Elah Ajene & Prosper Okarike Win DStv Eutelsat Star Awards 2017

MultiChoice Nigeria has named Elah Ajene of Nigeria Tulip International College, Abuja, and Prosper Okarike of Graceland International School, Port Harcourt, as in-country winners of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards competition for 2017.

Elah Ajene emerged winner in the essay category, while Prosper Okarike emerged winner in the poster category. The awards are part of efforts by MultiChoice to promote science and technology education in Nigeria. The winners were announced after a two-day adjudication process.

The Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, said the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards are designed to identify and create awareness on satellite technology and its applications within the society. And that the award is meant to inspire innovative thinking among secondary school students in Africa to create awareness on how science and technology can be applied to everyday life and to showcase the many ways that satellites already impact on the development of the African continent.

In his words:

“MultiChoice, by this award, is encouraging the young ones to challenge themselves and come up with ideas and innovation that will eventually propel our country to desired greatness.”

Dr. Aderonke Bello, CEO Innovative Technology Literacy Services Limited (ITLSL) and lead judge for the 2017 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, stated that there were many quality entries, but the ones that made it to the top were those that satisfied all the specified criteria, which were understanding and demonstration of satellite technology and its application to everyday life, coherence in the manner of presentation and flow.

The annual awards, which received a total of 213 entries, including 187 essays and 26 posters this year, takes the form of a competition open to students between the ages of 14-19 years old.

The award was established in 2011 by MultiChoice Africa in collaboration with Eutelsat, leading satellite operator for broadcasting, broadband, and data services.

Team Nigeria Wins 24 Medals At 2018 Commonwealth Games

Team Nigeria finished the 2018 Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, Australia in ninth place with a total of 24 medals which included nine gold, nine silver and six bronze. The 2018 Commonwealth Games was held between April 4 to April 15, 2018.

Track and field athlete Blessing Okagbare was Nigeria’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony.

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Winners Of 2018 Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards

Odimegwu Onwuwere of Nigeria’s Africa Prime News has won the Pan African Journalist of the Year Award for the 2018 Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards sponsored by Continental Reinsurance.

With three categories of the 2018 Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Awards, Odimegwu Onwumere emerged the overall winner.

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Fola Tayo Appointed Into WHO Cancer Medicine Advisory Group [2018]

Professor Fola Tayo has been appointed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to serve on its Cancer Medicine Advisory Group for the availability and affordability of cancer medicines.

Professor Fola Tayo, who is the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, is among the 14 eminent people and the only West African appointed across the globe to serve on the group.

Mr. Elvis Otobo, the Head, Media and Public Relations Officer, Caleb University, said in a statement that the advisory group was made up of core professionals.

He noted that other members were from Australia, Canada, South Africa, Egypt, South Korea, Malaysia, Suriname, Malawi, Thailand, UK, Austria, Jordan and India.

Professor Fola Tayo has also been appointed to serve as the Protem Chairman of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Private Universities in Nigeria.

Until his appointment, he has been a very active member of the committee and made many useful contributions to the growth and development of the body in particular, and Nigeria Universities in general.

WHO’s Cancer Medicine Advisory Group is set up to define the problems relating to availability and accessibility of cancer medicines and seek expert’s advice on the scope of the report, analytical feasibility and case studies.

It is also to seek expert advice on the benefits and consequences of various pricing approaches for cancer medicines, options for improving availability and affordability of cancer medicines.

The group will brainstorm on three key projects for three days when they meet in Switzerland according to an Agenda Review released by the WHO.

These include project inception, problem definition and scope of reports; Pricing and impacts of pricing approaches and Options to improve availability, affordability and transparency of cancer medicines.

Publiseer Joins International Publishing Distribution Association (IPDA) [2018]

Publiseer has become the first African publishing company to join the International Publishing Distribution Association (IPDA), an international umbrella organization for companies in the field of publishing distribution.

As part of its membership, the founders of Publiseer, Chidi and Chika Nwaogu, will be attending the 5th International Digital Distributors Meeting organized by IPDA, scheduled to hold on the 6th and 7th of June 2018 in Madrid, Spain.

The meeting will focus on issues like, “new business models in the publishing distribution sector”, “worldwide growth of self-publishing”, and “publishing and distribution of hypermedia content”.

Some notable companies already in the International Publishing Distribution Association (IPDA) are Bookwire (Germany), BookRepublic (Italy), Vearsa (Ireland), DeMarque (Canada), Overdrive (USA), Numilog (France), Cyberlibris (France), Hipertexto (Colombia), Netizen (México), PocketBook (Switzerland),Tolino Media (Germany), Books on Demand (Germany), Trajectory (USA), StreetLib (Italy), Libreka (Germany), ArtaTech (Poland), Ingram (USA), Publit (Sweden), Viz Media (Japan), GiantChair (USA), Nextory (Sweden), CB (The Netherlands), and Izneo (France).

Publiseer is a digital publishing company in Nigeria, focused on distributing the books and songs of independent Nigerian writers and musicians. The mission of the company is to promote the creativity of Nigerians to the rest of the world.

The publishing platform has announced it will commence print-book publishing and distribution of physical music CDs. It has also launched ‘Publiseer for Music Videos’, a publishing package that will help musical artists get their music videos on Vevo. Publiseer has also added ‘Pandora’ to the list of partner stores it distributes songs to.

Publiseer has distributed 92+ books and songs of 250+ Nigerian writers and musicians, to 400+ stores in 100 countries, including Amazon, Google Play store, and Apple store.

Ayodeji Olarinoye Appointed FIFA Doping Control Officer [2018]

Ayodeji Olarinoye, a former medical doctor in the Nigerian U-17 football team, has been appointed as a FIFA Doping Control Officer (DCO) by the world soccer governing body, FIFA.

According to the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) in its weekly bulletin, the institution from which Ayodeji Olarinoye, graduated from, with this appointment, Ayodeji Olarinoye is Nigeria’s first FIFA doping control officer.

According to the publication, the 38-year-old is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and British Association of Sports and Exercise Medicine.

The publication said the medical doctor would join the network of FIFA medical officers, responsible for ensuring safe and healthy participation in football after attending several anti-doping training.

According to the publication:

“The 38-year-old Ayodeji is the son of a retired civil servant and former Head of the International Department of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in the 1990s, Dr. Steve Olarinoye.

Dr. Olarinoye was honoured in 2015 by the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) for his dedication to duty and special interest in the field of Sports Medicine.

He is currently running a programme in Sports and Exercise Medicine in Cardiff, U.K.”

Iliya Pam And Deborah Pam Win 10th Ibadan City Marathon

Iliya Pam and Deborah Pam from Plateau State have emerged winners of the 10th edition of the Power Oil/Splash FM Ibadan City Marathon 2018. Iliya Pam won the male category, having finished in two hours, 36 minutes, while Deborah Pam won the female category after finishing in two hours, 51 minutes.

The 42 km race was sponsored by West Midland Communications, owners of Splash FM and Lagelu FM in conjunction with other partners.

The first three winners in the male category went home with cash prizes of ₦1 million, ₦700,000 and ₦250,000 respectively, while those in the female category got ₦700,000, ₦400,000 and ₦250,000 respectively.

Iliya Pam, a second-time winner of the race, is a 300 level student of Physical and Health Education at Federal College of Education, Pankshin, and a member of Plateau State Sports Council. Deborah Pam, a third-time winner of the same race, is an official of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

Kefas Williams (2:38:32) and Yohanna Friday (2:40:42) emerged runner-up and second runner-up respectively in the male category, while Nuhu Elizabeth (3:04:21) and Hudung Gyang Stephen (3:05:28) emerged runner-up and second runner-up respectively in the male category.

All the winners from first to third in both categories of the event were from Plateau State.

Iliya Pam, who was also the winner of the 2018 Access Marathon race in Lagos, gave thanks to God for emerging victorious in the tournament.

In his words:

“It is unfortunate that I ended the race in 2 hours, 36 minutes as against the 2 hours, 27 minutes of the Access race in Lagos. I had trained very well to participate in the Commonwealth but could not make it.

I am determined to compete in international long distance races against Kenyans and others.’’

Deborah Pam, who won the race in 2013 and 2015 stated:

“I could not attend the last edition due to injury. I never thought I would win this, but I thank God it happened. I have participated in several international competitions.

I participated in a 50 km race in Doha in 2015; I also participated in a race in China and Cross-Country in Uganda. I also won the last Lagos City Marathon race.”

Iliya Pam and Deborah Pam are married couples.

In the Wheelchair event, Nofisat Adefala came first, James Oyebamiji in second place, Adebayo Oduwaye in third position while Joyce Otun came fourth.Over 2,500 athletes battled for prizes at the Power Oil/Splash FM Ibadan City Marathon 2018 in Ibadan with three million prize money available.The marathon races including the wheelchair and artisan category all started off at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan.