A former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola, has flayed proliferation of satellite campuses by universities in the country.
He said that the use of satellite campuses by Nigerian institutions of higher learning was one of factors responsible for the production of incompetent graduates.
Okebukola stated this at the convocation lecture he delivered at the Elizade University, Ilara Mokin.
The event was part of the activities marking the fourth and fifth convocation ceremonies of the university.
The lecture was titled, ‘Does Nigeria’s development cap fit the Nigerian university system?’
Prof Okebukola pointed out that ‘The major reason some of our graduates turn out to be half-baked is, number one, the severe financial handicap inflicted, especially on the state-owned universities.
“In an attempt to meet their financial needs, especially for salaries, these universities literally sell their certificates through running poorly-delivered courses in poorly-resourced campuses affiliated to other private or public institutions far from the main campuses.
“The double-speak of the governors in the states which own the universities is seen in the severe cut in subvention and the directive not to charge tuition beyond a ridiculously low rate.
“To make up for the shortfall in revenue, the authorities of these universities end up admitting all manner of persons into programmes in satellite or affiliate campuses, in large numbers.”
“Add the poor delivery of the curriculum at such campuses and what we end up with is graduates who are even less than half-baked.
“These are the persons giving the products of the Nigerian university system a bad name. The other factor, of course, is an interruption to the academic calendar brought about by endless cycles of strikes.”
President Muhammadu Buhari departs Abuja Sunday for New York, United States of America, to participate in the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA76).
This was disclosed in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Mr Femi Adesina, in Abuja.
The statement explained that “The session opened on Tuesday, September 14.
The theme for this year’s UNGA is, “Building Resilience Through Hope – To Recover from COVID-19, Rebuild Sustainably, Respond to the Needs of the Planet, Respect the Rights of People and Revitalize the United Nations.”
“President Buhari will address the Assembly during the General Debates on Friday, September 24 when he will speak on the theme of the conference and other global issues.
“In the course of the Assembly, the Nigerian leader and members of the delegation will partake in other significant meetings such as; The High Level Meeting to Commemorate The Twentieth Anniversary of the Adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action on the theme “Reparations, Racial Justice and Equality for People of African Descent.”
“The delegation will also participate in Food Systems Summit; High Level Dialogue on Energy; and The High Level Plenary Meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
“The President will also hold bilateral meetings with a number of other leaders of delegations and heads of International Development organisations.
“He will be accompanied to New York by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN); and Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor.
“Also on the President’s delegation are: National Security Adviser, Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd); Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar; Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire.
“President Buhari is expected back in the country on Sunday, September 26.”
Meanwhile, protests by Nigerians, especially, agitators for the Yoruba Nation are expected to welcome him at the UN.
An environmentalist, Mr. Kolade Omoyeni, has raised the alarm over the possiblity of some communities in Ilaje area of Ondo state being washed away or submerged if the current trend of ocean surge persists.
He has, therefore, called for immediate intervention in flooded areas especially, Aiyetoro Community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State.
According to him, the estwhile socialist community might be washed off as a result of incessant ocean surge if Government at all levels and other relevant authorities delayed in rescuing the community.
Mr Omoyeni said in a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in Akure, the Ondo State capital, that flooding had destroyed the architectural and economic bouyancy of the community, ascribing it to oil exploration activities of oil companies in adjoining communities.
Lamenting the level of destruction of the community, Omoyeni said: “The oil companies carry out exploration in the communities surrounding Aiyetoro without acceeding to international standard practice
“They carry out their exploration activities without recourse to global environmental protection laws.
“This is the same inhuman attitudes of the multinational companies in the whole of the Niger Delta.
“Black soots are threatening the existence of most oil communities from Bayelsa and Ondo, while the Petroleum Industrial Act (PIA) cares very little (even in theory) about the continuous reckless damaging of the riverine areas and lands.
“The economy of the host communities in Niger Delta region are lamed by the crude activities of the oil companies.”
He appealed to environmetalists, governments and the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to save Aiyetoro community from being sunk by incessant ocean surge by ensuring the immediate implementation of abandoned intervention projects awarded for same purpose.
Mr Omoyeni warned that if the community is neglected to be washed away by ocean surge, several communities in Ilaje Local Government Area would suffer the same fate.
Academic, Scholar, Economist, Newspaper Columnist, Politician, unrepentant critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari regime, former Deputy Governor of the Central Dr Obadiah Mailafia is dead.
He died aged 64.
Disbelief and shock are the reactions.
He reportedly died at the National Hospital, Abuja.
Dr Mailafia, the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, during the 2019 General Elections talked himself into national consciousness and running battle with Security Agents when, in a television interview, he accused an unnamed Northern Governor and some Politicians from the North of sponsoring Boko Haram.
He claimed to have been told by repentant insurgents, but taken to task, he buckled and said he heard from traders in a market. The controversy cost him his job at NIPSS, Kuru. From then on, he never relented in bemoaning the state of insecurity in the country.
A weekly Columnist with Vanguard Newspapers, it is not clear yet what caused his sudden death.
The people and Government of Anambra State have received with sadness the news of the death two days ago of Chief Abdulaziz Chivuzor Ude, the internationally renowned publisher, intellectual, art lover, pan Africanist, entrepreneur and philanthropist from Abor, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State who played a significant part in modern Igbo history. He died in Lagos in his late 80s, and was buried in his hometown in the afternoon yesterday in line with the Islamic injunction.
Christened Bertrand at an early age and became the first senior prefect of the College of Immaculate Conception (CIC), Enugu, Ude attended Oxford University where he read philosophy, economics and politics before proceeding to Columbia University in New York where he took a master’s degree in international relations. Ude caught public attention when, while working as an editor at Random House in New York, the world’s biggest book publishing firm, he published Chinua Achebe’s classic, Things Fall Apart, in the United States during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70.
He was to strike a lifelong relationship with Achebe, and made handsome contributions to Achebe’s Okike: A Journal of New African Writing, established in 1971 at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Ude also struck a lifelong relationship in the late 1960s with such Anambra indigenes as Dr Chuba Okadigbo, then an academic in Washington, DC. He worked closely with Dr Okadigbo when the latter was appointed the Special Political Adviser to President Shehu Shagari from 1979 to 1983. When Okadigbo founded Platform, an analytical news magazine, based in Lagos, Chief Ude stood with him all the way, making critical financial interventions.
There were many persons of Anambra State origin in top management of his enterprises like Gordon and Georgi Umunna who worked on Financial Post. His friendship with the hugely popular musician, Chief Oliver Akanite from Nnewi South Local Government Area popularly known as Oliver de Coque, was such that the entertainer waxed an album dedicated to Chief Ude which turned out to be a national bestseller.
Unknown to most people because of his self-effacing nature, Chief Ude contributed significantly to the creation of Anambra, Enugu, Delta and Ebonyi states. Apart from being one of the signatories to the petition for the creation of these states to the Ibrahim Babangida military regime, he donated not just cash but also his private jet to transport the Igbo patriots like Dr Alex Ekwueme, Chike Edozie, Dr Akanu Ibiam, Chief CC Onoh and Dr Okadigbo to different cities who signed the petition. He also donated part of his building at 59 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, to coordinate the campaign for the creation of Igbo states and paid the staff. The then traditional ruler of Enugwu Ukwu, Igwe Osita Agwuna, one of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists, was to confer a high title on him for services to the Igbo world.
Ude’s Nok book publishing firm in Enugu, New York, London and Lagos, published such outstanding works as Chinweizu’s The West and the Rest of Us and Romanus Egudu’s Study of Four West Africans. Ude, in addition, financed Eddie Iroh’s Chic, the London-based colourful social magazine. He was, indeed, a pan Africanist of the finest hue.
An active member of The African Business Round Table for several years, Ude awarded scholarships to hundreds of people to study in top universities in the world and assisted many others in different fields quietly. For example, he was a major promoter of the exhibitions of Aka: The Circle of exhibiting artists like Professor Obiora Udechukwu, Professor Chike Aniakor, Tayo Adenaike, Dr Obiora Anidi, Nsikak Essien, Bona Ezeudu and Boniface Okafor.
Ever humble, he practised egalitarianism in truth and spirit. He never discriminated against the less privileged or those who did not share his religious views. Even after converting to Islam, a result of his deep friendship with founding Guinean President Sekou Toure, a pan Africanist in his own right, Ude remained a big contributor to the welfare of priests and the church in his community.
The Government and people of Anambra State truly mourn the transition of this great Igboman, pan Africanist, publisher and intellectual. We mourn with the Ude family of Abor and the people and government of Enugu State. May Abdulaziz Ude’s noble soul find rest in paradise.
Adinuba is the Commissioner for Information & Public Enlightenment, Anambra State
The cold war between the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Governor of Osun state, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola is continuing unabated as their loyalists continue to trade accusations and blames.
Attempts had been made to broker peace between the two political gladiators especially by the leader of the All Progressive Congress, (APC) in the state, Chief Bisi Akande all to no avail.
Ogbeni Aregbesola, a former Governor of the state, handed over the baton to Mr Oyetola, while Chief Akande served as the first civilian Governor of the state.
The latest firework is coming from a former Commissioner under Aregbesola, who accused him and his loyalists of not saying the truth about the present administration.
The former Finance Commissioner, Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, who is also serving in that capacity under Governor Oyetola, said in a statement in Osogbo at the weekend that some loyalists of the Minister have been dishing out lies against the present administration, with a view to misleading the people.
The statement reads: “My attention has been drawn to a viral video being circulated on the social media by the former Commissioner for Home Affairs, Mr. Sikiru Ayedun, who by his unsubstantiated claims, could mislead the public through misrepresentation of facts on the state of refund by the Federal Government to the Osun State Government on all the federal roads constructed by the previous administration and the Osun debt portfolio management by the present administration.
“In setting the records straight, it is important to emphatically and explicitly state that such claims, as presented in the video under reference, is capable of creating disharmony, strife, and bad blood within the progressive family.
“The claim that the sum of N48billion has been received by the Oyetola-led administration as a refund on federal roads constructed within the state is untrue.
Adegboyega Oyetola
“The total contract sum of all federal road projects embarked upon by the Osun State Government, as approved by the Federal Ministry of Works, is N38billion. It is therefore against logic that the sum of N48bn will be paid by the FG for projects whose total contract sum equals N38bn.
“The projects in question, as at November, 2018, on the average, was less than 35% completion.
“Available records show that the Osun State Government awarded the 29km Gbongan – Akoda dualization project in 2013 for N29bn while the 40km Osogbo – Ikirun – Ila Odo Kwara boundary was awarded for N17.5bn in the same year, making both projects to amount to N46.5bn as proposed by Osun State Government.
“However, after due diligence and thorough assessment by the FG Public Procurement Agency, the contract sum was reviewed downward thus: Gbongan – Akoda road at N23bn, and Osogbo – Ila Odo road at N15bn respectively to carry the approved award contract sum of N38bn for all the ongoing FG roads under construction. This review was duly communicated to the Osun State Government.
“As at November 2018, the contractor handling Gbongan – Akoda road project had received a total sum of N10.2bn, out of which 3.5km of the 29km stretched road have been completed including the Gbongan Interchange and the project was at 29% completion. “The contractor handling the Osogbo – Ila Odo road collected a total sum of N9.2bn, with 49% completion rate; the implication is that the Osun State Government had paid both contractors the sum of N19.4bn as at November 2018.
“Similarly, the total refund by the FG to the state as today, in three tranches, stood at N11.9bn based on the project delivered by both contractors.
“It is imperative to state that the FG refund of N11.9bn has been judiciously utilized and plowed back into four (4) inherited road projects embarked upon by the previous administration contrary to the unsubstantiated claims by Mr. Ayedun that the refund is being used to pay full salaries to civil servants in the state.
“As at today, Gbongan – Akoda road project is at 36% completion stage, with 8.6km asphalted on both sides of the road.
“Also, the Osogbo – Ila odo project which was at 49% in November 2018 is now at 55% completion, Oba Adesoji Aderemi road which was equally inherited at 65% completion is at 74% now and Ilesa – Iperindo – Ipetu Ijesa road project rose from 40% to 66% completion stage.
“It is also instructive to note that since the advent of Oyetola administration, an additional 60km of the road had been reconstructed and fully completed, with another 10 township roads presently under construction; these are expected to be completed before the end of 2021 including the Iconic Olaiya flyover.
“While we refrain from joining issues with anyone, the State Government of Osun under the leadership of Gov. Gboyega Oyetola has expended over N150bn on prompt payment of full salaries and pensions.
“It is a fact that Osun State remains one of the few states paying the minimum wage of N30,000 in spite of our precarious and highly geared financial situation.
“This is in fulfillment of the pact he made with Osun citizens when he assumed office in 2018. Whereas it is true that both the state’s N30bn and N11.4bn Sukuk bonds have been fully repaid, the current government has paid over N67bn as loan repayment during its 33months of administration in the State without borrowing a kobo to date.
“The ingenuity and doggedness of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, has ensured a significant reduction in the total debt portfolio of Osun State.
“However, in spite of this unprecedented boldness in public financial management, Osun remains the third (3rd) most indebted state among the 36 states of Nigeria. This can be verified from the website of the Debt Management Office.
“Without sounding like a broken record, let me reaffirm that Governor Gboyega Oyetola will continue to deploy his over 3 decades of managerial experience as a risk manager, a welfarist and financial guru to move the economy of the state towards the prosperity of the larger percentage of Osun citizens.
“Finally, I urge all well-meaning Osun citizens both politician and otherwise, to endeavour to verify all information before publication and dissemination. This will ensure a peaceful and healthy political atmosphere for all and sundry.
“The State Government of Osun under Governor Gboyega Oyetola hereby reiterates her commitment to providing a secure, financially viable, and peaceful environment so Osun may continue to thrive.
“I want to implore us as all political leaders and Omoluabis (virtuous people) to support Mr. Governor in his quest for a greater Osun.”
The Peoples Democratic Party’s Governors Forum, has taken a strong exception to the statement credited to Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State with regards to the Party’s (PDP) Presidential Zoning in 2023.
Umahi was a two term PDP Governor who inexplicably dumped the party midway for the All Progressives Congress, APC, flaunting one of his reasons as his love for President Muhammadu Buhari. He also said he was moving because the PDP was delaying in zoning the 2023 Presidential slot to the South-east. Earlier, before he left the Party, he had asked it to zone it to the South-east, or he would quit.
He has since defected to the APC, where it does seem, everyday, that if the reason he joined was to have a finger on the big pie, it is not working.
Having left the PDP, not a few people were surprised when he commented on the delay in the PDP over zoning of the Presidency to the South-east. The APC has not done that yet.
Stung by Umahi”s poke-nosing, the PDP Governors Forum in a strongly-worded statement signed by its Director General, Hon. CID Maduabum, asked Umahi to shut up.
The Forum reminded him of the immorality of “illegally sitting on a PDP mandate, and calling himself an APC Governor.”
It also accused him of, sabotaging, as a PDP Governor, the 2019 Presidential election against the PDP, so as to give Buhari 25 per cent, but was checkmated by outraged Ebonyi people.
The statement also chided him for claiming to be close to President Buhari “irrespective of the maladministration and daily incidents of destruction of lives and properties currently going on in Ebonyi State and the entire country under the watch of the APC.”
Following is the full text of the statement titled:
UMAHI SHOULD FACE APC MISRULE AND HIS FRUSTRATIONS
“The PDP GOVERNORS’ FORUM is outraged at the attempt by the Governor of Ebonyi State, H.E. David Umahi, who illegally and immoraly sits on a PDP mandate and calls himself an APC Governor to turn truth on its head.
“2 . Governor Umahi left PDP for APC, according to him, because of the love he has for President Buhari, among other flimsy reasons, irrespective of the maladministration and daily incidents of destruction of lives and properties currently going on in Ebonyi State and the entire country under the watch of APC
“3. Governor Umahi sabotaged the PDP in 2019 elections in his quest to deliver 25% to his APC benefactors. It took the determined resistance of Ebonyi people to checkmate him. It was good riddance that he subsequently left PDP for APC instead of continuing his role as an APC mole.
“4. On the issue of Zoning, we advise Governor Umahi to face his frustrations in APC and not drag PDP and her Governors into it. PDP is an independent political Party with workable structures and method of doing things. It’s not an appendage of the APC or indeed any other association or group.
“5.The PDP will take its decision on the issue of zoning political offices at the appropriate time. Even the APC has not taken any decision yet on zoning. Different groups and interests are advancing arguments to defend their positions as is required in a democracy. At the end of the day, decisions will be taken by each political party.
“6. The PDP is single minded in its resolve to boot out the APC in 2023 and would craft strategies to achieve same in the national interest as APC currently represents an existential threat to Nigerias democracy and survival. Indeed all Nigerians have a duty and responsibility to end this long nightmare of APC misrule.”
The Vice Chancellor of University of Benin, (UNIBEN), Prof Lilian Salami, has said that refusal of students to pay necessary fees as scheduled was having negative impact on the programmes of the University.
According to her, the growing trend of students’ late registration and delay in payment led to the introduction of the late registration fee, ranging between N6,000 and N20,000.
The Vice Chancellor said in Benin, that research further showed that there was a direct correlation between late registration and poor student academic performance.
“The sad fact is that less than 25 per cent of our students register on time yearly, no functional or high performing education institution can thrive with such lackluster statistics.
“Early registration remains critical for effective operations of the university. Timely registration provides insight into the students’ volume/demand and allows for smarter planning to ensure that there are enough staff, courses and funding to support the students accordingly.
“It is important to note that in the past, other non-financial interventions in attempts to urge early registration have failed.
“It was based on the bad practice that the university Senate on Aug. 2, agreed to increase the existing payment of late fee from N10,000 to N20,000 on all students, as another attempt to further encourage early registration.
“The announcement saw significant growth in early registrations from 2020 rate of 35 per cent to 93 per cent.
“We haven’t seen this rate of early registration in decades. It is a UNIBEN record without question, and kudos to those students who chose to make their education a priority.”
She explained that the senate reversed the decision due to the outcry and violent protest from students stressing that the reversal of the position would not break the institution.
“I fundamentally believe that there are very few decisions that are irreversible and this is definitely not one of them. At this time, the late fee is reversed and it is a closed case.
“UNIBEN is resilient and we will continue to move forward with a strong conviction to ensure that the university reaches its full potential as a premier academic institution.”
“How we gather the voice of the students and how we leverage technology to address these kinds of issues in the future.
“The goal remains to ensure that our great institution continues to strive and create an environment where all can succeed.”
Commercial activities in towns in the South East region are expected to resume fully as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has put on hold all forms of sit-at-home till further notice.
The sit at home order, which is part of the activities to drum support for the release of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had led to some secondary school students missing their final examinations and a lull in commercial activities.
A statement by the Media and Publicity Director of IPOB, Mr Emma Powerful, however, warned anybody attempting to enforce the order to shelve their plan or have themselves to blame.
According to him, already, a task force has been set up to that effect to check those who might attempt to enforce the order, especially on Friday.
“We have set up a task force to deal with such hooligans. My fellow Biafrans, there is no crack in IPOB and there is no sit at home order again this week until the day our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, will appear in court and our people must disregard any statement that is not from our media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful.
“IPOB is not going to order sit-at-home on Fridays again because our people have suffered a lot but agent of darkness living in Europe thinks he can succeed but it’s little time he will realise that we are smarter and intelligent than him.
“Our people should go their normal business on Friday there is no more sitting at home order from IPOB.”
On the killing of an Anglican priest, Reverend Emeka Merenu in Ihitte Ukwa, Orsu council area of Imo State recently, the group stated that:
“It is not in our DNA to kill an ordained priest who was not in any way working against Biafran restoration.
“We want to make it categorically clear that Nigeria security agencies created unknown gunmen which are select Fulani terrorists operating in the name of unknown gunmen.”
IPOB has also warned traditional rulers, highly placed politicians and religious leaders in the South East to be more cautious, claiming that there was a secret plot to eliminate them and blame it on its Security outfit, Eastern Security Network (ESN).
“God has endorsed Biafra restoration. We, therefore, advise all traditional rulers, politicians, religious leaders and other VIPs in Biafra land to be very circumspect.
“The enemies have a secret agenda to eliminate them and blame it on IPOB just to demonise us. They should take this alert very seriously.”
However, a self acclaimed disciple of Kanu, Simon Ekpa, who lives in Finland insists the sit-at-home order must be complied with.
The Joint Health Sectors Unions and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations, rose from a joint meeting late Friday, and suspended their planned strike billed to commence on 12am Saturday, September 18, 2021.
The Unions had, earlier this month, threatened to embark on an indefinite strike action over breaches in the agreements, issuing a 15-day ultimatum to the FG.
In a Communiqué signed by the Acting National General Secretary, JOHESU, Mathew Ajorutu, the Health workers said the appeal of President Muhammadu Buhari, who pledged to pay all outstanding debts owed the union, will not be ignored.
The NEC, which was expanded to include the Presidents and General Secretaries of affiliate unions and professional associations, NEC members of affiliated unions and JOHESU Chairmen and Secretaries at the State and Branch levels, said it has looked at the progress of the negotiations with government since notice of strike was issued September 2.
The communique read art:
“NEC-in-Session after long hours of exhaustive deliberations on issues surrounding the planned strike action resolved as follows:
“The Federal Ministry of Health should ensure speedy circularisation of all establishment and welfare matters as agreed during negotiation meetings.
“The Federal Government should ensure that the new data for the computation of the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure for JOHESU members be completed and submitted to the ‘High-Level Body’ of the FG not later than Wednesday, 22nd September, 2021 as a high-level-in-Session urges the Federal Government to ensure that the ‘High Level Body’ complete and submit the computation of the adjusted CONHESS for inclusion in the 2022 budget within the 30th September, 2021 submission window.”
According to the Union, the FG should reciprocate “the patriotic humanitarian gesture of JOHESU in the interest of the larger Nigerian masses to expeditiously resolve all the demands within the 15 days window.”
“Finally, NEC-in-Session unanimously adopts a resolution to step down the notice of strike action due to expire mid-night 17th September 2021 and issue a fresh notice of 15 days,” the unions said.
