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.

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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.

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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.

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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.’’