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The Range Rover Evogue has been voted the Luxury Sport Utility Vehicle of the year at an event in which 19 other products and personalities that shaped 2013 auto industry in Nigeria were celebrated.

Mercedes Benz M-Class and BMW X6 were two other nominated vehicles for the same award, according to the organisers of the annual auto award.

General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Services, Coscharis Group, Mr. Babarinde Abiona, who received the award, said it was a glorious day for the motor company as it carted home two awards. Its Coscharis-Ford Week of Caring also won the CSR Auto Company of the Year Award.

A statement by Abiona on Tuesday said, “The award for the luxury SUV category was keenly contested with other tested luxury brands but the Range Rover Vogue came tops.”

According to him, the Range Rover Evogue brand has its special appeal and style that resonate with its priority audience when it comes to class and comfort.

He stated that the Lagos State commissioner of transportations, Mr. Opeifa Kayode, presenting the award to the representative of Coscharis Motors Limited, equally endorsed the choice of the Range Rover Evogue as the winning brand in this category as he confirmed that it was revolutionary, reliable and a class on its own.

He commended Coscharis Motors for maintaining the global standard of positioning the brand to the ever dynamic Nigerian market as the sole franchisee of the Land Rover brand in Nigeria.

The statement said the Coscharis Motors’ efforts in helping the needy in conjunction with its partner/manufacturer, Ford Motor Company, was also recognised at the award night when the company was awarded the CSR Auto Company of the Year for its celebration of the orphans. “Coscharis yearly participates in an activity that underpins its love and care especially for the less privileged within its locality to commemorate the globally recognised Ford Week of Caring,” it stated.

Commenting on the awards, the Group Managing Director of Coscharis Motors Limited, Mr. Sam Josiah, dedicated the awards to the company’s ever loyal customers for their patronage and acceptance of the brands with a promise to continually create more value in the automobile industry in Nigeria.

“There can’t be another best way to start a new business year in 2014 than with these set of prestigious awards and more importantly coming from a very critical stakeholder/partner like the media,” he said.

A young man, identified simply as Lanre, is currently held at an undisclosed police station in Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State after he allegedly inflicted deep cuts on his half-brother in a brawl over Christmas allowance from their father.

Lanre and Femi are both students of a polytechnic in Ogun State where they study Accountancy and Mechanical Engineering respectively. Femi’s mother reportedly divorced his father a coup of years back, while Lanre’s mother is said to be the one looking after the two young men.

The father of the two brothers, a chief accountant with a new generation bank on Lagos Island, had recently relocated to the Federal Capital Territory on transfer, leaving Lanre’s mother and the kids all at home.

But on Christmas Eve, hell was let loose in the family when the two brothers engaged themselves in bloody fight leading to one sustaining deep knife cut and being hospitalised. It was gathered that Lanre was still in school when their father was leaving for Abuja on Monday, December 17, 2013. Only Femi had returned home for the Christmas break.

Lanre’s mother, Gladys, was said to have accompanied her husband to Abuja but was billed to return home for the Christmas. By when she returned, Gladys met the home in shambles as her son had almost snuffed life out of his half-brother.

It was learnt that while leaving for Abuja, their father left some amount of money for the two young men to celebrate the festive period with. It was gathered that a sum of N15, 000 each was left for the two brothers, but because Lanre did not return early from school, the man chose to give Femi his brother’s money for onward transfer to him on his return.

It was said that when Lanre came back from school, Femi only gave him N11, 000. A family friend also told Saturday Mirror that Femi later confessed to have deliberately withheld the balance of N4, 000 to offset the debt of same amount Lanre owed him.

But when Lanre discovered that the amount his father told him on telephone was not the same thing Femi remitted to him, he chose to go confrontational. When he demanded for the money and Femi did not bulge, he decided to engage him in a fight.

In the end, Lanre reportedly stabbed his brother several times on the chest before he fled home after seeing the damage he had done. But for a neighbour who noticed some blood stains on Lanre’s cloths as he ran out of the house, and who decided to check on the boys after the eldest ran out of the house, Femi might have died.

The neighbour reportedly phoned Gladys who responded that she was just landing at the Ikeja domestic airport. It was reported that the neighbour mobilised some other people to rush the young man to the hospital after he had lost so much blood.

Speaking to Saturday Mirror the neighbour who does not want to be mentioned, expressed worry over what could have come over Lanre, whom he described as a gentle young man. “All I could say is that I noticed blood all over Lanre’s clothes as he ran out of the house. When an elder living opposite their house called at him, he did not answer then I sensed that something was wrong.

That was why I chose to check what was going on. When I knocked at the door, the two young daughters of the house were only crying but I was shocked when I saw Femi wailing on the floor in the pool of his blood. I had to quickly call their mother who told me that she was just landing at the airport.

I then mobilised some men in the area to take the bleeding boy to the hospital,” the neighbour added.

When asked to comment on what could have made the two brothers fight dirty like that, Gladys claimed that the action of her son must have been out of provocation, but maintained that their father had been informed of the development and was already on his way to Lagos to settle the matter.

“It is really an unfortunate incident, but my husband is already informed and he will be in Lagos with the next available flight. The joy in the whole matter is that Femi is hale and hearty and the matter would be resolved.” She, however, declined knowledge of the whereabouts of Lanre.

The crisis between the embattled members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU], Adekunle Ajasin University [AAUA], Ondo state and their management is now deepened as new lecturers have been employment to replace the striking lecturers.

Recall that when DailyPost visited the campus last Monday, some old lecturers were seen in various lecture rooms teaching , thinking the AAUA authorities and the striking workers have agreed to end the five months old strike. However, with a statement later issued by the AAUA ASUU’s Chairman, Dr. Meruyi Mekusi, insisting that they will not call off the strike until their national body orders them to do so might have forced the management to recruit new lecturers.
Relatively, the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Femi Mimiko, has charged the newly recruited lecturers to key into the work ethics of the Institution and always observe the values of the teaching profession. Prof. Mimiko, who also enjoined the academics to be loyal to the University at all times, gave the charge on Monday last week at the Opening Ceremony of a two-day orientation programme organized by the Institution for the new academics.
The VC said, “Our expectations from you on the job are to be in constant search for knowledge and devise the innovative way of dissemination. There must not be mention of you in anything that is not worthy. Be role models to students and enhance their moral standard. You must be like counselors to them at all times. Be shapers of opinions. Engage in constructive criticism of society. Be solution generators. Be focused and play a big role in national development.
“AAUA is a public trust that is dedicated to building leaders. You must, therefore, be loyal to the system. We expect you to give to this University an undiluted loyalty. We just launched AAUA ALWAYS as a new campaign. The message is that you must think about this University at all times.”
While the VC commended them for being found worthy of employment after rigorous interviews, he said that the orientation became necessary to expose them to AAUA culture.
He said, “This induction is to expose you to our own peculiar form of pedagogy that we want you to imbibe and to continue to sustain.”
The VC was one of the four resource persons at the orientation programme and he spoke on “Who is an Academic?” He said the new intakes were supposed to teach, engage in research and community service.
Prof. Mimiko urged those among them who were yet to earn Ph. D. to pursue it vigorously, saying, “For us, Ph. D. is a must have. Those who are yet to possess the Ph. D. should know that the most important thing that we will ask when you get here is, ‘How far you are going in the pursuit of knowledge, leading to the award of the Ph. D?”
He promised that the University would give them support to undertake Ph.D. Programme in any University of their choice.
Other speakers were the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rotimi Ajayi, who spoke on “Academic Profession in the 21st Century”; Prof. Francis Oyebade, who examined “AAUA Academic Culture”; and Prof. Niyi Akinnaso, who spoke on “21st Century Teaching”.

ABUJA – NIGERIA: President Goodluck Jonathan says the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities since July 1, 2013 over the non-implementation of 2009 agreement with the Federal Government is no longer a trade dispute but a subversive action against his government.

While trying to justify the ultimatum given to ASUU, President Jonathan said:

“What ASUU is doing is no longer trade union. I have intervened in other labour issues before now, once I invite them, they respond and after the meeting they take decision and call off the strike.

“But despite the fact that I had the longest meeting with ASUU in my political history, we did not start that meeting until around 2 pm and the meeting ended the next day in the early hours of the morning. As far as the government of Nigeria was concerned, all the critical people that should be in a meeting were there, so what else do they want?”

He stated this at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, state caucus meeting at the Government House, Yenagoa in Bayelsa State.

He was reacting to a plea from his former boss, ex-Governor Diepreye Alamieyesigha, who told him that the new deadline of December given to ASUU to call off its strike or be sacked, is not right.

Alamieyesigha noted that the same date was fixed for the burial of late Prof. Festus Iyayi, who died in a road accident in Kogi State on November 12, en route Kano for a meeting that could have ended the strike.

The former governor, who is also the Chairman Elders Advisory Forum in the state, urged him to reconsider the date in order not to be seen as insensitive.

But President Jonathan is still insisting, he said: “After that, they didn’t meet until one week, despite the fact that you met with the highest authority. It was unfortunate one of them, Prof. Iyayi died.”

It would be recalled that the Federal Government, through the acting Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, had on Thursday given ASUU one week ultimatum to call off strike or consider themselves sacked.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said it will not suspend its ongoing strike until the four months salaries owed its members are paid.

The union also wants the immediate implementation of the N1.2tn offer by the Federal Government to public universities, starting with the release of N100bn this year. The balance of N1.1tn is to be spread over five years from 2014.

These were some of the resolutions reached by members of the National Executive Council of the union who converged on Kano on Friday to deliberate on whether to call off the over four- month-old industrial action or not.

A source, who was privy to the resolutions reached during the President Goodluck Jonathan – ASUU leadership meeting three weeks ago, told The PUNCH on Sunday, that the fresh demands were some of the issues to be tabled before Jonathan by the leadership during their next meeting. A date for the meeting is yet to be fixed.

According to the source, a strong commitment to two demands, among other pending issues, must be obtained from the President before the industrial action will be called off by the union.

He said, “The issue now is on trust and we do not want a situation where promises will not be kept. The authorities have failed us in the past and we do not want a repeat of that.

”That was why we decided at the NEC meeting that the government should pay us the arrears of salaries being owed us since we started the strike on July 1 before the strike can be called off. The salaries should not be paid piecemeal.
“We also insist that the Federal Government should start the implementation of the offer made to us when we met the President some weeks ago.
“For instance, the N100bn he (Jonathan) agreed to inject into the university system in 2013 should be released to the universities immediately. So, we decided that before the strike could be called off, these two conditions and others must be met not by promises but by real action.”

The NEC members, who met behind closed doors at the Bayero University, Kano, were said to have reviewed the reports of the various university congresses on the strike.

Our source, who did not want his name in print, added that the death of a former National President of ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi, was discussed at the NEC meeting.

Iyayi, a University of Benin lecturer, died in an auto accident involving the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada and an ASUU vehicle, on his way to Kano for the meeting. The union’s National Welfare Officer, Dr. Ngozi Ilo, was injured.

Our source said the accident “almost led to the discontinuation of the ongoing negotiation with the Federal Government.

He added, “Some members expressed the belief that he (Iyayi) was killed by the government and therefore argued that the ongoing negotiation should be called off. Tempers rose but some members argued that the President should be respected because he had created the record of being the first Nigerian leader to meet with the leadership of ASUU on the issue of making the nation’s university system better. They also argued that students and parents should be considered.”

It was also learnt that after arguments for and against, about 60 per cent of the members of the NEC voted in favour of the discontinuation of the strike while the remaining 40 per cent voted no.

But it was gathered that the NEC members unanimously agreed that before the strike could be called off, the leadership should ask the government to pay the four-month salary arrears being owed university teachers while the offer made by the government should be implemented immediately.

A key component of the agreement reached by both ASUU and the Federal Government when the President led the government team was that government would inject N1.2tn into public universities.

The government also agreed that the N1.2tn would be domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria to show its commitment to the agreement.

The money is expected to be released on quarterly basis to the universities so that there won’t be any problem about implementing the deal.

The National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress will be the joint guarantors of the agreement while the Minister of Education will be the implementing officer. The government also agreed to revamp public universities by ensuring that all the issues that always lead to strike were dealt with once and for all.

A majority of the chapters of the union had agreed to the suspension of the strike following the fresh commitment the leadership of ASUU obtained from the government.

ASUU National President, Dr. Nassir Fagge, did not pick the several calls made to his telephone line by one of our correspondents on Sunday to confirm the fresh demands.

The University of Lagos chapter ASUU Chairman, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, and his counterpart in the Lagos State University, Dr. Adekunle Idris, also refused to divulge information on the outcome of the NEC meeting.

ASUU had embarked on the strike to protest against the failure of the government to implement the agreement they signed in 2009.

The pact largely centered on better funding of the universities, a declaration of a state of emergency in tertiary education, better wages and payment of earned allowances to lecturers.

It had suspended the NEC meeting penultimate week following Iyayi’s death.

ABUJA – NIGERIA: The ASUU strike 2013 continues, but the latest update is that the union is meeting on Monday and could call off the strike by Thursday.

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities will hold a referendum on Monday, the first time the lecturers are meeting after the marathon meeting between union leadership and President Goodluck Jonathan.

Following that meeting, union leadership pledged to take the deal Jonathan offered to union members.

A source told The Punch that a key component of the deal was the government promising to inject N1.1 trillion into public universities over five years. That amounts to N220 billion every year, beginning in 2014. An additional N100 billion would be for 2013.

One Nigerian Naira equals one cent in U.S. dollars.

The source said the strike will be called off sometime next week, adding that both parties “showed commitment toward ending the crisis.”

“The President in particular showed that he was serious about ending the strike and that was why he offered to release over N1.1 trillion to the universities in the next five years,” the source said.

The money would be released every quarter, processed through the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress would be the joint guarantors of the agreement, with the minister of education as the implementation officer.

The union’s only demands are that the government have all monetary and regulatory agencies sign the injection agreement, a source told NGTrends.com.

“The reason we will ensure this is that we don’t want argument tomorrow that the agreement was entered in error or that they don’t know the implication of signing the agreement,” the source said. “If possible, documents that will provide for automatic deduction of the agreed money at a particular/agreed date must be provided.”

And the Nigerian Tribune reports that the the union members will review the four-month old strike on Monday and decide whether or not to end it, during the first union member meeting since the leadership met with President Jonathan.

The National Executive Council of the union will then meet on Wednesday in Kano to finalize whatever decision the members make.

__Source: Epoch Times

No fewer than 500 students of public and private schools across the country on Sunday observed the partial solar eclipse at the National Space Research and Development Agency

(NASRDA), Abuja.

A solar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth and partially blocked the sun.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the solar eclipse started in Abuja at exactly 1. 03 p.m. as predicted by NASRDA.

NASRDA provided the students and some Nigerians with instruments, including Eclipse shades to observe the eclipse.

The Supervising Minister for Science and Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said the students were invited to motivate them to develop interest in the study science and technology.

“We invited these students to boost their interest in studying of science and technology which is the bedrock for industrialisation of any nation.

“That is why we are using this medium to encourage you to develop interest in studying science and technology, particularly astronomy and space science,” Johnson said.

Johnson, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Rabi Jimeta, said the occurrence of the partial solar eclipse revealed that space technology was working in Nigeria.

She promised that government would continue in its efforts at ensuring the development of space science in Nigeria.

The Director-General of NASRDA, Prof. Seidu Mohammed, described solar eclipse as a natural phenomenon with no direct impact on climate change.

He described as false insinuations that occurrence of eclipse was an indication that the world was coming to an end.

“All that is happening is a natural phenomenon and there is no religious sentiment attached to it.

“This should help us to discourage the mysteries attached to solar eclipse by various religious bodies.

“From the scientific perspective, it’s just a natural phenomenon.

“The signal from geo-stationary satellites does not have effect on any of the communication gadgets like the GSM, aircraft and businesses,” Mohammed said.

Some of the students, who spoke with NAN, commended government for the opportunity to observe it at the centre, adding that it would boost their interest in studying science-related courses.

Mr Yat Japheth, a student of Baptist High School, Kubwa, FCT, said today was his first time of observing solar eclipse with such instruments provided by NASRDA.

Miss Peculiar Daniel, Scintillate Int’l Model School, Lokoja, said the opportunity would help her to know more about the sun, the moon and the earth.

Also, Mr Luru Adewumi, a teacher at the Oak Height Schools, Lugbe, Abuja, described it as an opportunity that some of the teachers never had when they were in schools.

Adewumi said the opportunity would not allow anybody to deceive the students about strange attachments to solar eclipse by people.

He said the experience would help the students to understand the practical aspects of science.

However, Mrs Akinwumi Arize, who brought her five-year-old son to observe the eclipse, said such gesture would help children to know how the galaxy and the universe operate.

NASRDA had predicted that a partial solar eclipse would occur in Lagos at 12:30 p m.; Kano, 1.07 p. m., and Enugu, 1.04 p.m.

It also added that the entire African continent would be affected by the partial eclipse, while some other parts of the world would witness total eclipse.

The agency predicted that another partial eclipse would occur in April 2014, March 2015 and September 2016. (NAN)

Did you observe the partial solar eclipse in your area? Kindly share your experiences!

via vanguarg.ng.com

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