Buhari installs Emir of Zamfara as petroleum varsity chancellor (Read full details)

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President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday installed the Emir of Zamfara, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed, as Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun in Delta State.

According to President Buhari, the institution is fifth best specialized petroleum university in the world and best in Africa.

The President was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Chiedu Mafiana, who administered the Oath of Office on Ahmed at the first convocation ceremony of FUPRE.

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who presented the key note address, again restated that by 2019 the country would stop importation of fuel and assured that the Federal Government would facilitate the process of FUPRE’s quest for a modular refinery.

In his paper titled: “The Prospects of Nigeria’s Oil Industry in the Next Decade” Kachikwu said with Nigeria’s current efforts at improved local refineries and refined products capacity will reduce importation by 60% in 2018 and reposition the country for net export by 2019”.

Buhari described the Emir as a meticulous and visionary leader, adding that the FUPRE chancellorship was strategic and urged Ahmed to play an exalted and fatherly figure role with a guiding light to show the younger generation the path of greatness.

In his response Ahmed said: “This honour bestowed on me is for the entire people of Zamfara. FUPRE is a university in dire need of assistance. I shall lend the privilege of my office as a traditional ruler and my expertise as a diplomat to support the university to greater heights.”

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We’ll do well this season, says MFM’s coach Ilechukwu…See full details

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Fidelis IIechukwu

Head Coach of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries Football Club (MFM FC), Fidelis IIechukwu, on Friday night described the 2-1 triumph over defending champion, Enugu Rangers, as a sign of good things to come for his side this season.

Two goals in each half of the game through forward, Sikiru Olatunbosun, in the 30th minute, and a solo effort by Stephen Odey, in the 60th, ensured that the Olukoya Boys inflicted the Flying Antelopes their third league defeat in the Match Day 10 encounter of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), played at the Agege Township Stadium in Lagos.

MFM’s rare win over big teams as against last season’s performance, has taken the team to the second position after eight matches, and with one outstanding game while Rangers remain in the 16th position on the log.

Speaking after the epic meeting, an elated IIechukwu said he took time to watch tapes of matches involving Rangers before the night, adding that he also studied the players he needed to watch out for.

“I want to appreciate God for this victory. I watched tapes of matches involving them for days, and I believe they have good players especially three players, which I gave specific instructions to my boys about. I am happy all the efforts worked for us.

“Though Rangers were good, but we too had two fantastic players upfront, Odey and Sikiru, who can score at anytime, any day. We are elated we got the maximum three points,” he said.

Ilechukwu continued, “We have a fantastic team; I think we will do well this season. Our next game is going to be a good one and a very tough one. I believe we can beat any team anywhere.” MFM’s next match will be an away game to Katsina United, on the Match Day 11 of the NPFL’s fixture.

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Akande kicks off conversation on her novel what it takes…Read full details

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To further encourage reading and creative writing among students, the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, Akoka, yesterday featured Dr. Lola Akande, who read from her latest work, What It Takes, in the February, 2017 edition of the department’s literary reading. The monthly literary reading, which started in 2006, and has featured such writers as Chimamanda Adichie, Odia Ofeimun, Sam Omatseye among others, is an avenue for inspiring students of the department to be creative writers.

Students and lecturers gathered at the faculty’s boardroom as they sipped from Akande’s creative brew. She read excerpts from her new novel that brings to light the ills in Nigerian university system, specifically lecturer versus student relationship and the needless rigor required to acquire a PhD degree.

Akande explained that lecturers take advantage of their positions and the situation on ground to sexually harass and extort students as some of the students who are fragile fall into their whimsical trap. She said the aim of the novel is for society at large to be conscious of the happenings in the university system and for the dastardly acts that happened there to stop so as to promote quality education at all levels in the country.

Also, speaking at the event, Head, Department of English, Prof. Hope Eghagha, said the literary reading programme was initiated to restore and improve reading habits among students. He noted that Akande’s novel captures the reality in the university system as male lectures exploit female students by taking advantage of them, a situation that terrifies students and make learning or acquiring a degree a hard task.

According to him, “Book reading is a practice we try to establish in the department. We invite writers to read their latest work as a way of interacting with students to imbibe the habit of reading. Male–female relationship comes up in the university system often. Male lecturers exploit female students by taking advantage of them. I try to comprehend these issues and admonish them.”

Also to lend his voice was Prof. Timothy Asobele, management board member of the university, who commended the author of the book and the effort put into bringing such evil deeds into limelight. He said lecturers, who engage in such immoral acts never rise above their positions of mediocrity and depravity.

“Lola has been groomed by the faculty and department which is evident in her works,” he said. “She captures what happens in the university system. Lecturers, who are evil-doers do not rise above their position due to the evil scheme they engage in with vulnerable students.”

There were musical interludes as well as Akande read excerpts from her novel. Reviewer of the book and an alumnus of the university, Samuel Olatunji, also noted that the author infused real life experiences to energise the fictional narrative so that readers can feel and experience the narrator’s plight and empathise with her all the way.

Akande holds a doctorate degree in English Literature from the University of Ibadan. She teaches African Literature and has written In Our Place, Camouflage and Dream Chasers.

FOR Akande, the literary reading event was most fulfilling and even surpassed all her expectations. In a conversation after the event, she said, “I wasn’t sure how it would go; I was sure I was going to be attacked. A colleague had accosted me about the book before; so, I was expecting something like taht, but I didn’t see anything of such. My colleagues really came to support me.

“It was very fulfilling. I felt and still feel very grateful to God. I didn’t expect it would turn out so great. It was like a book launch. It felt amazing; our boardroom was filled to capacity. Surprisingly, the HOD, Eghagha, tried to get someone to review What It Takes, but the person he got couldn’t make it. But a former student volunteered; it was so magical, so miraculous. I can assure you I had an exciting time. Some people asked me how I got the courage to write such a book; they were afraid for me how the university would receive the book. Do you know that the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics and Research, Prof. Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, just sent me a mail asking me to participate in the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Structural Training for African Researchers? I was surprised. It prepared me for my triumph today!”

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Air Peace launches daily flight to Accra February 16

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<img src="http://ift.tt/2kIl3ct&quot; alt="" width="1280" height="720" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-223884" srcset="http://ift.tt/2kIl3ct 1280w,http://ift.tt/2ldLUKp 640w,http://ift.tt/2kIhTWc 1062w,http://ift.tt/2ldx5Y7 320w,http://ift.tt/2kIaXbs 281w,http://ift.tt/2ldvt0S 562w,http://ift.tt/2kIdOkC 531w,http://ift.tt/2ldqI7c 487w,http://ift.tt/2kIySaJ 974w,http://ift.tt/2ldEhDO 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px"http://cdn.gdn.ng/, including Abidjan, Douala, Dakar, Niamey, South Africa, Dubai, Mumbai, Guangzhou-China, Atlanta and London.

The maiden flight into Kotoka International Airport (KIA), Accra, Ghana takes off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 7 a.m. local time and makes a return to Lagos at 8 a.m. (GMT). Subsequently, the Abuja-Accra-Abuja sector will come on stream.

A statement by the Corporate Communications Manager of Air Peace, Mr. Chris Iwarah said: “We are pleased to announce the commencement of daily flights from Lagos into Accra and from Accra into Lagos from Thursday, February 16, 2017. The launch of our Lagos-Accra-Lagos route is for us a dream come true in our plan to take our spectacular flight experience to the West Coast, the African continent and other international destinations.’’

“We are hopeful our Accra-Lagos-Accra service will make seamless connection between Nigeria and Ghana an exciting possibility as well as boost the economy of the two countries in unimaginable ways.

“Our numerous customers and the entire air travel community are guaranteed a great service anchored on safety, comfort and affordability. Our on-time departure record remains unequalled. Air travellers on the Lagos-Accra-Lagos route deserve the best of flight experience and that is what we are offering them.”

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kDE5kN

When will enough be enough with Nigerians?

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Sir: Why do most Nigerians like grandstanding? Why do Nigerians like to cry more than the bereaved? We are where we are today as a people because of our ways of life. It’s high time we desisted from dressing up in a borrowed robe.

I wish Nigerians can refrain from trading in unfounded rumours that are not substantiated, which invariably can do damage to national psyche and nation building. The brouhaha that greeted the misguided executive orders being rolled out by American president have found their ways into the warped lexicon of the Nigerian cyborgs.

The agents and carriers of doomsday gospel should think twice before causing irreparable damages. Why not wait until Nigeria is included, or at least get clarification from credible source(s) before circulating the bad news?

Nowhere in the controversial executive order was the issuance of visa for Nigerians mentioned. Why the hullabaloo? “Buhari is dead today”, “Buhari is sick tomorrow”, these are rumours being peddled about a president who deserves a rest after a year of work to make Nigeria great again. Nigerians’ psyche is their deadliest enemy. No wonder, religion is thriving with huge intakes from Peters to pay Pauls.

Gullible people are easily swayed by some authors of bad news to create unnecessary fear. Most Nigerians don’t just jump on the bandwagon, they drive it, not alone but with other co-drivers.

The Federal Government of Nigeria  through the Nigerian embassy in New York, USA should allay everyone’s fears on this unfounded rumour. There should be official clarification on all crucial issues.  We should be alive to our social and national responsibilities.
Enough should be enough!
Yahaya Balogun,Arizona, USA.  

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‘Lack of data affects investment in real estate’

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Dr. Doyin Salami

Professional bodies in Nigeria’s real estate sector have been challenged to work with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) towards building a data bank in order to encourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Accordingly, this will help to strengthen the housing sector, which needs information and data to help investors in Nigeria real estate.A lecturer at the Lagos Business School, Dr. Doyin Salami who faulted the often quoted 17 million housing units deficit, said “we do not have any data about housing in Nigeria, which is what would have been helpful”.

He stressed that although there are some pieces of data around the state but do not give a national figure.“The figure seem not to change since more than 10 years even with the increase growth in the population.

“It just leaves a bit of concern about how accurate the data is. “As far as the supply of the real estate side is concerned, if there is no construction, then supply suffers”, he added.

Salami, who was the guest lecturer at 2017 Award Dinner organised by the Nigerian Chapter of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), expressed concerns that real estate has been shrinking and that will continue to happen in 2017 except there is large turn-around in the economy as hoped for by the government.

According to him, “If you combine the rate of inflation in 2016, which ended the year at about 19 per cent meaning that anything that started the year with 100 ended at 119, with another 12 per cent inflation which the government has projected, we are in excess of 131 for what was 100 a year ago”, he said.

In an address, the FIABCI-Nigeria President, Joseph Akhigbe said the theme of the Dinner, ‘Real Estate 2017: It’s All About the Economy’ was carefully chosen in the light of the prevailing economic situation as it affects the built industry.

He said, “I am sure that in this brief period since the economy took a downturn, we have all witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly of the devaluation of the Nigerian currency, rising inflation, excess supply of property as a result of the economic downturn and surprising stable prices despite the sharp fall in the demand for property.

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Lawmakers decry poor funding of government agencies

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Beni Lar

Lawmakers have expressed dismay and disappointment at the low level funding of some government agencies despite the enormous potential they hold to take Nigeria out of the woods using innovative indigenous technologies.

The lawmakers, members of the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, expressed the disappointment during an oversight visit to the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), on Friday.

Led by the committee Chairman, Beni Lar, the committee promised to sit with the Budget Office to ensure that such agencies are well funded from the next budget.

According to the Chief Information Officer of NASENI, Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, the lawmakers were surprised that the agency had developed so much local technology, but has not been able to get financial support from government to commercialise them.

He listed some of the technologies developed to include; 7.5 kilowatt solar technologies facility, propeller turbines power generation technology, 35killowatt cross flow small hydro turbine, 5 kilowatt kinetic hydro turbine facility, first made in Nigeria tricycle and motorcycle, nano science and nano-medicine facilities, rotary furnace manufacturing technology (all on commercial scale).

Others are pole mounted transformer, integrated cassava flour manufacturing facility, energy saving bulb manufacturing technology, multi grain threshing machine and the advanced manufacturing technology facility.

The latest machine developed by the agency, which was launched, last week is the electronic voting machine powered by solar energy.These are all homegrown technologies that are awaiting funding for commercialisation and mass production for the benefit of businesses and individual Nigerians.

According to Ayeoyenikan, NASENI is an organisation set up by the Federal Government to produce home-grown technologies, local capital goods, machines and equipment targeted at reducing over-dependence on importation by Nigeria’s manufacturing sector and all engineering inputs and technology needed for operations by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) within the country’s borders. However, its capacity to fulfill this mandate has been hampered by poor funding.

Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI, Professor Mohammed Sani Haruna said a successful collection of the statutory levy should reduce total dependency of NASENI on government funding.

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Ijaw, Itsekiri disagree over name, location of maritime varsity

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Education

Adopting a name for the Maritime University in Delta State yesterday stirred a sharp disagreement among the Ijaw people of Gbaramatu community and their Itsekiri neighbours from Omadino during a public hearing at the National Assembly.

Their historical tussle was re-enacted before the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education which is processing the bill for the establishment of the university.

The panel had invited leaders of both communities to defend their memos at the forum.

Chairman of the committee Jibrin Barau, had barely asked the representatives over to make their submission than the disagreement erupted.

The piece of legislation for establishment of the institution currently carries Okerenkoko, an ijaw word, while the Itsekiri leaders want it changed to Okerenghigho, their mother tongue.

Leader of the Ijaw delegation, Chief Fedude Zimughan, alleged that their Itsekiri brothers, in a desperate bid to lay claim to the land, had obtained a ‘black market’ court judgment, which he stressed, had been set aside by another court which would soon hear the substantive suit.

But Edward Ekpoko, who spoke on behalf of the Itsekiri leaders, maintained that the current name must be changed “in line with a court judgment which was given in our favour.”

The Registrar, Mr. Nathaniel Anho, who stood in for the vice chancellor, urged the Senate not to rename or relocate the institution, adding that its current location was suitable.

The committee subsequently pledged way to resolve the lingering differences.

In the meantime, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, has called for collaboration with the nine oil-producing states, oil companies and development partners to solve the challenges facing the region.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the ministry in Abuja, the minister regretted that many organisations and development partners were working in the region without fully involving the state governors.

He said his dream was to get every relevant agency involved in the affairs of the area, adding that the move had become imperative because of the recent activities of militant groups and other criminal elements in the oil-rich region.

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Nigerian investor, Dangote to diversify investments in Zambia, others

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Aliko Dangote

Nigerian multi-billionaire investor, Aliko Dangote, has expressed the desire of his group to further consolidate on his existing investments in Zambia and other African countries by exploring opportunities in the energy and agriculture sectors.

According to Dangote, diversifying investments in energy is a critical requirement for economic development, while emphasising the importance of Zambia expanding its energy supply footprint both for local consumption, and export to regional markets.

Dangote, while speaking when he paid a courtesy call on President Edgar Lungu, the President of Zambia to express his gratitude for the enabling environment that the country continues to offer investors, urged Zambian government to roll out policies that will encourage massive investments in the country and the produce very competitive.

“I am here not only to explore investment opportunities and consolidate our existing business relations, but also to congratulate your Excellency for your victory in the last general elections. I wish you many years of success as you guide your nation to greater heights and prosperity,” said Dangote to President Lungu in a statement made available to The Guardian.

“During your tenure, you need to implement agricultural practices which will ensure that yields per hectare are high and competitive,” this is because, “Zambia’s natural advantage in the export market is the readily available captive market that consists of eight neighbouring countries and other nations in the great lakes region.

“We are going to explore investment opportunities in the energy sector and perhaps look at the viability of existing petroleum refinery facilities,” pledged Mr Dangote.

President Lungu said his government was determined to put in place policies that will be investor friendly and guarantee conducive and enabling environment for the businesses to thrive .

The Zambian helmsman then instructed the Minister of Finance and all relevant government ministries and agencies to ensure that the process of facilitating investments in job-creation enterprises is efficient.

“Agriculture is the major thrust in Zambia’s economic diversification drive and among our top priorities, which include the provision of affordable food, fuel and farmer inputs.

“I admire your tenacity and commitment to invest within Africa because that is what improves the brotherhood between nations. We will support you and facilitate your investments in Zambia,” assured the President, adding that, “we need to put our hands together to help our people out of poverty,” he said.

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