I’m not sure what breaks the heart more: her insistence on her innocence or the prospects of a future that now hangs in the balance. For a young adult with a promising future, the emerging facts only suggest one thing: it doesn’t rain, it pours.

Mmesoma Ejikeme was one of the numerous students of Anglican Girls Secondary School (AGSS), Nnewi, Anambra State, who took the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in May 2023.

The first child in a family of four whose father eked out a living as an Okada rider, Mmesoma remained not just the pride of her parents, she was also one of the stars in AGSS, a missionary school handed back to its owners by former Governor Peter Obi in 2009.

Many public schools across the country were returned to the missions after years of neglect and mismanagement by government. It appears that the very reason they were returned has come back to haunt the new owners.

“My dream,” Mmesoma told reporters in the thick of allegations this week that she forged her UTME result, “was to become a pharmacist or a medical doctor. And I have always studied and worked hard to achieve it.”

That dream has either taken a fatal blow or may be unravelling after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) flagged Mmesoma’s result as forged and barred her from exams conducted by the board for three years.

For a country obsessed with politics, it was a surprise that the misery of this young adult and her family toppled political stories on the front pages for days and even drowned the heroics of the World, Commonwealth and African champion athlete, Tobi Amusan, who repeated her 2022 feat at the Diamond League in Stockholm, Sweden.

Instead of draping the national flag and posting Tobi’s photos on timelines like we did last year, the public space morphed into a triangle of controversy covering Mmesoma and her family; her school and the Anambra State Government; and JAMB.

High on emotions but short on facts and logic, the lynch mob on social media, never short of subjects and objects, has snapped-up the vomit. As usual, it is prosecuting, judging and executing with the virulence and toxicity of snake venom.

Some of the toxicity has also managed to seep in from a bitter spring of ethnic divisions that left the country deeply divided after the general elections. Yet, this tragedy is neither Igbo nor Yoruba; neither Efik nor Fulfude. It’s a human tragedy. 

It does appear that Mmesoma has been duped. Or she may have let herself into something she must now be sorry for. Information from her own video, interviews, and the response of JAMB, tend to show that the “notification of result” in which she claimed she scored 362, was fake.

Apart from taking JAMB’s word for it, I have spoken with six other candidates who took the same May UTME exam with Mmesoma. None of them has a slip that bears “notification of result,” which the examiner, JAMB, insists is one of the marks of the forged result.

The mix-up in her date of birth – which actually reflected the date of birth of Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle, the original owner of the slip who took the exam two years ago and scored 138, and the bar code – also suggest strongly that what Mmesoma is showing as her result, was not her result.

Candidates get their results through one of two means: either by SMS or through the JAMB portal. The board has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that both methods are significantly secure. Of course, there are numerous fake sites offering everything from “upgrade” of JAMB scores to “self-service results,” complete with options for grades a la carte. I guess you would find similar Ochanja markets, even for politicians.

Yet, in Nigeria’s forest of desperately failing public institutions, JAMB, especially under Professor Ishaq Oloyede’s watch, has been exceptional. It understands that if the bird has learnt to fly without perching, the hunter must also learn to shoot without missing.

Except if Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo has other assignments for his investigating committee of eight of whom five are professors, it does not require a committee of eggheads to see that either Mmesoma has been duped, egged on by family, or she may have been a willing part of a bigger scam.

Mmesoma’s travail is not an isolated case or one-of-a-kind. Perhaps, hers has re-echoed because of the ripple effects. She was on her way to winning a scholarship from the state government, after a N3m award by Innoson Motors Chairman, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, when the bubble burst.

More audacious is Kaduna State-born Gerald Atung, earlier reported to have obtained 380 points in the same exam. Unlike Mmesoma, however, Gerald got his distinction for an exam he neither registered for nor participated in.

According to JAMB, “Gerald Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME forms not to talk of sitting for the examination.” Miracle? Even a credulous congregation might argue that at least there was water, before it became wine!

How did we get here? As in many things dumb and useless, politicians have managed to lead the way to the collapse of values. When they started throwing money at candidates with the highest cut-off marks in JAMB, instead of investing more in primary education, making public secondary schools more competitive, and state-owned tertiary institutions more skills-driven and science-focused, it was only a matter of time before they would democratise the rat race. Now, we’re reaping the whirlwind.

Politicians have continued to make a lot of noise about JAMB cut-off scores, even when JAMB has said, time and again, that the idea of cut-off marks is meaningless. Owners of private schools and tutorial/CBT centres also use high UTME scores as a sales gimmick and the fool’s button.

A candidate is assessed for admission not only on the basis of their UTME score, but also based on their school certificate exam result and their post-UTME score.

Crucially, other factors such as the general performance for that year, compliance with admission rules (by both the schools and candidates) for the course of study, quota catchment, and availability are also important. The cut-off war is unnecessary and irrelevant. What is the use, for example, of splashing cash on a cut-off hero who fails the school certificate examination?

As far as UTME goes, Mmesoma’s 249 was a good score and didn’t need padding. With 64 in Use of English; 54 in Physics; 74 in Biology; and 57 in Chemistry, I’m not sure if she would have made it into Pharmacy at the University of Lagos, which was her first choice or the Lagos State University, which was her second.

But assuming she passes her school certificate examination (and/or the NECO, which she is still taking), she might have been in good stead either for a state university, a federal university in the South East, or one in Delta State, which has no place at all for quota.

Mmesoma’s travail shows that obsession for short-cuts and quick fixes often lead to broken hearts and deeper misery. It’s not about tribe or ethnicity, else Mmesoma would not have chosen all four school choices outside the South East, her native enclave.

She made the regrettable error of climbing the tree of her ambition beyond the leaf. And sadly, she has landed where there’s no road to medicine or pharmacy and she cannot continue to double down. Life is not over. With help, she can rise again.

JAMB has made its point robustly. It has rightly thrown out the bath water. It should, however, spare the baby.

…Vows not to abandon Nigerians to their fate

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has said the recent hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, commonly known as petrol, and other perceived anti-poor policies were weapons of war against Nigerian workers and masses.

According to NLC, impoverishing workers and pushing millions more into hellish living does not, in any way, approximate sound economic management.

In an address at the opening ceremony of a four-day programme for leaders of the state councils of NLC in the south, taking place in Lagos, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, said from all intents and purposes, the Nigerian state had declared war on the working people and the masses of Nigeria.

Represented by the Deputy President of Congress and President-General of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, in the programme supported by the American Solidarity Centre, Ajaero, noted that trade union leaders must not abandon the Nigerian people and workers to their fate.

The NLC president said labour leaders across the country “must all join hands in the struggle for the articulation and protection of the rights of Nigerian workers and people with all hope that one day, workers of Nigeria will reclaim their natural rights that have been forcefully abridged and trampled upon by uninformed employers and those in government who ought to have been in the vanguard of guaranteeing such rights.

“Various governments in Nigeria have mercilessly trampled upon the rights of Nigerians without any feeling of remorse. Politicians have ganged up against the workers and the masses without any consequences.

”It is important to note that governance in Nigeria is always spoken about in paradoxical dimensions.
Governments are rooted in the lives of the people and thus ought to pursue service to them but in our nation, governance has become an instrument for inflicting pains and suffering on workers and the masses.

”Recently, we are all witnessed the steep heartless hike in the price of PMS by the federal government under the guise of the so-called petroleum subsidy withdrawal without making alternative arrangements to cushion the expected and well-known impact of such unconscionable action.

“This policy direction ought to have been the product of dialogue amongst stakeholders but was shunned by a democratically elected government which rather believes in machoism that has since left the economy reeling.

“That, clearly shows that the Nigerian State from all corners is clearly at war with the people and workers. They have mounted pressure on the people at all fronts and have robbed the people repeatedly even when the people have turned the other cheek refusing to acknowledge that governance must go hand in hand with social justice if it is to have any meaning.

”This onslaught, comrades, is not relenting and would continue if nothing is done to mediate it immediately.

“It has become exigent that we forcefully bring to the knowledge of our various leaders that rendering many more millions of Nigerians poor could not be an option for punishment.

”Moreover, impoverishing workers and pushing millions more into hellish living does not in any way approximate sound economic management.

“Nigerian workers and masses cannot continue bearing the brunt of ill-conceived policies and outright fantasies of our leaders. The continued sacrifice of poor Nigerian workers so that the rich can continue in their unbridled pleasures is beginning to push events to the edge.

“A nation with a huge number of poor people and an increasing number of the working poor is akin to mega trouble. Growth without commensurate benefits to the people is meaningless. Nigerians, workers and comrades can put a stop to this.

”The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, can halt this manifest mischief. As trade union leaders, we must not abandon the people and workers to their fate. We must not leave anything to chance and we must not sit by and watch this rape continue unabated.

“Among the heart-wrenching and serial atrocities of current employers both in the public and private sectors against Nigerian workers is the continued prevalence of abuses of the rights and privileges of the workforce in the various shopfloors which have gone unchallenged.

“Acts of impunity by lawless employers without recourse to our extant labour laws have all contributed to abridging the rights of our fellow workers in our various workplaces.

”It has suddenly become a passion and a dangerous pastime for employers to trample upon our rights as the creators and builders of the wealth of this nation.

“Across the nation, reports kept pouring in of workers deprived and denied of their basic rights and sometimes denied of their rights to fair and living wages.

”Governments at various levels owe salaries sometimes up to one year and when they manage to pay one month, they applaud themselves openly believing that the payment of earned income to workers is charity extended to workers.”

[Vanguard]

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Joe Igbokwe, has called on the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to resign from his position.

Igbokwe stated this following the disagreement between Adamu and the leadership of the National Assembly over the appointment of the principal officers of the parliament.

Speaking with Daily Trust on Wednesday, Igbokwe said it is high time the national chairman was eased out because he could no longer be trusted.

He said it was wrong for the party’s chairman to have publicly dismissed the list of the principal officers which the president, who is the leader of the party, must have endorsed.

Igbokwe said the national chairman had shown that he cannot be trusted when he attempted to choose the former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the party’s presidential candidate.

He said, “He was supposed to have been removed that time when he supported Ahmed Lawan but APC managed the matter. We can’t trust him.”

The former spokesman of APC in Lagos said even if Adamu was not satisfied with the list of principal officers released, he should not have made it public.

“In all honesty, we can’t trust him again. He was managed for us to come out of the election. Now is the time to ease him out but I know Asiwaju knows what to do,” he added.

The Nigerian Army will put an end to pipeline damage and oil theft in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, according to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Maj.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja.

Wednesday in Ibadan was Nigerian Army Day Celebration (NADCEL) day, and Lagbaja spoke at an interactive session with media executives.

He added that he would continue to pay attention to banditry in the Northwest.

Lagbaja said, “The Army will focus on the situation in the Niger-Delta region, just as it will not also lose focus on what’s happening in other parts of the country in line with the mandate of the current government.

“The President [Bola Tinubu] has said that the nation is bleeding from all these. The money isn’t just there to do what we used to do in the past.

“This has led to the removal of oil subsidies and the floated exchange rate, while other reforms have also been put in place.

“Riding on the ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda of the President, the Nigerian Army under my watch will stamp out oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta.”

Senate Majority Leader, Michael Bamidele, on Wednesday, said that there were no criminal charges against President Bola Tinubu in any United States court.

Bamidele was called as a sole witness during the proceedings of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja.

The Senate Majority Leader maintained that the $460, 000 forfeiture order against the President by an American court was in respect of a civil matter that could not take the place of criminal charges.

He said there was no conviction and sentence against Tinubu as required by law for it to be turned into criminal charges.

The witness also told the court that the February 25 presidential election results for All Progressives Congress in Kano State were recorded with a shortfall of 10, 292 votes against Tinubu.

President Bola Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, along with their party, the All Progressives Congress have closed their defence in the joint petition filed by the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi.

The trio are co-respondents in the petition by the LP and Obi challenging their victory in the February 25 presidential election.

The respondents through their team of lawyers led by Wole Olanipekun, SAN, (for Tinubu and Shettima) and Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, (for the APC) closed their defence after tendering several documents and calling a witness to testify in aid of their counter-arguments against the issues raised by the petitioners.

Despite the objections by the petitioners, the five-man panel of the court presided over by Justice Haruna Tsammani admitted the documents as evidence and marked them as exhibits.

The court gave the respondents 10 days to file their final written addresses, the petitioner seven days to respond and five days to reply on point of law.

Justice Tsammani said the date for the adoption of the final written addresses would be communicated to the parties.

Under cross-examination by counsel for the APC, Fagbemi, SAN, Bamidele told the court that Obi’s name was not contained in the membership list of the LP submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Other documents tendered and admitted during Wednesday’s proceedings include a letter from the Nigeria Police to the United States Embassy, dated February 3, 2003; a letter from the United States Embassy to the Nigeria Police, dated February 4, 2003; and US Visas and immigration documents between 2011 and 2021.

In a related development, Tinubu, Shettima, and the APC closed their defence in the joint petition by the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Among other grounds, the petitioners contended that INEC did not comply with the electoral laws including failure to transmit the election result electronically using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System and the INEC Results Viewing portal.

They also argued that, contrary to the provisions of the law, the president failed to poll at least 25 per cent of votes from the Federal Capital Territory.

During the resumed hearing in their defence on Wednesday evening, the respondents in the petition proceeded to close their case after tendering several documents and calling one witness to testify in the matter.

As in the case of Obi, the court gave the respondents 10 days to file their final written addresses, the petitioner seven days to respond and five days to reply on point of law.

Under cross-examination by counsel for the APC, Fagbemi, SAN, Bamidele affirmed that the president was not charged with any criminal offence by any American court.

This was about the widely circulated court affidavit from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division on civil forfeiture proceedings against Tinubu concerning $460,000.

However, the witness affirmed that “there can’t be a conviction without a charge, arraignment and defence.”

He said the president had a clean bill of health as far as criminal charges in the USA were concerned.

He further affirmed the statement by the senior advocate that the president is a citizen of Nigeria by birth.

Under cross-examination by counsel for the PDP and Atiku, Eyitayo Jegede(SAN), the witness argued that scoring 25 per cent votes in Abuja was not a mandatory requirement for the office of the president.

A forensic analysis has declared that the content of the 2017 viral video which captured former Governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, allegedly receiving bundles of dollar notes as a bribe from a contractor and stuffing them in his flowing dress was not doctored but real video.

Chairman of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, Muhuyi Rimingado made this known on Wednesday, during “A One Day Public Dialogue on Anti-Corruption Crusade in Kano”, stating that the authenticity of the videos had been confirmed.

According to Rimingado, since the release of the video, he had been pressured from all quarters to either prove the embattled governor’s innocence or guilt.

He added that since the commission commenced an investigation into the allegations in 2018, proving Ganduje’s guilt or innocence had been impossible because the former governor had immunity.

Recall that while Ganduje debunked the contents of the video after it surfaced, the Kano State House of Assembly had constituted a committee to investigate the allegations but the committee was yet to submit its findings, before a new assembly was inaugurated on July 4, 2023.

However, the former governor had recently requested a Kano State High Court to restrain the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from investigating him over the matter.

In a suit filed before the high court, the former Attorney General of the State prayed the court to restrain the EFCC from probing Ganduje until a suit between the former governor and the publisher of the Daily Nigerian, Jafaar Jafaar, was determined.

More than 10 million people have signed up for Threads, Meta’s rival to Twitter, within the first few hours of its launch, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday.

The app went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 2300 GMT on Wednesday and will run with no ads for now, but its release in Europe has been delayed over data privacy concerns.

Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Elon Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, despite its struggles.

“10 million sign-ups in seven hours,” Zuckerberg wrote on his official Threads account Thursday.

Accounts were already active for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Shakira and Hugh Jackman, as well as media outlets including The Washington Post and The Economist.

Zuckerberg also offered a shot across the bow at Musk – the pair are known to be bitter rivals and have offered to wrestle it out in a cage fight.

In his first tweet in over a decade, Zuckerberg posted a Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme in an apparent reference to the similarities between Threads

On Threads, he wrote: “It’ll take some time, but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully, we will.”

Twitter has said it has more than 200 million daily users.

– ‘Be kind’ –

Threads was introduced as a clear spin-off of Instagram, which offers a built-in audience of more than two billion users, sparing the new platform the challenge of starting from scratch.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told users that Threads was intended to build “an open and friendly platform for conversations.”

“The best thing you can do if you want that too is be kind,” he said.

Zuckerberg is widely understood to be taking advantage of Musk’s chaotic ownership of Twitter to push out the new product, which Meta hopes will become the go-to platform for celebrities, companies and politicians.

“It’s as simple as that: if an Instagram user with a large number of followers such as Kardashian or a Bieber or a Messi begins posting on Threads regularly, a new platform could quickly thrive,” strategic financial analyst Brian Wieser said on Substack.

Analyst Jasmine Engberg from Insider Intelligence said Threads only needs one out of four Instagram monthly users “to make it as big as Twitter.”

“Twitter users are desperate for an alternative, and Musk has given Zuckerberg an opening,” she added.

Under Musk, Twitter has seen content moderation reduced to a minimum with glitches and rash decisions scaring away celebrities and major advertisers.

He has angered Twitter’s most devoted aficionados by declaring that access to its TweetDeck product — which allows users to view a fast flow of tweets at once — would be for paying customers only.

– EU ‘many months’ away –

Meta has its legion of critics too, especially in Europe, which could slow the growth of Threads.

The company has been criticized for its handling of personal data, the essential ingredient for targeted ads that help it rake in billions of dollars in profits.

Mosseri said he regretted that the launch was delayed in the European Union, but had Meta waited for regulatory clarity from Brussels, Threads would have been “many, many, many, months away.”

“I was worried that our window would close because timing is important,” he told the tech news site Platformer.

According to a source close to the matter, Meta was wary of a new law called the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets strict rules for the world’s “gatekeeper” internet companies.

One rule restricts platforms from moving user data between products, as would potentially be the case between Threads and Instagram.

Meta was caught doing just that after it bought WhatsApp, and European regulators will be on high alert to ensure it does not do so illegally with Threads.

Globally, the Threads hashtag on Twitter has garnered over a million tweets, with many users jokingly suggesting people will return to Musk’s platform.

“10 mins into threads app. Me coming back to Twitter,” one user wrote, sharing a video of a man sprinting.

Others expressed privacy concerns.

“Meta loves to collect private information and I don’t trust the way it treats private information,” a Japanese user tweeted.

“I also have the impression that this is a company hated by EU, so I’m reluctant.”

But some said they would permanently move to Threads.

One Threads user wrote: “Now I truly can say goodbye to Twitter forever.”

AFP

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Kwara State Command has confirmed the arrest of a fraudster, Babatunde Adekunle, for swapping the Automated Teller Machine card of an old man and using the card to withdraw N1.8m from the man’s account.

The state Commandant of the NSCDC, Umar Mohammed, paraded Adekunle alongside six other suspects nabbed with two trucks loaded with railway slippers at Oloru in the Moro Local Government Area of the state.

Mohammed said Babatunde Adekunle, 41, was alleged to have fraudulently swapped his ATM card with that of an old man at one of the ATM points in a bank in Ilorin.

“Having swapped the card, he allegedly withdrew N1.8m from the account. The case was reported and the commandant mandated the tracking unit to arrest him,” he said.

On the nabbed two trucks loaded with railway slippers, Mohammed identified the suspects as Yunusa Bello, 41, Sanni Taminu, 35, Sanusi Lawal, 25, Alhaji Makeri,33, Lukman Sanni, 32, and Olabode Johnson, 41.

Umar appreciated the state government, the traditional rulers and the good people of the state for their support.

He assured the public that the command would continue to work with other sister agencies so as to ensure the safety of the lives and property of residents in the state.

ine more African countries are to receive 18 million doses of the first-ever RTS, S/AS01 malaria vaccine.

But Nigeria, which accounts for an estimated 38.4 per cent of global malaria deaths in children aged under five years, is not among the nine that will from the last quarter of this year begin to have access to the vaccine.

The countries listed by Gavi Vaccine Alliance, World Health Organisation (WHO), and UNICEF are Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Gavi, WHO) and UNICEF explained in a joint statement yesterday that the beneficiaries will begin the rollout by early 2024. The vaccine are already in use in three other African countries—Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

The vaccine is the first to be recommended for use by WHO to prevent malaria in children below five years.

The joint statement which gave no reason for not including Nigeria among the beneficiaries reads: “Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have been delivering the malaria vaccine through the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, coordinated by WHO and funded by Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid.

“The RTS -S/AS01 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019 and has been shown to be safe and effective, resulting in a substantial reduction in severe malaria and a fall in child deaths. At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the malaria vaccine.

“In addition to Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, the initial 18 million dose allocation will enable nine more countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, to introduce the vaccine into their routine immunisation programmes for the first time.”

The statement added that the allocations were determined through the application of the principles outlined in a framework that prioritises areas of highest need, risk and death of children

Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, Thabani Maphosa, restated that the vaccine is impactful in the fight against malaria.

He said:“While we work with manufacturers to help ramp up supply, we need to make sure the doses that we do have are used as effectively as possible, which means applying all the learnings from our pilot programmes as we broaden out to a new total of 12 countries.” UNICEF Associate Director of Immunisation, Ephrem Lemango, said that nearly every minute, a child under five years dies of malaria.

“For a long time, these deaths have been preventable and treatable; but the roll-out of this vaccine will give children, especially in Africa, an even better chance at surviving. As supply increases, we hope even more children can benefit from this life-saving advancement,” Lemango added.

The WHO Director of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, Dr Kate O’Brien, said the malaria vaccine was a breakthrough to improve child health and child survival; and families and communities.

The spokesman for the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Control(NAFDAC) in Lagos State, Christy Obiazokwor, promised to get back when contacted by The Nation on why Nigeria was not listed as one of the nine new beneficiaries.

As of 10.08 pm, she had yet to do so.

NAFDAC had on April 26 said it would begin clinical trials of the vaccine in six weeks to ascertain the vaccine’s effectiveness.

THE Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has, in the last seven years, committed a sum of N27.76 billion as ICT intervention support to public tertiary schools in the country.

About N3.43 billion (representing 12.5 percent) of the total amount was spent on train lecturers and other workers on digital literacy and productivity skills acquisition alone in those schools under the years in review.

The executive secretary of TETFUND, Mr Sonny Achono, gave the revelation in Lagos while delivering the 26th convocation lecture of the Lagos State University(LASU), Ojo, recently

He noted that the universities got the largest share which was N15.59 billion out of the total allocation, while the polytechnics and colleges of education got N6.37 billion and N5.80 billion respectively.

Achono, who spoke on ‘Higher Education in the Digital Age,’ explained that the essence of investing such a huge amount of money on ICT in tertiary schools is to demonstrate that the 21st century economy requires that graduates possess relevant digital skills to thrive and contribute significantly.

He observed that though the world is bedevilled by massive unemployment, the fact remains that most companies, globally are complaining about their inability to fill open vacancies due to shortages of people with relevant skills to man the openings.

He declared that Nigeria is not exempted from this challenge, hence the need to produce graduates and other skilled workers, who would be fit-for-purpose.

According to him, “at TETFund, we are fully aware that the future of education in Nigeria is inseparably hinged on the development of capacity in digital literacy and skills to address the acute dearth of workers with in-demand digital literacy and emerging skills as well as the mismatch between the skills which graduates possess and employers need in this 21st century.

“That is why our investment as an agency on ICT is so that our tertiary schools would also operate in accordance with the global best practices,” he maintained.

In her welcome address earlier, the vice chancellor of LASU, Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, said that the outbreak of Covid-19 and resultant global lockdown had exposed all countries and institutions to a reality that activities on digital space are indispensable.

She mentioned that LASU is now carrying out most of its activities both on site and digitally.