Aussie Open: Djokovic faces tough first round
www.peoplesdaily-online.com
. . . putting the people first
MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2013
SPORTS LA TEST LATEST
Guardiola to 'take Manchester City job'
F
ormer Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola will replace Roberto Mancini as manager of English champions Manchester City in the summer, the Sun on Sunday claimed. Guardiola, 41, said last Monday he was ready to return to coaching after stepping down from the Barcelona job at the end of last season having guided them to 14 trophies in his four years in charge, including two Champions League titles. The Sun on Sunday claims Guardiola will opt for City over Chelsea because he sees the Abu Dhabi-owned side as being the more likely to challenge for European honours despite the London side having won the Champions League last season. Mancini - who has won an FA Cup and the Prmeier League titles in his time at the club - is set to pay for his failure to guide the expensively-assembled side into the Champions League knockout stages on two occasions. "It is 100 per cent certain that Guardiola is going to City this summer," a high level source in Spanish football told the paper. And when I say 100 per cent I don't mean 99 per cent, I mean 100 per cent!" According to the paper, Guardiola will become the highest-paid manager in England on £10 million pounds (12,085,500 euros, $16.1million US) a year after tax.
Aussie Open: Djokovic faces tough first round
N
ovak Djokovic, bidding to become the first man in the professional era to win three successive Australian Open titles, meets France's PaulHenri Mathieu in the final game of the day session on Rod Laver Arena today. Mathieu was ranked as high as 12th in the world five years ago but needed surgery on his left knee and missed all of 2011. Maria Sharapova will be on the centre court against fellow Russian Olga Puchkova, while former French Open champion Li Na will meet Kazakhstan's Sesil Karatantcheva on Margaret Court Arena, the third showcourt at the sprawling tennis complex.
ADVERT: BUSINESS: NEWS: LAGOS:
0803 0805 0803 0805 0803
QUO TABLE Q UO TE UOT QUO UOTE No nation can experience rapid sustainable development without durable and sustainable peace. — Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar
Z.E.D.A at 20 Education makes people easy to lead but difficult to drive, easy to govern but difficult to enslave - Lord Henry Brougham
T
wenty years ago, five young people from Zaria dared to dream. Dr Alimi Bello, late Aminu Jamoh, Alhaji Abubakar Tamimu, Dr Abdulkadir Kassim and Dr Isah M. Abbas sat down to review the lamentable state of education and the living conditions of people in Zaria, and resolved to initiate a movement to reverse a trend that showed all signs of worsening. They worried that if the trend then, captured by the statistics, "degenerates a little further, there will hardly be anybody from this part of the country that will be qualified for admission into any institution of higher learning." Yet institutions in Zaria admitted people from all over Nigeria, and these young people asked whether Zaria people should continue to allow themselves "to sit and watch others attend institutions of higher learning located in our environment to the exclusion of our brothers and children"? That dream was what culminated in the Zaria Education Development Association (ZEDA). The dream was not about stopping other young people from attending institutions in Zaria, a tradition the people of Zazzau had inherited and maintained for centuries. The vision was to improve the quality of the education provided by schools in and around Zaria in such a manner that more and more children from Zazzau emirate will compete favourably with others for places in all institutions. The more Zazzau children qualified and gained admission at higher levels, the more the chances that the decaying economy of Zaria will be improved. Fewer numbers of children will finish primary and secondary schools without qualifications to proceed to higher institutions, or any hope to acquire skills or vocation as selfreliant adults. You will arrest crime and destitutions, and limit the damage which almajirai schools dropouts and barelyliterate secondary school leavers cause to themselves and the community. The dream of creating a community based-initiative to reverse a most damaging trend could not have had a better setting than Zaria. Zazzau Emirate, the capital of which is Zaria, has been a center of learning
311 689 606 327 454
7458 1765 3308 1969 0344
FIFTEEN MINUTES with Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed drbabaahmed@yahoo.com
Alhaji Shehu Idris, Emir of Zazzau for centuries. Zaria accommodates quite probably more quality institutions of higher learning per capita than any other city in the country. Its legendary contribution to national elite from institutions such as Alhudahuda College, Barewa College, St. Paul's College (now Kufena College), Nigerian Military School, and the octopus that is now the Ahmadu Bello University, numerous tertiary and research institutions and a number of relatively-new excellent private schools place it squarely in the forefront of the development of Islamic and western education. It is no exaggeration that the institutions of Zaria educated more than half of Nigeria's elite. Sadly, it is also no exaggeration to say that the number of Zaria people that attended them dwindled with the expansion of the many opportunities which these institutions provided. Fortunately, the dream of those young people was given substance by the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji (Dr.) Shehu Idris, CFR and a number of prominent people of Zaria, all of whom had played pivotal roles in the development of education in Zaria in the past. The clarion call was answered by notable and distinguished people such as late Abdurrahman Mora, Muhammadu Lawal Sambo, Balarabe Mahmud, Engineer Abdullahi Nuhu Bamalli, late Muhammadu Bello Aliyu and
Professor Mukhtar Abdurrahman, all of whom served on the Board of Trustees. Those who died were later replaced by equally distinguished and committed people such as Prof Yahya Aliyu, Dr Stephen Kitchener, Alhaji Muhammadu Jibo, Prof Idris Abdulkadir, late Engr Garba Yaroson, Alhaji (Dr) Gidado Idris, Hon Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, Mrs M.D. Akanya and Alhaji Ahmed T. Mora. Dr Alimi Bello has been the ubiquitous and indefatigable Secretary from inception. Last week, the Zaria Education Development Association (ZEDA) celebrated its 20 years of existence with a series of events. The week of activity provided an opportunity for much stocktaking, congratulations and some lamentations over missed goals. There were many achievements to celebrate. A dream that become a reality and survived and developed over a twenty year period in our nation today is wellworth celebrating. It is even more a cause of celebration because it was a dream borne out of the desire of an elite to reach out and reduce the pains and deprivations of the underprivileged and the unfortunate. The anniversary celebrated many notable sacrifices which allowed excellence among school children to be recognized and celebrated. It acknowledged good teachers. It thanked those who provided scholarships and bursaries so that hundreds of students studied medicine, engineering, Arabic and political science; something they may not have been able to do. It acknowledge the uncommon spirit of communal self-support among the people of Zazzau Emirate; acknowledged their intellectuals, politicians, businessmen and leaders who supported the Association's Remedial Programme, Vocation Training Programme, Prominent Indigene and Friends Scholarship Scheme, Workshops on Career Guidance and Counselling and the many competitions involving quiz, spelling and essays
involving schools in and around Zaria. It received information that many communities and governments have sent study teams to learn how Zaria people did it. On the whole, the 20th anniversary provided an opportunity to assess how privilege can build bridges within its community in a manner that prevents irreversible damage. Sadly, it also took cognizance of failures to achieve targets set by communities because a lot of intervening variables come into play. One of these is the failure of leaders to recognize that investment in quality education and skills acquisition is singularly the most important objective of northern governments today. Another is the absence of vision among political and community leaders which should guide the imperatives of good governance and reduce the damage of corruption and impunity by leaders. The week was also a sad reminder that the absence of a comprehensive programme to reverse the decline in education in the north, including the failure to come to terms with the limitations of the almajirci system and the widening gulf between the quality of education of children of the rich and those of the poor; as well as those between the north and south of the country, represent the biggest handicap in the desire of the north to heal itself and develop in a nation where education makes so much difference. The people of Zazzau emirate had a good reason to celebrate a very important initiative last week. They would also have sent signals to other like-minded associations and governments that it is possible and necessary to adopt a holistic approach to the problems of education in the north. Charity can make difference, but it cannot replace sound policies, investment and vision. For Nigerians living in the North, the yardstick to apply in electing people in any election should now be how they intend to tackle the education of the young, and create an economy that allows them to get jobs. No one should get our votes if they have their children studying in England, Ukraine, Dubai or Ghana. The rich and the powerful cannot be safe and secure when children of the poor receive no education, no skills and no guarantees of life better than those of their parents. ZEDA reminds Nigerians that communities can help themselves. But communities must also elect and insist that leaders spend public funds to reduce the gulf between wealth and poverty. No child should be deprived of the opportunity to study to the limit of his or her ability because they have poor parents.
Published by Peoples Media Limited, 35, Ajose Adeogun Street, 1st Floor Peace Park Plaza, Utako, Abuja. Kano office: Plot 3, Zaria Road, Opposite Kano State House of Assembly. Lagos Office: No.8 Oliyide Street, off Unity Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel: +234-09-8734478. Cell: +234 805 727 9862. e-mail: contact@peoplesdaily-online.com; pmlnewsdesk@gmail.com ISSN: 2141– 6141