Anambra State government on Wednesday set up an eight-member committee of enquiry to investigate the allegation that Mmesoma Ejikeme, a 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate in the state, forged her result. This happened a few hours after the candidate admitted on Channels Television that she indeed got a text message from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) that she scored 249 in the exam. Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, has been a subject of intense debate in the last five days over the claim that she got 362 in this year’s UTME.…
Author: Olabisi Deji-Folutile
Even the worst of President Bola Tinubu’s critics will admit that he has proved to be a man on a mission. Within two weeks of assuming duty, he has removed subsidy on fuel causing the price to rise by over 150 per cent. He has announced the unification of FX window putting an end to multiple exchange rates; suspended the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and signed into law the Student Loan Bill, among others. The student loan act is worthy of attention because it is the first major policy targeted at Nigerian youths whom…
In December 2021, Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige proposed that the Federal Government should make health workers trained by the Nigerian government to sign a bond of nine years during which they cannot consider relocating to another country. Ngige’s argument at the time was that medical personnel including doctors should not be allowed to leave the country at will after receiving training for free at public expense. Fast forward to April 2023, Nigerian lawmakers are proposing a law that will make medical and dental practitioners serve the country for five years before they can travel abroad to practise. The…
The media has been under intense searchlight since the last general elections. In particular, there has been a lot of conversation around the performance of journalists pre and post elections. The latest being the reaction of Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, to the one and half hour interview he granted Channels Television. Prof. Wole Soyinka accused the media of engaging in selective editing and dissemination. He also accused them of taking part of his interview out of context and some parts, sliced into new ones. Soyinka, in a statement titled “Media Responsibility,” on Tuesday, spoke about the critical responsibility of…
Nigeria’s February 25 presidential election in which a former two-term governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu of the All-Progressives Congress, emerged as the president-elect, may have come and gone. But the lessons from it are likely to linger with us for a long time. Arguably, one of the most competitive political battles in Nigeria’s history – it is no doubt an election in which the youth, including students, have made their voices heard. In the final results of the tightly contested polls, Tinubu’s vote total of 8,794,726 was just enough to defeat his closest rivals, the People’s Democratic Party’s Atiku…
Olabisi Deji-Folutile For the second time in six months, the Nigerian Bar Association has asked the Chairman of the Body of Benchers, a top regulatory body of Nigeria’s legal profession, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN ) to step down. The request was as a result of allegation of professional misconduct by his legal firm through a former lawyer in his chambers, Ms Adekunbi Ogunde. The first time NBA made the call was in July this year during the tenure of its immediate past president, Olumide Akpata. At that time, the NBA insisted that Olanipekun must step down from his position to…
Some things are happening in Nigeria now that we seem to ignore because of the frenzy and euphoria of political activities around us. The country is probably experiencing one of the worst brain – drain in its history, yet it seems nothing is amiss. As usual, our leaders are not alarmed and the citizenry themselves appear unbothered by the humongous problem. The only thing that matters now is politics. While some are plotting to take over power at all levels of government, others are devising means of retaining it by all means. To make matters worse, some impoverished Nigerians don’t…
By the time the Academic Staff Union of Universities calls off its nearly eight months strike, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would have made history as the government that superintended the longest ASUU strike in Nigeria’s history. Twice in three years the union went on strike for 17 months and still counting. In 2020, ASUU was on strike for nine months. Not much was heard about that prolonged strike due to the outbreak of COVID-19 which paralysed learning globally. This ongoing strike began on February 14, 2022. Cumulatively, ASUU has been on strike for about 630 days between 2015 and…
Talk of the violent taking it by force, that is what the Nigerian students have been doing in the past few weeks. They have taken their destinies in their own hands. Tired of whiling away their lives at home due to the unending impasse between their lecturers and the federal government, these students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students have hit the streets unleashing untold hardship on road users that cross their paths. They started on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway before moving to the Ile-Ife/ Oyo axis -blocking movement for many inter-state travellers. It was the turn…
The die is cast. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a total, comprehensive and indefinite strike! Meanwhile, there are feelers that the Federal Government may be trying to cut the union to size once and for all. The union president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke said that the Education Minister Adamu Adamu has vowed to use ASUU to teach others a lesson. But we don’t know how far this is true. Although the minister has never hidden his displeasure at the prolonged ASUU strike, this is understandable. He can’t possibly support the total shutdown of the public university system when…
In other climes a total shutdown of the public university system in a pre-election year should be a major source of worry to a ruling party that aspires to remain in power. But here, that is far from being the case. Rather, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has carried on with its campaigns as if nothing is amiss. The party has not only chosen to stay aloof and distant, some of its major actors have compounded the party’s nonchalance by insulting Nigerians’ sensibilities. That is why one of its ministers and indeed the party’s presidential campaign spokesperson for the…
When Singer and songwriter, Bukola Elemide, known as Asa sang the fire on the mountain song at the unveiling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in Abuja some days back, she probably didn’t know the extent of the woe that was about to betide the entire nation in a matter of days. Within one week, Nigeria seems to have gone upside down. The Naira has tumbled to its lowest exchanging for N707 to $1 as of Wednesday morning. It was roving around N620-$1 as of last week. In the midst of this, our minister of finance, budget and national…
Nigerians can go anywhere perhaps including hell in their quest for higher education. They are ready also to invest any amount of money in their educational pursuits. If you doubt this, consider the humongous amounts of pounds that the UK is currently getting from desperate Nigerians in the name of higher education. Tuition fees in the UK often exceed £10,000 a year. This is aside from living expenses. Averagely, international students pay between £15,000 and £25,000 depending on the programme and the university. Yet thousands of Nigerians are rushing to the UK for studies. As a matter of fact, choosing the education route is one of…
As of today, Nigerian students have been home for about 130 days no thanks to the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities which has been on for over four months. There are at least 1.2 million students in Nigeria’s federal universities currently idling away at home. Meanwhile, our leaders are busy politicking about who takes over in 2023. Despite making numerous promises to stifle corruption, this administration has overseen some of the most egregious financial crimes. Billions of Naira that could have been invested in buying weapons to fight insecurity, fund education and address other societal malaise have…
Nigerian students on Tuesday marked their 100 days of staying at home courtesy of the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Some of them took to Twitter to share their experiences. A particularly striking one was the lamentation of a lady that claimed to have spent two years on 100 Level. According to her, she wasted one year during Covid and now this strike. As of today, these students have spent 104 days out of about 270 days in a session, which include semester breaks. The days are still counting as ASUU has insisted on continuing…
Over the last week, I have stood bewildered watching from the frontlines as numerous gruesome developments unfolded on Nigeria’s heavily disturbing news headlines. And, as is customary, just days after a global social-media audience witnessed the lynching of a student, I have again watched haplessly as Nigerians allow the discourse on the matter to be swept to yonder seas. I hate to be a prophet of doom. But I also love to embrace reality. Especially when such realities are so glaring and there is nothing meaningful to show that the situation might change quickly. This is why I have concluded…
A lot of people have asked me about my take on the video of the little child, a pupil of Chrisland schools, Lagos involved in a leaked sex video. Ordinarily, that is not a video I would rush to watch because there was nothing glorifying about it. I reluctantly did after listening to the plea of the pupil’s mother on Twitter for Nigerians’ help. I needed to have a clear understanding of what the issue was all about. And sincerely, I could barely watch it to the end, because I saw more than what I bargained for. By the way, for those…
By Olabisi Deji-Folutile At least, 1.2 million Students in Nigeria’s 49 federal government owned universities have been at home for two months now no thanks to the ongoing strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). As usual, the country has carried on as if nothing is amiss. Apart from ASUU that keeps begging well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the authorities to honour its agreement with the union, there has been dead silence from civil society organisations, parents and even the affected students themselves. Rather, the noise around town now centres around 2023 and who gets what…
Another sad story from motherland was told early Tuesday about the death of an alumnus of the University of Port Harcourt, Chinelo Megafu Nwando, a young medical doctor, who should be in her late 20s. She was one of the passengers killed by terrorists in the ill-fated Kaduna -Abuja bound train on Monday night. She wasn’t the only one gunned down by terrorists in that horrific attack, but her desperate call for prayers in her last tweet at about 9.43pm, drew attention to her. Many were not really sure of what to believe-whether the attack was real or fake until…
Nigerians had an idea of why the FG-ASUU impasse has lingered for so long from the conduct of the education minister Adamu Adamu on Monday. For some Nigerians, that was probably their first time seeing the minister publicly display interest in the crisis bedeviling Nigeria’s education sector. Throughout the nine-month strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in 2020, the minister remained in the background, most times, speaking through the junior minister in the ministry. Perhaps, the minister should have continued to keep to himself and save some of us from the unnecessary drama we…
In his first official reaction to the ongoing strike by Nigeria’s academic body, Education Minister Adamu Adamu, stunned some of us when he said he was looking for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Initially, I didn’t get what the minister was trying to say-looking for ASUU, why? Until he said ASUU’s decision to embark on strike came abruptly amidst ongoing negotiations. According to him, “ASUU, unfortunately, they have gone on strike and I am looking for them because all the issues are being addressed.” Well even at that, only the minister knows what he meant by ASUU going…
Almost a month into the death of Fadlullah Agboluaje, a Nigerian student admitted to Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine, the school authorities are yet to tell the family what went wrong. Fadlullah’s death is an avoidable one that ought not to have been. But the young man is gone – very painful. His sister, Rofeeha, had explained how her brother arrived in Ukraine on January 9, 2022, and was picked up from the airport by a representative of the university. She said the young man was not particularly excited with the condition of the accommodation provided by the institution and…
Nigeria’s political space has been bustling with life since the visit of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to the seat of power to announce his presidential ambition. Ever since that visit, the political atmosphere has worn a new look. National discourse now centres on politics and the media are filled with all kinds of narratives. The cacophony of noise from spin doctors and social media warriors has been deafening. Yet this is just the beginning. The tempo will naturally increase in the days ahead as we continue the countdown to 2023. If we had…
The General Medical Council of Britain recently revealed that 805 Nigerian doctors were licensed in the UK between July and December 2021. Overall, the number of Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK as of December 25, 2021, according to the council, was 9,189. Of course, the figure does not include the number of Nigerian doctors trained in the UK and practising there. Similarly, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of the UK has implied that an average of eight nurses have been leaving Nigeria every day for the UK in the last five years. Specifically, the body said 15,049 nurses trained in…
Now that the noise and uproar that greeted the sad and unfortunate death of 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni, student of Dowen College, Lagos seems to have subsided, perhaps we can now devote some time to ruminate over the tragedy that is fast unfolding before us as a nation. We are always apt to shout, condemn and empathise and rightly so, when ugly incidents like the cruel murder of rising stars like little Sylvester occur. Sadly, we lack the capacity to push back hence our outcries rarely generate positive actions that can avert a reoccurrence of bad situations. We are mostly emotional…
When American billionaire and businessman, Bill Gates, criticised the Nigerian government’s Economic Recovery & Growth Plan for “prioritising physical capital over human capital” during his visit to the country in 2018, his comments were taken with a pinch of salt. Gates had faulted the Federal Government’s decision to anchor Nigeria’s long term economic growth on investments in infrastructure, saying investments in people must go hand-in-hand. To him, “people without roads, ports and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy.” Logical, isn’t it? The co-chair of Bill &…
Some Nigerian governors are beginning to do things differently in the way they reward academic excellence. And this is commendable. Hopefully, others will catch the bug, and begin to place appropriate value on academic exploits. Who knows, this could help in re-directing the minds of some youths that have erroneously concluded that education in Nigeria is a scam. It may also usher in a new order of healthy competition among students in the country. I remember writing a column titled, “Of Governor Abiodun’s largess and tuber of yam for best graduating students” in October 2020. In that article, I chronicled some bizarre prizes…
National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Emmanuel Osodeke, a few days back revealed an aspect of Nigerian university lecturers’ negotiation with the Federal Government that many of us probably didn’t know. He disclosed how the union rejected government’s plan to increase school fees of all university students to N1m during its last negotiations with lecturers. Speaking at a one-day ‘state of the nation summit’ organised for ASUU members by the Bauchi zone of the union, Osodeke also said government’s plan was to open an education bank and give each student a loan of N1m annually at five…
The Nigerian Communication Satellite Ltd, (NIGCOMSAT), the commercial arm of Nigeria’s space agency, shocked some Nigerians when it recently announced that it was targeting 2025 for the acquisition of two satellites, to boost its global profile as a satellite operator. Its Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abimbola Alale, had told stakeholders at a forum in Lagos that the agency would between now and 2025 acquire more satellites with the NigComSat-2 Hight Throughput Satellite, due for launch in 2023, and the NigComSat-3 to be launched in 2025. Alale said providing an advance satellite communication solution is the agency’s modest contributions to…
School na scam! I hear this phrase a lot of times these days, especially from Nigerian youths. Ask them what they mean, they will tell you that the whole hype about education being the foundation for a productive and profitable future is all lies – that all the talks about schooling being the gate pass to a life of comfort are all made up. As far as they are concerned, Nigerian schools are teaching them things they may never need or use in life. Unfortunately, the society keeps telling them that the road to success in life lies in…
