Author: Aishat Ibrahim

Sunday Ajah Wins 16th Heineken Aba Amateur Golf Open Championship

Sunday Ajah, has emerged the overall winner and champion of the 16th Heineken Aba Amateur Golf Open Championship at Aba Sports Club Golf Section with a gross score of 155.

Sunday Ajah, the South Africa 2014 MTN World Amateur Golf Championship participant beat Ude Sunday to the second position and Emmanuel Onumajuru, a four-time winner of the tournament, to a distant third position.

About 150 male and female amateur golfers from all parts of the country participated in the six categories of the tournament sponsored by Nigeria Breweries Plc. (NB Plc).

Happy that he won the Heineken Aba Amateur Golf Open Championship, Ajah said:

“This is my first victory since I started participating in it five years ago. This is one of the tournaments that I had dreamt of winning. I want to play professional golf, I was in South Africa for the MTN World Amateur Championship in 2014 and I still want to go higher than that.”

He expressed his appreciation to his sponsors, Emeka Ekwebelem and Mrs. Ngodi Nkwoji, who is the lady captain of the Golf Section of Aba Sports Club.

NB Plc’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Johan Doyer said the tournament continued to offer his company an opportunity to further demonstrate commitment towards sports development and active healthy living in Aba, Abia State and the nation in general.

In his words:

“I am delighted that the tournament has once again brought together golf enthusiasts from different locations beyond the state to display their skills in what would be three days of great entertainment and bonding.”

Giving kudos to NB Plc for its sustained good disposition towards the club, Aba Sports Club’s President, Mr. Geoffrey Uzoagbara described the brewer as “our best benefactor.”

Yusuf Hassan & Faith Toun-Agbai Win 2017 Lafarge National Literacy Competition

Master Yusuf Hassan and Miss Faith Toun-Agbai have won the keenly contested first prize of the 2017 Lafarge National Literacy Competition, which was held in Lagos State.

Yusuf Hassan is a pupil at Eso Nerie Primary School in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State while Faith Toun-Agbai attends Eguare Primary School in Irrua, Esan Central Local Government Area of Edo State.

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has congratulated the pupils saying that their triumph in the competition would inspire other students across the state to aspire to great heights in their educational pursuit.

He further said that the feat showcases the boundless spirit of healthy competition among pupils in the state and reaffirms his administration’s commitment to discovering more talent in the state through the various educational initiatives.

According to the Governor:

“The performances of the pupils underscore the effort of the state government to deliver quality education. Even with outings such as this, we are not resting on our oars in the state. There are ongoing reforms at the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to ensure that more pupils in Edo State continue to come tops in competitions such as this.”

At the regional level of the same competition, the pupils were feted by Governor Obaseki and got cash prizes when they emerged overall winners.

Salihu Dasuki Is Youngest Senior Lecturer At Sheffield Hallam University

Salihu Dasuki has become the youngest senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom.

The 29-year-old Dasuki gratefully announced his resumption to work as a senior lecturer of Information Systems with the following words:

“By Allah’s grace, not only am I the youngest, I resume teaching as a senior lecturer of computing at Sheffield Hallam University, UK”

Salihu Dasuki has brilliant academic records in foreign universities. He graduated with a first class degree in Information Technology from Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU), North Cyprus at 21. He went further to have his Master’s degree at Brunel University, UK and bagged his PhD in the same university in 2012.

At 24, he was reportedly the youngest PhD holder in the Northern Nigeria, and became an assistant professor of Information Systems at American University of Nigeria, Yola.

Silas Adekunle Builds World’s First Gaming Robots

Silas Adekunle, the founder and CEO of Reach Robotics, has developed the world’s first gaming robots called MekaMonsters, a multi-functional connected battle bots with augmented reality capabilities.

Adekunle was born and grew up in Nigeria before moving to the UK with his family when he was 11. He graduated from the University of the West of England, Bristol, with a first class degree in Robotics. He stated that he got the idea to build the robots while studying there, teaching maths and science in local schools on the university’s partnership scheme.

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Nigeria Bobsled Women Qualify For 2018 Winter Olympics

The Nigerian Women Bobsled Team (Driver Seun Adigun and brake women Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga) has qualified for the first time ever, for the bobsled event at the 2018 Winter Olympics Games in PyeongChang.

Driver Seun Adigun, Brakemen Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga completed the fifth of their required five qualifying races, becoming the first African team, men or women, to qualify in the Bobsled category.

The Nigeria team, led by Driver Adigun – a former African 100m hurdles champion and 2012 summer Olympian – completed races in Utah, one in Whistler, and their final two races in Calgary.

Driver Adigun stated:

“This is a huge milestone for sports in Nigeria, nothing makes me prouder than to know that I can play a small role in creating opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria. Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics have ever witnessed.”

Solomon Ogba, President of the Bobsled and Skeleton Federation of Nigeria, was understandably thrilled at the achievement, saying via a media statement:

“I commend the personal dedication and commitment of these women. Their hard work was inspiring and I hope Nigerians can appreciate what it took for them to achieve this – the work, the discipline, and the personal sacrifices. They were amazing throughout this journey. They are all very successful people in their own right – in sports and out of it, and somehow they are still motivated and still push for more success.

I have watched them train and work hard to represent Nigeria at the Winter Olympics in a very technical and high risk sport and they have achieved that. They should be very proud, and I am very proud of them.”

Nigeria could yet secure another spot at the 2018 Winter Olympics Games, with Driver Simidele Adeagbo just three races away from qualifying for the Skeleton competition.

Precious Adeho & Ngozi Deborah Atalor Win 2017 Shell LiveWIRE Entrepreneurship Prize

Two Nigerian business owners, Mr. Precious Adeho and Mrs. Ngozi Deborah Atalor, have emerged winners in the 2017 Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators competition, a global contest open to beneficiaries of Shell LiveWIRE, and aimed at rewarding shining cases of innovation in businesses supported by the programme.

The two Nigerians won the Merit prize along with four others in the same category, while businesses from the United Kingdom and Pakistan took the top and runner-up awards. The winners were announced during the Global Entrepreneurship Week holding November 13 – 17 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Continue reading Precious Adeho & Ngozi Deborah Atalor Win 2017 Shell LiveWIRE Entrepreneurship Prize

sKan Wins 2017 International James Dyson Award

The Skin Cancer-Detecting Device (sKan), a low cost, non-invasive and handheld device has won the 2017 international James Dyson Award.

Invented by a team of four (a Nigerian and 3 Canadians) bioengineering undergraduates from Ontario’s McMaster University; Rotimi Fadiya, Michael Takla, Prateek Mathur and Shivad Bhavsar, the sKan is made from widely available and inexpensive components and can possibly make detection of the disease more accessible.

According to the World Health Organization, one in every three worldwide diagnosed cancer cases is a skin cancer.

James Dyson, founder of the Dyson company said the sKan received the award because it is “a very clever device with the potential to save lives around the world“. Since 2002, the James Dyson Award has been open to university or recent design graduates across the world and celebrates significant, practical and commercially viable designs.

To develop the device, the four graduates were awarded C$50,000 ($40,000; £30,000).  The device uses temperature sensors to help in the early detection of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer because cancerous cells have a higher metabolic rate than normal tissue cells. Cancerous tissue usually warms at a faster rate than non-cancerous tissue when the tissue skin is cooled.

The team plans to use the funds to build a new prototype that can be used in pre-clinical testing. Their ultimate goal is to select patients who should be sent for a biopsy because early detection is key for the treatment of melanoma.