The Nation Newspaper

Category: Northern Report

  • ‘Pay for our demolished shops’

    ‘Pay for our demolished shops’

    As the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) demolishes 378 shops, owners plead for compensation, reports GBENGA OMOKHUNU

    Again the bulldozers have moved in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and again the people whose facilities were destroyed have cried out.

    This time the demolition took place at Dei-Dei Tundun Fulani Pantaker Market where 378 shops were pulled down.

    It is a development with which residents of the nation’s capital and even beyond are familiar. The affected shopowners did not seem to be ready for any confrontations beyond asking for some compensation so that they could move on with their lives and businesses.   Since the demolition they have been finding life difficult, not knowing where to turn for assistance.

    The chairman of Pantaker Market Association Dei Dei Tudun Fulani Abuja, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu and its Secretary Manir Bello in a joint statement issued on the development and made available to Abuja Review said shop owners were not given fair hearing before carrying out the demolition exercise.

    They are begging the Minister of FCT, Malam Mohammed Bello to compensate them to enable shop owners start business somewhere else.

    The statement reads in part: “We the above named association hereby call on the attention of the minister of Federal Capital Territory, Malam Mohammed Bello in view of the recent demolition exercise carried out by the officials of the FCT administration in Dei-Dei Tundun Fulani Pantaker Market in which almost 378 shops were being demolished without giving us any fair hearing in line with fundamental right protection, despite that we have being duly reallocated from defunct new market to our new site Tundun Fulani Dei-Dei by the then Minister of FCT, Malam Nasiru El-Rufai including all the statutory allocation letters that is renewable after every five years in line with the requirement of the Abuja metropolitan management agency.

    “So, please, Minister, we are appealing to your good offices as a matter of justice, equity and fairness. We are demanding full compensation from FCT administration so that we can start our business somewhere else because most of us have been  crippled economically which also affected our family.

    “We are calling on you Sir, to set up a committee to checkmate certain unpatriotic acts in your administration because we have discovered that some individuals want to scuttle down this change that Nigerians are desiring for which God has granted.”

     

  • 1,000 get medical care in Gombe

    1,000 get medical care in Gombe

    A member of the Gombe State House of Assembly representing Billiri East Constituency  Hon Rambi Ibrahim Ayala has lifted his constituency. He provided free medical care for 1,000 less privileged households in the area and also distributed 1,000 mosquito nets to them.

    Health programme which targeted less privilege 1,000 households brought together tens of Doctors from across the country. It created awareness on Hepatitis B and provided free testing due to the increasing Hepatitis B related death, screened and provided counselling for diabetes, did a lot of eye testing as well as various maternal and infant healthcare activities.

    There was also testing and counselling on HIV/AIDS.

    Dr. David Lass who led a team of medical doctors on the health mission said they diagnosed patients with different diseases and gave  them free drugs.

    Gombe state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Kennedy Ishaya who was on hand to flag off the activity commended the lawmaker and his collaborating non-governmental organisation, Hope Springs International for the outreach.

    Prior to the health mission, the lawmaker held a town hall meeting with the stakeholders of his constituency, where he interacted with the people with a view to knowing what they needed him to do more and do better for them

    Before this Ayala in collaboration with Hope Springs International had responded to trauma cases at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Yola where they sank a water borehole.

    He said he was now working towards sinking another borehole in one of the schools heavily patronised by internally displaced children on the outskirts of Jalingo in Taraba State.

    Earlier, the Mai Tangle, Buba Maisheru II bestowed on him the traditional title of Gamzaki Tangale as a mark of honour and recognition for his services to the Tangale people.

    He said, “I don’t want to do something just for political reasons, I want to do something that will be sustainable and stand the test of time. We’ve started a skill acquisition centre which we hope will be up and running in no distant time.

    “We will be using that centre to empower our teeming youths, our women. It s a project that is financed by a donor agency, Hope Spring International of which I am a board member

    “My concern is humanity in general, not individuals or just my constituency. But within my constituency, as much as we have the opportunity, we will continue to be helpful at any rate.

    “I don’t want to do something just for political reasons, I want to do something that will be sustainable and stand the test of time. We’ve started a skill acquisition centre which we hope will be up and running in no distant time.

    “We will be using that centre to empower our teeming youths and our women because they deserve a better deal. The Centre is a project that is financed by a donor agency, Hope Spring International, where I am a board member.”

    Some beneficiaries of the one-day medical mission expressed their appreciation of the gesture which they said was the first of its kind by a lawmaker in the area.

     

     

     

     

     

  • ‘Schools need skills in curriculum’

    In a bid to address the never-ending unemployment situation in the country, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) chairman of Ladela Schools, Abuja, Dr Joshua Usman has said the way out is to inculcate entrepreneurship skills into schools from basic level.

    Usman said this at the inter-house sports competition of the school, adding that the educational system in Nigeria has suffered so many setbacks as a result of change of government and policy somersaults.

    But he assured that unemployment can be taken care of with a bit of modification.

    He said sporting activities in schools should be encouraged and made to be a huge annual event as it keeps humans mentally alert, with the ability of creating the opportunity to sleep very well as well as creating friendship and bond.

    “The educational system in Nigeria generally, has suffered some challenges. The challenges I have noticed personally is policy somersault, you bring one minister today and he brings in a new policy, you bring in one government today and it brings another policy. We went through reform system in those days and it was said we were running the American system. I believe there should be a little bit modification in our educational system. We can introduce entrepreneurship and learning the arts. I believe government is looking into it now by improving the quality of teaching and the policies being brougt into place to promote better quality education.”

    “If entrepreneurial skills are inculcated in the educational system. The issue of unemployment would have been taken care of. ýIf they are taught this from secondary school and how to think outside the box, that will be very great.”

    “I remember how I used to represent my school from plateau state in other parts of the country. Then school sports was a yearly event and we go from one state capital to another. I remember when I was in Owerri for the first time as a result of school sports.”

    “We have a great potential but we are not tapping into it. Sport is very important as it keeps us mentally alert, it gives us the opportunity to sleep very well and too interact properly. It creates friendship and bonding between people.”

  • N40m solar power for Kuje Prisons

    The Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) has said that the Kuje Medium Prison is in need of several facilities.

    The Controller of Prison in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Daniel Odharo, who made the disclosure when the Rotary International Club Abuja Metro, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) visited to donate drugs, library shelves and football materials to the inmates, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to imitate the Club’s gesture to cushion the lives of the inmates occasioned by the challenges.

    Speaking while appreciating the efforts of the club, CP Odharo, admitted that the visit and the items brought will improve the lives of the prison inmates, describing it as a significant gesture that should motivate other Nigerians.

    He enumerated the challenges facing the prison, describing the visit as a good gesture to motivate other Nigerians.

    He said, “The visit will go a long way to show their love for the prison inmates. It is significant because their coming will bring to light the needs of the prison service for people to know that the inmates still face so many challenges. The visit will open more opportunities to receive more interventions from others outside.”

    Speaking earlier, the Club’s president, Robert Itawa, assured that the perennial power problem at the Kuje Prison will soon be a thing of the past as the club will bankroll a N40 million project to provide solar power to all the inmates cells.

    Itawa, who led his members to donate books, sports, drugs/medical items worth over N3 million to the inmates of the Kuje Prison, noted that the club decided to embark on the project to tackle the power challenge facing the prison inmates.

    According to him; “It is a fact that power is a major challenge in the country but we recognized that the situation in Kuje prison is a peculiar one. We brought a team of professionals to visit the prison and we have also carried out the cost analysis and right now, we have put in a together proposal to enable us raise the money at the range of N40 million to provide solar energy to all the inmates cells.

    “The solar energy project will equally cover the prison clinic which will help in the preservation of the drugs. Apart from the cells and clinic, we project will also provide energy to the Open University Centre for Learning inside the prison. We believe strongly that the inmates will have a better deal with the project,” he said.

    While quantifying the monetary value of the intervention, the club has provided to the Kuje Prison inmates, Mr Robert said: “What we brought to Kuje today was in the range of N3 million comprising items like drugs, medicals, books, library shelves, football materials and mowing machine for the pitch we re-grassed for the inmate footballers.

    “It is a rolling thing because our club has annually partnered with the prison to ensure that the inmates are given better life. As I said earlier, we are also going to bankroll the big project of providing solar power to the inmates,” he said.

     

  • ‘Most school security men are mere gatemen’

    It has been observed at a security workshop that inadequate checks in schools is to blame for the rising cases of abductions of pupils since the Chibok episode over two years ago. GBENGA OMOKHUNU reports

    Since the abduction of the Chibok girls on the night of April 14, 2014,  there have  been sessions of talkshops  offering ways on how schools could be better secured. But even as those sessions lasted, criminals’s appetite for abductions did not abate.

    Earlier this year some female students of the Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School, Ikorodu, Lagos were kidnapped in the school premises, making it a second occurrence this year after the abduction of some students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbo Nla in Epe, Lagos, where the school principal was also abducted. They all have been released.

    Security operatives and the National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Ambassador Dickson Akoh at a training workshop on schools safety and security spoke extensively on how schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja can maintain safety.

    It has been said, among other things, that those hired as  schools’l security men are mere gatemen.

    Akoh said security arrangements put in place in schools by government are not adequate.

    “When we do not commit much in terms of peace to secure our schools the outcome will be very devastating. For us the security arrangements put in place in schools are inadequate. We have conducted our findings to the United States of America (USA) and Brazil and from the moment parents or guardians bring their children to school and hand them over to the school authorities,” Akoh said.

    He also advised private school authorities to be conscious of where the child is, adding, “Most of the people they engage in schools to provide security are not security men but those meant to open gates and they are not trained.

    “I am delighted to be part of this all important workshop and more so, as a presenter. In similar fashion, I also consider it worthy to commend the efforts of the organizers of this workshop and for finding Peace Corps of Nigeria as a worthy stakeholder in School Security Management.

    “Studies have shown that students who do not feel safe at school stay at home and when they are not in school, they do not perform well academically. Schools designed to be a centre for learning should be safe, secured and peaceful but in a situation where the school premises appear unsafe for learning, students will always be reluctant to go to school. Generally speaking, no child will succeed academically if they don’t first feel safe in the school environment. In the same vein, a teacher will not teach at his best if there is no plan to ensure the school is prepared for emergencies.

    “In advanced countries of the World such as the United States of America, concerted efforts are made to formulate and implement policies that ensure provision of comprehensive security in schools on the basis of students brought to school and their new guardian becoming one of their teachers and, or also members security staff within the school system.”

    Having adequate security arrangement, Akoh said, is a great way to help reduce insecurity problems in Nigerian schools: “Recent national tragedies of abduction of students especially as being witnessed in the Northeastern Nigeria where well over 200 schoolgirls were abducted by insurgent group, have placed school security at the top of the priority list for many States.

    “It is instructive to further recommend that religious leaders should preach against violent acts in their respective communities. Reports have it that almost 50 per cent of students are prone to various degrees of violence either towards their fellow students or teachers. Therefore, it is imperative to encourage school administrators to accept and encourage the activities of specially trained and equipped Organizations such as Peace Corps of Nigeria to be part of their School system and bring their professionalism to bare in the area of discipline.

    “Insecurity in our country has seriously retarded learning and in most cases, stopped conventional education activities. In the North-eastern Nigeria, suicide bombings targeted at youths have directly put teachers, students and schools in the line of fire. Lack of proper security network has cast even a more serious pall on the situation, yet it is impossible to gauge the exact impact of insecurity on education because no one including the Government has statistics of the number of schools or educational settings operating in the country under attack or ever been attacked.

    “Without effective security networks or credible media that can track and speak definitively about the security environment, parents and students are forced to assess their risk based on rumors and incomplete information. Due to limited reporting, very limited number of attacks are reported and people fear the worst,” said Horia Mossadeq, of Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium which has investigated the state of Afghanistan’s educational system for several years. For example, the Afghani Independent Human Rights Commission investigated rumours in Mazar-e Sharif about the kidnapping of students in 2004 and 2005 and found only one incident in that city. Local investigators with the Afghani Independent Human Rights Commission believed that local individuals opposed to education magnified the incident in order to discourage school attendance. In another example, the mother of five girls attending school in Kandahar explained how she keeps her daughters at home due to incomplete security information. In her words, “…there is no official announcement but the community talks about a situation getting worse so we stop them from going…”

     

  • Jukun honour Danjuma, Ishaku, others

    Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku, elder-statesman Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd) and 10 other illustrious men of Jukunland will on December 10 be honoured at a ceremony organised by the Jukun Development Association (JDA), in Lagos, its National President Chief Benjamin Bako has said.

    Addressing newsmen in Lagos, Bako said the award is meant to encourage and motivate elected and appointed Jukun sons and daughters who find themselves in exalted positions to use such positions to improve their communities and people and address the unacceptable level underdevelopment and marginalisation in Jukunland.

    The association said it is honouring Gen. Danjuma for always being there for Jukun people and helping the less privileged, while Governor Ishaku is being honoured for restoring peace to Southern Taraba and developing the state despite scarce and limited resources.

    He called on the Federal Government to set aside political differences and compliment the efforts of the state governor in the area of security to reposition the state for growth and peace.

    The occasion, the Jukun President observed would also help draw attention to the deplorable neglect of Jukun people, adding that his people have never had it so bad in termsof federal appointments and projects despite the fact that their son, TY Danjuma contributed immensely to the emergence of the government in power.

    Bako lamented the continued ravaging of Jukunland by Fulani herdsmen which have led to the suspension of farming activities in Jukunland and admonished President Buhari that his continued silence in the face of this genocide and ethnic cleansing is unhelpful and dangerous for national unity.

  • ‘If you are over 40, check your BP’

    For a drastic reduction in deaths associated with High blood pressure, the Nigerian Hypertension Society (NHS) has recommended a comprehensive medical checkup once in a year for persons above the age of 40.

    NHS said it is set to embrace a new guideline for the treatment of the systemic hypertension.

    Already, the NHS has discovered a sharp difference between hypertension in the tropics and those in such continents as America and Britain as a multi-drug therapy or at best “an additional drug” could be needed for an African patient of the disease unlike his American or British colleague, it was gathered.

    President, NHS, Prof Ayodeji Arije told The Nation on the sidelines of this year’s annual conference of the society, adding that the current guidelines for the treatment of the disease was last reviewed some 12 years ago.

    The conference is entitled ‘Management of Systemic Hypertension: From Guidelines to Real World Practice.’

    Besides, Arije said in some cases, doctors have discovered that on the field, some cases of the disease often defy treatment by the guidelines hence the need to do a holistic review of the treatment methodology.

    The NHS has in its team, cardiologists, nephrologists, pathologists, neurologists paediatricians and other specialists in relevant medical fields. They are called “hypertension specialists”.

    He said: “it is true that many people are becoming aware of this dangerous disease. We are happy that some of the measures we supply are working well for the society with good results. But we have gotten to a level now where we don’t want to depend on the American or British guidelines. It is high time for us to have our own guidelines because I is being said now that while some hypertension drugs could work for the Britons or Americans they don’t work for Africans.

    “Between 28 and 30 per cent of Nigerians are hypertensive. These are the ones who surrendered themselves for medical examinations. Countless others don’t even know that there is a need to check their blood pressure status. Some are even using drugs but they are not controlling their Blood Pressure.”

    The President of the association while urging Nigerians to reduce their salt intake and shun sedentary ways of life, said the two conditions are the commonest cause of hypertension in the country.

    Also, he said some diseases especially Diabetes Milletus and hereditary factors could also be causation of the sickness.

    Though, Arije recommended regular exercise for Nigerians across board, he added that before engaging in any rigorous exercise doctors must first give a clean bill of health, to avoid cases of over working the cardiac system.

    In his remarks, the Kwara state’s Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Atolagbe Alege urged the doctors to use the conference to fine-tune modalities that would make rural populace to know the inherent dangers in leaving hypertension untreated, as they form he largest chunk of the nation’s population.

    In his speech, the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee Professor Ayo Omotosho a Consultant Cardiologist said the conference especially the theme was intended to showcase advance in blood pressure controls in the rapidly changing sub-Saharan Africa and at the world stage.

     

  • Jigawa: Nigeria’s food basket

    Jigawa: Nigeria’s food basket

    With its bumper harvest, the product of a clearly-defined agriculture policy, Jigawa State is well on its way to feeding the country, reports KOLADE ADEYEMI

    The state has not been known for the headlines, but that is starting to change. Jigawa’s profile is probably the envy of many states. Its governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar has been hosting dignitaries in the state, which is now fast growing into the nation’s food basket. Its rice growers enjoy very impressive support of the state and federal governments. They have been harvesting tonnes of rice, enough to attract the attention of the Minister of Agriculture Chief Audu Ogbeh. The Central Bank Governor Mr. Emmanuel Emefiele has also taken notice. Both have visited Jigawa and, with their host Governor Abubakar, toured its rice fields.

    Abubakar has been quite vocal about the rising profile of his state. He once said rice importation will soon be a thing of the past.

    He spoke with journalists, detailing his administration’s agriculture policy and Jigawa’s prospect of being Nigeria’s food basket.

    He said, “Since we assumed office, we had a clear understanding of the oil dwindling resources of this country bordering on the over-reliance on oil. Also, we took cognisance of the fact that oil is an exhaustible commodity. So, we decided to look inwards to see how best we can create jobs and create wealth for our people. And we want to have competitive advantage of doing it successfully because we have arable land, enough water resources as well as human resources to embark on serious agriculture. Added to this is our President’s call to the nation to go back to farm.

    “President Buhari means very well for the nation. For us to attain economic sustainability, we have to embark on serious sustainable agriculture. We started the cluster programme, where we give them all the support they need, ranging from seeds to fertiliser and what have you.

    “Also, we will closely monitor them through our extension service workers, who are attached to each cluster, so as to not only increase productivity but increase yield in order to reduce the cost of production.

    “Thank God, today we have done that and can say our farmers have achieved a significant result and improved their yield as well. I can ask them to borrow because I know they have the capability to re-pay. All those who participated in our Anchor programme would be handed over to the Central Bank and through the Anchors borrow and continue their farming process, while we take some other clusters and train some farmers and bring them out to the level of good yield and good productivity.

    “At the close of the day, we would hand them over to the Central Bank to continue to finance them. It is worthy for you to see and understand clearly that in Jigawa State we anticipate 100 per cent recovery of all the money we loaned to the farmers in clusters because the seed and fertiliser we give them, all at a subsidised price.

    “Today, I can say that most of the farmers are paying back 100 per cent and are praying for us to intervene because they have seen the advantage on the yield and profitability. I believe as you are touring the states, you will interview some of those farmers, who participated in the cluster and they will be able to confirm to you what I have said.

     

    On the CBN’s role in Jigawa rice farming

     

    “Indeed, they have done very well, for instance in Kebbi State, you can see the progress, as a result of Anchor-Borrower scheme. The farmers have produced so wonderfully well and I learnt also in Kebbi, there is some improvement in its yield. Kebbi has set the example on how the Anchor-Borrower scheme supports the farmers and has led the way for food security and sustainability.

     

    On the challenge of Hifa grass 

    “We have massively embarked on weeding Hifa grass out of our water ways. We have a two-prong approach, one is the sowing weeding machine, which consistently weeds the grass and secondly we create cooperatives along the river banks, as well as support farmers with all necessary implements to weed off Hifa grass from the water. Also, we have supplied them with canoes and food during the weekend, so that they will all come out and support each other as a community development project. It has been working satisfactorily.

    But recently, we have been discussing and analysing, at the end of which confirmed that Hifer grass can be used to produce some briskets for energy. With that I believe it will address some of the challenges, as we can find market for the briskets to generate energy. It would be good business, as people will cut Hifer on their own and sell to the company that converts it to briskets for energy.

    That is the best option we are taking for now. In addition to that, the World Bank is working on a project of silting the whole river banks in Kano. That project will substantially support us, as it is a good beginning. Also, we are making efforts to produce our own fertilizer, instead of buying blended fertilizer. We will do groundnut fertiliser for precision and will not widely publicise the effort.  The more we embark on precision farming, the less nutrients for the Hifer grass, thereby paving the way for a more effective control.

     

  • New gateway to the Villa

    After many years of installation, Sagem Morpho-Access security gateways are finally becoming operational in the Presidential Villa.

    The glass auto-gateways project, first installed at different locations in the Villa during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, was not completed. The gateways were programmed to open at the approach of anyone, but that is changing now as only duly authorised staff and visitors will be allowed to gain access to the President’s and Vice President’s offices’ wings and other key offices and facilities in the State House.

    With final touches and coding going on, the identification system is expected to be fully operational this week.

    The global identification system has fingerprint access control, time and attendance terminal.

    The glass gateway is expected to open only when a duly authorised staff’s fingerprint is scanned and identified by the machine. The gateway will not open if the machine could not identify the person’s biometrics on its database.

    Their rapidity and networking capabilities have been deployed to address security applications from one-door control to protection of buildings, vast infrastructures and government agencies across the globe.

    The system, which has been installed with accurate fingerprint sensor, is expected to be very fast and hitch-free.

    It is expected to be as fast as between 0.7 and 0.9 seconds in the identification mode, carrying out detection, coding and matching at the same time.

    When a duly accredited staff places his or her index finger on the fingerprint panel, the machine’s monitor instantly displays ‘Remove finger analyzing…’, it then shows ‘Welcome’ and the ‘staff’s name’ followed by ‘Identified’ before the glass gateway is momentarily flung open for the staff to pass through.

    When the index finger is not properly placed on the panel, the monitor displays ‘Move up’ asking the staff to properly place the index finger.

    With its multifactor authentication capacity, it can also encode badges and identity tags apart from capturing fingerprints.

    This means that beside the fingerprints scanning, access can also be granted by simply swiping an authorised staff’s identity tag closed to the machine.

    The new system have optronic sensor installed that detects false fingerprints and immediately bar unauthorized staff or visitors from gaining access to the Villa.

    With the capacity to have up to 50,000 users, at any given time, its integration into existing systems is supposed to be easy with in-built Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) and optional wireless LAN communication.

    As the machines are already installed at the pilot gate and many points before the President’s and Vice President’s office doors, a new order is certainly emerging at the seat of power.

    While the machines will now carry out independent and proper screening of staff and visitors to the Villa, the security personnel on duty will now have less to do and just concentrate more on monitoring usage of the machines by staff and visitors and act appropriately whenever any unauthorized person tries to beat the system.

    Apart from identifying anyone carrying a fake identity card, the machines will also restrict movement of some staff not authorized to go beyond a certain point.

    Movements of visitors without proper clearance from the authority will also be checked.

    There is however a way out for security personnel on duty to allow visitors with proper authorization to have access whenever the machine fails to grant such persons access.

    The security personnel at the point of entry can also press a button for the glass gateway to open for state governors and high profile visitors that don’t normally get visitor’s tag at the pilot gate.

    But the machine is going to pose a new challenge to governors’ aides that normally accompany their bosses inside the Villa without visitors’ tags.

    The new identification system will also bring to an end the era where the authority had to deploy security personnel or top management staff to wait at the gate in order to physically seize, for any reason, identity cards of staff it does not want to gain access to the seat of power.

    Just a push of a button, under the new system, deleting the staff’s biometrics from the database in the control room, will bar any staff or visitor from gaining entrance to the Villa. Above all, the authorities will always be full of prayers for thunder storm and other troublemakers not to disrupt the smooth operation of the machines.

     

    Sill on the Niger Delta

     

    A new type of challenge is fast rearing its head up against achieving peace and order in the Niger Delta. Various militant groups in the region have continued to bomb and destroy oil pipelines and infrastructures in the past months.

    The greatest challenge now is how to articulate the grievances of the region and for their leaders, elders and the militants to speak with one voice.

    This is very essential, especially as President Muhammadu Buhari has decided to tackle the crisis in the area.

    To this end, Buhari at the beginning of this month received Niger Delta Stakeholders, under the aegis of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PNDF) led by Amanyanabo of Twon Brass Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete Spiff and elder statesman, Edwin Clarke.

    During that meeting, Buhari had received a 16-point demand from the region. But some militants immediately dissociate themselves from the meeting and continued with bombing of oil and power installations.

    Another group, Niger Delta People’s Congress (NDPC) last Tuesday presented fresh demands to the Presidency.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had received the new group as President Buhari was away in Morocco attending the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as COP-22.

    The new group said they were representing the whole of the Niger Delta region and the interest of all the militants.

    Their visit to the Villa, they said, was to prioritize the concerns of the people of the region and place them in clearer perspectives than what the first group submitted to the President.

    Another group, Niger Delta Youth Association (NDYA) last Wednesday also faulted the 16-point demand earlier presented to President Buhari by the first delegation.

    Aware of the present predicament, President Buhari in a meeting with U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry, in Morocco last Wednesday admitted that it was difficult bringing the main protagonists of the militancy under one umbrella.

    There is no guarantee that as the President settles down to consider the demands already submitted to him, that another different group(s) will not rush to the Villa with fresh demands.

    Except the region speaks with one voice, there is no doubt that finding a lasting solution to the problems in the area will be difficult to attain.

  • NDE trains 600 youths in farming

    No fewer than 600 youths from 12 states are being trained on off-season farming by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). The training is part of measures towards ensuring food production all year round and to provide employment for unemployed youths.

    The Director of the Rural Employment Programme Department of NDE, Hajiya Hawa Kulu while flagging off the training programme in Minna, the Niger State capital, said the states involved include Niger, Abia, Benue, Kwara, Ondo, Zamfara, Delta, Cross River, Jigawa, Gombe, Ogun and Anambra.

    She said that the training duration will be for three months out of which one month will be used for theoretical tutoring while two months will be used for attachmenmt in designated well established farm centres.

    Kulu said the skills to be taught include marketing, gardening, poultry production, small ruminant production, aquaculture and processing.

    She said the economic recession is taking its toll on the nation, giving rise to high rate of unemployment.

    The Director added that the restriction on the importation of several food items is having effect in the increasing pricing of food shortages pointing out that the shortage and increase of food prices have become a strong catalyst to increase rural agricultural activities.

    The state Coordinator of the National Directorate of Employment, Engineer Abdullahi Mohammed said 50 youths were selected from 12 local government areas of the state.

    He added that after the three months training the youths will be empowered with start-up loans to enable them start up their own businesses.