Category: Northern Reports

As part of efforts to ensure that Nigerians enjoy minimum health care services in terms of availability, affordability and accessibility, the Federal Government, in collaboration with the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), and other development partners is to revitalise and upgrade the services in about 10,000 primary health care (PHC) centres across the country.

It noted that the target is to ensure that there is one functional primary health care centre per political ward across the country.

At a briefing in Abuja on the upcoming Primary Health Care Summit on March 24 and 25 this year, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, explained that the Summit will seek to galvanise domestic funding for PHCs revitalisation and secure the commitment of governments at the national and sub-national levels, and other relevant stakeholders in the health sector.

He said: “I am delighted to welcome you all to this gathering and to launch this bold initiative to draw the attention of governments at national and sub-national levels and the attention of our development partners, donors, non-governmental organisations, civil society and my fellow Nigerians to the revitalisation of our primary health care system to meet the health needs of the ordinary citizen.

“We have about 30,000 structures to go as primary healthcare centres because it has been the favourite constituency programme of many lawmakers. But most of them are not functional. We are starting with 10,000 primary healthcare centres, one on every ward. We can expand later on beyond that.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib said: “This transformative programme is focused on primary health care, because it is the backbone of our entire health system. The problems a lack of primary health care causes are staggering – they dwarf the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s population. 128 of every 1,000 children under 5 in Nigeria die and 20 per cent of global maternal deaths happen in Nigeria. It’s heartbreaking, and we must treat it as the emergency it is.

The Chairman of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation and past CEO of Access Bank, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, added: “The PHC system in Nigeria is very weak which is supposed to be our first line of defence. Every nation must make sure that the first line of defence is very strong. We embrace the move by the Government to use the PHC summit to relaunch Nigeria’s first line of defence. Great things happen when the government partners with the private sector.

“We need to upgrade the PHC  centres. We must address the 30,000 PHCs and add new ones.”

On behalf of development partners, the Country Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Walter Mulombo said:  “Health must be accessible, equitable, safe, among others.”

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of Katsina Dr Mustapha Inuwa, has distanced himself from any form of untoward connection with bandits and insecurity in the state.

Inuwa made the clarification while responding to questions from reporters yesterday in Katsina after his declaration of interest to run for the governorship election.

He had presented a letter of notification of his ambition to the state’s leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Some of my relatives were kidnapped by the bandits.

“If I have a hand in the insecurity issue, my relatives wouldn’t have been kidnapped.

“I had to sacrifice my life over this issue of insecurity. I visited the bandits all in the name of finding a lasting solution to the problem.

“I boarded a motorcycle to meet their leaders. I told them that I will stay with them in their camp, ‘let their leader go and discuss with Governor Aminu Masari.’

“I told them that if their leader returned, they should allow me to go, and if he didn’t return, whatever was done to him they should do to me.

He explained that there was no reason for him to be part of a problem when he was among the people trying to find a lasting solution.

Farmers and marketers in different parts of the country have cried out over low patronage and a decline in their profit margins in the past few weeks.

They attributed the decline in patronage to the continued rise in the price of diesel which sells between N720 and N730 per litre.

In a chat with The Nation, a tomato and cabbage farmer in Jos, Joshua Dadi, said most of their perishable foods have been abandoned at farms due to the high cost of transportation.

Dadi said off-takers can no longer afford to pay them to off-take produce as the cost of transporting commodities to different parts of the country has doubled.

An onion farmer in Kano, Ahmed Idris, who called on the government to take urgent action to salvage the situation, said Nigerians may not be able to afford any product in the market in the coming days.

“The situation will be terrible if nothing is done because very few of us are farming now due to insecurity and banditry.

“If this unsavoury situation continues, I doubt if people will still be able to buy our products because the cost of transporting them from the farm has doubled compared to what we were complaining about previously.

A marketer of beans in Abuja, Ojo Ibidemi, expressed concern over the high cost of transportation of the commodity.

He said: “What we used to transport from here to Lagos for N100, 000 is now N200, 000. There is no way we can make a profit.

“I have decided to put a temporary end to every form of business, for now, to see how the coming weeks will be.

“If nothing is done about this, what we witnessed last year about the high cost of commodities will be a child’s play compared to this.

A transporter, Ifeanyi Obodo, who is also an off-taker and a marketer, said the increase in food prices is imminent as transporters are also not making profits transporting goods across the country.

He said: “Earlier today, I bought diesel for N780 per litre, which means, what we used to transport for N200, 000 will now be N500, 000.”

The Niger State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has announced the beginning of indefinite strike action by state and local government workers in the state.

The NLC stated that there was a breach in the ongoing negotiations between government and Labour by a local government council.

The state workers began a seven-day warning strike on March 8 and extended the strike at the end of the first seven days by additional 14 days as negotiations with the government had not been concluded.

In a statement by the chairman of the state NLC, Comrade Yakubu Garba, the union expressed displeasure over the plan by some local government chairmen to play a fast one on the union.

One of the local government councils paid its members of staff 70 per cent of February salary on Tuesday.

For the past one week, the NLC had been insisting that they would not accept anything less than 100 per cent salaries for members of staff at the local government level.

“It has come to the notice of Organised Labour that 70 per cent of February 2022 salary was paid to workers of Rafi Local Government Area yesterday (March 15, 2022). The percentage payment was neither consented to by civil servants in the Rafi council nor the representative of the unions.

“The act negates the progress made in the ongoing negotiation between the Organised Labour and representatives of Niger State Government headed by the Deputy Governor.

“Consequent on the above, the Organised Labour hereby notifies civil servants in the state and 25 local government areas that the ongoing 14-day warning strike is transmuted to indefinite strike action effective from today (yesterday).”

The NLC chairman declared that the strike will remain in force until salaries of workers in 25 local government areas are paid in 100 per cent gross component.

Stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State have disowned a former member, Chibado Tijjani who recently announced that he has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Chibado, who is a former two-term council chairman of the Madagali council where Governor Ahmadu Fintiri hails from, was an ally of Fintiri until before the 2019 general election that brought in Fintiri as the governor.

Chibado is said by the PDP to have worked against Fintiri in the 2019 election, and apparently still not finding accommodation in the PDP, Chibado a few weeks back made a big show of defecting from the PDP.

The party stakeholders in Madagali, however, would not take kindly to the usual semantics of politicians claiming to dump their party and have shouted loudly that Chibado ceased to be a PDP member long ago.

The Madagali PDP leaders who addressed reporters at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre through the chairman of the ward to which Chibado belongs, Mr Abdu Umaru Jabu, said Chibado had seized to be a member of PDP since 2014 and had not been participating in any activities of the party.

“We have never for one second regarded him as a member of the party because he contributed nothing to the growth and development of the party in Madagali.

“The person in question refused to support his brother, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri during the 2019 general elections, which we regard as an act of envy,” Abdu Jabu said.

The representative of the Madagali council in Fintiri’s state executive council, Mohammed Umar who is the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, affirmed that the PDP in Madagali had long found no reason to recognise Chibado as a PDP member.

“How could someone who did not participate in any way in the 2019 election on the side of PDP claim to be a member of PDP?” the commissioner asked.

Taraba State Governor Mr Darius Ishaku has donated relief materials to victims of attacks in the Tor-Damsa Community in Donga Local Government Area of the state.

The governor urged the residents and the victims to eschew violence and embrace peace in order to attract development.

Represented at the event yesterday by the Chairman of Donga Local Government Area Mr Nashuka Ipayen, Ishaku pledged to ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book.

The governor urged the victims not to take laws into their own hands as the security agents were already mobilised to track down the gunmen.

He said it was sad that 16 villages, including Afogba, Tse Juku, Utsev, Unom, Shundan, Iorjaa, Adem, Akinde, Tor-Genyi, Kyenge, Gyaase and Yongo, among others, were recently attacked.

Ishaku, however, advised residents to be on the alert and to report any suspicious movement to the security operatives.

“I feel very sad for this heinous act and I assure you that the culprits, when found, will face the full wrath of the law.

“I am appealing to you to remain calm as we are deploying more security operatives to boost the security of this community.

“We have equally mobilised our security agencies to swing into action with the view to tracking down perpetrators of this dastardly act.

“I, therefore, appeal to you not to take laws into your own hands as security operatives are committed to fishing out the culprits,” he said.

The Village Head of Tor-Damsa, Chief Uma Ugondo, thanked the governor for his show of concern to the victims of the attacks.

Ugondo also appealed to the state government to support the victims, who were mostly farmers with farm inputs, to enable them to cultivate crops in the coming season.

He noted that the attackers had destroyed all the agricultural seeds reserved for the next cropping season.

The President-General of the Tiv culture and Social Association in Taraba, Mr Joshua Ayagwa, commended Ishaku for his spontaneous response by deploying security at the heat of the attack.

Ayagwa also praised the governor for the provision of assorted relief materials to the victims.

Some of the items donated include mats, blankets, rice, spaghetti, palm oil, vegetable oil and salt, and tomatoes, among others.

One of the beneficiaries, Mr Nathan Nongo, who spoke to reporters said the materials would go a long way in cushioning the hardship occasioned by the attacks.

Human rights activist and former member representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Shehu Sani has urged the Kano State Hisbah Corps to wage more wars on armed bandits and terrorists to protect the image of Islam.

Hisbah is a Kano State religious police force responsible for the enforcement of Sharia Law on Muslims in the state.

Senator Sani, who spoke to the Hisbah Commander-General, Haruna Muhammad Sani-IBN Sina and other principal officers of Hisbah at their corporate office along Sharada Road, Kano, told the agency to worry more about the security challenges confronting the country, particularly the activities of armed bandits and terrorists who have been kidnaping and killing innocent citizens.

“As religious police, Hisbah officers have a duty to unite and see how they can combat banditry and terrorism in Nigeria.

The need for Hisbah to organise themselves and ideologically confront terrorists and bandits is very important.”

Sani hailed Hisbah for jobs well done, saying without the outfit, many things would have been impossible. He advised that Hisbah, in carrying out its duties, should ensure fairness, not just to Muslims but also to non-Muslims and also fairness to those who fall within the law that they enforce to protect.

Hisbah Commander-General, Haruna Muhammad Sani-IBN Sina explained that they are against the “manufacture, distillation, disposal, haulage, consumption and possession of any intoxicating substance (alcohol) in Kano state.”

On the ban of mannequins for advertising clothes, the force explained that if you remove the head of the mannequin, you can use it to display your products. It denied banning Afro hairstyle in the state, except an Afro that is designed in a fashion that violates their dress code.

Also, in Jigawa State, the Hisbah Board has arrested 61 people, including 44 women in Taura Local Government Area for alleged immoral acts.

Malam Ibrahim Dahiru, Commandant of the Hisbah in the state, stated this in a chat with reporters in Dutse, the state capital, yesterday.

He noted that the suspects were arrested on Monday in the popular ‘Gujungu’ town by operatives of the command in collaboration with the police.

“The 44 women are suspected, commercial sex workers. The 17 men were apprehended when the operatives raided the area at about 6:00 a.m.,” he said.

Dahiru enjoined residents of the state, to desist from engaging in vices and immoral acts capable of destroying their future.

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment towards scaling up the implementation of life-changing programmes and initiatives for youths in the overall interest of the country.

Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare, stated this at the opening ceremony of a three-day capacity building workshop organised by the ministry for youth, non-governmental organisations and Voluntary Youth-Serving Organisations (NGOs/VYOs) for the effective implementation of the National Youth Policy.

Dare, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Ismaila Abubakar, assured that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was a youth-focused and friendly government.

In a statement by the Director, Press and Public Relations of the ministry, Mohammed Manga, the minister said: “Efforts are being put in place to create a synergy between institutions of government and stakeholders in the youth sector so that issues relating to the youth are mainstreamed into activities of Government and give the youth a sense of belonging, become productive and contributing partners to the overall development of the country.”

The minister explained that due to the proliferation of NGOs/VYOs in the country, it has become necessary for the ministry to streamline, set objectives in coordinating and assessing the level of implementation of the National Youth Policy, as well as ascertaining the status of youth-serving organisations that are actively implementing various programmes of the policy.

He stated that the aim of the workshop was to engage in a genuine dialogue as well as create a synergy with the ministry for effective implementation of the National Youth Policy.

“The workshop will focus at improving your capacity, bringing you together for proper revalidation, coordination and synergy as well as exposing you to the guidelines and criteria required for proper registration and recognition by the ministry in line with the provision of the National Youth Policy and other instruments on youth development which recognize the very important role you, the NGOs /VYOs have to play as partners in the implementations of Youth Development Policies,” he said.

While launching and unveiling the portal on guidelines for the registration and accreditation of the youth-focused non-governmental organisations, the minister expressed confidence that the workshop will engender strategies for a well-coordinated and enhanced roadmap for the National Youth Policy (2019-2023) implementation that would meet the yearning of youth in the country.

Permanent Secretary of the ministry stated that in line with the mandate of the ministry, the workshop has marked a paradigm shift in Youth NGOs/VYOs collaboration with the ministry.

With this, he said, activities of the relevant Youth Organisations are now to be properly coordinated.

Represent by the Director, Network and Social Mobilisation (NSM) of the Ministry, Hajiya Amina Dauren, the Permanent Secretary enjoined participants at the workshop to remain resolute and be determined to move youth work forward, stressing that the best way to build a virile nation is to build a strong, energetic and committed youth, who would, in turn, be patriotic to contribute their quota to nation-building.

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), BUA Cement Company, Sokoto, has expended over N62 million on the provision of various electrification and water projects across host communities.

At a brief during the inauguration and handing over of a 10,000-gallons capacity borehole project at Gidan Gamba in Wamakko Local Government Area, BUA Head of Corporate Affairs, Mr Sada Suleiman, said the borehole was the 5th in the series of such projects aimed at meeting the water needs of communities.

Suleiman, who handed the borehole to the council Chairman, Bello Haliru Gwwiwa said: “We have constructed clinic, installed two transformers of 500KVA and 300KVA capacities to serve the Specialist Hospital Sokoto.”

Suleiman also said the factory was poised to sustain zero- level tolerance to emissions, adding that “our machines are modern, sophistication with zero-tolerance for emission.

The Council Chairman, Haliru Gwiwa and the Community Head, Alhaji Abubakar Gidan Gamba appreciated the efforts of BUA Group in transforming the host community by bringing development that benefits the people.

He recalled that BUA had, last year, constructed meaningful projects which had direct impacts on communities. These projects included the construction of the primary school, clinic, cemetery, and award of scholarships, among others.

“All these have brought development to Wamakko Local Government Area. We are still appealing to BUA to continue to do more works that will benefit its host communities.”

The Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has stated that Nigeria is yet to fully tap into the capacities and opportunities inherent in the civil service.

He noted that given the right environment, tools, motivation (reward system) and accountability mechanism, the public and civil service can attain unprecedented accomplishments.

Fashola made said this in Abuja during the Ministry’s 2020 Recognition and Award Ceremony for its members of staff, where 37 award recipients were recognised and rewarded for excellence in various categories, including Most Hard Working Junior Staff, Best Performing Senior Staff, Best Performing Task Team, and Most Outstanding Director of the Year.

The minister emphasised that human resource (man and woman power) remains the ministry’s greatest assets to drive several laudable projects that Nigerians can be grateful for.

He said: “The quality and quantity and the commitment of that manpower and woman power (human resource), determines the quality of life.”

Mr Henry David, who was awarded the Best Performing Officer in the Press and Public Relations Unit of the Ministry stated that the award would not only serve as an encouragement for the award recipients but also as a push for others to strive towards excellence.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Folashade Yemi-Esan,while commending the members of staff of the ministry for displaying a high sense of duty and responsibility despite COVID-19, emphasised that the reward system remains a veritable tool to increasing performance and productivity, towards achieving the Federal Government’s strategic targets and plans.