letter, which only recognised the two-year period he served as the deputy governor.

    He insisted that he is entitled to all benefits attached to his former office as deputy governor as stipulated in the laws of the state.

    The letter is entitled “Re: Request for payment of arrears of monthly allowance of Alhaji Lasisi Oluboyo” and addressed to the Acting Permanent Secretary, Political and Economic Affairs Department, Governor’s Office.

    The Commissioner for Justice’s letter reads: “I am directed to advise you that His Excellency, Alhaji Lasisi Oluboyo, is entitled to his emoluments and monthly arrears yet unpaid covering the period for which he was in office between 27th April, 2015 and 24th February, 2017.”

    But, Oluboyo’s suit filed in the High Court of  Justice, Ondo State, has the governor, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice as well as the Ondo State Pensions Board as defendants.

    The claimant asked for the payment of what is lawfully due to him as former deputy governor.

    He sought for “a declaration that the claimant having assumed the office of the Deputy Governor of Ondo State and having served meritoriously in that capacity, is entitled to the payment of arrears of his pension, allowances, benefits and all other entitlements due and payable to him as former deputy governor of Ondo State.

    “The claimant is consequently seeking the sum of N10 million as damages to compensate for his “untold hardship, emotional distress, scorn and ridicule to which the action of the defendants exposed the claimant to.

    The court is yet to fix a date for the hearing of the suit.

     

     

  • Rotary Club donates facility to school

    Rotary Club of Akowonjo, District 9110 Nigeria has donated four toilet facilities to Shasha Primary School, in Shasha, Lagos State.

    According to the club’s President, Bisi Taiwo, the gesture was in line with the focus of Rotary and to be of help to others.

    She said the club renovated one of the already existing toilet buildings in the school.

    “We reconstructed the building because the only things remaining were the foundation and the walls. We fixed the roof and the ceiling; we removed the previous water closet because they were broken and we fixed new ones, with wash hand basin, we fixed all the doors and did the painting. We spent about one million naira.

    “We began the project in January. There were four toilets; two for the boys and two for the girls.”

    She urged the school authorities to maintain the facility, noting that if they have issues they should inform the club.

    “Rotary has six areas of focus and we have been able to touch all the six areas which include Child and Maternal health care, diseases prevention and treatment, and this project we have inaugurated, water and sanitation. We have also done basic education and literacy, which include donation of books and other educational materials to schools,” she said.

    District Governor of Rotary International District 9110 covering Lagos and Ogun states, Kola Shodipo, said the toilet facility is to enable the students maintain hygienic environment even when they are in school.

    “We believe that apart from having an environment conducive to teaching and learning in terms of structure, materials, text books; teachers, other members of staff and the students also need restrooms in an environment that will enhance their self-esteem.”

    He urged the students, members of staff and management to ensure sustainability and maintenance.

    “This has been provided of the Rotary Club of Akowonjo. The school should take normal care of these facilities so that years later when we come as rotary, we will be proud that these toilet facilities that have been provided are maintained. That will also encourage us to do more in other areas of life,” he said.

    The Secretary to Alimosho Local Government Area, Hon. Dare Ogunkoya, said the local government and the school are happy about the project, noting that they are the kind of projects that other people should emulate.

    “We thank Rotary Club for what they have done and we implore others to take the issue of corporate social responsibility serious. If everybody is doing one or two things in their communities, the society would be a better place to live in,” he said.

  • Women get tips on strategic partnerships

    Think global, act local; cultivate strategic and sustainable partnerships were some of the tips the Head of Oando Foundation, Adekanla Adegoke gave to those at a mentorship conference during her Masterclass session at the 2019 Women in Development Summit, a network of women working in the social sector, which held in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The 2019 edition whose theme was “Women-led Business as a Tool for Social Change and Nation-building” was a platform for women to speak on various topics such as “Are Women Entrepreneurs Ready to Drive Social Change in Nigeria?” “What would it take?” and “New Media: Platforms for Entrepreneurial Opportunity”.

    Hosted by Ideation Hub Africa, the summit was a high-octane networking conference for women working across Africa on development and social-change in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), social enterprise, public sector as well as corporate organisations; providing a rallying point for change makers working actively for social good.

    Speaking on the topic “Strategic Alliances: Activating Partnerships Between Non-profits and Businesses, Adegoke encouraged those present at the summit to have a global outlook to their social work without losing focus of local programming implementation approaches and their operating environment.

    She spoke on the power of association through volunteering activities and the need to be passionate about the cause they choose to support.

    Speaking further on the foundation’s investment in basic education, she said when Oando Foundation-an independent charity established by Oando Plc began operations in 2011, it learnt from international development agencies already working in the Nigerian education space that public schools needed at least eight years of holistic intervention to see significant results. This formed the premise upon which the foundation’s school adoption model was designed.

    “Research has shown that it takes eight years to move a school from zero to 80 per cent. You cannot achieve 100 per cent if the teachers themselves do not have the requisite skills and competencies to promote quality teaching and learning experiences.

    “So, we get into a school, improve the infrastructure, train the teachers, empower the school-based management committee and keep improving the school and the Education Management Support System at the state and local levels,” she said

    Apart from the funding that the foundation provides for its adopted schools, Mrs Adegoke said it leverages strategic partnerships with various local/international organisations to bring in more resources to the schools.

    She mentioned, for instance, that the foundation’s partnership with Sumitomo Chemical, one of Japan’s leading chemical companies, has resulted in the provision of ICT centres in three of its adopted schools annually since 2017, impacting on over 7,000 beneficiaries to date.

    Adegoke said the foundation is also utilising its proof of concept to advocate for project replication with various state governments.

    “To run effective non-profits, structure, networking and providing evidence are all important,” she said.

    She encouraged the participants who were mostly young women in the development sector to operate a well-structured, non-profit organisation in order to attract productive and sustainable partnership in the interest of their core beneficiaries.

    The keynote speaker at the summit, Mrs Hansatu Adegbite, said effective communication was necessary to NGOs getting the kind of funding they needed to run.

    In her address, Mrs Adegbite reiterated that there was an abundance of financial resources in the private sector that could be spent on developmental issues if the right message got to them. She noted it was important to think of adopting a sustainable funding model that would work for them.

    “To get that (financial) resource, you must solve a problem. There are two models you can adopt-develop a profit business to finance social problems or identify funding models that work for non-profit.

    “Why women are relevant is because women are empathetic and emotional; they are not thinking of money but impact. That is why it is important for women to know how to get their own funding,” she said.

    Founder of Ideation Hub, Mrs Debola Deji-Kurunmi said the programme was organised to expose entrepreneurs and those in the development sector to build their capacity to deliver impact.

    “We want to grow the capacity of development practitioners, young corporate leaders and social entrepreneurs to deliver impact; to succeed in their work. But we also want to see entrepreneurs partner with NGOs so that they can provide support and funding in solving a problem they are also passionate about,” she said.

  • ‘We don’t want to lose more lives’

    Perhaps, a number of lives would have been saved had any serious steps been taken to contain the excesses of tanker drivers and okada riders who have inflicted so much pain on residents of Oriade Local Council Development Area of Lagos State through their reckless driving.

    Apart from the recurrent gridlocks, residents, including school children, are being killed on daily basis due to their inconsiderate use of the roads in the area.

    Consequently, many families have been thrown into unending grief and sorrow, as most parents become apprehensive whether their children who left for school would come back safely.

    “The loss of lives must stop; we cannot continue to lose our children this way. Something must be done now to stop this,” a resident in the area said.

    But rather than allowing the people to take laws into their hands which sometimes result in violence, the Executive arm of the local council area has decided to enact a bill to regulate the activities of tank farm owners and allied operations within the local government area, especially on the Ijegun-Egba and Ibasa axis to forestall further dangers.

    Read also: Council presents N2.9b budget

    In a public hearing, the executive arm is seeking the views and opinions of the people on the proposed bill. The Executive Chairman of the local government, Hon. Ramotalai Akinlola Hassan, who spoke through the Council Manager, Adeyemi Adebola, said with the law in place, entry for all trucks to the depot would only be from Abule-Ado into Fin Niger Junction while exit out of Fin Niger will be only towards Alakija. She added that trucks will no longer be permitted to enter into Fin Niger and Alakija or exit through Abule-Ado.

    According to her, any faulty truck on MuminAdio Badmus Road must be towed within a given time frame while the same road shall not serve as repair workshop, even as she revealed that the local government, in conjunction with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) will take care of offenders.

    “Henceforth, Old Ojo Road and MuminAdio Badmus Road shall not be used as parking space for any tanker or truck except with parking permit duly authorised by the local government.

    “Again, okada and tricycles shall no longer load at Fin Niger bus stop as alternative routes shall be created for them to access MuminAdio Badmus Road with the exception of ‘koropes’ that will still be allowed to carry people but not at the Fin Niger Junction. This is to prevent unnecessary accidents that occur daily on MuminAdio Badmus Road,” she said.

    Hassan further stated that tanker drivers shall not be allowed to dispense or sell petrol or diesel to any black marketers along Old Ojo Road and MuminAdio Badmus roads, insisting that there shall be speed limit to be introduced for all tanker drivers which must not be strictly adhered to.

    Furthermore, operators of tank farms must comply with environmental impact assessment of the state government and ensure that water properly flowed into the river and also ensure that water did not flow back into the communities around them. She stressed the need for tank farm owners to acquire space as loading bay from where they issue call notices for loading products.

    In his speech, Adebola reiterated the urgent need to regulate the way tank farm owners operated in the area, including the allied operators such as the tanker drivers, okada and keke NAPEP operators.

    He said: “We want to regulate their activities so that people can go into their premises safely, do their businesses safely so that we don’t continue to record casualties that have been experienced in the past.”

    Adebola expressed his worry that accidents occur in the area almost on daily basis. More disturbing, he said, is the fact that school children were being killed due to the recklessness of the tanker drivers. He added that the traffic gridlocks on the roads could prevent school children from reaching their homes on time.

    “We cannot continue to watch this happening, that’s the reason we want to control the activities of tanker drivers and okada riders. They need to ride cautiously,” he said.

    “The councillors are coming up with the bylaw. We have told all the stakeholders that we intend to sanitise the environment. They have come up with some suggestions. We want the executive arm to make an input to the draft and at the end of the day we come up with a bylaw and anybody who goes against the bylaw will be sanctioned.

    “Even though the Federal Government has given them the license to operate, their operations are causing hardship to our people. That is why we have to regulate their activities.

    “We have said a truck can only come in through one way and exit through another way. That’s the regulation and anybody who contravenes that will be sanctioned. We are going to get rid of okada from Fin Niger Junction and provide alternative route for them so that we stop this incessant killing of people and those who don’t comply will be punished.

    Leader of Council, Hon. Jamiu Abiodun Kasali said convening public hearing on critical issues affecting the people either positively or negatively was a responsibility vested in the legislative arm of government.

    “The executive had viewed critically the activities of tank farm operations, the activities of tanker drivers, the hardship being experienced by residents, the behaviour of okada riders and keke NAPEP operators, the activities of union members at the Fin Niger Junction and decided to regulate their activities,” he said.

    This, he said, was to ensure the business activities of tank farms did not engender hardship for the residents, motorists and all road users. We decided to call for this meeting to hear from our people and seek their opinions, he added.

  • Intervention for 10 Osun health facilities

    No fewer than 10 primary health centres in Osogbo, the Osun State capital recently benefited from medical equipment worth over N1 million donated by a foreign society group, the Sisters Cities International.

    The health centres include the ones at Okebale, Olugunna, Enikaoyun, Ota-Efun, Oke Abesu, Odiolowo and Ilie. Also, the international project of the Osogbo Ashville Sister Cities Association (OASCA), the Atelewo Model Primary Health Centre (PHC) with Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) facilities, the state hospital at Asubiaro and the Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) Department of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), Osogbo, benefited from the gesture.

    The donation was facilitated by the Osogbo Ashville Sister Cities Association (OASCA).

    Speaking during the distribution of the medical equipment to the health centres, the Chairman of OASCA, Dr. Oluseyi Atanda, revealed that they were carefully selected after a background investigation on their relevance and patronage by the public as well as their deficiencies in some areas.

    He further revealed that the intervention would strengthen health care delivery services in communities within Osogbo.

    According to him, the gesture was as a result of the collaboration between OASCA and Sister Cities International in order to improve the lives of residents, especially mothers, children and the youth in the communities.

    Atanda added that the medical equipment comprises labour and delivery instruments, paediatrics and anaesthesiology, apart from surgical gowns and drapes.

    He said: “It is my belief that the service providers in the facilities, project implementation committee and the local governments will ensure that the equipment are judiciously used to achieve the purpose for which they were provided.”

    He acknowledged that the event is historical; saying it will improve the health status of residents.

    Atanda, who noted that the event was first of its kind, maintained that it was the largest medical supplies from Asheville to Osogbo community.

    He further said: “Sister Cities International has facilitated assistance to over 550 communities in and outside United States of America. The organisation has over 2, 000 partnerships in 136 countries.

    “Asheville Sister Cities Incorporated is a member of SCI with seven cities relationships spread across the world and we are proud to be the 6th and only city in relationship with Asheville in Nigeria.”

    The Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanioekun Oyetuni, Larooye II, represented by one of his chiefs, Bashorun Tunde Akanni, praised SCI for its gesture, promising to monitor the utilisation of the equipment.

    Also, the National President, Osogbo Progressive Union, Ambassador Adul-Rasaq Siyanbola, advised the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the equipment.

  • Govt advised to sponsor indigent students in varsities

    The Maye of Yoruba land and founder of the Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Osun State High Chief Ramon Adedoyin has advised the Federal Government to show more commitment in the education of brilliant but indigent students. This, he said, it could do by ensuring the improvement of the education sector through investment in the sector which he described as catalyst for development.

    According to him, many brilliant students would continue to be denied university education as long as the current arrangement subsists.

    To ensure that more students from poor homes receive university education, the High Chief maintained that the Federal Government should sponsor more brilliant but indigent students in tertiary education.

    Adedoyin spoke while reacting to a recent statistics which revealed that “out of close to two million candidates who sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), more than one million would be denied admission not because they are not qualified but because the present carrying capacity of Nigeria tertiary institutions, especially the public ones, are not enough to cater for the teeming population of youths seeking admission each year.”

    The statistics revealed that “about 1.99 million candidates registered for the UTME, but the current carrying capacity of Nigerian universities, monotechnics, polytechnics, colleges of education and innovation schools is 750,000 which leaves a shortfall of over 1.2 million candidates who will have to join other candidates to jostle for the limited admission spaces next year or look for ramshackle universities in Cotonou, Republic of Benin or illegal universities in Nigeria.”

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) recently listed almost 100 illegal varsities in Nigeria and Republic of Benin, where many Nigerian students are currently studying.

    The statistics also stated that while most public tertiary institutions, especially the public ones already admit above their carrying capacity, none of the private universities is able to admit up to its carrying capacity because of exorbitant fees which they charge.

    Proffering solution to the unsavoury situation, High Chief Adedoyin said the way out is for government to ensure that the poor have access to quality education by sponsoring those students whose parents could not afford fees for tertiary education. He further noted that the carrying capacities of private universities are not met because they charge an average of 400,000 naira which most parents cannot afford.

    According to him, the government doesn’t need to give cash to private institutions for such sponsorships; rather such sponsorships can be in form of building laboratories, libraries, hostels as well as other facilities which shall be equivalent of the tuition charged by the private universities.

    “Private schools pay heavily on salaries and provision of facilities,” he said.

    He also advised that rather than proliferating private universities by giving approval for more of such institutions, the Federal Government should create access to private universities through sponsorships and other incentives.

    Stating that the minimum qualification for one to teach in a standard university is a doctoral degree, the educationist said many of the existing universities lack the requisite manpower, adding that there is need for the existing universities to work optimally before approvals are given for new ones.