Reports just coming in have it that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate split of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into seven units. According to Premium Times, this approval was announced by Dr Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria’s minister of state for Petroleum Resources, on Tuesday, March 8. Speaking in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, Kachikwu said that five of the seven operational units will be strictly business-focussed in line with global best practices of national oil companies. The two other units are dedicated to those for Upstream, Downstream, Gas & Power, Refineries, Ventures, Corporate Planning & Services and Finance and Accounts. These new Chief Executive Officers (CEOs); Bello Rabiu for Upstream; Henry Ikem-Onih (downstream); Anibor Kragha (Refineries); Saudu Mohammed (Gas & Power), while Babatunde Adeniran (Ventures) will be in charge of the new units. While Isiaka Abdulrazaq will head the group executive director in charge of Finance & Services, Isa Inuwa will take the role of executive head, Corporate Services. This information arrives hours after it was reported that the Nigerian government has finalised plans to stop the importation of petroleum products in 18 months. Dr Kachikwu who made this announcement in Abuja earlier today, also informed that there are plans underway for this implementation to be realistic.
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Thursday 21 January 2016
IF you can read this, it simply means you belong to the Generation Y who are SMS and social media compliant.
Social media and text messaging are perhaps two of the things that people do most daily. In public vehicles, restaurants, or even just in the streets, you will find most people are on social media sites or text messaging with their phones. These days, most youngsters are almost inseparable from their mobile phones, not because they are constantly talking, but because they are connecting with their friends through text messaging.
Although mobile phones are banned in most secondary schools, but text messaging and social media language have crept into academic discuss and writing.
The 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum introduced by The Nigerian Education Research and Development Council, NERDC, placed emphasis on value re-orientation, poverty eradication and employment generation capabilities in learners. In these reform initiatives, science, technology, mathematics, and vocational education and training are specifically designed to provide the contents, learning experiences and skills for the socio-economic transformation of the Nigerian nation.
However, the tool to achieve these utopian goals, one of which is writing, falls short of the expectation, as most students cannot write legibly nor express themselves in simple correct grammar because of mixing social media language with proper English grammar.
Vanguard Learning sought to know how social media usage has affected writing abilities; its import on communication and expression and measures to improve the writing abilities of students.
Speaking on social media use and its effect on the students’ ability to write proper and correct English grammar, an English Language teacher with Penny International College, Mrs. Chinweuba Nwanne, said “When I was a teenager, relationships between boys and girls involve letter writing. When a boy writes a girl, she checks his handwriting and grammar, thus, both served as monitor to check their writing and grammar.
“Today, that conscious effort no longer exists as youths text a lot. For instance instead of writing the word ‘the’ students write ‘d’, ‘your’ becomes ‘ur’, while ‘you are welcome is ‘URW’. These abbreviations make students miss-spell words and they lack the zeal to write because when you give them essays to write, they finds it difficult.
“But ask the students to text and they will gladly stay on it for hours because a lot of things like wrong spellings and poor grammar, are allowed. The most painful part of it is that it is becoming fashionable and even the good students tend to copy this attitude so as to ‘socially belong’.”
Continuing, Nwanne added; “
Social media distracts students from their studies and it is addictive. It has become part their lives that if want to punish a child, take away the phone and that child will feel more punished than when you deprive him of food or basic needs.”
Social media distracts students from their studies and it is addictive. It has become part their lives that if want to punish a child, take away the phone and that child will feel more punished than when you deprive him of food or basic needs.”
Agreeing is the Principal, Tonia International School, Mr. Frances Alayo, who said though social media has its positive use, the negative effect on students would be immense if not checked.
His words: “Chief of the problems social media causes are the introduction of laziness on the part of students and the increase in poor writing ability, as evidence with the use of abbreviation and repetition.”
Abbreviation and repetition
Pointing out that social media language has done more harm than good in the writing abilities of students, a Masters degree student of English Language at the Lagos State University, Miss Esther Chioma, said “the use of social media, amidst it’s many blessings, has caused great deterioration to people’s writing abilities as most people don’t know how to make or write good sentences, they tend to prefer the shorter, elliptic, and sometimes incomprehensible version. In a nutshell, I don’t think the use of phones should be encouraged in secondary schools.”
For Clementina Nzeako, an Economist based in Kano; “The use of phone by students has brought about the issue of phone addiction. Students now spend gargantuan portion of their time on their phones. Because of the psychological effect it has on students; which has to do with making it difficult for them to have profitable intellectual discussions in real life, and inability to make real non-virtual friends, students now stand the risk of losing their already dormant writing skills.”
Students speak: A 200 level student of Chemical Engineering at the University of Benin, Sylvester Nwokolo, said “I wouldn’t lie to you, the thing is affecting me. Normally I facebook, tweet, chat on Whatsapp and ping in short forms like ‘LWKMD’ – Laugh wan kill me die, also, since we don’t submit our notes like we did in secondary school, I use short forms when taking down notes in class.
“There was this particular exam that I wrote in short form because I was running out of time and the course lecturer specifically came to class after exam and said that those of us that used short forms have lost 15 marks. I nearly fainted. He went on to say that we being in science is not an excuse to not know proper English grammar; that if you are a first class graduate and you speak poorly people will think you bought your certificate.”
For Rebecca Obika, an SS3 student in one of the private schools in Port Harcourt, chatting in long hand is boring. She said “I have a smart
phone because my parents always like to reach me. Teachers say it’s not allowed but I have to have my phone that I use it for assignments too. If I chat in normal long form, my friends will say I am boring. In fact, instead of laughing normally, we just say ‘LOL’ amongst ourselves. It’s the in thing and we have to keep with the trend.
phone because my parents always like to reach me. Teachers say it’s not allowed but I have to have my phone that I use it for assignments too. If I chat in normal long form, my friends will say I am boring. In fact, instead of laughing normally, we just say ‘LOL’ amongst ourselves. It’s the in thing and we have to keep with the trend.
“there was a time I accidentally used the short form in an exams but I don’t think the teachers minded so much. At best they will remove two marks. Is the important thing not to understand what they are teaching? Does it matter how I type it?”
Toafeek Tajudeen, SS2 student of Federal Government College, Lagos, said “I use my elder brother’s phone to chat with my friends because I do not have a personal phone. I know that chatting with those abbreviations will affect me but I use them so that the text message will not exceed one page. I am usually conscious not to use it in copying my notes because we submit our notes for grading and my teacher will automatically give me zero if we write short form.”
Way forward: Text message or chartroom slang affects students’ academic performance either positively or negatively. Positively because some use it for important academic message or family members or friends both at school and at home for information especially when they are out of credit and cannot make voice calls. Negative when they become addicted to SMS, IM, BBM and so on when they use text slangs to the point of writing such slangs in their continuous assessment and examinations.
It is most astonishing to note that even though the students are aware of the dangers associated with the use of SMS slangs, especially during examinations, they still cannot stop it because they uncautiously use it.
However, the use of SMS slangs can be overcome if only its users can adopt the use of only simple and correct English when doing so.
THE Ooni of Ife,Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, has said that to properly position Yoruba race for greatness, efforts must be geared towards uniting its people.
Receiving in his palace in Ile Ife yesterday the paramount ruler of Remo kingdom, Oba Michael Adeniyi Sonariwo, who led royal fathers and eminent personalities including Chief Kessington Adebutu and Asiwaju of Remoland Chief S. Onafowokan, Oba Ogunwusi said he has God’s mandate to unite the race.
Oba Ogunwusi said that his efforts in uniting Yoruba nation are already yielding positive results, adding that Yoruba will develop if united.
The monarch said Yoruba people are the most favoured race on earth and urged other traditional rulers in Yoruba land to join and support the unity campaign, maintaining that the unity of Yoruba race was needed for peace and development of the race.
The traditional ruler, who noted that God loves Yoruba people said some Yoruba sons and daughters were yet to discover the beautiful values and norms God endowed Yoruba people with.
He said: “I am so happy and pleased with this visit. God speaks with me everyday on this move to unite the Yoruba nations and I can say that God is leading me through this unity move.”
“I want other traditional rulers and leaders of Yoruba race to join this efforts and also mobilise other prominent Yoruba sons and daughters to join the move. Yoruba will develop if united and if Ife is peaceful, every Yoruba part of land will be peaceful.
“I have God’s mandate to work towards uniting Yoruba race and position it for better deal among ethnic groups in the country and with the disposition of the Akarigbo, my job is being made easy,” Oba Ogunwusi said.
The traditional ruler said there is no Yoruba land that does not receive “heavenly prayers daily because whenever Ooni is prayed for, every Yoruba person receives the prayer.
Stating that his work is being made easy with the peaceful disposition of Oba Sonariwo, the Ife monarch harped on the need to keep relationships to enhance rapid development of the society.
He said those in Ile Ife know the town belongs to the entire Yoruba race and will always welcome all other children of Oduduwa, assuring to continue to work towards promoting peaceful coexistence of the race and the country at large.
In his remarks, Oba Sonariwo said Ooni is the father of all kings and pledged to work with Oba Ogunwusi in uniting the Yoruba race.
Oba Sonariwo congratulated Oba Ogunwusi over his coronation and prayed that his reign would be peaceful and marked with achievements.
Other monarchs that visited the Ooni are Oba Adeleke Idowu, Alaperu of Iperu, Oba Adewale Osinbero, Elepe of Epe, Oba Emilaoye Awobajo, Alara of Ilara-Remo, Oba M. O. Shonuga, Olofin of Ilisan-remo, Oba Jolagbade Tijani and Alado of Ado, Oba Amusa Akinyemi.
Wednesday 20 January 2016
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the election of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo as the duly elected governor of Gombe State.
A panel of justices dismissed an appeal filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Inuwa Yahya, challenging the election of Mr. Dankwambo in the April 11, 2015 governorship election.
The state election tribunal had earlier confirmed the election of Dankwambo in the April 11 governorship election.
Similarly, the Court of Appeal in Yola, Adamawa State, agreed with the ruling of the tribunal.
The apex Court today, sealed Dankwambo’s re-election, agreeing with the rulings of the lower courts.
he Minister of Communications and Technology, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, yesterday suspended the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), over allegations of illegal employments and procurements carried out in direct contraventions of laid down rules and procedure unknown to Civil Service administration in Nigeria.
In his stead, the minister also appointed, Director of Corporate Strategy and Research in the Agency, Dr. Vincent Olatunji as acting DG.
Shittu, through his Special Assistant on Media Mr Victor Oluwadamilare, said the suspension became imperative on the strength of deluge of petitions regarding several alleged wrong doings in NITDA and subsequent preliminary findings of an Investigative Committee set up by the Ministry.
He added that the petitions against Mr Jack relates to employments not approved by the appropriate authority and procurements carried out in direct contraventions of laid down rules and procedure unknown to Civil Service administration in Nigeria.
Recall that the ministry had earlier set a committee to investigate the myriads of allegations against Jack. According to Oluwadamilare, ,”Some of the infractions identified by the Investigative
Committee made up of three senior Ministry officials include unauthorised and illegal recruitment of additional staff totalling 245 within a spate of seven months.
The committee also discovered that, “as at 29th May, 2015, NITDA only had a staff complement of 74. But from May, 2015 to 31st December, 2015, additional 245 staff were employed under questionable circumstances, despite clear instruction from the Ministry directing suspension of employment in the Agency”.
“These disclosures were deduced from the records provided by Mr Jack, although he was unable to provide concrete information on whose authority he embarked on the massive recruitment and who granted him the authority for officials to be seconded to NITDA from other MDAs”,.
Sunday 17 January 2016
A couple of years back, when I first learnt of ‘adult nursing’ I was greatly amused. Was there no depth these men would not sink in their fixation with boobs? Now they’d carried it off to a ridiculous extent. (Adult nursing) is the term used for men who enjoy being breastfed by a nursing mother! According to James, one of these rare (is it really rare, I wonder) breed of men: “I once tried adult nursing with my ex-girlfriend and loved the intimacy and comfort it gave me. I sought this woman who offered her milk for a fee, out to experience the same feeding. I know adult nursing is often sexual but I personally don’t get a sexual thrill from it. … “
Some few months after this, I mentioned this particular habit to a male discussant on a different topic entirely but he let me into his experience. “When my wife was breast-feeding our first child”, he said, “she looked so erotic with her boobs dripping milk that I felt aroused.
Some few months after this, I mentioned this particular habit to a male discussant on a different topic entirely but he let me into his experience. “When my wife was breast-feeding our first child”, he said, “she looked so erotic with her boobs dripping milk that I felt aroused.
As soon as she finished nursing our child, I latched on to a nipple but I nearly gagged. The thing wasn’t as delicious as I thought. “Wow, it seems adult nursing could be a real money spinner. Carol, a 27-year old single mother who couldn’t afford to pay her rent said, she was introduced to adult nursing by a friend when she hit rock-bottom. This friend who seemed so normal and nice and who’d been a bundle of help in my grapple with single parenthood told me who charged men a lot of money an hour to let them drink her baby milk”, she said.
I was disgusted, it was the most perverted thing I’d ever heard. What did these men get out of it? Sexual kicks? Didn’t that make my friend some sort of prostitute? She said she’d been really struggling for money and discovered there was a market for adult nursing. It wasn’t sexual, she assured me.
The guys who came to her do it to feel mothered. It still sounded gross, but I now felt differently about it. With her help, I was able to get a list of men who would happily pay for the privilege. I nervously range them and requested they send photo IDs and recent test results showing they’d no sexually transmitted infections. I was surprised to hear they all sound friendly. But I was still worried, so I asked an open-minded male friend to act as my bodyguard.
“My first client was a 28 years old computer analyst who told me he’d tried it once and liked it. He booked a local hotel room and left instructions at reception that I should be taken to the room. as soon as I arrived. I waited anxiously for him and it all felt seedy and weird. When he arrived, he seemed friendly and relaxed. He paid me up-front and gave me something extra for my “bodyguard”. I then positioned myself on the bed, pulled up my top, unclipped my front-fastening maternity bra and gave him my left breast. I was sure he could hear my heart thumping against my ribs, in shame at what I was doing. If he did, he didn’t give any indication.
He just lay across me like a big baby and I cradled his head. He was silent, didn’t seem aroused. Yet his large lips and strong suction felt so wrong. It was strange and unnatural compared to feeding my little girl, and it felt as if I was betraying her. 1 was on the verge of tears and tried not to look at him. After 10 minutes, I asked him to swap breasts and he sucked my right for a further 10. Then he sat up. I cleaned my breasts with disinfectant wipes before pulling down my top.
“How was it:, I asked awkwardly. ‘“Great,” he said.`Can we do it again this week?’ Lured by money, I agreed. I was just glad it was over. Three days later, I saw him again and this time, it was easier. After 1 got to know him better, he started coming to my house.
“Initially, I felt guilty depriving my little girl-I’d planned to feed her myself for the first few months, at least. But the reason I was doing this was to keep a roof over our heads.
That’s how I squared it with myself. Over the following months, 1 developed a business-like approach to the whole process. Now I regularly see other clients too. I no longer look down on these men – adult nursing seems a relatively harmless desire, My daughter is eight months now and my milk is slowly drying up.
Still, I’ve made more than enough money to keep food on the table regularly and a roof over our heads …
“When 1 had my third child”, said Emily in a newspaper interview, “I started ‘milk banking”,donating excess breast milk to premature babies at my local hospital. My husband and I had been blessed with three healthy kids and wanted to help give poorly babies the best chance of survival. When Emily was six months, 1 felt I’d given the best of my milk to help sick babies, so I stored the extra in my freezer and searched online to see if anyone would buy it. I imagined there’d be men with adult nursing fantasies, but that didn’t bother me. 1 just wanted to make money.
“I soon found a site with all sorts of people looking to buy breast milk. So 1 added my details:”Breast milk available, price depends on quantity”. The first sale was to a woman wanting some for her four month-old baby. She couldn’t produce enough herself and I sold her 11 pints for about N12,000.-. I delivered them in person bottled wrapped in cool bags. When a man contacted me a month later, I was more cautious and used a special refrigerator courier services to deliver a pint. I’d upped my price too, realising I could sell a pint for as much as N10,000.
“A Multiple sclerosis sufferer bought a pint believing the protein could help his symptoms. A cancer sufferer hoped it would boost his immune system. Neither theory has been medically proven, but I liked to think I was helping. Several months later, a local couple e-mailed, asking if I could provide two pints.1 was delighted with the generous fee, didn’t asked what they planned to do with it. Two months on, they still buy two pints every week.
“I hope to find proper work when the children are older. But for now, selling my milk means I can choose my hours and make time for the kids.”
