Category: Northern Reports

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said the COVID-19 pandemic reversed the entire gains made concerning the education for girls in years.

It said the pandemic took the organisation back because a lot of girls did not go or return to school while a lot were married off, and many more fell victim to gender-based violence which rose at the period.

The country director UNFPA, Ulla Mueller, made this known yesterday at the School for the Gifted in Gwagwalada, Abuja, while marking the 2021 Universal Day of the Child.

Mueller, who was represented at the occasion by Dr. Sampson Ezikeanyi, said: “I must tell you that COVID-19 is one of the worst things that has ever happened to us as an organisation because it reversed the entire gains we have made for quite some years now.

“For example, during COVID-19, a lot of girls did not go to school; some were married off. There was increased rate of gender-based violence because they were not in school. Some of them could not get access to voluntary family planning counseling and services. So it’s like taking us back. And our mantra is to leave no one behind in realising the 2030 global goal.”

In her speech, the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, explained that the biggest victims of the pandemic in the country were children.

She stated, “The theme for this year’s celebration is “Unite to reverse the impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Children.” The year’s theme is very appropriate, considering the impact of COVID-19 on the educational, health, mental health, social cultural impact on the Nigerian child, most especially on the orphans and vulnerable children. Also the theme for this year is to celebrate children for who they are and to bring awareness to children around the globe that have experienced violence in forms of abuse, exploitation, diseases, hunger and discrimination. It is disturbing to note that some children are involved in child labour, some are living on the streets and some children dropped out of school, while some girls were married off due to the emergence of the scourge of COVID-19 Pandemic.

“As you are all aware, the COVID-19 Pandemic is a universal crisis for children. The number of children infected in Nigeria may not be significant, but children were the biggest victims of COVID-19 Pandemic in terms of impact directly or indirectly.

“Although some of the effects of the pandemic will not be the same for all children, a great number of children were affected in the following areas: Extreme poverty which led to school dropout for some children, especially the girl child; hunger, malnutrition, increase in child mortality and increase in number of street children.

Others are child battering, increased violence against children as well as increase in Gender-Based Violence. Others suffered from online child sexual exploitation as a result of online learning that was introduced by schools during the lockdown. This development affects children’s mental health, their social development, their safety, economic security and protection and thus increased their vulnerability. The worst hit were the children in IDP Camps and orphanages, street children as well as children without parental care.

The African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) has assured of its continuous role toward advocating for regional integration through water cooperation and diplomacy.

Executive Secretary of AMCOW, Dr Rashid Mbaziira, who gave this assurance in a virtual press conference as part of activities for the forthcoming 6th AfricaSan conference to be held virtually from November, reiterated the commitment of the body towards promoting regional water cooperation and water security for all.

The AMCOW ES said the upcoming conference would serve as a platform for technical and political dialogue to address the sanitation and hygiene problems in Africa.

The AfricaSan 6 will be organised based on five sub-themes: Inclusive Policy and Strategy for Accelerating Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement in Africa, Securing Innovative Financing for Sanitation and Hygiene in Financially Challenging Times.

Others are; Bridging the Human Resource Gap for Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa, Faecal Sludge Management, Green Economy and Climate Change, and Improving Hygiene in Africa: Building on the Momentum of COVID Era Hand Hygiene.

AMCOW’s Groundwater Desk Officer, Prof. Moshood Tijani, said the Africa Water Week conference would be an avenue to produce policy and strategic recommendations for water, sanitation and hygiene improvements across the continent.

“It is a platform to dialogue on water issues from all over the continent of Africa. It brings together policy makers and technocrats to exchange best practices and lessons in the sector.

“It is a platform that will show how best to achieve sustainable water governance to ensure access to safe water for people of the continent,” Tijani said.

Sanitation Project Manager at AMCOW, Mr Kitchinme Bawa, said expected outcomes at the end of the Africa Water and Sanitation week would include a Windhoek Multi-Stakeholder Statement for accelerating Water Security and Access to Safely Managed Sanitation in Africa and the AfricaSan Country Action Plans.

Others include a conference report with key recommendations for AMCOW to follow and support countries’ progress towards achieving the SDG 6 targets among others.

He said this would mitigate the impacts of poor sanitation and hygiene on the continent.

The overall theme of AfricaSan 6 is, “Accelerating Access to Safe Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa at SDG+5 and Covid-19 era” and is developed based on the sanitation situation across the continent.

A group under the aegis of Got Your Back Nigeria has backed the Presidential bid of Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello in 2023.

The National Co-ordinator of the group, Prof. Chris Nwaokobia Jr, described Governor Bello as the man fit for the Presidency in 2023.

Prof. Nwaokobia, in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said in today’s Nigeria “only one public office holder appears to wield an unequalled spread of love and brotherhood across our geography, nay a charm akin to what we had in the 1992/1993 political contestation that produced the MKO ABIOLA phenomenon.”

The statement added: “By over three decades after the 1993 phenomenon, the new beckons. The present phenomenon like the former is indiscriminate of ethnicity, region and religion. The present phenomenon is concerned about competency and capacity over zoning and or rotation of power. The present phenomenon is the bastion of the Youth O’clock fervency, calling for a New Deal and a New Thinking. And the present phenomenon is the young man called Governor Yahaya Bello.

“Bello is interested in job creation and in the abolition of poverty as was Chief MKO Abiola of blessed memory. Bello stands for inclusiveness and gender parity in governance. He is an example of responsible and responsive leadership. And clearly represents the collective aspiration of the Nigerian people for a nation where justice, equity, fairness and Inclusiveness is prime.”

Nasarawa State Government, in collaboration with Oxfam and Poise Nigeria, have trained and graduated 100 youths drawn from the 13 local government areas of the state on different entrepreneurship skills to help improve their livelihoods.

During the graduation ceremony of the three weeks intensive training and job fair of the 2021 employability and entrepreneurship training programme for 100 youths yesterday, the Deputy Governor, Dr Emmanuel Akabe urged the graduates to make good use of the knowledge and skills acquired.

He commended Oxfam for approving additional three years for the implementation of the job fair and employability, entrepreneurship programme in Nasarawa State.

“This, I believe is as a result of the commitment of our administration to turn around the fortunes of our youths through various skills acquisition in the state considering the critical role played by our youths in nation building process,” he said.

He assured that the Nasarawa State Government will continue to provide enabling environment for such training programmes for the youth.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Human Capital Development and focal person of the programme, Hajiya Habiba Balarabe Suleiman commended Governor Abdullahi Sule, Oxfam and Poise Nigeria for making the programme a success.

Head of Business Development of Poise Nigeria, Mrs Marian Chilaka said during the three-week intensive training, participants were exposed to 21st Century youths essential skills such as problem solving, leadership, ethics and Curriculum Vitae writing, goal setting, communication skills, presentation, and business model writing, among others.

She explained that with the support and sponsorship of international donors, Oxfam and Oxfam Nigeria “have been able to train and empower a total of 17,000 youths in Lagos and Edo states and recently 100 youths in Nasarawa State respectively.”

She added that unemployment is the biggest problem facing Nigeria.

“The unemployment report by the National Bureau of Statistics indicates that unemployment rate is on steady rise from 18.8 per cent during the 3rd quarter of 2017 to 21.1 per cent as of the 2nd quarter of 2020.

“In order to curb the unemployment rate in the country, the Poise Graduate Communion Support Foundation created the career kick-start programme to address this specific area of focus.

The Presidential Think Tank on Defence and Security has sought the co-operation of Nigerians and non-state actors in protecting the country’s critical infrastructure, monuments and business assets.

The body, chaired by Major-General Abdulmalik Jubril (rtd), noted that these national infrastructure systems are critical to the functioning of the country.

Jubril stated this while briefing reporters on the planned National Summit on Protecting Nigeria’s Critical Infrastructure, Monument and Business Assets on Thursday in Abuja.

The Summit, which is scheduled to hold between December 6 and 7, 2021, comes after sustained attacks on critical national assets and security assets across the country.

AVM Tomboiyi Dick-Iruenabere, (retired) a member of the Think-Tank, briefed the reporters.

He said the summit was in response to President Muhammadu Buhari’s call to the armed forces and security agencies to work towards reducing the vulnerability of the country’s critical national infrastructure to threats and hazards.

He said President Buhari also directed the improvement of the resilience of such critical national infrastructure by strengthening their ability to withstand and recover from disruption.

As part of efforts to tackle acute malnutrition (SAM), especially in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH) has empowered 60 poor and vulnerable women.

The project, which is being implemented in two local government areas namely Bwari and Kwali, will ensure that the challenge of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in the FCT is amplified in order to attract the government’s attention and resources.

While addressing reporters in Abuja, the Executive Director of ISMPH, Mrs Moji Makanjuola, stated that the project, which began in November, also aimed at setting an agenda for sustainable empowerment of rural women, and to amplify its intervention and best practices such as recycling and social inclusion.

“In the past three or four years, we have been combing between seven and nine states, and the number of children that are severely malnourished is shocking. This is against the backdrop that we are not a country at war.

“In most cases, the mothers are helpless and hopeless about what they can administer to help their emaciating children. In some of these states, the husbands are not helping the situation; they see these children as commodities, hence they have two or more wives. Their thinking is that if a child dies, the wives will produce another.

“Many of the women complain of being poor. The question now is: what can we do to bring them out of poverty so that they can provide for their children? Many of the children become severely malnourished after their mothers wean them. After weaning, many of the women do not know the complementary feeding that should come.

“There is an urgent need to change the narrative. Journalists, therefore, have a responsibility to tell these stories to change the narrative. I believe that the media in Nigeria can change the position of health care delivery service,” she said.