EXTERNAL EXAM SUPERVISORS AND FEMALE STUDENTS

My experience writing exams has made me to write about this issue of external exam supervisors and female students. I am not saying am the first to experience this sort of thing and am also not seeing this happen for the first time.

It is a known thing in Universities now, even in Secondary schools that teachers make advances to their female students regardless of their class or age. It gets to a stage that when the student refuses to accept them, they threaten the student of failure and this is when the girl is forced to give them a positive answer.

For instance, I was approached by two men that came to supervise my exams, though one didn’t make matters tough for me, the second however threatened to make sure I fail three subjects in my exams and these are subjects I wasn’t ready to compromise so I said to the second man that those three subjects he’s threatening to make sure I fail, I had passed them in the first set of exam I wrote last year.

However, when I asked him why he said he will make sure I fail three subjects at a go, he said he doesn’t like me, I asked why a second time and he said he doesn’t like my face, so I decided to let him be, all of a sudden he called me back and said he likes me and would like it if I date him. So I laughed and told him he can do what he likes, I also told him not to worry that I will make my papers with or without him.

I sincerely think people need to reason more with their brains, imagine a married man with children wanting an 18yr old. Anyway, I guess it’s not a new thing but I think actions need to be taken on these men that don’t know how to respect themselves.

Enough said already, am extremely cold here.

The Disabled And Their Rights

I was inspired to write about the disabled today because of what I saw sometime ago

It was a man whose legs have been amputated and he was left to wander about homeless with no one to cater for him and probably he had no family. He came around begging for alms and someone made a statement which I still dont think was necessary at that moment. He said (I quote) You wont get away from here, that is how you people will all come and beg, when there is crisis, you will all suddenly develop legs and hands and eyes to burn people’s houses and kill innocent souls”

Those words keep ringing bells in my brains and I honestly dont know what to say about what that young man said but here is my 2 cents

I know it is believed in Nigeria that the Hausa’s are tribalistic when it comes to crisis. People believe that giving alms to these poor disabled beggers is not wise because when crisis comes they will suddenly become and do whatever that pleases them. Though I have never seen happen, I have heard people say it has happened in places they know and sometimes to people they have come across in their lives.

These people are littered everywhere in the country and some of them are educated but probably sometime in their live something drastic happened to them for example, an accident.

Some disabled people are people with vast knowledge, they are not able to impact the knowledge of what they know to others because they have not been given a chance to. The disabled could be a Governor, President or whatever he want to be in life. But in our society today, they are regarded as invalids, idle minds. But the question here is “ARE THEY REALLY IDLE MINDS”?

The disabled children and youths in our society today barely get the education they desire because they cant be admitted into a school because of their status, they cant work to pay their fees because they wont be a given a job even though they have the qualification. If only they were given a chance to prove themselves.

There is really not much difference between a disabled and a non-disabled person, we are both equal in GOD’S eye. When GOD created the world, he didnt say the “Abled shall rule over the Disabled”, he created this world to be one in TRUTH, LOVE, PEACE, and UNITY. But our leaders today have decieded to do what they like because they feel they own the universe now. They forget GOD is above all.

These disabled people have rights, equal rights with the abled. They deserve love and care, they deserve the basic ammenities thats in a community.

Lets show love and care to the disabled and you will find out how blessed your life can be.

Be postive about them and you will see they can also CHANGE LIVES

Educating The Girl Child

Some people believe educating the girl child is completely useless and unreasonable, they believe its waste of time and money. They think a girls place is in the kitchen cooking and giving birth to children.

The girl child suffers alot of discrimination as she grows from childhood into adulthood. She is denied alot of fundamental needs and rights and in such harmful attitudes and practices as a preference for sons, early marriage, female genital mutilation, domestic abuse, incest, sexual exploitation, discrimination, less food and less access to education.

In many countries, both developed and developing, the status of girls is significantly worse than that of boys, the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, identified the persistent discrimination against the girl child and the violation of her rights as one of the 12 critical areas of concern requiring urgent attention by governments and the international community.

Overall, girls’ school attendance still lags severely behind that of boys. One of the major reasons why so many girls do not attend school is because of their workload, both within and outside the household. Daughters are often kept at home to help the family because the social and economic value of educating girls is not recognized. It is a little known fact that among the world’s exploited child workers, girls outnumber boys.
Without access to education, girls are denied the knowledge and skills needed to advance their status. By educating girls, societies stand to gain economically. In addition, educated mothers usually have smaller families, with healthier and better-educated children.

Girls are often treated as inferior to boys, both within the home and by society-at-large. They are socialized to put themselves last, which in turn undermines their self-esteem and their ability to reach their full potential as human beings.

When a girl is prevented from going to school or is too exhausted to pay attention in class because of her workload at home, she is being denied her right to education. When a girl carries the bulk of responsibility for the housework while her brother studies, plays or attends to his interests and hobbies, she is being discriminated against.

Some parents need to see beyond their children, they need to realise that educating the girl child. They need to realise that educating their girl child is not a worthless effort.

Educating the girl child is important, they shouldnt be seen as inferiors and they shouldnt be regarded as minors in the society. They are also as relevant as the male child.

NAPEP: Eradicating Poverty

 
Despite the abundance of poverty alleviation programmes which past governments had initiated and implemented, by 1999 when the Obasanjo administration came to power a World Bank’s report indicated that Nigeria’s Human Development Index (HDI) was only 0.416 and that about 70 per cent of the population was vegetating below the bread line.These alarming indicators prompted the government to review the existing poverty alleviation schemes with a view to harmonising them and improving on them. Three presidential panels were set up in this regard. They were: the Presidential Panel on the Rationalisation and Harmonisation of Poverty Alleviation and Agencies headed by Alhaji Ahmed Joda; Presidential Technical Committee on the Review of all Poverty Alleviation Programmes headed by Professor Ango Abdullahi; and Committees on Youth Policy, Concept of the Youth Empowerment Scheme and the Blueprint for Poverty Eradication Programme headed by Professor A.B. Aborishade.The findings and recommendations of these presidential panels coalesced in the formation of the National Poverty Alleviation Programme (NAPEP) in January 2001. This new scheme has been structured to integrate four sectoral schemes.

The first is the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), which is concerned with providing unemployed youth opportunities in skills acquisition, employment and wealth generation. To achieve this, the scheme has been further subdivided into Capacity Acquisition Programme, Mandatory Attachment Programme and Credit Delivery Programme.

The second is the Rural Infrastructure Development Scheme (RIDS). The objective of this scheme is to ensure the provision and development of infrastructure needs in the areas of transport, energy
water and communication especially in rural areas. The scheme has been broken into four parts: the Rural Transport Programme, the Rural Energy Programme, the Rural Water Programme and the Rural Communication Programme.

The third is the Social Welfare Services Scheme (SOWESS) which aims at ensuring the provision of basic social services including quality primary and special education, strengthening the economic power of farmers, providing primary health care, and so on. This third scheme consists of four broad sub-categories which are, the Qualitative Education Programme, Primary Health Care Programme, Farmers Empowerment Programme and Social Services Programme.

The last is the Natural Resources Development and Conservation Scheme (NRDCS). The vision of this scheme is to bring about a participatory and sustainable development of agricultural, mineral and water resources through the following sub-divisions: Agricultural Resources Programme, Water Resources Programme, Solid Minerals Resources Programme and Environment Protection Programme.

The target of the National Poverty Eradication Programme is to completely wipe out poverty from Nigeria by the year 2010. The formulators of the programme have identified three stages to the attainment of this ambitious target.

• The first stage is the restoration of hope in the mass of poor people in Nigeria. This involves providing basic necessities to hitherto neglected people particularly in the rural areas.
• The second stage is the restoration of economic independence and confidence.

• The final stage is wealth creation. 

 

 Funding of NAPEP

The Poverty Eradication Fund (PEF) which is administered by the National Poverty Eradication Council directly funds the National Poverty Eradication Programme. However, all poverty alleviation programmes originally budgeted for by participating ministries will continue to be funded from those budgetary provisions under the supervision of NAPEC.

NAPEP is also funded from contributions given to it by state and local governments, the private sector and special deductions from the Consolidated Fund of the Federal Government.

It also gets donations from international donor agencies such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the European Union, the Department for International Development, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, and the German Technical Assistance.

When NAPEP came on stream in January 2001, it was given a take-off grant of N6 billion. This money was used to establish NAPEP structures in 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and 744 local government councils.

Part of the money was also used in the NAPEP employment generation intervention which translated to the training of 100,000 youths, attaching 50,000 unemployed graduates in various places of work, training of over 5000 people in tailoring and fashion design, and the establishment of rural telephone networks in 125 local government areas.

Other uses to which the money was put include the delivery of the KEKE-NAPEP three-wheeler vehicle project involving 2000 units in all the state capitals of Nigeria, the establishment of 147 youth information centers across the senatorial districts, the delivery of informal micro credit ranging from N10,000 to N50,000 to 10,000 beneficiaries most of whom were women, and so on.

 

 

 From January 2001, NAPEP has intervened in a number of projects. So far about 140,000 youths have been trained in more than 190 practical hand-on trades over a period of three months. Every trainee in this intervention project was paid N3,000 per month while N3,500 was paid to each trainer. The training programme was packaged with the understanding that that beneficiaries would subsequently set up their own businesses in line with the skills they have acquired. To actualize this, 5,000 beneficiaries were resettled with assorted tailoring and fashion design equipment.

Also under the Mandatory Attachment Programme for unemployed graduates, 40,000 beneficiaries were attached in 2001 each of whom was paid a monthly stipend of N10,000. The installation of equipment under the Rural Telephone Project is currently in progress, while the KEKE-NAPEP project is currently being vigorously implemented. The project offers:

• A vehicle with a powerful diesel engine, and a fuel tank capacity of 10.5 litres
• A vehicle whose top speed is up to 80 Km per hour
• A vehicle that is suitable for intracity commuting and commercial passenger carriage
• A vehicle with a passenger capacity of four people
• A vehicle with a payload capacity of 320Kg
• A vehicle with adequate room for passenger luggage
• A vehicle that has a low fuel consumption of 38 km per litre

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF NAPEP 

 

The HIV/AIDS Epidemic

What is HIV?
This is known as the Human Immune-deficiency Virus. Group of retroviruses infects human cells and uses the energy to grow and reproduces.

What is AIDS?
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease in which the body’s immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off certain infections, and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system.

How quickly do people infected with HIV develop AIDS?
In some people, the T-cell decline and opportunistic infections that signal AIDS develop soon after infection with HIV. Most people remain asymptomatic for 10 to 12 years, and a few for much longer. As with most diseases, early medical care can help prolong a person’s life.

How many people are affected by HIV/AIDS?
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that there are now over 40 million people living with HIV or AIDS worldwide. Most of them do not know they carry HIV and may be spreading the virus to others. Here in the U.S., nearly one million people have HIV infection or AIDS, or roughly one out of every 250 people. At least 40,000 Americans become newly infected with HIV each year, and it is estimated that half of all people with HIV in the U.S. have not been tested and do not know they are carrying the virus.

Since the beginning of the epidemic, AIDS has killed more than 30 million people worldwide, including more than 500,000 Americans. AIDS has replaced malaria and tuberculosis as the world’s deadliest infectious disease among adults and is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Over 13 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic.

How is HIV transmitted?
A person who is HIV-infected carries the virus in certain body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. The virus can be transmitted only if such HIV-infected fluids enter the bloodstream of another person. This kind of direct entry can occur through…

the linings of the vagina, rectum, mouth, and the opening at the tip of the penis

through intravenous injection with a syringe

hrough a break in the skin, such as a cut or sore

Unprotected sexual intercourse (either vaginal or anal) with someone who is HIV infected.

Unprotected oral sex with someone who is HIV infected.

Infection during pregnancy, childbirth, or breast-feeding (mother-to-infant transmission).

Stigma and discrimination

People living with the virus are frequently subject to discrimination and human rights abuses: many have been thrown out of jobs and homes, rejected by family and friends, and some have even been killed.
Together, stigma and discrimination constitute one of the greatest barriers to dealing effectively with the epidemic. They discourage governments from acknowledging or taking timely action against AIDS. They deter individuals from finding out about their HIV status.

How can we help people living with HIV/AIDS?
Anti-Retroviral Treatment
Love and care

Hear The Children Crying….

The situation of children in the world today is something everyone should give a thought on.

Certainly we all know the children are the future leaders of tomorrow, but tell me what is the future of a child when he has no clothes to wear and no food to eat, no shelter above his head and he is roaming on the streets with no education?

There are so many children out there who are helpless and someone them without hope for a better tomorrow, some of them have died as time passed on due to suffering.

The coming of UNICEF has been a miracle to these children because they have helped them with clothes and shelter, food, immunisation, protection, health, and so many other things which are too numerous to mention.

Some children have seen the light while some are still waiting to see the light.

If only these children could get enough basic and social ammenities. Children are vulnerable to all sorts of things, they are easily affected by any disaster, they are incapable of taking care of themselves at their tender age.

All these children on the streets suffer from malnutrition and some of them are even living with the deadly HIV/AIDs, yet they have no access to any form of treatment.

Their condition should be put into consideration as I know UNICEF is definitely not getting across to ALL children that are in this condition.

Certainly the resources of UNICEF is sometimes limited as they cant reach out to all the children that are in this condition.

I beseech ye that are able to reach out, visit charity homes, orphanage homes and give children you see on the streets whatever you can to make their day brighter.

You can surely put a smile on their Angelic faces.
God rewards a cheerful giver.

Cross River State - The Land of Paradise

Cross River state has been known for its vast tourist attractions. Its a state that has been know to Europen Sailors far back 15th century, its a state that has been inhabited for more than 2000 years.

During the slave trade era, many slaves passed through Cross River state sea ports.

Many competetive football mathes first began in Calabar. It was a place where first Monorail was first experienced in Nigeria. The first general hospital was in Calabar.

The first inspector general of the Nigerian Police Sir Luis Edet is an indegene of Cross River State.

Cross river state has an International sea port known since the 16th Century.
King Archibong III (Obong) was the first King in the Southern Nigeria to be crowned with regalia sent by Queen Victoria in 1878.

Etubom Oyo Orok Oyo from Calabar is the premier football administrator, the first and only Nigerian so far to be elected into Executive Committee of FIFA (1980 – 198 and the first Africa to be made an Honorary Vice president of Confederation of African Football (CAF) (from 1988 for life).

The present Governor Donald Duke has succeeded in Revitalization of previously dying educational system
Rehabilitation of public health facilities. He has created the Longest wireless telecommunication in West Africa; Calabar to Obudu (400km approximately). He also made the Cross River State Christmas Carnival a reality.