Category: Northern Reports

Adamawa State Government has warned the 2,000 employed graduate teachers against dereliction of duty.

The Executive Secretary, Post-Primary School Management Board (PPSMB), Hajiya Maryam Abubakar, gave the warning in a chat with reporters in Yola, yesterday.

She said all the teachers employed were posted to various secondary schools across the 21 local government areas of the state.

“We have already put measures in place to ensure that the teachers remain in schools where they were posted to work.

“But we don’t want them to know these measures now,” she said.

She said biometric data capturing was also ongoing in the state Ministry of Finance.

“The government has employed about 2,000 graduates. We have successfully completed everything with regard to employment.

“We have posted them to senior secondary schools across the 21 local government areas and currently we are in the Ministry of Finance for biometric data capturing,” she said.

She advised the new teachers to discharge their duties accordingly and shun negative behaviours against their students.

Abubakar called on the school headteachers to give the teachers appropriate subjects to teach and guide them to do the right things for better results, as well as to have a good relationship with them.

“You should orientate them on the things they are supposed to know, being the new teachers and have a good working relationship with them,” she said.

She further said that the government would also employ more teachers for the primary schools to sustain education in the state.

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have concluded plans to conduct the 2022 National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education (NALABE).

Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, disclosed this at a five-day workshop for the development of test items for the NALABE) in Nigeria.

In a statement signed by the Commission’s Head of Public Relations and Protocol, David Apeh, the executive secretary said UBEC and UNICEF have put everything together for the conduct of an internationally accepted National assessment of NALABE.

According to him, the workshop is aimed at achieving the following objectives among others: to generate the test items in four core subjects in primary three and five, JSS 2, development of assessment framework that will help to come up with the test blueprint that will guide in test items, objectives and content.

The commission said the workshop will also produce a development test blueprint and generate test items that will be trial tested for standardisation.

Bobboyi, who was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary, Prof. Bala Zakari, said since the inception of UBEC, the commission has conducted five studies, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2011 and 2017, based on its mandate as enshrined in the UBE Act of 2004.

The National Assessment is a survey of schools and learning to provide evidence about learners’ achievement in identified curriculum areas, such as reading/literacy, mathematics/numeracy, science and other skills, for a clearly defined part of the education system.

The Director Quality Assurance, Mallam Mansir Idris said, the Commission in its quest to conduct a national assessment that would be recognised and acceptable by stakeholders nationally and internationally, identify the need to collaborate and work closely with international agencies such as IEA, UNICEF, FCDO, and other agencies involved in large scale assessment for the development and standardised test items.

He noted that in September 2021, the Commission in collaboration with UNICEF and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), organised an international workshop on large scale assessment for basic education in Nigeria, where previous assessment exercises in Nigeria where previous assessment exercises were reviewed and areas of improvement were identified.

Leaders of Lunguda Communities of Nyuwar and Jessu in Balanga Local Government Area of Gombe State yesterday called for an in-depth probe into the causes of recurring attacks on their communities by neighbouring Waja community despite various peace initiatives.

The District Head of Nyuwar Chief James Pisaghi and the Village Head of Sabon Layi in Jessu, Mr Busa Zwaye, who made the call during an advocacy visit facilitated by West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), in collaboration with Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre from Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Humanity First Nigeria in Gombe said this has become imperative in order to find a lasting solution to the crisis.

The two traditional rulers lamented that despite the intervention by Gombe and Adamawa States, peace has continued to elude the two communities; leading to over 1,000 Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) scattered in neighbouring communities of Cham, Bambam and Yolde.

The District Head of Nyuwar, Chief James Pisaghi, who was a former Secretary to Gombe State Government said various peace negotiations/mediations, meetings, dialogues held and agreements signed would continue to be ignored and attacks would continue unless the matter was traced to its roots.

Mr Pisaghi said the recent attack on Nyuwar on February 8, 2022, was a surprise to them because they thought they had found a solution to the main cause of the crisis between the Lunguda and Waja-speaking communities with the renewed interactions between them which had cooled tempers, only to be attacked unprovoked.

He said his people remained grateful to the various interventions from outside their communities, but that the interventions were mere scratches on the surface unless the real reasons for the attacks were known.

“My understanding of the crisis is that it’s being brushed on the surface. We have not gone deep into it to know what the real causes, immediate and remote are. We are just brushing the surface and that is why they are reoccurring.

“If we hit it on the head hard, we’ll have some relief. We are praying, because that is the ultimate, that God will reveal the cause so that all of us will understand where we are all coming from and where we are heading to. All we need is peace,” he said.

The Village Head of Sabon Layi, Mr Busa Zwaye, said his community was hosting about 1,000 displaced people from Nyuwar, who were attacked on Tuesday last week, and some of them came to Jessu to escape the attack.

He wondered how the two tribes who had lived together for over 300 years suddenly turned to sworn enemies.

He said if the faults of the Lunguda-speaking communities are spelt out to them, perhaps, they can come to a roundtable with their Waja neighbours and settle the matter.

“When errors are known, they would be addressed. If they are not known, they will not be addressed. I, therefore, call on the West African Network for Peacebuilding, WANEP, to kindly help us find out what actually is the problem that has disturbed the Waja tribe, If they can come out and tell us specifically their bone of contention, we shall appreciate it,” said Zwaye.

He said his people are ready to accept the solutions for lasting peace in their communities.

The National Coordinator of WANEP, Mrs Bridget Osakwe, said the most strategic move by both leaders of the Lunguda and Waja Communities should be the physical demonstration of forgiveness and the show of unity by them so that the followership can naturally emulate it.

Also, the Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Mrs Emem Okon, whose organisation presented various food and non-food items to the IDPs in Jessu, was worried that the donations were inadequate because of the number of displaced people on the ground in Jessu.

Mrs Okon said because the majority of the displaced people were children and women, there were special needs to be met.

“Because the IDPs are mostly women and children, which is usually the situation when there is conflict, women and children tend to suffer more because they have to take care of family, they have to take care of children and I began to imagine what that number of displaced women and children would be going through. Where they are they are not comfortable. I try to observe the issues of having access to water, the educational needs of the children, they are out of school. I was also thinking about the health needs and nutritional needs because they have to survive for this period that they are out of their homes,” said Okon.

After the April 2021, attack, Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State and his Adamawa State counterpart, brought the two tribes leaders to sign a peace accord at Numa in Adamawa state but the attack continued especially on Nyuwar and Jessu communities unabated.

Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has urged aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign in the party.

Ganduje, who made the call on Sunday during a meeting with party stakeholders at Government House, Kano, also urged them to join hands with the APC leadership to move the party forward.

“We assure you that our intention of a united and strong party is still on. Our great party is still one in Kano. All the controversies are over.

“You can’t separate democracy from the crisis in developing countries, especially in a state such as Kano. However, the crisis within the APC in Kano is a fight among siblings which must be reconciled.

“Therefore, I call on the other faction to come together and join hands with us to take the APC, Kano State and the country as a whole to the Promised Land,” he said.

Ganduje commended President Muhammadu Buhari, APC leadership and other party stalwarts for their concern.

He also commended party members for patience and loyalty, assuring them of improved welfare.

Ganduje, however, urged party leadership at all levels to take the issue of periodic meetings seriously in order to strengthen the party, particularly at the grassroots.

He said that his administration would continue to sustain the development projects as well as government policies and programmes aimed at developing the state.

The state APC Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, called for unity so as to make the party more formidable and well-positioned for victory in future elections.

According to him, APC stakeholders in the state must not allow their grievances to get to the point of destroying the party, urging them to put their misgivings behind them.

Senator Kabiru Gaya, members of the House of Representatives and members of the state House of Assembly were present at the occasion.

Also, present were members of the state executive council of the party, chairmen of the 44 local government areas as well as party leaders from all the 44 local government areas of the state.

For the first time in a long while, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje yesterday praised his predecessor, Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso.

The governor said Kwankwaso and himself are the ones who developed the state to its enviable status.

“Former Governor, Senator Rabi’u Musa and I are the architects of modern Kano,” he said to the surprise of a gathering at the Coronation Hall, Government House Kano.

Ganduje spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting with leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the state and 44 local government Areas.

At the meeting, the governor briefed them about the latest judgment passed by the Court of Appeal on the leadership of the party at wards and local governments (congresses) passed in favour of his faction.

He said: “Those responsible for the new face of Kano State are Kwankwaso and Ganduje.”

“We (Kwankwaso and Ganduje) have done our best in lifting the face of Kano State. And I will continue to maintain this as a governor of the state,” he said.

He invited the Shekarau faction that lost at Appeal Court to come back and join hands together to make the party stronger.

As the Court of Appeal made its ruling, which favours us, we should therefore tighten our belts for the success of our party as we are facing contests with other opposition parties,” he pleaded.

It was not surprising that Ganduje did not mention Ibrahim Shekarau -a former governor and APC Senator for sharing credit in the development of Kano. Shekarau is having a frosty relationship with Ganduje over who controls the party’s delegates in the state.

But the Court of Appeal, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Division, has now resolved the impasse in Kano State chapter of the party, dismissing the judgement of the lower court which upheld the party’s parallel congresses conducted by a G-7 faction led by Senator Shekarau.

Following the judgment of the Appeal Court, led by Justices Haruna Csammani, Governor Ganduje has now retained supremacy as the leader of the structure of the ruling APC in Kano.

Also, according to the ruling, Prince Abdullahi Abbas, fielded by the governor’s faction, is the authentic chairman of the APC in Kano State.

Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano has said he has chosen 500 indigenes to be honoured on March 9.

He said this would serve as part of the activities heralding the end of his tenure and the swearing-in of governor-elect Prof. Charles Soludo.

Although he did not name them, he said those selected had distinguished themselves in fields of endeavour, adding that everybody would be proud of them.

Obiano spoke at the weekend at his hometown, Aguleri, when he hosted members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by the Anambra State Chairman, Dr. Emeka Odogwu, after a tour of some of his legacy projects.

He said his administration built 134 roads and did legacy projects that would enable the people not to forget him.

Obiano said he was not interested in contesting any election next year, as being governor had taken its toll on him.

He said: “I’m leaving this office with my head held high. I’ve done well for Ndi Anambra and I don’t want anyone to praise me because I know that.

“I’m not interested in any other political position. I want to rest. Please, let me come out from the one I am already into. I am grateful to God.

“When I came in as a governor, I was fresh and better. But now, I have slimmed and shrunk because I worked day and night to lift Anambra to greater heights.”

The Gombe State Government yesterday began the deployment of 500 youths trained under the Gombe State Security, Traffic and Environmental Corps (GOSTEC) to the 11 local government areas of the state.

During the event, Governor Inuwa Yahaya said his administration is determined to address youths’ restiveness in the state by the provision of adequate opportunities and necessary entrepreneurial skills to engage in decent jobs for overall development.

Yahaya, who spoke through his Deputy Manasseh Jatau, explained that GOSTEC is their home-grown innovation which was aimed at harnessing the energies of the youth in state-building, in line with their administration’s human capital development initiative.

“Having trained these youths in the operational rudiments in the areas of traffic, security and environmental management, the Gombe State Government has put all the necessary measures in place to ensure the successful posting of these youths to their respective duty posts for immediate engagement across the 114 wards of the 11 local government areas of the state,” he said.

The Special Adviser to Governor Yahaya on Human Capital Development, Sani Ahmed Haruna, urged the recruited security, traffic and environmental personnel to use the knowledge and skills acquired in the cause of their training in the discharge of their duties.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, has directed the immediate delivery of food and non-food items to victims of the Muna El-Badawy Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

This followed a fire incident that razed over 3,000 shelters in the camp on Saturday.

The minister expressed sadness at the incident which rendered over 3,000 households homeless.

The fire, which reportedly began from one of the tents in the camp, engulfed 3,000 others due to the absence of firefighting facilities.

Farouq, in a statement in Abuja yesterday by her media aide, Nneka Anibeze said: “On behalf of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, I sympathise with the government and people of Borno State over the fire incident which killed some people and destroyed shelters.

“The disaster has rendered many more people without shelter, even as the government intensifies efforts to re-settle Internally Displaced Persons.

“The spate of fire incidents in IDP camps has become recurrent and the ministry is putting up measures to educate the IDPs on ways of preventing such fire disasters.

“I have directed that the affected IDPs be provided with food, water and grains as well as non-food items such as clothing, blankets, mosquito nets and other items to temporarily cushion the hardship in camp as a result of the fire incident.”

According to the minister, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has already begun an on-the-field assessment of the damage.

The Katsina State Chief Judge Justice Musa Danladi Abubakar has freed 44 inmates some of whom had been awaiting trials for a longer period.

Justice Abubakar, who ordered the release of the inmates while on regular quarterly visits to correctional centres in the state, also called for the regular visit of prisons by state chief judges, insisting that only regular visits by state chief judges and heads of courts can best address congestions of the prisons.

Abubakar further noted that reforms in the justice sector, particularly correctional centres, are constantly taking place in Katsina State. He called on other states lagging behind, to emulate the Katsina example.

He said: “The new trend is that we have to have an alternative to prison incarceration. You can see most of the cases in our prisons are very serious ones. We thank God that, in Katsina State, our magistrates do not send minors to prisons.

The Chief Judge also called on Chief Judges of various states in the country to regularly visit correctional centres and detention facilities as part of efforts aimed at ensuring the promotion of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

Women in Niger State have declared their support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ambition to become Nigeria’s next president. They said Tinubu has shown that he has the interest of women at heart.

The stand of the women was made known by the Niger State Women Coordinator, Maryam Kolo during the launch of the Niger State chapter of the Northcentral Agenda in Alliance with Southwest Agenda for Asiwaju 2023 in Minna.

Kolo stated that the women in the state are gunning for good leadership that would be focused on women and one that will carry the women along.

“We are gunning for good leadership, a leadership that is focused for us, that will carry us along as women. We will follow anyone that will come up and show his support for women.

“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has shown that he is passionate about women and the women in Niger State intend to support him fully,” she said.

The National Chairman, Northcentral Alliance for Asiwaju 2023, Alhaji Ibrahim Raji said the Northcentral is ready to support Tinubu’s presidential ambition.

Raji urged everyone to get their permanent voters’ card ready, adding that it is the only way they can get Tinubu into power.

“I want to appeal to everyone in the Northcentral to get their PVC ready because that is the only weapon that we can use to bring Tinubu as president in 2023,” he said.

He commended the support of the people of Niger State for Tinubu, saying that he has done a lot and this is an opportunity to make him do more for the country.

The Niger State Coordinator of the Northcentral Alliance for Asiwaju, Ganiyat Adegbite assured the people that the state is set to give its support for Tinubu.

She said the Alliance will work at mobilising people for the campaign of Bola Tinubu and to ensure his victory in the state.