AD-DICTION MEDIA CONCEPTS

  ENUGU State has sustained its outstanding performance at the annual President’s Teachers and Schools Excellence Award (PTSEA). The Principal of Urban Girls’ Secondary School, Enugu, Mrs. Chioma Ebue, was the first Runner-Up (Best Administrator in Junior Secondary School category in Nigeria) at the 2020 edition of the event at Eagle Square, Abuja, to mark Teachers’ Day celebration. Model Secondary School, Nsukka, also in Enugu State, during the 2019 edition of the PTSEA, was the fifth best school in public category in Nigeria. This followed the general assessment of infrastructure, e-library, quality teaching and learning in public secondary schools in the country by the Federal Ministry of Education. The outstanding feat, according to the Executive Chairman of Enugu State Post-Primary Schools Management Board (PPSMB), Nestor Ezeme, who received the award on behalf of the school, was the result of various educational interventions by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s administration. Eze...

 By: Agosu Omoleye Schools at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja are to commence academic activities on Monday, October 12. Boarding students are expected to resume on Sunday, October 11 while academic activities begins on Monday. The FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello made the announcement while briefing journalists in Abuja, on Thursday. He said that the guidelines for the reopening of the schools will soon be released and the academic calendar will cover the third term that was left due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He adds that the FCT did not record any case during the reopening of schools for exit classes and is optimistic that officials and pupils will ensure compliance with COVID-19 protocols once the schools reopen. The Federal Government last week ordered unity schools in the country,  earlier closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to reopen on October 12th, 2020. Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, announced the reopening of the learning centres and exp...

 By: Agosu Omoleye The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has shifted the post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) screening for the 2020 admission processes into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education till September 7. Ishaq Oloyede, the board registrar, announced the new date after a consultative virtual meeting with vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts of tertiary institutions. He said the shift in the date of the admission process from the earlier announced August 21, was to accommodate candidates who would be taking part in this year’s school-based Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE). According to him, “the view of JAMB is that while we go on consulting at a point when it becomes necessary for the decision, we should all come together and take decisions. “Presently as you are aware, WAEC starts the Senior School Certificate Examination on Aug. 17, it will go on till Sept. 7. “Similarly, on Sept. 2 or thereabout, NABTEB will ...

By: Agosu Omoleye President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the payment of fees and stipends of stranded scholarship students of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) studying abroad. In a statement signed by the NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, said Buhari conveyed the directive to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, following the protest of the students. Odili said the students would be paid by the end of the week explaining that the delay was caused by the sudden death of Chief Ibanga Etang, the then Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, EDFA, of the Commission in May. Odili said: “Under the Commission’s finance protocol, only the Executive Director (Finance) and the Executive Director (Projects) can sign for the release of funds from the Commission’s domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. “With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA. Senator Akpabio, th...

By: Agosu Omoleye The Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education has commenced decontamination of 19,000 unity schools in preparation for their resumption. The Minister of Environment, Dr. Mohammed Mahmood Abubakar, while briefing newsmen in Kaduna, said the collaborating ministries had put in place a sustainable system which would protect the health of learners and their caregivers’ across all educational levels. To this end, the FG has continued in its effort to decontaminate exam centers While re-assuring parents of the safety and well-being of their wards, the Minister urged parents to ensure their wards are properly kitted with face masks during the examination. “Starting with the Federal Government Colleges (Unity schools) and then some of the schools that will host the Senior School Certificate Examination, numbering about 19, 000, whereas the unity schools will be subjected to thorough decontamination/disinfection in the coming days ...

By: Agosu Omoleye South African retail giants, Shoprite International Limited said it is considering the potential sale of the majority stake of its Nigerian holdings, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited. Shoprite Holdings Limited made the announcement on Monday in its operational and voluntary trading update for the year ended on June 28, 2020. The multi-national retail group, which announced a 6.4 per cent increase (R156.9billion) in total sales of merchandise for the outgoing year despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, announced that it took the decision to discontinue its Nigeria operation “following approaches from various potential investors, and in line with our re-evaluation of the group’s operating model in Nigeria.” “The Board has decided to initiate a formal process to consider the potential sale of all, or a majority stake, in Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Shoprite International Limited. As such, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited may...

By: Agosu Omoleye The Federal Government on Monday asked schools in the country to reopen for graduating pupils effective August 4. It also announced that this year's West African Senior School Certificate Examination would commence on August 17. This was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong. In the statement titled, 'Exit Classes To Reopen August 4th', the ministry said the agreed dates were part of the resolution reached after a consultative meeting with the education commissioners of the 36 states of the federation and other stakeholders.  However, the statement signed by Goong on Monday read, "Secondary schools in the country are to reopen from the 4th of August 2020 for exit classes only. "Students will have two weeks with which to prepare for the West African Examinations due to start on the 17th of August 2020. "These were the unanimous decisions reached today at a virtual...

By: Dele Akanbi Irenosen Okojie Nigerian author, Irenosen Okojie, has won the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African writing. The Caine Prize is one of the most prestigious literary prizes on the continent and is awarded to a short fictional story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. Another Nigerian writer, Lesley Nneka Arimah, won the 2019 edition. Irenosen, whose debut novel Butterfly Fish won a Betty Trask Award, clinched the £10,000 award Caine prize for her short story Grace Jones, following an impersonator of the singer as she mourns the death of her family in a house fire. Caine prize chair of judges and director of The Africa Centre, Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp, said that the journey of Okojie’s main protagonist Sidra, a young woman who has moved to London from Martinique, “moves exquisitely and seamlessly between the exploration of the universal experiences of unspeakable suffering, pleasure, and escape, and the particular experience of being black...