FIRST HOME-MADE WARSHIP

NIGERIA CELEBRATES FIRST HOME-MADE WARSHIP.
By Will Ross-Nigeria correspondent to BBC.



"Proudly Nigerian" does not just apply to the people of this vast land - the West African giant is now building its own warships.
Nigeria's Deadly Delta
After nearly five years in the making, the Nigerian Navy Ship or NNS Andoni was launched with a colourful event.
Preaching pacifism to militants
At 31m (100ft) long, this is no giant of the seas, but the fact that it was designed and built in Nigeria, by Nigerian engineers, is a great source of pride.
'Blood oil' dripping from Nigeria
The day Nigeria hit oil
"We are all happy and elated," said Commodore SI Alade, one of Nigeria's senior naval officers.
Who are Mend oil militants?
"This is the first time this kind of thing is happening in Nigeria and even in the sub region."
Moments after stepping on board NNS Andoni, sailor FL Badmus said: "I feel on top of the world"."I'm proud to have been picked by the naval authorities to serve on this ship.
"We hope this is the beginning of very good things to come and we thank God for it."
With a speed of up to 25 knots (46km/h), this can quickly go to intercept the pirates ”
The warship was named after the Andoni people of south-eastern Nigeria - and several chiefs traveled to Lagos to witness the launch - including his Royal Highness NL Ayuwu Iraron Ede-Obolo II, wearing a top hat, a sequin-adorned velvet gown and a brightly coloured necklace.
Commanding Officer Adepegba
The ceremony also featured multi-faith prayers, with an imam asking God to "protect and preserve this ship from the dangers of the day and the violence of the enemy", and a Christian praying: "May she sail with success like the Ark of Noah."
The event had an interesting twist of symbolism for the guest of honour, Nigeria's leader, Goodluck Jonathan.
Anti-pirate ship
He is from a family of canoe makers - and that he is now the president launching a warship is a sign of how far he has risen.
"This is the beginning of the transformation... and I believe in another 10 to 15 years, we can be thinking about starting a project to take Nigerians into the air," President Jonathan said.
Named after the Andoni, their chiefs were some of the guests of honour at the ship's launch
The NNS Andoni could be key in the fight against militants operating near Nigeria's oil fields as well as the growing threat of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
Piracy in Nigerian waters is on the increase and incidents are happening over a wider area, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
There were 10 piracy attacks off the 780km (485 miles) of Nigeria's coastline during the first quarter this year - the same number reported for the whole of 2011.
"While the number of reported incidents in Nigeria is still less than Somalia… the level of violence against crew is dangerously high," according to a recent IMB report.
The NNS Andoni is equipped with an advanced radar system and firepower.
"With a speed of up to 25 knots (46km/h), this can quickly go to intercept the pirates," said Commanding Officer Adepegba standing on the bridge pointing out the ship's three machine guns and the automatic grenade launcher.
Foreign orders
The Nigerian navy reportedly wants to acquire 49 more vessels over the next 10 years. But how many will be home built?
Orders are already in - for three from a French shipbuilder, and six from Singapore.
The NNS Thunder was donated by the US - but its monthly fuel bill is huge
President Jonathan recently approved the acquisition of two large patrol vessels from China Shipbuilding and Offshore International, a mainly state-owned company.
In an effort to boost local industry, one of the Chinese vessels is meant to be 70% built in Nigeria.
NNS Andoni was dwarfed when a 105m-long frigate steamed past during the ceremony - with all the officers cheering on deck.
NNS Thunder, a veteran of the Vietnam War, arrived at the beginning of the year, a gift from the US.
Eyebrows were raised when it was announced that the monthly fuel bill of the 45-year-old ship would be $1m (£650,000).
"When this year's navy's $450m budget was discussed at the House of Assembly in January, one senator described the donated ships as hand-outs that could become liabilities rather than assets.
We came up with the design, the expertise and about 60% of the materials were locally sourced”
There were also calls for corruption to be plugged". "Corruption has sucked the blood out of our system. So we have to depend on hand-outs," one senator lamented.
Engineer Kelechi
NSS Andoni's fuel bill will certainly be lower than NNS Thunder.
'No indigenous touch'
After parading on the deck, the naval officers took photos of each other with mobile phones - clearly delighted with the new ship.
"It's a great day. It's taken over five years but it's worth it," said a smiling Kelechi, one of the engineers.
"We came up with the design, the expertise and about 60% of the materials were locally sourced. The engines, generators and navigation equipment came from outside."
Nigeria is one of Africa's biggest oil producers, but this has not so much helped as hampered the development of local industries because the country has relied so heavily on imported goods.
Sailors hope NNS Andoni will mark a bright new future for Nigeria's navy
As he launched NNS Andoni, President Jonathan lamented the decline of industries that had been strong not long after independence in 1960.
"We had Nigerian Airways, the Nigerian shipping line and a number of investments that were doing well. But because there was no indigenous touch, all these died," the president said.
"We are told that some countries that were on par with us are now building aircraft, choppers and other things," he said, adding that Nigeria had for a long time not embraced technology.
The president suggested sending the brightest students of engineering to the best universities in the world.
"Then let them come back and work in Nigeria because we cannot continue to be importing. We have a very large market and even what we consume alone is enough to support an industry."
"We have this market, we must use it," President Jonathan said - before laying the keel to mark the start of work on the second "Made in Nigeria" warship.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

FALL IN EDUCATIONAL STANDARD IN NIGERIA:

TOPIC: FALL IN THE STANDARD OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA; WHOSE FAULT, PARENT OR GOVERNMENT?

Education in Nigeria has attracted much public discussion in recent times. Examining the indices of development and practices in implementing Nigeria’s school curricula to determine whether the fall in standard of education is due to the way in which schools are implementing skills acquisition.  

Poor implementation of school curricula was listed as one of the cause of poor educational standards, which causes inadequate skills acquisition. Areas to be revisited include curricula, school discipline, school ownership, teacher education and awareness levels of the links between education and self-reliance.

Blaming students, distraction is noted as the major cause on their parts. The same way a curriculum might not be good, students also add to their mishap. Cultivating a reading habit is better than staying glued to a TV set and having to procrastinate on doing their assignments with one excuse or the other. Adding to that, blackberry is no way close to helping the students, because every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to get a Blackberry or own a Blackberry and this is a major distraction, several social networks can be downloaded on that Blackberry and that’s not helping them one bit.

Still speaking on distraction, most students are always found in cyber cafes. Students don’t necessarily need to be seen in a cyber cafes, it’s easy for them to pay for their internet services on their phone and off goes the browsing.

Another factor is that the new games have added to the fall of the educational standards in Nigeria because every student I know either in primary school or secondary school wants a PSP…. Play station 3 or a WII and this is a major distraction for students” Narrowing down to the university level, these students stick to their Blackberries 24/7 and this kills them, yet they seem to ignore that fact.

Exam malpractice has eaten so deep into the system that nothing can come out of it. Some parents and some students have shown no decency and integrity.

 Also, we are in a society where it is believed that everything has a price; students don’t have time to study or do their home work, some parents pay their children just to read a book or two within a month, so that they can imbibe the reading habit. Besides, the parents are never at home to supervise them. They leave them at the mercy of house helps to go after money.

What students need to do is put all this factors aside and make it to the top. She believes it won’t hurt. The general answer as given by everyone is still the same. The standard of education in Nigeria is falling and they think the government is doing nothing but to sit back and relax and watch d education fall.

Looking from my own point of view, the blame should be on the parents, because some even most students are distracted by so many things, some are as a result of emotional imbalance or psychological problems  caused by their parents. Some parents don’t cater for their children; some maltreat them, while some abuse them. All these could cause great retardation to the development of a child, particularly in their academical lives.

Also, some parents buy unnecessary things for their children which cause great distraction and unserious to them, look at a secondary or primary school student having a blackberry phone, video game and even some times a car.

It is absolutely neither the problem nor the fault of the government. What determines the educational standard of a child is the basic foundation he or she has, and the only place a child could get that is from the parents. So if a parent is not able to build a solid foundation for his child, no blame should be put on the government.

It is stated in the CHILD’S RIGHT ACT 2003 that every parent should give his child a good educational upbringing and a condusive environment for learning. As a result, if the government is playing its own part by providing free education and the parent has refused to contributing his own quota, nobody should be blamed other than the parent.

Finally, the fall in the standard of education in Nigeria should be accredited to the parents and not the governments.   

FUEL SCARCITY: UPDATE...

 True to the news on the 27th of July about fuel scarcity. At about 7:45pm  on Saturday 28th of July, the Adonai filling station that was over flowing with customers became deserted and it was only the staff that were probably waiting for delivery that could be seen at the premises.

Meanwhile,some customers were on standby also waiting for the arrival of the scarce commodity.

In the same vain, other filling stations around were not exempted from the grasp of the scarcity.

We are still on standby for any development as regards this story.

FUEL SCARCITY:

It seems like another Fuel subsidy riot as people gathered at the Adonai Petroleum Station Ogba, on the 27^th of July 2012.

Other Petrol stations around are experiencing such too but the sight of the scene at this particular filling station was alarming because it was not always so on a daily basis.

Speaking with one of the customers which pleaded anonymity said the crowd is as a result of the news he heard that there will be scarcity of fuel so he had to Rush and have some storage of It before its too late.

 
While one of the members of staff at the filling station expressed his surprise at the turn out of customers as they were mainly buyers with gallons and kegs, but he said he is happy with the development has that will increase the organisation's sales output for the day.

Mixed Emotions on NIJ Campus

Friday 27th July, 2012 was a day of mixed emotion for the students of Nigerian Institute of Journalism Ogba.

NIJ students checking their results

 The much awaited result for the first semester of the 2011/2012 session was published on the school notice board and students were all over the campus jubilating, crying, celebrating, brooding, complaining, commending or condemning the result.

Students that prepared and performed well in the exam expressed their relief seeing the outcome of their effort while others that were did not meet up to expectation confessed their unserious attitude towards the just concluded or that they did not prepare well for it as they were still new in the system;as in the case of National Diploma One Students(ND1).

students in front of the result board

The result that was pasted rather too late was being condemned by students, saying that that the delay in publishing is not fair on the part of the school authority as students that failed in the last examination would not know how well to buckle up their belt in preparation for the upcoming exam. Also failure in the past exam can cause a lot of set back in preparing for the next exam as the student may be depressed, disturbed or weighed down and all this can affect proper preparation for the following examination.

Speaking with Blessing, an ND1 student  she expressed her satisfaction on the result but said she hope to do better in the forth coming test.  

Also Diana James, an ND2 student said her result was in tandem with her effort, so she is happy about it.

On the other hand, Chinma, an ND1student told herryScope that she is grateful to God for

 the result although she has a Carry-Over, she is not bothered as that will make her sit-up and become better in the forth coming examination. 

However, Students appeal to the school Authorities to endeavor to ensure quick publishing of  Examination Results.