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Tag: deepens

  • Air Peace deepens regional operations with night flights

    Air Peace is  boosting its regional operations with the introduction of night flights out of Lagos, Accra, Banjul and Dakar.

    A statement by the carrier’s Corporate Communications Manager, Chris Iwarah quoted the Chief Operating Officer, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olajide as saying the new flights were part of the airline’s strategy to make air travel on the West Coast of Africa seamless and more beneficial.

    Olajide described the  night flights, which commenced from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on Sunday, as a relief for business and leisure travellers on the West Coast looking to utilize their trips to transact their business unrushed.

    “We keep reviewing our regional operations in line with our promise to provide seamless, on-time and comfortable flight services. Whatever the travel needs of our esteemed guests, we want to be able to provide a service that fits their plans.

    “We have been operating on the West Coast of Africa for more than a year and a half. One thing we have come to realise is that a lot of persons like to travel at night and get to their destinations on time to do their transactions in a calm, unhurried and fruitful manner. This is the interest we are catering to with the introduction of night flights.

  • Stakeholders share DEEPEN’s success story in Southwest

    Commissioners of Education as well as their Budget and Planning counterparts with other top government functionaries, private school associations and others in the Southwest gathered on Tuesday at the Park Inn Hotel in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to discuss the success stories of a programme sponsored by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Developing Effective Private Education Nigeria (DEEPEN).

    It is expected to wind down in August.

    At the gathering, DFID’s Southwest Regional Coordinator, David Ukagwu, and DEEPEN Team Leader, Dr Gboyega Ilusanya, as well as other team members shared their experiences.

    They recalled how, through the five-year programme implemented in Lagos State, the government got statistics on over 18,000 private schools operating in the state and saved billions of naira it would have spent educating over 1.4 million learners.

    The team also shared how the government built the capacity of low-cost private schools serving the poor to improve their schools and attracted finance as well as linked them up with service providers to enable them achieve same.

    Present were Kwara State Education Commissioner Mrs Bilkisu Oniyangi, her counterpart in Ogun State, Mrs Modupe Mujota; Commissioners for Budget and Planning in Osun and Kwara states, Dr Olalekan Yinusa and Mr Odewale Wasiu.

    There were representatives from Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo states who were urged to learn from the Lagos experience and establish partnership with private sector education providers, particularly low-cost schools with the aim of providing access to quality education among Nigerian children.

    Ukagwu said the DFID, through the programme, was showing the Nigerian government what was possible through judicious use of funds.

    He said the DFID was “supporting the government of Nigeria to efficiently use its own resources to provide basic services for citizens”.

    Ilusanya said with research showing that 21 per cent of children living in cities across the world attend private schools, it was important that government steps in to provide an enabling environment for the schools to thrive and set up effective modalities to regulate their activities to deliver quality education.

    A former President of Association for Formidable Educational Development (AFED), the foremost umbrella of low-cost private school associations, Mrs Esther Dada, attested to how DEEPEN had been promoting a cordial relationship with the Lagos State government.

    She said the group was involved in the state’s policy meetings, addressed multiple taxation and provided access to finance and capacity building for its members.

    Representatives of the various states promised to work more closely with low-cost private schools operating in their domains.

    Mr Oluseye Oyeleye, the Director-General of

    DAWN Commission, the body sponsored by governments of Southwestern to promote regional development, urged states to act on the lessons they learnt at the event.

    Aid: “Whatever you learnt, find a way of implementing it. What we do is to write the political leaders on things we think will work in their states. You can write to us to do the work for you, if you think they may not listen to you.”

  • Ajimobi, forum rift over congress deepens

    The controversy over the outcome of the Oyo State All Progressives Congress (APC) ward congress deepened yesterday.

    The Unity Forum – a group within the local chapter of the ruling party – accused Governor Abiola Ajimobi of mounting pressure on the national secretariat to alter the results and “accept his people as the duly elected ward executives.”

    They claimed that the governor’s loyalists “lost out of the power play.”

    The Unity Forum is said to have obtained the 9477 forms produced for the congress to put their men incharge contrary to the governor’s advice to the national secretariat “not to issue multiple forms” because he wanted affirmation.

    “Affirmation means approval of an existing executive whereas the list submitted to the congress committee is not that of existing executive members but entirely that of his Ajimobi group (SENACO).

    “He deceived the congress committee that they were existing party executives. This is another fraudulent act in addition to the printing of fake nomination forms which the governor and his men parade.”

    Sources said: “On getting to know on Saturday that members of Unity Forum had collected all the forms; “Ajimobi was said to have lobbied members of the congress to accept payment on the day and provide forms for his people. It was, however, learnt that members of the congress committee rejected the idea saying that they lacked such power.”

    But the governor rejected all the claims in a statement yesterday by his Media Adviser Bolaji Tunji said: said the latest media propaganda by the self-styled Unity Forum of the APC is a desperate attempt to rubbish the result of the ward congresses, which was successfully held across the state, on Sunday.

    He said it was on record that the so-called unity forum adjudged the election to be free, credible and fair in an advertorial published in a national daily and even went ahead to congratulate the congress committee for a job well done.

    Ajimobi added that other stakeholders, including himself, congress committee and the leadership of the party hailed the conduct of the ward congress and would, therefore, have no reason to seek to influence the results.

    According to the governor, it was inconceivable that the same unity forum can make a sudden u-turn to accuse the governor of attempting to doctor the outcome of the election.

    “This shameless act by this dissident group has exposed their level of desperation and extent they are willing to go to mislead the public about the true picture of events leading to the ward congress.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, all eligible members of the APC obtained the nomination form before it closed and actively participated in the election as attested to by the congress committee chairman.”

  • Okorocha’s, Bishop’s row deepens

    Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has said he has done nothing to pitch the Catholic Church against the All Progressives Congress (APC), as alleged by Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu.

    The governor insisted that he has shown love and respect for the Archbishop of Owerri Catholic Diocese, Rev. Anthony Obinna and “has no problem of any kind with the Catholic Church”.

    He donated N100 million for the completion of the Okigwe Catholic Diocese Cathedral.

    Okechukwu accused Okorocha of pitting the Church against the APC, apparently following the governor’s statement that Rev. Obinna cannot install a governor of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2019.

    A statement by Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary Sam Onwuemeodo said: “The Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, accused Governor Rochas Okorocha of pitting the Catholic Church against APC without explaining how he arrived at such claim.

    “Okechukwu is one of those who believe that the only way they can grow in APC is by attacking Governor Okorocha, and he has been doing it religiously without any response from us.

    “Okorocha has shown love and respect to Archbishop Obinna, and has no problem of any kind with the Catholic Church. What Okorocha has done for the Catholic Diocese of Owerri, no past governor, whether civilian or military, has done. Let anybody say it is not true. And if Mr. Okechukwu had participated or followed events in the 2015 election, he would have understood better.

    “Don’t forget that President Muhammadu Buhari got only 14,157 votes in Enugu State, where the DG comes from, and 133,253 in Imo, not minding that Imo was the target of the PDP-led Federal Government’s onslaught.

    “If the governor didn’t mean well, he would not have taken President Buhari to the archbishop. But two days after that visit, the Leader newspaper, owned by the archbishop, had a headline: Alhaji in Government House. The name Okoro-Hausa also came from the same source.

    “And if the campaign of the PDP and a section of the Church that Buhari and Rochas would Islamise the Southeast if APC wins didn’t get to Enugu State, it means the party’s presence in the state was never considered a threat. But in Imo, that was the major campaign.

    “Mr. Okechukwu won’t understand because he was contended with his much-talked about relationship with the President. In case Okechukwu never heard, the governor took an oath at Assumpta Cathedral, during the 2015 campaign, that he won’t help to Islamise the country and that he is not a member of Ogboni.

    “Yet, the attacks intensified. When the governorship debate organised by the Church was disrupted, they accused Rochas, who had not arrived the venue then, of sponsoring it.

    “We are appealing that the archbishop show love to Okorocha and appreciate his good work. And for those who think the governor is their problem, they should not bother as the 2019 election will settle all these bloated egos.”

  • Bauchi APC crisis deepens

    Bauchi APC crisis deepens

    The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State has deepened.

    Chairman of the party in Ganjuwa Local Government Area, Yakubu Kafin Galadima, was been removed for alleged fraud.

    Galadima’s removal was announced by the council secretary, Mohammed Nasiru, in Kafin-Madaki, at a news conference.

    He said: “The former chairman has been informed of his removal from office through a February 26 letter.

    “The former chairman was removed from office because he committed offences which are contrary to Articles 22 and 23 of the party’s constitution.

    “Galadima was given ample opportunities to defend himself of the allegations against him, but he either refused or neglected such opportunities, and we have no choice but to do the right thing.

    “Besides, the party and executive members had long ago passed a vote-of-no-confidence in him, and that is why he was removed.”

  • Delta Labour Party crisis deepens

    THE leadership crisis rocking the Delta State chapter of Labour Party has deepened as both factional leaders have resorted to litigation. A factional chairman, Tony Ezeagwu has already filed a suit at the state High Court in Kwale, praying the court to restrain the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Emeka Nkwoala, from parading himself as chairman of the party in the state.

    In a swift reaction Nkwoala said the caretaker committee which he heads as has also raised a crack team of lawyers to defend the case. He insisted that going by the 2009 constitution of the party, Ezeagwu’s three-year tenure ended in September 2017, adding that a special national convention formally dissolved the Ezeagwu-led executive and inaugurated the caretaker committee in October, 2017.

    “And because Ezeagwu has taken us to court, it shows that he has accepted the decision of the convention, and should therefore stop parading himself as chairman until the court gives a ruling on the matter. “For now, he is still going about illegally claiming to be chairman of Labour Party by operating from the party’s former office. Ezeagwu does not share the ideology of the party, he is neither a trade unionist nor a member of a professional body,” Nkwoala said. But in a swift reaction, Ezeagwu told our correspondent that the court has already issued an order restraining Nkwoala from parading himself as chairman of the party in the state.

  • Plans to make food new crude oil deepens

    There is a revolution tending towards diversifying the economy and literally wean it away from overdependence on dwindling oil revenue. One sure way this is being driven is through the deliberate focus on agriculture as an alternative source of revenue.

    Thankfully, some banks have since keyed into the federal programmes programme. One of such banks is First Bank of Nigeria Limited. The bank recently partnered with Eventful Limited to drive the nation’s food economy through its sponsorship of the third edition of the Fiesta of Flavours. The world class food and beverage fair held for two days at the Harbour Point in Victoria-Island, Lagos.  The support reinforces the bank’s commitment to building the entire agricultural value chain from production to consumption, creating opportunities for SMEs in the food sector and enhancing the economic diversification of the Nigerian citizenry at large.

    In a statement by Folake Ani-Mumuney, FirstBank’s Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, during the announcement of the partnership, “the Bank’s partnership with the Fiesta of Flavours reinforces our support for SMES and our resolve to drive agriculture across the entire value chain whilst promoting economic growth and sustainability.”

    Tagged: ‘Food, Fun and Family,’ the fair had lots of attractions including: exciting food and drinks vendors, fun cooking competitions; children’s cooking corner; star-studded concert; celebrity chef cooking classes; children’s play area; exclusive wine tasting; champagne bar; dancercise and super giveaways.

    Justifying the need for the fair, Mrs Yewande Zaccheus, the Chief Executive Officer of Eventful Limited, said that the initiative had created opportunities for the growth and development of SMEs. Zaccheus said that the company was using the initiative to showcase SMEs, adding that many businesses had grown through the platform. She said that SMEs that did not have money to advertise were using the platform to create awareness. Zaccheus advised government to support SMEs to grow with improve operating environment in view of the dwindling oil revenue.

    One of the participants, Miss Henrietta Ikhuoria, the Managing Director, Feast House Chef, also commended the bank and Eventful Limited on the programme. Ikhuoria said that she came to use the platform to showcase her company that was into takeout lunch, bulk meal and outdoor catering services. She said that the company had been in existence for a year and six months with footprints on the Victoria Island and plans to extend to Lagos Mainland in 2018. Ikhuoria lauded the organisers for enhanced security and conducive stands at the fair ground.

    Some other food vendors that participated for the first time include Ibadan based Ofi Foods Industries, Living Twist Cake company and Salubrity foods which specialised on Tigernut, Date syrup, Zoborodo, Fruit Sluchies and Cocktails. Olufunmike Ani, the managing director of Ofi Food Industries said she was pleased with the turn out and patronage of customers and promised to come back next year for the fiesta. She extends her gratitude to First Bank for the sponsorship of the food fairs.

    The bank used the expo to build strong alliance with the agro-services sector and remained optimistic about the sector’s prospects which have been demonstrated by the bank in its agric schemes.

    To corroborate this, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbeh who was the special guest, described the agro-sector as a vital one with the recent NBS Q4, 2016 GDP growth rate of about 4%, and a 24% contribution to the economy.

    Chief Ogbeh decried the menace of the importation of foodstuffs into the country, which he identified as a major threat to achieving self-sufficiency in food production.

    The promotion of the culture of food by the bank as an avenue to promoting economic growth and sustainability whilst acknowledging the evolution of agriculture as Nigeria’s new sustenance and newest exports to the rest of the world has made FirstBank become the owner of the food space. The bank fully promotes businesses that will build the sector, build revenue for development purposes, create employment opportunities and in the long run translate to national growth and development. The Bank is really committed to creating opportunities for SMEs in the food sector and enhancing the economic diversification of the Nigerian citizenry at large.

  • FirstBank deepens Corporate Social Responsibility

    FirstBank has deepend its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The lender has pledged its support for The 2017 Annual Awareness Week of the Down Syndrome Foundation, which started yesterday and ends on October 27.

    The 2017 edition is not the first time the bank is supporting this initiative, as the Bank has over the last 8 years partnered and participated in a number of initiatives of The Down Syndrome Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation that was founded 17 years ago.

    The bank’s partnership and support to the Down Syndrome Foundation is in furtherance of its Hope Rising Initiative designed to provide various forms of interventions for persons living with disabilities as well as create advocacy and public enlightenment for them.

    The event themed; “Yes (I, You, We) Can… Make A Difference” is projected to feature activities such as press briefing, family fun fair and novelty match amongst others.

  • Senate’s crisis over Amaechi deepens

    Senate’s crisis over Amaechi deepens

    •Plenary adjourned
    for Saraki’s trial

    Rather than abate, the crisis over the screening of ministerial nominee Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is deepening at the Senate.

    Yesterday, his name was removed from the Order Paper after being listed among the eight nominees for screening.

    The number was pruned to three – Adebayo Shittu (Oyo), Hajia Khadija Abba-Ibrahim (Yobe) and Claudius Daramola (Ondo), who was not on the first Order Paper.

    Only Shittu and Hajia Abba-Ibrahim were, however, screened.

    On the first Order Paper before Amaechi’s name was removed are Shittu, Hajia Abba Ibrahim, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), Bawa Bwari (Niger), James Ocholi (Kogi), Mansur Muhammed (Zamfara) and Zainab Ahmed (Kaduna).

    Amaechi, who is on the first list of 21 nominees sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 30, has not been screened because of the petition filed against him by the self-styled The Integrity Group.

    Amaechi has since denied the allegation against him and taken the matter to court.

    The Senate yesterday suspended plenary today without stating reasons. But, it may not be unconnected with the resumption of Senate President Bukola Saraki’s trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false assets declaration today.

    The Senate Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee which considered the petition against Amaechi was set to submit its findings yesterday but the report’s submission was also deleted from the Order Paper.

    Its Chairman Senator Samuel Anyanwu was listed to submit the report before the item, just like Amaechi’s name, was removed from the Order Paper.

    No reasons were given for the removal. Efforts to find out why they were removed failed.

    At the office of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Babajide Omoworare, nobody was ready to speak on the matter. An aide, after conferring with the lawmaker, told The Nation: “The time and terrain are too sensitive, so oga willnot say a word.”

    But, it was learnt that “the leadership of the Senate decided to shift Amaechi’s screening to pave the way for constructive consultation with hardliner Senators, particularly of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

    According to a source, the Senate leadership decided to shorten plenary to allow time for a meeting of the PDP caucus.

    No member of the caucus spoke to reporters after the meeting but an insider said they were unable to resolve how to treat Amaechi’s case.

    The source noted that while a few members of the caucus “wanted us to soft pedal and support the nomination of Amaechi, others were vehement that we should not back down on our stand .”

    He added: “It is an open ended situation. Anything can still happen between today and tomorrow. The PDP caucus has not concluded. Nothing is cast in iron in politics. Some thing can still happen.”

    The caucus, he said, would still meet at the party headquarters on the issue.

    Another source said it was wrong of the Senate to continue to delay Amaechi’s screening.

    According to the source, if Amaechi is screened, the Senate has the right to confirm or reject his nomination.

    He said:  “Even though PDP senators are insisting that Amaechi should not be screened, it is better for us to screen the nominee and take a decision on him. I have it on good authority that most PDP Senators have vowed to stop Amaechi’s screening but at the end of the day, good conscience will prevail because we are talking to one another on this sensitive issue.”

    At his screening, Shittu described the upper chamber as “the most productive Senate on the soil of Africa.”

    The nominee said if he is confirmed he would do his best to ensure that the Executive and the National Assembly work in tandem for the country’s development.

    He said: “If confirmed, I will be a round peg in any ministerial posting that I’m given.”

    Shittu denied that he was indicted by a panel for religious intolerance in Oyo State, nothing that he was in Saudi Arabia when the incident occurred and couldn’t have had anything to do with it.

    The panel that investigated the matter, he said, never invited him, adding that the list of those invited was gazetted.

    The panel, he said, merely “advised him” to refrain from writing books that could inflame religious passion, adding: “It was only an advice and not an indictment.”

    Shittu said the government had since pardoned all those indicted by the panel.

    On why he lost his governorship election in 2011 on the Congress for progressive Change (CPC) platform, the nominee said he did not lose because of his personality.

    He said he lost because “the whole of South West people decided to vote for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).”

    Shittu said: “It was obvious in 2011 that in the whole of the Southwest, the ACN was the party to beat. If you have all the money and you are the best candidate our people have already formed their opinion about the party to vote for. My loss was not about my personality but about the opinion of the Southwest to vote for ACN.”

    He said going to the ministry of culture and tourism would not be going to a foreign land because he had done it before.

    The nominee said he was part of the people who crafted the APC manifesto, with the hope that if implemented, the country would have a new lease of life.

    The students feeding programme of the APC if implemented, he said, would not only create jobs for Nigerians but would also attract many children to school.

    The nominee noted that as a Muslim, his world view and aspiration were in line with what Islam teaches.

    Shittu said he would never support coercing people to embrace any religion against their wish.

    The nominee said even if Boko Haram insurgents lay claim to Islam, their activities have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam and denied that his publication, “Path to Paradice” is the sect’s guiding principle.

    Hajia Abba-Ibrahim’s screening was full of drama. Saraki described her as an affiliate member of the 8th Senate, an affiliate member of the Nigeria Governors Forum, and a three-time member of the House of Representatives.

    She said her last appointment before she joined active politics was as commissioner for Transport and Energy in Yobe State, adding that she was involved in the rural electrification programme in the 17 local government area of the state.

    Asked by Saraki to take the first question, her husband, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim asked her how she would react if “I ask you to take a bow and go.”

    There was general laughter in the chamber.

    When the laughter subsided, Saraki asked the nominee to take a bow and go.

    Senator Athanasius Achonu (Imo North) told the Senate that he has 10 petitions against the nomination of Professor Anthony Anwukah.

    The petitions were referred to the ethics committee.

    Anyanwu asked the Senate to give the committee time to treat the petitions since 10 petitions could not be treated in one day.

    Sixteen other ministerial nominees are awaiting to be screened.

     

  • Edo IPMAN leadership crisis deepens

    The leadership crisis rocking the Midwestern Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) deepened at the weekend as warring factions almost engaged in a free-for-all at a meeting held in Benin City.

    A faction is led by Solomon Ogbewe while another group claimed it has elected a new executive, led by Silvanus Idanwekhai.

    The factions are operating from two secretariats.

    The meeting was called at the instance of the National Executive Council of IPMAN but both factions refused to sheath their swords.

    Management of the hotel where the meeting took place had a hectic time calming the IPMAN members and even threatened to send them away.

    National Vice-President Chinedu Okorokwo, at a briefing after the meeting, said Ogbewe was the recognised chairman of IPMAN’s Midwestern Zone.

    Chinedu said the constitution relied on by the other faction to conduct election was not tenable since it has been reviewed in 2011.

    He described Idanwekhai’s election as a nullity. “It is the prerogative of the NEC to conduct zonal elections. The zones cannot in themselves conduct election and until then noting can hold in nothing.

    “When there is a vacancy it is constitutionally binding on NEC not to leave the vacuum. So they appointed an acting chairman or acting person in that capacity to act pending the conduct of election.”

    The Idanwekhai faction’s spokesman, Fred Ufua, said the national body has no constitutional right to choose leaders for them.

    He said the 1983 IPMAN constitution, which they relied on to conduct the election, was the tenable constitution of IPMAN.

    “We cannot continue to be under the roof of one man sitting in Abuja arrogating to himself power to appoint and re-appoint. The present national executive has never successfully conducted election in any of the zones. What they do is impose candidates.”