Ojobo, Melaye, Wike, Akpabio, Buratai honoured @ maiden Authority awards

ITRealms:

The Director of Public Affairs (DPA) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Tony Ojobo, the Governor of Rivers State, Nyeson Wike and Senators Godswill Akpabio and Dino Melaye as well as the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai were honoured at the maiden awards ceremony hosted by the Authority Newspapers for Excellence and Good Governance, reports ITRealms.

For Mr. Ojobo, he was honoured with The Authority Newspaper Public Affairs Spokesperson of the year 2016 at the ceremony presided over by former old Anambra State Governor, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and keynote speaker, Human Right Activist/Constitutional Lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, was described by Madu Onuorah, The Authority Managing Director, as painstaking before the Board of Editors “took decisions to select the personalities we are honouring today”.

He also told the audience that The Authority Newspaper Award was “a celebration of God’s greatness, grace and the human power to dare the impossible”.

In arriving at its decision to name Ojobo as Outstanding Public Affairs Spokesperson of the year 2016, the Board of Editors of The Authority described him as “a consummate communication driver of the critical government agency in a milieu where legitimate expectations are high and tempers short”.

Ojobo “has managed to bring winsome professionalism, unusual humility and noteworthy grasp of his brief to deliver a five-star performance and manage the high-octane volatility that is associated with his job”, according to the citation at the event.

With over 28 years of experience in the telecommunications sector covering areas such as Marketing, Customer Services, Institutional Strengthening, License Administrations, Corporate Communication and Brand Management, Ojobo started his career with the defunct Nigerian External Telecommunications (NET) Limited as a Commercial Officer in August 1982 and by 1985 when Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) was established he joined and served at various times as Customer Services Manager in the Organisation.

He left NITEL in 1995 and went into Management & Consulting Services until 1999. In March 2000, Ojobo joined NCC as Deputy Director Projects in the office of the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC)/CEO. He coordinated World Bank Consultancy for institutional strengthening and development at NCC.

Further, Ojobo coordinated various times Telecom Service Demand Study, carried out by Growing Business Foundation which served as a prelude to the Digital Mobile Licence (DML) auction in 2001.

He later served as Deputy Director (Administration), 2002; Head of Licensing and Zonal Operations, Acting Director, Human Capital and Infrastructure and later substantive Director in the same department in January 2010.  He was redeployed to the Public Affairs Department as Director, Public Affairs in October 2012. He holds the position till today.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Melaye wants to sack Economic Team over worsening recession

ITRealms:

The Senator, representing the people of Kogi State West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Otunba Dino Melaye has demanded the sacking of the Economic Team, reports ITRealms.
 

Speaking on Sunday in Abuja through a press statement personally signed, Senator Melaye expressed concern over the economic recession with a call on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute a new team.

Among the economic team he suggested that should be sacked include the Ministers of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele. 

Melaye, chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Founder of Anti-Corruption Network, tabled the demands in a statement entitled: "Buhari-The barking is over, it's time to bite", expressed worry by the poor state of the economy which has brought unprecedented hardship and hunger on the masses of the Nigerian people, stressing that sacking the economic team would be the only solution to reboot the ailing economy.

Melaye accused most members of the President's cabinet of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and a distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their ministries/agencies, adding Buhari must shake up his cabinet.

"At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President's widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed aura and efficacy. His no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members. It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office.

"The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry. It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship".

"To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality.

"It is for someone with the relevant qualification, professional knowledge and experience in public sector finance, development economics, strategic thinking, budgetary planning and management. As a lawyer, accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma's appointment to that position is nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round pegs in square holes-it will, and can never fit. It is akin to saddling a carpenter with a tailor's responsibility.

"The outcome under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be catastrophic for the economy. President Buhari must therefore do the needful now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the revival of the Nigerian economy,” he said.

Melaye also regretted Emefiele's disastrous handling and release of the so-called Dasuki-gate funds which amounts to about 15 per cent of the nation's foreign reserves.

He equally accused the CBN Governor of policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies as clear evidence of gross incompetence in the management of the nation's fiscal and monetary policies.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE 
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Pix: Sen. Melaye

Melaye, Binta @ JAMB mock Computer-Based Test

Campus Pavilion@ITRealms:

THE Chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Otunba Dino Melaye, on Friday wrote and ‘passed’ the mock computer based test organised by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to mark the 2016 Children’s Day celebration in Abuja.

He came to the JAMB stand in the company of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs, Hajia Binta Adamu and the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of JAMB, Prof. ‘Dibu Ojerinde and other top officials of the Board led round the various facilities used by JAMB for the exercise.

The test was a continuation of the demonstration of the new unified tertiary matriculation examination techniques which has replaced the traditional paper-pencil test that became a rich substrate for growth and maturation of all forms examination malpractice by candidates.

The demonstration exercise started on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 at the Board’s CBT Centre in Kogo, Bwari Area Council with over 13 secondary schools drawn from the public and private schools presenting 301 students of the Secondary School 1 and 2 levels. 

Melaye who ‘passed’ the demonstration exercise commended the Board for the digital initiative, insisting that the National Assembly should prevailed on the federal government to provide adequate fund for the running of the technology.

He said JAMB did well to bring Nigeria at par with advanced economies through the introduction of the digital technology which is already in use in those climes. 

According to the Head of Public Relations of the Board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, the choice of the students was informed by the fact that they form a majority of the next set of candidates to write the next UTME.

He said the Board considered the Children’s Day celebration as an opportunity to bring the children together to demonstrate the CBT as a way to get them acquainted with the testing mode and to prepare their mind towards writing the real exam without fear or fright.

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