ASUU strike to end soon as lawmakers get involved

Deputy Whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rotimi Abiru, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately meet with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), with a view to putting an end to the ongoing strike, which has lasted for about 79 days.

Abiru, who spoke in a telephone interview at the weekend, also appealed to ASUU to go into dialogue with the Federal Government in order for students to return to their various institutions of learning.

The lawmaker, who is representing Shomolu Constituency 2, wondered why ‘‘a man who has been causing crises in Rivers State‘‘, would be asked to take over “from a professor; it is so unfortunate that a former council chairman will be asked to take over from a professor.”

He maintained that the Federal Government needs to answer certain questions as to why the former Minister of Education was sacked, adding that “a man like Nyesom Wike, who has through his recent comments committed a lot of atrocities, taking over as Education Minister leaves a lot to be desired.

While lamenting that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government has failed Nigerians in several aspects of the economy, Abiru called on the Jonathan-led administration to wake up to its responsibilities.

“The Federal Government must wake up to its responsibilities and know that the future of our tomorrow’s leaders is at stake and more importantly is the effect this strike will have on our youth. Recently, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) threatened to shut down activities in private universities if nothing is done on time.

“So I want to appeal to the Federal Government to meet the requests of this people and allow the students to return to school,” he added.

Blacface reacts on Tuface's 'allegation'

Against the backdrop of the recent interview where 2face alleged he had invited Blackface to his wedding,Blackface has reacted in an interview with Abuja based radio station Hotfm stating that 2face keeps avoiding him for reasons best known to him.

He says he’s been trying to get across to 2face to talk about his song African queen that has been sang by a Jamaican artist in the US without the right to do so…’ if someone sings that song it means someone gave out the right ’he keeps avoiding me cos he doesn’t want to talk about these issues.

Blackface, Tuface

For the wedding ‘he would have put the blame on his management and called me or something’ but till today since he returned from his wedding in Dubai, he hasn’t called me, my uncle whose house we stayed throughout the days of our musical career passed away during the time of his traditional marriage, then the white wedding he never called to even ask about my uncle or to sympathize with me, so there must be something wrong somewhere …it must be about the music money.

In any case Blackface has a new single titled ‘see you move’ enjoying airplay on some radio stations across the country.

- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/blackface-reacts-to-tufaces-alledged-wedding-invitation/#sthash.a8yv5eRn.dpuf

FG agrees to meet poly lecturers’ demands will ASUU be the next????

Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike

The Federal Government on Monday met with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics behind closed doors and agreed to meet the demands of the union.

The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, and the Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu co-chaired the meeting while ASUP President, Chibuzo Asomugha, led the union team.

None of the parties, however, spoke with journalists after the brief meeting held at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.

However, a source at the meeting, who confided in our correspondent, said the union obtained a strong commitment from the government.

He said, “The union tabled three key issues at the meeting. One is the need to constitute the governing councils of the remaining seven polytechnics. Wike was said to have informed the union that the Federal Government had agreed to constitute the remaining governing councils. He promised that the list would be out by this week and the union was happy about it.

“He also promised that the white paper on the visitation panel to the polytechnics was almost ready and would be released soon.

“On the CONTISS 15, Wike promised to work with the Minister of Labour to get the circular ready from the Head of Service having got commitment from the Presidency to work out the modality on the migration to CONTISS 15 for the polytechnic teachers.

No Nigerian university makes world’s most influential list

With its universities shut for months over lecturers’ strike, Nigeria predictably flopped in the latest global universities’ ranking released last Monday, with no Nigerian university listed anywhere close to less than 1,000; while three schools in South Africa and one in Egypt made the first 400.

In the first 700, South Africa had seven universities, led by University of Cape Town, while Egypt has six universities led by the American University, Cairo.

Not only was Nigeria not part of the top 1,000, its schools were completely left out even under search.

Strikes and decay

The ranking, released by one of the three most influential universities ranking organisations, Quacquarell Symonds (QS), came as all government owned Nigerian universities remain under a lockdown that began nearly three months ago over lecturers’ pay and funding for education.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has refused to stand downand end the strike with a negotiated offer from the government, insisting its demands, which was agreed with the government since 2009, be fully implemented.

Nigerian universities have been closed for months because of a strike by academic staff.

The government claims it has made some funds available for the upgrade of universities and part payment of lecturers’ allowances, but could not meet all demands due to revenue shortfalls.

The strike, which began end of June, has further crippled the standing of Nigerian universities which are already one of the world’s poorest in quality and academic clout.

The world’s three leading ranking organisations: QS, Times Higher Education and Academic Ranking of World Universities, also called the Shanghai ranking, hardly mention Nigerian schools in its recent grading as such universities and polytechnics go deep into several thousand, compared with schools from even other African countries.

The metrics

While QS and Times Higher Education (both worked together from 2004 to 2009) use varied academic parameters for their evaluation, Shanghai ranking, relatively new, focuses on science and technology research.

For the 2013 Shanghai ranking, only three African universities – all South African, made the first 500. The list is led by Harvard University and three other American schools.

Times Higher Education said it will release its 2013 ranking in October.

Lacking on the influential ranking, Nigerian schools have taken to celebrating the relatively new and less dependable Webometrics ranking of universities, which focuses strictly on a school’s output on the internet.

The ranking, published by the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group of the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid, is based on a composite indicator that takes into account both the volume of the number of web pages and files and the visibility and impact of these web publications according to the number of external links they receive.

In its 2013 release early August, Obafemi Awolowo University was rated on Webometrics as Nigeria’s best at 1,113th position, followed by Auchi Polytechnic at 2,106 and University of Ibadan at 2109.

While Nigerian schools scored far into a thousand, South Africa’s University of Kwazulu Natal was the 381th position, while University of Cape Town scored 390.

A spokesperson for OAU, Abiodun Olanrewaju, welcomed the grade as a confirmation of OAU’s “academic excellence and intellectual supremacy over and above other universities and institutions of higher learning”.

For the latest QS, the schools in the US and UK lead the top 20. The top UK University was Cambridge in third position, behind Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the top of the table and Harvard in second.

University College London (UCL) and Imperial occupied fourth and fifth places, with Oxford in sixth. Universities in the United States made up the rest of the top 10.

Illiteracy on the rise

The Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, at a ministerial briefing during the 2013 International Literacy Day, on September 8, said the number of illiterate Nigerian adults had increased from 25 million in 1997 to 35 million in 2013.

Illiteracy levels in the country are on the rise.

“Indeed, the embarrassing literacy statistics on Nigeria, justifies the need for all stakeholders to redouble their efforts,” he said.

“The current Education for All (EFA), Global Monitoring report ranks Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest level of illiteracy. The report on Nigeriastated that the number of illiterate adults has increased by 10 million over the past two decades, to reach 35 million.”

“I actually invited Blackface to my wedding in Dubai” – 2face Idibia opens up on Rubbin’ Minds

Today’s episode of Rubbin’ Minds had none other than ’2baba’, 2face himself, being interviewed by Chude Jideonwo, who was standing in for regular host Ebuka Obi-Uchendu.

The star opened up on a lot of issues but most of all laid to rest the controversy that arose after former band mate, Ahmedu Augustine Obiabo aka ‘Blackface’ claimed that he was absent from the Idibia-Macaulay wedding because he was not invited.

Blackface had been asked via Twitter why he was not in Dubai, where 2face’s wedding to Annie Macaulay took place, and he replied: “I no dey Go where I no dey Invited! but I wish dem all they wish themselves!”

2face however said during his Rubbin’ Minds interview that he did, in fact, invite Black Face to the wedding but the latter chose not to show up.

2face said, “I actually invited Blackface for my wedding”.

The relationship between the two has suffered a swift decline since the separation of their former group “Plantashun Boiz” with Black Face repeatedly throwing barbs at 2face, who has enjoyed massive success, and claiming that he owes him money.

The “Rainbow” crooner also answered some other pertinent questions:

On being added to the recently released Channel O/Forbes list of Africa’s most bankable artistes, he said “On the Forbes list, nobody asked me for any information, I don’t know their criteria” He also said “ I work really hard for my money and I won’t apologize for that.

When asked what being married was like, he said: I’ve known my wife for a long time so it is basically the same”

2face also spoke about his peace initiative and the need for reorientation of the Nigerian mindset.

N2.05b fraud: 4 undergraduates, bureau de change operators arrested by the EFCC (PICTURED)

Four persons have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for perpetrating fraud to the tune of N2.05 billion.

Salihu Liman Mahmoud and Dan Asabe Ibrahim, both bureau de change operators and two University of Jos undergraduates, Isaiah Friday and Azzaior Samuel, were apprehended by agents of the anti-graft body over the alleged fraud.

The fraudsters, who reportedly specialize in breaking into the computer data base of financial institutions, in order to carry out dry posting of funds, were arrested in Lagos State and Jos, the Plateau State capital.

Meanwhile, the EFCC has so far been able to recover the sum of $2,129,900 and another N134,542,720 million from the fraudsters.

Other items recovered included furniture worth N10 million from Salihu Liman’s one bedroom apartment in Yaba, Lagos State, four vehicles, landed properties in Kano and Kaduna and a four bedroom duplex worth N45 million in Lagos.

‘Ibori has no strategic holdings in our company’ – Oando spokesperson

Oando Plc has, on Monday, refuted claims which circulated in the media that former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, has a significant stake in the company.

In a statement by the company, it was noted that the story which was circulated by Reuters, “is incorrect and misleading”.

Oando maintained that though the company’s shares are traded on the Nigerian and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges, it “does not and cannot control the trading in its securities on the floor of the respective exchanges.”

Besides, the report had also claimed that a British prosecutor told a court on Monday that Ibori “hid some of his assets in the oil firm Oando and money passed from the company’s accounts to Ibori’s Swiss accounts, ,” when a three-week confiscation hearing began at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Oando stated thus; “Based on our current shareholding register, Mr. James Ibori’s shareholding stands at 443 shares out of a total issued and paid up share capital of 6.8 billion ordinary shares, which is clearly insignificant, and cannot be considered as ‘a large part of Oando’,” the statement added.

The company, however, admitted to selling some foreign exchange to Ibori “sometime in 2004″ in the normal course of business.

The statement explained, “At the time of the transaction, this information was unknown to Oando. The total amount was US$2.7 million made in three separate transactions over a period of about seven months.”

“Consequently, Oando cannot be described as a company where James Ibori has hidden assets as a result of these foreign exchange transactions, Oando insisted in the statement.

Although Oando also revealed that it is not a party to the case but only had its interest represented in court by a British lawyer, Andrew Baillie QC who was quoted to have said that “it is unfortunate that our client has been dragged into these proceedings.”

“There is no suggestion from the prosecution of any wrongdoing or involvement in wrongdoing on the part of Oando”, it said.

The integrated energy company accepted that sometime in 2004, in the normal course of its business, it sold some of its foreign exchange earnings for naira and the recipient of the US dollars was a company which has now turned out to be one controlled by James Ibori.