Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State says there is need to revisit the curriculum of Nigerian universities to give priority to technical education.

Ganduje made the call over the weekend in Kano while receiving the Presidential Visitation Panel of Bayero University Kano (BUK) at the Government House.

He said the number of unemployed graduates keeps increasing adding that there is need to give and shift priority to technical education.

The governor said education is not only about gaining employment, but rather to increase the level of one’s power of reasoning while urging for the inclusion of technical education in the curriculum.

Governor Ganduje also promised to intervene and make sure that the existing cordial relationship between the university and the host communities was stronger.

With regards to the issue of allocating land to villagers around the university, Ganduje said he would definitely look into that with the view to finding amicable solution.

He assured that for the sake of improving security around the university, something concrete and effective will be done.

Earlier, Prof Femi Otubanjo, Chairman of the Panel, disclosed that they were at the Governor’s office to pay a courtesy call.

The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shu’aibu Ibrahim has renewed the Scheme’s commitment to Nigeria’s unity and integration as well as self-improvement through a well-designed Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SAED).

The NYSC DG revealed this in a special interview and live programme on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa service titled “Ra’ayi Riga”.

The DG while acknowledging that security challenges are not peculiar to the NYSC, called on all stakeholders to sustain effective synergy with Government, and support security agencies in ensuring that all citizens, especially Corps Members are protected, and allowed to deploy their potentials in extending the frontiers of development in all the nooks and crannies of this country.

Speaking on the continued relevance of the scheme as a catalyst for national integration and sustainable development in the national economy, Brigadier General Ibrahim emphasised that the NYSC remains a lasting legacy and an institutional framework that promotes national unity and peaceful coexistence.

He refuted the claim of kidnapping and killing of Corps Members, as the basis for the renewed debate on the scrapping of the Scheme, clarifying that apart from the unfortunate incidence of the 2011 electoral violence, no such record exists in NYSC.

He said the NYSC Scheme is more relevant now in addressing the contemporary challenges of national unity in Nigeria, than ever before.

He explained that since the creation of NYSC 48 years ago, Corps Members have been discharging selfless services all over the federation.

He added that they are in schools teaching in the rural areas, they work in hospitals, especially in the rural areas where they treat indigent people and give free drugs and eye-glasses to patients and a host of other interventions in the national economy.

The Director-General while responding to the need for the provisions of post-service employment and sustainable self-reliance packages said the SAED Programme of the Scheme is doing well in empowering Corps Members with the requisite skills, while financial institutions such as Bank of Industry, Central Bank of Nigeria extend credit facilities to them.

He explained that most of these empowered Corps Members do not only own flourishing businesses, but are employing other Nigerians, thus accelerating rapid economic growth.

Brigadier General Ibrahim, however, revealed that the Scheme is approaching the Federal Government on the need for NYSC Trust Fund where resources will be dedicated to improving relevant facilities in the camps and NYSC formations, while also providing grants to Corps Members that will enable them start up their businesses under the SAED programme.

A professor of Soil Science at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUA), Victor Emmanuel Osodeke, has been elected new Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) president.

The immediate past vice president of the union got the approval over the weekend during the body’s three-day conference at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

He succeeds Biodun Ogunyemi, a professor of Education at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye.

Other members of the new executive committee include the vice president, Chris Piwuna of the University of Jos; Olusiji Sowande of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State (treasurer) and Prof. Ade Adejumo of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso as financial secretary.

Austen Sado of the University of Port Harcourt was elected investment secretary; Adamu Babayo from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi is internal auditor, while Stella-Maris Oke of the Cross Rivers State University of Science and Technology (CRSUST) clinched the seat of welfare secretary.

Ogunyemi is to serve the new executive committee as an ex-officio.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it will no longer extend the closing date for candidates registering for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the Direct Entry (DE) applications.

The board made this known in its Weekly Bulletin, published by the office of the Registrar and made available to the journalists on Monday in Abuja.

The board had earlier extended the exercise from the initial closing date of May 15 to Saturday, May 29, to avail candidates who are unable to register within this period the opportunity to carry out a seamless exercise.

The new closing date ended on Saturday May 29.

According to JAMB, in spite of the two-week date extension, complaints of candidates’ inability to register persisted.

The complaints received, the board stated, were lateness or non-delivery of National Identity Number (NIN) verification code; inability to obtain NIN; mismatch or wrong names originally submitted to National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

The board said while few of such excuses have been found to be genuine, a large number were traceable to fraudsters whom it alleged, were determined on subverting the system.

JAMB said, however, that it will give another opportunity to those who have genuinely tried to register but failed, due to some of the challenges mentioned.

Consequently, all prospective candidates with genuine proof(s) of failed efforts to register before the closing date, should visit any of JAMB’s offices for reconciliation between Monday, May 31, and June 15.

These offices also include JAMB-owned Professional Test Centers across the country.

Candidates with genuine reasons for missing the registration are to obtain and complete a form, at no cost.

They are to submit, for the Reading Test and the Application, a certified Bank Draft of N4,000 only in favour of JAMB and obtain a signed duplicate copy from the office.

They will also submit the completed form with a recent passport photograph at the same office of collection and collect a copy of the Reading Test.

Candidates are to wait for further directives through the registered phone number and Public Service Announcement through the NTA Network News as soon as screening is completed.

JAMB said, however, that 1,383,420 candidates procured the Pin for registration as at May 29, while 1,375,694 have completed their registration.

It reiterated that there will be no registration for 2021 UTME/DE without a properly obtained NIN which had to be verified or validated by the NIMC.

The board added that any candidate who submits another application after having successfully registered during the earlier registration period will have the two attempts disqualified.

Any false claim will attract severe sanctions, including forfeiture of the deposited Bank Draft, cancellation of application(s) and prosecution.

The board advised that each candidate should personally go through the process due to the fact that some parents and school proprietors have been found to mislead candidates for illicit gains and personal aggrandizement.

The board warned that it would not tolerate the involvement of any third party or group in the registration process.