Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed said on Tuesday that only one per cent of Nigerian population forms the total enrollment of students in the 164 universities across the country.
Rasheed made this known in Abuja on the sidelines of the presentation of Provisional License to a new private university, Skyline University, Kano.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Skyline University is now the 75th private university approved by the National Executive Council.
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2018/07/03/news/why-nigerians-prefer-local-rice-to-imported-rice/Rasheed stated that the 75 private universities in the country accounted for 5.31 per cent of the total enrollment in the universities across the country.
He described the situation as unhealthy and stressed the need for more access either by creating more universities or expanding existing ones.
“All the 75 private universities in the country account for only 5. 31 per cent of the total enrollment in our universities and many of them are small.
“If you look at the population of 198 million which is nearly 200 million and if you bear in mind that the total enrollment in our universities today, all the 164 universities is less than 2 million.
“That is just 1.96 million students in the universities that translates roughly to one per cent of the population; one per cent of the population are in the university, I think that is not healthy.
“So, we need more access; that is why we need either more universities or we need expand existing universities.
“We need to create more space for more Nigerians to get quality university education,” he said.
The NUC boss stated that the commission could not regulate the fees of private schools.
He, however, called on government at all levels and philanthropists to institute scholarship for indigent students, who are intelligent to enable them access quality education .
According to him, the establishment of the university was significant because it was the first private university in the Kano and the second private university in the North.
The university was already in operation in the United Arab Emirate.
Rasheed said the NUC would continue to support investors in university education as long as they delivered quality education, which will in turn develop the country.
“The future of this country rests in the strength of the university education, so we will continue to support investors in our university education,” he said.
In his response, Mr Kamal Puri, Proprietor, Skyline University, commended the NUC for the quality guidelines set in establishing universities in the country.
Puri stressed that the growth and development of any nation was attributed to the quality of education of the people.
He said there was the need to prepare the young generation for the rapid change in technology, because they are the future leaders.
“Nigeria should expect technology in education because the world is changing; cyber security, artificial intelligence and robotics are spreading in every field.
“Teaching has changed; it is life-long learning and we are the leaders in technology.
“Teaching is not just providing knowledge and skills, but also helping the students to face the global challenges and that will be our advantage,” he said.
Puri gave assurance that the university would deliver in standard and quality, because they were determined to produce quality graduates.
“We are not here to engage in a business making venture, education will not give you that returns.
“But seeing quality graduates at the end performing optimally will give me happiness.
“The returns are the respect and happiness in your heart when you see your former students doing very well,” Puri said.
He assured the NUC that the institution would follow the rules and regulations and bring the best technology and curriculum in running the school
A Non Governmental Organization, Women’s Situation Room Nigeria, Gombe State chapter, Northeast of the country has held a Peace Rally in the state capital condemning the killings and bloodshed around the country.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after the rally, the Northeast Zonal Coordinator, Hajiya Zariatu Abubakar said Nigerian women are saddened by the killings of citizens and destruction of properties across the country.
She said women and children as the receiving end, needed such violence to be addressed by the government
“Our heart goes out to the grieving and bereaved at this time, these continue killings and unjust spilling of human blood must be stopped”.
The group called on Nigerian government to set up a commission to look into the armed herders killings with a view to proferring lasting solution to the problems.
“We call on all citizens of Nigeria to promote peace, shun armed violence and indeed violence in all forms” she re-emphasized
The group however urged the governments to provide holistic support to the families of the victims and survivors of violence in the country.
Rice is one of the major staple foods in Nigeria today which is found in almost every home. There is hardly anyone who does not include it in his/her diets at least once every week.
The two types of rice found in Nigeria are the Local and Foreign. The local rice which is grown in some parts of the country is short grained, brown in colour and popularly called “Ofada rice” in the southwest and “Abakaliki rice” in the south east of the country.
On the other hand, the imported rice which is grown, processed and packaged from other parts of the world, is long grained and white in colour.
In processing the foreign rice, the essential fats which is known as aleurine layer, according to experts, is removed and eposed to air and then becomes susceptible to oxidation.
This leads to increase shelf life and striped it of its original and natural nutrients such as vitamin, iron, magnesium, zinc among others that could have been of beneficial to the consumer.
With the rise of various ailments associated with some processed foods and awareness created over the years, Nigerians have become cautious and therefore desire to eat more healthy and nutritional foods, a development they say makes them prefer the local rice which is devoid of shelf life.
Speaking to AFRICA PRIME NEWS a Rice Merchant at the Sheik Gumi Market, in Kaduna metropolis, Northwest Nigeria, Yahaya Kabir confirmed that the daily sales being recorded on local rice had almost doubled what they recorded in the past.
He however stated that the imported rice still maintain its price of between #18,000 and #20,000, a little higher than the local, depending on the brand.
According to him, most buyers say they prefer local rice because of the taste and its nutritional value and less shelf life.” They always tell us that the imported rice takes longer period to come into the country which must have affected its nutritional value”, Kabir said .
So, preferring local rice to Imported rice, Nigerians seem to have now realized that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.
And going by the recent prediction by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, that the country would witness a bumper harvest, especially of rice this year, is a strong indication that the nation is on the march towards attaining self sufficiency in foods and by extension, export.
Nasarawa State Chapter of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Northcentral Nigeria has banned the sale of alcohol in all motor parks across the state.
State chairman of the union, Salihu Adamu told newsmen on Tuesday in Lafia that the ban was part of efforts to check the rate of accidents involving drunk drivers.
According to him, most traffic accidents on major highways in the state were due to intake of alcohol and hard drugs as well as over speeding and dangerous over taking.
“The union has taken several measures to curtail the rate of accidents on the highway, including the ban on sale of alcohol at the various motor parks in the state.
“Anybody caught selling alcohol, Indian hemp and other hard drugs in motor parks would be sanctioned appropriately.
“We also set up a task force to ensure full compliance by all concerned,” Adamu said.
He said the union is collaborating with the Federal Road Safety Corps to sensitise drivers on the dangers of consuming alcohol and other intoxicants before embarking on trips.
The NURTW chairman appealed to commuters against boarding vehicles outside designated motor parks, so as not to expose themselves to criminals or not being properly accounted for in case of accident.
Adamu warmed members of the union from taking passengers from outside designated motor parks, adding that such drivers would be properly sanctioned by the union. NAN
Speaker Nigerian House Of Reps, Hon. Dogara Yakubu
By Joseph Edegbo:
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the constitutional amendment Bill which provides for early submission of budget proposals to the National Assembly by the President.
At the resumption of plenary on Tuesday, the Speaker said so long as the Bill is not signed into law, any talk of an orderly appropriations process would be mere cheap talk.
The Bill stipulates that the President shall prepare and lay before each House of the National Assembly estimates of revenue and expenditure, 90 days before the end of the fiscal year, and was transmitted to the President along with other constitutional amendment Bills some of which have been assented to by the President.
“It is as a result of this that the National Assembly proposed an amendment to the section to require the President to submit the Appropriation Bill not later than 90 days to the end of the financial year. The President has not yet signed this Bill which is so critical to an orderly Appropriations process. Let me use this opportunity to remind Mr President of the fact that if this Bill does not become law, any talk of an orderly appropriations process would be mere cheap talk.
According to the Speaker, “It is important to reiterate once again, that the National Assembly has the Constitutional powers, duty and responsibility to intervene in the budgeting process to ensure equity, federal character and even distribution of projects and amenities to all nooks and crannies of this great country as direct Representatives of the people.
“It is also important to emphasise that the 2018 budget benefitted from active cooperation and consultation between the Executive and Legislature during the Appropriation process. No doubt, Nigeria’s budgeting processes is in need of further reforms and that is why the National Assembly took the bold initiative to introduce the Budget Process Bill that is expected to lay out, timelines that will guide the appropriations process from conception to passage.
“But for this Bill to be passed, section (81) subsection (1) which gives the President power to prepare and lay before each House of the National Assembly AT ANY TIME estimates of revenue and expenditure in the financial year must be amended.”
He also charged House Committees to process all pending legislative measures before them and ensure expeditious consideration as they enter the twilight of their legislative mandate and said “we already have a record number of Bills, Resolutions and Public Petitions passed more than any other Assembly before us and we can do even more in the remaining period of our tenure.”
Rivers State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged the siphoning of Rivers State’s funds to assist Ayo Fayose, the outgoing Governor of Ekiti State in paying off civil servants’ six months salaries, describing the act as dubious and unacceptable.
In a statement by the State Chairman of the party in Port Harcourt, Ojukaye Flag Amachree said that in as much as they care for the plight of the Ekiti State workers, but to use Rivers State funds to pay their salaries, while civil servants in Rivers were left unpaid for several months was like robbing Peter in order to pay Paul.
“The party notes with sadness that instead of Governor Fayose using the said fund to pay the civil servants salaries as pleaded for during his last vist to Rivers State to commsion some some of the projects already commissioned by Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi during his tenure as the Governor of Rivers State, he is busy sharing the funds to his lackeys, court jesters and political jobbers. This act and strategy is not only devious, diabolical but immoral to the highest order and unacceptable to us as a political party.
“We are at a loss that Fayose who has been complaining of paucity of funds now has turned to “Santa Claus” distributing cash, rice, chicken in large sizes and other gifts to some selected Teachers, civil servant, traders to woo them to vote for his anointed candidate forgotten that these teachers have been asking and pleading to some of the Elders in the state, to help them beg Fayose to save them from starvation by paying their over six months salaries”, the Party stated.
“The party pleads with the people of Ekiti not to be deceived by Fayose as the Rivers State’s money he is misuing will be repaid immediately he leaves office no matter the odds. Ekiti people should reject the antics and pranks of Fayose and instead vote in Fayemi who has proved capability to take Ekiti to the new height expected of such a great State.
“We should not forget that Fayose employed similar strategy during the 2014 general election to deceive our people and only succeeded to plunge the State into its present unfortunate state.”
According to Amachree, Governor Fayose does not mean well for the people of the state wondering how does one explain the latest scam of not paying the statutory salaries owed the civil servants but prefers to share another State’s fund among his lackeys. “This is immoral and condemnable”.
“The party cautions Fayose that 2018 is not 2014 when the army and state apparatus was used to install him as the Governor of Ekiti State against the will of the people of Ekiti State. We therefore warn him not to destabilise the peace of Ekiti State and refuse to be lured by Governor Nyesom Wike who has promised him to send in militants to help his candidate win the July, 14th election as we are very convinced that Security agencies as presently constituted are ever ready to ensure that their plot to use the militants will be resisted accordingly.
“The Rivers APC congratulates its candidate for the 14th July election, former Minister of Mines and Steel Development Kayode Fayemi in advance and pleads with him to bring back the sanity and statndard that Ekiti State and her people were known and noted with.
“We are happy as a political party that with Fayemi, the party is bringing on board this time a message of consolation, hope and restoration. Consolation for the tolerance and perseverance of the last four years and hope for speedy restoration of abandoned programs, infrastructures, industries, values, projects and all the good things we lost due to some actions or inactions of the incumbent Administration,” Amachree said
The party also pleads with the people of Ekiti to vote rightly, considering their collective manifesto to turn the fortunes of the State and her people around as captured by Fayemi , “My quest to be governor again is born out of my sheer love and commitment to the well-being of my people. Each time I move round Ekiti, I see the pains on the faces of the 25,000 elderly persons who benefited from our social security scheme, 600 people who were employed into the Peace Corps, 10,000 volunteers who took N10, 000 per month, among others but have been cut off from these safety nets by Fayose. The complaints and agonies of the beneficiaries of many abandoned physical projects and social welfare programs give me sleepless nights.
“For instance, hundreds of boreholes in public schools are abandoned and not functional for lack of maintenance, over 40,000 people benefitting from our various social investment scheme have been put out to hang and dry. All that we did to better the lives of our people have been eroded in a lot of places, just go to Ikogosi, you will be sorry. Which sensible and reasonable person sees such laudable programs damaged/jettisoned and relaxes or goes to sleep? These people have no clear understanding of how to run public offices.
“The most painful aspect is workers welfare. This is painful because workers welfare was one of their major promises of campaign back then. Most of our tertiary institutions now run epileptic calendar because of incessant strike. No civil servant in Ekiti state has received salary this year. Ditto, for the pensioners, none of them have received pension in 2018 and gratuity have not been paid for years. Yet the government keeps lying to the public about the financial situation of the state. Things are tight generally in the country no doubt but the problem of Ekiti state is simply misplacement of priority”, Amachree recalls.
When the wretched Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) got elected through the masquerade of an electoral process, delinquents, sewage rats and trashy zombies of the CDC often repeated the vulgar refrain that their rotten party will steer the affairs of the homeland for the next 60 years. This was the way they thought to emasculate men who were disillusioned in the outcome of the fraudulent polls but still hold the view that the struggle for the social transformation of the homeland must be ceaselessly mounted.
However, progressive intellectuals, enlightened nationalists and readers of the dialectical trend of society countered in the homeland countered such absurdity with polemical as well as persuasive write outs, outlining the social forces and the conditions that will necessitate the people en masse to turn against the Weah government. As usual, our critique of their banal assumption was countered with a torrent of diatribes and the problematic of incoherent ranting.
Comrades and Friends, yesterday, the masses of the people proved our assumption right and sharply debunked the scandalous joke that the CDC owns them and are thus disposed to support the regime irrespective of the wholesale plunder, with its adjuncts of worsening living standards, hyperinflation, the peddling of influence, the scramble for exotic mansions and the running of critical instruments of the bureaucracy of the state by playboys and playgirls.
The much heralded pro-poor day which made rounds on social media, accompanied by the effusive glorification of President George M. Weah by the usual suspects: carpetbaggers, heartless opportunists and intellectual prostitutes of the decadent regime was a huge failure. They floated the ideas about locking down Monrovia, but the reality of yesterday forced them to eat their words and pretend as if nothing catastrophic happened. All of the lousy clowns refused to talk about the day which was a spectacular failure and a confirmation that the CDC is losing support in its traditional bases of West Point, New Kru Town, Buzzi Quarters, etc. etc.
So soon the honeymoon between the CDC and the people is experiencing a sudden crack. In the last six months, the relationship between the CDC and its social bases is at an all-time low. The people, although not very enlightened, have the natural intelligence to read the scheme and see through the CDC-led government. Of course, the people have always being consistent throughout history. They may support even a backward individual, but when their social existence is threatened the once passive people will not sit idly and perish in lethargy.
The courageous people of Liberia, in a show of indomitable courage, refused to endorse by their presence what they regard as a classic betrayal of their loyalty by the decrepit Weah government and thus boycotted the so-called pro-poor day celebration hosted by the CDC-led government thanks to all popular forces on the home front and in the diaspora who are continuously unmasking the charades of the Weah government. And if the snubbing of the regime and the booing of the presidential motorcade by the disillusioned marketers of the populous Redlight Market are anything to write home about, all this writer can say is that the scientific truism that the people learn through their interaction with reality has been proven true. The people are evaluating the rationale for the so-called election of the CDC. What they are finding out is that corruption is widespread and their hope for a progressive transformation has been stultified by the outrageous appetite for wealth by the high priest of corruption in President George M. Weah and his band of swindlers. In the period of extreme hardship, the mass of people see those nouveaux riches donning gaudy costumes and riding the latest sport utility vehicles (SUVs). At the same time, they have been told that while they are perishing in poverty, the Weah government is spending a whopping US$ 310 million on itself. Against this background, the people are concluding that the new regime is an orgy of plunder. Thus, they are repetitively asking this question: is this a pro-poor or stay poor regime?
For their part, the courageous and progressive militants of the revolutionary and zealous Student Unification Party (SUP) took to the streets and marched from the Redlight Market to the Du port Road junction in total rejection of the implacable suffering of the people. The Student Unification Party has a cherished history of standing up to tyranny and plunder in the homeland. It is preparing for a major showdown with the Weah government.
During the height of the seventies, the UL revelation operated by stalwarts of SUP along with the Cuttington Echo provided the ideological propaganda for the mass mobilization of the people against the oligarchy of the True Whig Party. It was the singular heroism and courage of the students in the vanguard that prepared the stage for the emergence of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) and the Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) on the historical stage of the homeland.
In history no social group is forced out of power by the popular resentment of the people without a spiteful struggle. So the students paid a heavy price during the Rice demonstration on April 14, 1979 when some were massacred and others got injured. Like 1979, in 1984, the military regime turned on the students and unleashed the Armed Forces of Liberia on them at the Capitol Hill campus of the University. The only crime of the resilient students, led by SUP, was to have protested the arbitrary arrest and subsequent imprisonment of the head of the Liberia College in Dr. Amos C Sawyer by the military junta on spurious charges.
In history, as in life, time changes but the students never change. It is in this context that the protest of the students must be understood. As we see are witnessing the excellent resolve of the enlightened students, we see in them, Wiwi Debbah, Momolu Lavala, Marcus Gbobeh Wuo Tapia, Tonie Richardson rolling in one.
On the other hand, the revolutionary current in the homeland is hitting record heights. A new organization in the Economic Freedom Fighter of Liberia (EFFL) with outstanding support among the lumpen youth, segment of the student’s community and the disillusioned masses of the people is making the news in Monrovia. Yesterday, while the so-called pro-poor day was a colossal failure, the EFFL confirmed its shrewd mobilization skills by displaying a huge crowd at the program marking the hoisting of its flag.
The Center for Policy Action and Research (CePAR) is the newest sensation to hit the political landscape of the homeland, a think tank which is known for its analytical critique of the budget and other policy instruments of the government with rich write outs and often detailed analyses. One can say anything about this local think tank, but even its fierce critics cannot debunk the fact that the organization has seasoned young professionals who have far better understanding of governance than the current band of swindlers and scoundrels feasting on the carcass of the national treasury.
In the media, the Parrot and the Front Page Newspapers are very outstanding and determined in terms of disseminating undiluted information to the Liberian people. The two newspapers have become mouthpieces for the democratic alternatives. These two newspapers refused to join the cast but are serving the disillusioned masses who are in search of direction. It is the publications of these two outlets that are exposing the government and President George Weah for the fraud he is.
While SUP, EFFL and CePAR are in the vanguard of the struggle against this pathetic mockery in the homeland, the Movement for Social Democratic Alternative (MOSODA) is dealing with the madness within the context of Marxist-Leninist analysis of the state and the attendant question of the development of underdevelopment in the homeland, offering a brand of ideological shade.
For the Movement for Social Democratic Alternative (MOSODA), the task to transform the homeland has to take a socialist trend. First, the claw of capitalism with its adjuncts of the neoliberal façade along with the unproductive national bourgeoisie ought to be expropriated and replaced with a socialist experiment. It is only then that the structural imbalances in the homeland can be addressed so the people can move into history with advances in science, technology and culture.
Whether the debased ruling clique accepts it or not, the republic is in revolutionary ferment. The objective conditions in the homeland is tilting in the direction of the rising current of revolutionary consciousness among the people. And this is being facilitated by the callous insensitivity of the regime. The popping up of different tendencies and the increasing wave of disillusionment in the masses of the people is setting the stage for the collaboration of all popular forces to develop a united front against the regime.
“Gweh Feh Kpei—the Struggle Continues!
Kiadii studies Political Science with emphasis in Public Administration at the University of Liberia. He is the Secretary General of the Movement for Social Democratic Alternative (MOSODA). You can reach him through Cell#: +233552176627, or bokiadii@gmail.com.
Chief David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
Chief David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
By Joseph Edegbo:
Founder and President of David Umahi Nweze Akubaraoha Ebonyi Transformation Agenda (DUNAETA), an NGO, Lady Monica Ada Chidinma Eze has described as unfortunate an Improvised Explosive Device discovered at PDP Secretariat along Abakaliki Enugu Expressway.
She said the act was a sign of cowardice and plot to import Terrorism to the south eastern part of the country.
The NGO based in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, is at the fore front of the re-election bid of Governor Dave Nweze Umahi in 2019.
A statement issued by Lady Eze on Monday in Abakaliki reads, “The bomb was probably planted by some devious minds in order to assassinate the wonder working Governor of Ebonyi State, Apostle (Dr) David Nweze Umahi who was billed to visit the Secretariat within the week the bomb was discovered by the Ebonyi State Police Command. This abominable act is not only condemnable but devilish and the earlier such an idiotic act is nipped in the bud the better for us all as this evil plot hatched by some confused and misguided politicians who couldn’t stand the revolution currently going on in Ebonyi State under the watch of Governor Umahi is capable of throwing Ebonyi State into unprecedented crisis”.
“The opposition politicians are very well aware that it will be highly impossible to produce a candidate that can match or capable to face Governor Umahi in the 2019 general elections so they decided to resort to this satanic option of attempting to eliminate him in order to have an easy sail to the Government House of Ebonyi state but unfortunately for them the plot failed woefully before its execution.”
Lady Eze who also doubles as Technical Assistant (TA) on Media to Governor Umahi, praised God that the plot was exposed and prevented through the watchful eyes of the gallant security agents in the state .
“Let me warn and reiterate that any harm in any form against Governor Umahi in order to prevent him from achieving his divine mission and vision for Ebonyi State will not only cast doom both to the Sponsors of such an act but will cause the state to retrogress.”
Monica Ada Eze Aka Ada Ebonyi counsels the opposition politicians to get theirs acts together in order to present a candidate that could face Governor Umahi come 2019 and avoid any act that will consume the people.
“The fact remains that with what Umahi has achieved for Ebonyi State, it will be absurd and foolhardy to attempt to dislodge him at this time as doing so will amount to taking the state backwards”, she said.
She advised Governor Umahi not to be disturbed as “those with him are more than those against him.”
She appealed to security agents to unearth those behind the act and bring them to book so as to avoid any situation that could turn the peaceful state of Ebonyi to another troubled area in the country.
