NYSC 2016 Batch 'B' Stream II To Begin Orientation January 2017

Corps members of the second stream of the 2016 Batch B will begin their orientation course in January, 2017, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has said.

On Wednesday, at the maiden media parley organized by NYSC, its Director General, Brigadier General Sulaimon Kazaure said all eligible graduates will be mobilized for National Service. But the capacity of the orientation ground will see PCMs go for their orientation course in two streams.

"So far, we have received green light from the relevant government agencies to prepare for the mobilization of all qualified prospective Corps members.

"However, the limited cumulative capacity of the Orientation camps nationwide necessitates a second stream Orientation course for the 2016 Batch 'B' which is being planned for January 2017," Kazaure said.

Kazaure lamented the failure of some states and local governments to discharge their statutory obligations to the Scheme pointing out that their attitude resulted in the limited capacity and quality of facilities in most Orientation camps across the country.

The Director-General stressed that the provision of Orientation camp facilities and post-camp accommodation and transport of Corps members were among the responsibilities of states and local governments as spelt out in the NYSC Act.

Others he enumerated include logistics support for inspection of Corps locations, material support for community development service and security of Corps members.

He, therefore, appealed to states and local governments that are not discharging their statutory obligations to reconsider their stance and give their support towards the success of the Scheme's operations.

In the mean time, PCMs are expected to start printing their call up letter starting from Monday next week after which the first stream will commence their orientation course Thursday next week.

OAU 2016/2017 Predegree Entrance Test Results Released

The results of the recently conducted entrance examination for admission to the 2016/2017 OAU Predegree programme have just been released. To check yours, you will be required to login with your Username and Password with which you registered with. To check now, CLICK HERE TO LOGIN

Goodluck!

Apply For 2016/2017 Lagos State Undergraduate Scholarship

The Lagos State Scholarship Board is the agency in charge of scholarship, bursary and other related matters within the state. It grants Scholarship awards to deserving indigenes in various tertiary institutions for full time studies in order to assist these students financially.

Applications are invited for:

Lagos State Undergraduate Scholarship Award Scheme 2016 / 2017

Process for Eligibility for Local Under-Graduate Scholarship Award

All applicants must have gained full time admission into an accredited Nigerian tertiary Institution.

All Under-graduate applicants:

Where CGPA scale is 7.0 (e.g University of Ibadan) he /she must possess a minimum of 4.9/7.0
Where CGPA scale is 5.0 (e.g University of Lagos) he /she must possess a minimum of 3.5/5.0
Where CGPA scale is 4.0 (e.g polytechnics and colleges of education) he /she must possess a Minimum of 2.8/4.0

Where applicant is a medical student in 200L, option 1, 2 and 3 applies
Where applicant is a medical student in 300L and above a minimum of Credit is required in their result.

All applicants must be in their second year or above
All applicants must have completed LASRRA Registration.

All applicants must have a signed letter of identification from their respective Oba
All applicants must have a signed letter of identification from their respective local government.

All applicants must purchase a Scholarship application form. (Payment of N2,000.00 for Local Scholarship) through the Office of Special Adviser on Education, Block 5, 3rd Floor, Alausa Secretariat.

All applicants must upload clear scanned copies of all documents to ascertain the genuineness of their claims. Documents like:

Admission Letter
School Identity Card or Valid means of school identification
Letter of identification from Oba
Letter of identification from Local Government
SSCE result
Lagos State Resident Registration Agency(LASSRA) registration card
Passport Photograph (clear background not older than three months).

Transcript or Result statement duly signed and stamped from school stating previous session CGPA results clearly
Shortlisted applicant must participate in a Computer Based Test on 7th and 8th February, 2017 conducted by Dragnet Solutions Limited in conjunction with Lagos State Scholarship Board.
Successful tested applicants will be contacted for oral interview

How to Apply
Qualified and interested candidates should:
Apply @ https://scholastica.ng/schemes/lssbundergraduate

1.) Before you start this application, ensure you have purchased a Scholarship application form (Payment of N2,000.00 for Local Scholarship) through the Office of Special Adviser on Education, Block 5, 3rd Floor, Alausa Secretariat then secure your Voucher pin from the Scholarship Board office. Thereafter, have clear scanned copies of the following documents:

Passport photograph with white background not more than 3 months old (450px by 450px not more than 200kb)
Treasury receipt of N2,000 for the scholarship form
Admission Letter
School Identity Card
SSCE Certificate
Letter of identification from Oba
Letter of identification from Local Government
LASSRA registration card
Transcript or Statement of Results duly signed and stamped from school stating previous session CGPA results clearly

2.) Ensure that information are filled accurately to avoid mix up after application
3.) Ensure the documents are named according to what they represent to avoid mixing up documents during upload
4.) Ensure you attach the appropriate documents when asked to upload

To apply, follow the steps below:
Click on “Apply Now” tab.
Click on “Register Now” to create an account.
Proceed to your email box to activate your account
Click on www.scholastica.ng to return to Scholarship site
Enter your registered email and password to upload your information.
Enter your personal information, additional information, educational information, other information and upload required scanned documents.
Ensure the name used in applications matches the names on all documentation in same order. Upload a sworn affidavit or certificate if otherwise.
Ensure you view all documents after uploading, to eliminate errors during uploading.
When asked to upload photo, upload a pass-port photograph with a white background.
Recheck application information to avoid errors
Click “Apply Now” to submit information and provide the secret voucher pin and LASSRA Number in the appropriate column
You will receive an email and a sms that confirms your application was successful.
Return to www.scholastica.ng , enter your Email and Password to download your profile and proceed to have your Head of Department sign the document.
Upload a scanned copy of the signed profile, this would be used for verification.
Keep the hard copy of the signed profile, this would also be used for verification.
Return to www.scholastica.ng and update application with National Identification Number (NIN) to ensure completion

Note:
Please read the eligibility requirement carefully.

Refer to the FAQ page for better clarification.

To secure your voucher pin proceed to the Lagos Scholarship Board office, 254 Ipaja road, Agege, Lagos and show them your treasury receipt.

Multiple applications attract a disqualification penalty from the Scholarship board.
Successful applicants will be contacted for oral interview

Application Deadline 23rd December, 2016.


Credit: Brain News NG

The Ponzi Renaissance: Is Patience Still A Virtue? – Pope Jay

Before anything, I must firstly state that this article was birthed from a very dire need for me to make a quick editorial appearance amidst my circumstantial writing holiday. As a matter of fact, I am unsure that I possess the appropriate adjectives to describe the exigency of this need. However, as my brief appearance should end upon the completion and publication of this necessitated piece of my mind, I cannot guarantee my usual immediate responses to counter-opinions and comments but irrespective, I promise to respond to all in due course.

Due to the nature of my hobbies, the outlook of my personal social media platforms are not quite the usual; I tend to get a comparatively higher number of messages than average. And whilst the price of this is a more tedious process in finding and responding to major messages, it also has its edge. From merely studying the trend of chats and posts, I can extract some of the popular concepts and topics of discourse at a point in time, some of them being peculiar to certain circles of course. And anyone who also likes to pay attention would notice the rapid re-emergence of Ponzi schemes ongoing in the Nigerian media sphere and indeed, Nigeria. From the headlines of the major dailies to the most basic gossip platforms, it’s either MMM or Icharity or Zarfund or whatever other names there are. Worryingly, there is a high tendency that you are qualified with an undesirable adjective by participants if you claim ignorance or no interest in any of these schemes. However, assessing some of the fundamentals of these schemes, it quite interesting to know that a rather high number of Nigerians are part of them, with some even going as far as “idolizing” them.

A Ponzi scheme is commonly defined as a business or investment arrangement where its operator pays returns to its investors/participants from funds earned from new participants rather than through legitimate business activities. Named after Charles Ponzi, the scheme bears some resemblance to Pyramid marketing schemes which is also sometimes regarded as fraudulent and has been banned in a number of countries. In simple terms, without new participants, a Ponzi scheme cannot thrive. The natural answer to this challenge would be that there is no way new participants would not arise, perhaps this is true, there are after all about seven billion people in the world. But then again, considering the quite extravagant interest that is usually promised in these schemes, most tend to often get to a point where even Seven billion is not enough and a crash of the scheme becomes inevitable. After having the discussion with a number of participants of these schemes, most tend to just come to the “Make I sha chop my own” reaction at this point. Typical of the Homo sapien.

But then, commenting on the rapid re-emergence of these schemes without linking to the current wicked economic realities of the country would be grossly incomplete because although MMM Nigeria may issue disclaimers that it is not a business investment or enterprise, it may be more than that to the average Nigerian participant- It’s God’s answer to his prayers. Maybe the “small work, big pay” prayer got a better answer; “No work, big pay”. Little wonder the schemes have started to gain strong grounds in religious institutions, who says your spiritual guider can’t be your MMM guider? Then there are the even worse pyramid schemes. They tell you to come and pay N1 and bring in seven people to collect N7, then the seven go out to bring in another seven and it goes on until there are no more seven to bring in.  

We grew up listening to the maxim. “Hard work pays”, but the only thing you get to hear these days is “MMM pays” and “Money must be made (fast)”. Sadly, the patient dog also stopped eating the fatest bone years ago, and the question now is…is patience then still a virtue?

Pope Jay

ASUU Strike: Examinations To Continue As Scheduled – OAU Management

The management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife has said the nationwide warning strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) planned to start on Wednesday will not hinder the ongoing examination in the institution.

This development was communicated after the acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Anthony Elujoba met with departments’ Heads and other senior members of the institution. “Following the meeting of the acting Vice Chancellor and all Heads of Departments, Readers and Professors in the university, Monday, 14th November, 2016, it has been resolved that the ongoing 2015/206 Harmattan Semester examinations will progress as scheduled,” the Registrar, D. O. Awoyemi said.

In the meantime, the embattled chairman of the OAU chapter of ASUU, Dr Caleb Aborisade has reportedly told the leadership of the Association of Campus Journalists (ACJ) in OAU that the members of his union will tomorrow, Tuesday take a position on the planned warning strike in its congress scheduled for 10:00am. “...that is their [OAU Management] own headache, we will hold a congress tomorrow and declare our strike as the custom of ASUU,” Aborisade told a correspondent of ACJ OAU.

OAU Peeps News Agency had earlier reported that ASUU will embark on a 7-day warning strike, starting from Wednesday this week to press home for some pending and new demands from the federal government. If by any means activities are halted by ASUU’s action, it will be the first interruption of academic calendar under Elujoba’s administration of the institution.

ASUU Begins Warning Strike Wednesday, November 16

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said its members nationwide will proceed on a one-week warning strike starting from Wednesday, November 16. This is aimed at compelling the federal government to address some pending and new issues.

According to a Statement signed by the ASUU National President, Biodun Ogunyemi and seen by OAU Peeps News Agency, the strike will be “total and comprehensive” and members of the Union are only to take instruction from their chairpersons during the period of the warning strike.

From the same statement, ASUU wants the FG to pay the earned academic allowances of its members, exempt universities from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and also renegotiate the 2009 agreement.

Others are the registration of the Nigerian University Pension Management Committee (NUPEMCO) and funding for the revitalization of public universities based on the FGN-ASUU MoU of November 2013. The non-payment of salaries of staff in the primary schools and shortfall in salaries leading to payment of fractions of staff salaries are other contentious issues.

Currently, OAU students are writing their 2015/2016 harmattan semester examination and that is due to end by early next month. Any truncation of this as a result of a strike action would extend the relatively stable academic calendar for the session.

3 Days To The Start Of 2016 ‘Black Friday’ Sales, Here Is What You Need To Know

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since the early 2000s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales.

Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe “The Day after Thanksgiving” as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day.

In Nigeria, this day has also been adopted by several online stores to sell promotional goods. For 2016, some of the leading online stores have announced their Black Friday sales programme; Konga will have its special sales between Friday, 18th November and Monday, November 21. Another leading store, Jumia will its own special sales between Monday, November 14 and Friday, November 25.

As at today (03/11/2016), one of the leading online stores, Jumia has disclosed the expected discounts for various categories of their goods. In its publicity, electronic goods will attract up to 50% discount; Television sets (30%), Game consoles (45%), Tablets (50%), Smartphones (50%) and laptop (30%).

Before the sales, online sales are expected to release a more comprehensive breakdown of sales in different categories of their market. For instance, last year, Jumia announced different discounts in various categories; In the Cameras & Electronics category, discount was up to 65%. Others include the Women’s Clothing and Men’s Clothing with 60% discount, Women’s and Men’s Accessories also had 50% discount, even as Men’s Shoes and Women’s Shoes got up to 55% discount.

Sales during Black Fridays are usually on first arrived, first served basis because of the huge traffic of online buyers who are always willing to participate in the greatly discounted sales.

If the statistics released by Konga on its Black Friday 2014 (Yakata Sales) is something to go by, the store had 5x the amount of its usual daily traffic recording a maximum 1,659 orders placed within an hour. The same record revealed that over $3.5M (N600m) was made in the sales last year.

Even with the statistics from several online stores recounting the success of the Black Friday sales in previous years, the recount of experiences by many social media users who participated in the sales have been mixed – some interesting and some are not palatable. Some people still do not believe the sales happened because they weren’t able to buy at the displayed discounted prices. Some have even gone hard on suspected online stores and labelling the Black Friday thing a scam.

For students of Obafemi Awolowo University who are willing to take advantage of this year’s Black Friday sales, here are some useful tips for you:

1.) Get money that will get you some items.
2.) Register with the online store(s) you wish to buy from during the Black Friday sales before the day. I’ll advise you have an account with more than one online store. Registration is free.
3.) Have a list of items you wish to buy during the sales so as to prevail over distractions that could arise from discounts you’ll see on other goods while trying to order.
4.) Make sure your devices are fully charged before the anticipated hours. There may be no power supply at the location where you will be accessing the internet at that time (especially for those that will be using the Wifi network).
5.) Locate a place where the signal of the network you will be using is strong. For those that will be using the INTECU service, areas like EDM, Health Centre have good reports.
6.) Sale is expected to begin 12:00am of the sale’s day. As such, it is advisable to start checking the portals of the online stores starting from that moment to be among the first buyers.
7.) Though I am aware Konga has announced an adjustment to its ‘Konga Pays’ service which offers a further 5% discounts for those that pay instantly with their credit cards, I strongly advise you opt for ‘Pay on delivery’ if available for the goods you wish to order. This is to ensure you confirm your order is in good condition before paying. I have a non-palatable experience with this.

NOTE: Black Friday sales will be coming up on almost all the major online stores (including Amazon, Ebay and others) across the globe.

Finally, remember to order something for OAU Peeps News Agency.

Goodluck!