17102019 - FG cuts travels, estacodes for ministers, other officials

More documents

Recommendations

Info

42 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 Innovation can help solve Nigeria’s economic challenges — IPBIM boss *The Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, UNILAG, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe (5th from left), flanked by dignitaries at the maiden edition of UNILAG International Week. Knocks for FG over allocation to education By Adesina Wahab and Elizabeth Uwandu THE Federal Government has been criticized for the allocation it gave the education sector in next year’s budget, respondents told our correspondents that it fell short of their expectations. Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari last week Tuesday presented a budget proposal of N10.3 trillion to the National Assembly out of which N82 billion was allocated to education and N112 billion given to the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC. UBEC is an intervention agency of the government. It is like zero allocation According to a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, UNILAG, Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye, it was like the FG prepared a zero budget for the sector. He wondered why Nigeria would continue to fall behind in the treatment of education as a critical sector. “To me, it is like we are budgeting zero for education. The standard the world over is to allocate at least 26 per cent to the sector. This is the recommendation of UNESCO. By my estimation, what we have now is even not up to 10 per cent of the budget. “We must be serious. Nations that are more developed than us are not toying with education and here we are behaving as if education does not count. All the monies being recovered here and there could be channeled to the sector. If we have poorly trained medical doctors, and provide them with the best of facilities they are not able to use, what gain do we have? Not to even go at least 15 per cent is not good at all.” It will affect teaching Another university lecturer, Head, Department of Educational Foundation, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Prof. Taiwo Edun, said poor funding is a great disservice to the education sector. “The percentage budgetary allocation to education in Nigeria is three times lower than what is recommended for developing nations by UNESCO. In actual fact, among the nine nations housing over half of the world’s population and 70 percent of the world’s illiterate adults allocate less than 20 per cent of their annual budget to education. "When there is not enough funding for the sector, how are we going to attract young people to teach? We are saying young teachers are the future of the profession, but it may be difficult to get the young ones to come in,” he said. In the same vein, the Lagos State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, Otunba Adedoyin Adesina, said with increasing enrolment in schools across the country, funding the sector ought to be improved on. “We must not fall below the minimum level and anything short of that is not good for the sector. If the government is finding funding the sector difficult, it could launch endowment fund. At least such funds have been launched to help sustain a sector like security. We must not toy with our future,” he said. THE reigning Most Elegant Girl in Nigeria, Mary Ukoli, has charged the nation’s leaders to put more efforts in the education of the girl-child so as to speed up the development of the country. She stated this in Lagos when she organised a Spelling Bee competition and debate for some schools in Apapa and Ajegunle areas of the state. According to her, educating a girl would not only reduce illiteracy and its attendant ills, but would accelerate the development of the nation. She pointed out that whether it is formal or informal education, the girl-child would surely pass such to coming generations. Ukoli added that even the Holy Books had records of women who inspired the generations that came after them, as they were lauded for passing good legacies to their children. The beauty queen, who is also the founder of the Save A Girl’s Education, SAGE, said there was nothing too big to be invested in the education of the girl-child. “I have a deep passion for the education of the girl-child. We must not relegate that to By Adesina Wahab THE President of the Institute of Productivity and Business Innovation Management, IPBIM, Mr Remi Dairo, has said applying the necessary innovation into how we do certain things in the country can help solve the national economic challenges being faced now. He stated this in Lagos during a seminar held for some members and prospective members of the institute. Dairo, who explained that some innovation methods may not necessarily involve application of technology, charged Nigerians to be innovative in whatever they do, as doing things the same way that have been done for donkey years would not yield any good results. Dairo added that the aim of the institute was to make people challenge tradition and drive them to do things differently and be able to compete globally. “The institute came into being when we noticed that some people feel they would be seen as productive only when they work and begin to sweat profusely, but in the end, nothing has changed. For instance, being innovative in the packaging of a product could turn it to a market leader. We have to devise ingenious ways of doing things that would make our products acceptable globally. “Our certification does not involve you coming to sit for an exam, you just have to show how innovative you are by your skills and we are affiliated to similar institutes and universities in Europe and America,” he said. One of the guest speakers, Mr Olayinka Oni, opined that flexible working hours would soon take over the work place going by the current trend. Oni explained that most business chiefs and top corporate players agree that innovation was crucial to them and that innovation was not static. He said innovation was what made a company like Amazon become a world leader. Another speaker, Rufai Oseni, charged the leadership of the country to adopt the Singapore model where ministers are given targets to meet and given incentives when they meet them The President of the World Innovators Forum, Mr Axel Schultze, commended the leadership of the IPBIM and expressed his support for the institute. National devt: Why Nigeria must do more on girl-child education — Ukoli By Adesina Wahab the back and whatever is committed to that is going to pay the society back in many folds. When a girl grows and becomes a mother, she spends more time with the children than the father, then you can imagine the influence she has over the children. “If she is well trained, that will reflect on the society at large and many women that have held public positions globally have done well. That is the reason that the topic for the debate is: Gender equality as a catalyst for development in Nigeria, she said. Ukoli said the presentation of motivational video clips was also to let the girls know that they were not too young to make positive impact in the society and that they should not see themselves as pushovers. She canvassed special incentives for the promotion of the education of the girl-child. She also appealed to corporate bodies and philanthropists to support the education of the girlchild. During the competition, Topfield School came first in both the Spelling Bee competition and debate. Marvir School and Rybeka Model College came second and third in the Spelling Bee competition and debate. 10 schools took part in the event.
Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 — 43 Without education, people remain oppressed and suppressed — Ituah Ighodalo By Ebele Orakpo Knowledge, they say, is power and a nation, having majority of its citizens uneducated, cannot rise to its full potential. Currently, the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is alarming. Reports say Nigeria has the highest number of out-ofschool children in the world and this needs urgent attention. In this chat with Vanguard, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, Senior Pastor, Trinity House, and Managing Partner, SIAO, speaks on what Nigerian leaders must do to get education system right and lift people out of poverty. Excerpts: Education, a must Every child in Nigeria must go to school up until secondary at the minimum. Then 70% of them must go to technical school or the university until we have 100% literacy then they can go ahead and do what they want with themselves as they now know right from wrong, good from bad and can have better hygiene. Every woman must be educated Every woman must be educated, empowered and enlightened because they are the ones who are going to train the children and they spend more time with the children. An illiterate mother looking after a child going to school may weigh the child down so there should be adult education for those who are interested. For those who are below 50 years, it is compulsory. You will be given five years within which to get your school certificate otherwise certain benefits will not accrue to you. These are the sort of policies we must have as a nation to lift ourselves out of poverty. Will it be free education? Yes, as much as possible. It should be free or largely subsidized education so that people will know their left from their right, they can read and write and can take certain decisions. It’s been alleged that the elite in the North don’t want the masses to be educated because that would mean empowering them... I wouldn’t want to believe that but if it is true, it’s very unfortunate. It is in the interest of the elites that the people are educated; otherwise if they are not careful, the repercussions will be very serious in the future. Not only that, you can do the Dubai example. Dubai example In Dubai, most of the people are educated; not only that, they are empowered, not only are they empowered, they are exposed, comfortable and they leave their elite alone to continue to run the country. So what the Northern elite should be doing is to empower, expose and encourage their people, make sure they are comfortable and living decent It is in the interest of the elites that the people are educated; otherwise if they are not careful, the repercussions will be very serious in the future •Pastor Ighodalo lives. There is more than enough resource in the North to cater for every single northerner. There is no uprising in Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia why? Even when Ghaddafi was then head of state of Libya, there was no uprising because the people were educated, enlightened, and comfortable; they were looked after. If people are looked after and well governed, they will keep voting back their people into power; nobody wants any stress or hassle. If we have good government in Nigeria, what do I care? All I want is to do my business and pursue my purpose and add value to society. There are no uprisings in a lot of places. Singapore and Hong Kong are reasonably peaceful, even India to a large extent, because somehow, the government is trickling down to the people so a lot of people are minding their business but it is the elites that are killing themselves in India, fighting one another over small pieces of power. That is what the northern elite should do. If people can cope in India with their population, and the place is relatively safe, why not Nigeria? We shouldn’t shoot ourselves in the foot and it is every person’s right. We shouldn’t use ignorance to deny people their rights, people should put themselves in the shoes of others. That’s why the Bible says ‘do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.’ People don’t obey that simple law. There's no need to gag our students — FUNAAB VC By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAAB, Prof. Felix Kolawole Salako, has said there is no reason to gag students of the institution or stop them from expressing their views on issues relating to their welfare. He also debunked a report by an online publication alleging that the management of the institution banned its students from protesting after robbers invaded some students’ hostels three times in one week. Kolawole, while stating the position of the institution’s management at a press conference held at the institution’s Senate Chambers, said no robbery incident took place within the university premises in recent times, describing the publication as malicious and defamatory. The Vice-Chancellor said: “ The attention of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta has been drawn to a malicious and defamatory publication by an online publication; Sahara Reporters," stressing that the publication was aimed at smearing the image of FUNAAB, its management, students’ populace and the entire university community. “Regrettably, there were some unfortunate robbery incidents that were reported to have occurred during the week at some off-campus, privately-owned hostels located some kilometers away from the university campus and by the university statute, are outside the jurisdiction of the university management. The university management have duly reported the ugly incident to relevant security agencies particularly the Police who have taken proactive measures to forestall any re-occurrence.” The Vice-Chancellor added that the management of the institution “at no time banned students from protesting neither were they requested to sign indemnity forms either before of after the incidents.” He challenged Sahara Reporters or any other media outfit that has any information to the contrary to produce copy of the indemnity form signed by any student. He noted that the university management maintained a cordial relationship with the students and had no reason to gag the students from expressing themselves or denying them their fundamental human rights as free citizens of Nigeria. He noted that the publication was on the “heels of two earlier ones released through the social media by source closely JAN organises NCOY competition JUNIOR Achievement Nigeria, JAN, a non-profit economic education organisation has approved 13 student-run companies across the nation to compete for this year’s National Company of the Year,NCOY, in Lagos. The goal of NCOY is to create a signature showcase for JAN and the students who benefit from the impact of the JAN company programme. Funke Smith, representing the CEO of First Bank, Adeshola Adeguton, said: "The children are drawn from 12 secondary schools across the nation and I am hopeful and glad that these young talents are willing to take this challenge and move the nation forward. They have also come up with brilliant financial statements." Executive Director, JAN, Simi Nwogugu, used to volunteer for Junior Achievement in New York when she lived there; and thought it would be interesting to bring it to Nigeria, so she brought JA to Nigeria in 1999. JAN has been in Nigeria for 20years. *Winners of the JA competition, TC Achievers – Gas Leakage Detector (Taidob College, Ogun State). They will represent JAN at the JA Africa Company of the Year competition. Flour Mills donates bus to Yabatech THE Flour Mills of Nigeria, FMN Plc recently donated a brand new Toyota Hiace bus to the School of Technology, Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) to mark the school's Annual Lecture/Exhibition/Fundraising event. The Group Managing Director of FMN, Mr. Paul Gbededo, an alumnus of the College was ably represented by General Service Manager, FMN, Mr. Olalekan Adebekun who presented the bus to the College. He said that the donation was part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility, CRS, to the school. During the opening remarks, the Rector of the institution, Engr. Obafemi Omokungbe commended the School of Technology for being a pacesetter; living up to expectation in the College, and for organising 2019 Annual lecture titled: Restructuring Education and Research Systems for Technological Advancement in Nigeria which is relevant and timely even at a time our dear country is yearning for improvement in every aspect of her national development. According to him, the goal of our founding fathers for establishing the College in 1947 was to achieve national development related to Sahara Reporters that were targeted at undermining the security, peaceful coexistence of the university and making attempt to incite the student populace against the management and as well disrupt the relative peace on the campus." Answering question on efforts made by the management to ensure the security of the students, Salako said similar incident that happened in 2016 prompted the management to build Harmony Police Station. He described most landlords of the private hostels around the campus as ‘absentee landlords, whom he said were not known by the institution’s management and students living in those hostels. using technology education as a veritable tool. “As a responsible management, we would continue to support activities and programmes that will enhance academic standard and qualitative lecture delivery. We have redirected our energy to replicating the industry in the classroom. The Central Research Laboratory was for this reason re-energized and commissioned for research purpose. I want to assure you that the management will continue to provide support to the departments and schools in pursuit of their mandate.” While receiving the bus, Omokungbe expressed appreciation to FMN for the donation, he congratulated the Dean of the School, Dr. Peter Okolie for using his influence to bring developmental projects to the school. He promised on behalf of the management to renovate 20 classrooms in the School of Technology as their contribution towards the fundraising, while Adebekun on behalf of FMN pledged to equip offices in the school with good furniture.
Page 1 and 2: OLU FASAN 31 The eggheads in the EA
Page 3 and 4: Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 201
Page 5 and 6: vanguardnews @vanguardnews @vanguar
Page 9 and 10: 8—Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17,
Page 11 and 12: 10 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, OCTOBER
Page 15 and 16: VANGUARD, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 201
Page 19 and 20: Why I’ll prefer to remain single
Page 21 and 22: Smuggling: Nigeria needs to fix str
Page 43: Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 201
Page 47 and 48: VANGUARD, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 201
Page 51 and 52: Continues from Page 5 Why FG slashe
Page 53 and 54: Harassment, intimidation of journal
Page 55 and 56: 52 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, OCTOBER
Page 59 and 60: Ronaldo better than Pele - Mendes C

17102019 - FG cuts travels, estacodes for ministers, other officials

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?