The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Abuja

  • ‘We should learn to give more’

    ‘We should learn to give more’

    The Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Hon. Micah Jiba has called on Christians and non- Christians to exhibit the spirit of giving during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, so that Nigeria would be a better place for everyone.

    Jiba who made this call in his message, said that when Nigerians learn to give to the less privileged in the society, it would encourage love to grow in Nigeria and reduce the insecurity challenges.

    According to Jiba, Christmas is a period which should be used to demonstrate love amongst every Nigerian, irrespective of their religious differences, saying that the only way Christians can demonstrate the spirit of Christmas is to give to their neighbours even if they are not Christians.

    “Christmas signifies the birth of Jesus Christ who died for our sins, which is a good example of giving, because if God did not give us Jesus Christ, sin would still be having control over the world. So, we all should learn to have the spirit of giving and showing love during this period.

    “I want to also urge everybody to live in peace and eschew things that would cause violence during this period; we should see the period as a time of felicitating with one another, so that we will make Nigeria a better and peaceful place.

    “As we are entering 2014, I also pray that those things that we did not achieve this year, we be ours next year. I urge all Nigerians to support and pray for the government under President Goodluck Jonathan and the nation, so that 2014 will be a better year for all Nigerians,” he said.

     

  • Christmas celebration in Abuja

    Christmas celebration in Abuja

  • Chinese investors to construct Abuja Talent-Hunt village

    Some Chinese investors are in the country to finalise arrangements with the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) for the construction of a talent hunt village for Nigerian youths.

    The Talent Hunt village when fully operational will have an artistic  segment where young and gifted  Nigerians will showcase their skills and earn money rather than depend on white collar jobs.

    The President of the NYCN, Yakubu Shendam who disclosed this in Abuja over the weekend in an address he presented at 2013 National Youth Summit said the Youth Village will be purely for commercial purpose.

    Shendam said desired Nigerian Youths will have the opportunity of earning a living from the village while engaging in entrepreneurial skills, shows among others.

    He also added that an Agricultural programme called, JEGAABA will soon be launched in order to create jobs for over 100,000 youths annually.

    Shendam said, “for the agricultural project, youths will be selected per village form the 19 Northern states of Nigeria”

    “The youths will be trained and empowered to grow highly profitable crops for local and export purposes while a skill acquisition programme for the youths from the South-South with the theme, “Niger Delta beyond oil” is due to commence soon.

    He said about 30,000 youths stand to benefit from the South-south programme.

    While urging Nigeria youths to continue to tap into its most powerful resources, he urged them to continue to have confidence in the Administration of President Goodluck Jonathan as he strives to build a good Nigeria for all its citizens.

  • Abuja radio to boost 2015 election coverage

    The Nigeria Info FM station is counting its successes at one year of broadcasting, even as it plans to dedicate most of its programs to massive political education of Nigerians towards the 2015 general elections.

    Head of the station, Uche Victor Nwaneri, told journalists during the anniversary of the radio station in Abuja , that from the year 2014, the station would commence the journey to salvage the country from political misfortune in 2015 through its dedicated programs.

    He said that they were pleased with the reach by the station and the acceptance it has earned within the past one year, stressing that they would consolidate on these gains to achieve their dreams of a sound political and economic environment for the country.

    Nwaneri stated that the station was covering over 17 million listeners presently, adding that they’ve got the software to show the extent to which people hooked up to the station at every five minutes.

    He assured that they would continue with balanced information while holding the politicians and other stakeholders accountable towards a successful 2015 elections and proper administration of the country, which was the role of the media.

  • Abuja, city of job seekers

    Abuja, city of job seekers

    To most people, Abuja is not only the capital of Nigeria; it is also the money centre of the federation, which generally fuels the belief that only the rich live there.

    With the level of unemployment on the increase in a country with such a huge population, people in other parts of the country now nurse the believe that if they cannot find jobs in other parts of the country or encounter any form of hardship, they simply believe that all they have to do is relocate to Abuja with its high rise buildings and beautiful roads and everything will be fine.

    Abuja presently is probably filled with more unskilled workers than skilled, a visit to some estates like the Mbora estate in Jabi, AMAC Aco estate along the airport road etc and the Maitama Nicon junction, Beggar Junction and other specific locations, unskilled workers come out every morning in their numbers with shovels and daggers and wait for either construction companies or people in need of labourers pick them up for daily menial jobs.

    Such unskilled labourers are involved in the ever present construction jobs that is ever prevalent in the city, whether it is in the construction of roads, rails, estates or even private buildings, they are found everywhere ready to do jobs even as little as weeding the highways or weeding grasses of the porches of private buildings.

    Adamu Musa, a native of Kaduna who sometimes hangs around the Mbora estate said that he is not lazy or afraid of hard work. “I was born on the farm and have worked on a farm my whole life. I had to leave the village because farming is now unprofitable and I have a lot of mouth to feed at home, it’s just unfortunate that the jobs we get which are very tasking pay very little.”

    Another set of unskilled workers complained bitterly to the Nation about the kinds of treatment meted out on them by their Chinese owners, most of them who only posse secondary school degrees insisted that the Chinese companies they work for treat them with no iota of respect and whoever dares to complain is immediately relieved of his job.

    These workers who resume work as early as 6am and can still be seen on the site latter than 6pm insisted that they are very hardworking and honestly enjoy being construction workers since the country itself is prevalent with unemployment but will love to be treated more humanly.

    33 year old Samson Moses who works on the rail construction along Kubwa- Arab road said that although they are not well paid, they are left with no option but to keep working due to the situation in the country, he said, “they don’t pay us well but what can we do? They greatest problem we have here is that although we are involved in such a dangerous job, the company does not provide any safety measure for us and whoever gets injured on the job will be the one to treat himself which is not fair.”

    Another worker who sounded really bitter, Isaac Alaqi said,” being a construction worker is not easy, we work all through the day, including Sundays, nobody cares if we eat or not, we don’t have a uniformed salary here, we are paid from N15,000 to N25,000 and one will have to work for complete 30days to receive the amount. Since we do not have representatives or allowed to create one and whoever tries to speak up is immediately sacked since there are many jobless people ready to fill the space.” They all said that it is unfortunate that expatriates are allowed to come into Nigeria and maltreat Nigerians without anyone daring to caution them or tell them how to respect citizens of this country.

    Other unskilled workers in Abuja who are not involved in business are mostly the Okada or tricycle riders, drivers etc, while another percentage of them flood the satellite towns and municipal areas where they are involved in jobs like packing of refuse popularly called mai bola, shoe making, tailors that mend little tears from house to house, pure water sellers and those who sell items in traffic and the most surprising amongst them all are the Hausa boys whose only job is to manicure people nails.

    Unskilled workers flood into the city everyday and resort to other criminal activities like stealing, defrauding people of their money, mostly using the excuse of property sale to defraud people and the most common is the fraudsters popularly known as one chance pretend to be taxi drivers to defraud innocent citizens.

    The unfortunate thing about being a job seeker in Abuja, people continue to stay back even when they cannot find suitable jobs but keep hoping and praying for a better day, when things will get better, such a job seeker is sometimes advised to try other states, most refuse believing that just hanging around the city will probably be enough to meet their needs.

  • Abuja Area councils urged to support NHIS

    The Federal Capital Territory Administration has urged all departments, secretariats, agencies and the area councils to support the FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHSS), geared towards addressing the health needs of staff for continuity.

    The Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Ademola Onakomaiya  made the  plea at an interactive meeting of FHSS team and managemnt staff of all FCTA hospitals in Bwari Area Council.

    He said the scheme is one of the dividends of democracy and the administration is determined to have a healthy workforce.

    His words: “The FCT health Services Scheme as an organ of the Federal Capital Territory Administration with the aim of addressing the health needs, especially out of pocket expenditure of staff (and their dependants) of secretariats, departments, agencies and thz six area councils has come to stay and all efforts geared towards its sustainability should be encouraged”

    “Our patients, especially FHSS enrollees who access services in our hospitals are our primary concerns and we must ensure that thei hopes and confidence in the scheme will not be dashed”

    He lauded  the FHSS team for restructuring activities that are on-going to reposition the scheme for effective service delivery.

    In his welcome address, programm manager, FCT Health Services Scheme, Dr. Evans Onyekele, said, now the scheme has over 65, 000 enrollees “and we are not  raising our shoulders yet as more work still needed  to be done”

    He said, the scheme is bedevilled with many challenges ranging from “inadequate staff to meet the tasks and late payment of capitations” adding that the meeting is to look into and address the challenges that mitigate against adequate service delivery to the enrollees.

    He said also that the scheme want to revalidate all the enrollees to detect those who are no longer in service and remove their names from the scheme and its also reaccrediting the private health care facilities in order to remove those that fall short of standard or no longer in existence.

    The FCT Health Services Scheme was established by the 12th FCT Executive Committee Resolution on April 4, 2006 and was officially flagged off in August 21, 2009.

  • PHOTO: FEC meeting tribute to Mandela

    PHOTO: FEC meeting tribute to Mandela

  • Anguish at Abuja call-to-bar

    Anguish at Abuja call-to-bar

    The joy of seeing their children become full-fledged lawyers was almost marred for parents of law graduates called to bar at the prestigious International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja as all facilities effectively ground to a halt. The two-day event where over 5,000 lawyers were called to the Nigerian bar, organised by the Nigerian Law School, was described as pathetic by some aggrieved guests that were denied the thrill of the moment by bad management of the event.

    The ventilation in the main African hall of the ICC was almost at zero level but for opened door at several points of the hall as the air conditioning system appeared to have packed up due to the excess human traffic in the hall.

    Every available space in the hall was taken including the gallery that seldom get filled up. There were more parents and well-wishers outside than those in the hall. People were seen lying on the carpeted ground within the hall due to exhaustion from worsening ventilation and lack of space where to sit. About two people were seen being fanned by sympathisers as they seemed to be on the brink of collapsing.

    Outside the hall, the situation was worse. Though there was no complaint about ventilation, but finding chairs to sit was the major problem. Some smart Nigerians took advantage of the situation to extort money for providing chairs for the tired guests who had no option than to be happy to have seen where to rest their tired body on.

    Mrs Augustina Anjorin, who flew in from Sweden and Honorable Razaq Bello-Osagie whose daughter, Arafat, a 2.1 graduate of Nottingham University, UK relive their experiences to Abuja Review.

    Bello-Osagie,  expressed disappointment  at the shoddy organization of the event saying, there were many parents and relatives that would have wished they were not at the event due to the harrowing experience they were subjected to.

    He said: “There were many parents as well as friends and family from far and wide, many from abroad that want to celebrate this moment with their loved ones but denied the moment. The condition in the hall was horrible. I am a parent but I couldn’t get in despite having my valid invite.

    “But the question is, what does it take to organize a crisis-free event devoid of complaint when’re everyone involved would go home happy and fulfilled? This is not the only place where events of such magnitude were organised, we have to other places and witnessed how they do things like this. If the school cannot handle it, what stops them from commissioning an event expert to execute it? With that, if there is any mishap, there would be somebody to hold responsible.

    Apart from that, what stops the Law School from staggering the event into three, four or five days instead of two so that there will be less crowd at any given day.

    “If you go outside the ICC to the road now, it’s a chaotic situation, even the road management agencies have reached their limits as the lines between the human and vehicular traffic have blurred. Must we subject ourselves to stress in everything we do in this country?”

    Another parent who flew in from Sweden, Mrs. Augustina Anjorin she would have stayed back in Lagos. Had she knew that she would not be able to gain access to the main hall. “The arrangement was shoddy and it is not just annoying but very frustrating. Why couldn’t I gain entrance i to the hall? I have my invitation card with me. Yet I could not get in. I inquired because I was angry and I was told the management had specific number of guests but that someone hacked into the system and printed more. The consequence is that there were almost equal number of official invitation cards and the fake cards in circulation. Invariably, many of those with the real cards got here

    only to discover that the whole space has been taken up. What kind of a country is this where everyone wants to take advance of every situation to the detriment of the majority?

    On the way forward, Bello-Osagie, whose daughter was one of the youngest in her class said, as a lawmaker, mere complaints would not make any difference but that no matter how little, concerted effort should be made to correct whatever anomaly there is.

    “As it is, if we continue to lament our plight from now till thy kingdom come would make no difference until concrete steps are taken. As a lawmaker, with what I went through today, I will confer with my Speaker and my other colleagues on how to make events like this better and memorable for those that attend it. My intention is to see how a motion or whatever my colleagues felt would be more effective can be instituted and passed so that we kick-start a culture of seamless and stress-free execution of events in line with global practices. We cannot continue to delude ourselves that this is Nigeria and allow ourselves to be left behind in a globalizing world. Technology is deployed in everything and those with the expertise should be encouraged to handle such things,” he said.

     

  • Abuja gets N5b from SURE-P in two years

    The FCT Administration has received a total allocation of N5,567,024,161.44 from the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) from May 2012 to October 2013.

    The FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed disclosed this while briefing the Senate Committee on SURE-P.

    Mohammed revealed that the sum of N309,278,350.52 was received on monthly basis from May 2012 to December 2012 totalling N2,474,226,804.16.

    He said that the FCT Administration also received the sum of N309,278,350.52 on monthly basis from January 2013 to October 2013 totalling N3,092,783,505.20.

    He explained that out of this amount, the sum of N500,000,000 and N140,916,347.38 have been expended on the, Abuja Taxi Cap Scheme and Public Mass Transit Scheme Phase II respectively.

    According to him, the Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo recently commissioned 160 vehicles being the 1st Phase of the Abuja Taxi Cap Scheme, while the 2nd Phase with 180 vehicles on its fleet will soon be commissioned to improve the transportation network of the Federal Capital Territory and empower the less-privileged in the sector to own and operate vehicles of their own.

    The Minister said that the sum of N500,000,000 each had been set aside for the 2nd Phase of Abuja Taxi Cap Scheme and counterpart fund for additional 300 high capacity buses now being negotiated in China.

    He stated that the sum of N216,742,550.00 has been spent by the Health & Human Services Secretariat for Free Ante Natal Programme from the SURE-P fund.

    The Minister pointed out that so far N3,059,322,313.61 has been expended with N1,573,494,273.68 as committed funds; while N934,207,574.15 is the available balance as at October 30, 2013.

    The FCT Permanent Secretary, Engr. John Obinna Chukwu the FCT Coordinator of SURE-P, Mallam Nuhu Ahmed accompanied the Minister to the Public Hearing.

     

     

  • Abuja Airport-Kubwa Road gulps N288b

    Abuja Airport-Kubwa Road gulps N288b

    The sum of N288 billion has been spent on the rehabilitation and expansion of the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (Airport Road) and Murtala Muhammed (Kubwa Road) Expressways.

    Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed disclosed this while addressing delegates to the 3rdCapital Market Committee Annual Retreat at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Maitama.

    Mohammed said that the project has so far been funded through a bond floated by the Debt Management Office (DMO) to showcase the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    According to a statement issued in Abuja by the Asst. Director/Chief Press Secretary, Muhammad Sule, the minister said: “Other physical infrastructures that are either completed or at an advanced stage includes B6 & B12 Circle road; Complementary Engineering Infrastructure at the FCC stage II; Extension of Inner Southern Expressway (ISEX) from the Outer Southern Expressway (OSEX); Construction of Southern Parkway to Ring Road I; Construction of 33 KVA line, water line from Kukwaba Injection substation to Abuja Technology Village”.

    On the water sector, the Minister revealed that his Administration has completed Phases III and IV of the Water Treatment Plants that can simultaneously treat 20,000 cubic meters of water per hour at the Lower Usuma Dam with its access road.

    He said that the FCT Administration has signed a N19.438 billion agreement with SCC Nigeria Limited for the construction of a new water scheme in Karshi Satellite town.

    According to him, “Karshi Water Scheme is designed to have two dams, one low lift pumping station, raw water conveyance system, treatment plant, pumping station, rising main, and regulating reservoir with a capacity of 6,000 cubic meters”.

    The Minister recalled the giant stride recorded in the Abuja Transportation Sector, which includes the fast track of the Abuja Light Project, 400 Abuja Taxis as well as 200 large capacity buses procured and put to use in the Federal Capital Territory.

    ”We are facilitating partnership with Nigerian Banks to provide additional 1,000 taxis and 400 high capacity buses to reduce commuters’ travel time by the middle of 2014″, he stressed.

    Mohammed emphasized that the engagement of 15 competent investors participating in the Abuja Land Swap Initiative have completed the survey plans, detailed land use plans and engineering designs at no cost to the FCT Administration; thereby saving the government over N4 billion and created huge investment opportunities for the private sector to the tune of N600 billion.

    The Minister appreciated the management of the Security and Exchange Commission for organizing this forum in Abuja ; noting that Capital Market has remained a veritable engine of growth in the economy of any nation.

    Speaking earlier, the Director-General, Security and Exchange Commission Ms. Oruma Oteh thanked the Minister for sponsoring the Annual Retreat and commended him for all the developmental strides achieved so far.