Bassey Anthony, Uyo

AKWA Ibom State government has ordered residents of erosion-ravaged areas in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, to immediately relocate to safer places.

The government’s directive is coming on the heels of Sunday’s death of three children in a landslide on Asutan Street, Uyo.

Environment and Petroleum Resources Commissioner Charles Udoh issued the relocation order after inspecting critical erosion sites in the capital town.

Read Also: Three kids survive Akwa Ibom landslide

Udoh said the lives of the residents were more importance to the government than anything else, hence the insistence on the urgent relocation.

Residents of the affected area had disagreed with the government, saying they could not relocate without having alternative places to stay.  But Austin Iton, a resident of Uyo Village Road, urged the government to fast-track the relocation process.

Our Reporter

A PAN Igbo sociopolitical organisation, Ndigbo Unity Forum (NUF), has lamented the neglect of the agriculture sub-sector across the southeast states within the past two decades. In a statement issued on behalf of the group by its Chairman, Augustine Chukwudum, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, described as scandalous the enormous loss of revenue to the states within the region.

In the statement which reads in part, the Forum said, “In the early sixties, it will be recalled that south east generated so much money from Agriculture that was used to developed old Eastern Region then, which everybody is still seeing the impact till today, but it is shameful that the governors of Southeast are not doing anything for the past twenty one years since the inspection of this fourth Republic in May 1999 to September 2020, despite been blessed with arable land that can produce food in commercial quantity our governors abandon the sector that can generate over $10bllion yearly and create more than seven million jobs if well harness.

To address the challenge, the group maintained that there was need to encourage youths to embark on agriculture through creation of platforms that will make loans and grants easily accessible  Besides, the NUF further advised that there should be provision of improved seedlings and other agricultural related facilities like tractor, fertilizer and also increase money allocated to agric from zero percent as it is now to 70 percent.

Sunny Nwankwo, Umuahia

ABOUT 18 natives and non-natives indigent Abians on admission at Madonna Catholic Church Hospital, Umuahia, the state capital, who were being held at the medical facility over their inability to offset their bills have been allowed to rejoin other members of their families.

The Nation can authoritatively report that reprieve came their way when the 2015 and 2019 governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state, Dr. Alex Otti paid a visit to the hospital to visit his friend, one Chief Ezeji Michael Irom that was on admission at the hospital.

It was learnt that patients on admission and those who were held for their inability to pay for their hospital bills beseeched Otti and cried unto him to come to their rescue.

Otti who recently formalised his members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, was said to have had compassion on the inmates and asked the management of the hospital to send him the bills of patients that have been treated and unable to settle their hospital bills.

Some of the patients, according to information, have spent over three months in the hospital after being discharged due to their inability to offset their medical bills.

Though the sum total wasn’t mentioned, our reporter gathered that the bill of the 18 patients run into several millions.

Speaking when a representative of Otti, Chief Mike Akpara handed over a cheque covering the bills of the patients, the administrator of Madonna Catholic Hospital, Rev Fr. Anokwuru Christian Uche lauded Otti for paying the hospital bills of the eighteen indigent persons.

Rev. Fr. Uche said “Otti promised to help them and asked them to write down their names and 18 patients whose bills ranged from N50, 000 to N1.1m wrote their names.

“Immediately he made that promise, some of the patients started leaving the hospital, saying Otti would definitely pay the bills, some of them who had paid deposits, asked the hospital to refund them since Otti had promised that he would fulfill it.”

Fr. Uche who said the hospital had refunded those patients who made some deposits said he would have loved to mention the amount which he said ran into millions of naira, but that since Otti never permitted that, the hospital had no choice.

Read Also: Otti to declare for APC in Abia

While thanking Otti for his generosity, the administrator of the hospital recalled how Otti made donations of PPEs to the hospital for COVID-19 and called on other good spirited individuals to emulate his good gesture.

Some of the patients, including Chief Irom commended Otti for his benevolence in paying the hospital bills of some of the patients who were discharged but had no money to pay.

One of the beneficiaries, Ikechukwu Madumere in expressing gratitude to Otti said, “We are very grateful, Dr. Alex Otti came here to see his friend, when he was about to leave, some of the patients who were discharge and had stayed back for between two weeks to six months because there was no money to pay and go, approached him for help.

Ferdinand Ekeoma, media aide to Otti said what his principal did was not laced with any political undertone as this was not the first time he was helping the poor, stressing that this was purely a humanitarian intervention.

Our Reporter

FORMER Commissioner for Information in Ebonyi State, Abia Onyike, has called on Governor David Umahi to act on allegations of “possible sale of some landed properties and houses located in Lagos or any other properties belonging to Ebonyi State Government in any other part of Nigeria.”

Onyike pleaded with Umahi not to sweep this allegation under the carpet, pointing out that Ebonyians at home and in the Diaspora, in reaction to the said allegations, “would like to know what is happening or has happened to Ebonyi State Government properties in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Aba and other places.”

In a press release made available to The Nation, Onyike called on Ebonyi State Government to set up a panel of inquiry to probe into the status of Ebonyi State properties  scattered all over Nigeria, with a view to carrying out inventory of such properties for proper documentation and accountability.”

Read Also: Umahi: God will bring my successor in 2023

The release said in part: “Following the recent outcry and disclosures made by some concerned citizens of Ebonyi State, alleging that Ebonyi State Government’s buildings and landed properties located in Lagos have been surreptitiously sold off to or taken over by unknown persons, with the possible connivance or conspiracy of some top government officials of Ebonyi State, and having confirmed the authenticity of the allegations from some Ebonyi indigenes resident in Lagos, I wish to react and state as follows: That as a concerned citizen of Ebonyi State and as one of those who fought for the creation of the state, it is incumbent on me and other agitated patriots, to always rise to the occasion as circumstances may  demand, to defend the collective/common interests of  all Ebonyians, especially on  issues and matters relating to our common patrimony; that I commend the alertness  of the Association of Ebonyi Indigenes in Diaspora  and their sincere/patriotic  alarm raised  over the dubious attempt or act of selling off or taking over of the said landed properties and buildings, located in Lagos and belonging to the  people and government  of Ebonyi, without  due process.”

By Precious Igbonwelundu 

WHEN 14-year-old Memunatu Musa, a pupil of Enikaro Primary School in Benin City, Edo State, was forced into marriage to a 50-year-old man in Katsina State, her dreams of going to school and becoming a career woman suffered setback.

Like many young girls her age forced into early marriages in different parts of the country, Musa could have become a child producing machine and put at risk of Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF), but for last year’s intervention of the Edo State Government which rescued her from Katsina and reintegrated her into the school system through Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme.

Musa is one of 33 percent of young girls married off before they turn 18 years in Benin. This statistics, according to social advocacy group, #GirlsNotBrides, comprised 26 percent married off before their 18th birthday and seven per cent forced into marriage before they turn 15.

These children who are made to abandon school, contribute to the over 13 million estimated out of school boys and girls across the country.

Faced with this challenge, the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki embarked on a mission to change the narrative with training and equipping teachers for improved learning outcomes, as well as the reconstruction of schools. This move has seen well over 8,700 teachers trained and 7,094  equipped with computer tablets which have positively impacted more than 150,000 school children in the state, while no fewer than 234 schools have received facelift and 11,688 School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) members trained to help in administering and maintaining public education facilities all geared towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all).

Commending the EdoBest initiative, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in a recent publication on its official website noted it has improved learning outcomes among pupils in primary schools across the state.

Read Also: Edo 2020: APC, Labour Party clash over bribes, Ize-Iyamu’s qualifications

It said: “Education experts around the world and across Africa, in particular, are paying close attention to EdoBEST, which has become a beacon of light to other education ministries because it is improving learning for marginalised children and up-skilling both novice and experienced teachers at scale, within existing state budgets and without western aid.”

Similarly, the World Bank, and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) also highlighted EdoBEST as a crucial programme that can be a template for transforming education  in educationally disadvantaged societies. Hence, it did not come as a surprise when the World Bank recently approved a $75million facility to Edo State to help address issues of education development.

Speaking during a rally, Obaseki assured the people that would be utilised to change the face of education in Edo and Nigeria for the next three years.

He said the intervention fund would help to expand the existing EdoBEST programme from basic education to secondary level as well as reset the state’s tertiary education system on the path of progress.

“What this means is that over the next three years, we will have about N40 billion to utilise in changing the face of education in Edo and Nigeria. This is because of the fantastic work which members of our team have undertaken in the past few years to show the world what we can do with our educational system.

“It will interest you to know that this facility will help us at the secondary school level to do what we have started doing at the basic education level so that by the time a child has gone through five years of learning, that child will be exposed not only to learning and literacy but also to a vocation. This is the last time in our history that our education system will produce Agberos,” said Obaseki.

According to the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Crusoe Osagie, many states within Nigeria and some African countries have sent delegations to Edo to understudy the EdoBEST programme.