Egypt constitution passed with 63.8% support: official

3:30 PM News, Politics No Comments

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt’s constitution was passed with 63.8 percent voter support in the two-stage referendum that ended last weekend, the national electoral commission said on Tuesday.

Turnout was 32.9 percent of Egypt’s total 52 million voters, the president of the commission, Samir Abul Maati, told a news conference in Cairo.

The figures confirmed those given by President Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which had backed the new charter.

Abul Maati rejected opposition claims that fake judges supervised some of the polling — one of several allegations of polling fraud the opposition National Salvation Front made after each leg of the referendum held December 15 and 22.

The charter, and Morsi’s determination to hold the referendum without building consensus, provoked weeks of protests, some of which turned violent.

The Front has said it will not cease its struggle, raising the prospect of prolonged instability in the Arab world’s most populous nation.

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NFF dismisses claim Ameobi not for Nations Cup

2:15 PM Sports No Comments

Shola Ameobi

Nigeria have debunked a claim by Newcastle that Shola Ameobi will skip next month’s African Nations Cup and that coach Stephen Keshi is aware of this.

“We are not aware of such a thing about Shola (Ameobi), he is a FIFA-listed player for us. The federation is not aware, the head coach is not aware of this and that was why Shola was called up for the competition,” spokesman for the Nigeria Football Federation, Ademola Olajire, told MTNFootball.com.

“We will do all within us to see that Shola or any player picked by the coach for the Nations Cup is released to us.”

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew said Shola Ameobi will not be going to the Nations Cup with Nigeria, according to BBC sports.

The Kogi State indigene is on the 32-man provisional squad released by Eagles coach Stephen Keshi last week.

Pardew said, “Shola won’t be going. The national team manager knows the reasons, which I am keeping to myself.”

Ameobi made an encouraging debut in a 3-1 friendly win over Venezuela last month, setting up the third goal in Miami.










Source - Punch news

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Ameobi not going to Nations Cup –Newcastle

2:00 PM Sports No Comments

Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi will not be going to the Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria, according to his manager Alan Pardew.

The former England under-21 international had been named by coach Stephen Keshi in his provisional squad.

But Pardew has ruled out the 31-year-old’s appearance at the tournament, which kicks off on 19 January.

He said, “Shola won’t be going. The national team manager knows the reasons, which I am keeping to myself.”

Ameobi was born in Zaria, Nigeria, before moving to England with his parents at the age of five.

Under FIFA rules, players who have represented one country at junior level can play for another at senior level if they meet the qualifying criteria.

Ameobi was first called-up by the Super Eagles 10 years ago but turned down the invitation on the grounds that his heart was set on playing for England. He made his debut for Nigeria under Keshi with the international friendly last month against Venezuela in the United States.

He was cleared by FIFA to play for the country of his birth last month together with Chelsea winger Victor Moses.

He made his debut in a 3-1 friendly win over Venezuela last month, setting up the third goal in Miami, Florida.

Nigeria will take on African champions Zambia, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso in Group C.







Source - Punch news

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95% Nigerian graduates are computer illiterates –INTEL boss

10:00 AM Education No Comments

Olubunmi Ekundare, Country Manager, Intel Corporation, Nigeria

Olubunmi Ekundare is the Country Manager, Intel Corporation, Nigeria. In this interview with Olabisi Deji-Folutile, he says students should create their tomorrow via a personal ownership computer policy, claiming most Nigerian graduates don’t have access to computers.

Why is Intel collaborating with the Federal Government on the student personal computer scheme? 

We realised that most students don’t have access to computers probably because there is no credit facility for consumers. There is a large population of youths who don’t have access to computers whether it is in terms of ownership or broadband connection. We came up with the idea that instead of government subsidising and providing all the funds all the time, we could encourage students to invest in computers for their own benefit, we think by doing this we could also encourage ownership. If they invest their money, they are likely to take ownership more seriously. We are focusing on universities and the National Youth Service Corps orientation camps. We thought that would be better than turning out graduates that don’t have computer training or education and I can back this up with facts. During the last orientation camp, we went to Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, we asked them questions like ‘ how many of you are ICT compliant, how many of you have computers’ and 95 per cent of the corps members said they have never touched or worked on computers in their lives.

You mean ninety five per cent of corps members said that? That is pretty high

Yes. We have their names and some of them are Computer Science graduates, some of them are Electrical and Engineering graduates. They don’t have computers and probably some of them never worked with computers throughout the duration of their studies in the university. So we came up with this idea. The question is how do we ignite our consumer market? Fortunately, government bought the idea. We decided to focus on university students. We are out to empower them, we wrote a proposal to government, brought together all stakeholders-banks, local OEMS, telecoms operators, we all sat down and looked into the issue. We looked at what could be consumer-friendly, we also brought universities together through the National Universities Commission and the vice-chancellors. It’s a special package of connectivity that would be affordable, something that would make it easier to have access to computers. We are working with the ministry and the companies involved are guaranteeing the products for two years. The universities will verify if the students are bona-fide students. We have special packets of connectivity that will make ownership and connectivity affordable. We have special rates for the project. Banks have brought down their interest rate to 15 per cent. On the government side, we are starting with 12 pilot universities, the National Universities Commission, Committee of Vice-Chancellors are all involved, there is a portal where all stakeholders have interface

How do you plan to achieve your objective?

We are organising free training programmes on basic use of computers and entrepreneurship. For instance, we train youth corps members for three days per batch. We are trying as much as we can to accommodate as many youths as possible. For Lagos NYSC orientation camp alone, we have registered over 500 youths so far. We are not supplying computers, we are doing more of bringing the ecosystem partners together, government is supporting but doing so by providing the enabling environment. Government has helped us to get universities to sign on the project, without universities, you can’t get the students. All the parties involved are helping in form of subsidy so that at the end of the day, students could afford and have access to these computers.

What does Intel stand to gain from this intervention?

For us at Intel, the question is how do we grow the totality of the market? How do we help the local economy to grow? We want to see the industry grow. That is what we do in every country where we have presence. We are interested in the growth of the economy. I was at Omatec last week, Omatek has inaugurated a new factory that is what happens when you launch a project like this, you begin to create jobs. We have had experience in other countries and that has helped in shaping our desire to live a permanent mark wherever we find ourselves.-sharing our experience in other markets.

You said you were starting with 12 federal universities, are you restricting your operations to federal institutions alone?

No. We know the size of the country and we want to work with as many universities as possible. We are not restricting our activities to public institutions either. We will accommodate any university that is ready to partner with us. They are free to join if they have structures that can support the programme. Remember, most of the things we do are done online so interested universities must be ready in terms of infrastructure. They must have a reasonable degree of infrastructure on ground before they can key in. We are not stopping anybody, our goal is to make computers available at the lowest price possible. We are looking at something like N50, 000. All the stakeholders have discounted the cost.

We have over 124 universities in the country and you are talking about just 12 as pilot studies. What happens to the rest of the students?

Any university can join once their structures support what we are doing. We want to make these products available in shops. We have over 200,000 students in the 12 universities. If we reach 20-30 per cent, we would have made some good marks of extending ICT to these students. They can pay within 18-24 months. When you put all those factors together, it has lowered the cost. All the universities in Nigeria are free to participate. In Nigeria, we have about five to 10 centres where people can easily go in and buy computers. Nigeria is underserved. We want people to be more involved in this business to expand its scope. We need to increase the retail reach. There is still a large population that is underserved. We are saying people should have a total package. People should have a total solution that is why we have brought all the stakeholders together, we are offering a total solution. This should be our focus. What government is doing is to provide an enabling environment. We are saying people should have access. Remember too that most of the graduates that do not have access to computers are those that came from other parts of the country, most of the people serving in Lagos are not from Lagos.

What is your take on the decision of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board to adopt computer-based test for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination?

It is a forward-looking policy. To an extent, the country is prepared but we need to put in place infrastructure that can support what the exam body is planning to do. What should be done is a deliberate policy and a push for broadband technology which is relevant to our country. People register online now, and we are taking a step forward. Some countries see ICT in education as a social service- a critical service for that matter. This is the kind of push we need from government. If we don’t make it a deliberate policy, we won’t move forward. For instance, the decision to create a cashless environment is a deliberate push, it will bring down the cost of producing notes for the Central Bank of Nigeria in the long run. People need to be nudged to do things right. We should have subtle ways of making people to do the right thing, but I don’t support adopting punitive measures to force people to do the right thing.

How will you describe ICT infrastructure in Nigeria?

Government is trying especially at the federal level. We have the school access programme, the one-on-one learning programme of the Federal Government has been on for five years, it has been supporting the practical use of computer learning. But we can do a lot more than what we are doing now. We must start a campaign that will encourage youths to buy into their future. We should encourage our youths to create their own tomorrow through the use of ICT. These are things we should be doing now.

IT in Nigeria is evolving. The ICT industry is dynamic. New technologies are always coming out. It is a continuous progression. ICT is beginning to evolve, some Nigerians are developing software content. For instance, on Iroko TV you can watch all Nollywood films on the move. New things are coming out. A lot of our youths are into ICT. Some go to Cisco, we have Ajapa, it has digitalised all the traditional folktales, we have so much richness in our culture that can be exported.

What is your view of the interest of the average Nigerian youth in ICT?

The average Nigerian youth is very enthusiastic in terms of outlook to life. Nigerians are the largest users of Blackberry in the world. Our youths are forward-looking. The first set of Nokia tune was composed by a Nigerian. We have our pupils at the secondary school level winning awards and coming back home with gold in global competitions, we have talents in this country, all we just need to do is to channel our efforts in the right direction. We have to raise the bar. That is how to better the country.







Source - Punch news

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Pay compensation to unemployed graduates, Lemo tells FG

7:00 AM Education No Comments

Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State, last week graduated 253 students with dignitaries including the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Tunde Lemo, calling on the Federal Government to pay compensation to unemployed graduates, SEGUN OLUGBILE reports

Those who attended the fourth convocation of the Crawford University, Igbesa, Ogun State, last Wednesday would have wished the nation’s policy makers were there. They would perhaps wish that government integrate all the lofty ideas suggested by prominent speakers at the ceremony into efforts being made to reduce graduate unemployment and raising the standard of education. But they were not there to listen to the Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Tunde Lemo, and the Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Peter Okebukola, who called on government to stem the rising tide of graduate unemployment in the country.

While Lemo called on the Federal Government to adopt the unemployment compensation policy of the United States of America as a strategy to reduce poverty, crime and social vices, Okebukola called for the return of the Higher School Certificate programme and the scaling up of the war against corruption in the nation’s university system.

Lemo, who spoke on “National Development: Youths and the Entrepreneurial Challenge,” lamented the high rate of unemployment in the country and concluded that the menace was killing the self-worth of graduates. He added that graduate unemployment was also responsible for high crime rate in the country.

To reverse the trend, Lemo urged the Federal Government to adopt the unemployment compensation policy started by the USA and now adopted by other nations of the world. According to him, the US created the policy through the enactment of the Social Security Act of 1935, adding that it helped 3.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2010.

He argued that by adopting this strategy, the unemployed would get the needed support to cope with joblessness and its attendant pains.

“A number of countries have adopted the unemployment compensation policy to serve as strategy to reduce poverty, crime and social vices. They support the unemployed through social welfare programmes. These employment benefits include unemployment insurance, employment compensation and subsidies.

“The Federal Government should institute an unemployment compensation policy in Nigeria to assist the teeming population of unemployed youths in the country to migrate into gainful employment,” he said amidst thunderous applause from the audience including graduating students, parents and principal officers of the institution.

But apart from the policy, Lemo urged the Federal Government and all stakeholders to provide incentives to young farmers.

“Agriculture is and still remains a key strategic sector in addressing issues of teeming unemployment, persistent poverty and inconsistent economic growth and development. The government should grant agricultural incentives to young farmers in the form of seeds, fertilizer, working tools, soft credit, planting and harvesting guidance,” he said.

Though he said that exposure of youths to entrepreneurial studies would mitigate unemployment, Lemo argued that government should improve infrastructure, increase budgetary allocation to education, improve fiscal support for small scale enterprises, strengthen institutions in order to make the initiative achieve its goals of making Nigerian youth job creators.

However, Okebukola, while addressing the audience, said that to improve quality of graduates in the nation’s university system, stakeholders should work harder at eliminating corruption in the sub-sector.

“In 2013, we should slay the dragon of corruption through scaling up the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences commission and the National Universities Commission initiative on the prevention of corrupt practices beyond the universities to cover the entire education system,” he said.

He also added that teachers at all levels should be trained on the use of technology and ICT so as to improve their delivery of education.

“We should also restore the Higher School Certificate programme. We should restore religious and moral education to stem the tide of obnoxious social vices including lesbianism, homosexuality, cultism and examination malpractice,” he said.

And contrary to calls by some university administrators that students should be discouraged from wasting their time on social networks on the internet, Okebukola said such a call should be discountenanced. Social media, he said, should be turned into a classroom where difficult subjects should be taught.

“Any person advocating that our youths should stay off Facebook and Twitter should ask the anopheles mosquito to stay off sucking blood! What most educational communities all over the world are doing is to put these media that the youths are so much attracted to, to pedagogical advantage. In Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, teachers supplement their lessons with assignments given to their students on Facebook.

“Rather than clamour for a ban on students using social media, our goal in 2013 should be on how schools can leverage on such media to improve learning and on how students can spend productive time , rather than all their wake-up time using such media on matters that are injurious to their psychosocial health,” he said.

Okebukola, who said that the university had produced 557 graduates since it was created seven years ago, urged the 253 graduating students to go into the world and become champions, positive transformers of the society and an army for Jesus Christ.

Earlier, the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Samson Ayanlaja, had told the audience that of the 253 graduating students, 14 obtained first class degree in various disciplines while 18 were awarded second class upper degrees.

He added that 114 graduated with the second class lower degrees, 45 made third class while the remaining two had ordinary pass degree in Microbiology and Business Administration respectively.

Ayanlaja added that the university was able to score 100 per cent score in the accreditation exercise conducted on the institution’s programmes by the NUC in 2012.

The VC added that the institution’s accountancy programme at the undergraduate level had given professional approval by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. With this, he said, all past and present students of the institution would enjoy exemption from ICAN courses and would also be ICAN certified after taking only a few regular courses of the institute.

Other achievements recorded by the university in the outgoing year, Ayanlaja said, included the establishment of the institution’s postgraduate school, provision of physical laboratory and some national awards won by the students.

He urged the outgoing students to go forth and soar and conquer their environment, adding that they should not give room for failure in life. “Do not advance a seemingly good reason for failure,’’ he advised.

Quoting a philosopher, Theodore Rosevelt and Dr. David Oyedepo respectively, Ayanlaja said, “If you have a reason to justify failure, you will be a perpetual failure” and “Instead do what you can with the little you have but by actively and productively engaging your mind enough in thinking and seeking solution to your challenges, you will be able to multiply the seemingly little you have.”

Dignitaries at the convocation included the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the university, Dr. Gabriel Ajayi, the District Superintendent of West and Central Africa of the Apostolic Faith Mission and Visitor of the university, Rev. Emmanuel Adeniran, and the representative of the Ogun State Governor, Mr. Olusegun Odubela, who is also the state Education Commissioner.

Highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of prizes to students who distinguished themselves in both character and learning.










Source - Punch news

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NNPC plans to repair three refineries with N152bn

12:00 AM News No Comments

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke
| credits:

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will spend N152bn on the repair of three of the nation’s refineries in 2013.

The amount is contained in the budget document submitted to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) last week.

Details of the budget show that the total maintenance cost for the Port Harcourt Refinery by its original builders, basic engineering design for the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit and RFCC plant project is estimated at N76.779bn.

A breakdown of the N76.779bn indicates that N43.5bn will be spent on the refinery’s rehabilitation, N32.646bn on the plant project and N636m on basic engineering design.

The total estimated expenditure for the maintenance of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company is put at N43.12bn.

The NNPC is planning to spend N41.879bn on the refinery’s rehabilitation; N159m on fire detection alarm systems; N286.2m on replacement of the HP BFW Pumps and Driver 101-P-02B; and N79.5m on the upgrade of the co-boiler instrumentation and burner management system.

The corporation will spend N32.106bn on the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company. The breakdown of the N32.106bn shows that N31.441bn will go into its rehabilitation and N317.38m for the reconstruction of FCCU, gasoline tank (51TK14B) and purchase of accessories.

Rehabilitation of raw water intake road will gulp N178.12m, while new maintenance office building will cost N170m.

The corporation, in 2012, budgeted N154.48bn for capital expenditure, but spent N23.1bn only.

In the budget statement, which was obtained by our correspondent on Monday, the NNPC said that the Federal Government had yet to pay it N217bn kerosene subsidy.

It added that non-payment of the claims was hindering the execution of its capital projects.

The corporation stated “Budget performance is hampered by lack of funding resulting from non-payment of kerosene subsidy (N217bn) and other outstanding claims from the Federal Government.”

The NNPC also plans to move 42.3 milion barrels of crude oil to the domestic refineries for processing in 2013.

As a result, a total of 18.64 billion litres of products are expected to be derived from local refining during the period.

The document says the corporation is optimistic about ensuring 100 per cent products evacuation from the refineries, including reducing operational and demurrage costs by 10 per cent each on the 2012 levels.

NNPC also promised to achieve a 10 per cent growth in internally-generated revenue in 2013.

On projections for the refineries, the corporation said it intended to “transform the refineries into stand alone profitable business units; continue integrity type maintenance project; build capabilities and improve on refinery operation and continue to utilise alternative crude supply routes to the refineries as a secondary supply strategy.”

The National Assembly had queried the NNPC for spending more than it earned in 2012. It consequently requested details from where it got the extra money to fund its activities.

The corporation had said it had a total receipt of N2.36tn by the end of September 2012, but had an operational expenditure of N2.84tn.

The Minister of Petroluem Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had in October said that the Federal Government planned to spend N250bn on the Turn-Around Maintenance of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.

She said the government would spend $146m out of which $32m (75 per cent) had already been paid for the materials needed.

Several TAMs had been performed on the refineries in the past without visible results.

A newspaper had in November 2011 reported that $1.78bn was spent on TAMs of the four refineries in the last 12 years.

Quoting the NNPC Annual Statistical Bulletin for 2010, it stated that the Kaduna refinery operated at 31.39 per cent capacity utilisation in 2001; 34.95 per cent in 2002; 15.96 per cent in 2003; 26 per cent in 2004; 33.08 per cent in 2005; 8.34 per cent in 2006; 0.00 per cent in 2007; 19.56 per cent in 2008; 20.02 per cent in 2009; and 20.46 per cent in 2010.

The Port Harcourt refinery performed at 60.73 per cent in 2001; 52.17 per cent in 2002; 41.88 per cent in 2003; 31.04 per cent in 2004; 42.18 per cent in 2005; 50.26 per cent in 2006; 24.87 per cent in 2007; 17.84 per cent in 2008; 9.08 per cent in 2009; and 9.17 per cent in 2010.

The Warri refinery operated at 48.29 per cent in 2001; 55.53 per cent in 2002; 14.27 per cent in 2003; 9.10 per cent in 2004; 54.85 per cent in 2005; 3.85 per cent in 2006; 0.00 per cent in 2007; 38.52 per cent in 2008; 43.01 per cent in 2009; and 43.36 per cent in 2010.







Source - Punch news

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