BusinessDay 25 Mar 2018

C002D5556 Sunday 25 March 2018
6 BDSUNDAY
News
Nigeria’s continued coexistence
not at all cost - Yoruba elders
BOLA BAMIGBOLA, Osogbo
Obasanjo tasks women on courage, justice, fairness
LANATU JOY SHELTON
Olusegun Obasanjo,
a former president,
has challenged
women
in the country to exhibit courage,
justice and fairness in
handling their affairs.
He gave the charge in
Lagos while speaking on
‘Women, Politics & Nation
Building’, at the 14th WIM-
BIZ annual Lecture and
Women in Politics (WIM-
Pol) workshop.
The former president is of
the idea that women should
be encouraged to live their
dreams, saying to both men
and women, ‘’don’t let anybody
build your world for
you, build your world for
yourself’’.
According to him, women
cover a large percentage of
the population and should
be given an opportunity to
Olajide
contribute to nation building.
He said the youths, men
and women need to have
their national voters’ card
and be relevant in the 2019
election, and that women
can achieve their dreams and
Obasanjo
Femi Olajide, secretary,
Yoruba
Council of Elders
(YCE), has said
in as much as Yoruba
people desired that
all ethnic nationalities in
the country should continue
to co-exist peacefully,
that stand should not
be misunderstood to be at
all cost.
Speaking in Osogbo as
the Chairman of a Memorial
Lecture organised by Nigeria
Union of Journalists
(NUJ), Osun State Council,
in honour of the late
Parliamentary reporter
of Osun State Broadcasting
Corporation (OSBC),
Nathaniel Abimbola, who
died last year, Olajide, said
the statement credited to
the former Inspector General
of Police and chairman
of the Arewa Consultative
Forum (ACF), Ibrahim
Coomassie, that the rest of
Nigeria can’t survive without
the North, was absurd.
Olajide said: “The Newspapers
reported the Arewa
Consultative Forum as
saying that
Nigeria cannot survive
without the North, whatever
was meant by that
statement credited to the
ACF Chairman, Coomassie
remains to be understood.
“However, I congratulate
him for accepting that
the North as it is today represents
all that is wrong
with Nigeria. The North
East is
ravaged by insurgency,
costing the country billions
of dollars annually.
“The North West is
home to religious crisis,
the North Central is ravaged
by herdsmen of
Northern extraction. Collectively,
the zone in the
North is home to all negative
indices of the quality
of life. Infant mortality rate
is highest in the North. Illiteracy
rate is highest in the
North, and out-of-school
children are highest
in the North.
“The poverty index is
highest in the North. The
twin evil bedeviling the
North is feudalism and
religious fatalism. It will
not be out of place to say
the North has, in fact been
dragging Nigeria down
since independence. All
sort of mischievous phrases
were coined by the very
tiny political/military elite
of the North to give undue
advantage to the North.”
According to him, the
Yoruba Council of Elders
are not only insisting on
restructuring of the country’s
political architecture,
but are also insisting
on the wholesale reform
of the elite-centered system
of government in
operation at the moment
in the country.
He said Nigeria would
survive and prosper, if any
of the component parts
chooses to go on its own.
The guest lecturer, Prof.
Mojeed Alabi, representing
Egbedore/Ejigbo/Ede
Federal Consistency in the
House of Representatives,
in his paper titled: “Current
Challenges of Nigerian
Political System; Some
Suggestions for the way
forward,” said the challenges
facing the country
at the moment had existed
before independence.
He however, added that
they were
minimal at the time
because regions were allowed
to develop at their
own phase.
He therefore, called for
the return of the pre-independence
political negotiations
on which the nation
was built.
potentials in every area they
choose even in politics. He
added that he visited Rwanda
and noticed that 54 percent
of the members of the parliament
were women.
He quoted some scriptures
from the Bible such
as proverbs 31 which talks
about the virtues a woman
should possess. ‘’The real
beauty of a woman is not in
Gold and Apparel but in the
hidden person of the heart,
and a gentle and quiet spirit
which is precious in the sight
of God”.
“Women should be seen
as companion to their own
husbands and not as slaves or
mere decoration furniture, no
longer should our women be
left behind to mind only the
other room and the kitchen,”
he jokingly added.
WimBiz has created
the largest single platform
for professional women in
Nigeria, whether in the private
sector, public sector
or amongst entrepreneurs.
They recognise that each
female child has abilities that
require nurturing if they are
to aspire to achieving their
full potential.
Expert seeks government’s partnership in
education of children with special needs
KELECHI EWUZIE
With the prevailing
surge in
the number of
Nigerian children
with special education
needs, industry expert in the
field of Education has called
for public private partnership
to address this trend.
Nike Agunbiade-Etiebet,
Chief Executive Officer, HII-
MA International Education
Network, called on the Federal
Government to implement
policies that would
encourage educational institutions
at the primary and
secondary levels to practise
inclusive education to cater
for children with learning
difficulties.
Agunbiade-Etiebet observed
that about 98 percent
of Nigerian schools do not accept
special needs students,
thereby pushing parents
to isolate such children at
home.
While speaking during
the HIIMA Business Opportunity
Meeting with
education stakeholders in
Lagos, she reiterated the
need for inclusion in Nigerian
schools at all levels,
adding that “if a child finds
it difficult to perform tasks
children his/her age can
perform; such a child has
special education needs.”
According to her, “A child
has special educational
needs when he or she has significant
learning difficulties
that make it more challenging
for him or her to learn like
other children of the same
age. Special educational
needs include intellectual
disabilities, medical or health
conditions, learning difficulties,
behavioural, social, and
emotional difficulties, sensory/physical
needs.”
Agunbiade-Etiebet while
explaining the meaning of HI-
IMA said it depicts ‘High Love
of Children’ stressing that the
model recognises children’s
individual differences thus it
teaches them with love and
respect to unleash their potential
for greater heights and
to make positive difference in
the world.
“HIIMA professionals
have been in education for
over two decades teaching
in the early years up to the
sixth form with unique, well
proven and result oriented
methodology based on the
inherent attributes and the
child’s capacity to learn, using
the absorbent mind and the
sensitive periods according
to Maria Montessori as well
as the idea of Multiple Intelligences
of Howard Gardner,”
she said.
The educationist said the
model believes that the child
has natural propensity, predisposition
and talents to
succeed, to explore, to create,
innovate and better the
community. “These talents
in an individual child can be
exposed through loving cooperation
of stakeholders
in the child’s education. The
stakeholders are the child,
the parents, the teacher, and
the environment is also very
important.
African billionaires rise to 18 on Forbes list
MIKE OCHONMA
Africa has 18 people
on the Forbes
billionaire list for
2018. On its 2018
list is a total of 2, 208 billionaires
from 72 countries and
territories with a total net
worth of $9.1 trillion, up 18%
since last year. Their average
net worth is a record $4.1bn.
There are 259 newcomers,
including the first cryptocurrency
billionaires.
Out of the 18 billionaires,
Egypt led the pack with six
billionaires, the five South
Africans who made the list
this year are: Nicky Oppenheimer
($7.7bn), Johann
Rupert ($7bn), Koos Bekker
($2.6bn), Patrice Motsepe
($2.4bn) and Stephen Saad
($1.2bn).
South African billionaire
Christo Wiese fell off the billionaires’
list. His net worth
was $5.6bn last year, when
he was South Africa’s thirdwealthiest
person. This year,
his net worth dropped to
$600 million following the
collapse of retailer Steinhoff’s
share price in December.
Prior to the revelations
about the so-called accounting
irregularities at the company,
Wiese had a 21% stake
in Steinhoff International. By
last month, he had cut that
position to 6%.
Nigeria has three and
these include Aliko Dangote
($14.1bn), Mike Adenuga
($5.3bn) and Folorunsho
Alakija ($1.5 bn). Alakija is
one of the world’s richest
black women. Angola’s Isabel
dos Santos, the daughter of
the country’s former president,
appears on the list with
wealth of $2.6bn.
Also on the list from Africa
are Swaziland’s retail
and property businessman
Nathan Kirsh ($4.3bn), Tanzania’s
Mohammed Dewji
($1.5bn) and Zimbabwean
telecommunications mogul
Strive Masiyiwa ($1.4bn).
Americans lead the way
with 585 billionaires, followed
by mainland China
with 373. Centi-billionaire
Jeff Bezos secures the list’s
top spot for the first time,
becoming the only person to
appear in Forbes’ ranks with
a 12-figure fortune.
His fortune increased by
more than $39bn, the list’s
biggest one-year gain ever.