In the last 20 years of return to democracy in 1999, all the achievements of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’dua, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari could be attributed to Chief MKO Abiola who watered the democratic desert in Nigeria.

Nigeria will commemorate 60 years of independence next year (2020). I have searched the political history of Nigeria and examined the contributions of democratically elected presidents of my dear country since 1960, I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawole (MKO) Abiola is a symbol of Democracy in Nigeria and the best President Nigerians never have.

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The National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) programmes for Crescent University, Abeokuta and other 30 private Universities in Nigeria.

Among other private Universities recognised by NUC to run Ph.D programmes include African University of Science and Technology, Abuja; Al-qalam University, Kastina; American University of Nigeria, Yola; Baze University, Abuja; Benson Idahosa University, Benin City; Bingham University New-Karu.

According to a statement on its website, NUC observed that “some Nigerian universities are running unapproved postgraduate programmes, leading to the award of Masters and PhD degrees.”

The University regulatory body also called the attention of stakeholders to the list of approved private universities to run postgraduates programmes.

“Employers of labour, educational institutions and other stakeholders are to note that only certificates issued by these universities, for their approved programmes, are valid for employment, further studies and other purposes.”

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With the unfortunate incident, I understand the dilemma of the university and two extreme circumstances of not throwing out the baby with the bathwater or allowing the “virus and communicable disease” of the baby, to spread and be contracted by other members of the family.

I do not find it difficult of supporting the position of sacrificing the erring students in a bid to prevent others from contracting the “anti-moral virus”. The decision of the university to expel the affected students will send signals to others who are treading similar path or about to be involved.

Relying on the success of the University in reforming students in its care, many parents who had given up on their children due to their waywardness and moral corruption turned to the faith-based University for succour. As the university applied “draconian” measures to tame their “beast”, the same parents criticised the institution for being too hash on their wards.

This is why parents should do their best in giving their children required home training before sending them to higher institutions. It is not the sole responsibility of the school to train the children.

The sextape scandal points to the fact that our social institution is collapsing. All the agents of socialisation - family, media, school, peer group, and religion – are now in comatose. What the two Babcock ex-students exhibited, are the results of the negative roles played by all these agents in their socialisation process.

The family has abandoned its responsibilities as the children take up role model from illusionary and morally corrupted characters created by the media. The religion institution by its conducts is giving justification to the assumption of Karl Max who described religion as “the opium of the people”. Some of the sane children well trained by their parents got corrupted by their peers in many of our schools because the education institution has derailed.

With these, it shows that the Babcock ex-students caught in the sextape, like many others in Nigerian higher institutions are victims of the morally corrupt society. The society owes them an apology! #SexTape #Babcock
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Second year into my journalism career, I received a phone call from a Mortgage Bank located at Abuja requesting that I respond to some series of questions as part of the first stage of an interview for the position of corporate communication officer.
After about 30 minutes of the interview, I was informed the following day to fly to Abuja from Lagos for the final stage of the interview with all expenses to be reimbursed by the company.
Things have now changed in Nigeria, as employers not only requested job seekers to bear the financial burden of transporting themselves to the venue of interview, but are also made to pay before being considered for the available jobs.
Private companies and Government agencies now asked job seekers for application fees before their applications could be considered. They are now feeding fat and taking advantage of the high unemployment rate in the country to fraudulently collect money from job seekers.
Imagine a job opening where over 700,000 people applied, with each applicants paying the sum of N1,000. That translates to N700 million.
Applicants will be made to go through the rigour of screening, interview and will at the end be thrown back to the labour market. One of the fraudulent methods is the use of Administrative Staff College Of Nigeria (ASCON) to compel civil servants and new entrants into State’s Civil service to pay for inter cadre transfer or get new job.
The practice has now been institutionalised with clear impunity and strategies of improving on the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Federal and State Government Agencies.#MoneyForJob
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The APC represented by Governor Yahya Bello can be referred to as the protagonist in the drama symbolising the “Not Too Young To Run” mantra with supporting characters as the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari and Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.

On the other side is the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) championed by the prime political entertainer, Senator Dino Melaye. He is putting up the character of antagonist in the drama with other characters as the governorship candidate of PDP in Kogi State, Engineer Musa Wada, and Governor of Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde.

We must condemn all form of political violence and killings irrespective of the personalities or political parties involved. The killings in Kogi State and campaign to maim and kill political opponents should be the thing of the past in the political history of Nigeria.

Nigerians should take a cue from the Rwanda experience and stop stigmatisation particular ethnic group, tribe, religion or political party for personal gains.

Why should we praise and indirectly endorse this act of lawlessness? Where is our humanity? #tatatataelection
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Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun has partly fulfills his electoral promise of recruitment of more teachers, as the Ministry of Education shortlisted successful applicants for the employment of teachers into public primary schools in the State.

The governor had promise in his manifesto to “Implement the Universal Basic Education Act and ensure free universal basic education for all children of primary and junior secondary ages.”

He also promised teachers at different fora to fill the gap in the ratio of students to students in public schools in the state.

Governor Abiodun partly COMMENCED the fulfillment of this promise with the process of recruiting qualified teachers to the public primary schools in the State.

It is however not clear the total number of applicants shortlisted out of the 29,000 who applied to fill the existing 1,500 vacancies..

Those who applied through the Job Portal set up by the State government are expected to visit https://jobs.ogunstate.gov.ng/subeb-status, to confirm if their applications were successful.


Though the state government in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Kunle Somorin promised to send “Short Message Service (SMS) on the phone numbers submitted via the job portal”; investigations by Nigeria Meter revealed that the successful applicants are yet to receive the SMS as at the time of writing this report.

“Qualified candidates will be notified this week through Short Message Service (sms) on the phone numbers submitted via the job portal, jobs.ogunstate.gov.ng.”

The shortlisted candidates are expected to undergo another level of screening which include test and interview.

According to a statement by the Ogun State Ministry of Education, the second stage of the recruitment exercise required applicants are to log on with their “Labour ID or Phone No and follow the instructions carefully”, at www.jobs.ogunstate.gov.ng.

The statement added that successful applicants are expected to complete the form as deadline for submission is Tuesday November 19, 2019.
READ MORE AT https://nigeriameter.com/gov-abiodun-partly-fulfils-promise-on-recruitment-of-1500-teachers

REWARD OF HONESTY: She Returned Misplaced N20,000; Got A job, Award, N100,000 As Reward
A physically-challenged and Accountancy student of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, Miss Aminat Olaleye has secured a job, award and cash prizes of hundred thousand naira for returning the sum of missing N20,000 to its owner.
Aminat was the cynosure of all eyes at the 2019 Colloquium of the Ogun State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) where the organisation celebrated her with the award of the “2019 Unsung Hero”.
The Guest Speaker at the occasion, Mr Kola Olugbodi promise Aminat a job and cash prize of N50,000 after narrating the story of how she returned the misplaced N20,000 at a time when she needed money to settle her house rent and meet other sundry needs.
An Assistant Comptroller of Customs, James Garuba who attended the event also commended the exceptional conduct of Aminat and gave her the sum of N50,000.
Aminat 22 who betrayed emotions while receiving the award and cash prizes express joy over the gestures of NIPR and those who gave her cash prizes for her display of honesty.
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Last month, the Federal Ministry of Education through its scholarship board department, announced the opening of portal for the commencement of registration for the 2020/2021 Federal Government undergraduates and postgraduates scholarships.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu said the scholarship which is under the Ministry’s Bilateral Education Agreement is for undergraduate studies in Russia, Morocco, Algeria, Serbia, Hungary, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Cuba, Romania, Japan, and Macedonia.

Malam Adamu in a statement added that the postgraduate scholarships (Master’s degree and Ph.D) are for studies in China, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Russia.

The Scholarship board also offers scholarships to undergraduates and postgraduates students at Nigeria Public tertiary institutions.

Nigerians are now challenging the process involved in selecting beneficiaries for the Federal Government scholarship scheme both at overseas and in the country.

The Ministry of education engage in massive publicity announcing the opening of its various scholarships, only to go into hibernation after candidates have applied and screened for the exercise.

The Ministry of Education will shortlist candidates for Aptitude test and interview as well as recent introduction of Computer Based Test (CBT); and the next information will come a year later announcing the commencement of the scholarship without publication of beneficiaries of the previous one.

The board recently updated its website, http://education.gov.ng/fsb/, listing hundreds of supposed beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme since 2009. Candidates have been complaining that they are for years put in the dark about their performances in the screening exercise.

What trust do Nigerians have in the Federal scholarship scheme? Many Nigerians have been complaining that they applied for the scholarship many times but got no information about how the process was concluded.

Due to the fact that it is the scholarship scheme of the federal government, fund will be budgeted for the exercise yearly. Two years ago, the National Assembly raised questions over the modalities adopted by the scholarship board as well as how fund released yearly to the board were expended. Unfortunately, the National Assembly is yet to make public its findings.

Many Nigerians have been expressing their frustrations on many social media platforms especially on Nairaland over the non transparent manner at which the scholarship board is handling the matter.

There are allegations that politicians, top civil servants and other influential Nigerians do hijacked the exercise to favour their cronies.

Why is the exercise shrouded in secrecy? Who are the beneficiaries of scholarships? Why did the scholarship board refused to publicise on yearly basis the successful applicants? How much is budgeted for the exercise yearly? These are some of the questions continuously asked by Nigerians.

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu must take steps to address the concerns of Nigerians relating to the scholarship board under his watch.

Malam Adamu must return confidence to the board by ensuring that its activities are conducted in the most transparent manners.

The Minister should set up fact finding team to the board to investigate the allegations against the scholarship board so that the objective for which it was established is not defeated.

Nigerians demand that the scholarship board should be more transparent in the processes leading to the selection of beneficiaries.

Do you have similar experience with the Federal Government Scholarship Board? Are you satisfied with the modalities adopted in selecting beneficiaries for the scholarships? Share your experience with Opera News.. #transparency #FGscholarships
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Thank you for this valuable information. I am applying for PG in Mass communication. Is the choice of Turkey and Mexico appropriate? And when is the closing date for this application?

A NEW RADIO STATION HAS BEEN LAUNCHED IN OGUN STATE CAPITAL, ABEOKUTA. ROCKCITY 101.9 F.M IS ITS NAME. IT IS THE FIRST NEWS, TALKSHOW AND ENTERTAINMENT STATION IN NIGERIA AND THE FIRST PRIVATE RADIO STATION IN OGUN STATE. THE RADIO STATION IS POSED TO  REVOLUTIONALISED BROADCASTING IN NIGERIA. AFTER BREAKING THE JINX, THE STATION WHICH HAS ITS SLOGAN AS THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE WILL PROVIDE BALANCE STORIES BASED ON FACTS TO THE PEOPLE, GIVE THEM THE FREEDOM TO AIR THEIR VIEWS WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS. ITS GOING TO BED WONDERFUL WITH ROCKCITY F.M 101.9. TONE TO THE FREQUENCY AND EXPERIENCE EXCELLENCE RADIO BROADCASTING LIKE NEVER BEFORE[b][/b]. YOU ARE GOING TO SAY I SAID IT.

A NEW RADIO STATION HAS BEEN LAUNCHED IN OGUN STATE CAPITAL, ABEOKUTA. ROCKCITY 101.9 F.M IS ITS NAME. IT IS THE FIRST NEWS, TAKSHOW AND ENTERTAINMENT STATION IN NIGERIA AND THE FIRST PRIVATE RADIO STATION IN OGUN STATE. THE RADIO STATION IS POSED TO REVOLUTIONALISED BROADCASTING IN NIGERIA. AFTER BREAKING THE JINX THE RADIO STATION WHICH HAS ITS SLOGAN AS THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE WILL PROVIDE BALANCE STORIES BASED ON FACT TO THE PEOPLE, GIVE THEM TO AIR THE VIEW WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS. ITS GOING TO WONDERFUL WITH ROCKCITY F.M 101.9. TONE TO THE FREQUENCY AN EXPERIENCED EXCELLENCE RADIO BROADCASTING NEVER BEFORE. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************[color=#990000][/color]