It was such an awesome electrifying atmosphere of joy and ecstasy on Sunday the 29th October 2023 when Alhaji and Alhaja Ganiyat Akeem Toluwaloju in the midst of dignitaries and creme de la creme in the society celebrate the union of their son and daughter IBRAHIM AND ZULAIHA.

The groom parent who was filled with untold joy and happiness to have witnessed the colourful and promising union of their children burst in high spirit to receive several noble and dignitaries who thronged the WhiteStone Event center located at Oregun Lagos.
Guests present at the occasion includes several top government officials and successful businessmen alike within the knooks and crannies of the nation.

In the ectasy of the moment, Some of the grooms Father’s friends,Sir Olasupo Adigun, president,Mainland executive club who described the young groom as young versatile man who took after his father as a chartered Accountant like himself,also charge them to ensure they maintain oneness in their marriage. He also express his joy as a family friend who witnessed the young groom’s naming ceremony decades ago to be alive witnessing his wedding with hope to be alive and see him Naming his children too.

While the groom’s mother, Alhaja Ganiyat Toluwaloju, shows her measures of joy through unique dancing steps throughout the event,she charges the new couple to employ patience and spirituality in summounting any challenges in their life, wishing them successful marital bliss forever.
in addition to several wishes of guests, Alhaji Chief Kazeem Razak and Alhaji Alade Bashiru encourages couple to be persevere and avoid third party involvement in their marriage.

Witnessing the euphoria and happiness from the stable of the bride’s parent, Alhaji Abubakar and Hajia Saadatu Sanusi declares the day they awaits for their lovely daughter and her husband to finally solemnise their union comes with high expectations that they would become eternal lovebirds as we have seen them flowing for years of relationship. The happy parents added their wishes for the couple to live in peace and harmony for the rest of their lives with profound love together.

Alhaji Akeem Adisa Toluwani,the groom’s father, who is a member of several religious and social groups,among them is the Distinguished Ansar Ud-deen society at all cadres in Nigeria, described his son, Ibrahim as intelligent and well educated young man who he believes would successfully manage his family as he’s currently doing to the family accountancy firm hitherto.

The international music maestro,the King of world beats,King Sunny Ade was at the event to entertain the crowd with electrifying Juju rhythms and magical dancing steps to boosts the ectactic ambience of the wedding ceremony.

The Federal Ministry of Education has announced that the implementation of the Students Loans scheme is scheduled to commence during the 2023/2024 academic session.

This disclosure was made by David Adejo, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Students Loans.

Adejo also dispelled rumours that the signing of the Students Loan Act had prompted several federal universities to increase their charges.

He emphasized that President Bola Tinubu has directed the completion of necessary work on the modalities for the students’ loan implementation, with a target start date in September 2023.

Adejo further stated that the president has established a coordinating committee, with the Chief of Staff serving as the chairman, adding that the committee comprises key entities such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Federal Budget Office, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and others.

He noted that the committee has additionally established a technical team tasked with establishing a solid framework for initiating the program and addressing any legal obstacles that could hinder Nigerians’ access to the loan.

While saying the recent increase in charges by federal universities in the country was unfortunate, Adejo explained that no federal University in the country was allowed to collect tuition fees from students.

He said, “What they collect is charges to cover the cost of accommodation, ICT, and power, among others. It is the Governing Councils of the Universities that have the power to approve such charges for them.

“The only university that increased charges after the signing of the student loans act is the University of Lagos. They came to the Ministry with a proposal to Increase their charges because all Governing Councils were dissolved and we gave them approval.

“Immediately that was done, there was a resolution from the House stopping the increase of fees and the president also gave a directive stopping any increase in fees and that is where it is, even though several others have brought their proposal.

The permanent secretary further explained that the charges collected by the institutions are used by them to pay for some of their services, including electricity bills.

While justifying why the universities are demanding an increase in the charges they collect, he said that in spite of the charges, the universities have not been able to meet up with some of their expenses.

He said, “For example, we had to bail out Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with about N1 billion to pay its electricity bill. The school just resume academic sessions because they were in darkness.

“They were supposed to build theatres and we told them, you cannot build theatre when you are in the dark because you need power to operate.”

The director of Legal Services of the Central Bank of Nigeria who represented the Acting Governor of the Central Bank, Kofo Salami Alada said the student loan was being designed to be technology driven.

He said it was being designed in such a way that will eliminate physical contact and movement of papers, while the students will be expected to apply for the loan from the comfort of their homes.

He said they will work with the various tertiary institutions that will be assigned unique codes, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board and other bodies involved in tertiary education in the country to make the process much easier.

He said the CBN will not be responsible for the funding of the exercise, adding that its responsibility will be the bankers to the fund as the funds will be provided solely by the government.

Alada, however, said that the technical committee was working on how to avoid a constitutional crisis later when states will go to court to challenge funds being drawn from the federation account to implement the scheme.

According to him, while the current law provides for 1 per cent of internally generated revenue, they are working on having an acceptable source either from the Federations Account or from the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

He said since all government activities run on a budget, the National Assembly may have to put in place a budget for the takeoff of the scheme

Alada said the technical design for accessing the loan has been completed, adding that vendors are being invited to commence work on the design.

The chairman of the committee, Teseer Ugbor said the students’ loan was part of the palliatives by the federal government to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians and ensure access to higher education by interested Nigerians.

He, however, expressed concern about the disbursement process, the recovery of the funds from beneficiaries as well as the possibility of some students not being able to access the loan.

Speaking on the issue of a possible constitutional crisis raised by the CBN, he said, “There is the possibility that students from state-owned tertiary institutions will not be able to access the loan because if the states will not contribute to the funds, it would mean that students from state universities will not be able to participate in the scheme.”

The job of managing the image and reputation of a company that many love to hate and others hate to love is no mean task. Very often, one leaves the job inheriting the ‘enemies’ of the company as personal enemies. Very rarely does one leave the job in a gale of accolades as Dr. Kennie Obateru is doing today from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) upon clocking the statutory retirement age of 60.

Obateru assumed office as the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC in March 2020 at a time when various countries across the world, including Nigeria, were going into lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. He quickly retooled the Division to be able to promptly respond to the challenges of the time. This saw the robust engagement of the Corporation’s publics with the Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, leading the charge in clarifying the issues around production cuts, decline in crude oil sales and efforts to shore up revenues for the nation.

Apart from ensuring the vigorous implementation of the corporation’s Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) through timely communication of NNPC’s operations and activities, Obateru maintained an open-door policy which ensured prompt handling of all enquiries. This obviously resulted in a near-zero bad press for the NNPC in the one and half years he held sway as the chief reputation manager.

Speaking on Obateru’s style and professionalism, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, stated that he owed the very cordial relationship his agency enjoys with NNPC to Obateru’s engaging human relations skills. “It is with mixed feelings I learnt about Kennie’s retirement. Kennie Obateru is a very tall man, taller in ideas but tallest in competence and integrity. He’s a man of details, learns lessons from opportunities and from the ups and downs of life. We had a smooth working relationship with the NNPC during his tenure and it was all due to his style,” he declared.

Stakeholders from across all sectors of the oil and gas industry who had the good fortune to encounter him in his long career that spanned 29 years across various subsidiaries and the Corporate Headquarters of the Corporation are all agreed about Obateru’s excellent human relations skills. One of such is Sopuruchi Onwuka, the publisher of Oracle News who traced his first encounter with Obateru to his days at the Manager, Public Affairs Department, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He described Obateru as a thoroughbred public relations professional and a perfect relationship manager who succeeded in getting the public to see NNPC through him.

“He is down to earth in his dealing with people. He is polite and urbane. He doesn’t talk down on you or force you to accept his point of view, he wins you over. Another thing I find particularly fascinating about Dr. Obateru is his ability to listen patiently and respond to issues no matter how busy he is. If his busy schedule makes it difficult to take your call and respond to your questions immediately, he will send a text message that he will get back to you, and he returns with answers,” Onwuka stated.

From colleagues and media practitioners who had to deal with daily in the course of his job, none could think of anything negative to say about Obateru as a person or his style as a reputation manager. A veteran energy journalist, Mr Olusola Bello, who related with him closely for years in the course of his job described Obateru thus: “He is a very competent public relations man, he knows his job. He is very accessible and always reaching out. In fact he has a way of drawing people close and taking them into confidence about developments in the industry. This style made it difficult for a lot of us to do stories that could impact on NNPC and its subsidiaries negatively because it would make you feel guilty that you are betraying your source”.

Bello’s submission holds the secret to the general positive reportage NNPC enjoyed throughout Obateru’s tenure as the corporation’s spokesman, a job for which he came fully prepared by virtue of his vast experience within the NNPC and the oil industry. Before his appointment as the Group General Manger, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC in 2020, he was the General Manager, NNPC London Office.

He joined the services of the Corporation in 1992 as an experienced hire and since then has held several key and strategic positions in the Public Affairs Division.

He was Manager, Public Affairs of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a corporate service unit of the NNPC between 2010 and 2015.

Prior to that, he was Manager, Public Affairs Department, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) between 2008 and 2010 and was Manager, Media Relations in the Group Public Affairs Division from 2007 to 2008.

Dr. Obateru was Deputy Manager, Media Relations in GPAD between 2006 and 2007, and served as a team member in Project PACE-SMS, CP Core Process Teams between 2005 and 2006.

From 2001 to 2005, he served as Supervisor, Budget & Planning in GPAD. He also doubled as Supervisor, Audio Visual, between 2000 and 2001. His versatility was brought to bear on the print side of the corporate communication business when he diligently served as Editor, NNPC News, a monthly publication of the Group Public Affairs Division from 1998 to 2000.

Between1993 and1998, Dr. Obateru was the Protocol Officer to the then Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources. He cut his teeth in the Corporation as a Protocol and Consular Officer between 1992 and1993.

He is an alumnus of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos; University of Ilorin and University of Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom, where he obtained a Certificate in News Reporting, a B.A. (Hons) Performing Arts and an M.Sc. in Public Relations respectively.

In 2012, Obateru joined the doctoral club of eggheads when he was awarded a Doctorate Degree in Management (Honoris Causa) by the Commonwealth University, Belize.

He has attended numerous professional courses and conferences at home and abroad which included three (3) International Public Relations Association Conferences, five (5) World Petroleum Congresses (WPCs) and 15 OPEC Ministerial Conferences among others.

Dr. Obateru is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, a member of the International Public Relations Association, a senior member of the Africa Public Relations Association as well as a member of the Nigeria Institute of Management.

His hobbies include Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, reading and dancing. Dr. Obateru is happily married and his union is blessed with four children.

Dr. Obateru bows out after 29 years of meritorious service to the NNPC.

Obinna Nwachi, a public commentator and analyst, wrote in from Abuja.