NAYES (National Body) Stakeholders Forum Releases Scholarship Funds

The National Stakeholders Forum of National Association of Yewa Students has released funds for some of its members on Wednesday, 22nd July, 2020.

Earlier before the beginning of the pandemic, the body through its Deputy Coordinator Comr. Oriola Oladipupo (popularly known as Sen. Dosdot) released a statement soliciting for some of its members who were unable to meet up with their school fees for assistance from the general public.

Sen. Dosdot while speaking through a phone conversation and also a copy of the forum press released signed by its Deputy Coordinator gotten by our correspondent, after the funds as been released to the students appreciate all who contributed towards the funds given to the students.

In his words, “I want to appreciate God Almighty for the opportunity given to us to be able to contribute our own quota towards their studies, special appreciation goes to Hon. Comm. Tunji Akinosi (Hon. Comm. Ministry of Forestry), Elder Sola Adeyemi (Former Head of Service of Ogun State), Hajjy Ibrahim Amosun (Convener The Bond), Comr. Durojaiye ‘Segun (CEO K & Q Foods and National Coordinator of the Forum), Comr. Faleye Olumide, Comr. Hennuho Rasaq, Comr. Oriola Oladipupo, the 2019 Nayes Electoral Committee and everyone who as in one way or the other contributed towards the fundraising and release of the funds.”

He added that “We also want to appreciate Comr. Sen. Olokode Hammed, Comr. Aderewa, Comr. Obazy, Comr. Sen. Olayinka who assisted in the disbursement of the funds to the students.”

He continue further saying, “Two of the students (from Ogun State Institute of Technology, Igbesa) received the sum of Fifty thousand, Two hundred and Sixty Five naira (#50,265) each while another received the sum of Twenty – two thousand naira only (#22,000) , given directly to them by the Hon. Comm. Tunji Akinosi” and the remaining Five students which a cash transfer was made on Wednesday, 22nd July, 2020 (which comprises of two students from Ogun State Institute of Technology, Igbesa and three students of Federal Polytechnic Ilaro) receive the sum of Ten thousand naira each.”

He further said, “A cash transfer become necessary due to obeying government directive on gatherings due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.”

Sen. Dosdot further regrets that one of the beneficiaries had to withdraw from school due to the closure of payment of the school fees.

Sen. Dosdot affirm that the body is currently looking into setting up an Educational Trust Fund which will be used to assist indigent students of the Senatorial District with the aim of ensuring that as many as possible are assisted in the Senatorial District to have education.

75bn FUND: NYC Ogun State Lauds Buhari, Obadara others On Empowerment Scheme

The Nigerian Youth Congress, Ogun State chapter under the leadership of Comrade Afolabi Oluwaseyi Emmanuel has applauded the president of Federal Republic of Nigeria President Mohammed Buhari on the Federal Government’s approval through the Federal Executive Council (FEC) of the N75 billion fund for Nigerian Youths within the age range of 18 and 35years. In a statement issued by FEC, it was stated that the fund is meant for the establishment of the Nigerian Youths Investment Fund (NYIF) which is also tagged “the youth Bank”, to create financial support for the creativity and innovation of Nigerian youths within the aforementioned age range.

During a state executive meeting of the NYC held on Friday 24th of July, 2020, at the state capital Abeokuta with the State executive members and Local Government Coordinators in attendance, the NYC state chairman emphasized that this decision is one of the best taken by the Federal Government so far as regards the development and empowerment of Nigerian Youths. He also expressed his happiness in approval of the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development under the ministerial leadership of Mr Sunday Dare to direct the affairs of fund distribution among eligible youths who has genuine business ideas.

In the same vein, comrade Afolabi Oluwaseyi Emmanuel also expressed commendations towards Senator Gbenga Obadara, former senator representing Ogun Central, for the transparent role he is currently playing in the fulfilment of his mandate as the chairman Federal Special Public works in Ogun State which is in charge of the Ogun state arm of engaging 774,000 participants across the country.

Recently, there was a report that some scrupulously dangerous people of bad intentions were trying to sabotage the program through circulating fake forms forms for the establishment exercise around the state. Senator Obadara, has however released a press statement stating that forms for the exercise is free and not yet released for collection.

He went ahead to explain the various channels through which the forms could be obtained when released in a well organized plan across the state in the 20 local governments. He further mentioned that anyone found with the fake form would be arrested and dealt with, with the full weight of the law.

It should be noted that the structural plan Senator Obadara has put in place would enable 1000 people from each local government of Ogun State, making 20,000 people from age 18-50 years, collect N20,000 per month for 3months only (October- December) in the first instance.

Comrade Afolabi in his statement during the meeting, expressed hope that all these plans would reach and be benefitted by eligible Ogun State Youths and Nigerian Youths as a whole without any form of foul play in the process, as youth development and growth is paramount in the activities of Nigeria Youths Congress across the Nation.

World Bank approves $150 m dollars education intervention to Uganda

The World Bank (WB) has approved a $150 million intervention project aimed at boosting secondary education in rural Uganda.

The international lender, in a statement, issued late on Friday said 2.5 million learners will directly benefit from the Uganda Secondary Education Expansion Project.

A total of 116 new lower secondary schools will be constructed and 61 schools will benefit from additional classrooms in underserved districts in the country.

This will create 70,300 new spaces for learners, including 30,000 in areas hosting refugees.

The project, according to the statement, will provide textbooks and teacher guides, support continuous teacher professional development and implement an accelerated education programme for children who are not currently attending school.

“Uganda needs to expand access to secondary education to enhance its human capital.

“This is essential if Uganda is to improve the future wellbeing of its citizens while also enable the economy to grow through their increased productivity,’’ said Tony Thompson, World Bank Country Manager for Uganda.

“This project aims to provide new school spaces while at the same time creating a conducive learning environment, which is safe, promotes students’ personal growth and self-esteem.

“It will also increase retention for both boys and girls,’’ Thompson was quoted as saying in the statement.

The bank said while Uganda is a pioneer in sub-Saharan Africa in implementing policies to achieve universal access to primary and secondary education, funding to the sector is among the lowest in the region.

During the last five years, education expenditure as a share of the national budget declined to 10 per cent in 2019/20 while the average for sub-Saharan Africa is 16 per cent and has been steadily increasing over the same period.

While Uganda’s enrolment at the Universal Secondary Education level has increased at an average of six per cent annually, the rate of growth remains low compared to 25 per cent in Kenya and 16 per cent in Rwanda.

President Buhari’s intervention in Mali, a catalyst for peace – Defence Minister

The Minister of Defence, (Rtd)Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi, just back from Bamako, Mali has described the intervention and mediation visit of President Muhammadu Buhari alongside other African leaders to Mali as a vista of hope to end the crisis in the country.

Magashi, who was embedded in the presidential team to Mali, said on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport that peace is paramount to nation-building, which is a collective civic responsibility of the 20 million people in that country.

He described the search for peace in Mali by African leaders in which President Muhammadu Buhari is playing a very crucial role as a needed boost to the efforts of the former President Goodluck Jonathan ECOWAS led mediation committee.

A statement by Mohammed Abdulkadir, the Special Assistant Media to the Defence Minister quoted him as saying that the security situation in Bamako was under control.

He added that the trip to Mali by the Nigerian President had further strengthened Bilateral Cooperation among the two countries and that the visit also confirmed the leadership role of the country in Africa as well as in promoting global peace.

On his part, the Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubair Dada said that the embattled Sahel country needed the strong political will of Nigeria to end the crisis which the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari had brought to the African leaders’ mediation table.

‘The visit of President Muhammadu to the Republic of Mali is no doubt a bold step by the Nigerian leader to reiterate Nigeria’s leadership position in the affairs of ECOWAS,” he said.

ASUSS Ado Odo Ota Local Government – Breaking New Grounds In Unionism

Ayannuga Olufemi (ASUSS Press)

Over the years, ASUSS, led by Comrade Akeem Lasisi in Ogun State has proved the pundits wrong on several occasions . He has come to redirect the focus of unionism and labour from the traditional way of banging of tables and throwing of chairs shouting “we no go gree” to a more pragmatic and robbust engagement and constructive interfacing with the powers that exist and government officials to get the needs of the union members met .

To some, this continuous interaction with public officials may weaken the strength of unionists and labour leaders but keen observers of ASUSS and her style of leadership under Comrade Akeem Lasisi has come to realise that rather than weaken the bark and bite of unionism, it has reshaped and reinvigorated the resolve of ASUSS to get dividends and positive results for secondary school teachers across the state .

Like the proverbial saying LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, the Comrade Olusanjo Akande led ASUSS executive members in Ado Odo Ota Local government surprised everybody when they did what ordinarily would have been tagged the ” responsibility of the government ” by providing face mask for each teachers in the densely populated local government, an hand sanitizer and an improvised plastic water dispenser for all the schools in the local government in the fight against the deadly pandemic COVID-19 and to show to the whole world that ASUSS as a responsible teachers union is fully set to resume back to school as long as the government of the day is ready to meet all the conditions identified and highlighted by relevant stakeholders to reopen the schools.

Addressing representatives of each schools in the local government at the event which took place at Iganmode Grammar School Ota , the leadership of ANCOPSS, the local government TESCOM’ Zonal Secretary and the Zonal Education Officer the State Chairman of ASUSS Akeem Lasisi commended the ASUSS leadership in the local government stressing that this will further prove to the government and parents that government alone cannot address all the issues that has to do with teaching and learning in the state without a very tangible support from other stakeholders, he reinterated the need for the government of the day to reconsider her stand on free education policy noting that he enjoyed the free education policy of the defunct UPN in Ogun State but that parents still contributed their quota.

In his word with ASUSS PRESS CREW reporter, Comrade Olusanjo Akande, the ASUSS Chairman in the local government said “my team of executive members felt that our teachers in the local government should not be exposed to risk of the spread of corona virus even if schools are reopened today by the state government hence the need for the procurement of these materials to help fight the spread of the pandemic”. Other speakers at the event commended ASUSS for the good initiative put in place and implored secondary school teachers to put them in good use to prevent the spread of the pandemic across the state.

Oyo Cancels 3rd Term, Releases Calendar For School Resumption

The Oyo State Executive Governor Seyi Makinde, on Tuesday, approved the academic calendar to guide resumption of schools and other associated educational activities in the state.

Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Olasunkanmi Olaleye, made this known in a press release that he made available to journalists in Ibadan.

He stated that the third term for the 2019/2020 academic session has been cancelled and promotion of students, for all affected classes, would be determined by first and second terms continuous assessments

Olaleye explained that pupils in Primary Six, JSS III and SS III, would proceed on holidays from 30th of July and resume for their examinations as follows; Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) would hold from 10th to 18th August 2020, Competitive Entrance Examination into the Schools of Science has been slated for August 19, 22020, while placement/screening test to JSS1 would take place on August 20, 2020, and Placement Test into Technical Colleges would hold on August 28. The SSSS III would resume for their examinations as soon as West African Examination Council (WAEC) announces the date.

The 2020/21 academic session, according to the calendar approved by the State Council, will have its first term run from September 21 to December 18. The second term will also run from January 11 to April 9, 2021. Also, the third term would be from May 3 to July 30, 2021.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has, however, enjoined all stakeholders and members of the public to take note of the details of the academic calendar.

FAAC shares N651.18bn to FG, states, LGs in June

The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) has shared N651.18 billion Federation Account Revenue to the federal, states and local government councils and relevant agencies for the month of June.

Mr Henshaw Ogubike, Director Information, Press and Public Relations of FAAC announced the figures in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

Ogubike said the monthly meeting, which held by virtual conferencing, was chaired by Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.

He explained that the gross statutory revenue available in June was N524.52 billion while the gross revenue from the Value Added Tax (VAT) was N128.826 billion and the revenue from the Exchange Gain was N42.832 billion.

This brought the total revenue for the month to N696.18 billion.

The director said that from this total, the sum of N45 billion was saved in the excess non-oil revenue account and the balance of N651.184 billion was shared to the three tiers of government and relevant agencies.

Giving the breakdown, he said the Federal Government received N266.13 billion, the state governments got N185.77 billion and the local government councils received N138.97 billion.

According to him, the oil-producing states received N28.49 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue while N76.80 billion was given to revenue and relevant agencies.

He said in June, import and excise duty, VAT, companies income tax, oil and gas royalty recorded significant increases while petroleum profit tax declined.

Don’t Blame The Recession on Pandemic – Okueyungbo Chides APC

“The electoral victory of President Muhammadu Buhari heralded a new consciousness in Nigerians. It rekindled hope that Nigeria will witness an astronomical growth in all spheres or at least better than was obtained by his predecessor who remains the most vilified President ever known”.

“That was going to be temporary as the administration went directly in the opposite direction, negating the gains of our hard earned democracy, with fascism, nepotism, kakistocracy, judicial rascality, corruption, electoral fraud amongst several other vices gaining ascendancy and catalysing the destruction of our socioeconomic gains”.

“Without doubt, the crumbling private sector was dealt a lethal blow by the pandemic. However, that has been made worse by an irresponsible government who have previously supervised the loss of 9 million jobs between 2015 and 2019. Thousands of jobs has been lost within the organised private sector and this is yet to attract the required attention. The SMEs are the largest employers and more of these businesses might never recover from the effects of months of closure and accompanying job losses”.

“There has been several predictions that the country will be going into a recession after the lockdown and some of these were confirmed by the finance minister. However, worthy of note is that the country went into recession few months after the emergence of the APC government led by Buhari in 2015. The economy went on a free fall due to paucity of governance as Buhari failed to appoint his ministers and rather, established the “cabal” who have continued to shamelessly milk state resources with the people swayed with a fake anticorruption campaign”.

“The dollar in a single fell swoop went from #179 to $1 in February 2015 to #397 to $1 at present. Nigeria overtook India to become the poverty capital of the world. The debt to Gdp ratio has risen from 17.54% in 2014 to 31.35% in 2020 and expected to shoot 35% by 2023. The Nigerian Police Force under the current administration ranked the worst in the world for four consecutive years and Magu the head of the anticorruption agency with mind boggling allegations of corruption, leaves in its trail, millions of helpless Nigerians in these trying times. Safe to say, Nigeria has been in recession prior to the pandemic. Covid 19 will only plunge her deeper in debt, unemployment, social and infrastructure decay”.

“We have seen people centered governments implementing policies such as keeping the private sector and SMEs afloat by paying the wages of their employees while on lockdown to prevent job losses, and during the same period, ours have continued to loot even the donations from well meaning Nigerians. While the economies of people centered governments are springing up from where it paused, ours will require months of appraisals, planning and more likely laced with fraudulent implementation as is the trend with the APC government”.

“The respite an average Nigerian should ideally expect from a government that vowed to fight corruption and promised a million job per year especially at this time is long diminished. Rebuilding trust with less than three years to another electioneering year will seem to many, a wild goose chase”.

“The light at the end of the tunnel remains the transient nature of power. No doubt the APC has failed to liberate the people and also failed to provide succour. The future has never appeared as bleak as it is at present. Armed with the knowledge of their continued deception, it is not too early to begin preparations to democratically oust these criminals in office”.

“It is NOT Covid 19. It IS the brazen irresponsibility of the present administration”.

Olumide Okueyungbo.

Suspend Arotile’s Burial Until Conclusion Of Investigation, Adegboruwa Tells Buhari

Lagos – A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the burial of late Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile until the conclusion of investigations into the circumstances that led to her death.

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) had announced Saturday that the late Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot, who died on July 14, will be laid to rest at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja on July 23.

It also said Arotile, who was 24 years until her death, was knocked down by her former schoolmate who was excited to see her at the NAF Base in Kaduna.

But Adegboruwa, a human rights lawyer in a statement on Sunday, said there is no point in rushing her burial until a proper investigation is concluded so that Nigerians can know the truth about how she died.

The statement reads: “The sudden death of Tolulope Arotile has caused a national mourning in this time of COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is tragic, painful and gruesome. The inconsistent stories emerging from the Nigerian Air Force has not helped to douse the suspicions.

“The least we expect is a proper investigation, followed with a Coroner’s Inquest, including an independent autopsy report.

“There is no point in rushing to bury her in the light emerging revelations.

“These are the questions:

Who drove the car?

Where did the accident happen?

Where was Arotile going to?

A reversing car means it had passed her, so was she trekking?

Was she blindfolded not to see the reversing car to escape?

Were her legs tied?

What kind of medical treatment did she receive?

In which hospital was she treated?

Who called her out from her rest after a successful air combat on bandits?

Why are there inconsistent statements from the Nigerian Air Force, being released in bits and pieces?

“Many more questions indeed. .I urge the President to direct a full investigation into her death, to suspend the burial plans until the conclusion of the investigations”.

Arson suspected in major fire at French cathedral in Nantes

Firefighters work to extinguish a major fire at a 15th-century Gothic cathedral in the western city of Nantes on Saturday.

French prosecutors have launched an arson investigation following a major fire at a 15th-century Gothic cathedral in the western city of Nantes on Saturday.

The blaze spewed smoke from the front windows of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but the damage was mostly limited to the large pipe organ inside.

The organ was “completely destroyed”, said the head of the local fire department, Laurent Ferlay.

The public prosecutor’s office is now investigating whether arson was the cause and experts from Paris are expected to provide support.

The fire broke out in three places, which is probably not a coincidence, Nantes prosecutor, Pierre Sennes, told local radio station France Bleu Loire Ocean.

However, no signs of a break-in have been found so far, Sennes said, according to news agency AFP.

Flames originated from the organ and on both sides of the nave, BFMTV reported, citing the public prosecutor’s office.

According to media reports, over 100 firefighters were deployed to the cathedral to extinguish the blaze, which broke out around 7.30 a.m. (0530 GMT).

By Saturday afternoon the fire was nearly completely out but work is expected to continue into the night.

French media reported that a crane was to lift the wreckage of the organ out of the church in order to reach the last burning embers.

The diocese published pictures of the damage that showed debris from the organ scattered in the church’s interior.

The main organ is completely gone, diocese administrator, Francois Renaud, told AFP after visiting the cathedral.

He said no price could be placed on the loss.

The organ was built in 1619 and has been rebuilt and restored several times since.

In a video posted by firefighters shortly after the blaze erupted, flames could be seen through the church’s front windows while smoke pours out of them.

The windows were also destroyed.

According to the Nantes diocese, the church had also caught fire in 1972, destroying its roof.

After restoration work, the church, which belongs to the French late Gothic style, reopened its doors in 1985.

In 2015, a spectacular fire destroyed the roof of another church in Nantes, the Basilica of Saint Donatian and Saint Rogatian.

Saturday’s fire comes a little more than a year after Notre Dame Cathedral in the capital, Paris, caught fire, destroying the roof of the 12th-century Gothic cathedral as well as its 93-metre-high spire.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for firefighters saving this “Gothic jewel”.

After reaching Nantes, French Prime Minister Jean Castex likewise thanked local firefighters for their work.

He assessed the damage together with Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, and Culture Minister, Roselyne Bachelot.

Castex said reconstruction should start as soon as possible.

The state will play its part, he promised. (DPA)