News

Don wants govt to adopt Seventh-Day Adventist model to fix rot in education sector

Published

1 year ago

May 8, 2023

NewsDirect

Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta

A Professor of African History and History of Religious Education, Abiodun Adesegun has called for a thorough overhaul of public education in Africa calling for the adoption of Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) educational enterprise model.

Professor Adesegun made the call while delivering the 42nd inaugural lecture of Babcock University.

Speaking on the theme “Seventh-Day Adventist Higher Educational Enterprise in Africa: Cleaning the Augean Stable in Public Education”, Professor Adesegun said the components of SDA education model were time- tested and true and stood the chance of offering the needed succour to an almost comatose public education.

According to him, SDA educational enterprise model has a lot of ingredients from which administrators of schools across Africa could borrow to revitalize the system.

“It is time to clean the Augean Stable by adopting and adapting approaches that could make positive impact on the state of things across the continent,” he added.

Professor Adesegun said “the SDA education, which is based on the Bible, the word of God, is a distinctive and unique approach to reality, truth and value.”
He also suggested that it was “high time to look at what faith based institutions are doing with a view to adapt what is adaptable from them.”

Adesegun said SDA emphasizes the teachings of the Bible and the inculcation of spiritual and ethical values in all of her educational institutions.

For instance, in Babcock University, SDA flagship institution, Professor Adesegun said there is compulsory residency and chapel worship irrespective of religious affiliation.

In addition, students of other denominations or religious affiliations are still allowed at fixed times like Sunday to go and worship in their own peculiar manner without let or hindrance.

He noted that all students irrespective of discipline are required to register for and take a course on Life and Teaching of Christs to get them acquainted with God.

Besides, faculty, staff and students are expected to model Christ’s decorum in behaviour, conversation, and a dress code that is strictly implemented, and students stand to be penalized when in breach of this.

Professor Adesegun said the SDA also believed in promoting a healthier lifestyle in order for the students to be fit to serve God and fellow humans and to prevent diseases as much as possible.

According to him, SDA school administrators are mandated by policy to create job opening for students who are willing to work to earn their way through school.

This, according to him, is done so that when occupied in their spare time, they would have little or no time for vices such as cultism that tend to lead them in the wrong direction.

He disclosed further that “In SDA institutions, “Adventist educators and pastors, administrators and members usually make connecting with and making evangelisation of the current generation a top priority”.

He said a lack of adequate funding by government and an equal lack of accountability and corporate governance has led some of the infrastructure in public schools to become dilapidated, out modelled and not in touch with current realities.

News

FAAN starts sales of E-Tags at airports

Published

36 mins ago

May 18, 2024

NewsDirect

The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it has started the sales of e-tags at airports.

FAAN confirmed this in a statement on Friday. “Following the presidential directive that all citizens are mandated to pay for e-tags at all the 24 federal airports across the country, we wish to inform the general public that the e-tags are available for sale from Friday, 17th May 2024 at the following locations,” it said.

“Lagos: Murtala Muhammed International Airport Lagos, Terminal 1, 5th Floor) Office of HOD Commercial. Contact: 08033713796 or 08023546030.

“Abuja: Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, HOD Commercial Office (General Aviation Terminal) Contact: 08034633527 or 08137561615.”

News

FG, Labour to reconvene next week over minimum wage negotiation

Published

39 mins ago

May 18, 2024

NewsDirect

The Tripartite Committee on Minimum Wage will reconvene on Tuesday, May 23 to further negotiate a reasonable new minimum wage for workers, after the organised labour walked out of the negotiation on May 15.

An invitation letter sent to the labour leaders by the chairman of the committee, Bukar Goni, states that the other members of the committee have agreed to shift grounds from the N48,000 proposal which was made on Wednesday.

The letter appealed to the labour leaders to speak to their members and attend the reconvened meeting next Tuesday.

The organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have proposed a new minimum wage of N615,000, which is way higher than the N48,000 proposal by the government.

The organised private sector, on the other hand, proposed an initial offer of N54,000. After dumping the talks, the labour leaders addressed a press conference where they expressed their anger over the Federal Government’s offer.

They blamed the government and the private sector for the breakdown in negotiation.

The Federal Government had failed to present a nationally acceptable minimum wage to Nigerians before the May 1 Labour Day.

The situation has forced labour to be at loggerheads with the government. In the wake of the tussle, the NLC President Joe Ajaero insisted on the N615,000 minimum wage, arguing that the amount was arrived at after an analysis of the economic situation worsened by the hike in the cost of living and the needs of an average Nigerian family of six.

Ajaero and labour leaders have given the Federal Government a May 31 deadline to meet their demands.

On January 30, Vice President Kashim Shettima inaugurated the 37-member tripartite committee to come up with a new minimum wage.

With its membership cutting across federal, and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour, the panel is to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country.

During the committee’s inauguration, the Vice President urged the members to “speedily” arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early.

“This timely submission is crucial to ensure the emergence of a new minimum wage,” Shettima said.

The 37-man committee is chaired by the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Goni Aji.

News

Tinubu appoints governing board members for 111 tertiary institutions

Published

3 hours ago

May 18, 2024

NewsDirect

President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointments of at least 555 persons to serve as Pro-chancellors/Chairmen and members of Governing Boards of 111 federal universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

This followed Tinubu’s assent to a list of nominees selected by the Ministry of Education.

It was signed by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack.

“The inauguration and retreat for the Governing Councils will take place on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31, 2024, at the National Universities Commission, 26 Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja. Both events will commence at 9:00am daily,” said Walson-Jack.

When contacted for confirmation, the Presidency said the list emanated from the Ministry of Education.

“This is from the Federal Ministry of Education…they make the nominations and forward them to the President to sign. But they are at liberty to release it from their end,” the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, told our correspondent on Saturday.