Capacity building: FG approves N300m for Nollywood

The Federal Government has approved N300 million out of the three billion naira intervention fund for capacity building in the Nigerian film industry.
This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, Spokesman for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
“Action on the three billion naira support promised the Nigerian film industry by President Goodluck Jonathan has formally commenced with the roll out of a N300 million capacity building fund, “the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the spokesman as saying in the statement.
The statement noted that the capacity building fund was the first of a series of initiatives planned under “Project Act Nollywood’’, adding that It was made up of two components.
According to the statement, the first component is a Training Fund of N150 million, dedicated to training and skills acquisition for Nollywood practitioners in all competencies along the entire value chain of the industry.
The statement said it include; scriptwriting, directing, production and production design, special effects, lighting, sound, HD techniques, acting, cinematography, make-up and editing, among others.
It said the second component was the Capacity Development Fund which was also worth N150 million.

UTME: Institutions review admission slots to 704,000

ABUJA—Tertiary institutions across the country, yesterday, declared that they could only admit 704,000 students out of more than 740,000 candidates who are qualified to be given admission for the 2013/2014 academic year having scored 200 and above.
Out of the 1,735,720 candidates that registered for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, 1,540,179 candidates had their results released as 738,375 candidates have already crossed the 200 marks bar, even as the results of the 36,000 candidates that wrote computer-based tests have not been made public.
This came as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, and National Universities Commission, NUC, vowed to vet post-matriculation admissions.
The institutions also debated the cut-off mark for this year’s admission after a rowdy argument at the 4th Combined Policy Committee meeting held at NUC headquarters in Abuja.
Cut-off marks reviewed
They arrived at 180 for degree-awarding institutions, while the cut-off mark for non-degree awarding institutions was pegged at 150 from 160 to encourage candidates to opt for polytechnics and colleges of education.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, made the disclosures, yesterday, at the NUC headquarters, stressing that the admission capacity of tertiary institutions in the country had been raised to 704,000, from the initial 500,000.
Ojerinde said the board and NUC had to deal with the problem of admission of excess students for which the Federal Government was often pushed into a tight corner.
Admission deadline
He warned the institutions to stick to the deadline of October 31 for admission of students and cautioned that any student admitted outside the deadline would not graduate from the institutions.
He said: “I wish to remind you formally that all admissions will come to an end by October 31. All institutions are hereby called upon to adhere strictly to this date as late submissions will not be entertained.
“We have discovered that some universities and other institutions comply with admission deadline, while some others do not comply and up till date they are still admitting students.”
He said that the scores of 180 and 160 were adopted last year as cut-off point, but was thrown open for institutions to agree on before adoption in the 2013/2014 year.
However, the debate on the cut-off for this year generated heated argument, but the institutions unanimously agreed to peg the cut-off mark at 180 for universities and 150 for non-degree awarding institutions.
Reasons for
marks review
The institutions based their argument on the graph shown to them by JAMB, indicating that candidates preferred universities to polytechnics and colleges of education.
They argued that to encourage candidates to seek admissions in polytechnics and colleges of education, there was need to bring down the cut-off mark to 150 for non-degree awarding institutions.
Ojerinde reminded the institutions of the mandatory guidelines on admission, pegging criteria for merit at 45 percent, catchment, 35 and educationally less-developed states, ELDS, 20 for Federal Government-owned institutions.
For state-owned institutions, merit was put at 40 percent, catchment 40 and ELDS 20.

Former VCs call for better management of resources

   

Immediate past Chairman, Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, and a former Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Prof. Abdulrahman Oba, have called for a better approach to resources management in the nation’s  university sub-sector.

They spoke to journalists in Ilorin on Monday on the sideline of a reception for Oloyede, by the Committee of Friends, Ilorin Emirate Extraction.

Oloyede, who was the immediate-past UNILORIN VC, said with commitment and being innovative, a lot can be achieved for the country.

He added that Nigeria was blessed with abundant human and material resources to move it forward, particularly in the education sector.

“I do not share the belief that our systems are not working and cannot work. I believe that with some efforts, we can make things work, particularly the higher education  sector. The primary strategy is commitment on the part of the leadership and transparency.  With the little resources we have, we could go a long way if we manage them very well,” Oloyede said.

Oba, lauding the achievements of Oloyede, said the feats were a lesson for future VCs, academics or any other person involved in the Nigerian education system.

He stated that while there should be more funding far the education sector, it was essential to ensure appropriateness in the deployment of the funds.

Oba stated that the government had, over the years made huge funds available for research in the university system.

He, however, said that some funds were not well utilised, adding that academics should do more to justify the huge resources available for research.

Oba, who is currently the Chairman, Federal Character Commission, noted that research was the basics or foundation of education and development.

He noted that to have a knowledge-based economy, there must be massive investment in research.

He noted, “The strategies for improving university education begin from funding. Not just enough funding but appropriateness of funding, appropriateness of the deployment of the funds that are available.  In recent times, there is a  lot of money in the university education sector in Nigeria. Funds that are available are being inappropriately utilised.

“We need to first of all do a home work and re-thinking of the university life itself, the university procedures for teaching, learning and the production of the manpower future of our country.”

Police arrest 45, confirm one dead in UNIUYO crisis

No fewer than 45 students of the University of Uyo have been arrested over the violent protest they staged on Wednesday within and around the campus, which resulted in the death of least one person.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Umar Gwadabe who confirmed the arrests also confirmed the death of one student. Though the police commissioner did not give out the name, Daily Sun learnt that the student who was shot dead during the crisis was Kinsley Umoette.
His course and year of study were yet to be ascertained as at press time. Gwadabe said but for the timely intervention by the police, the Uyo riot would have engulfed the town as students from the University of Calabar, and those from Bida who had infiltrated the University of Uyo students, were bent on unleashing mayhem on the city. He said he didn’t see any wrong in the police effort to curb the crisis.
“I didn’t see anything the police have done wrong in trying to stop the situation from escalating,” he said. But the registrar of the institution, Mrs Edak Umondak, who yesterday ordered the indefinite closure of the institution, was quoted to have expressed her displeasure of the police action, which led to the death of the student.
She said but for the timely intervention of some staff who took her from her car to safety, she could equally have been shot dead by the police. “I thought the police bullets had hit me.
I didn’t know when my colleagues whisked me away barefooted. It was a surprise because we identified ourselves, yet the police were adamant and still hit our car. The school authority did not authorize any policeman to shoot any student not to talk of using live bullets,” she stated.
Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Uyo branch, Mr. Anyim Nwachukwu, said the crisis was beyond his comprehension. He stated that the union members were to have a meeting that day when the protest started; noting that from the information they received, the police used live bullets to hit the students. “What we know for now is that there was crisis in the campus yesterday. But from the information we received, some lives were lost. The students in turn razed school property.
We are only going round now to assess the extent of damage. “As we are going around, we discovered that some offices of mycolleagues had been broken into and some things stolen.
We can’t still be definite about the kind of damage, which had occurred yesterday. “We were supposed to have a meeting yesterday, but for some of us who were around, we saw tear-gas canisters thrown inside the school premises.
Right now we can’t really tell what happened because some of us were inside, though we managed to escape from campus,” he said. Apart from the vice chancellor/deputy vice chancellor; exams/records and council affairs offices, which were completely razed by the protesting students who rose against what they call the exploitative tendency of the authorities of the institution, Daily Sun learnt that the rampaging students broke into other offices and carted away some equipment.
Hard disks were removed from computers in the computer maintenance department, 12 vehicles vandalized, while finance and accounts, students accounts, and cash offices, were alsovandalized and broken into.
The students and some staffers were calling on the president, who is the visitor to the university to remove Prof. Comfort Ekpo as the vice chancellor of the university, claiming that she had grounded the university even while exploiting the students.
The students had on Wednesday embarked on a protect which turned later violent against the newly introduced N2, 000 as registration fees for general courses and N200 as transport fare from the town campus to the main campus. The University of Uyo operates four campuses: the town campus, the annex campus, the main campus along Nwaniba Road and the remedial courses campus along Uyo Road, Abak.

School proprietor caught having sex with 11-year-old pupil

Residents of Agric Olope area of Ado Ekiti have apprehended the proprietor of a private Nursery and Primary School, who was found in a bush allegedly having sex with a pupil of his school.

The incident happened on Monday after school hours.

Our correspondent gathered on Wednesday that the proprietor, identified as Mr. Tunde Ibitoye, picked the girl and another pupil of the same school and was taking them home in his car when he stopped at a deserted place and went into the bush pretending to be defecating.

An eyewitness, who said he caught the suspect in the act, said some minutes after the man went inside the bush, he called the victim to bring him tissue to clean up.

The eyewitness, who identified himself as Kayode Ayeni, said he became curious when he saw the girl going inside the bush knowing full well that a man had first gone into the bush some minutes earlier.

He said he traced the girl’s movement and found the man half naked and the girl also undressed and was in a compromising position.

Ayeni claimed that the proprietor was having carnal knowledge of the girl when he found the two of them inside the bush.

The argument between the eyewitness and the proprietor was said to have attracted a crowd of passersby and residents to the scene.

The suspect was said to have been beaten up and escaped being lynched due to the arrival of some policemen at the scene.

The policemen, who stormed the scene,dispersed the crowd and took the suspect away.

When contacted, the state command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Victor Babayemi, said Ibitoye had been arrested for “defiling an 11-year-old pupil,” adding that the suspect was currently being interrogated by the police

The PPRO said the girl told police investigators that the proprietor had sex with her.

He added that the girl confessed that the last act was the fourth time the proprietor would be having sex with her.

He also said the girl’s father told the police that there was a time he noticed blood stain on his daughter’s clothes but the man thought it was early menstruation.

The proprietor, however, insisted that he did not have sex with the girl but was just assisting her home after the school hours.

But Babayemi said the girl had been taken to a hospital for medical examination, saying the result would be made public when it was out.

Babayemi said, “There is a man in our custody who was said to be caught while having sex with an 11-year-old pupil. The girl has been taken to hospital for examination and we are expecting the result.

“We are investigating to see if we can find other girls who the man might have defiled. If we find any, it would further corroborate the allegation. But we advise parents to alway ensure that their children are put in custody of responsible people.”

I’ve never kissed a man in my life – Babcock’s best graduating student

Oduyoye

The 11th convocation of the Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State recorded a mixed grill of emotions

 Last Sunday’s convocation of Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State, was a potpourri of emotions. For some, it was expectedly exciting. Shouts of joy, mixed with backslapping and hugging, were not in short supply.

 But while most of the graduating students had cause to rejoice and shed tears of joy, two of the graduating students and their family members, who managed to grace the occasion, were grief-stricken. But, first, they story of joy.

At the carnival-like 11th convocation, 1,359 students were awarded first degrees. Twenty got postgraduate diplomas, 71 obtained Master’s degrees in various disciplines while another set of 41 got PhD degrees in various disciplines.

The cynosure of all eyes were,  however, a 20-year-old lady, Omobola Oduyoye, who emerged the best graduating student after scoring a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.92,  and Nuhu Benjamin, who won the President’s Award for securing the overall best performances in leadership, academics, community and spiritual services.

Oduyoye, an indigene of Ilisan-Remo, Ikenne Local Government Area of the state, was awarded a first class degree in Public Health, while Nuhu also got a first degree in Christian Religious Studies.

Speaking with our correspondent after she received the Senior Vice-President’s Prize as the graduate with the highest overall CGPA, Oduyoye said commitment, discipline, hard work and focus – combined with what she called God’s grace – fetched her the award.

“Motivation from my parents, lecturers and course mates also helped me. Healthy competition from my course mates such as Akomolafe Damilola, who also obtained a CGPA of 4.60 , also enhanced my performance.

“I have a lot of respect for her because she is a mature married woman and a nurse. In spite of her age, she related well with us and she was very focused. Each time I looked at her, I felt like I should ask government to stop admitting fresh secondary school leavers straight into the university. They should be asked to do the A/Level or ordinary diploma programme before they enrol at the university,” she said.

Oduyoye,  who aspires to become the nation’s health minister some day, noted that she would change the face of the nation’s health sector, particularly child and maternal health if given the chance.

“I’m from this town. I only lived the first six years of my life in Ghana and since then I’ve been here and I see a lot of challenges poor women and children go through daily. I want to make health delivery accessible, affordable and extremely cheap for our children and women. I will fight corruption in the health sector and ensure that our children and their mother don’t die again from preventable diseases,” she added.

 This desire could explain why each time she and her colleagues  had to embark on a field work, Oduyoye always ensured that children and young mothers were her target.

 “Though I don’t have money to give them, I always organise seminar and workshop to train them on hygiene, oral health and how to handle preventable diseases. We at times give them off-the-counter drugs. But if God permits and I become the health minister, I’ll work hard to ensure better health service delivery for Nigerians,” she noted.

On how she handled pressure from male students and lecturers, Oduyoye, who had her primary and secondary school education at Babcock Primary School and Babcock University High School, stated that though she had so many male friends, she avoided getting intimate with them.

“I have a number of friends – including male students but I always draw a line between friendship for academic advancement and immoral relationship. I’m not abusive; neither am I a snub. But I don’t encourage any relationship that will distract me from my studies. I don’t encourage any action that can suggest to you that I’m a cheap commodity. I also ensure that I don’t go alone anywhere or follow anybody to dark corners even if she is a girl like me.

“It may sound funny to you, I have never kissed anyone in my life and I have not been kissed by anybody. I thank God for the grace He gives me to achieve this because I know that some people will say it is not easy but with God all things are possible,” the 20-year-old fresh graduate added.

Oduyoye advised young girls to abstain from sex, face their studies and respect people and honour God. But the lady, whose father is a lecturer in the Business Administration Department at Babcock, has a word for the management of the institution.

She stated,  “They should relax the rules. Specifically, I don’t see any reason why a female student should not keep long hairs. Do you know it is so bad that security men on campus can stop a student and cut off her hair? This is not good. After all,  undergraduates are no longer in the secondary school.”

Oduyoye however urged the university to sustain its dress code, though she wants students to be forced into engaging in physical activities. This, she said, is based on the result of a research she did in her final year.

“I did a project on the effect of physical inactivity among Babcock University students and my findings revealed that many of us were not physically active and this has implication for our academics, health and general wellbeing. The university should therefore invest more in sports and possibly compel everybody to participate in sports.

“They should also reduce the sale of fatty foods such as hamburger, doughnut, eggroll and meat-pie on campus. The scriptural and inspirational write ups on billboards in open spaces on campus are good but they should add educational health tips too,” she  noted.

The former Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke,  was honoured with the honoraris causa of the institution for his distinguished public service works. He gave a lecture where he advised African leaders to work for the development of their people.

 He also challenged the graduating students never to emulate corrupt leaders but to be passionate and committed to their vision.

 Earlier, Makinde had told the gathering,  including the Chancellor, BU, Pastor Gilbert Wari; the institution’s Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Oyeleke Owolabi; representative of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; and vice-chancellors of some Nigerian universities, that as is the tradition with the citadel, none of the graduating students had Third Class degree.

It was learnt that students whose CGPA was within the third class degree were given automatic extra year. According to Makinde, the institution is committed to its mission to produce graduates that  have competence, character and commitment.

He told the gathering that all the programmes on offer in the institution had been accredited by the NUC. He also commended philanthropists,  including Chief Kessignton Adebutu, Dr. Alex Otti and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for their contributions towards the development of the university.

… as another graduating student loses 8 family members

Margaret Okwuikpo, who graduated with a second class upper degree in Nursing, was one of the two that could not help shedding bitter tears at the Babcock’s graduation. The lady had lost eight family members in a road crash on Friday, two days to her graduation.

It was learnt that 11 people,  including Okwuikpo’s parents, brothers and sisters and her sister-in-law,  had an accident shortly after they left Port-Harcourt for the convocation in Ilisan-Remo.

“Eight of the occupants of the vehicle,  including  Okwuikpo’s parents, her brother and his wife and their eight-month-old baby,  died on the spot,” a source close to the family told our correspondent.

A man, who claimed to be Okwuikpo’s relations, said he could not talk to the press. The lady herself was not stable when our correspondent attempted to speak to her.

The correspondent’s telephone call to the university source,  with a view to speaking with Okwuikpo, yielded no fruit, as she was said to have left for Port Harcourt on Monday morning.

However, another graduating student, simply identified as Tochi, also lost her father in the same accident.

Another university source, who claimed that Tochi’s brother works at Babcock, said he (the brother) was also too devastated to speak on the issue.

In the course of the ceremony, before it was the turn of the graduating students of her department to mount the rostrum to shake hands with the institution’s principal officers, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Makinde, Okwuikpo had controlled her emotions. But she soon started crying and collapsed on the podium as soon as she walked towards Makinde, Her friend and course mate, Rabiu Sakirat, who was right beside her, could only help in wiping off her tears.

Those who did not know what the matter was were confused.

 “Why is she weeping?” a woman beside our correspondent asked rhetorically.

“Perhaps, she remembered her relation who might have been part of those who died in the ill-fated Dana crash a year ago,” another man, who had come to celebrate with her niece, said.

But silence fell upon the hitherto cheerful crowd when it was learnt that the grieving lady had lost her parents two days to her convocation. The institution’s Sports Complex, venue of the convocation, suddenly became a temporary hall of mourning. Parents, students and well wishers shared in the lady’s low moment, with some putting their hands on their heads while others just sighed.

 Like a pastor, Makinde rose to the occasion, held Okuikpo’s hands and consoled her. Tochi and her mother were also called to the rostrum where they were  prayed for. But efforts to speak with the mourning families were unsuccessful as a man who identified himself as Okuikpo’s relation said they were not in the mood to speak to the press about the sad incident.