The Chairman of Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB), Alhaji Ladi Hassan, has said the board would take the campaign against drug abuse to schools across the 16 Local Government Areas in the state.
Hassan, spoke at the National Anti-Drug Abuse Sensitisation Programme held in Ilorin.
He cautioned students against the use and abuse of drugs and urged parents to constantly monitor their children.
Represented by a board member, Alhaji Abdulwahab Lawal, Hassan urged the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to double its efforts by ensuring that everyone is adequately informed about the dangers of drug abuse.
NDLEA Principal Staff Officer Mr Oluwi Friday, warned that those involved in drug abuse were likely to die young.
He said there were more than 500 chemical substances present in Indian hemp, also known as cannabis that could be dangerous to human health.
According to Friday, all drugs are poisonous and this is why drug manufacturers advise us on how to use certain drugs so that one will not fall victim of drug abuse.
“Many have developed mental disorder; many have died while many are not useful to their families and society because of their involvement in hard drugs.
“This is why we should all have a rethink. We should see ourselves as our brothers’ keepers and at all times collaborate with NDLEA in its fight against drug abuse,” he said.
Friday said many people get involved in drug abuse because of depression, family problem, unemployment, academic and economic challenges among others.
He explained that drug abuse or any other related act was not the solution to psychological, social and economic challenges.
Tag: board
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Board to campaign against drug abuse in schools
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Youths seek appointment of Imo representative on NDDC board
Imo State youths have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint another state representative into the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board.
They told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Owerri the delay in appointing the representative amounted to injustice.
NAN recalls that President Buhari appointed Senator Osita Izunaso, who is not from an oil-producing area, a board member, but he later resigned.
Mr. Chigozie Ohiri, the president, Niger Delta Youth Movement, Imo State chapter, appealed to the president to appoint an indigene of oil-producing area into the board.
He said the appointment of a representative of Ohaji/Egbema or Oguta Local Government, oil-producing areas, would give the people a sense of belonging.
Ohiri complained that none of the N30 billion contracts the commission awarded was located in the two local governments.
“Our investigation shows none of the 15 road contracts awarded by NDDC at the cost of over N30 billion is located in Ohaji/Egbema and Oguta.
“These are the two oil-bearing councils.
“This is an abuse of NDDC intra-state sharing formula as enshrined in the act establishing the commission,’’ he said.
Mr. Ozor Okorie said it was necessary for the President to appoint a representative from the oil-bearing part of the state into the board.
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$1.6b Malabu oil block: Eni’s Board insists no shady deal
Despite of the seizure the controversial $1.6b Malabu Oil Block, one of the four indicted oil giants, Eni(Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited) yesterday insisted that there was no shady deal in the auctioning of the block.
Its forensic investigations, said the company, confirmed that it committed no infraction.
Eni made its position known in a statement against the backdrop of the ongoing probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Milan prosecutors.
Following a court order, the EFCC seized the oil block pending the conclusion of investigation and trial of those implicated in the $1,616,690,656.78 billion deal.
The oil firms are Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO), Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited, and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited
The anti-graft agency is specifically seeking the whereabouts of $1,616,690,656.78 billion paid by SNEPCO and Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) into an escrow account.
Investigators were battling last night to determine whether or not the cash had been used for the settlement of the dispute on the oil block or diverted elsewhere.
A United Kingdom anti-corruption group, Global Witness, alleged that about $523million of the $1.1billion paid by Shell and Eni for Malabu Oil Block (OPL 245) has gone to some fronts of a former President.
The EFCC applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja for an interim order of forfeiture of the said oil block.
It urged the court to issue an order enabling the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to manage the oil block during the seizure.
But Eni (Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited) yesterday said its forensic investigations showed no wrong doing by its Board of Directors.
The statement by the company said: “Eni’s Board of Directors today takes note of the outcome of further forensic investigations into the 2011 transaction between Eni and Shell and the Nigerian Government for the acquisition of the OPL 245 licence in Nigeria.
The investigations were conducted by an independent US law firm. They were commissioned by Eni’s Board of Statutory Auditors and Watch Structure.
“The investigations examined the new materials and further information filed by the Milan prosecutors as part of the closure of the investigation in December 2016.
“The law firm confirms the conclusions reached by previous investigations in 2015, stating that there is no evidence of corrupt conduct in relation to the transaction.
“Eni’s Board of Directors confirmed its total confidence that neither the company nor its CEO Claudio Descalzi were involved in alleged illicit conduct under investigation.”
The EFCC had on December 20, 2016 filed nine charges bordering on alleged mismanagement of $1,616,690,656.78 Malabu Oil cash against a former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke( SAN), a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief Dan Etete and seven others.
The others are a businessman, Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil and Gas Limited; Rocky Top Resources Limited; Imperial Union Limited; Novel Properties and Development Company Limited, Group Construction Limited and Megatech Engineering Limited.
The nine-count charge was filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja by a team of lawyers, including Johnson Ojogbane, C.C. Nduese, H.M. Mohammed, and Victor Ukagwu.
The trial of all the suspects is yet to begin.
In a letter to EFCC, a United Kingdom anti-corruption group, Global Witness, alleged that about $523million of the $1.1billion paid by Shell and Eni for the oil block went to some fronts of a former president.
It said the deal deprived the country of a sum equivalent to 80% of its 2015 health budget in a country where more than 60% of the population live in poverty.
The group made the disclosures in a statement by its Director, Simon Taylor.
It also wrote a letter to the EFCC, urging the agency not to waiver in its determination to probe the sale of the oil block.
But Global Witness said prosecutors in the UK had alleged that about $523million of the $1.1billion was paid to the fronts of a former President.
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Board to issue rules for accessing $600m fund
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is to roll out new guidelines for accessing the $600 million Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF), its Executive Secretary, Simbi Wabote, has said.
He spoke at the Sixth Practical Nigerian Content Conference in Abuja.
Noting that operators had been complaining about problems in accessing the fund, Wabote said the guidelines would remove barriers.
He said the fund had grown over the years, adding that six companies had accessed it. He did not list them.
Wabote said: “I must say that it is not directly giving money to those six Nigerian contractors; it is about guaranteeing some of the loans that they got from the banks because we are not a funding institution.
“Not much has been expended from that fund for capacity development. Part of the strategy of this new board is to come out with a very transparent process through which genuine Nigerian contractors involved in the oil and gas sector will have access to the fund.’’
The Board pledged to expand its operations to the midstream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry in line with Section 106 of the Nigerian Content Act.
Wabote listed the Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) integration yard of LADOL in Lagos, which carries part of Total’s Egina FPSO, as one of the great achievements of the Nigerian Content. The project will begin operation between next year and 2019.
Besides, Wabote said the Board would unveil a five-year roadmap that would chart a new Nigerian Content implementation path to increase value addition in the industry.
He confirmed that the Board was rejiging the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme (NOGAPS) to domicile oil and gas components manufacturing close to oil fields and involve local businesses in operations.
According to him, the sites for the parks have been acquired while designs will soon begin. “We have set a timeline for every milestone we intend to achieve in the next couple of months; at least we should have one up and running to test the benefits before we replicate,” he said.
The NCDMB chief said the major focus of the Nigerian Content Law was not “Nigerianisation” of the sector, but “domiciliation” of value-adding activities.
He said there were investment opportunities in fabrication and construction; manufacturing of component parts, equipment, spare parts, accessories, drilling fluid, sub-sea production systems, line pipes, and personal protective equipment (PPE), among others.
“While some people are worrying about the money they have contributed, many are not making their contributions as enshrined in the Act. This board will look at strategies to make them comply with the provisions of the Act,” Wabote said.
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Governing board for Oyo schools
The Oyo State government, at the weekend, announced School Governing Boards (SGBs) for public schools.
This is a major highlight of the White Paper on report of the Committee on Participatory Management of Schools.
The SGBs will provide management functions for the schools and meet performance targets.
The aim is to raise performance quality in the schools.
A statement by the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Toye Arulogun, said the government released the White Paper after weeks of analysing the report benchmarking it with international best practices on government policies.
Arulogun added that the recommendations will serve as the strategic framework to improve quality and performance in the sector.
The statement said the government adopted most of the recommendations but with variations in nomenclature or scope.
The government said the SGB model would be in two categories with membership from accredited representative of Parent-Teacher Association, accredited representative of Old Students’ Association, accredited non-partisan community leader, head boy/head girl, the headteacher (as secretary), local inspector of Education (LIE), representative of the local government or Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and identified philanthropists.
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Bayelsa APC to Buhari: withdraw Brambaifa from NDDC board
The Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has written to President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to withdraw the state’s representative, Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, from the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The party said Brambaifa’s appointment was against the party’s cohesion because it negated balance and fairness.
“Prof Brambaifa’s appointment has serious political implications in the sense that the minister representing Bayelsa State, Heineken Lokpobiri (minister of state for Agriculture and Rural Development), is from Ekeremor Local Government in Bayelsa West Senatorial District.
“The Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Gen. Paul Boroh (retd.), is from Sagbama Local Government, also in Bayelsa West. Now, the Bayelsa State representative on the NDDC board is also from Sagbama Local Government in the same Bayelsa West Senatorial District,” the party said.
In the letter, which was signed by the only APC member in the House of Assembly, Mr. Israel Sunny- Goli, the party accused former governor and Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of foisting Brambiafa’s appointment on the state.
Sunny-Goli, who also chairs the House Committee on NDDC, insisted that Buhari’s appointments in the state were eroding cohesion and causing party disunity because they were concentrated in one senatorial district.
The lawmaker said APC was shocked when its nominee, who he said was endorsed by stakeholders, did not make the final list.
He attributed the development to Amaechi’s alleged claims that President Buhari directed him to nominate representatives from Niger Delta states, because of his position as the director-general of the President’s Campaign Organisation.
Sunny-Goli noted that if Brambaifa was not withdrawn, it will mean that other senatorial districts, which campaigned against former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government for Buhari’s administration, had been excluded.
The lawmaker said this would have grave implications for the party’s cohesion.
He condemned the attempts by some people to sideline the party’s state leadership in Federal Government’s affairs through their actions against members in Bayelsa State.
Sunny-Goli urged Amaechi to restrict his party activities to Rivers State and leave other Southsouth states alone.
The lawmaker said APC members still believed in the ideology of the Buhari administration, adding that the party will want him to reverse Brambaifa’s nomination to assuage the ill-feelings the party members had towards the Federal Government.
He said: “When it was time to nominate state representatives into the NDDC board, APC leaders and stakeholders in Bayelsa State met and recommended a nominee to Mr. President through the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri…
“But we are surprised that this nominee did not make the final list. We know that it is not the fault of Mr. President that our nominee is not on the list.
“We have it on good authority that the Minister of Transport and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who used his ‘veto’ power as campaign coordinator and leader of the Southsouth, which nobody made him, replaced our nominee.
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‘Constitute board to check medical negligence’
The Federal Government has been urged to constitute the governing board of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to address medical negligence.
A Professor of Public Health, Oladele Kale, made this call at the weekend at the annual faculty lecture organised by Faculty of Public Health, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, with the theme:” Medicine, Law and The Bolam Test”.
He said: “The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria is a regulatory body that regulates the practice of medicine and dentistry in the country, and if it is not formed there cannot be any activity. If doctors falls foul of the law on me now, there is nobody I can report to because the board is not there.
“There are many cases of medical negligence that have not been visited by the council because the board has not been constituted. Most times the doctors can find excuses for what they did. For instance, the man that claimed to have discovered cure for HIV, Abalaka’s case is still there pending, and many more.”
A medical-legal consultant, who was the guest lecturer at the event, Prof Paul Osuhor, said the Bolam test has made it difficult for plaintiffs to successfully make claim against a defendant doctor in cases of medical negligence.
He added that the success rate by patient is under 40 per cent compared with a much higher percentage in non-medical cases.
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NCPC boss receives board members
Newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Rev. Tor Uja, recently received Federal Commissioners on the board of the commission. Uja thanked the commissioners for the visit and informed them that he had made a resolution not to leave the commission better than he met it.
He said the former boss of the commission, Mr. John Kennedy Opara, did very well and as such must be appreciated publicly.
According to him:” He really worked hard. God will bless him”. He promised to organize a befitting sent- forth for him sometimes in July and would invite the board and stakeholders to grace the event.
He explained that he took over the leadership of the NCPC at a very challenging moment when the country is facing serious economic recession.
However, he stated that Nigeria had done fairly well, but should look further than oil.
According to him: “Going Forward Nigeria has greater chances in future.”
Rev. Uja assured the members of board that the pilgrimage process would continue with their support.
He hinted that the commission was working towards airlifting about 20,000 pilgrims to the holy land this year.
The NCPC boss maintained that it is possible for Nigerians to be exposed to pilgrimage at least once in a life time.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Rev. Dr. Zion Ibenye, Federal Commissioner representing South East said they visited the new Executive Secretary to formally welcome him since his appointment and assumption of duty.
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Reps stay action on NERC board report
The House of Representatives yesterday stepped down the report of the investigative public hearing on the motion titled: “Planned Payment of N2.7 billion by the Board of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to its Members.”
This is the second time within one week that the report laid by the Daniel Asuquo-headed House Committee on Power was stepped down.
The report was laid before the House by the committee on May 17 while the Order Papers of both and published in the Order Papers of yesterday and the day before, yet it was stepped down.
Though a lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity said the report is being frustrated by “ a mafia” within the National Assembly, other factors may be responsible for the non consideration.
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‘Management, board must refund fines paid for infractions’
Investors in the insurance sector have said management and boards of companies that cause their firms to pay fines to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for infractions must be prepared to refund such payments.
The Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sir Sunny Nwosu, who spoke with reporters in Lagos, said allowing a company’s management and board to pay for fine imposed by the regulator would help reduce infractions and keep executives on their toes.
He noted that shareholders have been made to suffer for crimes committed by the managements and boards.
Nwosu lamented that the huge fines paid would have accrued to shareholders as dividends.
He said: “Penalties do not give any value to top executives, it is shareholders money that is thrown away, and that was why ISAN has spearheaded a situation to say that if any company is penalised, the management and board should be held responsible to refund the money.
“This will check the carefree attitude of some management and board. We believe the parties responsible for the penalties would make them play with caution and protect shareholders’ investments.”