As the infighting in the Rivers State ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lingers by the day, every action and inaction of one faction somewhat aggravate the situation. Penultimate week, it was the appointment of an Acting Chief Judge of the State that provoked a new war of words between both sides.

The lingering industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which enters its third month, has been greeted with reactions from Nigerian mothers who lamented the face- off between the Federal Government and the union and expressed readiness to wade into the matter.

PRESIDENT of Campaign for Democracy, a human rights group, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, has advised the Federal Government to comply with the agreement reached between her and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, so that the union would call off the strike, saying that giving piecemeal money would not help to improve the education sector.

It is often said that a teacher’s reward is in heaven alone. The reason for such a belief is not far-fetched – teachers in this part of the world are some of the most poorly paid professionals, with some graduates being paid as low as N20,000 per month. In spite of this, a recent survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rates the teaching profession as the highest employer of labour in Nigeria, garnering a total of 70, 183 people from the employment market.

In most urban and semi-urban centres in Nigeria, you find waste piles of various sizes and shapes with foul smell oozing from them. These wastes include plastics, papers, clothes, food scraps, bottles, cans etc. Apart from being an eyesore which does great injustice to an otherwise scenic environment, these wastes can migrate and accumulate in ways that pose risk to humans, according to Dr. Charles Reith, the Director of Sustainability and Interim Provost, American University of Nigeria, Yola. In this chat with Vanguard Learning, the Professor of Environmental Science and Entrepreneurship, says there is need to practise controlled waste disposal to safeguard the environment and health. Excerpts:

Wellspring College whose students had 100 per cent in 19 subjects in the 2013 WAEC has attributed the achievement to some salient factors.

‘There is a saying in Igbo that a well-travelled man is wiser than a grey-haired man. You don’t just sit in the comfort of your zone or state and believe all the trash about others. These guys are just playing politics, using us to make themselves relevant. Nigerians should be wise. The ordinary Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Efik or Ijaw man on the street does not give a hoot where his neighbour comes from because the two are going through the same deprivations,” said Ada.

The Rivers State Government has given automatic employment to 36 doctors that graduated from the Kuban Medical School in Russia. The 36 medical doctors were beneficiaries of the Rivers State scholarship scheme to study medicine in Russia.

No! Do the fundamental components, like Summons- Drafting of Charges- Preferring of Information- Plea Taking and Mandatory recording of plea- Bail Issues- Mandatory presence of Accused person throughout Trial- Acquittal- Conviction- Allocutus- Sentencing etc, which distinguish criminal trials from civil ones, ever find place in Election Petitions which are uncontrovertibly civil in their procedural rules and final outcomes sought? No!

As arguments rage over the legality or otherwise of appointing the President of the Rivers State Customary Court of Appeal, Justice Peter Agumagu, the Acting Chief Judge of Rivers State by Governor Rotimi Amechi, a Port-Harcourt based legal practitioner and former chairman Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Port-Harcourt branch and Secretary, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Rule of Law Action Group, Mr. Emmanuel Chinwenwo Aguma, examines the exercise in the light of extant laws of the country. And described it as a greek gift, wrong, illegal and unconstitutional.