Author: PositiveNaija

Winners of the 4th Awa Ibrahim Junior Golf Open Championships

Winners have emerged in the 4th Awa Ibrahim Junior Golf Open Championships at the Ikeja Golf Club.

 The annual three-day competition, aimed at discovering young golfers aged 15 and below, was used to mark golf enthusiast, Alhaji Awa Ibrahim’s birthday on Oct. 19 [2017].

George Inalegwu of St. David Mark Golf Academy and Country Club, Akpegede, Benue, won the grand prize in the U-16 male category. Friday Peters emerged second place winner.

For the U-10 to U-13 category, Emmanuel Aleji from St. David Mark Golf Academy is the champion, while Okoko Godman from the same academy emerged second.

In the U-9 category, Weng Davou of St. David Mark Golf Academy took the first prize, while from the same academy, Godwin Okoko emerged the first runner-up.

In the Girls U-16, Georgia Oboh from Ikoyi Golf Club emerged the overall winner. Also, in the U-13 to U-16 category, Naisha Nandal from Ikoyi Golf Club came out tops, while in U-9 and below, Faith Bawa took the first prize.

The male U-16 champion, George Inalegwu, said the win was a reward from his hard work while preparing for the competition, adding that it had been his dream to be a champion in golf.

In his words:

“I always want to play golf and I don’t get tired of it at all. We have a good academy where we are trained to become champions.

I missed last year’s competition because I was in school and my school calendar of event did not permit me, but this year, I made a promise to do all it takes to win.

This is my sixth year playing golf and I thank God I am able to make something out of it.

I also want to thank the organisers of Awa Ibrahim Junior Golf Championships for giving us this platform to showcase our talents.”

Also, according to the best girl for the tournament, U.K. based Georgia Oboh said:

“From my experience, the sport is still growing in Nigeria, and I don’t expect someone playing for just three years to be at my level.

I have been playing golf about 10 years ago now, about all my life playing golf. The main thing is to ensure that more children are encouraged to play golf.”

The sponsor of the championships, Dr. Awa Ibrahim, urged the young golfers to take their studies seriously as it was the only way to the full realisation of their life pursuits.

According to Dr. Awa Ibrahim:

“I will not like the case whereby you will drop out of school playing golf and that is the reason the cash price is attached to your scholarships.

I want to see you fulfil your potential by coming out tops in your studies, so we have also increased the cash price to ₦200,000.

Those that are not captured in the scholarship scheme are third place winners but now they are also to receive ₦50,000 in scholarships which will be paid directly to their school accounts. Other winners in the first day but unable to win in the overall medals table will also have ₦50,000 in scholarships now.’’

How Great Is Nigeria! By Jonathan Mairiga

How Great Is Nigeria! By Jonathan Mairiga

All over the world, Nigeria as a country has caught the attention of nations and there seem to be a secret investigative panel set up to uncover the mystery behind her greatness. Nigerians are setting the pace and are becoming the standard by which others measure themselves. This is very factual. Nigeria in itself is one of the endowments of Africa. Certainly, no one can abdicate the position in which God Almighty has placed (Albert & Danjibo, 2012).

Nigeria my country is the largest single unit in Africa.  It is a West African country that borders the Chad republic and Niger on the north, the Atlantic Ocean on the south, Benin republic on the west, and Cameroon on the east. With a population of over 174 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most populated country, the largest black nation, as well as the 7th most populated in the entire world. This means for every seven Africans, one is a Nigerian and one out of every five persons of African origin is a Nigerian. It is not a number thing. Put it correctly; Nigeria is simply blessed and great.   You will never feel alone in a country with this kind of distinct population. Nigerians are all around the globe inscribing their names on the map of every continent (Isawa, 2000)

Continue reading How Great Is Nigeria! By Jonathan Mairiga

Dr. Joe Abah Appointed DAI Nigeria Country Director [2017]

Dr. Joe Abah has been appointed as the Country Director for Nigeria by Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI) Global.

Originally trained as a barrister in Nigeria, Dr. Joe Abah gained extensive experience in the governance sector, working on public sector reform programs for the U.K. Prime Minister’s Office. He has spent more than 10 years managing governance programs in Nigeria for the U.K. Department for International Development, including on the DAI-led State Partnership for Accountability Responsiveness and Capability project.

From 2013 to 2017, Joe took a post with the Government of Nigeria as Head of the Bureau for Public Sector Reform. He has now returned to DAI to serve as Country Director for Nigeria, where he provides technical and strategic inputs to DAI’s existing portfolio of projects, in addition to supporting business development initiatives.

  • Ph.D., Maastricht University, The Netherlands
  • M.A., business law, London Guildhall University, United Kingdom
  • Bachelor of Laws, law, University of Calabar, Nigeria

DAI, led the over seven year State Partnership for Accountability Responsiveness and Capability (SPARC) project. The project focused on supporting responsive policy formulation and encourage performance-focused public service in Nigeria by helping state governments to improve revenue collection, reduce budgetary waste, and implement strategies for locally led planning.

The project was succeeded in 2016 by Accountable, Responsive, and Capable Government (ARC) program, which is billed to elapse in 2020.

In implementing ARC, DAI says it will take a collective action approach to reducing corruption and strengthening public accountability by working with stakeholders both inside and outside of government.

DAI’s mission is to make a lasting difference in the world by helping people improve their lives. DAI envision a world in which communities and societies become more prosperous, fairer and better governed, safer, healthier, and environmentally more sustainable.

NATCA Endorse Air Peace As Best Domestic Airline of the Year 2016/2017

The Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (NATCA) have endorsed Air Peace as the Best Domestic Airline of the Year 2016/2017.

The airline had recently emerged the winner of Interswitch’s ‘Payment Innovation Driver, Aviation’ award 2017.

Presenting the Best Domestic Airline of the Year award to Air Peace at the opening session of the 46th Annual General Meeting/Conference of NACTA in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the group stated:

“[Air Peace] is consistently transforming to being the largest domestic airline in Nigeria within the very short period of time it came on board. While other notable airlines and businesses are closing down under the harsh economic conditions, Air Peace keeps emerging and giving hope to other investors that Nigeria is still an investment destination. While others are reducing their workforce, Air Peace keeps opening new destinations and providing more connectivity and employment to Nigerians.”

Receiving the award, Air Peace gave credit to its staff for toiling to sustain the high quality of its flight operations. The airline, which was represented by its Corporate Communications Manager, Mr. Chris Iwarah, commended NATCA for prioritising merit and guarding the integrity of its awards.

Air Peace described the award from NATCA as special, coming from a critical segment of aviation workers with the capacity to easily appraise the strengths and weaknesses of airlines in the country.

The carrier, which recently acquired two B777, six ERJ145 and a couple of B737 aircraft to bring its fleet size to about 24, assured that its expansion to the West Coast of Africa and international destinations, including Dubai, London, Guangzhou-China, Atlanta, Mumbai and Johannesburg, would ensure Nigeria did not continue to lose out in the open skies regime in the global aviation industry.

Iyanuoluwa Osewa & Kolawole Bello Emerge Cowbellpedia Mathematics Teachers Of Year 2017

Iyanuoluwa Osewa and Kolawole Bello have emerged the Cowbellpedia Mathematics Teachers of Year 2017 in the Junior and Senior categories respectively.

Iyanuoluwa Osewa and Kolawole Bello from The Ambassadors College, Ota, Ogun State repeated the feat of their respective students who won last year’s Cowbellpedia Secondary School Mathematics TV Quiz Show, sponsored by Cowbell, the flagship brand of Promasidor Nigeria Limited.

Continue reading Iyanuoluwa Osewa & Kolawole Bello Emerge Cowbellpedia Mathematics Teachers Of Year 2017

Toyosi Craig Wins Nigeria Community Excellence Award 2017

Toyosi Craig, has been honoured with the Nigeria Community Excellence Award 2017 as the most outstanding student in South Africa. The award ceremony was held at the Encore Theater Complex, Hatfield, Pretoria, South Africa.

The most outstanding student category of the award was introduced this year and was sponsored by Old Mutual South Africa, to honour the best performing Nigerian student in the country. The category had over 400 students who took part in the contest.

Toyosi Craig, is a PhD student in Engineering Management with a special focus on solar energy at the Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

The 29 year-old, who just finished a project on development by innovation for Africa at Technical University of Munich, Germany, was chosen on his academic accomplishments and research innovations, particularly his area of research interest, which is innovation management and systems analysis.

Craig, expressed gratitude to God, the award organizer, his family and social media network, Penpushing, where he is a member, for the genuine support and encouragement from the members.

According to the Founder of Penpushing, Prince Dimeji Kayode-Adedeji:

“This noble platform, which you are a member, is proud of your feat in making your country, Nigeria, proud and bringing it to a global stage in a positive way and manner.

We wish to congratulate you on your award as the 2017 Most Outstanding Nigerian Student,” he said, adding: “No doubt, your sterling quality is a major factor which contributed to your emergence as the best among the 400 nominations.  This is remarkable, inspiring and encouraging.

As we congratulate you, we also encourage you to further show commitment and exhibit competence in your field of choice in your profession and other endeavours.

We pray that God will be your guide and guardian. Once again, accept our congratulatory message, and we wish you more successes.”

The Nigeria Community Excellence Award was attended by officials of the Nigerian High Commission and Consulate, top government officials from Nigeria, members of Nigerian community in South Africa, top South African government officials and members of African Diaspora.

Nigeria Wins 18 Medals At 2017 African Junior/Youths Weightlifting Championship

Nigerian weightlifters have won 18 medals in the 2017 African Junior/Youths Weightlifting Championship in Uganda.

The President of Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, Mohammed Yahaya, disclosed that the weightlifters were the products of the 2017 National Youth Games in Ilorin.

In his words:

“I am very happy with the results of the competition because our weightlifters worked hard and made us proud. We won a total of 18 medals in all; 13 gold, four silver and one bronze.

We won nine gold medals in the female categories on the first day of the competition and we finally won up 18 medals at the end of the Championship.

With this performance, we have a chance to participate in next year’s Commonwealth Games.

We need to participate in one more Championship to meet the requirements of the World Weightlifting Federation.

Nigerian weightlifting Grade 2 referees were promoted to Grade 1 Category. They are: Nurudeen Suleiman (Bauchi), Evelyn Okuofor (Edo), and Bilkisu Musa (Jigawa).

They passed both the theory and the practical examination during the Championship; they are now recognised by the Africa and the World Weightlifting Federation.”