Author: The Nation

The Co-chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Bill Gates, has urged the Federal Government to improve investment in equitable solutions and in the people who are working on them.

He said this during the Pan-African Youth Innovation Forum on Wednesday in Lagos, as part of activities for his visit to Nigeria.

The Forum had the theme: “Advancing Africa: Unleashing the Power of Youth in Science and Innovation.’’

Gates said that Nigeria was full of talented people with a lot of potential, but noted that it could be hard to fulfill that potential if they don’t have access to the most basic building blocks of life.

“It may not surprise you that Nigeria’s state and federal governments only spend the equivalent of $10 on health per person each year, compared to $31 in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.

“Leaders need to make a much bigger financial commitment, focused most of all on improving primary health systems.

“Making sure clinics are well-staffed and supplied, making sure children get the vaccines they need—all of this is absolutely essential to improving health and opportunity and unlocking all of Nigeria’s potential,” he said.

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Gates said that he would speak with the government about increasing commitments to agriculture and digital financial systems.

According to him, Nigerian youths have shown how passionate they are about progress, but they need to encourage their leaders to follow through on these commitments.

“The last time I visited Nigeria in 2018, I spoke to government leaders about your country’s potential for growth.

“This time, I wanted to speak also with you: Nigeria’s next generation of innovators.

“Ever since I was a teenager, writing computer code on a terminal at my high school, and later at Microsoft, I have loved the feeling of innovating to make something a little better for people—or a lot better.

“I’m sure you know this feeling too.

“There’s going to be a lot of opportunity for you to continue to make a difference in the world, because of the unprecedented potential of new technologies.

“However, Nigerians are still facing many of the challenges I talked about five years ago—and you have to contend with economic instability and security threats.

“I have a lot of faith that your generation will persevere and improve lives throughout Nigeria and beyond,” he said.

Gates said that talented youths are a powerful asset to making the world a better place.

He said that Nigeria’s huge youth population represented a lot of potential skills and passion to solve big problems.

“Yesterday, I met some impressive Nigerians whom the Gates Foundation has been partnering with for years.

“These scientists are improving seeds, fertiliser, and biopesticides so farmers can thrive in the face of climate change and grow crops free of toxins.

“And I met with a researcher scaling up an effective way to reduce anemia in pregnant women,” he said.

Gates said that young people needed strong support system to thrive, starting with education.

He added that Nigeria had a strong foundation, with some of the best educational and research institutions across the continent.

He stressed the need to bridge inequity in health, education, financial services and pay gaps to drive development.

Gates expressed his belief in the power of science and innovation to help people lead long, healthy lives, but noted that he had learnt that the benefits don’t automatically reach everyone.

“To do that, the people creating new breakthroughs, funding them, and getting them into the world all need to prioritise equity,” he said.

The philanthropist said that there are many exciting innovations in the global pipeline that would improve lives here in Nigeria.

“They’re going to prevent infectious diseases, provide life-saving interventions for mothers and babies; make food more nutritious, and give women more convenient contraception options.

“Down the road, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be applied in ways that will bring quality health care and education to more people,” he said.

Gates expressed excitement at the potential AI had to save and improve lives, but, said that won’t happen if profit was the only motive.

“So, our foundation is thinking about what we can do to help AI develop in ways that improve the lives and well-being of everyone, not just the wealthiest people in a few rich countries.

“The foundation has issued a call for proposals or what we call a “Grand Challenge” for innovative, safe uses of large language models.

“We received 1,300 proposals, and half of them were from Africa. The winners will be announced in Senegal in October.

“We hope what emerges will help build an evidence base for advancing equitable outcomes in health and development everywhere in the world,” he said.

(NAN)

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— The Nation Nigeria (@TheNationNews) June 21, 2023

A Federal High Court, Abuja has fixed Oct. 23 for hearing a suit filed by former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, challenging the order obtained by the EFCC for final forfeiture of her seized assets.

Justice Inyang Ekwo fixed the date on Wednesday after Alison-Madueke’s lawyer, Benson Igbanoi, and EFCC’s counsel, M.D. Baraya, regularised their processes in the suit.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the anti-corruption agency had planned to conduct public sale of all the assets seized for being proceeds of crime as ordered by courts to be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government

The auctioning exercise, conducted on the seized assets believed to include Diezani’s property, started on Jan. 9.

The immediate-past chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had recently revealed that $153 million and over 80 property had been recovered from Alison-Madueke.

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She was alleged to have escaped to the United Kingdom and remained there after her exit from public office as the petroleum minister, an office she held between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

But the ex-minister, in her suit, sought an order extending the time within which to seek leave to apply to the court for an order to set aside the EFCC’s public notice issued to conduct public sale on her property.

In the motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/21/2023 dated and filed on Jan. 6 by her lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, the former minister sought five orders from the court.

While Alison-Madueke is the applicant, the EFCC is the sole respondent in the suit.

The former minister, who argued that the various orders were made without jurisdiction, said these “ought to be set aside ex debito justitiae.”

She said she was not given fair hearing in all the proceedings leading to the orders.

“The various court orders issued in favour of the respondent and upon which the respondent issued the public notice were issued in breach of the applicant’s right to fair hearing as guaranteed by Section 36 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, as altered, and other similar constitutional provisions,” she said.

She argued that she was neither served with the charge sheet and proof of evidence in any of the charge nor any other summons howsoever and whatsoever in respect of the criminal charges pending against her before the court.

She further argued that the courts were misled into making several of the final forfeiture orders against her assets through suppression or non-disclosure of material facts.

“The several applications upon which the courts made the final order of forfeiture against the applicant were obtained upon gross misstatements, misrepresentations, non-disclosure, concealment and suppression of material facts and this honourable court has the power to set-aside same ex debito justitiae, as a void order is as good as if it was never made at all.

“The orders were made without recourse to the constitutional right to fair hearing and right to property accorded the applicant by the constitution.

“The applicant was never served with the processes of court in all the proceedings that led to the order of final forfeiture,” she said, among other grounds given.

But the EFCC, in a counter affidavit deposed to by Rufai Zaki, a detective with the commission, urged the court to dismiss her application.

Mr Zaki, who was a member of the team that investigated a case of criminal conspiracy, official corruption and money laundering against the ex-minister and some other persons involved in the case, said investigation had clearly shown that she was involved in some acts of criminality.

He said Alison-Madueke was therefore charged before the court in charge no: FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018.

“We hereby rely on the charge FHC/ABJ/CR/208/2018 dated 14th November, 2018 filed before this honourable court and also attached as Exhibit C in the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.

The EFCC operative, who said he had seen the ex-minister’s motion, said most of the depositions were untrue.

He said contrary to her deposition in the affidavit in support, most of the cases which led to the final forfeiture of the contested property “were action in rem, same were heard at various times and determined by this honourable court.”

He said the courts differently ordered the commission to do a newspaper publication inviting parties to show cause why the said property should not be forfeited to the Federal Government, before final orders were made.

Mr Zaki argued that one Nnamdi Awa Kalu represented the ex-minister in reaction to one of the forfeiture applications.

“We humbly rely on the judgment of Hon. Justice I.LN. Oweibo dated 10th September, 2019 shown in Exhibit C of the applicant’s affidavit,” he said.

The officer said contrary to her, the final forfeiture of the assets which were subject of the present application was ordered by the court since 2017 and that this was not set aside or upturned on appeal.

According to him, the properties have been disposed off through due process of law.(NAN)