ASUU calls for probe of NUC over fraud, mis-management of funds

August 12, 2013

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called for the probe of the activities of the National Universities Commission (NUC) over alleged fraudulent practices on university accreditation in Nigeria.

The ASUU’s national treasurer, Dr Ademola Aremu and chairman, University of Ibadan, ASUU chapter, Dr Olusegun Ajiboye, who respectively made the call in Ibadan yesterday while speaking with newsmen also called for the review of the Act establishing the NUC and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Aremu said that it was unbelievable that the Professor Julius Okojie-led NUC could give a clean bill of health to universities where the Needs Assessment Committee set up by the federal government found rot in terms of deficient human capital and infrastructure.

He added that the activities of NUC had been tainted by alleged frauds over accreditation.

“In NUC, there are so many frauds going on there. NUC to us in ASUU has outlived its usefulness. When government gives appointment, it knows the kind of people they take and most of the time they are people who can compromise anything. Very recently, The River State University of Technology conducted an examination under some fraudulent situations when academic staff were on strike and NUC came out to say the examinations were conducted under normal conditions.

“The fraud going in NUC over accreditation of courses in Nigerian universities must stop. If JAMB is working well, there will be no need for post JAMB and that is why we are saying the laws that established JAMB should also be reviewed”.

While maintaining the union’s stand on full implementation of the 2009 agreement, Dr Aremu stressed that government cannot call for renegotiation without implementing the 2009 agreement.

Also speaking, Ajiboye lashed out at the government for claiming that it had no money, saying that the federal government should declare the money made from other sources rather telling Nigerians about crude oil earning.

He disclosed that the Federal Inland Revenue Services realised over N5.6 trillion in 2012 while the DPR allegedly declared over N700 billion in 2013.

Source: Leadership.

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Gulder Ultimate Search Season 10 (The 10th Symbol) - Registration for both PARTICIPANTS in the Jungle and FANS at Home

August 11, 2013

Gulder Ultimate Search 2013

Event Type: Contest (reality tv series)
Event Level: All contestant levels
Provider: Nigerian Breweries Plc
Country to do Event in: Nigeria

Event Description
The Gulder Ultimate Search (also called GUS) is a Nigerian reality television series, created and sponsored by Nigerian Breweries Plc. The first season premiered in 2004.

The GUS series is also the very first 100% local content reality Television programme in Nigeria and it is a survival type reality programme that highlights the struggle of Contestants (10-30 persons, depending on the reference edition), their struggles against themselves and the wild i.e. nature and their search for a hidden treasure that brings to the last person standing instant fame and fortune.

The Winner of the last season in 2012 took home a 10 million naira cash prize and an SUV.

GULDER ULTIMATE SEARCH 2013 - SEASON 10 REGISTRATION (THE 10TH SYMBOL)

Brave the stakes and dare to be the Last Man / Woman Standing in Season 10 of Nigeria's Ultimate Reality TV show. GULDER ULTIMATE SEARCH is the reality show for achievers - individuals who are champions in their everyday lives.

Registration for Gulder Ultimate Search Season 10 is on-going, interested candidates should register immediately.

Registration is possible for both active PARTICIPANTS who would live in the jungle, and FANS at home who are interested in taking part in the Fans edition of the show.

DISCLAIMER: The Gulder Brand or Nigerian Breweries Plc does not sell entry forms for Gulder Ultimate Search or Gulder Five Aside Football. Let the public be aware!

[A]. 2013 Gulder Ultimate Search - Registration for Participants

GULDER ULTIMATE SEARCH is the reality show for achievers – individuals who are champions in their everyday lives.

ELIGIBILITY
In order to participate, the applicant must meet the following requirements:

1. Be between the ages of 21 and 30 years old.
2. Possess demonstrable skills in the following vital areas: strength, confidence, endurance, physical and health fitness.
3. Carefully read and agree to the Terms and Conditions required for applicants.
4. (a). Completely fill out the on-line entry form, upload a recent photograph then submit.
   (b). If you qualify a mail will be sent to your email box within 24hrs containing 1. Terms and Conditions Form and 2. The Referee Form* as attachments.
5. Other instruction will be communicated to you via email and through this website so ensure you check back from time to time.

* Applicant’s two referees MUST be reputable members of the society, one of whom MUST BE the Applicant’s Parent or Guardian. The Referees must authenticate the claims of the applicant by signing the form.

DEADLINES:
Closing date for the online entry is August 23rd, 2013.

PLEASE NOTE:
Multiple registration will lead to automatic disqualification.

The Application Form is detailed to enable a good knowledge of the applicant and to determine the suitability of the applicant for the Gulder Ultimate Search.

For Further Enquiries:
Call the Consumer Care Line: 08166087661, 07013946190, 0700 82558662752
Or send an e-mail to register@gulderultimatesearch.tv

More Event Information and Registration

[B]. 2013 Gulder Ultimate Search - Registration for Fans

To celebrate the 10th season of Gulder Ultimate Search, the Council is giving admirers of this great show a chance to partake in a search of their own, outside the jungle. The search is Gulder Ultimate Search 10th Symbol FANS’ EDITION. The hidden treasure is the key to a brand new MITSUBISHI PAJERO 3.0L GLX MT buried somewhere in Nigeria.

HOW IT WORKS
Gulder Ultimate Search 10th Symbol FANS’ EDITION is a QUESTION-AND-ANSWER-BASED INTERACTIVE ENGAGEMENT between the Gulder brand and the Consumer. There is a question for ‘everyday’.

Participation is strictly by buying the ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE GULDER BOTTLE (60CL) and checking the Crown Cork for DIFFERENTIATED CODES

Differentiated code must be sent with the Consumer’s Name, Age and State to UNLOCK THE QUESTION OF THE DAY. The question will be sent directly to you.

Clues to the questions will be on National and Terrestrial TV from 4th October 2013 when Gulder Ultimate Search 10, the 10th Symbol is transmitted.

At the end of these interactions with the Gulder Brand, and when the final anchor challenge is cracked, the first 12 contestants with correct answers would be shortlisted for a ONE-DAY FINAL SEARCH and the winner would be celebrated on the same stage on the day of the crowning of the 10th Ultimate Champion.

Note that answering questions correctly moves Consumers on a daily basis closer to the grand prize of a brand new MITSUBISHI PAJERO 3.0L GLX MT courtesy of the official automotive partners of Gulder Ultimate Search 10, CFAO Motors Nigeria Limited. This will be presented at the Party scheduled for 2nd November, 2013.

DEADLINES:
It starts 26th September and ends 23rd October, 2013.

PLEASE NOTE:
TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY.

More Event Information and Registration (Fans edition)

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ASUU Strike And Future Of Nigerian Youths

August 07, 2013

In a recent release, UNESCO stated that while education is a basic human right essential for the exercise of all other rights, there are still 774 million illiterates in the world and many more adult women and men who are not consistently learning what they need to lead healthy, fulfilling and productive lives

This it says is because of a combination of several factors making timely quality education a distant dream.

I reflected on these words and safely concluded that one of the factors that we can surely not avoid that has sufficiently served to distract the education system is strike. A product of both sides of the divide myself including Nigerian universities, I recall a time we practically lost a whole session to strikes and many in between that saw us graduate two-three years after our more fortunate peers whose privileged parents transferred overseas. I’m still not sure the victims will forget those years so soon.

Sadly, the situation has not been too different in recent times. To many at this moment, there appears a systematic design to unconsciously destroy what is left of the near crippled education system by the duo of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Federal Government. The last time I checked, most university calendars, for those who had, have become permanently distorted. This has increased the state of vulnerability of the institutions and called for a quick declaration of a state of emergency in the sector and save what is left of the nervous wreck of a group called students!

So, below are highlights of my thoughts on the impact of this menace;

1. Public enemy….employers’ dilemma

That there is a demand for qualified employees is not in doubt, what is classically doubtful is if the employers will have the privilege of getting such employees. This is also considering the current situation where over 70 per cent of eventual graduates are alleged to be “half baked” with 10 per cent barely knowing why they went to school and the 20 per cent who think they have what it takes, worry as they may realize early that skills and connections for eventual employment are a world apart!

2. While the real reason for embarking on the strikes become blurred by the day, what is as clear as crystal is that the youths are disillusioned with many taking on intriguing tasks to survive or for sustenance while they await resumption.

3. Reasonable demands or presumptuous requests?

Thus far, ASUU claims its demands are valid and strategic, from the review of retirement age of professors to progressive increase of budgetary allocations to the education sector by 26 per cent among other demands. One reasons that these demands perhaps should be the statutory responsibilities of the Federal Government towards the universities. So, after reneging on a host of agreements in the past, won’t many simply conclude that the government is becoming insincere in its dealings with ASUU? This was captured clearly in the words of the Minister for Labour and Productivity, Chukwuemeka Wogu, who declared that, “the agreements reached will be impossible to implement.” This no doubt is a strategic feedback that broke the camel’s back and put a seal to continued strike. Now, each party is seemingly adamant, unyielding and hardly appears concerned about the consequences of its stance, an impasse that has done more harm than good.

4. Increasing mediocrity, loss of productive force>

Surely with continued destruction of the education system, one can conclude that we would be left with mediocrity and supposed students cut off from quality knowledge that would have supported national development.

5. Increase brain drain and foreign expert influx

Considering that nature abhors any vacuum. increased possible brain drain will only add to the influx of foreigners who would be more than willing to exploit the gaps and proceed with the once dreaded imperialistic norms and colonialist tendencies

6. Unequal yoke between the past and the future

The past challenge as posed by the non-implementation of the “agreement” is denying the future of many students the privilege of stable education. Dreams are being destroyed by the day as most ladies would simply get into the family way while some men simply get unduly distracted and hardly are able to return to school, hopes then become dashed.

7. Loss of fundamental expectations

Due to most universities without functional libraries that would have aided the promotion of healthy and highly recommended reading habit, home reading becomes a painful activity so the books, during any strike, simply gather dust. Even in session, most schools have laboratories that have become museums, libraries that are comparable to archives, lecture notes that are simply drab historic texts, outdated curriculum fiercely turning graduates to job seekers since the reward for innovation is rare. Theses and dissertations are no more issue-based and therefore not guided to address priority development issues. The educational giant of Africa, sadly, lays asleep.

8. The gap in workforce

A student not properly equipped would surely not suffice when the need for solid workforce arises tomorrow. Making it naturally appears that the education system is simply certificate-driven as against expertise-driven, so graduates churned out could possess the tendency to derail society tomorrow except the inherent value system in them comes to bear. In a world that is need-driven, it is most likely he who the cap fits in this regard to address these needs will rule the day.

9. Grave deficiencies…. little successes.

The issues around entry into universities including the now infamous post-UTME are already a challenge to many, worse is then when you enter and get thrown back home in the name of strike making a horrible situation hellish. The retrogression that follows the total neglect of objectivity and excellence by those who should guide a system is appalling.

10. ASUU strikes, intellectual deficit and the transition to private, more expensive universities become the case as parents struggle to find alternative education for their kids. The private universities, irrespective of capacity, get richer at the expense of the public ones on strike.
So, you will therefore imagine that even when I could not initially comprehend his statement, I reasoned that his views may have some valid points within them and with that I refer to Patrick Obahiagbon, who said, “This ASUU strike is a miasma of a depreciable apotheosis of an hemorrhaging plutocracy, cascadingly oozing into a malodorous excrescence of mobocracy. With all termagant ossifying proclivities of a kakistocracy, our knowledgia centura is enveloped in a paraplegic crinkum crankum. Therefore, ASUU, cest in déjà, déjà peret ologomabia.”

Well, need I say more, Obahiagbon’s words are as intriguing as ASUU strike itself and so to decipher the meaning, one needs to sit down, dissect it, eliminate the mundane and pick out the strategic terms and action to address the root causes of a problem that could define a lasting solution. Don’t we all agree that these same steps should be what ASUU and the Federal Government should urgently take? I rest my case.

- Ms. Ogbanga, an educationist, is director, Centre for Development Support Initiatives, Port Harcourt.

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Ten Million Out Of School Children: Facts Behind The Figures

The report that Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world, has once again buttressed the need for the Federal Government to address the issue as a national emergency, so as to reverse the dangerous slide to illiteracy.




IF the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, were to be asked what national problem is the least likely to be addressed in the next five years, the agency would perhaps point at the near absence of the a vibrant, progressive and qualitative educational system in Nigeria.

This is because the United Nations agency believes that the nation accounted for almost a fifth of the world’s out-of-school children. This startling revelation, was made known by Kate Redman, Communications Specialist, Education for All Global Monitoring Report, EAGMR, of UNESCO.

According to her, the amount of aid to basic education Nigeria received in 2011 was 28 per cent lower than it received in 2010. She said new statistics showed that 57 million children were out of school globally in 2011, which was a drop from two million in 2010.

Redman further said that assistance to basic education had decreased for the first time since 2002, adding that the world must move beyond helping children enter school to ensuring that they learn the basics. While this did not come as a surprise, following the undisputed consensus on the level of decadence in the sector, many are worried that a nation with an unbroken history of educational reforms, could be ranked as having the highest out-of-school children globally.

For instance, findings by Vanguard Features,VF, showed that educational reforms predated the nation’s independence, as the then colonial government of Sir John Macpherson, initiated reforms in 1954.

A national crisis
Buttressing this, a report by an educationalist at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Gusau, Dr. Bello Gusau, titled: Educational Reforms in Nigeria: Successive Years of In-consistences and Confusions said: “Nigeria has witnessed several educational reforms which started at pre-independence. It was to the credit of Nigerians notably agitators for self- rule that led the British colonial rulers to change the educational system in operation in 1954 from 8-6-2-3 system that is eight year primary, six year secondary, two year higher school certificate and three year university to a new system 6-5-2-3 that is six year primary, five year secondary, two year higher school certificate and three year university.”

Notwithstanding this history, it is the believe of many that the UNESCO report has succeeded in bringing to global attention the need to regard the issue as a national crisis.

Though the statistics does not appear generally acceptable, the Federal Government has said that it would not challenge the data. “We will not challenge such statistics. What is most important to us is to address the main issue and that is let every Nigerian child be in school, that is our target,” Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’i said when she received a UNESCO delegation in Abuja.

She said the ministry plans to reduce the number of out-of-school children significantly between now and 2014 as Nigeria has the highest number of such children in the world. The FG’s position notwithstanding, the matter has continued to dominate contemporary discourse among stakeholders, who are saddened by the comatose state of the sector, particularly basic education.

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Cultists Machete Female NYSC Member In Bayelsa

 
A 26-year-old National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, member serving in Bayelsa State, Miss Folakemi Akinbode, is now struggling for her life at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, following a brutal attack from suspected cultists.

The incident occurred, Monday, at about 8.30pm at Obunagha community in the Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.

Miss Akinbode, an indigene of Ondo State, a graduate Nurse of the Madonna University serving at NDU Teaching Hospital was returning from work when she was ambushed by two suspected cultists along a lonely bush path leading to the corpers’ lodge where she resides.
Folakemi Akinbode

Folakemi Akinbode

Her right hand was almost chopped off by her assailants who are now at large.

It was learnt that but for the hand she raised to defend herself the attackers could have killed her as the machete was aimed at her head.

The victim was said to have ran to the lodge with her injuries shouting “help, help, help…” after which she collapsed and lost consciousness due to excessive bleeding from the almost severed hand.

A source told our correspondent that “though she had been given three pints of blood, she is yet to regain consciousness.”

Troubled by the development, the traditional ruler of the community, Chief Apoh Godgive, the Ibolou XI, was said to have ordered the immediate setting up of vigilante group in the community with a view to fishing out the perpetrators of the crime.

Contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Alex Akhigbe, confirmed the incident, saying the command has launched manhunt for the fleeing attackers

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