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Thursday, July 12, 2012

FG orders probe of tertiary institutions

11:58 PM , 1 Comment

ABUJA—Federal Government, Thursday, ordered the audit of all tertiary institutions across the country.

Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i, gave the matching order at the formal presentation and distribution of Postgraduate Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards, PG BMAS, at National Universities Commission, NUC, Abuja.

The minister said the Federal Government will use the documents as a guide to ensure quality in postgraduate education in the country’s universities.

Rufa’i said the Federal Government was fully aware of the situation of postgraduate training and the need to increase access to qualitative postgraduate education in Nigeria.

The PG BMAS documents, which all universities in the country must implement, is to guide the planning of curriculum and teaching of courses in the universities.

BY Favour Nnabugwu
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Motorsports: Racing Eagles’ll be World Champions – Wickham

11:56 PM No Comments


Newly appointed Team Manager of Nigeria Racing Eagles (NRE), John Wickham has stated that the NRE will become World Champions under his reign as manager.

Speaking at his unveiling in London, Wickham said he is elated working with Nigerian and African drivers, expressing hope that they will do well on the world stage.
Ribi Adeshokan (r) shaking hands with John Wickham (l) during the unveiling of Wickham as the new Team Manger of Nigeria Racing Eagle at the NRE club house in London.
“I feel honoured to be part of the historic Nigeria Racing Eagle and the dream of developing African Racing Team, including drivers, team and crew to represent the continent at the top level of world of Motorsport and I know that one day, they will become the World Champion,” Wickham said.

Before his appointment, John Wickham owned F1 Spirit Racing in the ‘80s and was Team Manager for F1 Arrows in the ‘90s. From 1996 to 2003 he was Team Manager for Audi Sport UK and Bentley, who won the series in Touring Cars the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

From 2004 to 2009 John worked for the successful A1GP Series as Head of Operations. In 2011 he was Team Manager for Lotus-Renault F1.

He would be in charge of the technical department of Nigeria Racing Eagle (NRE) running day to day activities of the team, including Team Managing at the Race Events, Drivers’ Training & Testing and Driver Academy.

By Ime Bassey
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Fuel subsidy: Govs to drag FG to S-Court

11:53 PM No Comments

*Set up economic and security c’ttee


ABUJA — THE 36 state governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, are poised for legal battle with the Federal Government.

The governors during a meeting at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja have concluded arrangements to drag the Federal Government to the Supreme Court over deductions from the federation account.

Also, yesterday, the governors, as part of moves to address the security challenge in the country, resolved to set up an Economic and Security Intervention Committee with governors of Rivers, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Abia, Plateau, Adamawa and Zamfara states as members, just as the committee will meet with President Goodluck Jonathan on an emergency economic intervention plan focusing initially on agriculture and other economic regeneration programmes for employment generation in the Northern states.

Reading the communique at the end of the meeting, Rivers State Governor and Chairman of the forum, Rotimi Amaechi, said the governors, however, condemned the recurring insecurity in the country, even as the governors sympathised with the governor and people of Plateau State over the recent loss of lives and property and called for urgent recruitment, training and equipping security agents across the country.

According to a source at the meeting, the governors are not comfortable with what they described as over deductions by the Federal Government to fund the fuel subsidy.

The governors, the source said, are approaching the apex court for final explanation on the formula for withdrawal from their account.

The Federal Government in this year’s budget earmarked N880 billion to finance fuel subsidy, but after seven months, the said amount has been exhausted.

The governors are also arguing that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is not transparent in the remittance of its account because the corporation ought to operate a zero account by remitting what it gets into the federation account.

The governors will also at the Supreme Court address other areas of conflict between the states and the Federal Government.

By Henry Umoru
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450 people get free medical treatment in Lagos

1:40 PM No Comments

To reduce the high death rate in Nigeria, a non governmental organisation, Foresight Youth Forum, has provided free medical treatment for about 450 people in Epe, Lagos.

The people had free tests on diabetics and hypertension. Some of them were also provided with drugs while others were directed to the hospital.

According to the Lagos State coordinator of the group, Mr. Usman Hamzat, the free medical treatment was provided to help people who could not afford the medical cost of treating diabetics and hypertension.

“We gave 450 people within the age bracket of 19-80years free medical service here today. This is to help the masses, most especially, the old and the youth through the provision of free health clinic for them to know their diabetic status and blood pressure,” he said.

He wondered why the government had refused to play its role in the provision of adequate health services to the people, noting that healthiness had little to do with literacy.

He said, “The state of healthiness is nothing to write home about in the country. Most of the people we have done the test for don’t even know they are having high blood pressure or diabetics and that is why we have all these sudden deaths.

“It is not lack of literacy that causes sudden deaths for people but the government. If you go to Europe and some other countries, some of the people did not get to school, they are not educated but the governments there are really doing their jobs daily. They enlighten the people in every locality and even send experts to educate them about their health at their various homes.”

He said that people should also care about their health and should not expect the government to do everything for them.

A beneficiary of the free medical clinic, Mrs. Mudasiru Afusat, said the treatment would enhance the healthiness of the people in the area, adding that only a few people in the vicinity had access to medical treatment and check-ups.

“We thank the group for catering for our health. I urge other groups to also embark on things of this kind that give good gesture and bring development to our health,” she said.

Another beneficiary, Mr. Lawal Olalekan, commended the organisers of the clinic.

He added, “The programme is a good one. We were given free drugs and treatment. It gives us advantage of free medical service and this will help us improve in our healthiness.”

BY SODIQ OYELEKE
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The challenges of tricking the taste buds

11:38 AM No Comments

The basic idea of what would make a good sugar substitute is simple.

On the surface of the tongue, certain proteins act as detectors for specific tastes. The sweetness receptor is made of two proteins in what is believed to be a structure like a Venus’ flytrap. When a sugar molecule attaches to the receptor, the receptor jogs neurons that send a signal to the brain that says something sweet has just been tasted.

An artificial sweetener is simply a calorie-free substance that excites the same sweetness receptors.

Even so, most people can instantly tell an impostor. One reason is that the sweetener molecules also sideswipe receptors for bitterness, leaving an aftertaste.

Different people also have slightly different bitterness receptors, and some react more strongly than others to the artificial sweeteners. Terry Acree, a professor of food science at Cornell University, said he cannot stand diet soda made with aspartame, because “I have a bitter receptor that is highly active.”

Some other sweeteners, like stevia, which is derived from a plant, can be barely perceptible at first, but their taste lingers far longer.

“People don’t like it,” said Paul Breslin, a taste researcher at Rutgers and the Monell Center, which focuses on taste and smell, in Philadelphia. “If you give them something that’s sweet but different, they innately know they’re different.”

In regular sugar, the sweet taste hits quickly and dissipates quickly. To more closely mimic that taste sensation, food companies have combined various artificial sweeteners, using one to mask the shortfalls of another.

Even though artificial sweeteners are estimated to be a $1.5bn-a-year business, not many companies are searching for new ones. The path to the supermarket can be long, winding and littered with regulatory and commercial obstacles.

The scientist and engineer Gilbert V. Levin, who developed the experiment that reported life on Mars, also discovered a substitute that tastes like sugar, is almost as sweet and is mostly devoid of calories. The sweetener, tagatose, is in fact, a sugar that occurs naturally, in minute quantities, in milk and beets. Clinical studies indicate that it even works as a drug to treat adult diabetes. But Levin was never able to get it manufactured in quantity at a viable cost, and efforts to have it approved as a diabetes drug have also foundered.

New York Times Service
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