Union Bank Advocates for Environmental Restoration; Commemorates World Environment Day

Lagos, Nigeria—Union Bank, one of Nigeria’s foremost financial institutions, has reemphasised the need to preserve and restore the global habitat through sustainable environmental practices. This clarion call was made during an event organised in partnership with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation to commemorate this year’s World Environment Day.

The program, held on June 5th, 2024, at the Lekki Conservation Centre in Lagos State, brought together various stakeholders, including environmental rights activists, international partner agencies, corporate institutions, government agencies, and students of select secondary schools, to deliberate and engage in activities marking World Environment Day.

One of the main events on the day was a tree-planting exercise involving various participants and stakeholder representatives. The tree-planting activity was in keeping with this year’s celebration theme, “Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience,” advocating for the rejuvenation and revitalisation of land devastated by deforestation, erosion, and desertification globally and in Nigeria in particular.

Speaking during the program, Patricia Iwhewhe, Head of Citizenship and Sustainability at Union Bank, echoed the importance of preserving our environment. According to her:

“Land degradation and erosion are not things stakeholders and policymakers can afford to ignore or gloss over. We all must get involved in helping restore and reclaim parts of our environment badly impacted by deforestation and desertification. Union Bank, as a sustainability champion committed to the preservation of our dear planet, appreciates and recognises the responsibility we have as humanity to look after our environment. We will continue to support and participate in programs dedicated to protecting and enriching our precious habitat”.

Stakeholders like the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) have also been invaluable partners in progress and are at the forefront of helping to preserve and protect nature and its resources. This has served to not only improve the quality of human life but also to sustain present and future generations. NCF’s advocacy over the decades has positively impacted and influenced Nigeria’s environmental policy. Union Bank will continue to be a dependable ally in supporting this noble cause of environmental preservation.
Union Bank, through its diverse range of projects and interventions, has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to bequeathing a safer, healthier, and more sustainable environment. The bank’s tangible contributions serve as a beacon of hope, inspiring a brighter and more sustainable future for all.

*Wisdom International School of Excellence Abuja, Nigeria Named In Top 10 Shortlists For World’s Best School Prizes 2024*

Wisdom International School of Excellence (WISE), Abuja has been named in the Top 10 shortlists for the World’s Best School Prizes 2024. They are the only school named from Nigeria and West Africa. WISE is competing against other Schools in the UK, US, Europe, South Africa and East Africa.

Wisdom International School of Excellence (WISE), a primary and secondary school in Abuja, Nigeria, which has tackled the health crisis of open defecation, water, sanitation and hygiene has been named in the Top 10 shortlist for the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity.

WISE has integrated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the curriculum and supporting communities grappling with poverty and limited access to quality education. WISE is tackling the health crisis of open defecation; diarrhea and cholera thus subsequently reducing child mortality.

Wisdom International School of Excellence, which have cultivated a strong culture of collaborating with communities to innovate and creative ideas to address community problems. Schools, communities and Government should learn from WISE school- community development approach which promises to be sustainable.

WISE was established in 2013 with a motto: Brighter Future. The school integrates practical-based learning, digital literacy, skills development with a strong emphasis on sustainability and community development.

WISE transformative future learning approach is being implemented in Tudunwada slum community in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja through the Student-led TudunWada Ecological Toilet Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Project.

This student-led initiative has drastically reduced open defecation from 75% to below 20%, significantly improving community health standards and enhancing access to clean water and sanitation facilities

The School Administrator Mrs Olorunfemi Cariyat said “we are set out to build future leaders that can be useful for themselves, their family and the society at large. We are nurturing global learners. Our learner practice critical thinking and problem solving ideas that can help them become better leaders and managers in the future”

Other school- community implemented by WISE including community health outreach, hypertension awareness, cancer awareness, farm enterprise, making Future Scientist, climate action among others.

Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, said: “Unless we solve the urgent challenges global education faces from learning gaps exacerbated by COVID to chronic underfunding and the growing teacher wellbeing, recruitment and retention crisis, we will have failed the next generation.

The Top 3 finalists for each of the five World’s Best School Prizes will be announced in September 2024 followed by the winners in November.

A prize of US$50,000 will be equally shared among the winners of the five Prizes, with each receiving an award of US$10,000. Meanwhile, the winner of the Community Choice Award, as determined by the Public Vote, will receive membership to Best School to Work – an independent, evidence-based mechanism to certify schools for their culture and working environment. Membership comes with detailed feedback, actionable insights, and benchmarking data to help schools transform their culture to attract and retain the best teachers.

To vote for WISE, please click the link https://vote.worldsbestschool.org
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Bizman drags police to court

A businessman, Musa Saliu, has dragged the Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, before a Federal High Court in Abuja, over his false declaration as a wanted person in a land dispute.

In the suit filed Friday, June 14, 2024, and a copy of the documents obtained by our correspondent on Sunday, the applicant through his lawyer, Femi Motojesi Esq, wants the court to declare that a police publication of his picture and name in the Special Police Gazette bulletin as a wanted person with Ref No: CB: 3510/LX/FHQ/SEB/ABJ/T.7/Vo. 1/20 amounted to the violation of his fundamental rights.

Listed in the suit marked CV/2839/24, are the Inspector-General of Police, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department and Funmilola Olorunfemi, as first to third respondents respectively.

Saliu, in the suit, contended that the police lacked the powers “to engage in the act of debt recovery for the third respondent (Olorunfemi) who is a subscriber to the applicant’s (Saliu’s) estate under construction.”

Saliu, who is also a politician and former New Nigeria Peoples Party governorship candidate in the 2023 election in Kogi State, narrated that the dispute arose after Olorunfemi paid N25m to subscribe to one of his houses being built but work paused after the FCT Department of Development Control demolished the estate.

He said afterwards, Olorunfemi invited the police to recover her money even after he had notified all the subscribers to the estate that he was making efforts to resolve the issue and return to the site.

The aggrieved estate developer faulted the police for their actions in a fundamental rights enforcement suit brought pursuant under Sections 34, 35, 41 and 46; Articles 5 and 6 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Cap 10 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

He asked the court to order the police to issue an apology to him which should be published in the Special Police Gazette bulletin and two national dailies.

He argued that the dispute between him and Olorunfemi is civil and has no criminal connotation to warrant the police involving themselves in it and inviting him for questioning, blocking his bank account and publishing his picture and details as a wanted person in the Police Gazette bulletin.

On this note, he demanded the sum of N500m in damages for the violation of his constitutionally guaranteed rights to privacy and dignity of the human person, personal liberty, and freedom of movement when the police declared him wanted.

Saliu also urged the court to order the police to unfreeze the account number 1000129689 with Globus Bank belonging to Emperor City Integrated Limited where he is the alter ego and signatory for being a violation of his fundamental rights.

No date has been assigned for the hearing.

As of the filing this report, the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, had not yet responded to our correspondent’s test messsge seeking clarification on the matter nor did he pick his calls.

@PUNCH