Following the protest embarked upon by students of Obafemi Awolowo University against the death of their colleague, management has shut the school.

It also suspended the swearing in of the newly elected Students’ Union and asked students to vacate their halls of residence.

A student Adesina Aisat, 24, died after a brief illness. This prompted the students of Obafemi Awolowo University to embark on protesting, believing that Aisha died because the school clinic did not attend to her appropriately.

However, the management expressed disappointment over the uncontrolled and continuous protest by the students despite efforts to appease them.

A release by the Public Relations Officer of the University, Abiodun Olarewaju, stated that the Management understands the grief resulting from this untimely death within the community and sympathises with the parents, friends, colleagues and the entire students of the University on this sad loss, and prays for the repose of her soul.

“However, Management condemns in strong terms the continuous and uncontrolled protests by the students culminating in unbridled brigandage, blocking the Ife/Ibadan and Ife/Ede highways and other adjoining roads that could be used as alternative routes, and engaging in other acts that are detrimental to their health and the safety of the generality of the people.

“Therefore, having exhausted all necessary avenues to call the students to order and allow normalcy to return to the Campus and its environs, the authorities of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, have accordingly closed down the School until further notice. This is to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

“In view of this, all students are hereby directed to vacate their halls of residence and the Campus latest by 12:00 noon on Saturday, 2nd October, 2021.

“Consequently, the swearing-in of the newly elected Students’ Union officials has been put on hold, pending a review of the situation.

“In the meantime, the University management has put in place the machinery to unravel the circumstances surrounding the immediate and remote cause(s) of the crisis”, reads the statement.

Aisha Ismail, daughter of renowned philanthropist and serial entrepreneur, Munira Suleiman Tanimu, has launched her first children’s storybook on banditry, in Abuja on Saturday, 25th September 2021.

The book, titled the Adventure of Princess Khadijah which was launched on her 10th birthday, dwells on issues around banditry that has become the order of the day in Nigeria.

“Each time I hear a school is being closed down because some schoolchildren were kidnapped, I feel so sad that we are being deprived of our fundamental rights to quality education” Aisha speaks of her inspiration to put her first book together.

It’s a storybook suitable for children as it shows how a brave princess Khadijah and her friends helped the kingdom to end banditry.

Aisha said she believed Nigeria would soon be a place where every child will go to school without the fear of being kidnapped but wants government at all levels to pay more attention to security.

According to her, “The Adventure of Princess Khadijah speaks to the future of my country as a peaceful nation where boys and girls of school age will go to school without fear of being kidnapped. It speaks to the hope that our founding fathers promised. It speaks to the land flowing with milk and honey, it speaks to the nation, Nigeria of our dream.

Prominent Nigerians who read through the fascinating but pensive story of the Adventure of Princess Khadijah put pen to paper about the book and the author.

According to a former minister of women affairs, Hajiya Aisha Ismail, “the book is a delightful story written by a very imaginative young girl, who happens to be my granddaughter. It’s is a typical children’s book, guaranteed to keep other young girls enthralled.

“The author Aisha Ahmed Ismail is a very intelligent girl. She uses her brain to give children and even adults a delightful and meaningful story that could become a fantastic bedtime story for the family. This I’m sure indicates more delightful stories to come from her. She is definitely, a successful writer in the making. I’m so proud of her”

Proprietor of Castle Hill Academy, Noordina Aliyu Modibbo described the book as “A colourful story, excellently written with a richly drawn backdrop of culture. A wonderful debut story of courage and faith by an intelligent 10yr old girl”

“This is an awesome story, the story relates to one of the challenges the country is facing today and written by a young girl of 10, I’m highly impressed. The story gives hope that one day our dear country will be at peace and we will all live happily ever after” President, National Council For Women Society, Kaduna Chapter, Barr. Zainab Hassan.

Aisha’s Head Teacher at Dominique Dyer, Abuja said, “Aisha Ahmed Ismail, in her debut novel weaves a tale of girls with strength, courage and a determination for good to prevail over evil.

“As Aisha’s Headteacher I am beyond proud of what she has achieved, Aisha has been a pupil at Abuja Preparatory School since she was 2 years old. Her ambition and drive are a wonderful example to all our pupils; we are delighted to be able to celebrate her first publication.”

A total of nine doctorate students have graduated from the University of Nigeria’s business school, Enugu.

The students, who graduated from different executive doctoral programmes, including economic policy management, business and public leadership, became the pioneer doctorate students of the school.

Speaking during a graduation and dinner ceremony organised by the students, the Director of the Business School, Professor Josaphat Onwumere, said the students must always keep the flag flying, being the institution’s pioneer students.

“They must always represent the true image of the university, which sets out to restore the dignity of man wherever they find themselves,” he said.

Onwumere noted that as the first institution to offer doctorate degrees, the school had a programme called public leadership which was intended to groom the students interested in leading in both business and government.

“We introduced the programme because, in public leadership, we not only look at those who occupy positions but also those who are following,” he said, adding that “if the leader goes astray, you should be able to call him to order.”

He explained that when they came in, the management promised to make sure that they graduate after three years. “We kept to our promise, although many people do not believe it was possible to achieve that, especially in UNN.”

Goodmus Learning Centre, Nigeria and Tokat Innovation Schools, Turkey have advocated a quality, affordable secondary education in Africa.

Both institutes unveiled the plan at a seminar held in Lagos recently.

The Chief Executive Officer of Goodmus Learning Centre, Adekunle Badmus, said the firm was partnering with the Turkish school to facilitate the summer school programme which runs in three batches.

He said, “The summer school programme runs every August with three batches. Batch A runs from August 1 to 10; batch B runs from August 11 to 20 while batch C runs from August 21 to 30.

“Our educational programme runs three times a year in April, August and December. The forthcoming one will be between December 13 and 19 while the third one is a summer school programme.”

Badmus added that there was the need for parents, wards and guardians to seek quality and affordable education in order to utilise the hard earned foreign exchange properly.

The Public Relations Manager of Tokat Innovation Schools, Hande Durmaz, noted that the quality of education in Turkey was one of the best in the world.

She said, “Our students are trained such that they will be able to improve their talents and discover themselves which they use in the future.

The House of Representatives has approved the establishment of a University of Education in Benue State. The College of Education, Katsina-Ala, is to be upgraded to a degree-awarding institution.

The bill seeking to establish the university has passed second reading.

It was titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to Establish the Federal University of Education, Katsina-Ala, Benue State, to Provide Training and Teaching in Every Aspect of Education in Nigeria, Matters of Administration, Discipline of Students and for Related Matters.’

Lawmaker representing Katsina-Ala/Ukum/Logo Federal Constituency in Benue, Richard Gbande, who sponsored the bill, said there would be no better time and opportunity to consider and pass the proposal than now, “in view of the need to create a specialised Federal University of Education and expand the current admission capacity of our universities.”

Leading the debate on the bill at the second reading, Gbande said, “Education is the bedrock and the soul of every modern society. Upgrading the College of Education Katsina-Ala into the Federal University of Education is not only a wise investment decision, but one that will show our responsiveness to the need for quality education as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and the National Policy on Education.”

According to Gbande, the decision to establish the College of Education Katsina-Ala was taken in 1976, while the college was later formally established by law, following the enactment of edict No.20 of 1984. He said the college has a staff strength of 804 and 10,339 students.

He said, “The college currently offers the National Certificate of Education comprising 9,294 students in various fields of specialisation for NCE I, II and III; Bachelor of Education in various fields of specialisation – 1,002 students; Postgraduate Diploma in Education – 43.

“The college consists of six academic schools, 32 departments and five non-teaching departments which are very vital in accomplishing its tasks. The Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.), which was later suspended after graduating two sets, was run in affiliation with the University of Jos. The degree programme has been restored but in affiliation with the University of Calabar now. The PGDE is being run in affiliation with the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

“The college has capacity to be converted to a Federal University of Education so as to allow Nigerian students to benefit from the institution’s postgraduate programmes.”

The Federal Executive Council on has approved N3.11bn for contracts in the Ministries of Education and Communication and Digital Economy.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly virtual FEC meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the First Lady’s Conference Room, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mohammed, who spoke on behalf of the ministers of education, Adamu Adamu, and communication and digital economy, Dr Isa Pantami, said both ministers presented three memoranda.

According to him, the Ministry of Education’s memoranda sought approval to purchase an official residence for the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State, as well as funding to augment the execution of five projects at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

He said, “The Ministry of Education presented two memos today. One was for the approval for the procurement of a landed property for the residence of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State.

“After due process has been observed, including whether the seller has title and whether it was adequately covered by C-of-O, the council approved that a property be purchased for the sum of N161.25m, inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT, with the delivery period of two weeks for the official residence of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Dutse, Jigawa State.

“The second was actually a memo asking for augmentation on five contracts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in Anambra State.

“The significant thing about this contract is the fact that these were contracts that were awarded by the university itself, some in 2007, some in 2010, some in 2012 and some in 2015, but due to the inability of the university to execute these projects, for reasons ranging from lack of funding to other sundry reasons, they appealed to the Federal Government to help complete the contracts.

“The contract, which was then awarded at the sum of N2.51bn, due to contract variation, cost of materials etc., has now been jacked up to N4.6bn.

In other words, the Federal Government is making available to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University the sum of N2.1bn to augment the contract, which they awarded between 2007 and 2015, which you were unable to complete.”

Mohammed added that the FEC approved a sum of N847.5m for the award of a contract for digital interconnectivity among identified ministries and other agencies of government through the Local Area Network.