Ambassador-Designate, Femi Fani-Kayode, has slammed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for repeatedly referring to President Bola Tinubu as “Bola” in his October 1 Independence Day address.

Fani-Kayode, Nigeria’s to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, called out Atiku in a post on X while responding to Atiku’s speech, in which the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate criticised Tinubu’s administration and repeatedly addressed the President by his first name.

He described Atiku’s address as “calm and well-delivered” but faulted its content and tone, saying it was “intellectually-flawed, highly disrespectful, inherently dishonest and utterly bereft of decency and logic.”

According to him, he was particularly displeased that Atiku did not refer to Tinubu as President during the speech.

“Worse still you refused to address @officialABAT as ‘President’ but rather continuously and contemptuously referred to him by his first name ‘Bola’,” he said.

“Surely this level of pettiness is below even you. Yet despite this provocation I will not refer to you as ‘Kachalla’ and accord you the respect that I still think you deserve,” Fani-Kayode added.

The former minister also cited a recent comment by Akin Osuntokun, former Special Adviser on Politics to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who criticised Atiku’s use of Tinubu’s first name.

Quoting Osuntokun, Fani-Kayode said: “Abubakar is entitled to criticise the President, however sharply. What I found objectionable was his repeated decision to call him ‘Bola.’ That was not a more forceful argument; it was a needless display of disrespect.”

“This is not acceptable. It is bad manners and primarily an insult to Nigeria on whose account he occupies that office,” he quoted Osuntokun as saying.

Fani-Kayode also cited Osuntokun’s call for “decorum and decency”, arguing that a former vice president should respect the office of the President even when criticising the occupant.

“Osuntokun is right,” Fani-Kayode said, before launching into a series of criticisms of Atiku’s past political conduct.

He questioned Atiku’s relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, accusing the former vice president of betraying his principal and conspiring with some governors against him.

Fani-Kayode also recalled Atiku’s recent description of former President Goodluck Jonathan as an “inexperienced young man” who “made mistakes”, questioning the former vice president’s assessment of Jonathan’s record in office.

He further criticised Atiku over his reported response to Vice President Kashim Shettima, after Shettima challenged him to account for his tenure in office and his record of empowering Nigerians.

Fani-Kayode also accused Atiku of inconsistency over the 2022 killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto, alleging that the former vice president initially condemned the killing before deleting the post.

He said Atiku’s conduct demonstrated what he described as a lack of “respect, decorum and restraint”.

“The truth is that you do not reflect the decency, restraint, patience, humility, good manners, faith in God, loyalty, fortitude, kindness, generosity, charity, compassion, honor, sense of justice and numerous other virtues that are associated with the North but rather it’s antithesis,” Fani-Kayode said.

He also referred to comments attributed to Atiku’s former running mate, Rotimi Amaechi, questioning the former vice president’s political record.

Fani-Kayode concluded by accusing Atiku of prioritising his political ambition and warned that his decision to repeatedly refer to Tinubu as “Bola” could undermine his aspiration to occupy the presidency.

“And because you lack basic respect for the Office of the President and insist on calling him ‘Bola’, you, my dear Waziri, may NEVER attain that height,” he said.

The drive to strengthen Africa’s industrial skills base is gaining momentum as Nigerian technical and vocational education provider, Whitecloud TVET Solutions Limited, partners with Uganda-based Dynamo Metal Fabrication and Construction Company to establish a specialised welding and fabrication academy in Uganda.

According to Mr. Netufo Jasper Oluranti, President/CEO of Whiteclould, the proposed academy represents an expansion of Whitecloud’s strategic focus on technology-driven technical and vocational education, with the organisation seeking to build a specialised training model that connects advanced learning technology, practical instruction and industry requirements.

“The initiative is also expected to position Whitecloud as a technical education partner capable of supporting the development of specialised welding skills beyond Nigeria and contributing to the broader African TVET ecosystem” He added.

At the heart of the proposed academy will be a training model developed around Soldamatic Augmented Reality (AR) welding technology. The system allows trainees to practise welding techniques in a simulated environment, receive immediate performance feedback and develop essential skills before progressing to physical workshop exercises.

For Whitecloud, the integration of simulation technology is central to its approach to modernising welding education. The organisation seeks to use digital tools not as a replacement for hands-on training, but as an additional stage through which learners can build confidence, improve precision and understand welding procedures before working with physical equipment.

The proposed academy will focus exclusively on welding and fabrication, with programmes expected to cover Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), Gas Metal Arc Welding (MIG/MAG), Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (TIG), Flux-Cored Arc Welding (FCAW), pipe and pipeline welding, structural welding and heavy industrial fabrication.

Isabirye Isaac Babalanda Managing Director of Dynamo Metal Fabrication and Construction Company also confirmed that additional programmes could include robotic and automated welding, weld inspection, quality control and non-destructive testing, subject to curriculum development, equipment availability and relevant regulatory approvals.

“The partners are also considering underwater and hyperbaric welding as an advanced specialisation. Such training would require dedicated facilities, specialised equipment, appropriately qualified instructors and strict compliance with applicable commercial diving, occupational safety and welding standards” He stated.

Beyond providing conventional classroom-based vocational education, Whitecloud is expected to play a central role in shaping the academy’s technical training framework.

Its responsibilities are expected to include the development and implementation of technology-enabled training methodologies, integration of simulated welding into instruction, curriculum design and the development of competency-based learning pathways aligned with industry requirements.

The organisation’s role also creates the potential for the Ugandan academy to become part of a broader regional approach to specialised technical training, with lessons from the project potentially informing future partnerships and skills-development initiatives across Africa.

This positions the partnership as more than the establishment of another vocational training centre. It represents an attempt to create a specialised model in which a TVET organisation provides the education and technology framework while an industrial company contributes the practical workplace environment and industry knowledge.

That industrial background is expected to help ensure that training is informed by actual workplace requirements and the competencies required on construction sites, fabrication projects and industrial installations.

The collaboration therefore brings together Whitecloud’s focus on technical education and training technology with Dynamo’s practical industrial experience.

The significance of the initiative extends beyond welding itself.

Welding and fabrication underpin a wide range of economic activities, including construction, manufacturing, energy, oil and gas, transportation, marine engineering, infrastructure development and industrial maintenance.

As African economies invest in infrastructure and seek to expand domestic manufacturing and industrial capacity, access to appropriately trained technical personnel becomes increasingly important.

The proposed academy is intended to address this challenge by creating a specialised skills pipeline in which trainees can progress from simulated learning to practical workshop training and, ultimately, industry-oriented competence.

Whitecloud’s technology-driven approach is expected to be particularly relevant in this regard, providing learners with an opportunity to practise techniques repeatedly in a controlled environment before undertaking physical welding operations.

The model could also provide opportunities for collaboration with employers, technical institutions, industry associations and relevant government agencies involved in skills development and workforce planning.

For Whitecloud, the proposed Ugandan academy forms part of a broader vision of using specialised TVET and emerging training technologies to support Africa’s industrial workforce.

The long-term objective is to develop the facility into a recognised centre of excellence for welding and fabrication, serving Uganda while potentially supporting skills development needs in other African markets.

Such an approach would give Whitecloud an opportunity to demonstrate how specialised vocational education can be built around a clearly defined industrial skill rather than a broad portfolio of unrelated technical programmes.

The proposed partnership also illustrates the potential of cross-border collaboration in African TVET, bringing together Nigerian expertise in technology-enabled vocational education and Ugandan industrial experience.

If successfully implemented, the academy could provide a practical model for linking technology, industry and technical education while contributing to the development of a new generation of welding and fabrication professionals equipped for Africa’s evolving industrial economy.

For Whitecloud, the initiative represents an important step in its ambition to participate in the development of specialised technical skills infrastructure across the continent and to promote a more technology-enabled approach to vocational education.

Angry students have taken to the streets in France to show their anger over the French education system.

The demonstrations started earlier this week in Paris before spreading across the country. Students say they are protesting over a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms, unsafe environments, and run-down buildings.

According to reports, much of the protest has been violent. Videos shared on social media showed young residents setting vehicles and bins on fire in multiple locations.

Another video showed a group of masked people, some of whom weree dressed all in black, attacking a fire engine outside Lycee Saint-Expury, a school in France’s second largest city.

In some cases, residents were attacked. A video showed a hooded individual spraying what appears to be a makeshift aerosol flamethrower at a woman’s face, before walking away.

The French education ministry said the protests happened at more than 560 schools on Friday.

Earlier, the ministry said 400 of the country’s 3,700 high schools were expected to be closed.

Gerald Darmanin, justice minister, said about 2,000 people have been arrested since the protests began.

“We’re not entirely sure that they are even high school students themselves,” Darmanin said.

The minister added that two-thirds of the 2,000 people arrested since protests began have been placed in police custody.