Petrol Prices Surge: It’s Too Early To Cry, The Real Problem Is Yet To Come – Adewole Adebayo
This is the consequence of our votes. Tinubu is implementing certain measures that are legacies from what he met. When his own policies come into effect, we’ll see complications arise.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, has revealed that over 137 students sponsored on scholarship abroad absconded.
The Executive Secretary, TETFUND, Sonny Echono revealed this on Tuesday when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating the alleged mismanagement of N2.3 trillion tertiary education tax by TETFUND.
According to Echono, the scholars who were sponsored by TETFUND for “higher education” abroad refuse to return to the country after completing their programmes.
He said: “Some of the scholars that have been sponsored, unpatriotically when they go, they enjoy our scholarship, acquire a higher degree, then refuse to come back, it has become a major crisis.
“The scholarship requires that you will come back. It is required that you have a guarantor and in many cases, the guarantor had suffered undue hardship because when you disappear we hold the guarantor to pay all the money expended on your behalf but that has not been effective.”
Echono said TETFUND was working with stakeholders for “stringent and effective measures” to be taken against those who refuse to return to the country for Nigerians to benefit from their expertise.
“We believe that in a system where we work with our embassies and the institutions, we can enforce the repayment for those who insist they will not come back,” he said.
He added that if the scholars who don’t want to return to the country refuse to repay the money expended on their programmes, they will be declared persona non grata.
Echono said: “We will write to the embassies and they will make it available to those countries and they will not be able to get jobs. They will be seen as fugitives of law from their countries.
“We may have to take that hard stand because the numbers are alarming. We just checked about 40 institutions and over 137 absconders and the review is ongoing.
“It is a huge number that we cannot afford and so we will be seeking your support to strengthen some of the existing regulations to ensure that those who benefit from this programme must come back.
“We are not against people looking for greener pastures but do so on your own, not through our scholarship or our sponsorship.”
The Executive Secretary said TETFUND may suspend foreign scholarship due to the exchange rate crisis.
Echono said that some of the taxes are paid to TETFUND in foreign currencies at the account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria but when fees are to be paid for scholars abroad, the apex bank insists on TETFUND sourcing Forex by itself.
He added, “We operate a system where our forex is being sold on our behalf at an official rate and we apply like anybody else to get it, sometimes it leads to additional cost.
“Currently as I speak, we are in consultations with all our stakeholders to suspend foreign training for a year or two.
“This is because of the recent exchange rate adjustments. We are unable to continue based on our disbursement guidelines.
“The money we allocated in naira cannot cover the dollar requirement for training. For those who are currently there, we now need more naira to pay for the dollar that is required for their annual fees. We are trying to put a hold.”
He said most of our training will now be done locally through “our experienced, first-generation universities and other specialised universities” in the country.
“This way we can retain our resources in-house and cope with the change of foreign exchange variation,” he added.
He said the federal government was owning TETFUND N371.3 billion out of which it has repaid N46 billion so far.
Echono also denied the allegations that TETFUND mismanaged the N2.3tn fund.
Meanwhile, Oluwole Oke, chairman of the committee, said the probe is not to witch-hunt, adding that the lawmakers are out to stop the misuse of public funds.
Source:- Vanguard
ABUJA, FCT
JULY 18, 2023
PRESS STATEMENT
*PRESIDENT TINUBU HAD NO TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH CJN – THE COURTS SHOULD BE LEFT ALONE TO DO THEIR JOB*
We have become aware of a decidedly mischievous and intentionally misleading tweet by one Mr Jackson Ude.
He alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in telephone conversation with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, in which the CJN purportedly told the President and APC to prepare for a presidential election rerun.
It is disturbing and disgraceful for Mr Ude to fabricate a falsehood of this kind on a matter of serious national importance that is actively under review by the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC).
President Tinubu and our Party won the last Presidential election without a doubt, and do not have any need to engage in side conversations with the CJN regarding pending petitions before the PEPC.
As the core democrat that he is, the President respects the right of aggrieved Candidates in the election to seek redress for any grievances that they may have. The Constitution and Electoral Act provide effective guarantees of that right.
The PEPC should be afforded the time and space to perform its important constitutional and statutory duty of adjudicating and delivering a verdict in the matter without needlessly calling the integrity of our Judges into question.
Falsehood and conjecture by the likes of Mr. Ude only aim to inflame political passions, create doubt and panic, and preemptively undermine the verdict of the Courts in this important matter.
We are confident that Nigerians are smarter and more discerning than to be affected by this opposition brand of tasteless and crass mercenary expedition.
SIGNED:
*Barr. Felix Morka*
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Nigerians are not relenting on their quest to make sure the right thing is done following the petitions against The announcement of Tinubu as Winner of February 29th Presidential Election.
They are actively following the judiciary process as Billboards boldly written All Eyes On The Judiciary was seen in Benin City .
Hilda Baci’s epic record for the longest cooking marathon has sparked a worldwide flurry of applications.
Social media has been flooded with people taking on all sorts of marathon attempts ever since she first burst on to the scenewith a record of 93 hr 11 min.
Unfortunately, many of the attempts won’t count as there isn’t actually a record for the thing people are attempting to do.
And while some are existing record titles, the people taking them on haven’t gone through the motions of sending in an application and being sent the guidelines.
Every Guinness World Records title must be measurable and standardisable, meaning there are many guidelines to follow in order to ensure everyone is on an equal playing field.
Sadly, people who are setting off on their days-long record attempts unofficially are unlikely to meet all the criteria, despite all their enthusiasm and effort.
We want everyone to stand a fair chance, so with that in mind, we’re giving you a few quick tips on what you need to do.
A representative from our records team explained: “We advise anybody interested in achieving a record to submit an application and wait for our Records Management Team to approve your application BEFORE attempting the record.
“Once the application is approved, you will receive the full guidelines which list all of the specific rules and evidence requirements for the record. If you do a record attempt without first reading the guidelines, you might do it wrong, or not capture all of the evidence we need, meaning we cannot recognize your efforts with a Guinness World Records title.
“If your proposal is not something we can monitor as a record, our Records Team will explain why and may suggest alternative options for you where possible.”
We’re also going to have a look at the longest marathon records that are available for people to attempt… but given that there are literally hundreds of them, we won’t be covering them all.
But here are a few examples for you, as well as the current record that you’d have to beat…
For those with musical talent:
• Longest marathon playing guitar – David Browne (Ireland) – 114 hr 6 min 30 sec
• Longest marathon playing sitar – Radhakrishnan Manoharan (India) – 29 hr 8 min 35 sec
• Longest marathon cello playing – Carel Henn (South Africa) – 26 hr
• Longest marathon playing the tuba – Rodney Kenny (UK) – 24 hr 8 min
• Longest marathon playing flute – Katherine Brookes (UK) – 27 hr 32 min 32 sec
• Longest marathon playing bagpipes – Rikki Evans (UK) – 26 hr 5 min 32 sec
• Longest marathon harp playing – Kateryna Oliinyk (Ukraine) – 31 hr 1 min 54 sec
• Longest marathon drumming by a team – J.D.T Music Academy, Janel Spalding, Aaron Houseago, Holly Jones, Ryan Murray and Lorraine Dorrington (all UK) – 3 days 8 hr 2 min
For sports and fitness fans:
• Longest marathon playing dodgeball – Right to Play at Castleton (USA) – 41 hr 3 min 17 sec
• Longest marathon playing netball – Generation Netball Club (Australia) – 72 hr 5 min
• Longest marathon tenpin bowling – Stephen Shanabrook (USA) – 134 hr 57 min
• Longest marathon breakdancing by a team – Arulanantham Suresh Joachim, Troy Feldman, Jesse Catabog, Donald F Geraghty, Lance Johnson, Eva Nikitova, Damian Dobrowolski, Dan Rossignoli, Darren Bryan, Karl Alba and Joseph Hersco (all Canada) – 24 hr
• Longest marathon parasailing – Berne Persson (Sweden) – 24 hr 10 min
• Longest marathon skipping – Joey Motsay (USA) – 33 hr 20 min
• Longest marathon hula hooping – Jenny Doan (Australia) – 100 hr
• Longest marathon playing basketball – The Revelas Family (USA) – 120 hr 2 min
For foodies or crafty people:
• Longest marathon slicing meat – Noé Bonillo Ramos (Spain) – 72 hr 13 min 8 sec
• Longest marathon baking (individual) – Wendy Sandner (USA) – 31 hr 16 min
• Longest marathon crocheting – Alessandra Hayden (USA) – 34 hr 7 min
• Longest painting marathon – Roland Palmaerts (Belgium/Canada) – 60 hr
• Longest barbecue marathon (team) – Panther City BBQ, Travel Texas, and Texas Monthly (all USA) – 40 hr 49 min 17 sec
• Longest cooking marathon (individual) – Hilda Baci (Nigeria) – 93 hr 11 min
• Longest knitting marathon – No current record holder – minimum 24 hr
And a few covering random categories:
• Longest marathon hugging – Benjamin Kannenberg and Benjamin Thompson (both USA) – 32 hr 32 min 32 sec
• Longest marathon reading aloud – Rysbai Isakov (Kyrgyzstan) – 124 hr
• Longest marathon ironing – Gareth Sanders (UK) – 100 hr
• Longest marathon bartending – Ruth Brands (Belgium) – 111 hr
• Longest marathon on a bouncy castle – No current record holder – minimum 24 hr
• Longest marathon playing quidditch – No current record holder – minimum 24 hr
• Longest marathon being tattooed by multiple artists – No current record holder – minimum 61 hr
Now, if you fancy attempting one of our longest marathon records, you can find out more and apply right here.
Source:- GWR
