Category: Northern Report

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has disbursed about N500m agricultural loans to farmers in the territory.

This is to improve the product of farmers within the FCT by replacing old farming methods with mechanised ones for the benefit of the increasing population of the territory

This information was provided by the Minister of State for the FCT Olajumoke Akinjide during a courtesy visit by the management of the Bank of Agriculture, led by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Mohammed Santuraki.

“The ultimate goal is to ensure that agriculture is practised as a lucrative commercial enterprise that is not only sustainable but also attractive to our youths and women. The FCTA is committed to the development of viable agricultural entrepreneurship through provision of free technical expertise and farm subsidies,” she explained.

Akinjide, who noted that the FCTA would partner with the Bank of Agriculture to grow the agriculture sector in the FCT, said the Agriculture Services and Training Centre, when completed and operational, would become a one-stop agriculture centre in Nigeria.

“The centre will be a dedicated facility to support farmers and will consist of training centre, extension service, irrigation and laboratory for soil test, among other agriculture and allied facilities,” she noted.

Santuraki disclosed that the bank will like to collaborate with the FCT administration by providing matching funds to support farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) like it is already doing with seven states that have signed on for the collaboration.

He said: “ We will provide matching funds to whatever funds the FCT decide to provide for its farmers, and we will help the FCT manage the fund to avoid these farmers from seeing the money as part of their share of the national cake and misusing it.

“In the last couple of years, we have repositioned the bank to make it even more impactful and financially sustainable. As part of our reform agenda, we have chosen to create alliances with state governments and other domain stakeholders.

“The BOA is in a better position to manage funds earmarked by FCT Administration for agricultural development and poverty alleviation in the FCT,” Santuraki stated.

In another development, The FCTA has also entered into a public private partnership agreement with an Israeli firm, SEC Equipment, to build an agriculture services and training centre in Abuja and also registered 170,000 farming families in the FCT.

 

The first ever telemedicine centre has been established in the capital city. Besides being the seat of power, Abuja is the only planned city in the country which probably explains its choice as host of the magnificent centre.

Funfair and clinking of glasses marked the centre’s launch penultimate Saturday.

The clinic and diagnostic centre, a multi-disciplinary tertiary, care hospital and emergency cum trauma centre, was inaugurated by the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Mahesh Sachdev. The historic event, according to many at the occasion, has opened a new fista in the health sector.

Telemedicine is a technology which allows doctors from all parts of the globe to examine a patient at the same time without actually leaving their country through the use of telecast.

In such a situation, a patient who is in a dire need of specialised treatment may not need to travel unless on rare occasions, as checks could be carried out on the patient and also the procedures for treatment easily passed across to local doctors in the country. The economic implication is enormous, as all the travelling and processing cost are eliminated.

To many who witnessed the occasion, the privately owned project boosts the efforts to reduce capital flight occasioned by frequent foreign medical treatments.

The 65-bed Dr. Hassan’s Clinic and Diagnostic Centre is a private initiative.

The facility aids in the transmission of data and holding teleconferences, where doctors across the globe can access a patent through the facility.

Similar equipment, it was learnt, was donated to the University of Ibadan teaching Hospital (UCH) but not fully utilised.

Speaking shortly before the inauguration, Sachdev said the “ facility has great potential not only in the health centre but also, in facilitating people to people contact and creating better comfort in medical tourism sector and avoid unnecessary traveling for initial consultations and for post operation care and lots more. It could, therefore, give a level of assurance to the patient and also create familiarity between patient and doctors in India and also doctors of both countries.”

The  brain behind it, Dr. Shabihul Hassan, an Indian, noted that the idea behind the clinic was to cut cost of specialised treatment and also reduce capital flight.

Hassan who said he grew up in the country said: “people do not necessarily have to travel outside the country. But here what we do is to get a doctor outside the country to see the patient here through this facility and the doctor says okay this is this and that and we sort it here. Where the patient really needs a kidney transplant through the facility, the doctor says how to prepare the patient, even if they have to travel and many of the occasions they do not really have to travel because they have already seen their doctor here and he is giving the necessary advice.

“The basic idea is that we do not want too many people to travel outside. This has been our focus. I have been directly involved in the process of facilitating those who need to go abroad for specialised care. The idea is that we don’t want to see people going outside the country and where necessary, finish the whole thing here. So the reason behind setting up the centre was to ensure that less and less people travel outside this country and spend less money for consultation and even when they have to travel, they would have been seen by their doctor and it would mean less money to be spent, compared to what you would have spent if you just go there blindly.”

In his remark, Sachdev noted that “telemedicine is essentially an exercise in leveraging advancement in medicine and telecomm sector to enhance healthcare at a distance.”

He also stressed that the facility “can facilitate assurance to the patient even without having to travel a distance and book appointment with a doctor.

We in India have used this system very extensively to reach out to our 1.2 billion people.”

The Director, Laboratory Services of the clinic and also the National President of Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN),  Dr. Godwill  Okara, noted that the  facility can compete favorably with any  in the world.

According to him: “The centre came into existence in 2005, one passion that is driving us to make available specialised healthcare services to our people and in furtherance of this objective the telemedicine equipment have been acquired and through this facility, we will bring the services of specialists and experts across the globe to this centre for the benefits of patients such that instead of buying tickets and traveling distance kilometers to access healthcare. Within the four walls of this facility, we would be able to provide that service. It is our driving passion to have a centre in Abuja that will provide specialised services in all healthcare practice.

“We believe that we are blessed with manpower and other resources in Nigeria, there is no reason we shouldn’t harness all these to the benefit of teeming population.”

 

There they are, by the markets and on the sidewalks, waiting for a client to beckon. They are the wheelbarrow boys of Abuja, young, swift and can manipulate their business tools with remarkable ease.

You will find many of them by the Wuse Market waiting for customers.

Like everyone else, they want to earn their keep but by transporting shoppers’ goods on their barrows for a fee.

In the poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow,” by William Carlos Williams a wheelbarrow served as a hideout for chickens when rain became an encroachment. But in Abuja, where poverty is high, hauling groceries, car parts and other goods in wheelbarrows are a popular way for these industrious young boys to take some money back to their families and improve their standard of living.

While Williams’ famous poem evokes an image of a bright wheelbarrow, washed clean from a fresh rain, the wheelbarrows of these boys are covered up in red dust, apparently suffering from the effects of day-to-day hustle.

With the wheelbarrow, they dart after the presence of a vehicle still in motion. Life, to them, in the capital is a fierce competition. Survival is the end-game. Caution and safety are thrown to the wind, defying the dangers of being hit by an on–coming vehicle in a bid to court customers.

Despite the splendour of the city, the standard of living for the poor is low. Not many can boast of three square meals a day. Some are living in squalor.

They are caught in the web of poverty as a result of some unfriendly policies and corruption among the country’s leaders.

For them, the suburbs such as Gwagwalada, Zuba, Utako, Dutse, Nyanya, Karmo and Dei Dei Market provide a better hide-out from the reach of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB). But some of them still carry out their activities within the city centres like under the bridge or popular bus stops.

At Karmo Market, boys hire wheelbarrows for N200 per day.  The wheelbarrows, it was observed, were used to carry wares for customers who patronised the market. The same, Abuja Review learnt, is visible in other markets in the capital city.

Even at the popular Wuse Market, the activities of truck pushers abound.

One of the wheelbarrow pushers, Isa Garuba who spoke to Abuja Review through the help of an interpreter said he does menial jobs in order to survive, adding that he has been on the job for over a year.

According to the Kano State-born Garuba, his parents could not afford to send him to school. This, he revealed, spurred him into doing menial jobs in the capital.

According to him, he arrives at the market as early as 6:00 a.m. just to gain access to a wheelbarrow in order to “hustle” for the day and works till 6:00 p.m. when he must have made a handful of money.

On how much he makes in a day, with a smile that betrays his innocence, he said: “N800 a day, depending on the patronage or occasion. But this is little when compared to festive periods. These periods are good times to make good money.”

Asked if he nurses the ambition of going to school, he replied, “Yes,” but quickly added: “There is no money for that now. My parents are poor. So, going to school for now will be difficult for me.”

Meanwhile, another wheelbarrow pusher in Wuse Market, Zeyanu Usman said his dream to become a medical doctor is fast fading away owing to lack of money. Life for the JSS2-school-drop in the FCT is not easy. The same can be said of his friends. How do they cope with this kind of life?

Replying, one of them said: “We push wheelbarrow (pointing at it) everyday in this market. It is not easy for us in this town. We come here every day and sleep in mosque or primary schools at Mabushi.”

However, the Minister of State for FCT, Mrs. Olajumoke Akinjide attests to the poverty situation in the city when she said that about 46.9 per cent of Abuja residents earn less than N30, 000 monthly.

She further said that the figure was obtained from a demographic household survey carried out by the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

“The FCT Administration recently carried out a demographic household survey to generate basic data and information for purposes of planning and development of the FCT.

“We were able to ascertain that 72.11 per cent of the households earn below N100, 000 per month and that the majority of the workers fall within the low income groups.

“About 46.9 per cent earn below N30, 000 per month. 19.77 per cent earn between N30, 000 and N50, 000 per month, while about 5.44 per cent earn between N50, 000 and N100, 000 per month.

This means that only about 28 per cent earn above N100, 000 per month in the FCT,” she said.

An Igbo adage says “uwa mgbede ka mma” which means “the patient one reaps more benefits.”

But traders, in recent times, changed it to “ahia mgbede ka mma” meaning “evening market is the best.”

This ideology has a life of its own in Kubwa village market where people troop in every evening to make their purchases.

Abuja Review carried out a market survey in Kubwa village and it was revealed that 60 per cent of Kubwa residents prefer shopping in the evening.

Proponents of evening market reasoned that, apart from avoiding the scorching heat of the sun, commodities, in the evening, are said to be cheaper, especially when it has to do with particular perishable food stuffs like tomatoes and pumpkin leaves, clothing materials, shoes and handbags, among others.

A customer, Mike Ola who spoke with Abuja Review said that he prefers shopping in the evening because the prices are exceptionally cheap.

He said: “Because of the ridiculous price, you may not really get what you set out for. But you can get a close substitute. So, the balance you have left will be enough consolation for you.”

Another customer, Catherine Ageh said that, apart from the cheap prices, she only has time to shop in the evenings.

In her view, evening traders are more cordial and jovial in that one can freely interact with them while those who trade in the day are sometimes arrogant because they feel their products are fresh and unique.

Another buyer who simply identified herself as Becky said it’s only people who are extravagant that patronise those who sell in the afternoon.

On the other hand, those who oppose evening market argue that products sold in the evening are remnants of the noon products and therefore of inferior quality, thereby making their prices so cheap.

In a chat with Abuja Review, Obiageli Eze said that one can easily be deceived in buying evening products as there’s no light to have a better view of what one is purchasing.

To buttress her point, she said: “In purchasing awarawa tomatoes in the evening, it might be too sour and full of maggots which you can’t see at night.”

Others who spoke said that although products in the evening are cheap, they are too inferior compared to daylight products.

Meanwhile, some traders who spoke to Abuja Review tend to support the views of the opponents of evening market.

An evening trader, Dominic Okoro revealed that products sold in the day time cannot be compared with the ones sold in the evening as the products depreciate in quality as the day runs.

He said: “Sellers make profits in the day time and so sell the inferior ones in the evening to make more profits,” adding that he makes more sales in the evening because the lower the price, the higher the quantity sold.

Other evening traders who spoke to Abuja Review attributed the cheapness of their products as a result of non-payment of shop rents.

The Eid el Kabir celebration was more of a family affair. The city centre which is usually busy on week days looked almost like a ghost town. The expressways leading to the city centre were free of vehicular movement except for one or two. Most residents had either travelled to celebrate with family members or preferred to stay in-doors with their immediate families to receive visiting friends and well-wishers.

The day, as expected, began with the Eid prayers and after that, some families, as it is common in some parts of the north, gave food to neighbours and friends. Most Hausa children in their colourful traditional attires and flamboyant make-up around Kubwa, were seen with huge plates and trays on their heads distributing rice, meat and drinks to neighbours and friends.

Even in Kuje, before, during and after the Eid prayer, the traffic situation was serious. Even commuters found it difficult to move around. It took the efforts of security operatives to control traffic and adequate security measures were put in place to avert crisis.

Also in Lubge, the situation was the same; no crises were recorded as Christians also took time to visit their Muslim friends as a sign of love for the season. Security operatives did not also take any situation for granted as they were ready to forestall trouble while the people celebrated.

A policeman, Laide Ojo who spoke with Abuja Review attributed the peaceful atmosphere to the way people, especially the celebrators who comported themselves quite well. He added that the police are not resting on their oars in ensuring that the FCT residents enjoy the celebration, even as they assured that the present administration is working round the clock to prevent crisis even after the Eid celebration.

Although the Wonderland Park that used to be one of the greatest places for attraction in Abuja had been shut down due to security reasons and it’s currently overrun by weeds, some families took time to hang-out in other recreation centres in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Silverbird Galleria was packed with families taking their children through the mall to play games, buy snacks or watch movies. Other families spent time at the numerous amusement parks around the Central Area, Garki, Maitama or Wuse where their children played.

At the Millennium Park, most families who were out for picnic, relaxed on mats while some children played with the different fun equipment available. The National Children’s Park and Zoo was another interesting place for families. The park, which is divided into two; half of the area used for park and recreation and the other for the zoo, has sections like the beak street, goat hill, duck waddle and lake road, among others.

Families crowded both sections, playing with the tortoise, giving bananas to the monkeys, taking pictures close to the giraffe and 15-year-old camel. Although the zoo does not have any cat family or snakes, children still had fun watching the crocodiles lazy about.

Olawunmi, a father of two who took his children to see the monkeys said that he had brought his daughters to let them know what animals look like in real life apart from just watching them in movies. He added that he had taken them to the numerous amusement parks but thought it necessary for them to know what animals in the zoo look like.

The section of the park had many families sitting on mats and sharing snacks while children enjoyed horse rides or the different swigs available at the park. Some teenagers went as far as pulling off their new cloths in order to play football match against the expatriates that filled the park while another group of teenagers who had invited a DJ and brought some sound systems entertained people with different dance steps.

Mairo, a teenager among those admiring the group dance performance, explained that she loved such festivity because it gives her family the opportunity to spend time with their father who is always busy.

When Abuja Review asked her why she prefers watching from the sideline instead of joining the dance, she laughed shyly and said that she was a good dancer but can only dance at home and not in the public.

Hajia Lami told Abuja Review that it was the best way for a family to spend time together. Her family, she explained, tries to hang out as much as possible which is good for the kids.

The Graceville Christian Centre has organised a N4 million free medical outreach codenamed “Operation Freedom Medical Outreach” for Gishiri community in Katampe District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The free health programme, according to the Senior Pastor of the Church, Pastor Tunde Ayeni, was part of the social responsibilities of the church, even as he said it is also in line with the dictates of the church “to be our brothers’ keeper and to do good to all men, thereby showing them the love of God.”

He said: “As a church, our mission is to unveil the goodness of God. We therefore want to use every available opportunity to show people around our community and beyond, the goodness that God is doing and what he does in the lives of people who yield their lives to Him.”

He said Operation Freedom Medical Outreach is one of the church’s many ways of touching and impacting on the lives of members of the outer community.

During the outreach, medical services were provided, foods were distributed and orphanages were also visited where essential items were donated to the children.

Also, the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached to members of the community at the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School, the outreach venue.

The team offered basic laboratory diagnosis, health talks, medical counseling, provision of drugs for minor ailments; referrals were made for conditions beyond the immediate scope of the outreach and other items were provided for members of the community, among others.