The Nation Newspaper

Category: Northern Report

  • A cold 40th anniversary

    A cold 40th anniversary

    It is 40 years since the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) was created but how many knew or celebrated? Rather, residents, mainly in the suburbs, have a lot to gripe about, GBENGA OMOKHUNU reports

    Its paved roads and glitzy skyscrapers have not lost any of their charm. But a greater percentage of the FCT population, in the suburbs and the bushes hardly care even as the federal seat of power hits 40.

    Why? The lack in Abuja’s unflattering quarters diminishes the pleasures of its polished districts.

    Built mainly in the 1980s, the FCT officially became Nigeria’s capital on December 12 1991, when it was moved from Lagos by the then Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. In February, 1976, then Head of State, Gen. Murtala Muhammed, in a national broadcast, announced the establishment of the FCT and Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) charged with developing the new capital city.

    Abuja was originally the Southwestern part of the ancient Habe (Hausa) kingdom of Zazzau (Zaria). It was populated for centuries by several semi-independent tribes. The largest of the tribes was Gbagyi (Gwari), followed by the Koro and a few other smaller tribes. In early 1800s when Zaria fell to Fulani invaders, Muhammed Makau, fled south with some followers and his brothers- Abu Ja and Kwaka. Abu Ja succeeded Makau in 1825.

    A lot has happened since creation day. Sprawling districts have sprung up but so have poorly planned and little developed suburbs where residents hiss and sigh every day. The reason for this is simple: there are few facilities, and life generally grows tougher by the day.

    Abubakar Sani, a resident of Byazhin, a suburb of Kubwa in the FCT, who spoke with Abuja Review bemoaned the high cost of accommodation in the capital city.

    He said successive administrations had not made effort to regulate accommodation cost and provision of infrastructure in the suburbs where a large number of the population lived.

    His words: “Most of us, average residents, can only afford to reside in the satellite towns of Abuja and many of these towns lack standard infrastructure, like roads, electricity and water supply. It is as if those of us living in the suburbs are not in Abuja and that is unfair.”

    A resident of Lugbe, James Adams, also said residents in the suburbs had not been treated fairly; adding that the lack of infrastructure had made life difficult.

    “The difference between the city centre and the satellite towns in terms of infrastructure development is too glaring and this should not be so. I advise government to take quick steps to address this, after all, we are all Nigerians and are entitled to reside in the FCT,” he said.

    Mr. Lawal Adeleke, a resident of Kubwa, however, commended the FCT Water Board for supplying potable water.

    “I cannot talk of another location but here in Kubwa, the water supply is almost uninterrupted, although there are issues with electricity and cost of accommodation.

    “I urge government to take practical steps to address these issues so that average Nigerians can reside in the Federal Capital Territory with minimal stress,” he said

    Another person, Ojo Lawson complained about insecurity in parts of the FCT.

    “I assume that the city-centre is relatively secured but the satellite towns are vulnerable to insecurity. Armed robbery has become a regular occurrence in these places and as the FCT continues to grow, I urge government to take steps to improve on security,” he advised.

    The Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja (OIDA) also used the celebration to urge the Federal Government to stop the disenfranchisement and ongoing sufferings of the people by democratizing the system of governance in the FCT.

    The natives urged President Muhammad Buhari to send bill to National Assembly seeking amendment of FCT Act.

    In a statement by its President, Pastor Danladi Jeji, OIDA, said the February 3, 1976 pronouncement of Abuja as Nigeria’s capital by Gen Murtala Muhammed has multiplied the misery and woes of the original inhabitants of the FCT with natives lagging behind in education, political, economic and social opportunities.

    Jeji said: “As we recall the annexation of our lands forty years ago by the Nigerian government, we remain dismayed by General Murtala who erroneously referred to this area as ‘virgin land with sparse population’. How could a land be virgin and populated at the same time? This was the first contradiction. In fact, the imaginary ‘virgin land’ was later confirmed by ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo as homeland to over 400,000 indigenous Nigerian citizens who had settled, cultivated and adapted to this geo-climatic area since prehistoric times.

    “Thus, the demolition of our homes, farmlands and land-grab by the federal government, politicians in power and wealthy land speculators in different guises have become the order of the day since 1976 without due compensation or regard for our existence as humans.”

    Jeji further lamented that “unlike other citizens of Nigeria, we are stateless people with our children constantly mocked as stateless Nigerians, our lawyers presently do not have opportunities to become Chief Judges, our politicians do not have opportunities of becoming commissioners, state house of assembly members or governors, our civil servants are short-changed from rising to positions of permanent secretaries or Head of Service, the development of our communities are at the mercies of strangers who are appointed by leaders at the federal level who hardly know the yearnings of our people. Our constitutional rights to self-determination have been usurped by the Nigerian state thereby rendering us stateless.”

    Consequently, the people are asking President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure the governance of the FCT by introducing a bill in the National Assembly for urgent constitutional amendment to allow FCT to fully operate as a second-tier system of government.

    “We want subsequent presidents of Nigeria to relinquish their powers as Governor of FCT and the National Assembly to also relinquish its powers as the House of Assembly for the FCT, to the original inhabitants and residents of the FCT so that they can freely elect those to govern them directly rather than the indirect rule presently obtainable in the territory.”

     

  • Governors fine-tune regional restoration

    Governors fine-tune regional restoration

    As a presidential committee chaired by Lt-Gen TY Danjuma sets about the task of rebuilding the Northeast, the region’s governors are sourcing funds and other facilities for the same purpose. DUKU JOEL reports

    Things seem to be shaping up in the region after the havoc caused by Boko Haram insurgents. President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a committee to drive a rebuilding plan. The retired Lt-Gen TY Danjuma, chair of the committee, has said the project will cost over N2tr. Governors of the region are also playing a part, spending three days in Saudi Arabia in discussion with the influential Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for intervention in the restoration plan. They secured a pledge from their hosts.

    Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima led the Borno State delegation. Also on the trip were governors Tanko Almakura (Nasarawa), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna), Mohammed Abubakar (Jigawa) and Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano). With them too were representatives of the New Nigerian Development Company owned by the 19 Northern states, some Commissioners of Agriculture, Education, Post-Insurgency Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement and a host of others, including former Chief Economic Adviser to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Dr Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi.

    They met with the President, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali and Vice President, Operations of the IDB Group at the bank’s headquarters in Jedda.

    Shettima’s spokesman Malam Isa Gusau said, “The decision to seek critical development partnership with the IDB, was part of resolutions reached by the 19 governors, irrespective of religious and political divide, at one of their meetings held September, 2015, in Kaduna and was chaired by Governor Kashim Shettima, which deliberated on ways of tackling challenges of agriculture, poverty, education, maternal mortality ýand other problems most prevalent in the north than any part of Nigeria.”

    The delegation also held meetings with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, ITFC and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment & Export Credit (ICIEC), Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), all of which under the IDB, for the good of the North.

    The IDB pledged to develop a comprehensive plan for the reconstruction.

    “We will work together to come up with a comprehensive and constructive plan to support northern Nigeria,” the president of the Bank Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali said.

    He added, saying, “We will start with education, particularly bilingual education, and other areas such as job creation. Before you leave Jeddah, I would like to have a list of your priority areas, from education, power to agriculture and so on”.

    The Vice President (operations), of IDB Dr. Mansur Muhtar also assured the delegation that IDB will do its best to look into various areas of intervention, particularly in the development of infrastructure which is a key priority in the bank’s 10 year development strategy.

    He commended the delegation for visiting IDB, while hoping  that the visit will open up new vistas   of stronger partnership that will culminate to massive  mobilization of  resources for the development of the region.

    Governor Shettima expressed the resolve of the group to reverse the poverty trend in the region. He described the region as “a giant with feet of clay”, adding, “Poverty wears a northern face”.

    Speaking further, he said,  “The region is suffering from joblessness, low access to education and healthcare facilities, despite the abundant resources in the region.”

    With the Saudi trip, residents of the region can hope.

     

  • Buhari, judiciary and anti-graft war

    How supportive is the judiciary in the anti-corruption stance of President Muhammadu Buhari administration? Is it really slowing down the move to stamp out corruption in the country or just observing and following the required due process.

    These are some of the questions Nigerians want answers to. But only time will give them the answers.

    Over the years, the judicial system has been considered to be too slow in the dispensation of justice for cases brought before it.

    While delay in court cases are attributed to a thoroughness in examining every side of a matter and  avoiding mistakes in judgment, they have, however, been considered to be un-healthily slow.

    Some cases that should have been dispensed with within a year have been allowed to drag for up to 10.

    This has not only slowed down prosecution of criminals walking free on bail but resulted in overcrowded prisons across the country, filled with suspects and inmates.

    Most of the suspects in detention, in many cases, have ended up spending more years on trial than the number of years they would have got if they were promptly convicted on the cases.

    Just like the rising overcrowded prisons with inmates and suspects for other crimes, the ongoing cases of money laundry and theft in public offices brought forward by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have began to pile up in courts.

    The piling up of the financial crime cases in courts is a result of what Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, described as ‘only one bleeding point’, which is investigation of funds meant for purchase of arms and ammunition under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration via the office of the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki.

    With the seeming slowness of the processes in courts, Nigerians have started to wonder further if the judiciary will really stand up to the occasion and speedily and accurately dispense more financial and economic crime cases that will be brought before them when government’s investigation goes to other key areas of the economy like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Unlike in the past fight against corruption that appeared to be a lip service business only, not a few Nigerians under the new dispensation want to see looters of the treasury convicted and jailed for their crimes.

    The actions of the looters have not only impoverished many Nigerians, but have also sent a lot of Nigerians to their early graves due to dilapidated healthcare facilities in the country among other decaying infrastructures.

    Those pushing for their speedy conviction may not derive any special pleasure from such looters being jailed, but they want it to serve as a deterrence to others that may want to venture into such treasury looting.

    Fighting corruption to a standstill will make the commonwealth of Nigerians be more available for infrastructural and other developments and in turn benefit more Nigerians in the short and long run.

    Because of the importance of the anti-graft war, the issue was brought to the fore a fortnight ago when President Buhari held a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in Ethiopia.

    Buhari did not fail at the interactive session to call for strong support of the judiciary in order to win the war against corruption.

    Against some online reports, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu last week insisted that the President didn’t launch any onslaught against the court system in Nigeria during the session.

    He said: “The President did not embark on that. In fact, he said that he had a partner in the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mahmud Mohammed and he is counting on his support to ensure that the war against corruption is won.”

    But expressing worries with the present system, Shehu said: “If EFCC will do their duty, ICPC or the Office of the NSA, which is now involved in this investigation, if all of us will gather all the evidences in this world against one official or the other at a court, and the court decides that all the evidences have come to nothing, then there is a problem.”

    To tackle the congestion of cases in the conventional courts, which result from high rate of cases filed, it may not be out of place here to support the call for establishment of special courts to try economic and financial crimes.

    Creation of special courts for labour-related issues in the country have helped in speeding dispensation of justice for labour matters.

    So, special courts for economic and financial crimes will go a long way in killing the ‘cancerous’ corruption in the country and make more Nigerians benefit from the dividends of democracy.

     

    Adopting Kenya’s agric system 

     

    Despite having less than 8% of its land for crop and feed production, agriculture has remained the most important economic activity in Kenya.

    About 80% of the work forces are engaged in agriculture or food processing in the country

    With this, Kenya is not only meeting local demands for many agricultural produces, but it has also been exporting them abroad.

    Items like tea, coffee, horticultural exports, including green beans, onions, cabbages, snow peas, avocados, mangoes, and passion fruit are being exported  to earn foreign exchange for the country.

    While flowers being exported include roses, carnations, statice, astromeria, and lilies, Kenya also exports sisal, tobacco, and bixa annatto (a natural food coloring agent).

    Kenya is the world’s largest producer and exporter of pyrethrum, a flower that contains a substance used in pesticides.

    Other important crops being produced by Kenya include sugarcane, corn, wheat, rice, cotton, potatoes, beans, peas, sorghum, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, and oilseeds.

    Nigeria’s over dependence on oil as main source of government revenue since its discovery in Nigeria has made the country lose its past and enviable glory in agriculture.

    While agricultural produces like groundnut, cotton, palm oil among others were the mainstay of the Nigeria economy in the 1960s, the abundant arable land in the country were neglected for oil, which many now consider to be a curse rather than blessing for Nigeria.

    Declining revenue of oil from the international market has now forced Nigeria to begin to diversify its economy or be ready to perish.

    To get the new moves right in agriculture, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is not closing its eyes to nations with success stories in agriculture.

    He therefore did not fail to take advantage of his visit to Kenya end of last month to take a look at Kenya’s agricultural system.

    Speaking on the visit to Kenya, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said: “Agriculture has raised life in Kenya and you can see quality of lives at the bottom of the societal ladder. The quality of life in Kenya is higher than what it is in Nigeria.

    “Forget about all the years of oil well in Nigeria. Is this wealth evident among the lowest of our people? It is not there, there is still poverty, hunger and disease. But Kenya is rising and it is like everyone is being carried along. Kenya is exporting so much.

    “We also came back from Kenya with the idea of free trade between the two countries. They will not pay duty on goods they bring from Kenya while Nigerians can also take advantage of it to take their goods to Kenya without paying duties. We hope that will help in bringing their expertise in agriculture. They also can learn from the good practices we have concerning our oil,” he said.

     

  • NACA conducts HIV test in Benue

    NACA conducts HIV test in Benue

    As part of efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS prevalence in Benue State, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has tested suburban residents in the state for the virus in addition to counselling them.

    The NACA team tested and counseled over 4,000 people in Tarka Local Government Area of the state.    The service sites were located in two communities at Primary Health Center (PHC) Tarhembe and Aboho to enable the people have easy access to the medical hands.

    The services included HIV/AIDS counseling, testing and referral, diagnosis and treatment of Malaria, blood pressure checks, random blood glucose checks and general medical consultations as well as provision of drugs to ailing people.

    The Deputy Chairman of Tarka council Mr Tarka Shachia, who was at hand to receive dignitaries, was full of appreciation to NACA for the kind gesture.

    NACA representative, Mr. Lawrence Kwagha urged the people to spread the news of the fair and tell people to come out for the free care and treatment.

    One of the beneficiaries, Atem Aondafoa, said the programme has really been of immense benefit to the people. He added that many of the villagers have not been able to access healthcare centers mainly because of their economic situation and time.

    The decentralization of the programme, according to him was a thing of joy seen caregivers coming down to the villages to attend to the people.

    “This programme is relevant to us because we are in a village, many of our people are farmers and they don’t have the time to go to hospital for treatment but now Federal Government has bring this free treatment to us and we are grateful,” he said.

     

  • ‘Make sanitation a lifestyle’

    Kuje stakeholders have urged residents to make clean environment a way of life. On January 30, a sanitation exercise was flagged off in the territory, a development which blends with the position of the District Head of Paseli community in Kuje, Mr Usman Yusuf.

    The community chief had stressed that residents should regularly keep their environments neat and tidy.  Only by so doing, can residents ward off outbreak of diseases, he said.

    Yusuf assured that he would use his position to sensitise the community on the need for proper waste disposal and the dangers of dirty environment to people.

    “The growing heaps of waste and refuse in some communities in Kuje are due to improper waste disposal and negligence by some residents in the area.

    “Despite the efforts by the Area Council in evacuating waste and cleaning the environment, some people have failed to comply with sanitation rules and regulations.

    “I will use my good palace to sensitise the community on proper waste disposal and the dangers of living in a dirty environment.

    “The council is also trying its best in terms of creating awareness on proper waste disposal but some residents have refused to do the right thing,” he said.

    The Chairman of Kuje Traders Association, Alahaji Isa Yunusa also emphasised that sanitation exercise should be regular, even daily in every home for healthy living.

    Yunusa said that sanitation exercise would be observed every Monday morning in Kuje Market by all shop owners to ensure general cleanliness of the market.

    “For the ministers to come to Kuje Area Council and demonstrate how to keep our market clean, I assure you that we will continue with that gesture.

    “Every Monday morning will be a routine activity by all shop owners to keep their corridors clean and I will ensure that it is obeyed.

    “From six to ten o clock on Mondays, no trader will open shop until you have sweep, mop and clean the front of your shop,’’ he warned.

    He warned against open defecation and the inability to build toilets by some landlords in the area, stressing that good approach to sanitation exercise is a panacea to health hazard in every society.

    “Landlords who build houses without toilet facilities have been warned to build them and failure to do that will be charged to court.

    “I advise the residents to stop the dumping of refuse in gutters and join hands with the FCT Administration in the development of the Area Councils,” Yunusa said.

     

  • Land crisis: Owners seek minister’s intervention

    Land owners at Zaudan Pazeri and Filindabo layouts under the auspices of Zaudan Pazeri Property Owners Association in Dei-dei district of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to the Minister, Mallam Mohammed Bello to come to their aide and settle the issue between the land owners and FCT authority.

    Chairman of the Association, Elder Friday Ugoala, explained that with the complexity of the case in court, the association has the faith that the present administration will not spend energy and scarce resources to defend what they described as illegality melted on over 1000 land owners.

    Ugoala expressed hope that the current administration will call them to settle issues, by granting them the right to develop their plots that their plots remain as allotted, saying that they have the faith that he will do it.

    “The last administration knew what they did in the first place, that has been the case in Nigerian society, that when those in authority suppress the poor masses, the masses will take it as a way of life.

    “But the 1000 people affected in this case have refused to take it like that.  We have made it public that we are available for out of court settlement, which they have not shown any interest,” he said.

    According to Ugoala, the emergence of Mallam Mohammed Bello is a good omen to oppressed residents of the FCT like them,  because is it known that the FCT Minister is a man of the masses and his administration is a masses driven one.

    “So, seeing that the masses are fighting for a just course, we have no iota of doubt that this present administration will order a reversal to what was on ground, concerning Zaudan Pezerri and Phillindabo layouts.

    “We sincerely beg FCT Minister to order a reversal to what was on ground, Zaudan Pazeri and Filindabo layouts have received Ministerial approval and they are authentic layouts. All that they required for us to do we complied, we made all the necessary payments, the files, processing fees, and everything, they were computerised and regularised.

    “So, anything on the contrary, means injustice. We are begging the present administration to see to our plight, so that we can develop our plots and have places to call our own. Been tenants here and there are an embarrassment for us,” he said.

     

  • Two times unlucky

    Two times unlucky

    Their shops were first demolished under the pretext of building a modern market for them. Now their makeshift stands have been razed in a dawn fire. TONY AKOWE reports on the agony of Kaduna railway traders

    •The traders
    •The traders

    Mohammed Sani sells mobile phone accessories at the popular Railway Station Market located in the heart of the Kaduna metropolis. Shops at the permanent site of the market were demolished years ago by the railway authorities, who promised that they would build a modern market for there. For about a decade since the demolition, no form of development has taken place on the market site. The traders moved some meters away and set up makeshift stands. Now those temporary shops have been burnt up in a morning fire. Sani and his co-traders have lost their years of investments.

    Sani, who claimed he lost goods worth over N800,000, said he got a distress call at about 3am that the market was on fire. By the time he got to the market, there was nothing he could salvage from his shop as the place had been completely burnt down.

    For Ikenna and his wife, it looks like the end of the road, as they lost grains worth over N200,000. Ikenna said though the burnt shop belonged to his wife, who has been the breadwinner since he lost his job.

    On her part, Jummai Alkali said she lost about N3 million worth of grains. She said, “Everything was lost. I have nowhere else to [go to] fend for my children.”

    Another trader who said she borrowed money to start her trade said, “We were relocated from the former place to this place and see now, this place has been gutted by fire. Where do we go to now at this hard time that we are struggling to eat and pay bills?” Do you know that I borrowed the money with which I started this business? How do I pay back this money now?

    Vice-chairman of the market association, Mr. John Nwokoye who said he received a call at about 2am that the market was in flames disclosed that one trader died in his shop while over 500 shops with goods worth over N200m were lost to the fire. He said, “I didn’t see any fire service. They said the firefighters complained of lack of water and went back. Goods worth about N200m were lost to the fire. The number of shops burnt was over 500. One person was killed because he was inside his shop when the fire started.” Hajiya Sherifat Abdulsalami said she just returned from the market on Sunday where she stocked her three shops with goods worth over N1.3m. She appeal to the state government to come to the aid of the traders.

    While many are lamenting, The fate that has befallen them, Ifeanyi Ogochukwu, one of the victim is blaming the government and the management of the Nigeria Railways, especially the Railways Property Company for what has happened to them. Ogochukwu said the fire incident would have been averted if government had allowed them to put in place proper structures. Another victim who identified himself simply as Jonas wondered for several years, the management of Railways Property has not been able to build the modern market they promised when they were chased away from the original market site. “This place is supposed to be a temporary place for us. But we have been here for about ten years or more. We were not allowed to build solid structures and yet, they have not built the market. We don’t know what is happening. If they had done that, I am sure this damage would have been minimal”.

    While the victims are lamenting their loses, wondering how they will survive the ordeal, Governor Nasir El-Rufai who was among the first visitors to the market after the incident said the traders will be relocated from the current site.

  • Civil Society partners Kwara on health

    Civil Society partners Kwara on health

    Some civil society organi-sations or CSOs have indicated eagerness to partner the Kwara State government to ensure quality healthcare delivery to children and women.

    Global Vaccines Alliance (GAVI), an international organisation, recently inaugurated the CSOs platform.

    The organisations under the platform include Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Association of Civil Society in Malaria, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN) and Civil Society for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CiSHAN).

    Also, some of their members have embarked on advocacy visits to the state ministries of Health and Women Affairs. They were led by Hajia Nimata Labaika of FOMWAN and Olatubosun Femi of ACOMIN.

    They said the goals of the platform are: a functional civil society platform that engages in immunisation and health-system strengthening process; improves knowledge and skills of platform members to engage in discussion around HSS-strengthening for immunisation; improve public-private-partnership with governments and development partners on immunisation issues and increase community participation in immunisation activities through education and communication to create demand for vacancies

    The platform members during these visits raised some barriers/hurdles affecting efficient and effective immunisation exercise in the state.

    ACOMIN Secretary, Adewoye Olusesan said poor sensitisation and logistics are some of the problems bedeviling the yearly immunisation exercise in the state.

    Mr. Olusesan added, saying, “The platform observed from interactions with field workers that conveying  immunisation officers from one settlement to the other on a bus is not very effective in some settlements as compared to motorcycles. Many had to wait endlessly for vehicles after their work in one settlement. This can be avoided if officers use motorcycles in certain settlements in addition to buses.

    “Recruitment of political supporters for immunisation campaigns is having adverse effect on the exercise. Many of those who came in by political influence do the work with little or no commitment. Some see it as dividends of their support for a party. We therefore, appeal that selection of personnel should be based on ability and interest rather than political affiliations.”

    The state Health Commissioner, Sulyman Atolagbe said the Governor Abdulfatah administration is interested in the wellbeing of Kwarans, informing its huge investment in the health sector.

    Mallam Atolagbe said that the administration had renovated five General Hospitals in Ilorin, Omu-Aran, Kaiama, Share and Offa all across the three senatorial districts of the state.

    He revealed that the state government would soon introduce a project tagged “save million lives,” adding that the state “is also planning to establish dialysis centre in the state capital to assist patients with kidney aliments.”

    The commissioner noted, “There is an ongoing recruitment of doctors, nurses and other health personnel to help manage the facilities in the five renovated general hospitals.

  • Firm donates to 600 IDP children

    A logistics firm, Greater Washington Nigeria Limited has donated foodstuffs to about 600 school children displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency at the New Kuchingoro Internally Displaced (IDP) Camp, Abuja.

    Items presented to the coordinator of the IDP school, Mr. Sanwo Olatunji-David, include 20 cartons of noodles, six bags of rice and cartons of vegetable cooking oil.

    The GWL manager in Abuja, Mrs. Fidelia Dickson who presented the items on behalf of the Managing Director, Owolabi Awosan, said the donation of foodstuffs would be a continuous process.

    She explained that the donation was meant to show the company’s love to the children who were forced to relocate from their community by the Boko Haram insurgency and take abode in the Federal Capital Territory in order to survive.

    Dickson said, “On behalf of Greater Washington, we appreciate your efforts in taking care of the children and God who is using you to take care of the children will bless you. This donation is a continuous effort, we will partner with you to care for the children.

    “We are also calling on other public-spirited individuals to come to the assistance of the school children. We would discuss further with the management of the IDP school to see how we can assist in the area of school fee payment for other displaced school children in Orozo, Nyanya and other parts of the FCT.”

    Olatunji-David in his response explained that his organization, Life Builders Initiative, has been running two schools for about 600 children displaced by Boko Haram insurgency.

    He noted that there were some children whose school fees his organization was paying, adding that he would like assistance in this regard.

    “We have about 600 children in two schools that we are taking care of. There are others who were not in school yet, so we would like financial assistance for these children who are about 200. Some of them are in Orozo, Nyanya, Wassa and Waru. We appreciate GWL for this good gesture, thank you for remembering us,” Olatunji-David said.

     

  • Plateau celebrates peace at 40

    Plateau State has turned 40 and its people are in the mood to celebrate but it is more than the usual anniversary party. The people are happy that peace is returning to the state after inter-communal and sectarian crisis threatened to tear it apart. They are grateful to Governor Simon Lalong whose initiatives may have ushered in what now looks like a new order of tranquility.

    The state was created in 2001.

    Residents said they believe the prevailing atmosphere of peace is attributable to the peace initiative of Governor Lalong who took office last May.

    In a press conference held in Cabinet Office Jos to kick off the anniversary celebrations, a group known as Plateau Patriots for Peace and Change said, “It is a thing of joy that the state clocks 40 years in an atmosphere of peace and security.”

    Leader of the group, Pastor Huseini Gotan said, “Our is 40 years of good old memories and rough experience having gone through the good, the bad and the ugly occasioned by ethno-religious crisis and tribal sentiments.”

    He said, “The life of our dear state has been a very bumpy experience, but we have reason to celebrate today because we have conquered peace that has eluded us over the last decades.

    Gotan said, “We deeply appreciate the role played by the All Progressive Congress (APC) administration of Governor Simon Lalong whose peace initiative has been the solution the state has been lacking in all its search for peace over the years.

    “We have also witnessed bad leaders and good leaders in the last forty years, we  therefore feel that the best way to commence the celebration of 40 years of our dear state, we should commend the efforts of our governor, Governor Lalong who is now our hero of peace.

    He said, “Now that we have achieved peace, the glory of Plateau State has been restored fully, our state remains the home of peace and tourism that used to be the acronym before the crisis.

    “After 40 years, we are now on the threshold of hope, peace and greater expectations for good governance and responsible leadership.”

    One low side of the anniversary is the awful shape of the state schools, which the government has described as the worst in the region.

    “The standard of education in the state has not improved from what it was 25 years ago,” said the Deputy Governor, Professor Sunny Tyoden. “The state government, not satisfied with a report of the Transition Committee, I embarked on a tour to see things myself and I came face to face with the reality of things in our schools. To put it straight, our schools are in the state of total decay, the level of infrastructural decay is really disturbing, you would find out that in some of the institutions visited there is no any additional value added to the schools in terms of infrastructure and manpower since their establishment 25 years ago.

    There is hope. “Our government is on a rescue mission,” he said, “we are going to give the education sector top priority that was why on assumption of office government released funds to rescue its university which was in total mess. Our university could not graduate their students ten years after it commenced admission because their courses were not accredited due to poor lack of necessary facilities.