The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fix

  • Fuel scarcity: Fix refineries now, NUPENG urges NNPC

    Fuel scarcity: Fix refineries now, NUPENG urges NNPC

    The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) yesterday called for the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries to end the recurring fuel scarcity across the country.

    The South-West Chairman of the union, Tayo Aboyeji, who made the call in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria, said it is disheartening to know that despite the fact that the nation is a major producer of crude oil, it cannot refine the product for its local consumption.

    He said it is ridiculous that for the past 15 years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been spending billions of dollars on Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the refineries with nothing to show for it,” saying if all our four refineries were producing at their maximum output, the country would not be spending such huge sum on importation of refined product.

    Aboyeji said this was the right time for our refineries to work, adding that the Federal Government should as a matter of urgency fix the refineries at this moment.

    He urged the NNPC to increase product supply to the depots so as to reduce the current scarcity nationwide, saying it was not ripe at the moment for total deregulation of the sector and advised that government should reduce import duty and provide waiver to oil companies to enable them import the product.

    On allegations that certain petrol stations were selling products above the official pump price, Aboyeji said the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), should investigate properly before sealing such stations.

    He said: “To me, it is not all about the pump price, it is about where they are getting the product from and at what price.”

    The NUPENG chief said DPR should first of all verify the price at which the depot owners sell to petrol stations to know if these private depots are selling above the ex-depot price of N133.28.

    Aboyeji wondered that since DPR started sealing of petrol stations selling above official pump price, if it (DPR), has asked private depots how much they are selling to marketers?

    He said oil marketers are in business to make money, saying they cannot get petrol at higher price and sell to motorists at lower price.

    He said it is the responsibility of DPR to find out the source of where the marketers are getting the product before sealing the stations.

  • ‘Time to fix your body’

    ‘Time to fix your body’

    For a brand new you-body and soul, OYEYEMI GBENGA -MUSTAPHA writes that a visit  to the physiotherapy unit/Health promotion Unit of Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba can fix you for the new year. 

    We are in the festive season and everyone wants to enjoy life  to the fullest where there is no hinderance to  freedom of movement, easy and painless living,  independence; enjoying hobbies, sports and recreation time; keeping fit; catching fun with family members and playing with kids or grandkids.

    But what if certain problems stand in your way such as pain with movement like bending forward? Do you know the relevance of physiotherapy to everyday life? You may do yourself a whole lot of good by visiting the Physiotherapy Unit and Department of Health Promotion Unit, Federal Neuropsychiatry Hospital, Yaba, Lagos and get your body fixed and prepared for the emerging year, more so, if you are working in an office.

    According to the Assistant Director, Physiotherapy and Head of Department (HOD), Health Promotion Unit, Federal Neuropsychiatry Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Miss Adetayo A. Adeife, this is the season to fix certain pains one has been ignoring by planning and utilising the long holiday to get good professional body care.

    “This is the time to really attend to certain problems that have stood in your way such as pain with movement like bending forward, stiffness when walking, twinges of pain when raising the arm, pain when rising from a chair or getting out of bed, neck aches when at the computer or fear of falling. No need to move into the New Year with such pains. They can be adequately addressed here at Yaba,” said Miss Adeife.

    She said there are well over 20 different treatment approaches commonly used by the physiotherapist and the hospital has what it takes to do them. Such as:

     

    Hands-on Physiotherapy Techniques  such as:

    Joint mobilisation (gentle gliding) techniques,  Joint manipulation, Physiotherapy Instrument Mobilisation (PIM). Minimal  Energy  Techniques (METs),  Muscle stretching,  Neurody-namics, Massage and Soft tissue techniques.

    In fact, we have skills which include techniques used by most hands-on professionals such as chiropractors, osteopaths, massage therapists, and kinesiologists. We do physiotherapy taping by utilising strapping and taping techniques to prevent injuries. Some of the staff are also skilled in the use of kinesiology taping.

     

    Acupuncture and dry needling:

    Many physiotherapists have acquired additional training in the field of acupuncture and dry needling to assist pain relief and muscle function.

     

    Physiotherapy Exercises: Physiotherapists have been trained in the use of exercise therapy to strengthen your muscles and improve your function. Physiotherapy exercises have been scientifically proven to be one of the most effective ways that you can solve or prevent pain and injury.

    Your physiotherapist is an expert in the prescription of the “best exercises” for you and the most appropriate “exercise dose” for you depending on your rehabilitation status. Your physiotherapist will incorporate essential components of pilates, yoga and exercise physiology to provide you with the best result.

     

    Biomechanical Analysis

    Biomechanical assessment, observation and diagnostic skills are paramount to the best treatment.

    Your physiotherapist is a highly skilled health professional with superb diagnostic skills to detect and ultimately avoid musculoskeletal and sports injuries. Poor technique or posture is one of the most common sources of repeat injury.

    And if you are in the sports world, Miss Adeife said there is Sports Physiotherapy.

    “Sports physio requires an extra level of knowledge and physiotherapy skill to assist injury recovery, prevent injury and improve performance. We are up to date on this aspect as well,” she added.

    And for executives whose job is impeding their well being, Mrs Adeife said that can be taken care of with Ergonomics.

    Why is Ergonomics important?

    Mrs Adeife said ergonomics is the study of how people fit in their work environment, as she explained, “Ergonomic improvements are specific to the workers and their demands upon their bodies. The ergonomic demands of an office worker vary significantly from a manual job such as a labourer. An employee may be fit or physically capable for one occupation and not another. That’s the basic point, we’re all different shapes and sizes and our workplace setup and practices can vary on an individual basis. This is where an ergonomic assessment for the individual worker is important”.

     

    Office Ergonomics

    “Office ergonomics don’t necessarily need to involve expensive ergonomic chairs, mouse, workstation products, tools or desks. Ergonomics in the office can usually combine an ergonomic assessment and setup along with helpful preventative ergonomic advice. It is often not what we are sitting upon or standing at, but rather how we hold our body or perform the tasks that cause workplace injury. Advice about correct trunk posture can improve your spine, head and neck alignment that results in a less fatigue when sitting at a desk for prolonged periods of time. Often a simple product will assist or remind you  on how to position yourself in your work or home environment,” she added.

  • ‘Fix it’ can’t fix history

    It is rather amusing — isn’t it? —  the way Tony Anenih, “Mr. Fix It” of Nigerian politics, post-June 12 debacle, is gamely trying to fob off his bitter-sweet moniker.

    That formidable alias served, rather well, the Uromi, Edo State-born kingpin of reactionary politics; and his numerous clients: when an election was to be nicked, sans the electorate; when a toady candidate was to be imposed, the party be damned; and when the (in)famous “no vacancy” notice was to be hoisted, with full verbal arrogance, in incumbent presidential suites.

    Nice try, Mr. Fix it!  But not even the formidable Mr. Fix it could fix history.

    In his newly released autobiographical memoirs, “My Life and Nigerian Politics”, Chief Anenih went a whole length to deny that name, in a classic example of approbating (when sweet) and reprobating (when sour), “Fix it” fashion, under the delusion that it takes only a few written lines, or the notorious cold print, to change history.

    No, it doesn’t because, sweet or sour, there are always witnesses, either as beneficiaries of injustices or as victims of rigged processes.

    But it is rather pleasing Chief Anenih tried to shift the full blame of the criminal annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election on the self-named “military president” back then, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

    No tears for IBB.  As the Bible recorded, Jesus the Christ was divined to die for humanity’s sins.  Still, woe betide Judas, whose grim business it was to betray Jesus.

    Perhaps the rogue military under IBB had fore-decided to annul the June 12 election; sure the luckless Bashir Tofa would triumph. But it was their lousy luck that instead of Tofa, Moshood Abiola did.

    More ill luck: the “soft” MKO wouldn’t give up his free mandate without a fight — a fight that eventually claimed his life; but left his traducers, like IBB and Anenih, condemned to a cruel life of funny denials!

    So, serves IBB right.  He ended up dribbling himself, after dribbling an innocent and trusting people for eight long years, handing them mere chaff instead of wheat.

    Still, it is rich the way Anenih tried to portray the grand betrayal of MKO, by his own Social Democratic Party (SDP), which Anenih chaired. Yeah, IBB might have initiated the plot, as part of his endless plots to, willy-nilly, retain power.

    But let not Anenih deny that that was not sweet music to the Shehu Yar’Adua People’s Front (PF) faction of the SDP, the minority faction that seized the party’s executive, and moulded it in its treacherous image.

    Incidentally, neither MKO nor Yar’Adua survived the perfidious high drama. But the two that did, IBB and Anenih, God has granted long lives to do eternal battles with their conscience — Allah Akbar!

    Even forget June 12, as the beginning; and age of innocence. What of Anenih’s merry involvement in the Edo locust years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), when the godfathers and their clients grew gross, while the people, the supposed political masters, shrivelled?

    It took the coming of Adams Oshiomhole to right the wrong and, in favourite Adams-speak, “retire the godfathers”!

    Anenih, who will go down as the historical parallel of his co-Uromi native and ironic namesake, Tony Enahoro, young and idealist in nationalist causes as Anenih is old and reactionary, in the unending debacle of post-independent Nigeria.

    Since the MKO betrayal of June 12, Chief Anenih laid his bed.  It is only fit and proper now that he lies on it, in his winter years; instead of attempting a laughable revisionism.

     

    Pity. Not even Mr. Fix it could fix history!

  • Good sleep can fix impotence, says expert

    Good sleep can fix impotence, says expert

    What has sleep got to do with erectile dysfunction (ED)? A lot, says Caribbean Health and Nutrition Managing Director Dr Patrick  Ijewere. Those who do not enjoy a good sleep could be having more problems than just tiredness, he said, adding: “It can actually be a tell tale sign of ED”. Ijewere spoke at the activities marking Vitafoam’s World Sleep Day.

    He explained that fatigue or “improper amounts of sleep and quality of sleep” can impact a wide range of health conditions, including erectile dysfunction and lower urinary tract symptoms.

    “Chronic sleep shortages or problems have been linked to a host of other health issues, including increasing the risk of developing heart disease and strokes, and other conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity. We also know that sleeplessness can age your brain by up to seven years by getting not only too little sleep but too much,” he said.

    Ijewere said patients ha been assisted to overcome ED and other conditions by helping them modify their sleep patterns style.

    He said a slight adjustment in lifestyle would result in a good night’s rest. Such adjustments, he said, include cutting  down caffeine as the effects of caffeine can take about eight hours to wear off, avoiding alcohol as a sleep aid as it may initially help you fall asleep, but it can also lead to less-than-restful sleep.

    Others are relaxing before bedtime so as to create a pre-sleep habit. Such adjustments, Ijewere said,  are light stretching or a hot bath, to help you unwind from the day. Regular exercise, usually in the mornings or afternoons, and keeping your bedroom dark, quiet, and comfortable will help.

    Ijewere said the day starts for the body when one is asleep and not on waking up or during napping, as “the body recreates, refreshes, relaxes, renews and rebounds during sleep. Unlike when people say the day starts on waking up, when the alarm blows or when one gets off the bed.”

    He advised that it is best to sleep on cotton, wool or dry grass as these materials keep “us warm during cold or chill nights and calm us during hot nights. These are evidenced in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s where even the pillows sold are stuffed with dry grasses.

    Vitafoam Nigeria Plc  Group Managing Director, Taiwo Adeniyi said the theme of this year’s World Sleep Day ”Good Sleep is a reachable dream” – affects the truth that people without worries enjoy the most peaceful and uninterrupted rest. “Sound sleep is a treasured function and one of the core pillars of health. When sleep fails health declines and there is decreasing quality of life,” he stated.

    Quoting a section of Mckinsey quarterly report of last month, he said, “The organisational cost of insufficient sleep” shows that Sleep-awareness programs can produce better leaders, may Nigeria current economic challenges which can be trace to years of bad leadership, would have been averted if we had better sleep awareness programs in our society. This is why Vitafoam Nig. Plc will continue to support World Sleep Day in creating awareness for sleep and also provide quality products that enable our Nigerians achieve a good night’s sleep, in order to produce better leaders for our beloved country Nigeria.”

    He said experts say getting a good night sleep’s  depend on a lot of factors; comfort, stress level, room temperature but to get it right  you have to start with the basics and your mattress is the first building block to a restful slumber.

    “Our spring mattress is posturpedic, orthopedic and therapeutic, this mattress help to support your body in a neutral position, one in which your spine has a nice curvature while your buttocks, heels, shoulders and head are supported in proper alignment. We are confidence that good sleep is an achievable dream with Vitafoam, as we have gone beyond mattress to offer our target audiences other beddings products like bedframe, bed topper, bed sheets, duvet and various types of pillows (throw pillows, Music pillows and memory pillow e.t.c.) that will ensure you achieve good sleep. We have transcended beyond sleep business to the living business, we now manufacture semi rigid and rigid polyurethane foam products including furniture, bed and beddings, foot wears, insulated panels and molded products that make you experience total comfort. We are committed to producing quality innovative product that will support sleeps and total wellbeing,” Adeniyi said.

  • PRESIDENT JONATHAN Fix these federal roads

    THIS is to appeal to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to do something urgently about the federal roads which are in bad shape.

    I am not talking about a particular state. I am referring to all the states in the country. There is no state without a bad federal road.

    People die daily on these roads as a result of potholes, craters and other horrible features on them.

    To prevent untimely deaths, occurring everyday, something must be done urgently. This is not a matter to be politicized. It is the right of Nigerians that must be protected.

    As the president goes around the country, campaigning for re-election, he will be seeing the roads, if he travels by road. But I do not think he can see anything because he does his travelling by air.

    The bad conditions of these roads should be the concern of our president. He should go into action on them in the interest of all Nigerians.

     

    Akin Alabi Moses,

    Minna,

    Niger State.

  • Gov Amosun, please fix the collapsed Iken-Ogbo bridge

    I write to once again bring to the notice of Governor Ibikunle Amosun the issue of the Iken-Ogbo bridge in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State.

    The bridge which is the only gateway to several communities in the area, such as Okelamuren, Ibido, Idagbo, collapsed on May 16, 2012, throwing the people into untold hardship. The people thus have to go through huge difficulties navigating through difficult paths to connect with the outside world. To the people’s surprise, the bridge has remained in the same state, despite official reports to the local and state government offices.

    We are therefore seizing this opportunity to bring the matter to your attention, especially as you are billed to tour the area in the coming week. It is also important to remind you that the area is largely dominated by APC members and faithful, who cannot understand why they have been abandoned to this fate for almost three years.

    We are also using this opportunity to bring to your notice the terrible state of our road in Ward 15 and the fact that the whole area has been left in total darkness since 2012, when the transformer packed up. As a community, we have been collaborating with the local government chairman, Olawale Shittu, but it seems these projects are a bit beyond his capacity.

    Even Kabiyesi, Oba Lawrence Oguntayo, the Alawunren of Okelamuren  and High Chief Lekan Odunfejo have not been left out in the quest to find lasting solution to these problems, as he has severally taken the matter to both the local and the state governments.

    We will therefore appreciate it if you can come to our aid, as the situation is getting unbearable by the day and affecting commercial activities.

    We wish you success in the coming election and once again promise you our unflinching support as a people.

    •Muyiwa Omobulejo,

    1, Igbodile Quarters, Iken-Ogbo-Ijebu near Ijebu-Ode.

     

  • ‘Only Buhari can fix Nigeria’

    ‘Only Buhari can fix Nigeria’

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has been identified as a leader who has the experience, courage and character to fix Nigeria.

    The Ekiti State Coordinator of the Buhari Support Organisation, Mr. Babatope Adebulejo, in a statement yesterday, urged Nigerians to vote for the APC presidential flagbearer to save the country from collapse.

    He said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government has allegedly bastardised governance and impoverish majority of Nigerians.

    Adebulejo said Buhari, during his first stint in power as Military Head of State, tackled corruption and instituted discipline in Nigerian public life.

    The group said the APC presidential candidate has the moral fibre to tackle corruption and cleanse the mess in political, economic and social aspects of the Nigerian society.

    He warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to succumb to temptation to next year’s general elections, declaring the readiness of the Nigerian electorate to resist subversion of their electoral will.

  • No quick fix

    No quick fix

    •CBN’s devaluation of the Naira failed to take a holisitic view of the economy

    At the end of its regular Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of last week Tuesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) took some drastic measures to mitigate the impact of the falling oil prices on the nation’s economy, and specifically, to halt the run on the nation’s reserves. First, it resolved to move the exchange rate band from N150-160 to the dollar to an unprecedented N160-176; second, it adjusted the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) – the industry benchmark interest rate – by 100 basis points from 12 to 13 percent; finally, it hiked banks’ cash reserve ratio (CRR) for private sector bank deposits from 15 percent to 20 percent.

    CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele justified the measures on the grounds of low accruals into the nation’s foreign reserves as a result of falling oil prices; the continuing depletion of the reserves arising from the surge in demand for foreign exchange – developments which he noted, have constrained “the ability of the bank to continually defend the naira and sustain the stability of the naira exchange rate”.

    We agree that in the face of the continuing uncertainty in oil prices, the measures have become somewhat pragmatic. Were there to be still lingering doubts about the negative impacts of the falling oil prices on the economy as a whole, the latest dip in the reserve by 5.1 percent from the previous month, and the five-month low of $37.17 billion ought to have provided more than mere warning signs on the shape of things to come hence the drastic measures needed to halt the trend.

    Unfortunately, if we worried at what we considered as continuing misdiagnosis of the problem by the fiscal authorities in our previous editorial, we are even now just as alarmed at the measures conceived by the monetary authorities to address the challenge. We refer to the pathetic failure to isolate the other part of the problem for effective remedial action in the face of the admission by the apex bank authorities that the current demand profile does not have any bearing on the genuine foreign exchange needs of the country. We expected the CBN to do more than bemoan the situation; it should have  moved to  identify those fuelling the surge without the resort to the devaluation tool as a rod of affliction to punish the innocent and the guilty.

    At the risk of being misunderstood, we concede that the option of devaluation comes highly recommended at time of heightened demand pressure for foreign exchange and falling commodity prices. If it amounts to much, it comes with the additional benefit of delivering more naira into the federation account without the need to pump an extra barrel of oil. With the 36 states of the federation already chaffing under the impact of diminishing oil revenues, the option comes with the promise of bringing relief to their finances and those of the local governments in particular. The problem, however,  is that the apex bank appears   to have deployed the tool in a manner that suggests a lack of sensitivity to the needs of the economy.

    Besides, our peculiarly weak manufacturing/export base makes the practical benefits of devaluation particularly doubtful. In an environment where basic items of manufacture are imported and where the only ‘exports’ are unprocessed raw materials,  including crude oil whose output is set by quota, what it does is suffer citizens to double jeopardy of being asked to pay more in the absence of an alternative. More inexplicable however is that the apex bank would hike the MPC and the CRR rates – both of which effectively translates to hiking what is already prohibitively high cost of borrowing, and with it the possibility of further constricting the domestic economy.

    Rather than superficial measures, what the current challenges call for are tailor-made measures to give muscle to the local business. Boosting local capacities to diversify the economic base would seem a far more useful step to take than a thousand measures that leads nowhere.

  • Gabros: I’ll fix Nigeria football

    Gabros: I’ll fix Nigeria football

    • Ex-NFA Vice Chairman deplores Glass House fire outbreak

    Chief Gabriel Chukwuma, Proprietor and sole financier of Gabros International Football Club, a second tier league  side, has proclaimed having what it takes to fix the ailing Nigerian football, saying he will do without collecting a kobo.

    “You find out most of the time that those who struggle to be and remain at the helm of our football affairs do so for personal gain and not just to add to the good and development of the game in Nigeria” said  Chukwuma,a former Vice chairman of NFA during the  Ibrahim Galadima reign.

    “And this has accounted for all the crisis we’ve been going through especially the leadership crisis that has continually rocked the NFF.

    “Personally,I have what it takes to solve all the problems that have retarded our football, especially from the policy making NFF.

    ” I’ll do this without collecting a kobo as salary throughout the period I’ll carry out this assignment of re-engineering our football to the path of progress to the delight and pride of every Nigerian”.

    Asked how he will achieve this,the chairman of Gabros Group of Companies and ‘Nnanyelugo Nnewi’, explained radical reforms he will put in place:

    “First,you will find out no club owner has ever been chairman of NFF and because they don’t know what it takes to run a club, people rush into NFF for the free cash available for them to share.

    “Because they are not the ones wearing the shoes so they don’t know where it pinches.

    “In that case, once a private club owner like me gets there,things will change and mark my word, I won’t collect a kobo while I’m there.

    “Again, I’ll ensure that a team of coaches are contracted  to scout for players of 18 to 20 years were from the league here and are camped for at least two years with the express mandate that such players will not sign contracts in Europe within the period.

    “Then all the sponsorship monies will be evenly shared to all the clubs as a way of helping them develop and where  possible free all the clubs from the ownership and control of state governments who will only give a substantial amount of money to the clubs to enable them stand on their own”.

  • Judo Federation fix youth championships for September

    Judo Federation fix youth championships for September

    The President of Nigeria Judo Federation, Musa Oshodi, has revealed that the month of September is best suitable for the youth championship.

    He  said this will enable the participants have enough time to prepare adequately for such developmental programme. He said grooming budding talents to take over from the aging ones would form a major priority for any good administration that wishes to develop the game.

    According to him,  “Nigeria should begin to elect good administrators in all facet of our economy, which sports is an integral part. We should not continue to discriminate even when we are still learning from the foreign countries, such as Japan and Korea on the game. Those countries build their sports industries form the grassroots.”

    He said a perfect grassroot programme will ensure a standard system ” what we see here is a re-circling of old athletes, who have been there since 2008 and have not won any international championships with no international ratings. They keep on recircling them and we are tired of this.  What we are about to do now is to adopt a system where the retiring Judokas will be given the opportunity to administer the game and impart knowledge into the younger ones”.

    He said  the junior championship will feature U- 15, U- 16 and U-17 categories, which will enable the federation select young and talented Judokas for an international Judo championship later in the year.

    He said Judokas  from judo clubs across the country, as well as from the professional bodies like the Police, the Military, Civil Defense corps, the Diplomatic corps among others are expected to participate.

    “Embassies have been approached for a better and more straightened relationship and sponsorships,” he concluded.