Four persons died on Monday, while nine sustained varying degrees of injuries in two separate motor accidents at various locations in Anambra State.
Three passengers were said to have died in one of the crashes
President Muhammadu Buhari has called on Nigerians across the country to rise above personal, group, sectarian and other interests. In his Sallah message to the nation on Monday, he asked the citizens to promote harmony and tolerance in dealing with one another at all times.
President Buhari also urged all Muslims to use the occasion for sober reflection and self-examination, as well as strive to be good ambassadors of their religion by upholding high moral values.
He reminded them that the felicitous occasion of Eid-ul-Adha is a remembrance of the submission of Prophet Ibrahim to Allah, his Creator, by which he taught the world the value of sacrifice in relating with one another, and when it comes to nation-building.
“We must sacrifice for others and remember always those who are less fortunate than ourselves,” the President declared in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu.
He described Islam as a major factor in influencing human behaviour towards good conduct and actions.
President Buhari, however, regretted that selfishness, greed and corruption have overwhelmed human souls to the extent that people abandon their religious beliefs in pursuit of their greed.
He stressed that the anti-corruption campaign of the Federal Government is a task that must be done in order to protect the larger interests of the ordinary Nigerians who are the worst victims of diseases, poverty, malnutrition and other afflictions.
According to the President, surrendering to corruption is not an option his administration is willing to choose because it destroys the society and the progress of the nation.
“Even if some people hate you for fighting corruption, you should not chicken out from the task as a leader because doing so is a betrayal of public trust,” he said.
On the current economic challenges in the country, President Buhari reassured Nigerians that such were temporary, insisting that the welfare of the people was the main thrust of the ‘change agenda’ of his administration.
To buttress his point, he highlighted the numerous initiatives unfolded by his administration under the Social Investment Programme (SIP).
The President said these included the decision to distribute recovered stolen funds to the poor, “against the past practices of re-looting such funds by some people in authority.”
The first person to win a second Nobel Prize is a woman…
When I read the news about the 5 Nigerian girls from Regina Pacies Secondary School Onitsha that clinched the Gold at the World Technovation Challenge. I was happy not because they made Nigeria and Africa proud, I was happy because they were female, when I probed further I discovered the competition is for girls alone, I felt better because it is a platform for girls to show the world they can change their society when given the opportunity.
Technovation offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the necessary skills to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders. Since 2010, more than 10,000 girls from 78 countries have participated in Technovation. With the help of volunteer mentors, they’ve produced mobile “startups” that have helped address problems in local and global communities the world over.
WOMEN IN TECH
Previously I thought that tech was a masculine stuff until I read about Countess Augusta Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), the world’s first computer programmer some years back. She taught herself geometry and laid the early conceptual and technical groundwork for the high technology needed to develop the early computer. She corroborated with Sir Charles Babbage to invent the Analytical Engine. Posthumously, the United States Department of Defence (DoD) honoured her by naming its high-level programming language, Ada after her in 1979.
Countess Ada Lovelace’s story shows that there is nothing masculine about tech. We are no more living in times were success had more to do with physical exertion, that was a man’s world and those days are gone. Success is more mental and both male and female brains are the same.
WITH THE RIGHT EXPOSURE, EVERY WOMAN CAN EXCEL
I remember during my undergraduate days, one day few of my coursemates and I were passing through the Faculty of Engineering (FEG). We saw a class taking pictures, interestingly one of us said something profound, “See there is only one girl in this class, this guys must be suffering, no girls to gist with. This class must be very boring. Without girls what is the point for the class going for a picnic”. We laughed our hearts out that day. I remember telling myself, this Engineering course must be scary for ladies.
I think many women avoid tech courses because they are not encouraged to participate in those fields. If there were no women football league, who would have thought that women could dribble and fire shots outside the eighteen-yard box.
What of Marie Curie, the first person to win a second Nobel Prize. In 1903, she won her first Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel in recognition of their fundamental research on radioactivity. In 1911. she won her second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of her work in discovering Radium and Polonium and isolating Radium. She worked with her husband to discover two radioactive elements Polonium and Radium.
When I read about her then in elementary chemistry, I was really impressed. She was denied higher education in her native Poland, In France she studied Physics and Mathematics, graduating top of her class. This shows with the right exposure, every woman can excel alongside her male counterpart.
I still think more women need to get involved. What do you think?
I think women need to start changing the narrative. Beyond the dream of getting married and having children, they can still achieve great things for themselves. A woman can be a super mom and super achiever combined together.
Congratulations to all the women that have been creating spaces for women in the headlines.
Obinna Osigwe
Digital Marketing Analyst
Lionel Messi, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard included in top 10
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah scored 44 goals last season
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been shortlisted for the 2017/18 UEFA Player of the Year award.
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric and former team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved to Juventus after winning the Champions League with the Spanish side, are the other players on the three-man shortlist – voted for by coaches and journalists across Europe.
Salah – who was named PFA Player of the Year after his successful debut campaign at Anfield – scored 44 goals for Liverpool last season, while Ronaldo scored 27 La Liga goals to add to his 15 in the Champions League.
The Portuguese forward who is the current holder of the award having won it three times in the past four seasons.
Cristiano Ronaldo won the Champions League with Real Madrid, alongside Luka Modric
Modric was a 2018 World Cup runner-up with Croatia and also the winner of the FIFA Golden Ball.
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard were both included in the top 10, alongside Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos.
France World Cup winners Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Raphael Varane complete the longlist.
The women’s award will go to either Pernille Harder (Denmark and Wolfsburg), Ada Hegerberg (Norway and Lyon) or Amandine Henry (France and Lyon).
Pernille Harder was a 2017 Women’s Euro’s runner-up with Denmark
The accolades will be presented at the Champions League group stage draw ceremony, which will take place in Morocco on August 30.
Skysports