By Omolola Dede Adeyanju

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has disclosed that there will be a court hearing at the federal high court in respect to the 60 billion naira lying fallow with the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC as the state governments have refused to access it to ensure out of school children are taken off the streets and enrolled in school.

Falana revealed this at the IA Foundation charity ball and fundraising annual event, themed: ‘Panacea to a Menace’ which was held on Saturday. He reiterated ‘In September last year, UNICEF disclosed to our utter embarrassment as a nation that Nigeria has not less than 20.2million out of school children, it is a sad development, having regards to our enormous resources. The task before all of us is to intensify efforts to remove the children from the streets and have them enrolled in school.

‘We will be going to court as regards the disclosure that 60billion naira is lying fallow in the hands of the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC because state governments have refused to access the money to educate the children of the poor, hence we are going to the federal high court to compel the state governments and federal government to ensure that out of school children are taken off the streets and enrolled. This is the beauty of this program as the IA foundation is alerting and challenging all of us to take education for the children very seriously, especially for the elite, if we fail to do that, children of the poor are going to harass them, it’s already happening, talk of area boys syndrome, terrorists and other criminals.’ he submitted.

However, the founder IA Foundation, Ibironke Adeagbo, FCA FCCA in her speech examined the relevance of the foundation’s drive to taking children out of the streets. She said, ‘I commend the IA foundation for the tenacity and drive over the last 5 years to shine a light and push for correction on this deep darkness that plagues our land.’ she revealed that Pakistan Indian and Nigeria are the three Nations on comparative basis with the most out of school children in the last 5 years. The United Nations agencies put the record of out of school children for the 6 to 18 years age brackets in India at a little above 52 million while Nigeria and Pakistan are closer to the 20 million Mark.

Adeagbo added, ‘The situation is escalating to a dangerous position, we need to begin remedial actions, we need to plan and design solutions based on collaboration, we need to create strategies, have accurate data, pp CEO Nigerians in the Diaspora commission (NIDCOM), Dr. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, highlighted the achievements of the Federal government in relation to ensuring education of children. She said, ‘The Federal government recently established the national commission for Almajiri out of school children to address this issue; development partners and some non-government organizations also strive to reverse the trend which could further worsen the socio- economic problems of the country. This is why the initiative of IA Foundation is highly commendable and should be supported as a means of complementing government efforts aimed at addressing these problems and ensuring that out of school children have access to quality education’

One of the Bursary beneficiaries, Faridah Yusuf, in appreciation to the foundation for sending her back to school, paying her school fees and providing learning materials. She said, ‘When I came back to school I could not read nor express myself. I have stayed at home for too long but now I have improved and I am making progress in my school work.’ She acknowledged.

Aerofield Field Homes, Lagos has signed a pact with the Odu’a Investment Company Limited over construction of luxury apartments in Ikeja, GRA, Lagos State.

Speaking during the signing of Joint Venture Development Agreement held at Cocoa House, Ibadan, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Odu’a Investment, Mr Adewale Raji said that he was happy the company is doing business with Aerofield Homes, a property company that has been helping to provide Nigerians with decent homes.

Mr Raji said “I am particularly happy that Odu’a conglomerate is associating with your company, I have had conversations and interacted with Aerofield Homes, obviously I have no doubt in the company’s competency; we are ready to execute our project with you anytime, you have the professional expertise, so it will be awesome doing business with you and your team”.

L-R: Mr. Adetilewa Adetomiwa, Principal Consultant to Aerofield Homes, Middle, Mr. Armstrong Akintunde, MD/CEO Aerofield Homes Ltd and Barrister Jaiyeoba Adepeju

“At Odu’a Investment, we appreciate relationship, especially the one that is helping us to achieve our business goals of impacting the people around us for good, so we are always open for business, and with this MoU we are signing with Aerofield Homes, we believe this is another chapter that will add great value to our service delivery and it will really mark beginning of great and exciting moments for us all”.

Speaking at the event, the CEO of Aerofield Homes, Mr Armstrong ‘Tope Akintunde lauded Odu’a Investment Company for being a pacesetter conglomerate and a thriving business enterprise despite the harsh realities of the economy.

Akintunde said “It is a thing of joy, like a fulfilled dream that Aerofield Homes could be privileged to partner with Odu’a Investment. By the grace of God we have all it takes to make this a worthwhile venture. Our goal which we have pursued so relentlessly is to cut down on housing deficit for Nigerians and this we shall keep doing because everyone in the country deserves a decent home.

“We shall surely treasure this moment and work assiduously to justify the confidence reposed in us by Odu’a Investment, this is definitely not a partnership that we shall regret but that will give birth to multiple reasons to continue to work in harmony”.

Speaking at the event, the Principal Consultant to Aerofield Homes, Mr. Adetomiwa Adetilewa said it was great honour to be privileged to share business relationship with the Odu’a Investment given their pedigree and achievements in business world.

Adetilewa said “At Aerofield Homes, we are all happy to do business with Odu’a Investment and we want to assure you that Aerofield Homes doesn’t joke with integrity and standards that are in compliance with world best practices. We deliver on time on our projects without sacrificing quality. We sincerely thank you for finding us suitable for this worthy partnership and I can assure you that we shall justify the confidence reposed in us”.

The two companies later signed the MoU compiled by Wemabod Ltd legal solicitor, Mrs. Adeloye Olukemi.

Dignitaries at the meeting were Mr. Abdulrahman Yinusa, Group Chief Financial Officer of Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Mr. Yemi Ejidiran MD, Wemabod Ltd, Mrs. Abiola Ajayi, Company Secretary & Head of Legal, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Mr. Ade Ajayi, Commercial Manager, Mrs. Adenike Ajobo, Brand & Communication Manager and Mr. Mayowa Amoo – Project Manager, Wemabod Ltd.

Others from Aerofield Homes Limited were Architect Raheem Adisa, Barrister Jaiyeoba Adepeju and Barrister Phoebean Odjiko, Company Secretary.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, says that Nigeria  requires a favourable mortgage policy to solve its housing deficit.

El-Rufai made this known on Saturday shortly after the inauguration of the Gombe Geographic Information Systems Service Centre, and performing the groundbreaking of 550 Shongo Homes and Gardens under the Family Homes Fund in Gombe State.

According to the Kaduna State Governor, the housing deficit stands at about 18 million, stressing that it was not sustainable to sell houses between N10million and N50million.

He disclosed that the mortgage system would enable buyers to pay in 25 years’ time, stressing that the incoming administration under President-elect Bola Tinubu would ensure single-digit interest between 15- 20 years.

He said, “The steps taken by Gombe are the right steps, which is partnering with the private sector and other investors to build houses. But the problem of the housing deficit will never be addressed until we have a national mortgage system. People cannot buy houses by paying N10million-N50million at a go.

“No one does that at a go. We need to design a system that enables people to buy houses and pay in 25 years at interest low rates. That means we need a national mortgage system.

“The administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has already promised that they will come up with a national mortgage system single digit interest, 15 to 20 years repayment and we are looking for to it. It is not impossible to do. I did it in the FCT when we sold 32,000 Federal Government houses but it only worked in the FCT. It was not scaled up nationally.  I think the time has come to scale it up nationally. Once, you do that builders know as soon as they build the house it will be sold tomorrow is how to reduce the housing deficit which stands at about 18 million houses.”

Speaking further, El-Rufai expressed optimism that states would be given the needed opportunity to operate, adding that states should devise means to survive without Federal Account Allocation Committee.

“Our hope is that the incoming administration under President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will support the states, even more, to take their states into their own hands.

“For us as states defending on Federation Account Allocation is not the way to go. We must find a way to be independent from the FAAC and the only way to do so is to explore sources of revenue generation in our states. And we can only do so if we have invested in the right infrastructure, attract the right investment and ensure that our land administration and tax administration are perfect, which is a sine qua non.

“The Federal Government can assist provide land and we are lucky that a former Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will be the President and knows what we are concerned about to give states more authority, and revenue because that is how Nigeria will progress,” he said.

On his part, the Director-General of GOGIS, Kabiru Hassan, said the organisation had moved from the implementation of the project and the transition from a manual to a digital system.

He said, “Some of our notable achievements are securing digital Certificates of Occupancy, digitising over 22,000 manual land files out of the 27,000 we have in our records.

“Moreover, to enable the agency checkmate layout distortions, we digitised 52 layouts, regularised about 12,000 customary titles to statutory titles and captured over 1,500 customary plots into our database through an electronically driven process in an effort to tackle cases of missing files, double allocation, and creation of infilled plots.”