Congrats to them

bullying should stop

Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State on Thursday visited Sabon Birni town following an attack by bandits in the area.

The latest attacks that claimed twenty three lives in a bus conveying thirty two people on Monday to the southern part of the country to eke a living, was the ninth episode since banditry and kidnapping escalated in the area.

On arrival at Sabon Birni, with his Deputy, Honourable Manir Muhammad Dan’Iya, the Speaker of Sokoto State House of Assembly, Honourable Aminu Muhammad Achida, security chiefs in the state and some commissioners on his entourage, Tambuwal said, “We are here to condole with you all.”

“May Allah grant those departed eternal bliss and may He grant those who are in the hospital speedy recovery and, overcome the trauma of the ambush.

“It is very disturbing that these kind of things are happening here and across the nation. As those entrusted with the leadership of the people in this state, we are very worried and touched each time such incident happens.

“Nonetheless, we will not rest on our oars in doing the best we can to roll back this unfortunate problem.

“We have been doing our best to support the security operatives in the state. We have donated over 500 vehicles to all the security operatives in the state and trained about 1000 certified vigilante members.

“In addition, 500 motorcycles have also been donated to vigilante groups to ease their operations under the supervision of the security outfits.”

Governor Tambuwal, however, announced a personal donation of N250,000.00 to each of the victims, just as he pledged the state government’s willingness to pick the bills of those hospitalised.

Reacting to a statements credited to a serving Senator that the state government has proscribed vigilante groups, the governor clarified that “what we voided were self-styled vigilante groups, while we will from the beginning of December start paying verified vigilante members N20,000 monthly stipend to encourage them.”

Chairman of Sabon Birni Local Government Area, Hon. Umaru Danyaro, while welcoming the governor recall that the visit was the ninth condolence visit to the area since banditry and kidnapping escalated about a year ago.

The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, on Thursday said most of the agreements reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities were under duress.

Echono stated this during a retreat organised by the governing council of the University of Abuja.

ASUU and the Federal Government have constantly been engaged in tussles over the latter’s failure to meet some of the demands put forward by ASUU.

Echono said, “I have heard so much about the fact that the government has failed to honour the agreements with ASUU. I have a different view about that because most of these agreements are imperfect.

“If somebody comes to my house and puts a gun to my head, I might agree to everything because those agreements are signed under duress. If you want to introduce obligations or responsibilities on their part, they will insist you cannot.”

Meanwhile sources on Thursday told our correspondent that ASUU would decide whether to go on strike or not following the end of its scheduled zonal conferences on December 15, 2021.

In a document obtained by The PUNCH, it was gathered that the meetings would take place between December 9 and December 15 in Abuja, Nsukka, Ibadan, Yola, Benin, Akure, Lagos, Bauchi, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Sokoto and Kano.

The source added that the decision to go on strike would depend on the outcome of the zonal press briefings.

President Muhammadu Buhari has joined other world leaders in mourning India’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife, and 11 others killed in a helicopter crash.

President Buhari, in a message to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Thursday, described the deaths as irreparable losses to the Indian military and the nation.

A statement by the president’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, in Abuja quoted the Nigerian leader as saying that the late Chief of Defence Staff was widely credited with the reform of the Indian armed forces and the security apparatuses.

“On behalf of myself, the government and people of Nigeria, I convey to you our deepest condolences, to the Rawat family, the families of the deceased as well as the Indian Military and nation as you mourn the Chief of Defence Staff, his wife and 11 other fine crop of officers,” the president said.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Rawat was India’s first chief of defence staff, a position that the government established in 2019, and was seen as close to prime minister Modi.

The 63-year-old was travelling with his wife and other senior officers in the Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter, which crashed near its destination in southern Tamil Nadu state.

Modi said Rawat was an outstanding soldier and “true patriot” who had helped modernise the country’s armed forces. (NAN)

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2021 International Human Rights Day on December 10, the Nigerian Feminist Forum has called for an amended constitution to spell out the enforcement of affirmative action to ensure female inclusion.

The group’s Communications Officer, Angela Nkwo, made the call in a statement to commemorate the day.

According to the group, there was nothing to celebrate because women and girls were exposed to several human rights abuses including from law enforcement operatives in Nigeria.

She said, “We demand an amended constitution where affirmative action is enshrined for every elective, and appointive position at all levels in the country.”

On political representation, the NFF said while women constitute 49 per cent of the population, it was regrettable they occupied less than six per cent of elective positions in the country.

The NFF called on every state government to sign into law their State Action Plan UNSCR 1325 on women, peace, and security for inclusion, noting that the recent ranking of Nigeria as one of the 10 criminal markets globally for human trafficking, firearms, and other vices was a clear and present danger structured to harm women and girls reckoned as the major victims of human traffickers.

Further, the group called on all the state Houses of Assembly and state governors to pass and sign the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Bill into law immediately.

According to them, for lasting peace to reign, the federal, state, and local governments must include women in all security and peace processes, because they were the major victims and pay the highest prices.

The group said, “Women and girls lack access to freedom of thought, religion, opinion, and expression, as well as restricted access to education, the right to marry and have family, bodily integrity and privacy amongst others”.

They lamented that as the world commemorates international human rights day, hundreds of women and girls are held captive by insurgents as s*x slaves and forced marriages, while thousands are stranded in the different internally displaced persons camps across the country, saying there is nothing to celebrate.

They complained that they were exposed to several orchestrated and grievous bodily harm masked as obnoxious widowhood practices, lack of inclusion in security and peace process, punitive practices such as female genital mutilation masked as tradition and customs, disinheritance, child bride marriages.

The group said while the universal declaration of human rights guarantees the right to equality, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, right to recognition as a person before the law, right to equality before the law, and right to remedy by competent tribunal, amongst others, they were near non-existent for many seeking access to justice in Nigeria.

Edo State government said it will shut down Idogbo Secondary School in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of the state following the destruction of property in the school by students during a riot.

It said the students who beat their principal would be responsible for the damage done during the unrest.

Students of the school had last week Friday assaulted principal and teachers as well as destroyed school property during a riot, while one of the policemen attached to the school was stripped.

The state Commissioner of Education, Dr. Joan Osa-Oviawe, spoke on Thursday while inspecting the affected school.

She disclosed that the damages done to the school was much and that the students of the school would pay for the property damaged.

She said, “What the children did is unacceptable and we have zero tolerance for destruction of school property in the state.

“The school is going to be shut down and the government will reorganise it. The damages done by the students could be put at a minimum of N30m and government will not cough out that money that should have been used for other development in schools.

“We are meeting with schools and the governor gave us one week and a task force headed by the Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has been set up to look at what happened.”

The Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board has said the agency has zero-tolerance for quack practice among practitioners in the state.

The Chairman, LSTMB, Prof. Adebukunola Adefule-Ositelu, said this, in a statement on Thursday.

Adefule-Ositelu was quoted to have said this during an advocacy and sensitisation to ensure strict compliance with the ethics guiding the profession in Eti-Osa.

She said, “Traditional medicine practitioners need to be regularly sensitised so that they can understand the demands of the practice, new trends, expected work ethics and the code of conduct, among others.

“LSTMB has zero-tolerance for quack practice, hence the need for this sensitisation, because periodic enlightenment sessions would help practitioners know the sensitive parts of the job and also know reasons they need to be conscious while practising.”

The Registrar, LSTMB, Mr Olorunkemi Kadiku, said about 9, 000 practitioners have been registered.

“Unregistered members should approach the agency to formalise their practice as soon as possible in order to be recognised by the state government. The agency has been able to register and license about 9,000 practitioners in the state.

“Unregistered traditional medicine practitioners are usually referred to as quacks, and there is no room for quackery in this practice in Lagos State,” he said.

A special education director at the Lagos State Ministry of Education, Mr Adeyemi Adebayo, has stressed the need for children to be taught how to use technology in schools.

Adebayo was the keynote speaker at the unveiling of the Association of Nigerian Educational Psychologists held recently in Lagos.

He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the shutting down of schools without viable alternatives for learning, exposed Nigeria’s failure to invest in education

“The pandemic has shown Nigeria’s failure to invest in education. Although our children used online classes, the question is — did we prepare our teachers for that? Are our children aware that such will happen? Did we notice that our teachers were grappling such that they couldn’t even figure out how to help the children?

“People should understand the need for technology is inevitable; it is something we cannot negotiate with. Our children should learn the use of technology right from the school and the school should also prepare them for that,” Adebayo said.

An educational psychologist, Shola Aletan, said it was necessary to involve education psychologists in school systems, saying they helped to understand how children learn, what motivates them to learn, and why they behave the way they do.

The ANEP President, Mrs Eniola Olajobi, said the association was formed because of the need to improve the learning experience available for our 21st-century learners.

Also, the secretary, Mrs Nkem Adeniran-Adedokun, the event signified a progressive step towards improving educational outcomes in Nigeria.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Mr Isa Pantami, and the renowned Political Economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, have said Nigeria must harness the good in technology and curtail the bad.

Both spoke on Thursday at the presentation of the book written by Dr Everest Amaefule, titled, ‘Technology and Development: An African Perspective.’

Pantami who was represented by Mrs Uwa Suleiman, said, “Technology is a necessity and the only requirement for relevance in the global scheme of things is technological advancement. As the author illustrates copiously in his book, the flip side of technology can be ugly but we must harness the good and curtail the bad in making the most out of the choices we have.”

Utomi maintained that Nigeria must not miss its place in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“The key theme of my remarks is the place of the non-techie in the Industrial Revolution; what are we techy and non-techy doing to ensure the competitiveness of this era is not lost?”

The Chairman of the event, Mr Atedo Peterside, described Amaefule as an honest and truthful person.

He said, “I love to encourage people like this; he keeps to his words, he has never told me anything that he has never done.”

The book was reviewed by Prof. Abdalla Adamu, who was represented by Mr Emma Onyike.

The book reviews past concerns about media imperialism and the clamour for balance, primarily by African countries.

It highlights that the invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web had, rather than bridge the gap, widened it in favour of providers of information and consumers who had become ‘net importers of information.’

Timi Dakolo, Nigerian singer, songwriter, and self-acclaimed chorus leader releases the video to his new single Obim. Obim -'My Heart' is produced by Magical Andy and the video directed by AJE Filmworks. Known as a love anthem that makes hearts one; Obim reflects affection rooted in genuineness and intimacy.

An avid storyteller, Timi Dakolo, in Obim, sings the praises of the one his heart cherishes in the rich Igbo and Pidgin language. One of the highlights of the Obim video is the groom who serenades his bride with an Igbo love chant giving the impression to bystanders and wedding guests that he is in this for life.

The Obim video features Ebuka Uchendu and Noble Igwe, with special appearances by notable Nigerian celebrities. Obim shows the authenticity of the vibrant culture of the Igbo people during their traditional marriage.

Wizkid was recently named Artist of The Year (Africa) by Apple Music at the Apple Music Awards. During his acceptance chat, he spoke about the success of Made In Lagos.

He says, "I felt it coming. I would say I'm lying if I didn't feel it coming because it took me three years to work on that album. So I felt like there was going to be a shift, but I didn't know how it would come. Because I knew that it was kind of like a different… it wasn't a different sound, but it was a more matured sound from what I used to make.

"From when I was way young, man. I called my first album ‘Superstar.’ How confident can you be? So yeah. I was born to do this sh**, man."

He also spoke about his admiration for Tems and the success of 'Essence.'

On December 10, 2021, Grammy-winning Nigerian superstar, Wizkid had a conversation with Apple Music. This was meant to commemorate his Apple Music Award for Artist of the Year (Africa).

He reflects on the last 12 months, discusses the huge success of his album, Made In Lagos, explains how his life has changed since his 2011 debut and reveals his plans for 2022. As part of the show, he spoke about the success of 'Essence' and his admiration for Tems.

He says, "I don't see it like that. I don't think I'm the first through it. I don't know what I did, but it just kicked the door open. I feel like everyone's about to come through right now. There's about to be loads of records from Africa. That feels good because the truth is, people are tired of listening to the same sh**. They want some real sh**.

"And during the pandemic, it kind of helped because we're all in the house. So it helped everyone find, well for me, basically I would speak for myself. It made me understand the kind of music that I really loved to listen to more. So I feel like that just helped everyone get in touch with like, oh, yeah, man. I want to listen to some good music, what feels great?

"So when that record dropped, what it did for me was what it did for the people. It made me feel better every time I listen to the song. So it's just a great record, man. Great record. And I love Tems to death. She's a special, special talent. She's like my top three."

Wizkid also thanked Apple Music for the award.

It is a modern term derived from conjoining the two words 'bae' and 'vacation'.

A baecation is simply a vacation with your bae/boo.

It depicts hanging out, or being with your partner at a location, usually somewhere far from home, for extended periods of time.

Here are three great reasons why going on one of this can be the best move you ever make in your relationship.

1. Uninterrupted time
Obviously, being in love does not put food on your table, neither does it pay the bills so you and the boo have jobs and activities that take most of your time and deprive you of the opportunity of being together for long stretches of time.

On a baecation you can forget about work and focus on being with the love of your life. You get to relax your nerves, talk deeply, share dreams and ideas, engage in games, companionable silence and every other romantic thing partners do.

2. See their true colours
If you go away for maybe a week or more, chances are that you can see multiple sides of them. What he/she looks like in the morning, how their morning moods are, how they react to situations, and other pet-peeves or major turn offs you might not have known they had.

Truth is, knowing them more will help you love them even better.


3. Decide your soulmate
The things you see on this type of trip could cement your opinion of that guy as the man you really want to spend the rest of your life with, or it could raise major questions in your heart and make you mighty doubtful of their suitability to the kind of married life you dream of.

ENJOY HIM

London-based Nigerian Disk Jockey, Florence Otedola, popularly known as DJ Cuppy, has stated that having a fallout with reality TV star, Kidd Waya, was tough for her.

She said this during an interview with the Pretty Little Thing podcast, which was published on Wednesday.

DJ Cuppy and Kiddwaya, who featured in a British documentary-reality TV show, Highlife, had a fall out during the show which affected their real-life friendship.

The Oxford Master’s student said, “That was really tough for me because it was real life. For the viewers that don’t really understand. I and my friend had a real falling out during highlife and that was on camera, which was okay but it was really tough because we actually fell out.

“I don’t really know how else to explain that. When you and your friend fall out, it’s not nice. It was difficult but Kidd is a great guy. He’s a superstar. There were some funny moments on the show.”

Sometime during the show, DJ Cuppy had poured a glass of drink on Kiddwaya when he stated that her billionaire lifestyle was the reason she was single.

Reacting to the incident, she said, “What would you do when a guy says, ‘I can see this is why you’re single?’ What do you do? And also, why is being single being used against me?

“He is single himself which is quite interesting. A guy being single in Nigeria is like ‘ohhh, you’re the man.’ I’m so sick of this patriarchy. It’s very difficult but what I would say is that I’m glad we made up. We’re fine now and I have so much respect for him.”

A youth group, Arewa Youths For Peace and Security, has commended the North-East Development Commission for constructing 3,500 houses across the region for resettling internally displaced persons whose houses were destroyed by insurgents.

The association, in a statement signed by its National President, Salihu Magaji, said that the gesture of the Commission would help in alleviating the suffering of the people who have lost their houses due to the many years of insecurity in the area.

“The provision of 3,500 housing units, across the six north-eastern states of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States, will help ease the sufferings of the IDPs and the entire people of the northeast.

“The NEDC constructed 1,000 housing units in Borno state while 500 housing units were being constructed in the remaining five states in the region. This is highly commendable because the NEDC under the leadership of its chairman, Alhaji Goni Alkali has continued to carry on its mandate assigned to it by the Federal Government.

“The NEDC under Alkali is a leading horse in different rescue missions and initiatives of the Federal Government when it comes to changing the narratives of the people of North-East who have suffered a lot from various boxes rocking the country, that include terrorism, banditry and kidnappings that have caused so many ripple effects, and it would take the best of governments several years to correct,” the statement read in parts.

iverpool FC right-back, Trent Alexander-Arnold, has been named the Premier League’s Player of the Month for November.

This is due to his recent form part of which had him contribute one goal – a pinpoint free-kick away at West Ham United – and four assists to help Liverpool continue a strong push at the top of the table.

Alexander-Arnold, who played every minute of the Reds’ three top-flight games, also aided the securing of two clean sheets.

He won the prize from a shortlist that also included teammate Diogo Jota, plus Joao Cancelo, Emmanuel Dennis, John McGinn and Bernardo Silva.

This is the second time the England international is winning the prize in his Premier League career.

this is a serious issue

enjoy your cash