Knowledge of Abacus will improve performance in Mathematics'

The Proprietress, Heyday Nursery and Primary School, Festac Town, Lagos, Mrs. Suzan Amuta, says the knowledge of Abacus will help to improve pupils’ performance in mathematics.

She said this during the award of Abacus certificate to outstanding pupils of the school on Thursday.

Abacus is a mathematical learning apparatus in a frame of two segments.

The educationist described teaching of Abacus at primary schools as a privilege, adding that it would  prepare the pupils’ brain for future challenges.

According to her, the knowledge gathered from it would serve as a motivation in studying mathematics and other related subjects.

She said, “This initiative has made the pupils better than their contemporaries in other schools not running the Abacus programme. You know Abacus demystifies the phobia for mathematics in the child.

“It sharpens the pupil’s mind and increases mental agility and intelligence 15 times faster in learning mathematics than the conventional methods applied in teaching mathematics in most schools.”

Amuta commended the parents for their understanding in embracing the idea of the Abacus learning programme.

Responding to a question on the need for Abacus in schools, representative of Edusoft Associates Limited, Consultants on Abacus Educational Programme in Nigeria, Mr. K. Devesh, described it as a learning system designed to aid innovation.

Lagos College reels under overcrowded hostels, dirty environment

From a distance, the Lagos State Model Junior College, Ojo, looks like an ideal citadel of learning. Its gates and fence are a beauty to behold. Even the “model” attached to the school’s name is an attraction on its own.

The college has enough and sizable well-painted classrooms. Also, there are spacious playgrounds for its hundreds of pupils, who are all boarders. Add this to the large number of teachers, one would easily conclude that the institution must be a place to be.

But beyond all these, there are still hurdles in actualising qualitative education in the school. In fact, for pupils  of the college, learning and living in a right and healthy environment seems to be a luxury of sorts.

There is nothing to cheer, considering the conditions in the boys’ hostels. The hostels are not just overcrowded,they are also unkempt. Besides, there are no standard bathrooms and toilets, as the boys defecate in a makeshift latrine in the premises.

The latrine, covered with planks, interestingly also serves as a bathing place for the pupils.

Little wonder, the offensive odour around the scene leaves one to wonder how the pupils are coping with the situation.

Our correspondent gathered that the living condition in the hostels is a big source of concern to parents. For instance, it was learnt that the boys’ hostel accommodates a far number of pupils.

A source told our correspondent that one of the hostels prepared for Junior Secondary School 1and 2 pupils now “husbands” no fewer than 200 pupils.

The hostel for the JSS 3 pupils is also facing a similar condition. In the boys’ hostel, the pupils’ lockers and boxes contend with the little space, in the hall, leaving their occupants to be perpetually hanging around, as it were.

The bungalow, partitioned into two sections, also has a few double-bunk iron beds in the first section. Instead of a modern building with spacious rooms, it is an old unpainted structure with wooden windows and roofs that are vulnerable to windstorm during rainfall.

When our correspondent visited the school last Sunday, a junkyard environment stared him in the face, particularly in the boys’ hostels. The pupils’ mattresses and pillows were not only in the sun, they were also in a disorderly manner.

One of the boys, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity narrated how they sleep at night.

He said, “Most of our mattresses are outside in the open fields. The housemasters usually ask us to pack them in by between 8 and 9pm when we are about to sleep. Then, they come back around 5am and ask us to move them out again. This is the custom.”

It is learnt that pupils, in the daytime, due to the heat and rowdiness in the hostels, prefer to hang around their classrooms where they sometimes take their siesta.

Concerned over their children’s plight, parents, who came for visitation to the school last Sunday, gathered under a tree shade to discuss some of the challenges facing the college. Numbering about 50, the parents particularly noted that they were not happy with the state of affairs in the hostels.

The parents, who alleged that officials in the school kitchen were starving the children, giving them breakfast around 11.00am, and in ridiculous quantities, also demanded to see the school principal, simply called Mr. Salton, to address their grievances.

One of them, obviously annoyed, said, “I cannot recognise my daughter again. Her face has become gaunt due to negligence on the part of the school authorities.”

Another parent added in frustration, “When I was young, I attended a boarding school too, and I felt things were still good like I had in my days. That was why I brought my son here, but it is unfortunate that our children are treated as if they were orphans.”

However, one of the housemasters, simply identified as Mr. Olorunfemi, promised the parents that the authorities would soon correct some of the lapses.

He said, “Pupils henceforth would be asked to adequately monitor how their foodstuffs are being cooked. They will have representatives in the school kitchen who will act like watchdogs.”

Some parents also drew attention to a newly constructed six-room apartment within the school, which according to them, is to serve as the new boys’ hostel.  The facility is at present not in use.

At the Sunday emergency meeting, our correspondent learnt that parents and guardians contributed N2,500 each to renovate a section of the boys’ hostel.

Indeed, carpenters were on site working on the building last Sunday.

Reacting to the development, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, who said her ministry was aware of the situation, promised that the problems would be resolved soon.

In a text message to our reporter, she wrote, “Thank you for the observation. I am quite aware, and we will deal with it very soon.”

What does the North want?

This piece is not a response to the North’s position on the National Conference. I believe every individual or group has the right to respond to the conference as they deem necessary. Rather, it seeks to address the crisis of identity which is at the root of the Nigerian tragedy.

Who are we? What is Nigeria? The answer to these questions can help us understand the various issues confronting us as a country and what our responses have been, whether it is the politics of oil, religion or geo-political space.

There is nothing new about the comments of those who claim to represent the North. If we look at developments in pre-independence Nigeria, the North’s response to the Unification Decree No. 34 of May 24, 1966, by the military junta led by Maj.-Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, or the introduction of Sharia law in some states in the North, historically, the North has always been in favour of political autonomy and fiscal federalism. It is strange, therefore, that there is so much angst in the North when it comes to the issue of autonomy and fiscal federalism.

When we listen to people talk about the “North” in Nigeria, what exactly are they talking about? Is it a people bound by a common religion, culture, history or geography? Are there really “Northerners” in the sense that there are Fulani, Hausas, Jukun, Tiv, Igbo, Egon Yoruba, Ijaw, Efik, etc? I assume that just as the Afenifere Renewal Group and Odu’a People’s Congress can’t claim to represent the West, Ohaneze Ndigbo and the Biafra Zionist Federation can’t claim to represent the East, the NEF and the ACF can’t claim to represent the North.

Which people or what interest do our northern hegemonists represent? That of the major ethnicities in the North or that of a particular religion?  Will the proponents of the theory of the North accept, for example, a President David Mark or Bukola Saraki – not that I wish for either man to come anywhere near the Presidency – as truly representative of the North?

I don’t know what goes on in the minds of the likes of Usman Bugaje, Junaid Mohammed and their fellow travellers in the NEF and ACF when they have to refer to themselves as Nigerians or when they see Nigerians who are not from the North. They approbate and reprobate at the same time. Bugaje, for example, appropriates 72 per cent of Nigeria for his North; the NEF talks about the “exploitation and management of ITS OWN (emphasis mine) human and other resources,” yet, they deny other people the right to lay claim to “their land” and its resources!

The political and intellectual class in northern Nigeria talks and acts as if the North is a separate country from the rest of Nigeria. But the North, just as the concept of the West and the East, is a myth; a convenient alibi for those who seek to perpetually keep Nigeria disunited in the promotion of their personal agenda.

Of course, northern Nigeria may have peculiar problems which are the result of the activities of the criminal band called rulers (many of them from the North) Nigeria has had since independence, but if we see the North as part and parcel of Nigeria, then these problems become the problems of Nigeria rather than the problems of the North.

Perhaps, the belief in the theory of a monolithic North explains the warped view of some commentators who, rather than hold military dictators like Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha responsible for ruining the country, make reference to the North as being responsible for the country’s woes. As if the majority of the downtrodden in the North gathered and agreed to give power to these iniquitous generals and join them in the ruination of Nigeria.

We can find many Bugajes and Mohammeds around the country; people who still live with the pre-1914 and civil war mentality. When we talk of the North, East or West the way Bugaje and others describe it, we set ourselves in perpetual conflict with Nigeria. The political and military class from the North has ruled Nigeria for the better part of its independence. What have northerners, let alone the rest of the country, to show for it?

It is scandalous that after more than 50 years of independence, we are still embroiled in the debate of “who owns the oil”. While other countries are working hard to wean themselves off oil and develop alternative sources of energy, we are busy wasting scarce human and financial resources searching for more oil. Rather than planning for a life after oil and developing other resources in the country, our indolent military and political rulers luxuriated in the easy and quick wealth that crude oil provided.

They became drunk on crude oil and nourished a generation of Nigerians for whom nothing else matters apart from oil. Perhaps, if that vermin, Abacha, and the “Evil Genius”, Babangida, both military dictators from the North knew that the oil belonged to the North, they would have used the proceeds judiciously in the interest of the working and toiling people of the North whose names are invoked at every opportunity.

Nigeria will not be great simply because our rulers say so. Nigeria will not be united just because our politicians say at every opportunity that, “The unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable” or that “Nigeria will not disintegrate”. Nation-building is not a whimsical business. Our rulers have done absolutely nothing to advance the unity of Nigeria. What our rulers have succeeded in doing is that where we should see Nigerians we see Christians or Muslims, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Ijaw, Jukun, Efik, Tiv, northerners, etc.

We argue that there are more Muslims in the North and more Christians in the South, so we talk about “Muslim North” and “Christian South” and give ammunition to those whose interest is to keep us perpetually divided as if it matters to the Muslims and Christians in Sokoto, Owerri or Lagos who earn N18,000 a month what label they wear.

Let’s take four major cities (Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano) as examples. Have we asked ourselves why more than five decades after independence, an “Igbo man” born and bred in Lagos, a “Fulani man” born and bred in Port Harcourt, an “Ijaw man” born and bred in Kano or a “Yoruba man” born and bred in Enugu can’t aspire to be a local government chairman let alone a parliamentarian. There are politicians across Nigeria who can make this happen but won’t because of their provincialism and greed. Yet, we go to foreign countries and aspire to run for political offices in places where we have no roots.

The fact that the North, according to Bugaje, has 72 per cent of the land mass does not make northerners more Nigerian than the rest of the country or give them more right to anything that Nigeria has to offer. The delusional theory of the North simply explains why the so-called representatives of the North are paranoid about the Presidency of Nigeria. If you have 72 per cent of the country and 60 per cent of the population, it is only natural to assume that the Presidency of the country is your birthright; after all, democracy is a question of numbers.

Back to the structure of Nigeria. There is nothing like the North. It only exists in the imagination of those who are benefiting or seek to benefit from what that agenda offers. The so-called North came to an end on May 27, 1967, when Gowon divided the country into 12 states. The North is a fairy tale. We shouldn’t buy it! The Constitution of Nigeria recognises only states and local government areas, not regions. Perhaps, we can talk about geopolitical zones for planning and administrative convenience.

We gloss over these issues at our own peril. We can’t talk about building a united Nigeria, a new nation that will be a global contender, while still clinging to the old ethnic, religious and regional stereotypes and fault lines that do us no good.

Beyond the sleeping delegates and the squabbles over allowances for personal aides, pimps and prostitutes, the National Conference is bringing into sharper focus the many prejudices in the country. How do we overcome these prejudices?

This is the discussion we must have – of course, in a civil manner

Building your business with Google online maps

Everyone knows that if you own a business nowadays, you need a website. In fact, people will go further and say you need a website plus other online platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

One of the major reasons it is essential to have some online presence is because you need your business to be found. Where do people go when they need to find something? Online search engines, of course!

Personally, when I am looking for a type of business, I usually head to Google Maps and run a search that includes the city and state or even nearest address.

Google makes checking out businesses easy with well-detailed listings of all sorts of information. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, try Google Maps (www.google.com/maps) and search for a local business.

Let us assume that you are running a search for a Nigerian fashion accessories outfit in Google’s search bar. Notice that when you find the business in the search results there is a “more info” link. It also shows you a complete address of where the business is located as well as a map of the location.

It is this type of detailed listing that I am referring to. As a business owner, did you know you can now actually control what your business listing says about your business? Let me introduce you to what Google calls Google Places.

The process is simple. Let’s go through it step by step.

Go to Google Places (www.google.com/places), sign in with your Google account and click “Add new business.”

Next, you will be asked to begin to enter your business’s details. This is mostly location based information (address, etc.), contact information (like email, phone, web address), and descriptive information (a short description and categorisation).

Now you’ll be asked to give more details to be included in the listing. It is good for potential customers to know about your service location, hours of operation and payment options. You’ll also have the opportunity to include photos and even videos in your listing.

The last part of the Google Places listing process is validating that all of this information is actually coming from the owner of the business being listed. You can choose to validate by phone. Believe it or not, going the phone route would be a lot easier and faster.

But Google Places offers more!

In this article, I have focused on how to take control of the information in your business’s Google listing. You must realise that Google Places also offers business owners other valuable tools, such as printable coupon, and a dashboard full of statistics and trends to help you choose how to better meet the needs of your customers.

In the near future, maps might also understand the fundamental relationships between activities. For example, when you initially search for your meeting location, your map could highlight nearby parking garages or spaces for your car, preventing the need for you to scrabble for one when you arrive. Or if you prefer to travel by public transport, the answer to your problem might be a map that highlights transit stations rather than a more traditional roadmap.

Of course, this concept goes beyond just directions. If your next business meeting happened to be abroad, your phone can offer up information on the local weather, the exchange rate and language translation tools as your plane touches down. Think of the technology as a helpful assistant that makes suggestions then retreats from view just as fast-letting you get on with your day.

Perhaps the ultimate innovation in maps and technology will be realised a bit further down the road, moving beyond offering suggestions to defining what’s next for the world. In fact, you might not have to drive to that business meeting at all-with maps eventually helping automated vehicles drive themselves, with us as passengers.

Now business owners can have the control they need to maximize the benefits of Google free of charge!

Which president will not smile?

President Goodluck Jonathan went to many places late March. He saw many people too, high calibre people in Africa and in Europe, and all of that in six days. There were issues to those visits. What happened in Namibia, his first place of call, is one. What he said to Nigerians residing in that country is another; and there is yet what he told Nigerians residing in The Netherlands. One other place the President visited stands in a class of its own though; no, the personage he met stands yards apart from others. And if many Nigerians didn’t remember every other person that had hosted the President, they remembered this one: Pope Francis, the Catholic Pontiff. It happens that it’s ever fashionable to visit the pope, and it’s even better for anyone to so do at this time. That’s because Pope Francis is popular around the world. That rubs off on any guest, a reason the Americans who will never do a thing without carefully calculating the benefits for their national interest also came to see the pope. Or, has the reader ever heard of a Unites States’ president visiting an unpopular and controversial figure before? Then, that reader will understand why even America’s president went to the Vatican at this time. Of course, Nigerians couldn’t have missed the fact that Nigeria’s leader and his delegation arrived days ahead of the American president. And there is no gainsaying it that the ever religious citizens here don’t fail to see the implication in that. Nigerians know it means their leader had got all the blessings from the Holy Father before the Americans who like to be first in all things arrived the scene!

Yet, that wouldn’t stop some of Jonathan’s men from pointing out how significant the visit to the Vatican was for Nigeria, the same thing they did about another visit to Israel earlier in the year. Nevertheless, the other places that the President went to and the presidential proclamations he made are of relevance to this writer. Take Namibia, for instance. There, Jonathan started his six-day working tour. The country had had its own rough times in the hands of white supremacists. Nigeria had been there for Namibia’s freedom fighters that time, one reason Nigeria, though far away from the scene of the struggle for freedom was tagged a frontline state. So, when Namibians marked their 24th Independence Anniversary in March, they invited Nigeria. Namibians  didn’t invite Jonathan and send him away without according his country the front seat on that occasion; they didn’t treat Nigeria the way South Africa with its leaders’ grand sense of rivalling Nigeria have always been doing, refusing to publicly accord Nigeria the recognition of a comrade-in-arms after apartheid eventually caved in, and neither did they consider it significant to honour Nigeria by letting Jonathan mount the podium and put in a word during the burial of former President Nelson Mandela. Instead, leaders of countries that had sustained apartheid got the honour.

But Namibians were not like that. They awarded Jonathan the highest honour they had for what his nation did for Namibians in their time of need. And the gesture was more exciting for the simple reason that it was not the better known freedom fighter and former President, Sam Nujoma, although present, that so honoured Nigeria. It was his successor, President Hifikepunye Pohamba. Namibians have long memories. And after Jonathan was awarded, he made the often-heard highly contentious statement to the Nigerian community in Windhoek to the effect that corruption is not Nigeria’s number one problem. He said, “Corruption is everywhere” but it is over-celebrated in the country (Nigeria) to the extent that the nation and its people are stigmatised. He got on the airplane thereafter, and headed for the Vatican.

His arrival later in The Netherlands formed the final leg of his tour. There, he had joined other world leaders at the 2014 global Nuclear Security Summit. The summit had focused on what was  achieved so far in securing nuclear material, as well as its future. The organisers said they picked The Netherlands as host because of its history as an advocate of peace and human rights. The first of such summits had been in Washington DC, USA, in 2010. That Nigeria’s leader attended both the Washington DC edition and the latest is good, but what’s of greater interest to this piece was a comment he made to the Nigerian community in The Netherlands. In the event, the comment brought his previous statement about corruption in Windhoek into sharp relief. “I appreciate you, my brothers and sisters, who find time to come and see me,” he had said to Nigerians in a Town Hall meeting in The Netherlands. And pleased with the calibre of people present, he asked rhetorically, that when such calibre of compatriots gather anywhere, “which president will not smile?”

“President Jonathan also considered creating avenues for a media chat with the Nigerian-oriented TV stations in the Diaspora as a platform to counter the negative projection of Nigeria in the western media.” That was part of a TV news report on the meeting the President had with Nigerians in The Netherlands. Having a media chat will throw light on some issues and let the world know how the mind of the Presidency works on some crucial issues, of course. But a media chat is one thing, the official view from any government that can never shoot itself in the foot is also one thing; but what the world sees and reads about Nigeria are another. What is reported in a nation about government officials that steal like hungry rats can’t be controvertible; it can’t be, like the actions of delegates to the National Conference which media houses reported, but which got some delegates upset to the point of saying the media should be banned from doing its job.

Yes, the President proposed to use media chats on Nigerian TV stations in the Diaspora to counter negative coverage of the country in the western press. But one wonders if, Nigerians abroad who are actively fed about news from home, and who are active on most Nigerian-based online newspapers where they make eye-popping negative comments, will believe whatever is said in the course of such image laundering effort, not to mention foreigners. And, apart from what Nigerians see their government officials loot, they have also noted the Transparency Index published in December 2013 by Transparency International. In it, Nigeria was ranked the 34th most corrupt nation in the world, taking the 144th position, among 177 nations. In the group’s Corruption Perceptions Index for the same year, Nigeria scored 25 points out of a possible 100 points, a performance that was poorer than in 2012, when Nigeria scored 27 points. The nation shared the platform of graft with the collapsed and crisis-torn Central African Republic and the neighbour, Cameroon. And there are those billions being serially discovered lately at parliamentary committee hearings, said to have been expended by government officials without following standard practice. TV stations regale Nigerians with them each day. There are also the billions that the lawmakers lately say crude oil managers can’t account for, and the phoney manner high state officials use their positions to put the nation’s resources and assets to illegal uses, all of which makes one wonder if these reports in the public space do get to the President’s table. And when the President said earlier this year that anti-graft agencies had been working hard like tireless camels, that he knew they had been working even though Nigerians might not know it, one had had reasons to scratch head, turning around in search of any Nigerian to corroborate what the President said.

 By the way, the strategy for attracting mass attention can’t follow the same pattern in all places. Whoever has organised events both in Abuja and Lagos understands this, not to mention media chats targeting TV audience in foreign countries where the more interesting TV stations are available mostly by subscription, remote boxes are ever ready to switch among over 500 channels, unlike in Nigeria where most citizens can be forced to watch dreary six hours of sponsored programmes. In any case, Nigerians know that whatever effort to combat corruption here hasn’t been what it should be. So this is where more efforts should go, rather than an attempt at image laundering, as well as expending resources to catch the minds of an international TV audience that hardly pays attention unless the news is red hot negative and scandalous. And of course if corrupt government officials here aren’t so celebrated but are put away where they belong, there’s a group ready to smile long before the President does – Nigerians.

Babangida urges NFF not to distract Keshi

A former Nigeria international, Tijani Babangida, on Thursday urged the Nigeria Football Federation and well meaning individuals to support Stephen Keshi and the Super Eagles ahead of the World Cup.

Babangida said in Abuja that by so doing, the team would be spurred to improve on what other African countries had done at the World Cup.

“We must avoid any pitfall. I read about the query they gave him (Keshi) in the newspapers. All that is unnecessary at this stage, such distractions, shouldn’t even be made public. It is not good at all. Keshi is someone I’ve known for a long time and I have no doubt that he will do the nation proud if the NFA can give him all the necessary support he needs. I have a good feeling Nigeria will do well at the World Cup,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria.

The former winger endorsed the country’s quest for a credible performance at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, adding that he was optimistic that Keshi was the right man for the job.

On players’ selection, Babangida, who played professionally with Ajax FC of Amsterdam, advised that Keshi should be allowed to pick the players of his choice against the backdrop of undue pressure on him.

“I will advise that we all allow Keshi to select whom he wants. If he feels he needs the experience of Osaze Odemwingie, or the sharpness of Ikechukwu Uche, that’s fine. If not, so be it.

“Win or lose, the buck stops at his table. Nigerians are very difficult to please. We are going to the World Cup as the current African champions. Surely that must count for something.

“I think we need to respect Keshi more and allow him do what he feels will be good for Nigeria,” he said.

Babangida, who was also part of the 1998 World Cup squad in France, said the Eagles should be wary of Iran, who might turn out to be the spoilers in the group.

“A lot of people are looking at Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina, while forgetting Iran as a potential threat. Argentina are familiar foes. Bosnia-Herzegovina we know a bit, but Iran being an unknown quantity can spring a surprise or two. It shouldn’t be against us.

“I think we need to be at our best in all games. No team will be a pushover. Our first game against Iran should be like a cup final,” Babangida said.

Nigeria is grouped alongside Argentina, Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Group F in the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

The Super Eagles will play their first group match against Iran on June 23.

Wenger won't talk

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is refusing to be drawn on whether an FA Cup victory or qualification for next season’s Champions League is top of his priority list, BBC reports.

The Frenchman insists he is looking no further than Saturday’s semi-final against FA Cup holders Wigan before setting his sights on the title run-in.

And speaking at the pre-match press conference, he is adamant no wholesale changes to his squad will be require this summer, claiming injuries to key players have proved destructive to the club’s ambitions in recent months.

Arsenal currently lie fourth, just one point ahead of Everton who have a game in hand over the Londoners following their 3-0 victory at Goodison Park last Sunday.