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FG plans to train 800,000 youths, women in Plateau

The Federal Government on Monday said it planned to train 800,000 youths and women on vocational and Skill acquisition in Plateau State.

Mr Lawrence Kyuka, National Coordinator, Basic Skill Acquisition Training Programme in Nigeria, disclosed this during a three-day training programme for youths and women in Pankshin Local Government of Plateau.

Kyuka disclosed that nine local governments had been selected for the programme, being anchored by the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Youths and students Affairs, Mr Nasir Adhama.

He gave the names of the areas as Shendam, Langtang North, Langtang South, Pankshin, Mangu, Bokkos, Jos North, Jos South and Riyom.

“The Federal Government is out to ensure that the teeming youths and women are empowered with skills to be self-employed and become employers of labour to boost the nation’s economy.

“There is provision of a soft loan for participants in the training on skills like farming, catering, soap and detergent production, photography, video production, new media and e-business.

“Each participant is entitled to a loan ranging from N100,000 to one million Naira to start his or her business, which we believe will reduce the rate of unemployment in the country,’’ the Coordinator said.

Kyuka disclosed that after training the 700 trainees in Pankshin, “we shall move to Mangu LGA to kick start another one until we go through all the nine designated areas in the state’’.

Mrs Naomi Golmwen, Chairman, Pankshin Local Government, while declaring the training programme opened, commended the Federal Government for the “well -thought’’ initiative.

Gollmwen described the programme as a blessing and relief to idle youths and women in the area, which believed would be given a sense of belonging in the society.

“Youths are the vanguard of every society and if they have nothing doing they can’t contribute to the development of their communities and the nation at large.

“Such a laudable programme designed by President Buhari-led APC administration will go a along way in checkmating crime and indolence in our youths and women,’’ She noted.

They charged the participants to maximise the opportunity to learn skills of their choice and be prudent in repaying the loans “so that you don’t put to shame this local government’’.

NAN

October 31, 2017
Muslim bags PhD in christian studies

A Muslim, Prof. Rasheed Jimoh-Ijaodola, has bagged a doctorate degree ( PhD ) in Christian studies at the University of Ilorin.

Jimoh-Ijaodola is a Professor of Law and Dean, Oba Erediauwa College of Law of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo.

A statement signed by Mr Obajide Ilugbo, Head, Public & External Relations Unit, Office of the Vice-Chancellor, made this known in Benin on Tuesday.

Ilugbo said that Jimoh-Ijaodola’s thesis examined biblical prophesies and other prophesies, including prophesies of the late Sage and Prophet, Nostradamus.

He further said that the Don’s research focused on the end time and the role of humans in the fulfilment of those prophesies.

Jimoh-Ijaodola, according to him, is a faithful and practicing Muslim, who bagged his first Ph.D. In Electoral Law from the University of Jos, while his second Ph.D. was in Property law from the University of Ibadan.

In the third Ph.D Thesis, he posited “the end is now and that humans should be careful so that the end will not come upon us as the biblical thief that came unexpectedly.

“He pleaded that the world should embrace peace and live in harmony for the sake of the earth and humanity.

“Nations should be careful of war and proliferation of weapon of mass destruction”, Ilugbo said.

Ilugbo said that Jimoh-Ijaodola in his thesis stressed the need to take care of “our environment” very well so that it was not endangered.

“The end time scenario is a picture of man eating man and that the problem will most likely start on the claim on ownership of Jerusalem.”

He quoted Jimoh-Ijaodola as saying that the earth was throttling fast toward a certain end and that the survival of the earth depends on mans will to embrace God totally.

NAN

October 31, 2017
Greenhouse gas emissions set to bust Paris deal by 30% – UN

Greenhouse gas emissions are on course to be about 30 per cent above the level needed to keep global warming to an internationally agreed target in 2030, UN said on Tuesday.

“Without enhanced ambition the likely global average temperature increase will be in the range of 3.0 to 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century,” UN Environment Programme said as it issued its annual audit of emissions reductions.

The agency said by 2030, annual emissions are likely to be 53.0 to 55.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, far above the 42 billion tonnes threshold for averting a temperature rise of more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century.

The latest projection, which assumes all countries meet their commitments, is slightly lower than the gap of 12-14 billion tonnes foreseen a year ago, reflecting new data on national emission reduction programmes.

The report said there was increasing evidence that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, cement production and other industrial processes remained stable for the past three years, largely due to slower growth in coal use in China and the United States.

The agency said the trend could be reversed, and 80-90 percent of coal reserves must remain in the ground.

In 2015, 195 countries signed the Paris climate accord, pledging to limit global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

Ministers will meet in Bonn in Novembers to work on guidelines for the agreement.

A harder target of keeping warming to within 1.5 degrees would mean a further reduction of about five billion tonnes of emissions.

The UN said on Monday that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding three degrees Celsius to temperatures.

The Paris agreement is already under pressure because U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to pull the United States out of the deal unless there is a renegotiation more favorable to Washington.

NAN

October 31, 2017
Gombe advises residents to avoid monkey pox prone areas

The Gombe State Government has advised residents to avoid places with reported cases of monkey pox.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Kennedy Ishaya, gave the advice in Gombe on Tuesday while briefing journalists on the state’s level of preparedness against the disease.

“Since monkey pox is a viral infection, I am appealing to the general public to avoid places with the reported case,” Ishaya said.

He also urged residents in the state to report any constituted signs such as fever, headache and common cold to health facilities and avoid self-medication.

According to him, since the outbreak of the disease in some parts of the country, the Ministry of Health had set up machinery in place.

The commissioner said that such contingency was always provided for in the state’s annual budget and N2 million had been released to the state Emergency Response Team.

He said that one of the measures taken was to designate a place at the state specialist hospital to serve as an isolation ward in case of any outbreak.

He added that drugs and antiseptics had been procured for treatment of those infected in case of any reported case in the state.

Ishaya said that the state government had also launched a sensitisation campaign through the media, religious and opinion leaders to educate the people about the disease.

NAN

October 31, 2017
FG saves $2m annually from local cement production – BUA CEO

The Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, has said that the local cement manufacturers produce over 25 million tonnes cement thus saving the country two million dollars annually.

He said this while addressing State House Correspondents after a meeting of the Presidential Industrial Advisory Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa.

“The most important thing I think is that the cement industry in Nigeria will continue to save Nigeria a lot of foreign exchange.

“If for example, you look at what we have produced in Nigeria today, maybe 25 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes, if we quantify that in terms of foreign exchange it is almost two billion dollars per year.

“That is a lot of money being saved because if we do not have these cement plants definitely we have to import cement.

“And not only do we have to spend money in terms of foreign exchange import but the price of cement definitely would have been higher than what it is today,’’ he said.

Rabiu also spoke about the expansion of his company’s facilities in order to make more cement available for local consumption.

According to him, we will be inaugurating our Sokoto plant next quarter, early 2018, and also our Edo second cement line will come on stream probably by second quarter of next year.

Rabiu mentioned the reduction of price of Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO), and the appreciation of the local currency in the foreign exchange market as things that helped the sub-sector to grow.

“The foreign exchange has also come down; it is stable even though as we all know the cement industry does not really require a lot of foreign exchange.

“But the fall in foreign exchange rate has really helped in terms of the things that we import into Nigeria like spare parts, some raw materials like gypsum,’’ the industrialist said.

He acknowledged that a lot of issues to advance the industrial sector were discussed at the monthly Presidential Advisory Council meeting.

“As you all know this council is one that is trying to bring private sector together with the government to come up with ideas on how we can improve on a lot of things.

“Most especially infrastructure, power, roads and so many other things; I believe this is a good thing.

“The Council has made a lot of progress.

“A lot of areas have been identified that the government together with the private sector are going to work to see that work can start as soon as possible.

“In fact, I believe last week, one of the ideas that we presented was deliberated upon at the Federal Executive Council ( FEC ) meeting and approval was given.

“We are looking forward to another meeting and I believe in the next few months a lot of things will take shape as far as this council is concerned,’’ Rabiu added.

NAN

October 31, 2017
Police arrests man for raping 85-year-old woman

A 29-year-old man, Kehinde Ariyo, has been arrested by the Osun Police Command for allegedly raping an 85-year-old woman to coma at Ilesa town in the state.

The police commissioner in the state, Mr Fimihan Adeoye, disclosed this to newsmen on Monday in Osogbo.

Adeoye said the incident happened at Ogudu area in Ilesa, where the suspect forcefully had canal knowledge of the old woman after gaining access to her residence around 11pm on Oct. 27.

He added that the woman sustained various degrees of injuries on her body, including her private organ, and eventually passed out in the process before she was resuscitated at a private hospital.

According to Adeoye, the suspect lives in the same area where the victim resides, and had gone on errands for the old woman severally in the past.

“The woman passed out during the rape, but came back to life after some hours, the suspect was arrested the next day.

“This is the height of wickedness in our society. The boy injured the woman in the process, but she has been treated”, Adeoye said.

The suspect admitted to have committed the act, claiming to have been drunk at the time of committing the heinous act.

“Mama asked me to sleep on a couch in the passage. I was already drunk and did not know what happened afterwards,” he claimed.

NAN

October 31, 2017
UNFPA urges FG to fight high fertility, maternal mortality

The United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA ) on Monday advised Nigeria to fight high fertility, maternal mortality rate and migration problem to end poverty and boost prosperity in the country.

The UNFPA Country Representative, Ms Diene Keita, gave the advice at the 5th Annual Population Lecture Series (APLS) with the theme: “Achieving Demographic Dividend: Strategic Tool for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development’’ in Abuja.

Represented by Mr Osaretin Adonri, the Assistant Country Representative of UNFPA in Nigeria, Keita said that if Nigeria wants to tackle poverty, enhance prosperity and promote sustainable growth as envisaged in Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, it was of prime necessity to address diverse population issues.

She said that problems including high fertility, high maternal mortality rate, migration and the special issue of youth development must be addressed.

“The theme of this year’s lecture is in line with the African Union Road Map on harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investment in Youth and the country’s road map on harnessing Demographic Dividend through Investment in Youth launched in July, 2017.

“It is relevant to the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020), which in recognition of the risk factor of the high population growth rate in Nigeria prescribed the integration of population dynamics in development programmes.

“With a large population of young people accounting for 31.7% of the population, the country should urgently generate a large number of productive jobs for the growing working-age population.

“Also there is the need to adopt a strong social welfare system for the aged which will in the near future contribute substantially to the dependent population.

“The country must implement appropriate policies on small families, and capital inflow to grow the manufacturing bases and consumer markets, especially to support investment and employment growth in order to take advantage of its demographic situations for sustainable development,” she said.

However, the UN official lauded the federal government through the National Population Commission and other partners for their hard work, consistency and collaboration in ensuring the success of this year’s lecture.

She appealed to policy makers and programme managers to make the best use of knowledge about population issues at the APLS and similar opportunities for development planning; ensuring that policies and programmes were guided by data on population issues.

In her remarks, the Executive Director of Advocacy Nigeria, Hajiya Saudatu Sani, said that the time of planning on the management of Nigerian population was over and it was now time for implementation.

Sani also urged government to invest in the youth, women and girl child education to achieving demographic dividend.

The gender advocate advised the government to adopt the model used in China where there was huge investment on the youth for sustainable development.

“Nigeria must do that now, the time of planning is over, it is time to implement and government must do that now to fight poverty,” she said.

NAN

October 31, 2017
NAFDAC moves to ease registration of products for MSMEs

The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control ( NAFDAC ) has concluded arrangements to ease registration of products for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSMEs ) in the country.

Mr Ademola Mogbojuri, its Acting Director-General made this known in Minna on Monday during a stakeholders consultative forum for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs).

“NAFDAC is to streamline the registration process to make it easier for MSMEs to register their products with the agency without compromising on quality and safety.

“I wish to reiterate that NAFDAC is fully committed to the development of MSMEs in Nigeria because a number of efforts have been made and are being sustained,’’ he said.

Mogbojuri, who was represented by Dr Abubakar Jimoh, NAFDAC Director Special Duties, said that there was need to comply with the Federal Government’s directive to ease establishment of small businesses in the country.

“It was perceived that a number of the agency’s regulatory processes are stalling the ease of doing business hence the need for more efforts toward addressing the issue.

“Therefore, I have approved the composition of an in-house committee to harmonise all these processes and drive the implementation of the presidential directive within a specified timeline,’’ he said.

He called on affected stakeholders to accord the committee the necessary support to enable the agency restructure its operations toward easing the establishment and operation of MSMEs in the country.

The Acting NAFDAC Boss said that on May 21 Vice President Yemi Osinbajo issued the Presidential Executive Directive on ease of doing business in Nigeria.

He explained that the directive was premised on transparency, in ministries, Departments and Agency of Government, default approvals, one government directive, entry experience of visitors and travellers and ports operations.

Earlier, Mr Anikoh Ibrahim, Niger Coordinator of NAFDAC, said that under the Federal Government’s directive 50 per cent discount from the original tariff for registration of products would be applied to companies with staff strength of five and below.

Ibrahim said that under the arrangement the entire process of attaining NAFDAC registration license would not exceed 90 days.

He said that the measure would ensure that registration process for bakery license would not exceed 30 days, adding that before now these processes of registration would take a year or more.

The State Coordinator of the agency said that regulated products under the category include food, drugs, cosmetics, herbal medicines and packed water.

Also, Malam Abdulwaheed Abdulkadir, chairman Association of Table Water Producers in the state appealed to the agency to ensure that the 30 day new policy for renewal of licenses for existing businesses was extended to newly established businesses.

Abdulkadir said that such gesture would encourage establishment of new MSMEs across the country and in turn boost the economy.

NAN

October 31, 2017
Enugu: Over 5,000 security personnel for Nov. 4 LG Polls – Danmalam

The Commissioner of Police in Enugu State, Mr Mohammed Danmalam, has said that over 5,000 security personnel will be deployed for the Enugu State Local Government polls on Nov. 4.

He said that the personnel would be drawn from the various security agencies working in the state.

Danmalam made this known in Enugu on Tuesday that the poll would witness massive vehicular logistics as the security agencies would pull their logistics resources together for the exercise.

Danmalam said that both armed and plain-clothed officers and men from various security agencies would provide needed security before, during and after the election.

According to him, the harmonised joint operation for the council poll shows the level of co-operation and synergy among various security agencies in the state.

“No security agency will be left out in the security duty for the council poll as we have jointly mapped out strategies on how to provide effective policing and security for the election,’’ he said.

He, however, warned politicians and their followers to abide by the rules of the game, saying that any politician or supporter who contravened the electoral law would be arrested and prosecuted.

“Yes, let me use this avenue to warn troublemakers to steer clear of Enugu State, especially within the election period.

“Under my watch, we will not tolerate ballot box snatching, violence and hooliganism from anybody.

“All forms of violence and intimidation is outlawed in this election,’’ Danmalam said.

We recall that the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission ( ENSIEC ) had fixed Saturday, Nov. 4, for council poll in the state.

The council poll would be carried out simultaneously for the positions of chairmen and Councillors in the 17 Local Government Areas and 261 political wards in the state.

Various political parties and ENSIEC had on Thursday signed a peace bond in the presence of the police commissioner at a stakeholders’ parley with the police.

NAN

October 31, 2017
Why embrace entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship has been described as the willingness and capacity to develop, organise and manage a business venture along with its sundry risks…its aim is to make profit.

Due to the risk involved in launching a start-up business, a lot of people decide not to venture in it at all. A few that surmount the courage to launch out have had their skins burnt due to lack of funding, bad business decisions and economic crisis or a combination of all these.

In plain terms, an entrepreneur is a person who starts, organises, manages and oversees the launch and growth of an enterprise.

It is obvious today that all around the world, there seems to be an economic crunch permeating countries. In fact, organisations are either laying off their excess staffs, outsourcing some of their functions or have placed an embargo on the employment of new staffs.

Entrepreneurship is therefore the answer to the myriad questions of unemployment. However, there is a preponderance of fear in the minds of people today.

This fear includes the fear of starting the business, the fear of failing, the fear of evolving and so on. Most especially the fear of starting a business can hinder any potential entrepreneur from turning his or her dreams into reality.

If an individual is afraid of taking the necessary action to achieve goals and realize a dream, there is a tendency that he or she will end up struck with a limited mind-set, even with that, it doesn’t guarantee a successful business.

Youths today need to be enlightened about the reason why they must embrace entrepreneurship.

First, it makes you a job creator. It is a job to find a job especially with the “encouraging” economy of our country.

A lot of people overtly depend or rely on the government for everything; they seem to have an entitlement mentality. The truth still remains that the government CANNOT satisfy all our needs and cravings.

Also, we must embrace entrepreneurship because of the urgent need for creativity. With the paucity of jobs in the labour market, it is imperative that people are able to create jobs themselves. They often times need more than just their skills and personal initiative to transform their idea to consumer products or services, there is a need for creativity.

A case study of BILL GATES:

He started a small company called Microsoft (which today is not only the biggest tech company, but also among the top ten companies in the world) with the dream of changing the way we use computers. His dream became a reality into success and today, Microsoft employs over 100,000 people worldwide.

Also, in some developed countries, parents encourage their children on how they can be creative with their gifts and talents rather than focusing only on or pursuing a good certificate.

Furthermore, entrepreneurship can also have a social perspective, especially social entrepreneurs who focus on solving social problems…whether it is to alleviate poverty or to advocate climate change.

Moreso, the thought of starting your own business can be a little scary, still you have to pursue your passion and change the world by your creativity which is the most important reason to give it a go or to embrace entrepreneurship.

As an entrepreneur there is tendency or possibility that you will fail but don’t be embarrassed by your failings. As Hemingway once said, “there is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”

Well, the percentage of entrepreneurs in Nigeria is low compared to other developing countries; very few Nigerians can boast personal or family capital to start-up a meaningful business.

Most of the graduates today are jobless due to lack of job opportunities and personal creativity. It is crucial for our generation to learn the importance of entrepreneurship in order to transit successfully from being job seekers to job creators.

October 30, 2017