Bukuru Old Students’ Association Technical (BOSAT) yesterday described Nassarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule as a gift to humanity, going by his administration’s developmental strides.

National President of BOSAT, Mr Raphael Rume, said this in a statement by the association’s Publicity Secretary, Mr Williams Gyang which was made available to reporters in Jos.

Rume said the birth of the governor to his family 62 years ago was a blessing, not only to the family but to the people of Nasarawa, Nigeria and humanity in general.

“It is with unrestrained joy that the entire members of BOSAT home and abroad, heartily felicitate an excellent achiever, charismatic and dynamic governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, who clocks 62 years.

“You have demonstrated the real virtues of our alma mater as a professional in craft and an administrator per excellence, and today, as a political leader and development guru.

“We have no doubt that the people of Nasarawa State will, at the end of your eight-year reign, have cause to celebrate your tremendous and historic legacies.

“We are proud of what your life represents, in terms of impact, influence and excellence,” he stated.

According to him, the BOSAT family is, on daily basis, praying for the governor to succeed, especially in his efforts at ensuring the security and safety of residents of the state.

Arume wished the governor long life to celebrate more birthdays and prayed God to imbue him with more wisdom and sound health to stir the ship of Nasarawa State to greater heights.

The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has named the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, as its Man of the Year.

Making the announcement on Friday in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the Centre, Comrade Isaac Ikpa, said the NYSC D-G was carefully selected after an online opinion poll that featured four other prominent Nigerians.

Ikpa noted that Brig-Gen. Ibrahim garnered the highest number of votes Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd); Akinwunmi Adesina, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, and Dr Adedeji Adeleke.

According to Ikpa, the NYSC boss was the obvious choice owing to his trail-blazing efforts in tackling unemployment through massive youth empowerment.

Ikpa said the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme has been rejuvenated under Ibrahim, empowering hundreds of thousands of young Nigerians for self-reliance.

Highlighting data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Ikpa said the country’s unemployment rate was, at a point, about 30 per cent while the youth underemployment rate stood at 21 per cent.

The Centre said with the NYSC’s SAED initiative, many young Nigerians are independent after embracing entrepreneurship.

He noted that thousands of graduates have gone on to become full-scale entrepreneurs and employers of labour.

“Brig-Gen Ibrahim has succeeded in steering the mindset of our youths away from the mirage of white-collar jobs to that of entrepreneurial engagement,” he said.

The Centre also acknowledged the efforts of the NYSC D-G in flushing out fake graduates, revenue generation and infrastructural face-lift.

“Above all, the scheme is witnessing a nationwide infrastructural face-lift and enjoying widespread acceptance for innovations such as movie production, public enlightenment and social engagement.”

An All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Adamawa State, Alhaji Abdullahi Musa, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision not to sign the Electoral Act passed by the National Assembly.

The APC stalwart who said the President’s rejection of the Act was a result of pressure from some few selfish politicians who do not wish the country well, said the President should not have listened to such people.

He urged President Buhari to reconsider his stand in the interest of the Nigerian people, particularly when the Act was the product of an executive bill sent by Buhari to the National Assembly.

“President Buhari is once a beneficiary of the direct primary,” Abdullahi Musa said, urging Buhari not to heed “those who want to destroy our hard-fought democracy” but to act in the interest of Nigerian people.

The APC governorship aspirant, who was in Yola, the state capital, to present his campaign brief to the APC stakeholders, told reporters that “Mr President has done so well and cannot afford not to sign the Act into law.”

Describing the non-assent as a threat to democracy, Musa stressed that something urgent needs to be done to save the country’s democracy.

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Alhaji Musa, whose campaign manual is based on three cardinal points, said he will run Adamawa as a capitalist state without reliance on allocation from Federation Account but on a robust revenue-generating drive.

“I will utilise the Yola International Airport so well so much so that it will become an economic hub and global mine for the state,” he stated, adding that there will be job creation in the aviation sector for young graduates.

He added that as Adamawa State Governor, there will be youth development through adequate education plans and policies that will encourage training and retraining of professionals in all sectors as education is the bedrock for any development.

The APC governorship aspirant said gender equality is an integral part of his vision as his deputy will be a female in her 30s with smart ideas.

He advised party members in the country to always work hand-in-hand for the growth of the APC and for the victory of the party at all levels in 2023.

The member representing Plateau South Senatorial District, Senator Nora Ladi Dadu’ut has said she will continue to collaborate with members of the National Assembly to address the problems of insecurity in Plateau South.

She noted that the issue of insecurity is a collective effort, even as she urged traditional and community leaders to always feed the security agencies with adequate and timely information for prompt action.

Senator Dadu’ut, who spoke to reporters in Jos to mark her one year at the National Assembly, reminded citizens of the zone that maintaining the peace would ensure the delivery of the dividends of democracy.

Reeling off some of her achievements in office; she said she focused on education, women and youths’ empowerment, agriculture, human capital development, and employment as well as security of lives and property of her constituents.

“We pray that the security agents will do more than what they are doing and arrest any person that is an enemy of peace, terrorising and causing violence so that they can protect the lives of innocent people,” she said.

The Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) has urged the government to accord community pharmacies the status of private Primary Health Care (PHC) facility providers across the country.

It noted that while the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) had identified community pharmacies as centres for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines, there was no reason why it could not be accorded the official recognition of private PHC services delivery facility.

According to a statement by the PCN, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the PCN, Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, made this known during the convocation ceremony of the Ogun State College of Health Technology, Ilese-Ijebu.

He said: “There is a need for the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to identify other facilities that should be designated as primary healthcare facility providers in the private sector, and this is not too difficult to identify. The community pharmacy, even from the name, is the most appropriate private healthcare facility to be accorded this recognition.

“Already the NPHCDA has identified the community pharmacies as centres for the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine in Nigeria, and there is no reason why the other PHC services cannot be accorded official recognition to be provided by the community pharmacies in Nigeria. The essence of primary health care within the National Health Policy is in its being the starting point for a referral.”

Noting that Nigeria currently has about 30,000 PHCs, he added: “At least one general hospital is required in each of the 774 local government areas to effectively serve as referral centres for cases from the PHCs.

“Irrespective of the precarious situation we may find ourselves as a people, our essential responsibility in prevailing primary healthcare services should be based on the situation we have found ourselves in and at whatever prevailing stage of development. The onus, therefore, lies on  health care practitioners to continue to improve on all facets in the dispensation of primary healthcare services in the country.”

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has distributed industrial salt to hides and skins farmers in Katsina State.

The Director of Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Katsina State, Suleiman Muhammad Salisu, who represented the Minister of State for Agriculture, disclosed this at the venue of the Integrated Co-operative Centre in the state capital.

He said: “We are here to distribute 2,036 50kg bags of industrial salt worth N35 million, given freely by the Federal Government to hides and skins traders in Katsina State.

‘‘The Federal Government decided to embark on the intervention considering the constraints experienced by those involved in the hides and skin business since the state is yet to have a processing plant for the raw material.

”Hides and skins are a by-product of meat production, which spoils very fast unless adequate preservation measures are undertaken promptly due to hot climate in the pastoral areas.

”The industrial salt will assist them in preserving the raw materials from quick spoilage since there are no functional industry processing hides and skin in Katsina.

”Sometimes, due to one delay or the other, either as a result of transportation, the commodity expires or gets spoilt before they reach Kano. That is why the Federal Government decided to intervene by giving them industrial salt, a preservative to prevent spoilage.”

The State Union Chairman of the Hides and Skin Traders, Alhaji Rabiu Abdulkarim Bakori, commended the effort of the Federal Government, urging them to carry out such intervention more regularly as the last time they enjoyed a similar gesture was about eight years ago.

Bakori further thanked the Federal Government for the interest in its members’ welfare and the intervention to save their goods from spoilage.

He appealed to the government to support them regularly as the last time they witnessed such intervention was about eight years ago.

He assured the federal and state governments representatives at the occasion that the commodity would be distributed among its over 4,840 members drawn across the 34 local government areas in the state who are loyal in paying tax and union dues to the appropriate quarters regularly.

The union chairman called on the Federal Government to establish hides, skins and leather industry in the state for ease of doing the business in the state.

Dr Abubakar Usman, who represented the Special Adviser on Livestock and Grazing Reserves Department at the occasion, disclosed that the state government is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria to secure the COVID-19 intervention fund for members of the union

A governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State Chief Patrick Ogbu, has appealed to the people of Benue Northeast and Benue Northwest to concede the position of the governor to their brothers in Benue South in 2023.

Ogbu made the appeal in a chat with reporters yesterday in Makurdi.

The aspirant disclosed that since the creation of the state in 1976, Benue South has not produced a governor.

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“The Benue South which has nine of the 23 local government areas of the state has not produced any governor since the creation of the state in 1976.

“Since 1976, the position of the governor of the state had been rotating between the Benue Northeast and Benue Northwest.

“It is our turn to produce the next governor of the state for the sake of equity and fair play,” he said.