Amaechi, Soyinka, others to witness Port Harcourt World Book Capital unveil

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka is expected to be the Special Guest of the Rivers State government at the formal international presentation of Port Harcourt, The World Book Capital 2014 on Saturday, September 28, at Trenton, New Jersey, USA.

Other speakers and special guests at the event include; Prof Toyin Falola, Prof. Kalu Ogbaa, Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, and some other members of the Nigeria literary community in the US.

The presentation designed as one of the series of events to usher in the 2014 dateline for the World Book Capital is expected to be done by the Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who will on the same day be conferred with the Quintessence Award for Leadership by the African Writers Foundation.

Governor Amaechi will be supported by the President of the Port Harcourt Literary Society, Dr. Chidi Amuta and Mrs Koko Kalango, President of the Rainbow Book Club, chief promoters of the World Book Capital project. Other eminent citizens of Rivers State would also be part of the ceremony.

“The Port Harcourt World Book Capital, 2014 project, is a crowning glory for the genuine investment of the State in Education as well as its commitment to empowerment of the youth of Rivers State through promotion of Literary activities and knowledge-acquisition programmes in the state,” Amaechi said.

“Next year, we will be staging a lot of reading and writing activities; we will play host to eminent writers from around the world; there will be lots of book exhibitions and other activities. We are all excited about the prospects.”

“We believe that Port Harcourt is ripe and ready to be the first World Book Capital in sub-Saharan Africa”, the governor added.

Port Harcourt won the World Book capital by UNESCO last year after it defeated Oxford in the United Kingdom and Moscow in Russia, amongst others.

According to the UNESCO panel that made the final decision, “The City of Port Harcourt was nominated World Book Capital 2014 on account of the quality of its programme, in particular, its focus on youth and the impact it would have on improving Nigeria’s culture of books, reading, writing and publishing to improve literacy rates”

In a goodwill message after Port Harcourt won the hosting bid last year, Prof. Soyinka had said, “I congratulate the city of Port Harcourt for this honour which they have brought, not only to the nation but to the African continent.”

President Goodluck Jonathan had also congratulated the city of Port Harcourt.

“I would also like to congratulate Port Harcourt (for being) the World Book Capital for Books, in the year of our beloved nation’s centenary”, he said.

Also reacting, eminent diplomat and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, noted that “I am confident that the impressive record of the Rivers State Government in promoting literary activities will ensure the success of Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital City in 2014”.

The Princeton event is one out of many programmes meant to attract writers, scholars and indeed draw global attention to the city of Port Harcourt in its year as UNESCO World Book Capital city.

NANS threatens action against ASUU, says strike has been politicized

The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has threatened to sue the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to court over the three-month old strike.

The National President of NANS, Yinka Gbadebo issued the threat in his address at the first senate meeting organised by the union at the University of Port Harcourt.

Gbadebo accused ASUU of making outrageous demands from the Federal Government.

He claimed that ten out of eleven demands made by ASUU had been met, adding that the only last demand which had to do with the issue of earned allowance should not be the basis to keep students at home.

“They are asking for change. Change must first start with our lecturers. They are clamouring for earned allowance, they are clamouring for responsibility allowance. Very very soon, we may resort to take laws into our own hands.

“While on strike, lecturers are still using government properties. They are still living in government accommodations, driving government cars. If you are fighting government, go and return all government properties.

“We are saying, where is the interest of the Nigerian student captured in all these demands. In all of the demand of ASUU, government has fulfilled 10 out of 11. What more do they want? How long will they continue to negotiate our future”, he said.

The students leader also alleged that ASUU had been compromised by the opposition party stressing that ASUU members were often seen with members of the All Progressive Congress, APC, in Lagos.

Gbadebo, however, vowed to sue ASUU to court if the strike continued.

“We are going to take ASUU to court. The issues are very clear. Every right thinking Nigerian knows that this issue of ASUU strike has been politicized and that is the truth. Each time Federal government finishes meeting with the lecturers, the next thing you will see is ASUU leaders meeting with APC leaders in Lagos. What for? He alleged.

The NANS president finally called on ASUU to devise another means of agitating for their demands.

“We should have killed off Chelsea before half-time” – Villas-Boas

Tottenham Hotspur boss Andre Villas-Boas, has said that his side would have been out of sight, if they managed to get the second goal against Chelsea shortly before the break.

Brazilian midfielder Paulinho struck the bar, after Gyfli Sigurdsson gave the home side the lead, before John Terry levelled from Juan Mata’s free kick.

When asked if he thought 1-1 was a fair result, AVB said: “I think so. The second half was not as good as we wanted. They did well to score from the set-piece.

“Both teams had good chances, the chances were spread. We had a good opportunity for 2-0 just before half-time; that would have been the killer. Always they were a threat on the counter-attack to score and they did. The result suits them better than us, but it was a very tight game.”