The Nation Newspaper

Category: Northern Report

  • FCT gets election petitions tribunal

    The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Election Petition Tribunal has been inaugurated.

    At the inauguration, the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, urged members of the tribunal to do justice without fear or favour.

    He said the country cannot make any appreciable progress without total commitment to the ground rules and adherence to due process.

    Justice Bello said, “You should be careful and thorough in the review of petitions, responses, pleadings, evidence and argument of counsel that will appear before you.

    “The nature of the task ahead entails that you may get accolades. But unfortunately, condemnation will also come your way. If you work in good conscience and according to the law, not selling justice to the highest bidder or mortgaging it for tribalism, nepotism or any other unwholesome sentiment, society, history and posterity will acquit you by placing. You are on the positive side of the scale,” he said.

     

  • Jos gets livestock lab

    Jos gets livestock lab

    The Federal Government has established a laboratory for diagnosis, control and management of animal diseases in Vom, Plateau State.

    The bio-safety level-3 laboratory is at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Vom, in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.

    The facility, commissioned last week, followed a bilateral collaboration between the government and Canada.

    The event attracted the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria Mr. John Calderwood, among others.

    Ogbeh said: “The biosafety level 3 laboratory is a laboratory where animal diseases like avian influence (bird flu) and other animal diseases can be diagnosed and treated. Investigations into outbreak of animal diseases in the country have always been done in Italy as there is no facility in Nigeria and Africa where such specimen can be diagnosed and confirmed. The biosafety level 3 laboratory is the first of its kind in Africa, which means the new lab will not only serve the need of the country but entire Africa.

    He added, “This is one project that the federal government can rely on to turn around the fortune of farmers in this country as the country begins the process of returning the country’s economic base to depend on agricultural sector. This is because, the present administration is more than committed to agriculture because we strongly belief the future of this country lies in agriculture.

    “The population of the country is increasing on annual bases, it has been estimated that by 2050, Nigerian population will hit 450 million. Global records show that Nigeria has the third largest population in the world after China and India, Nigeria has overtaken US in population growth.

    “If we are about 150 million today, for instance, and we cannot feed our population, what is the probability that we can feed our population by the time we become 450 million in the year 2050.

    “The present administration is already thinking and planning ahead to enable the country become food sufficient in the nearest future.

    “The country is currently spending over N20 billion dollars annually in food importation alone and no country worth its name will allow such dangerous trend to continued, that is why the present administration is focusing on agriculture in such a way that Nigerians will produce enough to feed her population and export her surplus.

    “This biosafety level 3 laboratory is a facility that provides space for the safe and secured handling of biological agents that belongs to risk group 3 pathogens which cause serious human disease and economic losses to animals and birds.

    “The need for this laboratory arose from the outbreaks of highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza which occurred in Nigeria in 2006 and resulted to death of hundreds of thousands of birds and the lose of one human life.

    “The initial diagnosis of the 2006 outbreaks was carried out by NVRI while the confirmation of the disease agent and biological characterization of the virus had to be taking to be conducted in Italy.

    “This delay in confirmation of the disease resulted in the spread of the infection from the primary outbreak area of Kaduna state to twenty-one other states of the federation” the minister said.

    Ogbe also said: “In view of the fact that the federal government will not be able to provided all the funds needed for the maintenance of this lab, a section of the lab will be made to produce vaccines in commercial quantity.

    “By so doing, the lab will not be just for research; it will be made to produce animal vaccines and the income can be used to keep the lab working and self sustained, he said.

    Chief Ogbe commended the Canadian Government for partnering with the federal government on the project.

    In his remarks, the High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, His Excellency, Perry John Calderwood said, “The involvement of the Canadian Government in the project is part of the long-standing multi-lateral agreement existing between Nigeria and Canada.

    Mr. Calderwood said the laboratory was built to global standards.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu promised to provide the federal government with necessary legislation required to revamp the agric sector.

  • NUGLE extends planned strike date

    NUGLE extends planned strike date

    The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NUGLE) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has extended the date fixed for its takeoff. No new date has been fixed.

    The union had said its members would down tools starting from yesterday following the non-payment of their four months salaries.

    Briefing journalists at the end of its executives meeting held at NULGE secretariat in Gwagwalada area council, the President, Comrade Yakubu Abubakar, said the extension followed the pending issues before the National Assembly, one of which the national budget.

    Abubakar said the council workers were not part of the FCT budget in 2016, but assured that the union was in touch with the National Assembly to resolve the matter.

    He said the Senate was on recess, but as soon as the lawmakers resumed on February 23, the issue would be tabled before them for debate.

    Abubakar further said, “We believe that before the end of the month the problem would be sorted out, or we will be going on an indefinite strike.

    He however said that all the six area council staff will get their one month.

  • Plateau to fund budget with IGR

    Plateau State’s 2016 budget now before the House of Assembly will be financed with internally generated revenue (IGR), Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Tamwakat Weli sa said.

    She said: “The dependence on oil revenue and monthly statutory allocations to states in the past is no longer enough to sustain states’ expenditures, and each state will have to look for alternative revenues to fund local budgets.

    The commissioner made the remark while leading a tax sensitisation road-walk round Jos, the state capital.

    The tax sensitisation road-walk which was organised by the Plateau State Board of Internal Revenue took all revenue staff and management to major commercial streets of Jos to create awareness on the importance of paying tax.

    “The awareness campaign became necessary following the downfall in oil prices and federal allocation to the state…The walk is also in commemoration of the takeoff of presumption tax system in the state. I, therefore, call on both the artisans and traders to consider paying their tax as an obligation to constituted authority in other that government can deliver on its mandate.

    The acting chairman of the Revenue Board, Mr. Ar’lat Dashe added, “The campaign is to enable both the formal and informal sectors in the state to pay their tax in meeting up with the 2016 budget estimates of the state.”

    He pointed that the revenue agency is targeting over 700,000 individual taxpayers in the state as they partner with relevant stakeholder and the 17 local government areas of the state to ensure that the revenue target is realised.

    The state has a target tax figure of N2 billion each month.

     

  • Niger cracks down on illegal immigrants

    The Niger State command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), will soon kick off a campaign to flush out illegal immigrants in the state.

    The state Comptroller of the NIS David Adi said the influx of illegal immigrants poses a security risk to the state, but added that the exercise is not political.

    Speaking to The Nation in Minna, the state capital, Adi said, “We need to mop up and remove illegal immigrants from time to time in order for them not to become security threats to the state. There are many of them who do not have travel documents in Niger State as of today. Those without business have no business to be here.”

    The Comptroller did not say when the exercise would begin but that could be a tactic in order to catch the illegal immigrants off guard. He then said that all Divisional Immigration offices will be supervised and monitored to ensure that every officer does his duty effectively adding that any officer found wanting will be penalised.

     

  • Car park puzzle

    Finding free car parking spaces during working hours in the Presidential Villa is gradually becoming an impossible task.

    A number of factors have been attributed to the ugly trend by some of the State House staff who have worked with many presidents and heads of state  at the seat of government.

    For comfort of the staff and visitors to the Presidential Villa, various car parks were created by the previous administrations at several points in the State House.

    The old Banquet Hall adjacent the pilot gate has the largest car park in the State House.

    This is because the venue, which normally hosts many state functions, apart from providing car park for staff, also made provision for Very Important Personalities (VIPs) and invited guests’ vehicles attending function in the hall.

    Under past administrations, the old Banquet Hall car park get filled up before the commencement time of any major function at the venue, which always lead to spill over of vehicles on the roads by the pilot gate.

    Another parking space, which is outside and close to the pilot gate, is the one situated opposite the Officers Mess. It also provides parking spaces for staff and visitors alike.

    A new car park was created opposite the old Banquet Hall outside the pilot gate at the tail end of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    The car park was eventually developed following a ‘From the Villa’ write up of 18th February, 2014 titled ‘Haphazard parking at the Villa’, which drew attention of the government to how the land was lying wasted while escort and other VIPs vehicles always littered the roads leading to the pilot gate.

    The car park too was put to maximum use during state functions at the old Banquet Hall under Jonathan.

    While one can hardly find a free space during working hours at the car park opposite the Officers Mess under the current dispensation, the large old Banquet Hall car park is mostly barely half filled just at the new car park opposite the old Banquet Hall is always empty.

    But the problem with the free car park spaces in these two car parks, which are close to the pilot gate, is that they are quite a distance from the President’s, Vice President’s and other supporting staff’ offices within the Presidential Villa.

    Because of the distance from the pilot gate and staff offices within the Villa, there have been pressure on car parks by the President’s and Vice President’s offices.

    To ensure that pressure is not much on the limited car parks’ spaces within the pilot gates and for security reasons, routine State House shuttle buses are supposed to convey staff and visitors from the pilot gate to areas within the Presidential Villa.

    The shuttle buses however appeared not to be performing the function effectively even from the time of Jonathan’s administration.

    Another way the management have tried to control movement of unauthorized vehicles beyond the pilot gate was by distinguishing between senior staff and junior staff on the identity cards.

    Security personnel at the pilot gate are supposed to check the code on any staff’s identity card and then allow only senior staff to drive in with their vehicles.

    While it is not clear whether this has been very effective over the years, the pressure on car parks by the President’s and Vice President’s offices however have been increasing by the day.

    As soon as some staff scale the security checks at the pilot gate, they are immediately faced with a kind of puzzle and dilemma on how to find free car parking spaces inside.

    Various extension of the car parks within the pilot gates by past administrations have not been able to solve the problem as staff and VIPs have resorted to parking on the road and lawn when the car parks are filled up.

    Some staff have named the various car parks within the pilot gate as Maitama, Asokoro, AYA, Nyanya, Mararaba, deriving their names from their closeness to the President’s and Vice President’s offices.

    The one called ‘Maitama’ is the closest to the two leaders’ offices and it is supposed to provide car park spaces for staff on level 14 and above.

    But because of its small space, it always get filled up within the first one hour of a working day.

    The same goes for ‘Asokoro’, ‘AYA’, ‘Nyanya’, ‘Mararaba’, which are meant for senior staff below level 14.

    Increasing control at the pilot gate, more routine shuttle buses and expansion will go a long way to address scarce parking space within the Presidential Villa.

     

    Taming budget padding

     

    From many instances, accusing fingers have been pointed at civil servants as the most corrupt set of Nigerians.

    They are believed to be stealing from the national treasury more than politicians as they are feared to own more than half of land and properties in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) alone.

    While many ‘clean’ civil servants may disagree with this belief, recent padding of the 2016 Budget, which is delaying its passage, has been put on the doorstep of civil servants.

    Even though they were alleged to have carried out the fraudulent practices successfully under past administrations, the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which blocked other loopholes in the system, is believed to have made the civil servants to take budget padding to a higher level in the 2016 Budget.

    But the bubble has burst and the President last week vowed not to let any of the culprit go unpunished.

    Giving his Minister of Budget and National Planning and his team kudos on the preparation of the 2016 budget, he wondered how another distorted version was circulated to lawmakers.

    Nigerians are really waiting for action on this as many civil servants who diverted pension funds among other frauds in the past administrations are still walking free in the society.

     

  • Oyegun hails Buhari’s cabinet

    Oyegun hails Buhari’s cabinet

    President Muhammadu Buhari has been praised for the quality of his cabinet.

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun disclosed this while receiving the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello who paid him a courtesy visit at the national secretariat of the party.

    Oyegun reiterated that the calibre of people like the FCT Minister would surely take the Federal Capital Territory to enviable heights considering his pedigree.

    He lamented that the economy of the country was plunged into a sorry state by the previous governments, in addition to the down turn of oil price, which has remained the nation’s major source of revenue thereby making things very difficult.

    In a statement issued by the Deputy Director/Chief Press Secretary, Muhammad Sule,  Oyegun emphasised that if previous governments had diversified the country’s economy all these years, the situation would have been better today.

    The National Chairman commended the FCT Minister for the visit, saying it was quite energising to the party to rub minds with all stakeholders.

    Oyegun assured that the APC would work very closely with the FCT Minister and the entire FCT Administration to take Abuja to the next level.

    On the forthcoming FCT Area Council election, the National Chairman promised to support the FCT Chapter of the party to deliver the councils to the party.

    He, however, called for teamwork on the part of all Party faithful to ensure that APC comes out victorious in the elections.

    Speaking earlier, the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello promised to work closely with the party in his efforts to deliver the desired Change Agenda of the Federal Government.

    While reminding the Chairman of the forthcoming Area Councils’ elections slated for March 19, 2016, Malam Bello called for the support of the Headquarters of the Party to FCT Chapter to ensure victory at the polls.

    He said, “We are also here to pay homage as loyal party men and to tap from the wisdom of its leadership which transcends several decades”.

     

  • Kogi prepares for census

    In preparation for the 2017 population census, the National Population Commission (NPC) has begun the second phase of the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) exercise in Ogori-Magongo Local Government Area of Kogi State.

    Addressing reporters on the exercise in the capital, Lokoja, the NPC Federal Commissioner in-charge of the state, Alhaji Mohammed Akubo Aikoye explained that the EAD forms the foundation on which the entire 2017 census will stand.

    He said that the exercise will run till March 14, and solicited the support of the media, traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders to help drive it.

    He assured that the exercise will be professionally handled to avoid lapping EADs, oversized or under-sized enumeration areas and nonexistent enumeration areas in the 2017 census exercise.

    The commissioner said that the ongoing EAD will be the last that the NPC will embark on a full scale, noting that further censuses would only require updating of the EADs.

    He made it clear that the EAD was not an exercise to determine the population of any community but efforts to divide the country into smaller geographical areas to facilitate enumeration.

    The commissioner said that the NPC will also use the opportunity of the enumeration exercise to carry out registration of birth and death in Ogori-Magongo council.

    According to him, the efforts which will be done in partnership with the UNICEF is to boost birth registration in Nigeria.

    He added: “Exploring all opportunities to boost registration of births and deaths is paramount. Registration officials will visit all households and mop up the registration of all unregistered births. This will also create more awareness on the importance of vital registration exercise.”

     

  • NAFDAC bans beans import

    NAFDAC bans beans import

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has prohibited beans import into the country except those screened by the agency.

    The acting Director General of the agency, Mrs. Yetunde Oni said this in Minna, the Niger State capital, while declaring open a workshop on safe and responsible use of regulated agricultural inputs.

    She said the banned beans are those rejected in the European Union (EU) and also do not have NAFDAC certification.

    “All the beans that passed through NAFDAC and issued EU certification of food and health impact on Nigerians do not get rejected. The ones that have been banned are those ones that never passed through NAFDAC,” she said.

    Oni explained that though beans are not under the purview of NAFDAC, the agency intends to work with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that beans eaten by Nigerians are safe.

    “Beans is an agricultural produce, as opposed to a semi or fully processed regulated product under the purview of NAFDAC and such products are food, drugs, medical devices, chemicals, packaged water and detergents. These are the ones that are under our purview.

    “But because we have seen that the beans are a raw material into a final product that is regulated by NAFDAC, we are now talking of collaboration with one another so that all relevant stakeholders will join hands towards a common goal of ensuring that only good quality regulated products are available for consumption, for sales, distribution, advertisement, information and importation into the country.”

    She further stated that the Agency did some analysis on these produce to check the pesticide residents adding that the agency noticed that there were high pesticide resident in most agricultural produce.

    The Acting DG further expressed  concern over the methods and products involved in modern agriculture calling for the use of safe, quality and efficacious farm inputs adding that the use of substandard and unapproved feedstuff and feed ingredients in preparing animal feeds is unacceptable as there will now be strict control mechanism of these inputs by the agency.

    “The Agency has taken steps to ensure that inputs used in livestock production such as animal feeds, feed concentrates, feed additives and premixes are safe and efficacious for their intended use. The quality must meet standard specifications and presentations in terms of labelling must be adequate so that the products are handled safely”, Oni stated.

    She called every defaulting industry and individual to order calling them to establish collaboration with professional associations in order to create awareness before enforcement, “it is expected that compliance by industry will lead to quality products, growth of the industry, our economy and enhanced food security.

    “NAFDAC as a regulatory body believes strongly in corrective regulation, that does not reflect weakness, therefore sanction will always follow all uncooperative and reluctant stakeholders’ actions at the appropriate time”, she asserted.

    In his address, the Director of Veterinary medicine and Allied Products (VMAP), Dr. Bukar Ali Usman said the unethical use of pesticides in crop production and handling along the value chain have been identifies as one of the major reasons for the high residue of diclophos in farm produce in the country.

    He added that the production of safe feed and food requires the effective and continuous monitoring of all steps along the production chain stressing on the need to take good cognizance of the system used in the production of the materials.

     

  • IDPs turn waste to wealth

    IDPs turn waste to wealth

    The sting of Boko Haram is wearing off at a camp sheltering people displaced by the insurgents in Yola, the Adamawa State capital. Women are finding happiness and fortune by making household items from disused materials. FRANK IKPEFAN reports

    The insurgents will probably be shocked and disappointed that women who were lucky to escape their assaults are leading happy lives, making money and sending their children to school. Some internally displaced women trained to make bags, mats and wallets, among other things, from discarded items have been training other women. The women sell their products and use the proceeds to look after their families, including paying their children’s school fees.

    Madam Esther Emmanuel, one of the women, learned the skill, in 2012, at a waste-to-wealth programme of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) owned by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. The United Nations funded the programme.

    Since 2012, Emmanuel has been working at the Women Development Centre, located in Yola South. The programme, which had 25 women at inception, now boasts 300 women displaced by the insurgency in the Northeast.

    She teaches a group of other women how to make money from waste. When not training them, she is making such items as bags from which she makes up to N10, 000 a month. The money, she told our reporter, takes care of the needs of her family.

    “Since I came here,” she said, “everything has changed. I make money from this work to take care of my family.”

    She said the waste-to-wealth programme of the AUN has become a source of wealth for other IDPs in the state capital. “As the leader of the women, I teach them how to make wallets from nylon. We also make mats and different forms of bags from what other people throw away. Some of us now take care of our families and our children’s school fees through this venture,” she said.

    She said she loves what she is doing and that she likes being with people and training them. She is happy when she sees them happy and improving their lives.

    “I love coming here every time,” she said. “These women are part of my joy. I am glad I have been able to improve their lives.”

    She also works for the local government at the Women’s Development Centre where they teach women other basic skills such as sewing, baking, reading and writing. Her monthly salary is N52,000.

    For Madam Cecilia Yohana, another beneficiary of the programme, said things have changed for the better.

    Cecilia, who could not read or write before the programme, is now one of the leaders of the groups. The programme has bolstered her confidence to the extent that she now serves as an instructor and can train over 100 people with precision.

    She said she makes phone pouches for Madam President (Vice-Chancellor of the institution) when she travels. Empowered with the skills gained from the centre, her enterprise fetches her a minimum of N40, 000 a month, she told the reporter.

    ”I  have been able to learn new things while also improving my reading and writing. I now attend computer classes to learn how to use the computer and I have been able to buy school books for my children. The programme has helped me to become an income earner for my household,” she said.

    Coordinator of the programme, Jennifer Che said AUN initiated the programme to train women because of the amount of waste generated  in Yola.

    “The first thing that impacts us as foreigners when we come to Yola is the waste. They are thrown everywhere. We are not used to that. In Europe you don’t see rubbish on the street, not in this amount. So it is quite shocking”, she said.

    Che said further: “We train several women from various NGOs on how to process these nylon bags into objects of art, handbags and purses. You will see various examples. We have a core group of a 100 to 200 ladies that we have trained here from Yola. One hundred of them come regularly and we train every Wednesday at AUN. By now we have both the masters’ trainers that have reached the top level and they actually train the new member.”

    Che explained that the project has attracted a grant of about N8.8 million from of Exxon Mobil in two installments.