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IJAW Youth Council, IYC, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a young person as substantive Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, stressing that there will be a disconnect between the youth and an older person appointed as Managing Director.

President Muhammadu BuhariPresident IYC, Mr Eric Omare made the appeal yesterday in Warri, noting that it was the struggle of youths of the region that gave rise to the commission, Niger Delta Ministry and the presidential amnesty program. “However, over the years apart from a few cases, the Presidency has always appointed old people who are not in touch with the youths and realities of the Niger Delta region into these offices and thereby depriving the region of the needed understanding and zeal to drive the required developments of the region.
“The few occasions where relatively young people have headed the NDDC it recorded the best performance because of the understanding of these young men about the affairs of the region and the energy to carry out the enormous responsibilities of these offices. 
The IYC strongly believe that the youths of the Niger Delta region who over the years have been at the forefront of the struggle for the development of the Niger Delta region are in a better position to lead the process of bringing development to the region through their leadership of intervention agencies such as the NDDC.”, he said.
The Ijaw body also flayed failure of the NDDC to complete the Odo-Ofunama road in Edo state, adding also that it was sad the commission had not commenced work on the Omadino-Okerenkoko-Escravos road in Delta state.

The Federal Government has declared Wednesday, May 1, as public holiday to celebrate the 2019 Workers’ Day.

The Minister of Interior, Lt.- Gen. (Rted) Abdulrahman Dambazau, who made the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government, congratulated Nigerian workers on their commitment and sacrifice toward building a greater Nigeria.
Dambazau made the announcement in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Mrs Georgina Ehuriah, Permanent Secretary of the ministry.
He commended workers’ effort at ensuring the full implementation of the policies and programmes of government through efficient and effective service delivery to Nigerians and foreigners.
Dambazau called for continuous support of Nigerian workers in government’s effort at re-positioning the economy and moving it to the Next Level.
He also commended them for keeping faith with the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s resolve of building a better Nigeria.
The Minister wishes all Nigerian workers a successful May Day Celebration.

Zimbabwe’s new ‘goat economy’ now includes school fees.

Goat to pay school feeParents in Zimbabwe who cannot afford school fees can offer livestock such as goats or sheep as payment, a government minister has said.
The country’s education minister Lazarus Dokora told the pro-government Sunday Mail newspaper that schools will have to show flexibility when it comes to demanding tuition fees from parents, and that they should accept not only livestock, but also services and skills. 
“If there is a builder in the community, he/she must be given that opportunity to work as a form of payment of tuition fees,” the paper quoted him as saying.
Some schools are already accepting livestock as payments, the Sunday Mail reports.
A ministry official clarified Dr Dokora’s comments: “Parents of the concerned children can pay the fees using livestock. That is mostly for rural areas, but parents in towns and cities can pay through other means; for instance, doing certain work for the school.”
It follows a move last week where Zimbabwe allowed people to use their livestock, such as goats, cows and sheep, to back bank loans. Under legislation introduced in parliament this week, borrowers would be allowed to register “movable” assets, including motor vehicles and machinery, as collateral, the BBC’s World Business Report said.
According to the reports received by Nation Online News, Zimbabwe’s worsening cash crisis means that people frequently spend hours queueing at banks to withdraw cash. 
The government says the shortage is due to people taking hard currency out of the country, but critics say it’s due to lack of investment and rising unemployment.

The Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, said on Sunday that only 2,000 out of a population of 17,000 students had paid their school fees for the 2018/2019 session.

Soremekun and the admin. members Soremekun lamented that the students’ failure to pay their school fees had negatively impacted on the university’s desire to meet many of the needs and demands of the school for more effective and enhanced academic and administrative activities reports received by Nation Online News.
The vice-chancellor said at Oye Ekiti in a chat with journalists that the fact that many of the students had diverted such fees had compelled the school management to devise a means by which parents could pay the fees directly instead of asking their children to pay.
He said, “It is very appalling that students these days have been failing to pay school fees for reasons we cannot fathom. By the last check, about 15,000 of our students have not paid. This is over 90 per cent of the student population because we have over 17,000 students in the university.
“What we have found out with this is that even though the demand for education in our country is high, an effective demand which caters for prompt payment of school fees as well as being able to pay for quality education is lacking in this country.

FUOYE logo“Our school fees is only N40,000 per session. I believe an average Nigerian parent should be able to afford this, but we keep witnessing a situation where students don’t pay their school fees.”

OSUN IS GREATLY BLESSED WITH POTENTIALS AND RESOURCES- OYETOLA

OLUWAMAYOWA A. FAGBOHUNGBE
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR OF OSUN

Governor Gboyega Oyetola has again stated that State of Osun is greatly blessed with potentials and resources of various kinds.

The Governor stated this on Sunday while playing host to a delegation of officers from the Nigeria Foreign Service Academy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs who are on study tour to the state.

Represented by his deputy, Mr. Benedict Olugboyega Alabi, Governor Oyetola welcomed the career diplomats to the Land of Virtue, maintaining that the choice of Osun as one of the selected states to host the study tour is not a mistake, owing to a lot of investment opportunities deposited in the southwestern state ranging from power with the state being able to boast of 14hours of electricity supply daily, numerous tourist potentials, agriculture and mining.

The Governor who told the visiting foreign service officers that the state is equally very safe, having been repeatedly rated as the most peaceful or one of the safest states in the country, urged them as they await their official deployment to various countries across the globe, to assist the state in tapping into these numerous resources and potentials through recommendations, with a view to attracting foreign investors.

He told the delegation that their journey into the foreign service is noble and should be seen as one, as each of them will be going to be a gateway and the face of their country at their various duty posts upon deployment, enjoining them to be good ambassadors of their country wherever they find themselves.

Earlier in his remarks, the Leader of the Delegation who is a Director in the Office of the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Nze Okechukwu told the Governor that the visit was necessary to ensure that the prospective career diplomats are well grounded of the bountiful opportunities and resources embedded in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory with a view to attracting potential investors while at their various duty posts after their posting to various countries across the global space.

Mr. Nze who commended Governor Gboyega Oyetola for his monumental strides within the last five months of assumption of duty, assured the State Government of Osun that the delegation will make the best use of the study tour to the Land of Virtue.

Highpoint of the event was the cocktail organized by the State Government of Osun in honour of the visiting career foreign service officers.

Other dignitaries present at the event includes the Secretary to the State Government, Prince Wole Oyebamiji, the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr. Charles ‘Diji Akinola, the Head of Service, Dr. Olowogboyega Oyebade, the Supervisor for Budget & Economic Planning, Prof. Olalekan Yinusa, his counterpart in charge of Home Affairs, Tourism and Culture, Dr. Obawale Adebisi and a member of the State Special Education Intervention Committee, Dr. Romoke Raji.

Students of Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, Ondo State, OSUSTECH, have shut down academics activities in the institution as they are currently protesting what they described as outrageous school fees introduced by the school’s management.

Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa main entrance gate In a reports obtained by VAM News that the students have blocked the Okitipupa-Igbokoda highway which has prevented movement of motorists within the axis with bonfires set up on the road where the institution is located.
VAM News confirmed that the protest is coming few days after their counterparts on Wednesday last week closed down of Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko over issues bordering on school fees.
It was gathered that OSUSTECH students are calling for downward review of the school fees which is said to be between the range of N150,000 and over N200,000.
As at press time the management of the institution is yet to react to the protest
Details soon…

Source: VAM News

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says Nigeria’s population has hit a new high of 201 million!

Nigeria’s Population In its 2019 state of the world population, UNFPA said Nigeria’s growth rate has been at an average of 2.6 percent from 2010 to 2019 in a reports seen by VAM News. 
The fertility rate among Nigerian women has dropped from 6.4 in 1969 to 5.3 in 2019; this means an average Nigerian woman gives birth to at least five children.
Global fertility rate, or the average number of births per woman stood at 4.8 in 1969; 2.9 in 1994; and 2.5 in 2019.
The report says contraceptive prevalence rate among Nigerian women aged 15-49 is only 19 percent, adding that decision making on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights among these women has averaged at 51 percent between 2007 to 2018.
This means 49 percent of Nigerian women still do not have the power to decide on their sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.
The UN agency estimated that Nigeria’s population has grown from 54.7 million in 1969 to 105.4 million in 1994 and 201.0 million in 2019.
Of this 201 million, 44 percent or 88.44 million are between the ages of 0 and 14, while 32 percent, 64.32 are within the ages of 10 and 24.
The reports revealed that “reproductive rights are still out of reach for too many women, including the more than 200 million women who want to prevent a pregnancy but cannot access modern contraceptive information and services”.
“Ultimately, almost all of the 4.3 billion people of reproductive age around the world today will have had inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health services at some point
In 1969 world population reached 3.6 billion, up about 1 billion from only 17 years earlier, leading to the establishment of UNFPA.
The UN agency has succeeded in reducing fertility rates worldwide by about 50 percent.
In the least developed countries, fertility was about six births per woman in 1969. TheCable.

Source: VAM News

NATION Online NEWS3 hrs agoEducationThe Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has finally released the results of the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

UTMESome candidates who sat for the 2019 UTME have started receiving the results on their phones according to a reports received by Nation Online News . The development is coming after JAMB spokesman, Fabian Benjamin had on Saturday said that the results of the examination will be mailed to candidates who partook in the exercise.“JAMB will send the results to your email and mobile phones, but you can also check them online,” Benjamin had said.
Steps To Check Your Result
According to the information made available on JAMB website, to be able to check the results, candidates are expected to obtain a JAMB result checker card and have their Jamb registration number handy, then follow the instructions below:
Step 1. Go to JAMB UTME e-Registration Portal here: http://www.jamb.org.ng/efacility
Step 2. When the page loads up, Login and click on the box “Check 2019 UTME Examination Results”
Step 3. Your score will be displayed on your computer screen or it will display “You Do Not Have Any Result Yet“.
Some candidates will also be able to receive their results via the email and mobile phone numbers used during registrations for the exam.

Stop fleeing Zamfara bandits from entering Osun, Oyetola tells police

Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, on Thursday urged security agencies and traditional rulers to be at alert to prevent all forms of criminality and possible infiltration of the state by fleeing illegal miners and bandits displaced from Zamfara State.

This was contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Adeniyi Adesina, after the governor spoke during a security sensitisation programme attended by traditional rulers, security operatives, civil society organisations, politicians, market women, community leaders and top government functionaries in Osogbo.

Oyetola said, “It has become imperative to put measures in place to checkmate the influx of displaced illegal miners to prevent the reverberation effect of the Zamfara State crisis in Osun.”

The governor emphasised the need for security powered by intelligence gathering, vigilance by traditional rulers in their domains and the need to alert security agents to their observations to prevent crime and criminality.

The governor and security chiefs also cautioned landlords against renting out their houses to people without knowing their background or profiling them.

“If you rent out your house to a person who turns out to be a bandit, you will bear the consequence with him,” Oyetola warned landlords.

He urged traditional rulers to work hard in the villages because illegal miners “are gathering in remote areas of our state.”

The Federal Government banned all forms of mining in Zamfara State following sustained killings by bandits propelled by those believed to be illegal miners.

The governor said, “The purpose of this stakeholders’ meeting is to sensitise the security stakeholders on the need to forestall possible influx of illegal miners and the attendant risks of kidnapping, killings, drug dealings, arms peddling and rape.

“The overall objective is to better secure our state, make our mineral-rich communities peaceful,

Nigerian music superstar, Davido made a surprise and thrilling performance at Hollywood actor, Idris Elba’s secret wedding to Sabrina Dhowre. 

Sabrina, Davido and Idris Elba (Source: IG) Wedding The wedding took place in Morroco with Elba and Sabrina exchanging vows and partying with close friends in a three-day celebration that begun on Friday. 
They exchanged their wedding vows at the Ksar Char Bagh hotel in Marrakesh as reported by British Vogue who broke the news and covered the event. 
They posted photos from the secret wedding on their Instagram page confirmed by NATION Online News and captioned it, “Congratulations to newly-weds #IdrisElba and #SabrinaDhowre who exchanged vows in Morocco on April 26 2019. 
Celebrations were spread over three days in Marrakech.” News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Davido’s performance was arranged by Elba to surprise his wife, Sabrina who loves the songs of the Nigerian superstar. Industry mogul, Efe Ogbeni of Stealth Management revealed this in an Instagram post @efe_one. He wrote, “@idriselba Efe l want kid bro @davidoofficial to come surprise my wife, this CANNOT leak, and we can’t have anyone know. “My goodness, @missamadi myself @ronawigs2.0 @oronde had to do major operation. Missing luggages, wrong suits, 16 hour flights, PJ. “OBO did his thing, and boy was @sabrinadhowre surprised; powered by @stealthmgmt “always for fam, we take that seriously.” 
This iconic performance comes on the heels of Davido’s latest music collaborations with American rapper, Russ on ‘All I Want’; and Sean Kingston and Tory Lanez on ‘Peace of Mind’. 
NAN reports that the singer is also billed to appear on popular American music show, ‘Wild n Out’ hosted by Nick Cannon on May 14 in Atlanta.