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Tag: BUHARI

  • Buhari confers 2018 National Merit Award on Obafemi

    •Recipient urges govts to adhere to merit principle

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari yesterday conferred the 2018 Nigerian National Order Merit (NNOM) Award on Prof. Olufemi Obafemi at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Obafemi, who is Nigerian Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria (REPRONIG) National Chairman, has been a Professor of English and Dramatic Literature at the University of Ilorin since October 1, 1990.

    A prolific playwright, novelist, poet, literary and theatre scholar, Prof. Obafemi was said to have published 14 scholarly books, 16 creative books and over 70 journal articles in national and international outlets.

    At the yearly award ceremony that comes up every first Thursday of every December, Buhari lauded the research and intellectual qualities of the recipient.

    According to him, Obafemi has made Nigeria proud with his contributions drawing global attention to Nigeria.

    He said the Federal Government would keep supporting research innovation and also look into the requests of the agency.

    According to him, Nigeria needed the knowledge and expertise of the awardee.

    The President believed that the awardee, Obafemi and all others who were previously honuored would be remembered and would serve as motivation and encouragement to future generation of Nigerians.

    Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha said the recipient was selected based on his selfless contribution to Nigeria’s growth.

    Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Prof. Shekarau Yakubu, said the board is very proud to present Obafemi as the 76th recipient of the Award for 2018, who by outstanding research work and service to humanity, has printed his name in gold.

    Delivering his acceptance speech, Obafemi expressed appreciation to the President and the board for selecting him as the 2018 recipient of the award.

    Obafemi said: “I must say that I do not take the honour for granted at all, considering the number of nominees from among whom I was picked for the award. It compels me to take a deep reflection on how I arrived at this point in life.”

    The story of his life’s journey, the university don said, provides instruction on the value of merit in the attainment of possibilities for individuals, groups and societies.

    Obafemi said: “In 1963, I gained admission into two missionary-run colleges in the then Kabba Division in today’s Kogi State. The fees of the institutions were simply beyond the means of my parents who were a peasant farmer and a food vendor. I had to wait till the following year when I passed the Common Entrance Examinations and gained admission into one of the Northern Nigerian government’s Provincial Secondary Schools, sited, equitably, in the Fourteen Provinces of the Northern Region.

    “Even at that, the relatively small school fees of 13 pounds a year could only be paid after my father had sold his cocoa/coffee plantation and my mother the finest of her few clothes.”

    The recipient said: “It was not until the third year when, by government policy, the provincial colleges in the region became full-fledged Government colleges, that my parents were marginally able to sponsor my Secondary education with less hardship.

    “This was because a policy had been enacted to make fees relatively favourable to the children of the poor-who paid fees as low as Three pounds-while the children of the well-to-do and civil servants paid up to Fifteen and Twenty pounds.”

    He added: “My undergraduate and graduate studies were financed through the Kwara State Government Scholarship and the University of llorin Staff Development Schemes.”

    He said with good educational policies combined with merit, “the children of the poor with humble and lowly parentage can rise to stand before the President to receive the Nigerian National Order of Merit, the highest honour and recognition for ‘academic and intellectual contributions made by citizens of Nigeria’.”

    He urged governments to adhere to the merit principle as the objective condition for national transformation.

    The university don dedicated the award to his family, his teachers and mentors, living and deceased and his students in the past five decades.

  • UNICEF sensitises journalists on birth registration

    The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday organised a sensitisation workshop for journalists on the importance of birth registration.

    The workshop organised by the Bauchi Field Office of UNICEF, was in collaboration with the National Population Commission (NpopC).

    In his opening remarks, Mr Victor Sule, UNICEF birth registration Consultant, said the meeting was aimed at equipping media practitioners with the requisite knowledge on creating awareness of birth registration at the community level.

    He decried the low birth registration at the rural areas, owing to poor knowledge of its value, hence the need for massive awareness.

    “The importance of birth registration cannot be over emphasised. Its value to the survival of the child and growth of the society is key.

    “And quite disheartening is the fact that most people in the rural areas don’t even know about birth registration, not to talk of knowing its importance.

    “This is the rationale for this training because once the media, who are key stakeholders get it right, the message will trickle down to the very last person in the rural communities.

    “So, this is part of our collaboration with the media, to support us in taking the campaign on birth registration to the rural communities,” he said.

    Read Also:UNICEF holds education conference for north leaders

     

    Sule further explained that UNICEF and NpopC are collaborating with other sectors such as health, education, traditional and religious institutions to promote routine birth registration.

    He noted that UNICEF was committed to promoting and protecting the rights of children, hence the lack of knowledge about birth registration makes them marginalised.

    In his address of welcome, Mallam Musa Rashid, the State Director of NpopC in Bauchi, said birth registration was one core mandate of the commission, adding that the sensitisation workshop was timely.

    He explained that paucity of funds and manpower made the commission go into collaboration with key organisations to ensure every child is registered.

    “Birth and death registrations are part of our key mandate in NpopC and we take them very seriously.

    “We are mandated by law to register every child within the first 60 days of birth, unfortunately, the exercise is poor at the rural areas and this calls for intense campaign and awareness.

    “But because we are constrained by lack of manpower and funds, we are collaborating with other key partners in ensuring that the message gets to the communities to enable us register every child, ” he said

  • Buhari’s second term, time of harvest for Nigerians – Lawmaker

    A Lagos lawmaker, Mr Victor Akande on Thursday said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in office would be a time of harvest for Nigerians.

    Akande, representing Ojo Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    According to him, it is not easy to repair in three years of what was destroyed for 16 under previous administrations.

    He said that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government was moving the country to the next level of harvesting, all the sacrifices it had made.

    Akande said: “After we have moved from this stage to the next level, which is a performing level, we will do better.

    “When you want to plant, you clear the ground and plow it. That is what you are seeing now.

    “We are sieving corrupt minded-people away.

    “We have planted, we have watered it, so the people should wait because it is germinating now and it will soon be harvest time,” Akande, Chairman.

    Akande, who is the Chairman, Committee on Science and Technology of the House, said that Buhari’s second term was not threatened by the candidature of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others in the 2019 presidential election.

    Read Also: Akeredolu to Npower beneficiaries: Vote for Buhari

     

    According to the lawmaker, the only opposition APC has is the one against itself.

    Akande, who recently defected from PDP to APC on the floor of the House, said that Buhari had nothing to fear.

    “We cannot be talking about the people who ruled Nigeria for 16 years and have nothing to show for it. We are talking about somebody who has only ruled for three years and is performing.

    “Should we be afraid of those who looted the economy. There is nothing to fear about the judgment is for the masses.

    “We cannot be fighting corruption and some people will be complaining.

    “Things were spoiled for 16 years and another government now came to revive them,we will have to sacrifice and give them time.”

    While carpeting those blaming APC for the harsh economy in the country, he said that the party did not cause the current poverty in the land.

    He said APC had its manifestos, agenda, and blueprints, saying that these had to be followed gradually, adding that they could not be done overnight.

    “We are not magicians. The United States of America did not get to where they are today overnight. Economy that has been bad for 16 years, we cannot perform magic in four years.

    “We had to find the root of the problem and that is what President Muhammadu Buhari has done, that is what APC has done.
    “They have tried to get to the root cause of the problem and they found a heavy corruption.

    “The whole thing fall in the hands of the bourgeoisie and who now came up with propaganda to run down the government.
    “The coming together of unscrupulous elements cannot bring down a working government.”

    On the conduct of 2019 general elections, Akande advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) do the needful so that the people would not doubt its integrity.

    Akande, who urged the politicians to desist from anything capable of jeorpadising the country’s democracy, advised voters to vote according to their conscience.

  • Nigeria contributes $710m to ECOWAS, more than 13 countries

    Nigeria has contributed more money to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) than 13 other Members states put together in the last 12 years, statistics have shown.

    Statistics on payment of the Community Levy obtained by our correspondent showed that between 2003 and 2015, Nigeria paid $710, 497,352, equivalent to 480, 355,205 West Africa Units of Account (UA).

    The West Africa UA is the official nominal monetary unit of measure or currency used to represent the real value.

    The document was presented by the ECOWAS Commission as part of the Status of the Community report during an Extra Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament.

    In the same period, 13 other countries contributed a cumulative amount of 697. 947 million dollars.

    The countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal Sierra Leone and Togo.

    Out of the 13 countries mentioned, Guinea Bissau contributed the least amount of 3. 107 million dollars followed by The Gambia with 11. 171 million dollars and Cabo Verde with 12.879 million dollars.

    Within the period, Sierra Leone contributed 19. 632 million; Liberia 29. 988 million dollars,; Guinea 31. 101 million; Niger 37. 788 million ,; Togo $48. 961 and Cote d’Ivoire $54. 173 million.

    Benin Republic contributed a total of $76. 147 million; Mali paid $93. 538 million; Burkina Faso with $105. 278 million; while Senegal paid $174. 177 million.

    Read Also:ECOWAS Mission to help secure Guinea Bissau’s polls

    The highest paying country after Nigeria is Ghana which paid $327. 976 million within the same period.

    According to the statistics, a total of $1. 736 billion was contributed within the period by all 15 member states, with Nigeria paying 40.9 per cent of the amount.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the budget for each financial year is met by the member states through their contributions to the Community Levy, a 0.5 per cent tax imposed on goods from non-ECOWAS countries.

    The national customs administrations of member states are responsible for “assessment and collection” of the levy and daily record “accounts of amounts received”.

    However, the contributions by Nigeria is not equivalent to the weight it pulls in the sub-regional body, especially in the Parliament.

    For instance, out of the 35 seats allocated to Nigeria in the Parliament, many of the representatives are usually absent during plenary.

    At the plenary in May 2018, only four members out of 35 were present on the day Nigeria presented its Country Report.

    Also, during its recent ongoing Second Ordinary Session, less than 10 were present for the aforementioned presentation.

    The absenteeism by Nigerians also got the attention the Bureau of Parliament and other members who expressed displeasure at the attitude of the Nigerians.

    Some representatives from Nigeria also admitted that the attitude had become worrisome and needed to be addressed.

    Hon. Shehu Garba who briefed newsmen after the presentation by Nigeria at the on-going session, said that it was time the leadership of the delegation intervened and deployed people who had time for parliament’s activities.

  • Competition legislation will grow businesses — CPC boss

    Mr Babatunde Irukera, the Director -General, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), said a good competition regime would aid the growth of businesses in the country.

    Irukera said this at the 2018 World Competition Day organised by the Centre for Trade and Business Environment Advocacy (CTBA) and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) on Wednesday in Abuja.

    The theme of the event was “Digital Economy, Innovation and Competition and Consumer Protection Bill.’’

    Irukera, during a panel discussion at the event said failure of a competition regime would prevent more investors from coming into the market.

    He, however, said that competition legislation may not necessarily improve the capacity of those who are unable to succeed in the market.

    “This is because it is not every time that it is the lack of competition that is their failure to succeed, sometimes governance and all other factors may be the case.

    “But if you look at it from the consumer protection standpoint, on economic development standpoint and employment stand point, you should be more concerned about those who are unable to succeed.

    “Although, the existence of the legislation alone will deal with some of the challenges.’’

    On the challenges faced by consumers through payment systems, Irukera said the key things was to have a clear service level agreement between the main systems and vendors.

    He said the case where consumers sometimes engage in transactions that does not get concluded and the Bank or vendor referred them to e-transact was not ideal.

    Irukera said the consumer do not know e-transact, and did not choose the option of e-transact, and no option whatsoever was given to him to choose from, so he should not be referred to e-transact.

    “So, we need to have a service level agreement that makes things seamless on the front end, so you can have indemnity system.

    “We need a service level agreement so that if something does not go well, there will be a way to go about it.

    “There has to be something that bridges that gap, and we are hopeful that with time this will be improve.’’

    The director – general said the council had spent more than a year trying to conclude a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would assist in writing the guidelines for electronic transactions.

    Irukera, while speaking on the challenges faced by consumers in the telecommunication sector, said there was the need for stronger collaboration between regulators.

  • 2019: Disengaged teachers declare support for Sen. Sani

    Some disengaged teachers in Kaduna State have declared support for the re-election of Sen. Shehu Sani (PRP-Kaduna) in the 2019 election.

    The teachers, who made this known when a delegation paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja on Wednesday, promised to rally support for the lawmaker in view of his support for their plight.

    Mrs Alice Ayuba, the leaders of the delegation, said they would ensure that Sani was returned as senator in 2019 through their votes.

    “We are here to appreciate our distinguished senator for his support from the beginning of our predicament.

    “He stood by us even when some of our teachers were arrested and imprisoned over the matter. So, we will stand by him. This is the time for payback for his strong support,” she said.

    Read Also: Why I left APC – Shehu Sani

    Responding, Sani appreciated the disengaged teachers for their support.

    While expressing concern over the disengagement, the lawmaker promised to continue to support them where necessary, to ensure that they were reinstated.

    He said: “It is unbelievable that many of you have spent decades teaching our young ones that have performed credibly well in the state and nationally and today you are adjudged incompetent.

    “The process used to remove you was illegal. Consultants were asked to organise an exam and within 24 hours, thousands of teachers were disengaged for not passing exam. It is a condemnable act.

    “I solidly stand by you and your struggle. Continue in your struggle. If you are not returned now, a time will come that you will be returned,” he said.

    Sani, who is the Chairman Senate Committee on Foreign and Local Debts, lamented that some of the disengaged teachers were degree holders.

    “Serious damage has been done to education in the state and it is worrisome.

    “It is unimaginable that teachers with first degree, master’s degree and even doctorate degree will be said not to be qualified to serve.

    “How can bad teachers give birth to good students,” he said.

  • Ex-ANAN president urges FG to expedite action on 2019 budget

    Dr Samuel Nzekwe, a former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), has advised the Federal Government to expedite action in presenting the 2019 budget proposal to the National Assembly.

    Nzekwe gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun on Thursday.

    According to him, the advice became necessary in order not to create panic in the economy.

    He further said that taking decisions and direction where the economy should go would be difficult to predict since the Federal Government was the biggest spender in the country.

    Read Also: 2019 budget: Special FEC session to hold Friday

    The former ANAN president noted that delay in passing annual budget was a major challenge confronting the country.

    “Annual budget should be ready as early as possible so that the National  Assembly can contribute their own part to the budget, ‘’ Nzekwe said.

    The accountant said that budget delay was not good for an economy just coming out of recession.

    He, however, urged the Federal Government to redouble its efforts in preparing the  2019 budget and ensure that the budget is passed as early as possible to increase  activities in the economy.

  • Buhari: to debate or not to debate (II)

    We have seen that unlike in sports, in political debates there are neither gallant losers nor magnanimous winners. And because one man’s victor (especially in keenly-contested encounters) is another’s vanquished, there’s usually none prepared to be gallant about a defeat he has not accepted; nor any ready to be magnanimous about a victory his opponent has not conceded to him. Whereas outcomes of sporting events are ‘certain’ – even when they are controversially arrived at- those of political debates are not -for the reason that they are usually left to the subjective assessment mostly of partisan viewers and or listeners. We have also seen that even in the U.S, the democratic process has still not developed enough to birth independent, impartial and apolitical institutions trusted with the task of organizing and conducting political debates; and that the only body that currently discharges that responsibility (Commission on Presidential Debate, CPD), has to be a bi-partisan outfit jointly owned and run by the two major political parties, the Republican and the Democratic parties. Candidates will not debate on platforms they have no reason not to distrust.

    Trust or timidity or both may have informed Jonathan’s refusal, in 2011, to attend the March 18 debate organized by a private Cable Television, NN24; even though the trio of CPC’s Buhari, ACN’s Ribadu and ANPP’s Shekarau who attended, may not have had such issues. Trust or timidity or both may have been why the same trio, twelve days later (March 30), deserted Jonathan as he debated alone on the platform of NEDG-BON (Nigeria Election Debate Group/Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria), which allegedly availed Jonathan the unfair advantage of a sneak preview of the debate questions negotiated for him by a media aide, Doyin Okupe. Nor would trust now not have been at issue also when Buhari shunned the 2015 debate organized by the same discredited body, leaving Jonathan and others who opted to attend because they had no such issue. And maybe trust too, or timidity, was the reason PDP’s Obasanjo in 2003 refused to debate an AD/APP-adopted candidate, Olu Falae.

    In truth, candidates have the prerogative to weigh both the potential benefits and the cost of participating in a political debate and accordingly, to decide whether or not to attend. America’s Lyndon Johnson, in 1964 refused to debate Senator Barry Goldwater for the reason that having already commanded an appreciable lead at the polls, and not being a good public speaker, it would be unwise to risk jeopardizing that lead by attending the debate. As did PDP’s dancing maestro, Adeleke also who shunned the Osun debate because it was the most optimal game-theory strategy in the circumstance. And the question arises: what can Buhari gain side by side with what he definitely stand to lose, by participating in a debate that promises to have him as a menu on a dinner table peopled by hawks, foxes and hyenas? Or can Buhari trust the same NEDG-BON now headed –hold it!- by Channels TV-owner John Momoh, to be unbiased in the conduct of a debate with an Atiku who’s principal, Obasanjo, cast as monist-Machiavellic who sees reality as a single entity driven by the ability and the readiness to pay one’s way through every challenge?

    By the way, since ‘trust’ and ‘being in presidential command’ are the objects of a presidential debates, the question also arises: ‘how can it be determined, in a presidential debate, which person seems more trustworthy and or more in presidential command?’ Is it the man who speaks the more flowery English even though he may lack the will, the capacity or the sincerity to deliver? Or is it the one who reels out the most economic jargon, even if a majority of the debate’s audience does not understand him? Or is it the person who exudes the most humility even if he does not coherently communicate a realistic vision and a workable plan? Or is it the dissembling impresario who dresses more ornately, uses the most high-sounding catch phrases, and is able to pass off as one who can be both trusted and in presidential command?

    The audience of the first ever televised debate, 1960’s ‘Kennedy-Nixon’ debate was said to have scored Kennedy higher not so much for what he had said as for how he appeared at the debate -”vigorous, tanned and confident”, they said, while his opponent, Nixon had “looked pale, worried and sweaty”. But the irony of it was that whereas those who watched the debate by television were swayed by young Kennedy’s looks, majority of those who listened to the debate by radio (and did not have to see a morose-looking, older Nixon or a tanned, debonair Kennedy), said Nixon won the debate. And it turned out also that much of Nixon’s pale and sweaty looks on the debate klieg lights neither came from his physical age nor from the age of his ideas. It was from his refusal to wear a simple make-up –whereas Kennedy did.

    And we saw also, that in spite of all the controversial issues of ‘trust’ afflicting the candidatures of Hillary and Trump, yet the winner of their three-times, hate-filled debates in 2016 was arrived at less by the question of who was more trustworthy than it was by the judgment of who seemed more ‘in presidential command’. And this was in spite of the grossly un-presidential conduct of both candidates throughout most the encounters. Many in fact said that Trump’s uncouth reference to Hillary as a ‘nasty woman’ and the threat to jail her if he became president, were all the ‘feminist rallying’ sympathy she needed to win the debates; even though in the end, they could not win her the election. Nothing can be more ironically unfair, than that the debater who seemed ‘more in presidential command’ should win only the debate but not the election; or that the one who was scandalously ‘un-presidential’ should lose the debate but win the election.

    And so it raises the questions: are the outcomes of pre-election debates truly as game-changing as they are purported to be? The answer is no! A research in The Economist Magazine has proved that “although presidential debates can inform a person’s view, they tend to do little to change it”. In fact it has been shown that between 1960 and 2008 “the polling numbers of presidential candidates leading up to debates were almost perfectly correlated with their numbers (even) shortly afterwards”. And so, to what end is a political debate if its outcome will not affect the entrenched positions of voters? Thus one may ask, ‘what new issues would a debate involving Buhari throw up that Nigerians are not already abreast of or already uncompromisingly divided about? Or what percentage of Nigeria’s voting population by now is still genuinely ‘undecided’ about Buhari or Atiku and have to require that the two candidates debate before they can make up their minds?

    In truth, debates are merely avenues for capitalizing on the vulnerabilities of opponents to score cheap political mileage. Like Kennedy did against Nixon, or Reagan, against Carter, or as virtually every other Nigerian presidential candidate now hopes to do against a bashful, deeply-accented and potentially gaffe-prone Buhari. Said John M. Cunningham, debates are merely “a reliable source of quips, gaffes and lofty remarks”. Every candidate wants to debate an opponent with the most potentials for goofs and gaffes, faux pas and lapsus lingue. And Buhari, perhaps is your worst possible political interlocutor. You’ll do well first to cut through the cadence of his deeply accented Hausanized English; before you grapple with the import of his rationed delivery. His publicly acknowledged virtues of integrity, modesty and tenacity, in the circumstances, are not fitting wares for a political debate with opponents ready to make a bloodied Caesar out of him. He should not debate!

     

    • Concluded.

  • Buhari pays tribute to Holocaust victims

    •President: those fanning embers of discord in Nigeria ‘re illiterates

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari yesterday visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in O?wi?cim, Poland, where he paid tribute to Holocaust victims.

    After an hour and 10 minutes guided tour of the Museum devoted to the memory of the victims, who died at both camps during World War II, President Buhari penned a hand-written tribute in the visitor’s book, quoting Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones”.

    The President, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also laid a wreath at Block 11 of the museum, known as the ”Death block.” Here, according to an epitaph in the Block: ”Male and female prisoners from all parts of the camp complex were held in this building…following brutal interrogations, they were in most cases sentenced to death by shooting.”

    Read also: They are fixated, dodging issues, says PDP

    Before leaving the museum, which includes the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Buhari fielded questions from State House correspondents traveling with him

    He described those fanning embers of discord in Nigeria as “illiterates and ignorant”.

    The President is on Day Four of his visit to Poland, where he had attended the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, delivered his national address at the 12-day meeting of COP24, met with several world leaders and visited the impressive Nigerian pavilion at the climate summit.

    The President had earlier attended a town-hall meeting with Nigerians in Poland, a day after his arrival in the country.

  • Buhari calls for calm in Cross River violence

    President Muhammadu Buhari has decried the violence in four communities in Biase Local Government of Cross River State.

    The President called for calm and peace in the affected communities bordering Abia State.

    A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, urged the people to allow law and order to prevail.

    Read also: Police deny deaths in Cross River communal clash

    The statement reads: “Our communities must be ready to live together in peace since no development can take place in an atmosphere of recurring violence.”

    Buhari, who praised the government for working to bring peace to the areas, lauded the police for mobilising its personnel to the affected communities to contain the crisis.

    He urged stakeholders to cooperate and ensure that lasting peace returned to the affected areas.