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President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday
asked Babatunde Fafunwa, former minister of education, to apologise to
Nigerians over the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system of education.

Speaking during an interactive session
at the opening of the Presidential Stakeholder’s Summit, at the
Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, he said the system has failed to provide the
solutions to the Nigerian educational system.

From Mr. Jonathan’s position, there are
strong indications that the Presidential Summit may recommend reverting
the educational system in the country to what it used to be.

Self reliant youth

The 6-3-3-4 system of education came
into being in 1983 with the primary focus of meeting the educational
needs of its citizenry and equipping the youth with skills that will
make them self reliant.

Twenty-five years after, a new
educational system called the Universal Basic Education (UBE), otherwise
known as the 9-3-4, has been re-introduced, whose curriculum is
expected to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2020.

Florence Fabian, a participant at the
event, said the problems associated with education are not only peculiar
to education alone, but a general problem that affects the Nigerian
society, which can only be solved with good leadership.

She rhetorically asked if the president
was prepared to provide the required leadership that will transform the
system, since this was the solution the educational system needed.

Contributing to the debate, Ovie
Emmanuel Sideso Abe, corroborated Ms. Fabian’s view and urged President
Jonathan to do something different in moving education out of the
doldrums.

A traditional ruler, who spoke on the
need to “de-politicise education so that proper quality education is
handed down to Nigerians,” also dwelt on the need for comprehensive data
collection and quality access and equity in education, saying that this
may go a long way in improving Nigeria’s education system.

He called for a joint funding of
education and streamlined quality of education, suggesting that this was
one of the ways of repositioning education in Nigeria.

Faruk Lawan, chairman, house committee
on education, also supported joint funding, and went ahead to advocate
parental contributions, lamenting that the value of education and the
curriculum that is taught in higher institutions have become irrelevant
to the overall needs of the country.

The lawmaker discussed the issue of corruption in the education sector and called for accountability in the system.

Julius Okojie, the executive secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC), spoke on the low quality of
entrance into universities, and the need for strict regulations.

Mr. Okojie said morality on the part of
higher education administrators is very important, stating that without
“morality there can’t be standard in the system.”

He further spoke on the quality of
lectures in the different institutions, and noted that “no system in the
world can develop when those doing the teaching are not qualified.”

Pitfalls of education

Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB executive secretary,
spoke on the factors militating against education in Nigeria,
especially the issue of space availability, discrimination in course
choices, and the quality of teachers, stating that “if these issues
aren’t resolved, education cannot move forward.”

He also spoke on the inconsistent
academic calendars and the years of graduation, and said “government
must do something to regularise it.”

Mr. Ojerinde further lamented the level
of examination malpractices in the education system and noted that
adequate punishment must be meted to culprits. He further attributed the
mass failure in the school system to lack of adequate teaching and
teaching infrastructure, adding that most teachers do not cover the
syllabus.

“It is difficult to curtail exam
malpractices when they can giraffe in open halls. If exams are well
conducted, we will get the best results,” he said.

He added that public exams bodies, like
WASEC and NECO, which are the gate keepers, would have the best results
if the right things are done.

Addison Wokocha, registrar, Teachers
Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), blamed teachers at all the tiers
of education, as been responsible for the poor education foundation in
the country.

He lamented that state governments do
not employ qualified teachers to teach in the respective state schools
and noted that in most cases, the state governments resort to deploying
members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to teach in state
schools, even when they are not qualified to teach.

The TRCN scribe further said they have
taken the decision to stop the deployment of unqualified teachers to
teach in any Nigerian school.

Tobacco industry watchdog, Corporate Accountability
International, and its allies, on Monday, released a report documenting
widespread tobacco industry interference in the implementation of the
global tobacco treaty (formally known as the World Health Organisation
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

The report’s release kicks off a string of grassroots
actions in dozens of countries leading up to November’s treaty meeting
in Punta del Este, Uruguay. At stake are nearly 200 million lives – the
number of lives the World Health Organisation projects would be spared
by 2050 if the treaty takes full effect – and the tobacco industry
interference remains the single greatest obstacle to this objective.
During this year’s 10th International Week of Resistance to Tobacco
Transnationals, which began on Monday, the anti-tobacco groups say that
their actions will expose industry obstructionism in countries around
the globe which they hope would build momentum going into the November
meeting.

Showing solidarity

The Week is also an opportunity for the global
community to speak out in solidarity with Uruguay; Philip Morris
International is suing Uruguay for implementing a treaty provision
requiring stronger cigarette pack health warning labels. “Big Tobacco
first tried to bully the global community out of advancing this treaty.
Now it’s attempting to bully countries out of enforcing it,” said Gigi
Kellett, the Director of Corporate Accountability International’s
campaign Challenging Big Tobacco. “Still, our findings indicate that the
industry’s resolve to defy the law is matched only by civil society’s
resolve to end industry intimidation,” he said.

The report cited some of the tactics used by the
tobacco industry to undermine treaty implementation to include the
donation of $200 million to the Columbian government by Philip Morris
International following the adoption of treaty implementation
legislation to “address areas of mutual interest;” the appointment of a
former British American Tobacco executive, Kenneth Clarke, as Justice
Minister – he would oversee a recent lawsuit by BAT and its competitors
against a new law cracking down on tobacco product displays; and
engaging in a string of lawsuits regarding tobacco product displays,
packaging, and health warning labels from Australia and the Philippines
to Norway. All of these tactics, the groups say, are in direct defiance
of the treaty, specifically its Article 5.3, which deems such industry
interference to be in fundamental conflict with the treaty’s public
health aims.

Slow progress

The report also finds that Article 5.3 is being used
to great effect globally to insulate the treaty’s implementation against
the tobacco industry. Action ranges from Mauritius becoming the first
country to ban all tobacco industry “corporate social responsibility”
schemes to Panama’s prohibiting government agencies and officials from
accepting tobacco industry contributions. “Those countries, large and
small, that refuse to be intimidated, are emboldening others to follow
their lead,” said Philip Jakpor, spokesperson for Environmental Rights
Action in Nigeria and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco
Transnationals (NATT).

“The success of the November treaty meeting will be
measured by the number of Parties that return to their countries with a
plan to root out industry interference. Millions of lives are on the
line,” Mr Jakpor said. In Nigeria, the Senate Committee on Health held a
Public Hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill in July last year and the
bill is still awaiting passage into law at senate’s plenary. Each year,
tobacco kills more than five million people and 80 percent of those
deaths are in low-income countries, where treaty implementation
represents some of the first efforts at tobacco control.

One hundred and seventy-one countries have ratified the global
tobacco treaty since its entry into force in 2005. Today, the treaty
protects more than 87 percent of the world’s population.

A former chief of defence staff and retired general, Andrew Azazi, has been appointed as the new National Security Adviser.

Mr. Azazi replaces
Mohammed Aliyu Gusau who resigned his position last month to contest the
2011 presidential elections. He takes over from Kayode Are, a retired
colonel who had held the post in acting capacity after Mr. Gusau’s exit.

In a statement
yesterday, the spokesperson to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ima Niboro,
said the appointment is with immediate effect.

Rich military career

The spokesperson said Mr. Azazi joins the present “administration from a rich and illustrious career in the military”.

Mr. Azazi was the
chief of army staff and later chief of defence staff under the late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration.

The new presidential
aide, who hails from Bayelsa State as the President, was commissioned
into the Nigeria Army as an intelligence officer and rose to the
position of Director of military intelligence, DMI, from where he was
appointed General Officer Commanding, GOC 1 Infantry Division before
becoming chief of army staff. He retired from service on August 28,
2008.

According to the
spokesperson, Mr. Jonathan thanked the outgoing acting NSA, Mr. Are, a
former director-general of the State Security Services, SSS under the
Olusegun Obasanjo administration for his services.

The appointment of
Mr. Azazi as new chief security adviser is coming a few days after a
twin bomb exploded in Abuja during activities marking the country’s 50th
anniversary celebrations. The Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta (MEND) had claimed responsibility for the bombings. However,
Mr. Jonathan blamed the attacks on a foreign terror group with local
backings.

Justice Okon Abang
of the Federal High Court Ikoyi, Lagos, yesterday discharged and
acquitted Amos Adamu, FIFA and CAF executive committee member alongside
ousted President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Aminu
Maigari and twenty seven officials of the NFF alleged to have defied an
order of the court restraining them from conducting elections into the
board of the federation.

The judge discharged the accused on the grounds that they were not properly served the orders of the court.

Mr. Abang explained
that though the court recognized that the NFF officials and members of
the Electoral Commission disobeyed the court, the conditions before
committal proceedings can be filed were not met by counsel to the
National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), Aideloje Bello.

Meanwhile, the court
has fixed October 25, 2010 for hearing of the notice of preliminary
objection in the main suit which was pending before it.

NANF’s grudge

The association had
filed the suit against the football governing body and others, alleging
that the process of the election was perfected without recourse to its
members contrary to the clear wordings of FIFA statute and other extant
laws relating to football administration in Nigeria.

Joined as
co-defendants in the suit are NFF’s sacked president, Aminu Maigari;
President of the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) Board, Davidson Owumi;
the Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Isa Bio; Director General of Sports in
the Federal Sports Ministry; Patrick Ekeji and NFF’s electoral committee
chairman, Uthman Mustapha.

Mr. Abang had
earlier on held that it would be improper to allow the elections to take
place when there was a pending motion before them court. Specifically,
the court ordered parties to maintain status quo (ante bellum) pending
the determination of NANF’s motion.

The court had been
petitioned by NANF to restrain the newly elected body of the NFF from
assuming office because there had been a pending motion before a court
seeking to restrain the conduct of the elections that brought them into
office. All the parties were ordered to maintain the status quo until
the determination of the suit.

Global funding for
malaria is less than half the $4.9 billion needed in 2010 to prevent
and treat the disease that kills around 850,000 people a year, a study
showed on Saturday.

Researchers writing
in The Lancet medical journal said that 21 countries — including 12 in
Africa — now get enough or nearly enough donor help to control disease.

However, 50 countries where most people at risk of the disease live do not get enough funding to fight malaria.

“Our analysis
identified 10 African countries and five in Asia that are short of
necessary funds and have low domestic income,” said Bob Snow of the
geographic medicine centre at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in
Nairobi, who led the study.

The researchers
assessed the level of malaria risk for 93 countries, where the disease
is endemic and calculated the financial requirements to control it.

They found that international financing for malaria control has risen to $1.94 billion this year from $0.73 billion in 2007.

The Roll Back Malaria advocacy group estimates $4.9 billion is needed in 2010 to adequately control malaria.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 3.3 billion people
— half of the world’s population — are at risk of malaria, which is
spread by mosquitoes.

The 19th
Commonwealth Games were declared open on Sunday in a spectacular
ceremony that should help repair the damage to India’s image caused by
a calamitous build-up to the sporting festival.

The preparations
for the $6 billion (3 billion pounds) “friendly games” have been marred
by a series of setbacks to India’s ambition of showing off its soft
power by hosting its biggest sporting event for nearly three decades.

Organisers are
hoping to put all that behind them over the next 11 days of sporting
competition between mostly former British colonies but there were still
boos on Sunday from the crowd for chief Games organiser Suresh Kalmadi.

Britain’s Prince
Charles, who was greeted with chants of “India! India!,” read out a
message from his mother Queen Elizabeth, the head of the Commonwealth,
and India’s President Pratibha Patil was also given a prominent role.

“I am delighted to
declare the Games open,” said the Prince after delivering the message
which had travelled in the Queen’s Baton relay from London on a 190,000
kms journey through the 71 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.

President Patil
then gave her own address, concluding to huge cheers from the 60,000
crowd in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium by saying: “The Commonwealth
Games now really are open, let the Games begin!” Cheers replace jeers
Those cheers were a stark contrast to the jeers that greeted Kalmadi
when he gave his speech but in keeping with a festive and friendly
atmosphere in the stadium, illustrated when the Pakistan team were
given a rousing reception despite the tense relations between the
neighbours.

The huge security operation around the stadium and city involving
some 100,000 police and military personnel was a reminder of the safety
concerns that kept some athletes away from the Games.

As part of activities to commemorate one year of the
proclamation of Amnesty for Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government,
the former armed militant group leaders would today visit victims of last
Friday’s Independence Day’s bomb blast by yet to identified persons.

The former militia leaders are expected to first converge
on the site of the dastardly bombings, where they would publicly condemn the
action, proceeding to visit the wounded
victims of the bomb blasts currently recuperating in different hospitals in
Abuja.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief
Executive Officer of the Amnesty Programme, Timi Alaibe, who gave this
indication yesterday in Abuja, declared
that so far the programme has been a resounding success given the return of
peace and security in the once volatile Niger Delta region.

Mr. Alaibe, who spoke last night through his Media
Assistant, Henry Ugbolue, named erstwhile militia leaders expected at join in
the condolence visit to include
Government Ekpemupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo’; Victor Ben (Boyloaf), Ateke
Tom, Fara Dagogo, John Togo, ‘General’ Shoot Asight, Pastor Reuben, ‘General’
Eziekel, ‘General’ Joshua Miccaival, Bonney Gawei, ‘General’ Aboy, ‘General’
Ogunbos, and ‘General’ Africa.

According to Mr. Ugbolue, the former militant group
leaders would also use the occasion to publicly denounce the recent twin
bombings in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in which at least seventeen
people lost their lives, with several others wounded.

“Having disarmed and embraced the offer of amnesty
from the federal government a year ago, the leaders of the former militant
groups in the Niger Delta have since registered their disgust at the Abuja
bombings and are poised to use the opportunity of the commemoration of one year
of amnesty proclamation to debunk insinuations that agitators in the Niger
Delta were involved”, Mr. Ugbolue said.

.

To buttress the fact about a new dawn in the Niger Delta
region following the success of the presidential amnesty programme, the Special
Adviser pointed out that Nigeria’s crude oil production has risen from an all
time low capacity of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.3 million bpd, apart
from incidences of kidnapping in the core Niger Delta States stopped, while
illegal oil bunkering has drastically reduced and construction work on critical
infrastructures like the East-West road resumed and now being fast-tracked.

He said that 20,192 ex-militants have so far turned in
huge cache of arms and ammunitions and are now being rehabilitated and reintegrated
into the society.

“As at today, 5,533 ex-militants have received
non-violence transformational trainings and are now being posted to skill
acquisition centres and institutions across the country and abroad. The process
of rehabilitation and reintegration is continuing”, he said.

—-Forwarded Message—-

As part of activities to commemorate one year of the
proclamation of Amnesty for Niger Delta militants by the Federal Government,
the former armed militant group leaders would today visit victims of last
Friday’s Independence Day’s bomb blast by yet to identified persons.

The former militia leaders are expected to first converge
on the site of the dastardly bombings, where they would publicly condemn the
action, proceeding to visit the wounded
victims of the bomb blasts currently recuperating in different hospitals in
Abuja.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chief
Executive Officer of the Amnesty Programme, Timi Alaibe, who gave this
indication yesterday in Abuja, declared
that so far the programme has been a resounding success given the return of
peace and security in the once volatile Niger Delta region.

Mr. Alaibe, who spoke last night through his Media
Assistant, Henry Ugbolue, named erstwhile militia leaders expected at join in
the condolence visit to include
Government Ekpemupolo, also known as ‘Tompolo’; Victor Ben (Boyloaf), Ateke
Tom, Fara Dagogo, John Togo, ‘General’ Shoot Asight, Pastor Reuben, ‘General’
Eziekel, ‘General’ Joshua Miccaival, Bonney Gawei, ‘General’ Aboy, ‘General’
Ogunbos, and ‘General’ Africa.

According to Mr. Ugbolue, the former militant group
leaders would also use the occasion to publicly denounce the recent twin
bombings in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in which at least seventeen
people lost their lives, with several others wounded.

“Having disarmed and embraced the offer of amnesty
from the federal government a year ago, the leaders of the former militant
groups in the Niger Delta have since registered their disgust at the Abuja
bombings and are poised to use the opportunity of the commemoration of one year
of amnesty proclamation to debunk insinuations that agitators in the Niger
Delta were involved”, Mr. Ugbolue said.

.

To buttress the fact about a new dawn in the Niger Delta
region following the success of the presidential amnesty programme, the Special
Adviser pointed out that Nigeria’s crude oil production has risen from an all
time low capacity of 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.3 million bpd, apart
from incidences of kidnapping in the core Niger Delta States stopped, while
illegal oil bunkering has drastically reduced and construction work on critical
infrastructures like the East-West road resumed and now being fast-tracked.

He said that 20,192 ex-militants have so far turned in
huge cache of arms and ammunitions and are now being rehabilitated and reintegrated
into the society.

“As at today, 5,533 ex-militants have received
non-violence transformational trainings and are now being posted to skill
acquisition centres and institutions across the country and abroad. The process
of rehabilitation and reintegration is continuing”, he said.

Former minister of
the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai has launched
an appeal fund aimed at cushioning the effects of the recent flood
disaster in some part of the northern states of the country.

Mr el Rufai called
on well meaning individuals in the polity to come to the aid of
thousands of those who were displaced by the flood disaster.

“We are trying to
reach out to well meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of those
affected by this disastrous flood with relief materials.

When it happened in
Pakistan, the United Nations came in, other countries came in; I
thought people can come in and complement NEMA,” he said.

“After thinking
about it, I thought that why not try and organise something to
galvanise people to do something, because right now those affected
really don’t have anything. Whatever we are able to realise, we will
give the relief agency operating in the area for onward distribution.
This initiative is like an appeal fund for cloths, rice, corn, millet
and all other edible items, the victims need building materials too and
anything that people can spare. I mean whatever we get from people will
do.”

He also said he was
not impressed with the performance of the National Emergency Relief
Agency (NEMA), saying some of the agencies of government spend more
time on awarding contracts for supplies than they are at solving the
problem. He said similar agencies at states levels are equally not
helping matters.

Soliciting for support

“That is why I am
making calls to some of my wealthier friends and asking them to
donate,” he said. “Those that want their names mentioned, we will do so
and we would acquiesce to request by those that want to remain
anonymous.” He said though he would prefer donors to buy the relief
materials themselves, a dedicated account would be opened to keep any
donations made in cash.

“It is unfortunate
that NEMA did not live up to expectations of those affected by flood at
a period the victims, spread across states like Jigawa, sokoto,
Zamfara, Yobe and Kano, were in pain,” Mr el Rufai said.

The federal government recently announced the release of about
N1.6billion to the states of Sokoto and Kebbi to provide relief for the
victims of the flooding.

The faction of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State opposed to the state
governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, is holding a rally in Ibadan, the state
capital, today, to register their readiness to thwart the governor’s
ambition to run for a second term under the party’s platform in the
state.

The rally is
scheduled to hold at the Akingbade, Old Ife-Road, parallel secretariat
of the party and will be addressed by the internal opposition leaders,
including Lekan Balogun; former governor, Rashidi Ladoja; former deputy
national chairman of the party, Yekeen Adeojo; and former minister of
special duties, Wole Oyelese, among others.

For a long time,
the coalition had consistently slugged it out with the governor and his
team over the constitution of the incumbent executive of the party in
the state, describing the February 2008 election that produced them as
illegal, having been held in utter disregard to a court injunction
restraining it.

Steps taken to
correct the frosty situation, including the intervention of the
national executive of the party, have not yielded any tangible result.

The group has also
consistently called for a fresh congress since a mediation team led by
Ike Nwachukwu held reconciliatory meeting with the faction, where it
was openly observed that the state executive was not properly formed,
and an implementation committee was formed to midwife a properly
constituted executive.

Legal suit against governor

Sources informed
NEXT that all logistics to make today’s rally a big success has already
been put in place, as all the individuals and parties involved are
working hard to achieve that.

The coalition has
also gone to court to stop the proposed primaries of the party in which
Mr. Alao-Akala is billed to be announced as the party’s sole
governorship candidate in the 2011 elections.

The case will be heard at an Abuja High Court this week.

A
legal battle between four-year-old David Olawale and the Nigeria Police
is scheduled for hearing tomorrow at the Federal High Court, Ibadan.

David is
challenging the alleged abuse of his fundamental human right by one
Sunmonu Ojediran, an Inspector attached to the Ogun State Crime
Investigation Division (CID), who allegedly shot and killed his father,
Olawale Babalola, on June 1, 2010. Apart from the police inspector,
Master Olawale also joined the Inspector General of Police and the
Commissioners of Police in charge of Oyo and Ogun State Commands in the
suit.

How he died

According to the
affidavit sworn to by the widow of the deceased, Opeyemi Olawale, who
filed the suit on behalf of his son, the alleged killing happened when
her husband was out to buy some drugs for her few hours after she had a
stillbirth on May 31. “That he (the husband) volunteered to purchase
the drugs outside the hospital and that was the last day I heard or saw
him alive,” she said. Mrs Olawale also stated that all efforts to
locate the deceased was futile, until when one of his friends informed
her that he had been killed by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad
(SARS) in Ogun state.

According to her,
the man told her that the deceased was shot during an argument that
ensued between him and police officers who brought an armed robbery
suspect from their office to Ibadan to effect his arrest, over an
allegation of receiving stolen vehicles. “On arrival at the agreed area
at the Nigerian Breweries Area of Ibadan, my husband was arrested and
upon [the] argument that ensued, my husband was shot by the 3rd
respondent (Mr Ojediran) and died as a result of the gunshot,” she
said. The widow, who said she had been receiving strange messages since
the killing of her husband, had been arrested twice over the matter.

Seeking justice

She said her
insistence on seeking justice was responsible for the arrests, adding
that during the latest arrest, which happened last month, she fainted
at the Eleweran headquarters of the Ogun state Police command where she
spent days answering queries from police detectives. In a suit number
FHC/IB/C8/65/2010, which comes up for hearing today, the younger
Olawale, who is the only surviving child of the deceased, is praying
for the court to declare the shooting and killing of his father without
justification as a gross violation of Sections 33(1) and 34 of the
constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria 1999.

The plaintiff also wanted an order of the court declaring the
breaking into her house in the name of searching as a breach to private
and family life and contravenes section 37 of the Nigerian
constitution. The widow is also praying the court to restrain the
defendants from further harassing, victimising, disturbing, arresting,
detaining or subjecting her to any form of indignity, inhuman or
degrading treatment even as he asked for the release of the corpse of
her husband for befitting burial. Besides all this, the plaintiff is
asking for a compensation of a sum of N100 million for the alleged
wrongful killing.