Author: PositiveNaija

Cornelius Adewale Wins 2017 Bullitt Foundation Environmental Prize

Cornelius Adewale has won the 2017 Bullitt Foundation Environmental Prize for his leadership role in developing an app and web tool that can measure a farm’s carbon footprint and help farmers reduce the impact of that footprint.

The 34-year-old Nigerian, who graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, is currently studying at the Washington State University, Pullman, where he is planning a phone app to help farmers grow more crops.

In 2011, Mr. Cornelius Adewale moved to Pullman with $6,000 in his pocket ― money he’d earned from the vegetable harvest at his farm in southwest Nigeria. Six years later, Adewale is a PhD candidate at WSU and a member of the board of directors of Washington’s Tilth Alliance.

Cornelius Adewale as winner of the 2017 Bullitt Foundation Environmental Prize is entitled to a $100,000.

Adewale plans to use the money to build a phone app that will help Nigerian farmers grow more crops, using fewer resources, with a lighter touch on the planet.

The app will be a portal to research and information about organic farming specific to Nigeria’s climate. And farmers will be able to measure the quantity of organic matter in their soil just by taking a picture of it, using their phones.

According to Denis Hayes, president and Chief Executive Officer of the Bullitt Foundation:

“Cornelius just had a magnetism and energy and charm that made him irresistible.

He came with rave recommendations from his professors, who believe he can be a transformational force in agriculture.”

For the past two years, Adewale has been working with a team of students at WSU to create a web-based tool that helps Washington farmers measure their carbon footprint, and gives them ideas for how they can reduce that footprint by adjusting the way they farm.

According to Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, an associate professor in WSU’s department of crop and soil sciences:

“The thing that is really unique and wonderful about Cornelius is his humility ― he really relates to everyone as individuals. He’s there to help, but in a way that’s about empowering the individuals, not telling people what to do … he truly is a natural leader.”

Cornelius Adewale found WSU’s organic agriculture major ― the first such major ever offered at a US university ― in an online search. He used the $6,000 from his harvest to launch his master’s degree.

When he got to Pullman and saw WSU’s organic farm, he burst out laughing. It was only 2 1/2 acres ― about half the size of his own farm in Nigeria. (WSU’s organic farm is now 30 acres.)

Still, he believed he’d come to the right place. Before his money ran out, he secured a research position at WSU to help fund his master’s degree and, later, his PhD.

Adewale thinks Nigerian farmers need more information about ways to use organic methods to build up their soil, making their farms more fertile and productive, without using chemicals.

In Washington, part of his graduate studies included helping develop the free web tool called Ofoot that Adewale wants to use as the base for his mobile phone app in Nigeria.

How Great Is Nigeria! By Said Saad Abubakar

How Great Is Nigeria! By Said Saad Abubakar

An outstanding joy and great excitement always filled my soul, I believe it’s a marvelous privilege being myself citizen of a great nation. A nation occupying a total land mass of 923,768 sq km, the most populated in all African countries and the eighth most populous country in the world, it’s impossible to feel lonely in such country. Rich cultural and artistic values are the significant quality of the nation of about 162.5million citizens (World Bank & Census Bureau) with diverse cultures and traditions. About 250 indigenous native languages have been identified with the Igbo, Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba dominating ranging to 70% of the population. Although, we are different but we still go hand in hand. These groups have preserved their artistic values and professions, till date, the southwestern Nigerians are well known with art and poetry, bead works and weaving, the southeastern are highly enterprising and industrious and very good in warm cultural display while the northerners are of great excellent in agriculture and commerce. It is a wonderful moment to witness the cultural display of these natives especially the warmth colorful display of different ethnic groups, I have the notion that you will grin with pleasure due to great excitement.

Continue reading How Great Is Nigeria! By Said Saad Abubakar

Arinze Stanley Wins World’s Best Self Portrait At 2017 American Art Awards

Arinze Stanley, a hyper-realistic artist has emerged winner of the World’s Best Self Portrait category at the 2017 American Art Awards.

Arinze Stanley came out on top ahead of USA’s Mano Sotelo, Sweden’s Susanne Persson, Taiwan’s Lynn Chen and more.

Continue reading Arinze Stanley Wins World’s Best Self Portrait At 2017 American Art Awards

Shehu Dikko Appointed Into FIFA Stakeholders’ Committee [2017]

NFF 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman, Shehu Dikko has been appointed a Member of the FIFA Football Stakeholders’ Committee.

Shehu Dikko’s appointment makes him the third Nigerian to be appointed into a FIFA Committee this year, after Pinnick himself was enlisted into the influential Organizing Committee for FIFA Competitions and former Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Ayotunde Philips was elected Member of the FIFA Ethics Committee (Adjudicatory Council).

Its modus operandi states that the FIFA Football Stakeholders Committee:

“Shall advise and assist FIFA on all matters relating to Football (including women’s football, futsal and beach soccer), particularly the structure of the game, as well as on all technical matters.

The committee shall also deal with relationship between clubs, players, leagues, member associations, Confederations and FIFA, as well as issues relating to the interest of club football worldwide, and analyse the basic aspects of football training and technical development.”

The FIFA Football Stakeholders’ Committee is a merger of several committees (among them Football Committee and Strategic Studies Committees), in line with FIFA’s new organizational strategy that cut the list of committees from 20 to 11.

President of CONCACAF and FIFA Vice President, Victor Montagliani is Chairman of the Committee.

The membership cuts across all major stakeholders in football, comprising Presidents of Member Associations, former players (including former Brazilian World Cup –winning captain Cafu and Dutchman Robin Van der Sar) and Chairmen of Leagues (including the Chairman of EPL and CEO of the Bundesliga).

World football–ruling body, FIFA now conducts independent and very rigorous and thorough global integrity, background and eligibility checks on all its potential appointees well before–hand, and Pinnick, Justice Philips and Dikko deserve accolades for passing the tough tests conducted by independent and renowned global experts.

President of Nigeria Football Federation, Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick on Friday congratulated NFF 2nd Vice President/LMC Chairman Shehu Dikko:

“Shehu (Dikko) fully deserves his appointment. He has been doing excellent job as Chairman of LMC and as 2nd Vice President and Chairman of the NFF Marketing, Sponsorship and Television Advisory Committee, as well as the NFF Strategy Committee.

I believe he will fly our country’s flag very high in that committee and his experience, deep knowledge and work ethic would be huge value added to FIFA’s objectives in developing football across board.”

FIFA also approved an increase in the prize money for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia to a total amount of USD 400 million — 12 percent up from the USD 358 million awarded at the 2014 edition.

7 Nigerians Emerge CAF Standing Committee Members [2017]

Seven (7) Nigerians have emerged standing committee members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The members shall pilot the affairs of the continental governing body for the next two years.

  • NFF 1st VP Seyi Akinwunmi is member of the Committee on Youth Competitions;
  • Shehu Dikko is member of the Committee on Inter-Clubs Competitions and Club Licensing System;
  • Ibrahim Musa Gusau is member of Organizing Committee for CHAN;
  • Senator Obinna Ogba is in the Committee for Futsal and Beach Soccer;
  • Yusuf Ahmed ‘Fresh’ is member of the CAF Technical and Development Committee;
  • Dr. Peter Singabele is in the CAF Medical Committee and;
  • Chisom Mbonu is member of the Organizing Committee for Women’s Football.  

Akinwumi Adesina Receives Purdue University’s Order of the Griffin

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has received the Purdue University’s Order of the Griffin award.

The Order of the Griffin is given to individuals whose commitment and service to the university go well beyond the call of duty, and whose strength and vision have greatly benefitted the institution and the world.

The award was given to Dr. Akinwumi Adesina by the President of Purdue University, Mitchell Daniels, during a Presidential Lecture Series held at the university on October 23, 2017. Adesina, who was the special guest at the Lecture Series, earned his Master’s and doctoral degrees in Agricultural Economics from Purdue.

According to Mitchell Daniels:

“We have a lot of recognitions here at Purdue and lots of ways to honour people who do extraordinary things. The single highest of these, which has been given fewer than 50 times in history, is called the Griffin Award, and those of us who huddled on this subject took no time at all to decide that if anyone ever merited the Griffin Award from Purdue University, it’s you, Dr. Adesina. Here it is, and thank you.”

Answering questions at the Presidential Lecture Series, the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate and President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina emphasized the need to enshrine e-governance in Africa. He described e-governance as essential for citizen participation and transparency.

In his words:

“It is important to build very strong institutions, and also important to have strong economic management to make sure that the countries can have robust growth.  Without growth you can’t distribute anything.

I think that it is a very important area that we need to deal with. At the end of the day, when you have insecurity, it is the women and children who suffer the most. Africa has a rising refugee population as a result of insecurity in many of our countries.

We also have a lot of problems from malnutrition because of a lack of food. To have development or to have, let me say, a green revolution that we’re talking about, we have to sow the seeds on ridges of peace.”

Winners of 2017 BusinessDay Banking Awards

Winners have emerged in the 2017 BusinessDay Banking Awards held in Lagos.

The management of BusinessDay newspapers, led by the Publisher, Mr. Frank Aigbogun, said agencies, regulators, microfinance banks, deposit money banks, investment and merchant banks that were recipients this year were rewarded because they made excellence and dedication to quality delivery the core of their operations in 2016 financial year.

The 2017 BusinessDay Award Committee, which was made up of eminent industry analysts as well as the team from BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU), meticulously examined the audited annual reports and investors’ presentations of banks to come up with the nominees and winners.

Continue reading Winners of 2017 BusinessDay Banking Awards