Former Nigeria captain Austin Jay Jay Okocha has said he is overwhelmed by the eulogy poured on him by England coach Sam Allardyce despite retiring from football many years ago.

On Tuesday, Allardyce retained Wayne Rooney as England captain and encouraged him to follow Jay Jay Okocha’s example. Rooney was told to continue in his role as England captain – by following the leadership blueprint of  Okocha who also played as Allardyce captain while at Bolton Wanderers.

The Independent quoted Allardyce, “On and off the field, Jay Jay was the captain you looked for.

 “In a multi-national side from all over the world, he could speak four different languages and communicate very well with some of the players who couldn’t speak quite as good English.

“He sorted the odd scuffle out in the dressing room, talked to the players about how we had to go out and win. He’d take the manager’s instructions and apply them in the right way.

“Then there was outstanding ability on the field, leading by example and showing everybody he wasn’t a mercenary which was suggested in the beginning, that he’d only come for the money.”

Okocha, who was unaware of the Allardyce comment until The PUNCH called him, said he was overwhelmed to be so remembered by his former manager.

He said, “His comments make me feel so good and fulfilled. Sometimes we do things the way we know best without knowing how well and far it goes with other persons. I was just working the way I felt the work should be done; I never knew it made his (Allardyce) work easier too.

“I am proud of what I achieved at Bolton and in football.”

The former Super Eagles captain also had kind words for his manager at Bolton many years ago in the English Premier League.

According to Punch news Okocha said, “He was a good manager. He knows how to get the best out of his players. You could see what happened to Newcastle after he left there. He’s really a good coach and deserves the England job. His appointment didn’t come as a surprise to me.”

Okocha with the likes of Jussi Jaaskelainen, Hernan Crespo and Youri Djorkaeff made the EPL low-budget team quite formidable even against the top-four teams. They were one of the teams to always look out for in cup competitions.

For the England team, Rooney’s retention in the role, widely anticipated, ensures continuity for a player who broke Sir Bobby Charlton’s all-time England goal-scoring record during the qualification campaign for Euro 2016.

With 115 caps, Rooney is likely to surpass Peter Shilton’s all-time appearance record in the run-up to Russia 2018 and Allardyce insists that sticking with the player as captain was an “easy” choice.

“Wayne has been an excellent captain for England and the manner in which he has fulfilled the role made it an easy decision for me to ask him to continue,” he said.

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Do you have what it takes to  become the next African Gospel music superstar? Then you can win

* #5,000,000

* A brand new car

*An international recording deal.

If you participate in Gospel Music Africa Reality TV Competition.

Pick up your forms at Imo State University Owerri, Rennys Fast Food, Owunna Pack for just N2,000. CALL 08037512288.

VISION

In today\’s world, there is a quest among most young Christians to explore their talents and be identified as celebrities; but due to the non availability of a gospel music platform in Africa for self discovery, young Christians have become susceptible to the clarion call of alcoholic, sacrilegious, and lewd sexuality driven reality TV shows which leads to lots of social irresponsibility among young people in Nigeria, and Africa at Large.

It is for these reasons and many more that MFI Xquisite Koncepts Ltd., (a total production outfit specialized in public relations planning and execution, events planning/management) have come up with the Gospel Music Africa (GMA) reality TV competition.

GMA is the first of its kind and the biggest music reality competition in Africa. It is not a denominational spur, but an act towards inspiring and nurturing young, talented gospel singers in the spirit of true praise and worship, as we seek to celebrate Jesus the more.

It is a priestly obligation to herald the time for gospel singers and worshipers to be heard. We believe that through this; \”..The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations\” of Africa. (Isaiah 61:11b)

For 8 weeks, 30 contestants from across Africa will come together in Nigeria to battle for the crown, (The KING or QUEEN of Gospel music in Africa).

Our Goal

Gospel Music Africa will present a unique contemporary innovation that will give hope, sooth hearts, and uplift God\’s royal banner in these days of uneven stress.

Gospel Music Africa will raise a generation of young people accustomed to godly values; integrity, honesty, self esteem, unity and passion for God.

Gospel Music Africa will encourage young Gospel music singers to stay in Gospel music and not abandon it for the so-called \”greener pastures\” in secular music.

Gospel Music Africa will cloud the music celebrity industry echelon with young gospel musicians that would serve as role models for the younger generation.

Gospel Music Africa would ignite the passion for a closer relationship with God, that will enable young people acquire the needed inspiration for the emancipation of African continent.

This laudable musical novelty will birth-in some level of ethical and social implications for true worshipers in Africa, because this is not just another singing competition, but also a spontaneous move to lead a re-consecration of all minds to God.

The great future calls. Don\’t miss!!!

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We have cure for ‘AIDS’ – Rhema Varsity VC

Since the dreaded Acquired Immu­no-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) hit mankind some decades ago, there have been massive global efforts to find cure to the scourge with little or no attention given to another deadlier AIDS “the Acute Integrity Deficiency Syndrome. 

Not so many people are aware of the grave dangers the latter poses to hu­manity, hence the kid gloves with which it is been treated. But Rhema University, a private Chris­tian University owned by the Living Word Ministries and located in Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State, is not caught in this web of ignorance about the threats of the latter AIDS. Apart from its acclaimed and commendable efforts towards academic excellence, the university says it has also developed a therapy for this scourge ravaging the very fabrics of the human society. It is important to note that corruption as being witnessed today in our society is not perpetrated by the victims of Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome rather, the victims of Acute In­tegrity Deficiency Syndrome. The Vice- Chancellor, Professor Og­bonnaya Onwudike, who announced the discovery of cure for the deadlier AIDS by Rhema University during the pre-convocation press briefing of its maiden convocation, said the institution was able to achieve this feat through its Head and Heart Connection concept which forms the pillar of its education. The philosophy, according to him, places equal premium on training both the head and the heart. His words, There is no shortage of mate­rial knowledge in the world today, there is great shortage of integrity even among those who are internationally acclaimed in terms of academic knowledge and technological breakthroughs. If a univer­sity produces engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc without character, the world would be worse for it since such a university will only produce learned pedants, cunning sophists and pretentious practitioners. Continuing, the VC posited, But here at Rhema, we train both the head and the heart, producing men and women whose parents will be proud of; those who grow in academic excellence, integrity and the fear of God; those will not be lost to the vices prevalent in society. These are pos­sible because the children are trained and brought up in an anointed environment where there is no cultism, intimidation, sorting and other vices common in some other universities. We take care of our students as children given to our custody by God. Godly discipline and character formation are important to us. We believe that if we neglect this in our education, we will have trouble for ourselves, our nation, our families and society in general. We therefore, emphasize academic excellence and a life lived in the fear of God. The former Vice Chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umu­dike, in an exclusive chat with The AU­THORITY on Saturday, expatiated on how he intends to use his wealth of experiences, national and international contacts to project Rhema University to a global reckoning. The university started in 2009 with a Provisional License by the National Universities Commission (NUC) but got its full license in 2015. It started in a rent­ed building belonging to the popular Sab Motors along Aba-Owerri Road, Aba, but today, it has erected over seven massive structures in the adjourning streets run­ning into several hectares of land. The VC disclosed that the university has already acquired 107 hectares of land in Owerrinta near Aba for its permanent site. Upon relocation to Owerrinta, the Aba campus will be converted to its Col­lege of Medicine as the premises already houses one of the famous hospitals in the South East zone which will serve as its Teaching Hospital. The hospital was at a time the only hospital in the South East with functional dialysis machine and CT-scan. Professor Onwudike said his preoc­cupation now is to build the best medical school in Nigeria, a project he has set 2017 as deadline. He emphasized quality above quan­tity as one of the guiding principles of the university. Thus, it is no surprise that only 44 graduates including three first class students will be awarded first degrees in the maiden convocation ceremony of the institution. The university currently of­fers few but fully accredited programmes. These include Chemistry, Biochemis­try, Applied Biology, Computer Science, Physics, Statistics, and Mathematics. Others are Accounting, Banking and Finance, Economics, Sociology, Public Adminis­tration, and Mass Communication. With the massive development going on at the permanent site, the university with special bias for science and business courses has its eye on expansion but vows not to run any unaccredited programme contrary to the bastardization in most public univer­sities. Determined to excel in Information Technology, the university has already set up Microsoft IT Academy to profession­ally deliver various capacity development courses leading to the award of certificate in Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, etc. The uni­versity also has a campus radio station fully licensed by the Nigerian Broadcast­ing Commission. The university is already into partnership with the National Hu­man Rights Commission, and Chartered Institute of Bankers. The VC said efforts were being intensified towards linking the university with other international insti­tutions for exchange programmes. Among the unique qualities of the uni­versity is the philosophy of ensuring that its students acquire entrepreneurial skills in other areas apart from their core fields of study to make them job creators upon graduation. The management is already tapping into the vast Small and Medium Enterprises in Aba where students under­go some vocational trainings in addition to their academic works. The VC frowned at the preference of public universities to private universi­ties on the argument that the former are cheaper, contending that the many ad­vantages of good private universities give them an edge over public ones in the long run. He advised candidates seeking ad­mission into tertiary institutions to em­brace private universities because of its many gains including uninterrupted aca­demic calendar. The VC also advised parents against the craze for sending their children and wards overseas for university education without first degrees in Nigeria. This, according to him, may be counter-productive. He lamented that candidates rather scramble for limited admission space in public uni­versities ignoring the vast and often un­utilized vacancies in private tertiary insti­tutions. Faced with admission problems, par­ents who can afford it may resort to find­ing university spaces overseas. But it is important for parents to understand that in as much as it may be a noble idea to train our children overseas, young people generally need parental guidance in their youthful stages of development. It is, therefore, advisable to send them overseas after the completion of their first degrees at home. Parents stand the risk of losing their children if they send them outside the country without parental guidance at a tender age. He also frowned at the award of cosmetic First Class honours to graduates by some institutions for the sake of winning awards. This, he said was unacademic. He said, It is worthless making a feat that cannot be defended. Professor Onwudike, however, lamented the inadequacy of private universities in the South Eastern states which arguably produce the highest number of candidates seeking university education in Nigeria. He challenged in­vestors and stakeholders from the zone to rise up to the challenge in the interest of the highly enterprising people of the zone. He noted with regret that during his stay at the NUC, 90 percent of the appli­cations for private universities emanated from states in the South West zone alone, and called on Igbo investors to wake from their slumber. As ways of improving facilities in pri­vate tertiary institutions, Professor Onwudike who served as Co-Chairman of NUC Standing Committee on Establish­ment of Private Universities (2006-2007), Chairman, NUC Standing Committee on Private Universities (2007-2008), called for the inclusion of private universities in the TETFund. He argued that private in­stitutions also need funds from TETFund to finance their projects since they dont depend on government subventions. The highlights of the universitys maiden convocation ceremony, included a pre-convocation lecture by the Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Onwuka, and the installation of the first Chancellor of the university, Bro. Emma Okorie, who is the President of Living Word Ministries. Hopes are high, that Living Word Ministries which has main­tained a leading position in primary and secondary school education, will also make a mark in tertiary education in the country.

The world\’s 7th richest man and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg quietly came into Nigeria today to see how Facebook works in Nigeria, how it can be improved and how it can support tech development in Africa. Mark Zuckerberg is presently CC Hub in Yaba. Here are some pix