All Posts in "Day: November 25, 2022"

Investment In Human Capital Development Panacea To Poverty Eradication -Sanwo-Olu

Investing in human development is one of the smartest reserves a country can make to break the cycle of poverty, address inequality, and boost productivity of labour,Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State Governor, has said.

He spoke at the Human Capital Development (HCD) Southwest Regional Conference with the theme; ‘From Plan to Action: Push for HCD’ in Lagos.

His deputy,Dr.Obafemi Hamzat,represented him at the event.

He said:“Africa will soon be home to more than 50 percent of the world’s youth and our region holds a dominant portion of this demography. We therefore owe our youths the opportunity to be productive members of the workforce that will contribute to the global economy.

“This will not happen if we don’t take informed decisions to tackle some challenges that are peculiar to this region through the HCD initiative. This is particularly critical in the light of the recently released Multidimensional Poverty in Nigeria (2022) report”

He said that the profound shift in the global economy is creating a sense of urgency for them as policy makers to prepare the people for the emerging and complex future, stating that the key is making the right investments in people – ensuring that they accumulate the knowledge and skills they will need to compete in a new world.

He added:“In a global world, we cannot afford for our people to not have the proper foundation in health, education and skills. As innovation continues to accelerate, it will be harder to catch up with the space of development being witnessed in the developed world, if we fail to act decisively now.

“Our economies will fall further behind if we are not committed to meeting targets of HCD. We have no time to lose as leaders, we must urgently invest in our people.It’s high time we turned our lens towards creating diverse opportunities for human development by leveraging evidence-based advocacy to mobilize ourselves and take actions to drive the accountability needed to deliver change at scale across communities and improve developmental outcomes for our citizens.

He noted that Lagos state is fully committed to ensuring every child, man and woman in Lagos is not left behind and has the opportunity to live a full and productive life.

admin by — November 25, 2022 in News 0
FG Returns History To Schools,Shortlists 3,700 Teachers

The Federal Government has announced the reintroduction of History as a stand alone subject in basic education curriculum in Nigeria

The action came thirteen years after the abolition of the subject.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu,who disclosed on Thursday while flagging-off a programme announcing the reintroduction,said about 3,700 History teachers have also been shortlisted for the first round of training for enhanced teaching of the subject.

He was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Rt. Hon. Goodluck Nanah Opiah at the event attended by Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar and other key stakeholders in the education sector.

He lamented that the national cohesion was being threatened with the country retreating into primodal sentiments because of lack of knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria, following the removal of History from the basic education curriculum.

History was removed from primary and secondary education curriculums from the 2009/2010 academic session.

However,following general reactions then that for a country that was still evolving and grappling with issues of social cohesion, political stability and economic development, it could not afford to forget its past, the current Minister of Education, ordered the reintroduction of the subject in 2019.

Speaking at the flag-off, Adamu said: “History used to be one of the foundational subjects taught in our classroom but for some inexplicable reasons, the steam of teaching and learning was abolished.

“As a result, history was subsequently expunged from the list of subject combination our students could offer in both external and internal examinations compared to the subjects that were made compulsory at basic and secondary levels in Nigeria. This single act no doubt relegated and eroded the knowledge and information that learners could otherwise have been exposed to. It was a monumental mistake and have already started seeing its negative consequences

“The loss created by the absence of this subject has led to a fall in moral values, erosion of civic values, and disconnect from the past. More worrisome was the neglect of the teaching of this subject at basic and post basic levels of education which invariably eroded the knowledge of the evolution of Nigeria as a country”

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Education 0
Air Peace Returns To Uyo

Air Peace will return to Uyo, Ikwa Ibom State from December 1, 2022, Mr. Stanley Olisa, the Spokesman for the airline has said.

It also said that its fleet of Airbus aircraft have increased to eight from initial six following the additional of two A320 aircraft.

A statement by Olisa said the Lagos-Uyo and Abuja-Uyo services would operate daily, with a fare of N50,000.

He said:“We are happy to inform the flying public of the resumption of flight operations into Uyo on December 1, 2022, with a re-launch fare of N50, 000. Our esteemed customers can now book their Uyo flights on all our booking platforms as the schedules are live”.

He stated that the airline recently received six Airbus aircraft to support its domestic and regional operations and continue to interconnect cities across Nigeria and beyond, while also contributing to the development of the Nigerian economy.

He maintained that the airline was committed to reducing the burden of air travel through the provision of easy connectivity, strategic route expansion and investment in the perfect aircraft.

The airline launched Uyo service in December 2016, but suspended it in 2020.

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Aviation 0
Nigeria:.1 Doctor Treats 6,400 Patients

A medical doctor now treats 6,400 patients in most public hospitals on Nigeria,Dr. Teslim Onigbinde, an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Rehabilitation at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,has said

He spoke at the second induction of 34 graduates of Physiotherapy at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Ondo State

Onigbinde,who was the guest lecturer at the event lamented that the nation’s health sector is in geometrical decadence.

In his lecture entitled: “Professional, Mentoring and Leadership: Key to Excellence in Physiotherapy Career,” Dr. Onigbinde advised the inductees to arm themselves with new trends in their profession as they unfolds irrespective of their desire to leave the country in search of greener pasture.

Dr. Onigbinde, who expressed concern that the new inductees would have been working on how get job outside the country immediately after their internship, appealed that “You (inductees) are coming at a time that there is mass exodus of medical personnel. The university has taken about five years to train you, so Nigerians will be happy to have you around.

“If your lecturers had left, they will not be around to train you. We are in a very serious situation. Except something is done, we might be heading towards major crisis. I salute those who are still around despite the challenging situation.”

The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Olusegun Fatusi,said the inductees could seek job abroad because they need to survive.

He was represented by the institution’s Deputy Vice Chancellor(Administration and Clinicals), Prof. Adolphus Loto.

He said it’s the right of the inductees to seek job abroad but must be careful before leaving the nation’s shores.

He said:”It is your right to seek employment anywhere in the world because it is part of the international labour mobility. But my advice is that before you leave, you must get a job here.Many cannot come back(to Nigeria) because there is nothing to fall back on. You have two goals in your career; to solve societal problems and personal problems.

“Our dear and wonderful inductees, we are proud of you and your achievement so far. The induction programme, as you have been well tutored, is not a mere ceremony. It is a critical rite of passage into a new life – the life of professional health workers, and specifically your entry into the distinguished and rewarding profession of Physiotherapy.”

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Health 0
Dearth Of Psychiatric Doctors Hit Nigeria

The President, Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria, Prof. Taiwo Obindo, has said the country currently have a ratio of one qualified psychiatric doctor to about a million Nigerians.

He spoke on the sidelines of the ongoing 53rd Annual General and Scientific Meeting of all psychiatric doctors in Nigeria holding at Federal Neuropsychiatric, Hospital, Enugu .

He said :“This development has made accessibility and deliverability of psychiatric care relatively difficult in the country,’’

The four days meeting, which started on Nov. 23, is themed: “Insecurity and Forced Displacement: Mental Health and Psychological Implication”.

Obindo revealed that about two-third of yearly well-trained and certified psychiatric doctors leave the country annually; adding in psychiatric hospitals qualified psychiatric doctors leave the country in drove, thus; creating the negative situation currently.

“The standard is that one psychiatric doctor should take care of 10,000 patients; but today, we have one psychiatric doctor to over one million Nigerians.As we speak now, we are having less than 250 certified psychiatric doctors throughout the whole country and more are leaving by the day,” he lamented.

He advocated the need for the passage of National Mental Health Bill (amended) to give proper process and administration of mental health treatment and other issues relating to mental health, which included adequate funding and enumeration of its professionals.

“Mental healthcare should be incorporated into the primary healthcare system to cater for the primary and secondary institutions treating mental health disorder in localities.Presently, the little budget meant for mental health treatment goes to the tertiary institutions only.

“Mental health should be fully taken care at the Primary Healthcare Centres to save Nigerians transport, feeding and accommodation cost as well as stress of conveying a mental ill relative to urban centres where psychiatric hospitals are found,” he said.

Prof. Monday Igwe, the Medical Director of Federal Neuropsychiatric, Hospital, Enugu, said that insecurity was becoming a major cause of mental trauma and stress for some Nigerians.

Igwe, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the meeting, said that traumatic condition caused by insecurity and forced displaced can further lead to psychological imbalance, depression and suicide.

“It is time we put the psychological and psychiatric needs of these people into serious consideration and ensure that they pass through their ordeal with renewed hope that tomorrow will be better,” he added.

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Health 0
CBN, EFCC To Monitor Huge Withdrawals

The Central Bank of Nigeria would work with law enforcement agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, to complicate and track large withdrawals.

Its governor,Godwin Emefiele,disclosed He said this while briefing the press after the launch the new Naira banknotes

He said that the amount of money that can be withdrawn from the counter would be reduced drastically, stressing that bulk withdrawals would require several procedures and security checks to track use.

He explained that the devey would ensure a steady transition into a cashless economy.

He added:“There is no economy imbued with the thinking that it has to be a cash economy; the world has moved from predominantly cash to a cashless economy. And I think Nigeria and the Central Bank of Nigeria are prepared to move towards a cashless economy. And that is why following the redesign and issuance of this note, we will insist that cashless will be nationwide.

“We will restrict the volume of cash that people can withdraw over the counter. If you need to draw large volumes of cash, you will fill out uncountable forms; we will take your data, whether it’s your BVN or NIN so that our law enforcement agencies like EFCC and ICPC can follow you and be sure that you are taking that money for a good purpose.”

He also noted that this move alongside the redesigned notes would ensure that the apex bank has ample control over the amount of money in circulation.

He argued that the new move is not targeted at anyone while noting that the past attempts to redesign the naira notes were resisted.

He added:“The Central Bank of Nigeria, by law, has the mandate to reissue and redesign currency for the country, and for Nigerian people, every five to eight years. And I want to hope that after the event of today, the Central Bank of Nigeria can take it as part of its programmes to see that the currencies are designed or reissued every five to eight years.

“It is mainly because the central bank should be able to control the size of currency in circulation fully. That is the actual mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria because it has implications for monetary policy management in the country.

“There is no need for anybody to think this program is targeted at anyone. Like you heard the President, he said, this discussion to redesign and reissue currency started early in the year.”

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Banking&Finance 0
Adeleke Threatens To Sack Osun New Permanent Secretaries

The Osun State governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke has threatened to sack all new permanent secretaries approved by Governor Gboyega Oyetola in the last hours to the end of his tenure as governor.

His spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed,conveyed the threat in a statement,saying that taking such appointments at this last minute indicated the readiness of those directors to exit the state service.

He added:“Any Coordinating Director who accept a permanent Secretary appointment from outgoing Governor Gboyega Oyetola will exit the service from November 28th, Osun State Governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke .

” We want to put on records that those who accept the appointments should be ready to leave the service whether or not their service tenure has reached statutory age. The occupants will be treated as political appointees who will automatically follow the outgoing Governor out of public service from November 28″

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Politics 0
Preserving The Nigerian Popular Music Heritage – The Evergreen Experience

Paper Delivered By Bimbo Esho At The University of Lagos, Wednesday 23rd, 2022

Music preservation is an act of preserving and maintaining art found throughout the ages be it sculpture, paintings, books, etc

Most people who are preservationist usually first start as collectors. Good example is a renowned music collector in Nigeria Mr Femi Esho, Chairman of Evergreen Musical Company,who owns the largest collection of music of yesteryears in Nigeria and Omoba Yemisi Shyllon founder of OYASAF, who has the largest work of art in Nigeria today and whose Museum is situated at Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.

Femi Esho started his collection of musical works since the age of twelve. It started as a passion and love for music. His passion took him round Nigeria and he moved with the biggest names in Nigeria music industry.

Today, he is acclaimed as the largest collector of music of yesteryears in Nigeria with over 100,000 original vinyls of the works of musicians from all over the world particularly those in Africa.

Also,his Lagos office has overtime become a beehive of activities where researchers, musicians, students, etc all come to learn about Nigerian music heritage.

In his Lagos office are original works of most of Nigerian musicians some of whom he owns copyright to their works also on display in his heritage Office are musical instruments like Gramophone of 100 years, Reel to Reel, Turntable, etc.

It is good to know that collectors overtime become preservationist as they think deeply about ways to safeguard most of their collected works for posterity. Sometimes they are seen as performing surgical operation on the piece of music/ art in their custody.I remember few years back while discussing with Mr Femi Esho, my dad.

He told me of a most painful experience he has had a collector. I am sure you will also laugh when you hear this story. He said while sorting out his many collections one of the 78rpm record plate fell and broke into pieces, Guess what? He said tears rolled down from his eyes!.

One may wonder why such display of emotions but for him he believes he has lost an heritage and an entire musical work that may never be found again.

Now back to the focus of the day. In explaining the preservation of our music I will love to split this topic into three:

1) Music Storage Materials and how it has been improved on over the years

2) The Future

3) Need for preservation of our Musical Heritage.

Storage System

In explaining musical storage device and how it has been improved on over the years,we will start by tracing back to over 3,400 years ago when the first musical form was discovered in Syria during excavation process.

The archaeological finding was a hymn inscribed on clay tablet. This has since been transcribed and put into song. We can find that song on YouTube.

While discussing this mention must be made of the earliest musical instruments like the Iyre which is 1400 BC and the Neanderthal flute which has been estimated as over 60,000 years.

Coming back to Nigeria, historical Research confirms Canon Jesse Ransome Kuti, Fela Kuti’s grandfathers songs as the first to be released in Nigeria on Vinyl in the year 1925 under Zonophone record label.

In understanding Zonophone,please note it was not really a company per se but it name applied to records and machines (Talking Machines).

Years ago people always thought it was the dog on the gramophone that sang. The technology of the Gramophone was introduced in, 1887. The Gramophone was used to play what was known as the 78rmp plate and also known as breakable plates.In 1920 the reel to reel was introduced.

Later in 1948,technology continued to improve hence the introduction of 33 RPM records from Colombia Records. Then we had turntable to play this. In 1958 the Cassette player was invented then later in 1982 the invention of CDs.

For us that are collectors,I can say that the CD system has been like the poorest storage system. Once the CDs scratches, it loses its relevance and starts to skip during play.Sometimes the musical content can vamoose sorry with my word lol leaving the CD empty.

The other devices are relatively okay and have been able to stand the test of time especially if not exposed to heat.The MP3 Project began in 1977 but first put into use in 1998 according to research.The digital process allowed songs from earlier mention storage facilities to be converted to MP3 then stored on hard drive and computers.

There is reservation for the digital era because in a bid for preservation of the original works as old as 100 years some end up losing the original sound texture including original local musical instruments used in the production while trying to eradicate noise and scratches.

There is no gainsaying that the digital age has helped musicians particularly contemporary ones in selling their music around the world unlike the sale of vinyl and cassettes which required face to face purchase.

Now artistes can connect to their fans easily through streaming of their works on different platforms online like Amazon, iTunes, Boomplay, etc

The Future

Global Music Vault are trying new technology that will help keep music for 10,000 years on a platter stem technology from a Microsoft research project dubbed project silica which uses recent discoveries in ultrafast laser optics according to them the glass is capable of holding over 20,000 songs for around 10,000 years.

Need For Preservation Of Our Musical Heritage

There is need to preserve our musical heritage to avoid distortion of original lyrics. Unavailability of our music will cause young minds to embrace foreign cultures that are available.

We learn our cultures through music and allowing its extinction is at our own detriment. We all have noticed that contemporary music nourishes itself from older music traditions many we will notice in the songs remix of the present age.

The loss of our musical heritage will mean the loss of our unique stories that carries mythologies, records of our ancestors , taboos, social norms, etc

Thank You.

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Opinion 0
Appeal Court Declares Bibani As Adamawa APC Governorship Candidate.

An Appeal Court in Yola, Thursday declared that Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani, representing Adamawa Central as the substantive Adamawa state Governorship candidate for the 2023 general elections.

The court presided over by justices Tani Yusuf Hassan, M.O Bolaji and James Abodego set aside the judgment of the Yola High Court which earlier nullified the governorship primary elections of the APC declaring that the party has no candidate for the forthcoming elections.

The court ordered that the name of Senator Aishatu Dahiru Binani to submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission immediately.

admin by — November 25, 2022 in Politics 0