The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Advocacy

  • Advocacy group faults ‘rushed’ enforcement of sachet alcohol ban

    Advocacy group faults ‘rushed’ enforcement of sachet alcohol ban

    A civic advocacy organisation, Concerned Citizens for Change, has faulted what it described as the hurried and undemocratic enforcement of a ban on the production, distribution, and consumption of alcoholic beverages packaged in sachets and small PET or glass bottles below 200ml.

    The group raised the concern on Friday in Abuja following reports that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had begun enforcing the ban based on resolutions of the Senate.

    In a statement, the organisation said the action contradicts an earlier consultative process coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Health, which led to the drafting and validation of a National Alcohol Policy after engagements with industry stakeholders, regulators, and lawmakers.

    Concerned Citizens for Change accused NAFDAC’s leadership of acting unilaterally and called on the agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, to step aside, alleging that her actions undermine the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Speaking for the group, Oluoha Godwin Chukwudi said the reported announcement, attributed to NAFDAC Director-General, ignored the outcome of previous consultations.

    He explained that the issue had already been discussed at a stakeholders’ forum convened by the Ministry of Health, attended by members of the House of Representatives, where resolutions were reached, including a one-year grace period and the development of a multi-sectoral National Alcohol Policy.

    “The alleged outright ban is at variance with the resolutions already agreed upon by stakeholders and supervised by the Ministry of Health, which constitutionally oversees NAFDAC.

    “We are surprised that NAFDAC would bypass this inclusive framework and seek enforcement without broad consultation,” Chukwudi said.

    The group also challenged claims that sachet alcohol consumption is a major driver of underage drinking, noting that several independent studies had reportedly refuted such conclusions.

    It added that manufacturers and distributors have invested heavily in responsible consumption campaigns, spending over ₦1 billion on nationwide media awareness to discourage underage drinking.

    The group warned that enforcing the ban could trigger serious economic disruption, including the potential loss of more than ₦1.9 trillion in investments, the retrenchment of over 500,000 direct workers, and the collapse of nearly five million indirect jobs across the supply chain.

    The organisation said such consequences would weaken the manufacturing sector and stifle small-scale entrepreneurs at a time when the economy is still recovering.

    The group called on the Minister and Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare to formally adopt and implement the validated National Alcohol Policy, and urged the Senate to re-examine the issue through a fresh and inclusive stakeholders’ consultation.

    It also appealed to lawmakers to withdraw any directive authorising the ban and to restrain NAFDAC from enforcing it until the agreed policy framework is fully implemented.

  • Advocacy for good sanitation practices intensified 

    Advocacy for good sanitation practices intensified 

    Lagos State Government yesterday said it would continue with the sanitation advocacy campaigns until residents imbibed good environmental and hygiene practices.

    Special Adviser to the Governor on the Environment, Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu, addressing traders at Alamutu Market, Idi-Oro, Mushin, said maintaining a clean environment is a must for residents to keep disease at bay.

    He earlier engaged in desilting the drainage on Agege Motor Road, while a waste truck carried the dirt away.

    Read Also: Shaibu: My legal battles will restore sanity to deputy governor’s office ridiculed since 1999

    The aide said the clean-up is a follow up to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s pronouncement on community-based sanitation, adding that the environment must be clean and food handled hygienically, to ensure socio-economic well-being of residents.

    Rotimi-Akodu reminded traders that Alamutu market was shut last year due to unsanitary habits. He advised them to regularly clean the market and environs, clear the refuse heaps immediately and desist from street trading.

    He said: “As we all know that all diseases are spread through contaminated water, poorly-made food and poor sanitation habits, such as open defecation, poor waste management, among others. As such, our sanitation should be an everyday practice and not only on Thursdays.

  • Wife of Senate President, Toyin Saraki, calls for substance abuse advocacy

    Health care philanthropist and wife of Nigeria’s Senate President, Mrs Toyin Saraki, has called for more advocacy around substance abuse and support for mental health practitioners.

    She made the call in Lagos at the second run of ‘High,’ a contemporary stage play, which tackles issues surrounding drug and prescription medication abuse in Nigeria.

    According to the Public Relations agency that made the statement available to newsmen on Wednesday, Mrs Saraki thanked the cast and crew – including the show’s director, Keke Hammond – for choosing to tell what she called an important story that highlighted what was a growing social problem.

    “As a parent, I cannot begin to imagine what it’s like to be dealing with a child with a drug problem and I want to thank you for this. You have shown it to us in such a reality and I think this story should be shown around schools in Nigeria.

    “I think that the first step to getting things right is shining a light on this issue and I will do what I can because the more we talk, the closer we will get to the solution,” Saraki was quoted as saying in the statement.

    She charged parents to look out for lifestyle changes in their children, wards and dependants, which might hint at a substance abuse problem – a theme which flowed through the play.

    “I think that every parent should watch this play because just from watching it, I could see that it’s actually very subtle changes. It’s not something that jumps out and shows you that this person is on drugs or not on drugs,” she said.

    In his remarks, Mazen Mroue, Chief Operating Officer, MTN Nigeria, said that everyone had a role to play in ensuring that we build healthy thriving communities.

    “I think the story touches every one of us. We are fathers, and we have brothers, sisters and children and as the play reflects, substance abuse does not differentiate between classes, ages and all the differences that we have.

    “At MTN, we believe everyone deserves the benefit of the modern connected life.

    “Through the MTN Foundation, which is responsible for our corporate social investments, we believe that everyone deserves the benefit of a healthy life, and that is why we are here and are part of supporting this show,” he said.

    He said that ‘High’, supported by MTN Nigeria, through the MTN Foundation, tells the story of a group of childhood teenage friends on holiday from boarding schools whose lives, as well as the lives of their parents and families, get dramatically upturned when one of them suffers a drug overdose.

    He added that substance abuse remain a significant problem in Nigeria. In 2018, the BBC reported that about 3 million codeine-containing cough preparations are consumed daily in Kano and about 6 million bottles in the Northwest alone.

    He said that as part of efforts aimed at addressing a growing national problem, the MTN Foundation, in collaboration with a consortium of professional and public policy stakeholders launched an initiative called ‘ASAP’ – the Anti Substance Abuse Programme – in December 2018.“ASAP aims at increasing public awareness of substance abuse and addiction among youths, discouraging first-time usage and casual substance abuse nationwide, and providing access to resources for people in need of professional help,” he said.

     

  • Libya returnees disrupt advocacy programme

    Some Nigerians deported from Libya yesterday disrupted a community advocacy programme by Edo State Task Force against Human Trafficking and Illegal migration.

    The Libya returnees said they were protesting methods adopted by the task force in selecting beneficiaries.

    Officials of the task force were held hostage by the protesters.

    Some items at the venue, such as loud speakers, canopies, chairs and six industrial fans were destroyed.

    Policemen from the Oba market station were called to the scene to  stop further disruption.

    One of the protesters; Jude Ikuenobe, said they were protesting  non-payment of the N20,000 monthly stipend and selective empowerment by the task force.

    According to Ikuenobe: “They have given some of those that just returned N1 million while those of us that came before them are yet to get anything from the government.

    “We know Governor Godwin Obaseki is trying but we are sorry to say that the task force members are enjoying themselves with what is meant for us (returnees).

    “To make things worse, they have resulted to treating us selectively, depending on who you know. I am aware that even those who have been trained on agriculture are yet to get the grant and land as promised by the governor.

    “With this in mind, how then do you explain the rationale behind given some individuals who just arrived in December N1 million as empowerment. This is why some returnees have gone back to Libya.

    A member of the task force and Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor, Mr Solomon Okoduwa, said all returnees have been captured into various empowerment programmes.

    “There is no delay in empowerment, the government did not envisage the large number of returnees and that is why the governor has accepted it as a challenge that requires the support and collaboration of all,” he said.

  • AI and one-shoe-fits-all advocacy

    AI and one-shoe-fits-all advocacy

    If you ever lived through military rule, of the most venal, destructive and irresponsible hue as Nigerians did, you’d cherish Amnesty International (AI).

    But with the return to the democratic order, you’re often amazed at the naivety, at worst, or ideological fixation, at best, of AI reports, even with the old military dictatorship’s negative impact on the present undemocratic “democratic” players themselves.

    That about captures the Nigerian Defence Headquarters, DHQ’s angst, with the latest AI report (2017-2018) on the Nigerian military, on its security duties, response to terrorism and allied matters, and even the vexed issue of gays and lesbians, in spite of extant Nigerian law.

    A crucial preliminary point: both AI and the Nigerian DHQ are each fixated with their terms of engagement.

    AI’s focus is to let off as many as possible, on the maxim of “human rights” (read amnesty), perhaps with the injunction that it’s better to free nine guilty persons, than to punish, in error, one innocent person.

    On the contrary, DHQ appears to operate from the strict code of crime and punishment — and for good reasons, when its security duties are related to terrorism.

    There is always an ethical question, to which perhaps no one has given an adequate answer: must a terrorist that killed and maimed hundred of innocent citizens enjoy the same “human rights”, as his victims, that perished for no cause?

    AI, fixated with “amnesty” — and from the tenor of its reports — would say yes.  But the military, which routinely loses some of its members to this lunatic fringe, would thunder the contrary.

    In other words, while AI always sees a bottle perpetually half-empty, the military, with its vision coloured by the gore of the frontline, sees the same bottle as half-full.

    Each needs to act as check on the other.  The DHQ needs AI’s constant stricture to moderate the excesses of some of its own ranks, in torture and brutality, when dealing with captured “terrorists”.

    But AI itself must know that inasmuch as its terror “victims” in military captivity have rights under the law, innocent citizens that the terrorists “victimized” too do have rights!

    So, in its one-shoe-fits-all strategy, AI cannot lionize killers but demonize those the state put in charge to curb their menace.

    Inasmuch as everyone should get justice, mounting special “human rights” for Boko Haram criminals, who at will abridge the most vital right of other citizens — the right to life — sounds rather hollow, even if AI is duty-bound to point out other military operational excesses.

    Which brings Hardball to cases of gays and lesbians.  A liberal attitude would posit these are private decadence that have nothing to do with anyone, if not made public.  That is the philosophy AI follows, though latterly encoded as “fundamental human rights” in Washington DC and most other western capitals.

    But the last time Hardball checked, Nigerian law has taken sides with its religious lobby, which frowned at those decadence as “crimes” that must be sanctioned.

    So, under what ambit is AI charging the Nigerian military for denying gay and lesbian rights — American or Nigerian law?

    This is international charity as its most dangerous, morphing from a legal watch dog into cultural and legal imperialism.

    Until Nigeria alters its laws on the matter, AI has absolutely no basis to push such charges, except it accepts that it’s contemptuous of Nigerian law — and that would be tantamount to arrogant outlawry.

  • NiBUCAA takes HIV&AIDS advocacy to corporate organisations

    NiBUCAA takes HIV&AIDS advocacy to corporate organisations

    To eliminate HIV&AIDS by 2030 and support healthy living in workplaces, the Nigerian Business Coalition Against AIDS (NiBUCAA) has visited Nestlé Nigeria Plc to seek its cooperation.

    Advocacy, one of the pillars of the coalition, is a strategy for reaching member-companies to enhance the implementation of health-based programmes that will boost workforce productivity in corporate organisations.

    NiBUCAA Executive Secretary  Gbenga Alabi, praised the organisation for its support to the coalition since 2004.

    He congratulated Mrs. Victoria N’dee Uwadoka on her appointment as Nestlé Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Manager.

    Mrs. Uwadoka then urged the coalition to redefine its focus on HIV and AIDS and other complementary health programmes.

    She said: “As a responsible corporate player, Nestlé Nigeria is committed to maintaining a healthy enabling environment for our workforce. We actively promote and support healthy living in line with our purpose, which is enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future.  We are open to explore areas of collaboration with the coalition where relevant to support our objectives.”

    In another development, NiBUCAA also  visited the head office of Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company (Nig.) Limited and lauded the organisation’s support for the coalition, assuring that more value-driven programmes would be made available.

    “Over the years, Dantata & Sawoe has been very supportive to the goals of the coalition. With your support, we have carried out a couple of programmes centred on healthy lifestyles that have improved the effectiveness of employees in the workplace.

    “This year, we’re focusing on the facilitation of insightful programmes that will act as supplement to programmes in the workplace. The 90-90-90 global target set by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV&AIDS to eradicate the epidemic by 2020 will receive increased support. Commitments from member companies will make these programmes achievable,” Alabi said.

    Dantata & Sawoe Executive Director, Nasiru Dantata, affirmed the organisation’s continued partnership with NiBUCAA to bring health benefits to its workforce with sustainable enlightenment programmes and campaigns.

    Dantata said: “NiBUCAA has positively impacted its members with thoughtful, insightful campaigns and programmes to boost the quality of lives of workers in industries and organisations. We’ll continue to work assiduously with NiBUCAA to facilitate programmes that will better the lots of our workforce and improve their wellbeing.”

  • Fathia Balogun shoots advocacy movie

    Fathia Balogun shoots advocacy movie

    Hollywood actress Fathia Balogun is lending her voice to the girl power initiative, with ‘Connection’, a flick featuring some of the best in the movie industry.

    Directed by Desmond Elliot which, according to the actress, will educate mothers on the need to build a close relationship with their daughters, is part of my annual project on empowering the girl-child, by focusing on negligence by some mothers towards their daughters.

    Billed for a first premiere in the U.K, ‘Connection’ stars Kate Henshaw, Odunade Adekola, Iyabo Ojo, Kemi Afolabi, Muyiwa Ademola and Chinenye Nnebe among others.

    Balogun who is said to have also joined the list of beauticians among Nigerian thespians, launched her brand of beauty products – ‘House of Faiteer’ recently.

  • N/Delta and Alaibe’s advocacy

    Is there a correlation between stability in the Niger Delta region and value appreciation of the national currency, the naira? This question has become necessary in view of the seeming coincidence of the peace that has reigned in the country’s most sensitive yet problematic region, economically speaking, in the last few months, and what appears to be a steady appreciation of the naira, during the same period.

    It must be, to all Nigerians, a heart-warming development that the national currency that was, up to about two months ago, maintaining a steady plunge, creating fears that it was headed for an exchange rate of N500 to the dollar, has recorded so much appreciation that, in a twinkle of an eye, we are today talking about an exchange rate in the region of relative appreciable value. There are indications that the appreciation will continue in the months to come.

    Without doubt, the relatively better rate at which naira is exchanging for the dollar today is a fallout of the stability that has returned to the Niger Delta, the country’s golden goose. Safely say there is a definite link/correlation between the two. One has brought about the other.

    Oil production and export have gone on without interruption from the activities of armed militants who appear to have woken up to the reality of the damage they were doing not just to the country but also to their immediate environment and their own economic prospects. The country is now selling oil, its main foreign exchange earner, more than it did for the better part of 2016. Higher oil proceeds means availability of foreign exchange to meet the requirements of Nigerians in such areas as personal travelling allowance, school fees, medical expenses, among others.

    Most importantly, for manufacturers who must buy foreign inputs for their products, access to dollar is no longer an uphill task. It wouldn’t be wishful thinking to assume that it’s a matter of time before the graph of prices of imported goods and their local counterparts with foreign inputs begins to point south. This would hopefully make life a little bit more bearable for Nigerians that have in the last one year groaned under the heavy burden of spiralling prices of goods and services.

    The challenge before the government now is how to ensure the economic progress that has been made so far, in terms of realizing the country’s full potential in oil production and export, is sustained. Ability to achieve this will depend on how the government addresses the Niger Delta question. Thankfully, the government has in the past few months shown a greater commitment to engaging stakeholders in the region in dialogues that would hopefully help to address the question.

    Timi Alaibe, arguably one of the few Nigerians with a good working knowledge of the Niger Delta, its problems and what is required to solve them, has canvassed, as one of the strategies for achieving the second pillar of the Niger Delta Development Master Plan which is on infrastructure and economic development, proper coordination of efforts by the different intervention agencies that have been set up to tackle issues pertaining to the development of the region.

    He advocates a sort of one-stop shop from where government’s initiatives in the region would be implemented, away from what applies currently, in which different agencies sometimes appear to work at cross purposes pursuing the same objective. This way, the issue of duplication of programmes and projects, which sometimes have ethno-political underpinnings, would be eliminated. It would also help the government in its effort to fight corruption and enthrone accountability and transparency in the execution of projects in the region.

    Alaibe’s knowledge of the problems of the Niger Delta stems from the fact that not only is he a ‘son of the soil’ and feels what others in the region feel, but also because he was on the foundation staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) – the intervention agency created by the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo administration to handle infrastructural and socio-economic development of the region– as executive director, finance and administration and, at various times, acting managing director and substantive managing director.

    He has been involved in the design and implementation of virtually all the developmental projects the commission has put in place since its establishment. His inside knowledge of the problems of the region and what is required to solve them placed him in good stead to author the Niger Delta Development Master Plan, the document that is designed to serve as the roadmap for the implementation of programmes, policies and initiatives that would address the Niger Delta question once and for all.

    The government must sustain and, if possible, step up the dialogue it has initiated with stakeholders in the region, which has proved to be more politically and socio-economically beneficial to everybody than use of force. Inputs should include finding ways to design a framework for implementing development projects with better coordination than what has obtained in the past 16 years, as Alaibe has suggested.

    The expected increase in agricultural yields from the various government interventions, which would not only guarantee self-sufficiency in food production but would also boost export, would open up an equally vibrant source of foreign exchange for the country. That way, the vagaries of the international oil market would have little or no bearing on the country’s foreign exchange needs.

    The current stability in the Niger Delta would not only be maintained, but would perhaps be elevated to a level whereby crises in the region would become an anathema even to the people of the region if the government maintains its current level of sincerity and commitment to involving the people in continuous dialogue aimed at finding lasting solutions to the problems of the region.

     

    • Adesida, a businessman, lives in Abuja.

  • Senate urges more advocacy on debt mgt

    The Senate has called for more advocacy on debt management and servicing to enable Nigerians understand the benefits and impact of government’s plans to raise funds from the capital and bonds’ market for development purposes.

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Shehu Sani, spoke yesterday  during a three-day retreat organised for members of the committee by the Debt Management Office (DMO) in Minna, Niger State.

    Sani said if there was aggressive advocacy on what such debts were taken for, Nigerians would support such initiative aimed at driving development and engendering development.

    According to him, it was imperative for the DMO to develop a framework in the major languages in the country to get the citizens to understand why debts are taken, for what purpose and what the society stands to benefit from such borrowing.

    He said: “There is need for strategy mix anchored on proper advocacy on what debt management is all about. Nigerians want to know why governments borrow, to what purpose such debts are taken and I can say that once it is well explained, the people will key into the programme.

    “I therefore hope that the DMO will rev up its advocacy especially in the major languages because a whole lot of Nigerians don’t seem to understand why their states governments will take loans and they cannot see why the loan was taken in the first instance.”

    In his remarks, DMO Director-General,  Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, said the workshop with the theme: Processes and Procedures for External and Domestic Borrowing and Settlement, became imperative given the funding of the 2016 budget from loans.

    According to Nwankwo, the Federal Government does not just borrow for borrowing sake but to address the challenge of development and infrastructure growth.

    He explained that the workshop was not only to keep the lawmakers abreast of developments in the debt sector but to get their buy-ins in DMO’s drive to seek for funding from the capital market.

    The DMO chief also said states have not been barred from raising funds but rather,  the National Economic Council (NEC) was against borrowing from commercial banks, adding that it  supports states seeking for capital from bonds, which is cheaper and more sustainable in the long run.

  • Electricity and consumer advocacy

    SIR: As someone  conversant  with  the operations of the Power  Sector,  I read with  amusement,  the  castigation of electricity distribution companies, Discos,  by a consumer protection agency recently  in the news  media. An official of the advocacy group – National Electricity Consumers Advocacy Network (NECAN) asked – what’s the basis for this increase in energy consumption unit? What pattern or model are they following and was it also approved in the Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)?

    It  is good   that NERC,  the industry’s regulator  has already  reacted that it  is investigating the complaints against the Discos unlike in recent times when  it condemned the Discos  before  listening  to  their side  of the story.

    My  grouse  however is with  the aggressive  nature of consumer  advocacy and protection  which  has sprung up in the power sector  which is blatantly anti-Discos. Most certainly, informed  criticism  will be  beneficial  to electricity consumers, generating  companies and  Discos and enhance  the quality  of  service  delivery in the sector.  The same way, uninformed, spurious and unfounded claims against service delivery bodies like Discos will breed mistrust, acrimony and inefficiency in the industry. The  way  forward  for  successful  service  delivery  of  electricity  is therefore  obvious.

    One  should  warn  that  NECAN  should  not  follow  the  example of  Human Rights advocates  like Amnesty International where that body seems  to  be more concerned with the rights of alleged terrorists more than the victims of the terrorism of  Boko  Haram, while  also castigating Nigerian security agencies for  being  overzealous  in fighting terrorists.   NECAN  should  not  also copy  the antecedents  of shareholders associations formed by Nigerian privatisation  authorities  to  monitor the boards  of quoted  companies, which  ended in the bellies of such boards,  after they  abandoned their initial duties of vigilance and monitoring in their quest  to become  directors in the   companies they  were supposed  to monitor, to protect shareholders’ interests.

    NECAN should monitor Discos  effectively  by knowing  and appreciating the problems they face and helping them to find solutions for  effective  service delivery  which  should be the  objectives of both NECAN  and  Discos. As an insider in the industry, we know that the electricity being generated is quite paltry compared with the needs of the consumers in any of the spheres of operations of the existing 11 discos nationwide. The new tariffs approved for discos by NERC have been stopped by the Senate because it feels they are exploitative. But  NERC the  electricity regulator  has gone  to court on the new  tariffs  which are  cost reflective and  peculiar as  best practices in the global electricity  delivery  market  in which  Nigeria is a  competitor. If  NERC  is  defending the new  electricity  tariffs it approved for  discos, how can  NECAN  be  asking NERC  if it  approved the new tariffs?

    In  playing  the role of watchdog  for  Nigerian  electricity  consumers, NECAN  must learn  and know the workings  of the electricity industry  in Nigeria  so  that it does not become a toothless bulldog barking at the moon on  consumers complaints  and the problems  of service delivery  in the industry.

    NECAN  can  take  a step  forward  by  promoting  consumer  education, awareness and responsibility  by advocating   prompt  payment of electricity bills and  discouraging  illegal electricity  connections and flow  tampering common in our cities and towns. Such irritants make service delivery of electricity hazardous, unpredictable and dangerous.  That  too should  not  be blamed  on the Discos alone as it is an  environmental issue that  should  concern all stakeholders  in electricity  delivery chain and not only Discos and their billings, either  from  the meter or the infamous  inflated estimates.

     

    • Ayomide Edun

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.