Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Video - Aid from UK wasted on Nigerian school



Schools in Nigeria are not benefiting from foreign aid. A new report issued by a british commission says aid from the UK has been wasted .


Monday, November 26, 2012

Nigerian students win google app contest

Three University of Lagos (UNILAG) students, have won the Google Apps Developer Challenge for the Enterprise/Small Business Solutions category in sub-Saharan Africa.

The students: Bolutife Ogunsola, Michael Adeyeri and Willie Aniebiet, created the Form+ application software; an interface that creates application forms by just dragging and dropping components.

The user can create forms - such as curriculum vitae (CV) or résumé submission forms for businesses and coursework submission page for lecturers.

Emeka Afigbo, Program Manager, Google, stated: "Our expectation is that this motivates more young Nigerian developers to develop apps that change the way we live in Nigeria and Africa at large."

The winners were rewarded with Chromebooks and $20,000.

They also won a grant worth $18,000 for their school's department.



Students create urine powered generator to combat electricity shortage in Nigeria

It's ironic that Nigeria, Africa's leading oil producer, suffers from frequent fuel and power shortages. But four school girls have found a solution from an unlikely source: urine.

Most Nigerians have to rely on generators because of the epileptic power supply. Many businesses have also closed down because they cannot afford to buy expensive fuel from the black market to power their generators.

Faced with this problem, four teenagers from the Doregos Private Academy School in Lagos developed a generator powered by urine.

"We noticed that many Nigerians, [those whose] businesses depend on a power supply have virtually been put out of business because of the high cost of power, so we decided to make a device that will reduce this problem. We noticed that waste products can be used to generate energy that is why we decided to experiment on urine," said Eniola Bello, one of the students.

The generator is powered by hydrogen and oxygen formed from urine stored in a compartment attached to the generator.

Adebola Duro-Aina, another student, said six litres of urine can power the small generator for 36 hours.

"This urine is being electrolysed, releasing hydrogen and oxygen gas, and this then goes into our gas tank. Our gas tank here stores the gases, and anytime we need the gas we can open up the gas tank and release the gas and our generator is powered."

When the girls power up the generator, the light bulbs in the room lit up.

"The generator powers everything in the house," one of the girls said. "We were so excited, we were so happy once the generator started working."

The girls say they were frustrated with growing up in an environment where they cannot read at night or watch their favourite television program because of the irregular power supply. The invention of this urine powered generator comes at a time when the Nigerian government is under increasing pressure to address the country's electricity problems.



Man bathes fiancée in acid

A middle-aged man David Suleiman has been arrested by the police in Lagos State for allegedly pouring acid on his fiancée, Chika Egbo and a yet to be identified Okada rider at Ikotun area of Lagos State.

Suleiman who is currently being detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti,Yaba, Lagos, was said to have attacked his girl friend, a 300 level student at Enugu State College of Education, with acid for refusing him access to their only child.

Police sources at the state SCID, intimated Vanguard that trouble began for the couple when Egbo became pregnant for Suleiman, and he abandoned her claiming that he travelled out of the country, and leaving her with the burden of fending for herself and the baby.

But few months after giving birth, he came back requesting to see the baby and he was refused.

A source, who craved anonymity, said he tricked the 25-year-old students who resides in Enugu State to Lagos State and he took her to an hidden spot in Ikotun where he poured the acid on her.

"An Okada rider who witnessed as the incident unfold went after Suleiman, but while he chased him, Suleiman emptied the can of acid on the Okada rider, who held him strongly waiting for the help.

Other Okada riders who drove by saw what was happening and the came to his rescue and they took Suleiman to Ikotun police station while the Okada rider and Egbo were rushed to a hospital."

Meanwhile, Egbo, who is laying critically ill at the emergency unit of the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, had her face, chest and some other parts of body destroyed by the acid bath.


Airport staff caught with $2 million at Lagos airport

A staff of a company operating at the Lagos airport was arrested along with a traveler trying to transport over two million dollars and 20,300 Saudi Arabian riyals at the weekend.

Mr. Hassan Rmaiti who had a duty card supplied by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was arrested together with Mr. Talal Hammoud as they evaded Customs with three bags containing $2,073,160 and 20,300 Saudi Arabian Riyal, an official said.

The two men were arrested by the Airport Special Task Force at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, said airport area comptroller of Customs Mr Eporwei Edike Charles.

He said the cash was seized from the suspects after they failed to declare it to officers on duty.

Charles said in a statement that the suspects were identified as Mr. Talal Hammoud with passport number A03599105 and Mr. Hassan Rmaiti with FAAN "on duty card number 25009 and the three bags of money have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation and necessary action."

But the area comptroller did not say which company Mr. Rmaiti was representing at the airport. It is customary that FAAN issues duty cards to people working at the airport even though they are not FAAN staff, our correspondent says.

Charles said the foreign currencies were found on the two suspects at the "E" wing departure area of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

"The suspects violated regulations of government by attempting to take such amount of money out of the country without declaring the currencies to Nigeria Customs currency desk officers on duty," he added.

This seizure is coming after several others made recently in Lagos as well as in Abuja.

Just last week, the Customs in Lagos arrested a passenger with over $320,000 aboard a Qatar Airways flight bound to Doha.

Weeks ago, a man arrested with hard currency was convicted at a court in Lagos and he was made to forfeit the money to the Federal Government.

The special task force operating at the Lagos international airport comprises different security agencies including EFCC, Customs, State Security Service, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigeria Immigration Service, and others working at the airport.

It was recently inaugurated by the Federal Government for the monitoring of the operations of security agencies, airlines and other stakeholders at the airport, at check in counters, departure screening areas and arrival halls.