A week after oil engineer Akanbi Oluwatoyin was declared missing by his family, he has been found dead in Ifo Ogun State according to a family member. Akanbi and his silver 2008 Highlander with plate no: SMK975AS went missing around 5:30am on Monday February 18th on his way to work.
His corpse was found in Ifo yesterday by the police but his car was not found. Akanbi worked with an oil company in Lekki and had to no business in Ogun State on that fateful day, so friends believe he was driven there and killed. The police are currently investigating his death.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
But for last minute intervention by Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Fayemi, members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) would have elected their chairman last night.
The meeting began with three candidates- Theodore Orji, Jonah Jang, and Gabriel Suswam- governors of Abia, Plateau and Benue states respectively dramatically withdrawing their candidacy for the Katsina State Governor, Mohammed Shema. Sources close to the meeting disclosed that Chairman of the forum and Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi had the support of no fewer than 14 governors while Shema had 11.
The 14 governors reportedly backing Amaechi included those of Kwara, Niger, Oyo, Lagos, Kebbi, Kano, Adamawa, Yobe, Sokoto, Bauchi, Ekiti and Jigawa states. Shema’s supporters at the meeting included governors of Edo, Anambra, Abia, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Plateau states.
Others, who wanted a change of baton, according to sources close to the meeting, included governors of Benue, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Ondo and Nasarawa states, even though Governor Tanko Al’Makura later dumped Shema for Amaechi. Imo presented an interesting case as the deputy governor had thrown his weight behind Shema.
However, when Governor Rochas Okorocha arrived about two hours into the meeting, he turned the table in favour of Amaechi. Daily Sun gathered that the meeting was preceded by one between President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam had reportedly attempted to make the governors apologise to President Jonathan for the reported face-off with the Governors’ Forum, but was rebuffed.
A source disclosed that it was the Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, who broke the ice by suggesting that the election be deferred “so as not to create the impression that the President or Amaechi lost out.”
The Ekiti State governor, who had a journalism background was said to have told his colleagues that if the election had been held and Amaechi won, the newspapers’ headline ‘today’ would be ‘Amaechi floors Jonathan’.
He said such reportage would not be good for the president, Amaechi, the Governors’ Forum and the nation’s democracy The Forum thereafter announced a postponement of the meeting till May.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
AN employee with National Agency for Food Drugs, Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Mrs Titilope Ogunrohunmu, yesterday, told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that one Mr. Chidi Njoku reported to the agency that his 14 months old son died after taking “my pikin” teething mixture.
The witness told the court that in November 2008, the said Mr Njoku brought to NAFDAC, as evidence, the remainder of the teething substance which he had administered on his late child, which allegedly led to the boy’s death.
Ogunrohumun gave evidence at the resumed hearing in the trial of Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd and two others, Ebele Eromosele and Adeyemo Abiodun, who are facing a six-count charge of production of an alleged killer teething mixture, “my pikin, which allegedly claimed the lives of no fewer than 80 children in 2008 in the country.
The witness said based on the report received from the complainant, an inspection was conducted at the factory of Barewa Company, where about three batches of drug samples were collected and taken to NAFDAC laboratory for test.
Being cross-examined on the evaluation of the results from the laboratory test, Ogunrohumun, said her duty did not extend to obtaining such results, but only inspection.
According to her, after the samples were collected, they were sent to NAFDAC laboratory for test, and whatever result discovered, was communicated to her supervisor, as it was not within her jurisdiction to pursue lab results.
Further trial was adjourned till February 26.
The accused persons were re-arraigned in January 7, after the charge was amended because of the death of founder of the company, Mr Kola Gbadegeshin, which prompted the court to strike out his name from the charge.
The offence, allegedly committed by the accused persons, contravened Section 1 (a) of the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous provisions) Act No. 25 of 1999 and punishable under Section 3 of the same Act.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Seventeen communities in Anambra West Local Government Area of Anambra State, yesterday, received N153 million cash and other food items as part of state government’s resettlement programme for the flood-ravaged communities.
The entire Anambra West Local Government was submerged during during last year’s flood and the people are still battling to cope with the effect of the devastation.
Though farming had started in the area, many of the farmers were unable to procure seedlings as they were waiting for promises made to them while they were in camps provided by government during the flood.
The joy of the people knew no bounds as the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Oseloka Obaze and memebrs of the State Flood Rehabilitation Committee distributed the items and cash to the affected families in the area under the second phase of the programme.
It would be recalled that the state government had mapped out N400 million to be disbursed to 55 communities in eight local government areas.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ARE Nigerian hospitals houses of health or homes of death? Do the sick go to healthcare centres to cure or procure ailments. This is the big question on the lips of patients seeking healthcare services in government health institutions in Nigeria today. Even in the face of unacceptably poor health indices, the scenario isn’t doing much to remedy the already bad situation. Little or no succour is offered to those who ail.
Cases of patients slumping or even dying on the queue while waiting to see the doctor are commonplace. Granted, many health government health institutions are overwhelmed and their facilities overstretched, but the problem goes deeper.
At the primary level- the erstwhile first point of care – nothing works, nothing is given and nothing is obtained. At the secondary level, activity is at best sub-optimal. There is shortage of everything from drugs and beds, bandages and syringes, to health workers, critical equipment and funds. But perhaps the most telling of all is shortage of patients. It is not surprising that general hospitals have lost the confidence of patients.
Today, the bulk of the health service delivery in hospitals falls squarely at the doorstep of tertiary health institutions – primarily established to carry out research as well as handle delicate referral cases that cannot be handled at the primary and secondary levels.
But service delivery even at this apex level is fraught with ill-motivated staff, poor time management, strikes, and decaying or decayed equipment and other inadequacies too numerous to mention. Here, the average patient is eternally confronted by endless waiting, bad staff attitude, and indistinct or unmarked service points. Half the time in a typical tertiary health institution is spent battling legion of inconsistencies.
The challenge of seeking and obtaining attention as a patient needs to be experienced to be believed.
As the first patient for the day, you do not get to see the doctor before 10:30-11:00am. And just perish the thought of seeing a senior doctor or consultant. This cadre doesn’t resume work this early.
A case at hand is the current situation at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH. By 5.00am, it is a common sight to see hordes of patients hanging around the premises, either standing in the open or lying on the bare floor. Several left their homes as early as 3.00am or spent the night within the premises in order to be in good position at the head of the lengthy queue in the morning. But quite often, the first-come, first-served arrangement is scrapped.
At five minutes to 8:00 am, patients are turned back, even those on appointment.
Most times patients leave the hospitals worse than they came.
Janet, a patient at the eye clinic department says: “To beat the 8:00am rule is never a problem but the most harrowing experience is getting here by 6:00am and not having a place to sit until they are ready to attend to you.”
Janet who has attended the clinic in the last one year claimed to have met a consultant just once. “My pain is not only spending the whole of the day here, it is most disturbing that I am going blind. The consultant who sent me for laboratory test has not seen the result. At each appointment, I am given another date or asked to go for another test hoping that the consultant would have been around by then.”
Alli, another patient, said his doctors are yet to decipher exactly the problem with his eyes since he started attending the clinic months ago.
“I was first diagnosed of immature cataract, later, they said there was nothing in my eyes and I was sent to another private laboratory. But the two test results are yet to be interpreted by the consultant.”
These patients are not faced by these challenges alone, many of them complained that the condition at which they are left outside the waiting room only aggravate their conditions.
From the moment you enter into the hospital no matter how sick you may be you are not allowed into the waiting room. There are no seats. Every patient is forced to stand including the elderly, pregnant women and children.
Standing is just the beginning. If you cannot stand for long, simply find somewhere to perch.
In the absence of the consultants, the younger doctors hold sway, but only to book you for another appointment in three months without consideration for the state of your health. “How will a very sick person survive?” One aggrieved patient queried.
The situation is not much different at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idiaraba. On clinic day at the surgery department, just 10 patients are seen by the consultant. No matter how early you arrive, forget about getting attention if your card fails to be among the first 10 cards submitted. You better just go back home.
These hospital scenarios call to question when long waits at public hospitals will really be over. It could be recalled that the Federal Ministry of Health in partnership with SERVICOM, last year gathered all the chief medical directors of university teaching hospitals, specialist hospitals and the medical directors of Federal Medical Centres in Abuja to brainstorm on how to roll out a pilot programme aimed at reducing patients’ waiting time at the General Out Patient Department, GOPD, of hospitals in the country developed by the Servicom office.
There were reports that the pilot implemented at the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi by the SERVICOM office reduced waiting time at the GOPD from seven hours to 30 minutes. If this happened, when will Nigerians reap the benefits of this programme in other health institutions across the country?
However, if the Federal Ministry of Health’s plan to launch a new patient feedback platform, PFP, which will allow patients lodge complaints against hospitals is anything to go by, it would help push the country’s health workers to deliver world class services.
The PFP is expected to enable patients and their relatives send their complaints or commendations about services direct to the health minister’s office by SMS at no cost to the patient. Nigerians are waiting.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Former President of United States of America, Bill Clinton, said yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, that the inability to manage the nation’s natural resources well was one of the three major challenges Nigeria was facing as a nation.
The former US president, who was speaking at the 18th Annual Awards of Thisday newspaper, organised to celebrate Nigeria’s best teachers, further tasked Nigerian leaders to tackle unemployment, brain-drain and to maximise the potential of the citizens.
The 42nd American President, who spoke in the presence of former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, his counterpart in Delta, Emmanuel Uduaghan and other notable Nigerians, said Nigerian leaders mismanaged the proceeds from oil, under-utilised technology and failed to retain its best brains.
Clinton said: “When I became President, my Secretary of Commerce did a lot of work in Africa before he was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1995.
“I said he should make a list of 10 most important countries in the world for the 21st century. Nigeria was in the list.
“Imagine the future of the entire continent if Nigeria fails or South Africa fails. So, you are a country of potential. I will say you have about three big challenges.
Oil money, economic distribution, brain-drain
“First of all, like 90 percent of the countries, which have one big resource, you haven’t done well with your oil money. You should have reinvested it in different ways. Now you are at least not wasting the natural gas. You are developing it in pipelines but you don’t do a better job of managing natural resources.
“Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have. This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. Almost in every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas.
“So you have all these political problems: violence, religious differences, and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram.
“But the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area. To deal with that, you have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together.
“As you keep trying to divide the power, you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help in sharing prosperity.
“The third thing is there has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organisational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here, so that the country as a whole can rise.
“One of the people on my trip with me today, who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go and visit his family, is a young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all pro-quarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“He’s a wonderful man; he does great work in America for poor kids in Arkansas City and he became a friend of mine.
“Both his parents have PhDs. His sister has a PhD. He often says ‘I’m the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.’
“My point is: there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world. What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success encourages others in the country.
Solutions
“So, I think solving the economic divide that is in your country will help the political divide; making better use of your resources.
“Nigeria is trying to set up an investment fund where the Federal Government will set it up and the governors are being consulted so that they can concentrate the capital. That is the problem in India.
“They have unbelievable entrepreneurs but they are not very good at collecting capital and investing it in infrastructure so that they can unite the poor part of the country with the rich part. That’s what you have to do. And then, you have to empower people with education so they can succeed at home as well as around the world.”
Speaking on the essence of education, Clinton said: “I have to explain that education is more important in dealing with the challenges facing Nigeria. On the continent and the entire world, we are living a revolutionary time, full of positive and negative forces.
“The information technology is good for people who can take advantage of it. I see this all over the world. Cell phones give farmers the access to information about crop prices and fish prices in Africa and Asia.
“It increases their income by reducing their ignorance. It is empowerment. People are using cell phones to have banking services for the first time.
“I see it even in the United States where people who thought they have no money to help others donate a billion dollars to Haiti during the earthquake because ordinary citizens use their cell phones to make transfer to an account and they had a billion dollars.
Education, globalisation
“It is an age where if we are sufficiently educated we can be empowered but with enormous challenges. First of all, with all of these new opportunities which technology had given us, we have not yet succeeded in automatically reducing poverty and inequality of opportunity in accessing education and health care.
“It is a global phenomenon. If we really want to take advantage of education, empowerment and information technology, we have to tackle this problem. The second problem we have in the world is instability as we all know.
“We have to stop this problem. One major problem of unemployment is this instability all over the world. We have not yet solved the problem of how to embrace our potential and common humanity.
“And until we do this, the globalisation of the economy, the globalisation of the society for information technology will continue to face serious trouble. We have to deal with how to maximise the capacity of all the people through education.
“We have to find a way through education, through the information technology revolution to change the way we produce and consume energy and to change the way we use local resources in a way that sustains them.
“We have to know how to do this and do it right. And in every case, education will play a major role whether in developed or developing countries. We need intelligent people to take a new way to challenge themselves.
“There is a lot of work to be done but we cannot ever neglect the role of education. So I want to end my remarks by saying two things. Every year at the opening of the United Nations, I sponsor a meeting where we invite the global leaders to come.
“We actually ask people to make a commitment to do something and we are all making progress.”
Obaigbena speaks
Speaking earlier, Editor-in-Chief and Chairman, Thisday, Nduka Obaigbena explained that the choice of Abeokuta as the venue for the 18th edition of the award was made by Clinton due to the presence of Presidential Library.
According to him, Delta, Port Harcourt and Abeokuta were the options presented to Clinton as the venue before Abeokuta was chosen by the ex-American President.
He eulogised eminent media personalities present, including former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Chairman and Publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Mr. Sam Amuka, among others.
Obaighena disclosed that 15 best teachers were selected by a panel headed by Vice President World Bank (Africa) and former Minister of Education, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, from 700 nominees.
Awardees
Those who bagged the Builder of Modern Nigeria awards were Oba Otudeko; professor of musicology, Laz Ekwueme; deposed Sultan, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki; Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, and Chief Rasak Okoya.
The 15 best teachers, who received N2 million each, were Mrs Victoria Jolayemi, Mrs Dorothy Ugwu and Mrs Christie Ade-Ajayi, for primary school category.
For secondary category, Rev. Father Angus Frazer, Chief D.B.E. Ossai, Mrs Yakubu Dimka, Chief Reuben Majekodunmi, Chief Dotun Oyewole, Mrs. John O. B. Adeaga, Mr. Bawa Mohammed Faskari and Hadiza Thani Muhammed were honoured as best teachers.
In the universities category, Prof. Iya Abubakar, Prof. Frank Ugiomoh, Prof. Michael Obadan and Prof. Eunice Nkiruka Uzodike, were given award.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ASyou were reading this column last week where I was deprecating the self-serving behaviour of members of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, and their inability (or is it unwillingness) to pay the Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, his entitlements, the news broke that the coach of the Under-20 team, Mr. John Obuh refused to accompany the team to Egypt because he was being owed 13 months salaries.
You heard right, 13 months salaries! To get him to join the team, the NFF hurriedly paid him six million Naira, part of his outstanding salaries.
And that may be it for the next 13 months! How does a coach with family and kids in school survive and concentrate on his job when he is being owed salaries for 13 months? Yet, we are not aware that those guys in the NFF forgo their own allowances.
In the midst of this, I found confounding, the suggestion by a man with arguably the shortest run as Nigeria Football Association, NFA, chairman (thanks to those with vested interests in players’ ticket racket), Mr. Kodjo Williams, that the NFF should quickly hire a foreign coach to work with Keshi. Tongue in cheek, he added that such a foreign coach would work under Keshi.
That prescription, considering Keshi’s well publicised, if you like, unflattering views about “foreign coaches in Africa”, is a recipe for disaster.
Which foreign coach will want to prove that he is actually adding value to African football by working under an African coach, least of all, Keshi? Mind you, I am not against foreign coaches in our sports. But I don’t think that a “foreign” coach is the most important issue for now.
Obession with foreign coaches
First, the obsession of some Nigerians with foreign coaches in our football, to me, smacks of colonial mentality—downright inferiority complex! Are these Nigerians asking for a “foreign” coach or a “European” coach? If it is a foreign coach, then they should look no further. Keshi is a “foreign” coach by whatever standard you measure that.
When Keshi coached Togo he was a “foreign” coach (abi?) but Togo brought a “European” coach after Keshi had qualified Togo for the World Cup! When he coached Mali, he was a “foreign” coach! Coming back to coach Nigeria does not make him any less a “foreign” coach.
But, if we are looking for a coach more competent than Keshi, I can understand that, no matter where he comes from. But a European coach for the sake of anything from abroad is colonial mentality.
But, seriously now, how can an Association that cannot pay our local coaches afford a “foreign” coach? Where will the money be coming from? Why will such money be available only when a “foreign” coach is involved? Is there a racket involved in this obsession with a foreign coach? If you paid our coaches as much as we would pay a “foreign” coach, will they not perform better?
Let us not forget that most of the stars who play for our national team today were discovered and nurtured by Nigerians (I don’t like the derogatory term “local”) coaches like Obuh and others.
Some of these coaches have won international competitions with these players. So what mentality makes the NFF to treat Nigerian coaches shabbily only to recover their manhood at the mention of “foreign” coaches?
Moreover the obsession with “foreign” coaches is not a new one. We hired them before, but could not pay them. Manfred Hoener ran away from here abandoning his passport! Clemense Westerhoff was able to survive five harrowing years here by bypassing the NFA. These “foreign” coaches, with the exception of Clemense Westerhoff, were never hired to develop our football, but to take us to competitions. Most of the “foreign” coaches were contracted for not more than the life of a competition, some for as short as six months.
Their contracts spelt out the stage of the competition he must qualify us. Bronze or Silver medal was good enough for Naira rain at Abuja. This is Nija! Thus, the “foreign” coach was mostly idle and spent his time luxuriating in his home country, pretending to be “monitoring our players in Europe”.
Come competition time, he clobbers together a team of “established foreign players” he believes would deliver in the carefully scripted racket. If he leaves out any of those the Association considered favourites, they scream havoc to the coach! That is how our football nosedived!
An industry for youth empowerment
I am surprised that we have continued to allow a few selfish men to toy with an industry that has the greatest capacity for youth empowerment. Why are we not advocating for foreign coaches in other sports that we used to show appreciable presence, like boxing and weight lifting?
In Denmark today, any sports reporter (in Nigeria, we are all editors and no reporters) will tell you the number of Danes who are professionals in any of the sports and where in the world they are! The records are there. Here, the NFF could not even manage a website.
The last attempt they posted wrong data that nearly jeopardised the careers of some of our players. The euphoria of our recent achievement must not delude us. I don’t believe that Keshi’s rebuilding project is over. There are urgent tasks ahead.
As I have written in the past, football is a spectator game. Without spectators it dies.
The urgent assignment for the NFF today is not to hire a “foreign” coach. It is to conduct a study to find out how to put spectators back into the stadia as it used to be in the seventies and eighties.
I am game for hiring a foreign administrator to help us run our professional league properly. In less than 20 years, South Africa’s league is one of the best organised in the world.
The NFF must learn how to maintain security at our stadia to make them spectator friendly and how to market our football, not marketing advertising space! NFF must enter into merchandising too. In short, the NFF must be making money, its own money from football and properly account for it.
That is the way to attract private sector investment. If it then feels it can pay a “foreign” coach, so be it. But it must put the spectators back to the stands! If not, selling matches to Governors who can pay for them, will ultimately kill our football!
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
Continent’s eyes on African Utility Week as Eskom’s Brian Dames confirms welcome address: The only truly pan-African event
Eskom Chief Executive Brian will once again deliver the keynote address during this year’s opening session of African Utility Week in Cape Town on 14 May. Some 5000 power professionals from all over the continent meet at this event every year at what is the largest utility gathering of its kind in Africa.
African Utility Week’s programme director Claire Volkwyn says: “as the leading African power utility, Eskom’s presence is a sign of their continued support as host utility of the event, their commitment to the growth and expansion of the industry and opportunity to grow a shared vision of what the power sector in Africa can look like if we work together.”
She says there are always high expectations when Brain Dames addresses this industry event because “as the largest power utility in Africa, and one of the largest in the world, Eskom’s strategy for the next 12 – 18 months will inform a lot of decisions, not only for industrial, commercial or domestic consumers within South Africa, but also for other utilities which are either dependent on Eskom for power, or have plans to develop a strategic relationship with Eskom.”
Pan-African power collaboration
“In the 13 years of African Utility Week’s existence, we have been part of and at the root of many valuable joint projects between utilities and services providers across Africa”, says Claire Volkwyn who adds that the Eskom CE has in the past often emphasised the need for collaboration in order to foster growth in Africa’s power sector.
She continues: “this message has been strengthened by the recent announcement that Eskom has finalised a draft African strategy with a view as they put it: ‘to taking equity as well as operational positions in generation and transmission projects in the rest of the continent, with its primary focus being opportunities in Southern Africa’. Particularly high on the list of priorities in this strategy is hydropower and transmission projects within SADC. As the only true pan-African event, we are perfectly placed to facilitate this ongoing vision.”
Ongoing power challenges The African Utility Week programme will address many of the ongoing challenges that utilities on the continent grapple with. The programme director explains: “the day to day challenges of African utilities include getting the generation mix right so that they have the optimal balance of ‘least cost’ options, but also the maximum energy security that they can ensure. The importance of metering cannot ever be underestimated, and we are going to be addressing the importance of correct installations, revenue management and pros and cons of smart metering.”
Claire Volkwyn adds: “also as we move to an environment where renewable energy is becoming more and more a mainstream energy choice, decisions and plans need to be put in place about how this technology is going to be integrated into the utility environment.”
African Utility Week For the past 12 years, the African Utility Week conference and exhibition has helped to facilitate discussions around the opportunities in the power sector and has assisted in African utilities providing electricity and water to all of Africa. The event brings together more than 5000 utility professionals from across the globe to learn, share knowledge and debate the key topics that will secure the future development of Africa’s power industry. Attending the African Utility Week exhibition is free when registering in advance and it showcases energy saving technologies and services for the industry from more than 250 providers and features hands-on demonstrations and workshops on the exhibition floor.
African Utility Week dates and location: Exhibition & Conference: 14-15 May 2013 Pre-conference Workshops: 13 May 2013
Site Visits: 16 May 2013 Location: CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
WE hadn't seen for years. But news of Mr Justus Esiri recuperating in a London hospital troubled me to no end. For, we had a relationship – Justus Esiri, Gaby Okoye (Gabosky), Charles Igwe, Amaka Igwe, Mahmood Ali-Balogun and my humble self – all of them movie makers, with me working from the outside as a journalist.
The tiny group, very informal in nature, had one major goal: to make the country's movie industry, later christened Nollywood to our protestation, self-sufficient and be able to pay practitioners like the real stars they are. With all the glamour, we knew Nollywood was hollow inside and we expended time trying to add some depth to the industry by giving it a character and direction that could attract the global community. We had to protect the industry from being perishable!
There was no gainsaying the fact that the industry could be bankable on the long run. After all Kenneth Nnebue had shown the way with Living in Bondage. And you couldn't attend film and television programmes market across the world, attend various trade shows and wind up at the NAB in Las Vegas without knowing that there was big money to be made from the movie industry. The challenge, however, was that the industry was too informal and the practitioners were not tempered enough to look at the real business in this unfolding entertainment genre.
But Esiri was there trying to introduce some seriousness into the business. Among us we hosted some meetings in turn and those meetings were like little parties, some kind of fun amid fashioning out very serious business that would later become one of the country's biggest exports. Sometimes pioneers can be like little paper towels that mean very little in the course of a great meal.
People knew Esiri for his role in The Village Headmaster and several other roles in the movies and may not be conversant with this small story as a real patriarch of the movie industry. He was one of the few elderly ones who absorbed needles insults for Nollywood to stand.
Back to the tiny group working for the growth of Nollywood; little strands of progress soon began to create little waves of confusion. Members of the group who had made very difficult financial sacrifices and expended unrewarded time were beginning to look at the end and not the journey to the end. Naturally distrust crept in like the biblical thief of the night and attacked the seams of a relationship like the bunch of broom sticks that together could not be broken.
I didn't see Esiri for years. And Mahmood Ali-Balogun too. So when Mahmood told me he had lodged together with Esiri at the Hilton in Abuja, it was God provided opportunity to meet him and do some little flicks down memory lane.
There he was in his suite with the driver he had contracted to take him for two days while in the capital territory. The embrace was tight like that of the wrestlers in Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and I was overjoyed because of the strength I could feel through him after all I had read in the papers. He told me the story of his life, how a seeming innocuous health condition took him to the UK and how he had been told by one of the doctors that had he continued with a particular prescription drug could have harmed him irretrievably had he continued with it. The 30 minutes we spent together were nearly a good cover for all the years we had missed each other.
Esiri was a good man. He had enough dose of humour to douse any situation. He could get along with anybody no matter the age and material difference and would contribute his best with utmost humility.
He was a star but never carried the imprimatur on his forehead. He radiated light in the darkness that is the daily grind of the Nigerian life and spread joy to many homes across the country. His death on Wednesday has robbed the country of a great actor per excellence, a seasoned stardust in the real sense of it.
Yet all humans must subject themselves to the finality of death and the supremacy of the Almighty God, the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. As they put it in the movies: Roll Tape, Action and Cut. So, for Esiri, it is final curtain call, a glorious apotheosis to the realm of the celestial.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Mohammed Abubakar, has said that no fewer than 700 police officers were dismissed from the force due to recruitment scandals in 2012.
Abubakar made this known when he answered questions from newsmen after a town hall meeting in Yola on Saturday.
"Last year, about 700 police officers were dismissed from the service following their involvement in recruitment irregularities and other related offences."
The IGP said the force had zero tolerance for corruption, hence any officer found wanting was dealt with.
He said that a special unit was created to restore dignity and instill discipline among the officers.
"In order to help the force to fish out bad eggs, this is my telephone number – 08109009000," Abubakar said.
He said he was ready to answer any call or receive text message at any time for complaint, advice or support.
He warned against the misuse of the number by feeding the force with false information.
Abubakar said the protection of lives and property of the citizens was the collective responsibility of all.
Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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