Bassey Albert Akpan: The next mandate of Akwa Ibom BY AMOS ETUK

In a relay race, the anchor of the quartet is usually the strongest and fastest athlete in a team. As such, the baton exchange is usually the key factor for victory in such relay races which is usually the peak of any sporting event globally.

Usually the stars, the best athletes dominate these relay races that is why till date the likes of Carl Lewis of the United States of America and the rave of the moment, Usain Bolt of Jamaica are legends in the athletics world.

Information Commissioner canvasses proper use of social media

Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, wants the University of Uyo, to develop social media as a course of study in the university, as a way of educating people, especially the youths, on the proper usage of social networking.

Mr. Umanah, made the call yesterday in Uyo, when he received members of the Local Organizing Committee of the first Faculty of Arts International Conference, to be organized next month, by the University of Uyo.

He expressed concern that some people have misused social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Badoo and Whatapp, against their objective, which was to encourage people to make friends and connect with their families from all over the world.

 He said there was the need for the Faculty of Arts, University of Uyo to drive public debate on issues affecting humanities, such as the social media, environment and climate change.

FG distributes relief materials to flood ravaged communities in A-Ibom

AS part of its effort towards alleviating poverty and flood affected areas in the Niger Delta region the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has distributed relief materials to ten (10) communities in Akwa Ibom state.

The relief materials ranging from bags of rice, bean, Garri, cartons of Indomie noodles, cartons of  turkey cooking oil, gallons of palm oil, bags of salt, beverages, toiletries mattresses, blankets and pillows were recently distributed to the benefitting communities among which were Akprankpan Uda, Udinghi, Amprang, Adadia cutting across Mbo, Oron, Essien Udim and Abak local government areas.

Mr. Onwukwe Director of Special Duties Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs Abuja who flagged off the 2014 distribution exercise at the Uyo office said the essence of the relief measure which cuts across the Nine Niger-Delta states would help to ameliorate the sufferings of people affected by ravaging flooding and erosion in Akwa Ibom.

War in Education Ministry

* How supremacy battle between Perm.        Sect. and Commissioner is killing sector.
* Teachers, ors as victims

All is not well in the ranks and file of the State Ministry of Education and the struggle for supremacy between the Commissioner Prof. Atim Antai and the Permanent Secretary Mr. Chrisantus Azuka has taken a different and frightening dimension which is leading to a gradual fall of the activities of the ministry especially as regards to the nonpayment of salaries to newly employed secondary school teachers even more than a year after employment.

The recent disagreement between the state Commissioner for Education, Prof Atim Antai and her Permanent Secretary, Mr. Chrisantus Azuka has turned to crisis of power play were each actors, the commissioner and the permanent secretary now resort to playing dirty. To this end, staffs of the ministry are sharply divided as some of them seem to play loyalty to the commissioner while some are backing the actions of the Permanent Secretary.

Africa’s World Cup challenge in Brazil

When the World Cup started precisely on June 12, 2014, the expectations were very high that our five representatives would make a good showing at the mundial and perhaps meet the expectations of the President of the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Isa Hayatou for a possible semi final berth.

With five quality representatives – Nigeria (African Champions), Cameroun, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria, the stakes remains high as the continents representatives especially the core favourites Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana crashed out after the first round. 

For the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun it was a consecutive fifth time failure to progress beyond the first round of the tournament as they lost woefully all three group A matches scandalously 0-1 against Mexico, 0-4 against Croatia and 1-4 against Brazil. 

Uniuyo to host their Olympic games BY NSISONG AFANGIDEH

The University of Uyo Students Union Government (SUG) director of sport: comrade Ubokobong Obot in collaboration with the school management is organizing what they call; “University of Uyo Olympic”. The games will commence on Tuesday 1st of July to Saturday 5th of July 2014.
The event will be declared open by the vice-chancellor of the university: Prof. Comfort Ekpo at the school mini-stadium town campus by 10AM. 

The “Uniuyo Olympics” will see all the faculty of the school and those in diploma and continuing education programme compete in several sports. The sports which they will compete are; football, swimming, volleyball, basketball, tennis, track and field events, scrabble and draft.

The tournament will kick up on Tuesday 1st July and run through Saturday 5th July 2014. The football matches will be played in two venues; Mini-stadium and Uniuyo annexe field while other games will be played in the town campus.