The Nation Newspaper

Tag: week

  • Ajimobi: How Akala blew N3b in one week

    Ajimobi: How Akala blew N3b in one week

    •Says Ladoja refunded N500m loot to EFCC

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has explained how his predecessor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, allegedly blew N3 billion government fund within the last week of his administration in May 2011.

    Ajimobi, who disclosed this in an interview with reporters in Ibadan, the state capital, also revealed how Alao-Akala’s predecessor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, refunded N500 million to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in a move aimed at getting plea bargain.

    The governor said Alao-Akala realised the N3billion from the sale of government quarters during his tenure, pointing out that he set aside the fund for payment of pensions before he squandered it in the last week of his administration.

    Alao- Akala is the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) and Ladoja the governorship candidate of Accord.

    Ajimobi wondered how the two former governors considered it right for them to contest for the same position again, despite the moral burden on them.

    He said the N500 million recovered from Ladoja is being used to build model schools across the state’s three senatorial districts.

    “My predecessor sold several government quarters from which he realised about N3 billion. He first set it aside to pay pensioners but later blew it one week before we came in.”

    The governor explained that rather than follow the same path, his administration partnered with UACN Properties, which has redeveloped 89 apartments to be sold at the value of over N5 billion. He explained that the government owns 45 percent of the investment.

    According to him, the same landed property used for the apartments had been valued at only N120 million the sale of which he turned down because of the potential for huge profit, if better utilised. “This, to me, is good governance,” he said.

    The governor was answering a question on how he hopes to cope with dwindling federal allocations and huge and increasing expenditure, if he returns as governor.

    He said his administration would survive by building on the foundation it has laid in attracting investors to the city. Eight big industries have opened for business in the state in the last two years as marks of his efforts to attract investors.

    Ajimobi emphasised that the state’s economy was improving daily, which will ultimately put government in a position to earn more revenue internally.

  • A Fashion Week at LASU

    Communication Students’ Association (CSA) of the Lagos State University (LASU) has organised the second edition of their faculty’s Fashion Week.  The event was aimed at enabling fashion designers among students exhibit their wares to the people. The event took place at the faculty ground in Ojuelegba campus of the school.

    At the show, the fashion designers displayed how simplicity could be explored to achieve sophistication in fashion designing. The event started with a drama presentation by Broadcast students, after which models took to the runway to showcase different styles.

    The event was also as a re-union for Steve Onu Yaw, an on-air presenter at Wazobia Fm and his classmate, Oladotun Kayode of Cool FM. The students were thrilled with music performances. A student known as Nash on the campus wowed the audience with his performance of Baby Mo, which won him a live interview on Super Screen Television.

    The president of the association, Olamilekan Hassan, said the event was to create a platform for students, who are into fashion designing, modelling and bead making to display their articles, thereby creating jobs for them and fostering their spirit of entrepreneurship.

    Hassan praised the sponsors and students, who contributed to the success of the event.

    The Financial Secretary, Abayomi Ariba, said he was happy that the event went as planned, saying: “At first, I was having a negative feeling that it was not going to be successful.” He expressed gratitude to the sponsors that provided the finance.

    Adetoke Oluwo, a TV producer, hailed the association for the “impressive show”, advising girls to work harder to be successful in men’s world. “To be a celebrity is hard. It is not a mirage when you are talented. I used to be a banker but now, I am a TV presenter,” she advised.

    Kayode said he was elated to return to his alma mater after years of graduation. He advised students, who look up to him as a role model, to work hard and be focused.

    Yaw urged the students to always be thirsty for greatness. He admonished them not to relent in anything they do.

  • Since Thursday of last week

    Moseyn Ekiw knows of his many an enemy. He is quite sure Governor Timiro Ihceama of Waters State, whom he served as Controller of Staff, is the number one. But since Thursday of last week, he has become increasingly worried about the enemies inside. As the Sole Administrator of the Umbrella Peoples Party (UPP) in Waters State and a Junior Minister of the Federal Republic of Niagra, things should have been easier for him. His quest to fly the party’s governorship flag should have been a walk-over. But the enemies within are bent on frustrating him. Yet, they were all nowhere to be found when he was wresting the party’s structure from his ex-boss.

    He scratches his head, looks at the mirror in front of him and from the mirror he sees a copy of a newspaper with the event of Thursday of last week as its lead.

    “Rain of blows at UPP parley,” the headline screams. He picks it up and reads the two quotes on the front page.

    “I came here to defend a petition before the reconciliation committee and Ekiw’s thugs prevented me from doing so and Ekiw personally punched me,” reads the first quote by a former commissioner in Waters State.

    “How could I have done that? The meeting went peacefully. Everything was peaceful. Everybody who had something to say was allowed to say it. A man of my status could not have done that,” reads the second quote which the newspaper took from a telephone interview its correspondent had with Ekiw.

    He shudders after reading his response and thinks aloud: “How many people will believe me?”

    By intuition, he grabs his Galaxy tab and opens the website of another newspaper to see the comments of the people to the event of Thursday of last week.

    The first comment makes him sad.

    “Why is UPP always prodding up thugs as their arrowheads? Their arrowhead in a state ordered his thugs to tear a judge’s suit; now see what this one has done.”

    He hisses after reading this and goes ahead to see what others have to say. Of the 90 reactions to the report, only ten are favourable. He suspects the ten must be party faithful trying to remedy the situation.

    He feels bad, but quickly tells himself: “It is too late to back out. I will be killing myself politically if I back out at this stage. We must fight it to the finish.”

    At that instant, the events leading to the event of Thursday of last week come back to him vividly. He was in his office when the man he installed as the party chair in Waters State, Haubo, came to meet him. He told him of how 22 aggrieved party men were planning to storm the House of Legacy to defend their petitions against his quest to become governor.

    “What do we do?” he remembers asking Haubo.

    “We’ve to stop them,” he can still hear Haubo telling him.

    “How?” was his question.

    “We will use our boys and the police. With your position as minister, just get the police to look the other way when our boys are dealing with them. Our boys will be armed with cudgels, knifes, stones and all sorts. They don’t need guns to deal with these people. They should just beat and bloody them enough to scare them away from accessing the panel headed by Prof.”

    He remembers buying the idea and releasing money to Haubo to camp the boys in a hotel not far from House of Legacy.

    His phone rings and breaks into his thought. The caller ID shows it is his daughter. He picks the call.

    “Hello sweetheart?”

    “Hi dad?”

    “I’m fine dear,” he says.

    “Where are you? I am outside knocking the door since.”

    “Sorry dear,” he says and hurries out of the room to go and open the main entrance door for her.

    Soon, they are together in the living room. It takes a little time before she notices he is not his usual self.

    “What is the problem again, dad?”

    “Nothing,” he pretends.

    She keeps quite for a while and soon fishes out a document from her bag and gives him to read. It is a print out of online comments on the event of Thursday last week. They are silent for a few minutes.

    “Are we going to emerge stronger from all these?” she asks later.

    He keeps mum concentrating instead eyes on the First Dame’s picture on the wall. It is one of those her pictures taken by an ace female photographer which gave her beauty she can never have.

    She decides to be frank with him.

    “By the time this governor finishes his tenure, the upland people would have done 16 years. The pendulum favours the People on Water. Sincerely, I don’t think the Goodluck Charm with the First Dame’s husband is enough to make you governor.”

    She pauses and continues after some minutes: “I think it is high time you faced reality. I will be shocked if the people support any party with a candidate outside of the People on the Water. The Riverside people in Waters State have every reason to expect to have one of their own leading the state, based on history, fairness and balance. The People on Water are the largest ethnic group in the state with about 10 Local Government Areas and substantial populations in 2 others of 23 Local Government Areas. The other two have less than 5 each. The People on Water are 39.7 per cent of the population of the state. In 1999, Ilido emerged on popular Riverside support. Again in 2007 and 2011, the Riverside people gave the incumbent their mandate.”

    When his daughter gets to this stage, he remembers he once told a group of editors in Lagos that he could never govern the Water State in 2015 because he is from the same ethnic stock with the governor. He had told the editors he would be creating problems for himself if he started thinking about succeeding his kinsman. Now, the problems are here and just taking new shapes every other day.

    His daughter continues: “Dad,” she says and moves closer to him,” as a young girl, I certainly will like to be the First Daughter of Waters State.”

    He remembers her mum used a similar line the last time the other aspirants ganged up against him.

    “But, if you ask me to choose between my dad becoming hypertensive trying to be governor and my dad remaining sane without being addressed as His Excellency, certainly I will pick you retaining your sanity.”

    She adds: “Politics surprises me at times, especially the type we play here.”

    At this stage, he has no doubt the girl is paraphrasing her mother.

    He wonders how she knew of their past discussion. Perhaps she told her, he thinks.

    “One moment, you see people being good friends ready to sacrifice for one another and then the next moment, they are the worst enemies around. It baffles me, it really does. I can’t even share quality time together with the governor’s children again and we used to be good family friends. Everything is just upside now.”

    She stands up, announcing: “I will be in my room. Whatever you do, just put your family into consideration. Since the event of Thursday of last week, I have not been happy and reading such nasty comments about you makes me really sad. I know you are a good father, you have been really good to us and mum has told me you are a good husband. The only thing I think is left is for you to be a good politician. And for me, a good politician is one who reads the trend. When the trend favours you, flow with it. When it does not, re-assess yourself and plan for another time. The event of Thursday of last week must not repeat itself again. If it does, I will be too ashamed to call you my father and I am sure mum too will feel terrible being identified as your wife.”

    Now, he feels sad about the event of Thursday of last week.

     

  • Red carpet show at the 2014 Ecowas fashion week

    Red carpet show at the 2014 Ecowas fashion week

    CELEBS and designers flocked to the Landmark Center, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria, to kick-off the biggest fashion week of the season, the Ecowas fashion week.

    The Week kicked off with a seminar, entitled the ‘Business of fashion’. And trust the designers, as they wowed the crowd with spectacular creations.  Here are the best looks from the red carpet, ranging from the fabulous, the chic and the glamourous!

  • Poly marks union week

    Students of the Rivers State Polytechnic (RIVPOLY) in Bori have organised the Students’ Union Government (SUG) Week, which ended last Sunday with a thanksgiving at the Chapel of Jesus Christ on the campus.

    The week-long programme was declared open by the Director of Students’ Affairs (DSA), Mr Emmanuel Oma. Activities on the first day of the week featured a welcoming event for freshers in National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes, orientation and familiarity exercise with the SUG leaders.

    Students came out in funny attires on the second day to mark the “Old School Day”. The next day, they held “Rag Day”, which had them moving around the Bori community to raise money for the less privileged. The “Gala Nite” and “Departmental Day” were also held.

    The last activity was the Cultural Day, which held last Saturday, where students wore various attractive traditional attires to promote their culture. Although, Duncan Mighty, the artiste, who was billed to entertain the students, did not come; his absence did not stop the fun as students thrilled themselves during the night party.

    Some of the students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, described the event as memorable, noting that it was properly organised. They hailed the union leaders and the management for the success of the Week.

  • Departments mark week

    Departments mark week

    Students of the Department of Psychology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), have held their annual week.  The opening day was the back-to-school programme, where students wore different attires to participate in the match – past and dance parade round their faculty.

    It was fun as the crowd gathered to watch their colleagues display different skills.  The programme tagged, The past is key to the present, was eventful as students exhibited the characters of early students who were trained by the whites during the colonial era.

    A student told CAMPUSLIFE: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, they say. After stressful academic weeks, students, one should socialise and relieve the body of stress in order to prepare better for exams.  We have been having great fun.’’

    The students of Department of Public Administration and Local Government also held their departmental week.   The first day of the programme started with rag day, where students were decked in different attires.  The following day was the cultural day, where students displayed the best of Igbo culture and tradition.

    A student, Mathias Onyemechi Igwe, 300-Level Public Administration, said: “It is a welcome development because it will help the younger generations to appreciate the culture of Igbos and makes it stronger.”

  • Ogun students mark Week

    Ogun students mark Week

    It was an atmosphere of revelry  at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) when National Association of Ogun State Students (NAOSS) held its Week.

    The event, which started with a novelty match between members of the association and their Ondo counterparts, was held at the sports pavilion.

    The match, which was a keen contest between both sides, ended in a draw.

    The second day witnessed the Ogun Day, where students showcased their rich cultural heritage. The female students were clad in traditional attires while the males flaunted Aso Oke outfit.

    The event tagged: Mission to rebuild Ogun State: The role of Ogun students, was graced by illustrious indigenes of the State from all walks of life. Also present at the event were the Students’ Union President, Ahmed Lawal Abiodun; Vice-President, Kemi Hassan and Public Relations Officer, Balogun Isiak.

    The event featured cultural display by the performing troupes, cash donations and presentation of awards to deserving persons.

    The outgoing president, Adeosun Azeez, showered appreciation on the dignitaries for their contribution towards the success of his administration.  He urged the students to be committed to their academic pursuits.

    A former president of the association, Mr Dopamu Michael, congratulated the present administration for upholding the legacy he left behind. He also promised to render support to the union.

    The chairman of Ogun Week Committee, Olaleye Olalekan, lauded the leadership qualities of his predecessor, saying posterity would remember him for good.

  • Muslim students hold Jihad Week

    Muslim students hold Jihad Week

    The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) Muslim Community in collaboration with the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), UNILORIN chapter, has held a public lecture to mark the formal opening of the 1434 Jihad Week.

    The lecture was held at the university auditorium.

    In his lecture entitled: Why are we here, Dr Abdulqadri Sambaki, urged Muslims to worship and remember Allah. He said that human beings’ actions should be in conformity with the instructions of Allah and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

    Sambaki noted that serving Allah was not only through ritualistic manners, “but we can also serve Allah through our ways of life, and it shall be rewarded accordingly”. He added: “Every action of human backed with good intention of serving Allah shall be rewarded by Him.”

    He dismissed the belief that man was not created by God, but only exist through evolution. He said: “We are made to understand in the Holy Quran that there is creation of human beings through the developmental stages of foetus in the mother’s womb”. He stressed that human beings were created by God to Him.

    The chairman of the occasion, who is also the immediate Vice Chancellor of the school, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, advised Muslims to look for positive and appropriate means of propagating Islam and retaining the interest of people.

    He also urged them to always be in the company of virtuous and righteous people who were better than them in piety, stressing that this would make them better Muslims.

    Oloyede, who is the Secretary of Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), also enjoined Muslims to maintain a cordial and peaceful relationship with their counterparts from other religions.

    The second speaker, Ustadth Abdullah Bukarti, a law graduate of Bayero University Kano (BUK), spoke on Man sojourn in this world and in the hereafter. He reminded about the life in the grave and the Day of Judgment. While advising students to make good use of their youthful period, he noted that the youthful stage was the most productive and challenging stage of man existence.

    The highlight of the occasion was the launching of Al-Bayan magazine, a publication of MSSN, and the presentation of prizes to the winners of the inter-faculty quiz competition, annual secondary school quiz competition and the secondary school impromptu speech presentation, all organised by MSSN.

    Present at the occasion were Prof Hussein Oloyede, former VC, Fountain University, Osogbo, Prof Y.A. Quadri, Prof Babatunde Adeleke, chairman, UNILORIN Muslim Community and the Dean Faculty of Science, Dr Mahfouz Adedimeji, former director, Directorate of Information and Protocol, UNILORIN.

     

     

  • Naira set for best week

    Naira set for best week

    The naira is set for its best week in three weeks after the last Nigerian bond and Central Bank foreign- exchange auctions for the year held tlast week.

    The currency of Africa’s biggest oil producer was unchanged at N157.2 a dollar. The naira has risen by 0.3 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    Nigeria’s 10-year borrowing costs declined to the lowest ever at the last auction four days ago. The N30 billion ($190 million) of bonds due January 2022 were sold at a marginal yield of 11.9001 per cent, a record low.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold $300 million the same day at its last foreign- currency auction of the year, the most at a single sale since August 8, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

    Yields on 10-year naira debt were unchanged at 11.89 per cent in the secondary market, according to prices compiled on the Financial Markets Dealers Association website.

    Borrowing costs on the nation’s $500 million of Eurobonds due January 2021 declined one basis point to 4.09 per cent at the close of business last week., retreating four basis points this week.