The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Jigawa

  • NDE trains 50 women in Jigawa

    NDE trains 50 women in Jigawa

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has commenced training of 50 women in Tie and Dye making in Jigawa under the directorate’s Women Employment Promotion (WEP).

    The Directorate’s Coordinator in the state, Alhaji Muhammad Sambo, said this while inspecting the training session on Tuesday in Dutse Local Government Area.

    Sambo said the beneficiaries were drawn from the state`s North-Central Senatorial District comprising Dutse, Buji, Birninkudu, Kiyawa, Gwaram, Miga and Jahun local government areas.

    “The gesture is to enable the beneficiaries to set up their own businesses, become self-reliant and employers of labour.

    “It is also to empower the women to contribute meaningfully to the economic growth of their families, communities and the state.

    “Women will be accorded special attention considering the level of their vulnerability in the society,’’ he said.

    The coordinator said the beneficiaries would also be trained on basic business skills to enable them set up their own businesses.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the five-day training, which began on May 16, would end on May 20.

     

  • One killed, three injured in Jigawa

    One killed, three injured in Jigawa

    One person was confirmed killed and three injured as suspected All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters clashed in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital.

    The incident occurred during the visit of the PDP National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff.

    A source said suspected APC members gathered on the Kiyawa Road and chanted a slogan (Bamayi), which provoked suspected PDP supporters, resulting in a clash that left one person dead.

    Addressing reporters, the Special Assistant on Media to the Jigawa State Governor, Malam Bello Zaki, alleged that PDP supporters attacked APC members, killing one and injuring three.

    He described the incident as barbaric.

    The aide alleged that after the PDP stakeholders’ meeting, suspected thugs went round Dutse, attacking people perceived to be APC members.

    He alleged that they killed one person and injured three.

    Police spokesman Abdu Jinjiri confirmed the incident.

    He said a suspect, Bashir Yusuf, has been arrested.

    The Vice Chairman of PDP in Jigawa Central Zone, Alhaji Aminu Nuhu Jahun, said his members were not responsible for the violence.

    He urged the police to arrest and prosecute the culprits.

     

  • PDP will reclaim power in Jigawa by 2019 – Sheriff

    PDP will reclaim power in Jigawa by 2019 – Sheriff

    National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, has expressed optimism that the party will reclaim Jigawa in the 2019 general elections.

    Sheriff said this while addressing a delegation of PDP members led by Alhaji Tukur Ganza, who paid him a solidarity visit in Abuja on Tuesday.

    Sheriff said the party would do everything democratically possible to reclaim the state, which he said was PDP stronghold.

    ”We lost the election not because PDP was not strong in Jigawa, but it was the movement at that time ‎that caused it.

    “Now, we have learnt from our mistakes. So, it is a matter of time. All the people who left our party in Jigawa will come back.

    “The leadership of the PDP today will ensure that no one is lagging behind,” Sheriff said.

    Earlier, Ganza said the group’s visit was to support the emergence of Sheriff as PDP national chairman.

    He said that the group believed in the capability of Sheriff to revive the party.

  • The Jigawa brand of politics

    It’s unarguable that the advancement of Western democracies over the years has been that the politicians and leaders of all stripes have tended to pursue the local and national interests rather than focusing on narrow and jaundiced policies.

    In the same vein, when a new leader takes over rather than witch-hunting supporters of the ancient regime, the new leader in some cases even co-opt former players into their new dispensation in order to move their state or nation forward.

    Sadly, the reverse is the case in the third world, and Jigawa State in particular where witch-hunting, victimization, and harassment have remained the responsibility of the present administration. Rather than being the exception, the newly elected government of All Progressives Congress under the stewardship of Governor Muhammadu Badaru in Jigawa State has gone all out to decimate perceived political rivals and opponents while ignoring serious and pending governance issues.

    The governor on assuming office was expected to carry on with the laudable developmental and infrastructural achievements of the erstwhile governor; Sule Lamido but he has turned not only to denigrate the achievements Lamido.

    This is not how to advance the course of democracy.

    • Dr Bala Sani Isa

     Abuja.

  • Badaru, Lamido and Jigawa’s health sector

    One of the beauties of democracy is the freedom of speech only that we do not allow justice and truth to be killed on the table of egotism, envy, hatred and ingratitude. I have been thinking what Jigawa government under Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Talamis wants to achieve by always attacking and discrediting Sule Lamido’s visible and pragmatic achievements in Jigawa.

    Instead of recognizing and appreciating what he did and continuing from where he stopped, they keep belittling him by using people to mislead the general public particularly those who have not visited Jigawa or heard of what Lamido did in the state.  A first time and even a wayfarer through Jigawa can attest to the work Lamido did in the state. Records and legacies don’t lie.

    Before the coming of the Lamido administration in 2007, the health budget of the state was never above five percent. From 2007 there was a gradual increase in the size of the budget reaching 15% in 2013 making the state the only one in the federation to attain the Abuja Declaration.

    In 2007 when Lamido took over as the governor, he introduced a decentralized and integrated district health system known as Gunduma Health System to improve access to healthcare and reach out to the rural dwellers within the limit of available resources and he succeeded.

    Lamido’s vision in the initiating Gunduma Health System, was to have a healthy and productive population in Jigawa State and to promote the health status of the people through improved integrated health care service, awareness on health and health related matters, to ensure good resource mobilization and practices with increased public – private partnership and effective participation and ownership to ensure that basic health services are made available, accessible, affordable and acceptable to the people of Jigawa State.

    This came with a number of gains including:  the revamping of the infrastructure, improvement in health care financing, strengthening of the human resource, improving health services delivery, sustaining drugs supply and equipment provision and promoting community participation and ownership. Gunduma Health System was created to focus on improving health service delivery while the state Ministry of Health maintained its stewardship role for policy direction.  Before Lamido became the governor in 2007, Jigawa State had the highest maternal and infant mortality rate in the country; the health sector then, was a sham. The Gunduma Healthcare System he initiated was messiah for entire health sector in the state.

    When Lamido took over in 2007, his administration inherited only 21 doctors, six pharmacists and less than 200 nurses/midwives in what undoubtedly showed and proved a decaying health sector. Because workers are the engine of any institution, before Lamido handed over power in May 29, 2015, there were 160 doctors, 685 nurses/midwives, 34 pharmacists – in a healthcare system having 6,136 staff strength in different cadres. What a passionate, brilliant and a caring leader!

    The health sector has witnessed improved financing options from the government since 2008. The percentage of state budgets allocated to the health sector has witnessed a sustained increase in budgetary allocation to the health sector from nine percent in 2009, 11 % in 2010, 14% in 2011 to 14% in 2012. This upward trend is due to implementation of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) and Consolidated Medical Salary structure (CONMESS).

    The only School of Nursing in the state was operating in a local government council secretariat for almost 19 years, but because of Lamido’s prudence, and the value he placed on the health sector, built a new brand one in Birnin-Kudu which is one of the best in the country. Lamido built General and Cottage Hospitals, Primary Health Centres, Dispensaries and Health Posts, Basic Health Centres, Psychiatric Hospital, Tuberculosis and Leprosy etc. He also renovated and expanded the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital and School of Health Technology Jahun among others. At the time of handing over in May last year, Lamido’s administration left behind a total of 676 functional health facilities (Hospitals) in the state.  And there were provision of high quality free and affordable drugs in all the hospitals (medical buildings) in the state.

    The Haihuwa Lafiya programme introduced in 2008 ensured that there was 5.5 million hospital attendance in 2014, against 1.2 million in 2008; 3.3 million children seen, against 0.5 million in 2008; 35 percent pregnant women delivering in Jigawa hospitals, against only seven percent in 2007. By May last year, the rate of women attending ante-natal rose to the all-time high of 89 percent.

    Apparently, the assertion about the so-called neglect of the health sector started since the advent of the present administration in the state, especially with the retrenchment of all health casual workers in the state, stoppage of allocation to all Jigawa health institution (including free drugs to the masses) and Haifuwa Lafiya scheme, the present plan to reduce the health workers salary and other entitlements (welfare), and also the outbreak of cholera in Hara and Kafijiba villages of Dutse LGA of the state recently. As the record reads, about 40 people, most of them children, are reported to have died as a result of the outbreak of a disease suspected to be cholera. Also, the outbreak was linked to lack of good drinking water because their well in the village which served as the source of drinking water is not functioning now and there was a suspicion whether the disease was a result of contamination of drinking water.

    Today, one cannot write complete history of Primary Health Care under one roof without recourse to newly structured health system in the state which has enviably provided impetus to the general re-structuring of the health system across the nation. In fact, during Sule Lamido administration, several states visited Jigawa to study the health system or some components of the system towards adopting or adapting according to their individual peculiarities. Among the states that visited Jigawa are Bauchi, Enugu, NasarawaYobe, Bayelsa, Zamfara and Kano.

    What Sule Lamido did to Jigawa and humanity in general is a true sign of good leadership and no question about the obvious. The entire populace are convinced that the political gladiators in the state, region if not in the country cannot produce a match to Lamido in terms of political participation, his ideologies, credentials, principles and achievements.

    Jigawa before Lamido was at the peak of political, social and economic degeneration but within a short time, Lamido restored a new social order for the people. Because of the facilities provided by Sule Lamido, the socio-economic landscape of the state has changed for good. Jigawa has not only improved positively, it that can compete with many states in the country most especially in the health sector. Governor Badaru is advised to take counsel from former U.S President, Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) who said –  “Do your duty, and history will do you justice”.

    • Adamu wrote in from Kafin-Hausa, Jigawa State

  • Jigawa’s N900m for 60 medical students abroad

    The Jigawa state government has set aside the sum of N900 million to sponsor 60 students for the study of medicine in the Republic of China.

    This was disclosed by the state’s commissioner of Health, Dr Abba Zakar, yesterday while fielding question from newsmen on the level of preparation for and departure of the students.

    Dr Abba Zakari Umar explained that Governor Badaru’s administration had promised to sponsor 200 students from the state to study medicine and nursing in China in its bid to produce enough manpower required to achieve its policy on health for all.

     

  • Jigawa trains 1,088 in e-Learning

    No fewer than 1,088 persons comprising students, teachers and technicians have been trained in e-Learning and e-Teaching in Jigawa State.

    Those trained included 1,000 students, 61 teachers and 27 student-technicians.

    The five-week exercise held in Dutse, the state capital.

    The state governor, Alhaji Muhammad Badaru Abubakar approved the deployment of over 8000 e-learning Tablet Computers tagged e-Mallam, to all senior secondary school students and teachers across the state.

    The 9.6-inch and 9-inch devices for teachers and students, respectively, come with pre-installed educational applications designed to enhance learning for students across the states.

    Earlier at the inauguration of the e-Mallam pilot programme, the governor said that the move became necessary because of the declining level of education his administration inherited from the previous regime with WAEC failure rate of over 95 percent.

    He added that e-Mallam Tablets will prepare students for examinations and train them on digital technology especially since examinations bodies are shifting from paper and pencil to computer-based testing.

    Commissioner for Education Hajia Rabi Hussein-Adamu Esiak, said the introduction of the tablet will help improve quality of education in the state.

    She said that statistics show that the students have not been learning well, hence, the decision of the government to initiate an intervention like the e-tablet to change the status quo.

    On request of the governor, the Project Coordinator, Basheer Adamu Aliyu, an engineer, demonstrated how the devices provide interactivity and simulation in various field in a manner that is easy for students to appreciate, understand, remember and apply in real life situations.

    Speaking on the project, Mr Abdussalam Ismail, the Country representative of Echo Telecoms, said Jigawa state has taken the lead becoming the first state in the whole of northern Nigeria to adopt innovative approach to learning.

    E-Mallam Tablets use Tech-driven innovative solutions to enrich quality of teachers’ output and encourage students to learn, explore and innovate.

  • Jigawa denies PDP’s N400m allegation

    The Jigawa State government has denied the allegation of the embezzlement of N400 million to celebrate Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) members, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last month.

    Commissioner for Information Alhaji Bala Ibrahim, in a text message, described the allegation as mischievous.

    He said: “It is the ranting of a frustrated PDP leadership. It is frustrated because we received defectors from its fold.”

    The Jigawa State branch of the PDP at a news conference at the weekend alleged that Governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar took N400 million from the government’s coffers to receive  defectors to the APC.

    The Chairman, Alhaji Salisu Mamuda, in Dutse alleged: “Governor Abubakar invited eight APC governors, House of Representatives’ Speaker, ministers, senators and the national chairman to celebrate the defection of 350,000 PDP members to the APC.”

  • Jigawa to begin rural telephone programme

    Jigawa to begin rural telephone programme

    The Jigawa Government said on Tuesday that it had put in place appropriate machinery to provide rural telephone services to enhance quality telecommunication services in the state.

    Governor Badaru Abubakar, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse, noted that the rural telephone services would be provided through optimum utilization of the state-owned Galaxy Communication Company.

    The governor said that when operational, the telephone service would use the platform of the company to provide Information and Communication (IT) to Dutse and other major towns in the state.

    “We are reviving Galaxy; we have so far reactivated our licence and we will be providing network services in the state capital with the hope of extending to all major towns and also expand to rural telephony in the state,” he said.

    Abubakar said that the measure was part of his move to encourage growth of IT education and enhance effective utilization of the facilities for the social and economic development of the state.

    NAN reports that Galaxy Communication Company was established by Jigawa government in 2005, to fast- track the implementation of its IT development programme.

    The Federal Government, however, took over the company a few years after its creation.

  • Jigawa community decries school’s state

    THE Community of Sankara village of Ringim Local Government Area of Jigawa State is not happy about the lack of learning facilities at the 63-year old primary school in the village.

    Chairman of the Sankara Community Development Association, Alhassan Bello Sankara, voiced their concern during the inauguration of toilet facilities constructed at the Sankara Primary School by the association in collaboration with a DFID funded programme known as M4D.

    He said the school, built in 1952, presently has 1,144 pupils – most of whom take lessons on a floor because there is no classroom furniture.

    He lamented that the situation is worsened by the fact that the school has only 10 classrooms to accommodate the large population of pupils – resulting in overpopulation, which makes learning difficult.

    Despite its large population, Alhassan said that only seven teachers, one of them on study leave, teach in the school.

    Urging the state government to intervene, Alhassan said the school’s pathetic situation was worsening the out-of-school situation in the north.

    “Due to the unfavourable learning atmosphere in the school, many parents in the community are not willing to send their children to the only primary school we have and as I am talking over 30 percent of our children are out of the school.

    “I am using this opportunity to call on all the authority concerned to intervene and rescue the community from losing its main source of education,” he said.

    The chairman said the association constructed the toilets to tackle the menace of open defecation and improve hygiene.

    He added that the association had also embarked on an enlightenment campaign against open defecation around all the communities in Sankara area.