To further improve the standard of education, Ogun State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, has released cut-off marks for its Screening Exercise into 42 flagship secondary schools for the 2024/2025 academic session.

Commissioner in the Ministry, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, while addressing Principals of the flagship schools during a meeting in Abeokuta, explained that the cut-off marks, which vary from one school to the other, was based on learners’ performance and capacity of each school.

Prof. Arigbabu, expressed delight at the impressive performance of students in the Entrance examination, with 14,363 out of 19,691 applicants scoring above 50, representing 76.2 percent of the total score, revealing that a student from Abeokuta Grammar School had the highest score of 91.

He appreciated the principals and other stakeholders for their contributions towards the smooth conduct of the exercise, reiterating the passion of Prince Dapo Abiodun administration towards providing modern laboratories, libraries and other technological equipment in public schools across the State, especially in flagship schools.

"As a fallout of the Progressive Mathematics Initiative and Progressive Science Initiative training we organised for 750 Science Teachers in year 2023, we are providing laptops to teachers. We will also equip our schools with furniture to ensure conducive learning environment", he said.

Remarking, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Oluwatosin Oloko, represented by the Director of Education, Department of Secondary and Higher, Mr. Oluwole Majekodunmi, stated that the results of learners in flagship schools were encouraging due to government’s commitment to the sector.

Earlier, Director of Education, Department of Curriculum Development and Evaluation, Mr. Temitope Lasilo, said the purpose of the meeting was to determine the cut-off mark for the flagship schools, towards ensuring qualified candidates gained admission and equal opportunities for the learners.

Appreciating the Commissioner for the opportunity to be part of the decision making, Principals of Remo Secondary School, Sagamu, Mr. Samuel Soneye and Comprehensive High School, Ayetoro, Mrs. Janet Hammond, on behalf of other Principals, expressed optimism that students in the state would continue to excel through government’s laudable initiatives.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner, in a meeting with the state executive of National Examination Council (NECO), led by the State Coordinator, Mrs. Bukola Alloh, at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, lauded the examination body for its consistency, saying it had become a notable option for students.

A team of experts from the National Universities Commission (NUC), led by the Ag Executive Secretary, Dr Chris Maiyaki, was on Friday September 6, 2024, hosted by the management staff of the Psycho-Spiritual Institute of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, and representatives of the Veritas University, Abuja, Senate, in what was the final stage in the due diligence processes of the agency, towards the legal recognition and approval of the offering in Nigeria, of the two postgraduate programmes of the Institute. These are: the Postgraduate diploma in Psycho-Spiritual Trauma Healing, and the Master of Art's degree in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy. Earlier in April, 2024, an affiliation agreement was signed by the Institute with Veritas University, Abuja, for the award of the degrees in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that the first campus of the Psycho-Spiritual Institute was established in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2013, and it was affiliated to the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) in 2014. The Psycho-Spiritual Therapy and Counselling programme was subsequently accredited by the Kenyan Commission for University Education (CUE). In the 11 years of its existence, the Institute has trained over 150 experts from up to 27 different African countries, in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy and Counselling.

It is hoped that with this new development, the campus in Abuja will join the Nairobi campus in training and equipping not only pastoral agents, but also many professionals in the humanitarian services, as well as sundry volunteers, who will help facilitate integral healing, wholeness, growth and transformation, in the many individuals, families and groups across the continent of Africa, who are today suffering from psycho-trauma, depression, confusion, burn-out, midlife crisis, family dysfunction, grieving disorders, addictive disorders, including addiction to alcohol and psycho-active substances, and suicide ideation.

Graduates of the Psycho-Spiritual Therapy programme will be equipped to work as spiritual directors, counsellors, and chaplains, in formation houses, hospitals, hospices, drug rehabilitation centres, correctional centres, as well as schools, colleges and universities.

The Psycho-Spiritual Institute is the pioneering initiative of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, which is aimed at the wholesome integration of the tools and approaches of modern Psychological Sciences, with the rich resources of the Soul Care tradition of the Christian Church, in the training of experts and volunteers for mental health care, within the African socio-cultural and religious context.

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The Forum of Southeast Academic Doctors (FOSAD) has expressed its dismay at the content of the 50th Inaugural Lecture, titled "The Igbo Factor in the History of Intergroup Relations and Commerce in Kano: Opportunities and Challenges Revisited," recently delivered by Professor Ahmed Bako at the Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto (UDUS). According to the group, Professor Bako misrepresented historical facts at various points in his lecture, and also engaged in typical Igbo profiling, teasing a xenophobic position that negates the integrative spirit of the Nigerian constitution.

As an academic advocacy group in part dedicated to understanding the diverse peoples of Nigeria and the broader tapestry of Nigerian history, FOSAD says it had looked forward with great interest when Professor Bako's impending lecture was announced. The group says it had expected that, as a professional historian, the professor would present the history of Igbos in Kano - and their broader history in northern Nigeria - with depth and dispassion.

To be fair to Professor Bako, FOSAD says, he met the expectation to a degree at various points in his presentation. Citing credible scholarly sources, according to the group, Professor Bako correctly historicized the impetus behind Igbo emigration to other parts of colonial and post-colonial Nigeria.

FOSAD also says the professor correctly portrayed the enterprising nature of the Igbos who left their homeland over a hundred years ago to take advantage of opportunities presented in the colonial administration of Kano and other parts of the North.

Despite this incontestable historiography, FOSAD says Professor Bako - for reasons it cannot fathom - advanced some arguments that are not supported by historical evidence or contemporary fact.

One of the controversial and historically dubious claims made by Professor Bako, according to FOSAD, is his statement that Igbos set out in the colonial era to dominate Nigeria. As the professor put it in his lecture: "The Igbo in actual fact from the 1950s started sending their sons and daughters to Europe and America for higher education; all with the hope of eventual domination of the country; not necessarily for developing it for the benefit of the nation." FOSAD says this is a provocative and historically inaccurate statement which calumniates the Igbos and misconstrues their legitimate attempt to compete in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria.

The academic group disputes the claim that Igbos ever sought to dominate Nigeria, pointing out that Professor Bako never provided historical evidence to back up his controversial assertion. The group also says that Igbos are known to invest in and improve any locality where they are domiciled, sometimes even at the expense of their homeland.

FOSAD disputes Professor Bako's statement that Igbo traders, with their supposedly aggressive trade practices and insular trade groups, displaced indigenous traders in Kano or anywhere else in the colonial and post-colonial North. The group recalls many collaborative ventures between Igbos and indigenous people of Kano and elsewhere in the North, and argues that the more than century-old sojourn of Igbos in northern Nigeria would not be possible with the alleged Igbo aggressiveness.

The group also points to the successful settlement of northerners in parts of Igboland which continues to this day, despite the terrorisation of Igboland by Islamic bandits and militant cattle herders from the North.

Similarly, FOSAD decries Professor Bako's silence on events that led to the Nigerian civil war, his selective account of the devastations and after-effects of the war, and his rather rosy depiction of the post-war policy of indigenisation which short-changed the Igbos but, in his recounting, was depicted as entirely beneficial to them. Professor Bako broached the issue of Igbo dispossession through the "abandoned property" saga; but nowhere in his historiography, according to FOSAD, was there a mention of the grim prospects faced by Igbos who had to scratch up a new existence in post-war Nigeria with the £20 given to them whatever their pre-war bank account balance.

According to FOSAD, the most vexatious part of Professor Bako's lecture is his suggestion that Igbos self-marginalized themselves in the Nigerian political arena by focusing almost exclusively on commercial and mercantile pursuits in the post-war period. This couldn't be further from the truth, FOSAD says, as Igbos have fully participated in the politics of the country, despite the fact that there has yet to emerge - fifty-four years after the civil war - a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction.

In this regard, FOSAD says it strongly condemns Professor Bako's labeling of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a socio-cultural organization seeking to promote Igbo unity and interests in Nigeria, as a secessionist outfit. Although the professor disclaimed an interest in contemporary politics, he nonetheless made a pointed reference to "current contestations on the question of power shift as well as agitations for separation by Igbo political platforms such as the IPOB, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide and other Igbo separatist groups." FOSAD says this is a gross mischaracterisaton of Ohanaeze's - and, by extension, broader Igbo - political outlook.

The academic group says this is more worrying given that Professor Bako concluded by saying he hoped his lecture "generates greater interest in the history of Igbo Diaspora in different parts of the country," and that the lecture was delivered for "the northern elites to know what actually happened so that necessary arrangements are made."

FOSAD says it wonders why an academic of Professor Bako's standing should be wondering whether Igbos would ever depart northern Nigeria, despite the integrative aspiration of the Nigerian constitution (1999) which at Section 41(1) provides that "Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereby or exit therefrom."

FOSAD calls on all Nigerians to celebrate their shared citizenship, and to embrace their common interest in building a great country which could become the pride of Africa and beacon of Black civilization.

FOSAD Research & Documentation Team:
Dr Chudi Okoye
Dr Marcel Mbamalu
Dr Chris Belonwu

Signed
Dr Stephen Nwala, FOSAD President

Dr Uzor Ngoladi, FOSAD, Secretary General www.fosads.org

In a heartfelt session held over the weekend, Betsy Obaseki, the wife of the Edo State Governor, delivered an inspiring message to childless women, urging them to see themselves as “fruitful, potential, and proud mothers” awaiting their time as decreed by divine providence.

The occasion, a Zoom meeting, saw Mrs. Obaseki, joined by Mrs. Ifeyinwa Ighodalo, spouse of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, engaging with a vibrant community of Edo women residing abroad.

This impactful dialogue comes in the wake of controversial remarks by Senator Adams Oshiomhole regarding Mrs. Obaseki’s childlessness, which quickly spiraled into virality.

The senator’s comments were a direct reaction to a pointed jab from Betsy Obaseki during a rally in Igueben, where she declared that “only Asue Ighodalo has a wife among the leading contenders.”

During the virtual meeting, Mrs. Obaseki addressed the participants spread across various continents, reminding them of their intrinsic worth and the divine intention behind their creation.

“Every woman is created by God for a purpose,” she asserted, reinforcing a message of hope and dignity amidst the often sensitive subject of childlessness.

She said, “My words of comfort to you, like myself, who have conceived and experienced miscarriages, painful stillbirths, and evacuations of babies who died in our wombs, is this, you are not barren.

“I dare to call you fruitful. You and I are potential and proud mothers of children who will come in God’s time. Enjoy the life God has given you.

“Take your mind off your challenge, and before you know it, children will start coming.”

Obaseki said that her contributions to society have gone beyond the biological aspect of motherhood. Being fruitful is not limited to childbearing. It is about impacting lives and creating positive change in society.

“There is no point in feeling bad. Women can fulfil God’s purpose in many ways beyond motherhood,” she added.

Ifeyinwa Ighodalo thanked the women for attending the meeting and promised to continue all of Betsy Obaseki’s programmes for women and the girl child in Edo if her husband is elected.