The Nation Newspaper

Tag: parks

  • Lagos begins renewal of parks

    The Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK) has started the regeneration of degraded areas across the state in line with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s Executive Order.

    The agency said the governor had ordered the agency and others to rid the highways of environmental nuisance.

    In a statement, LASPARK General Manager Mrs Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, said the intervention would complement the ongoing clean-up on major roads  by other agencies.

    “The reclamation operation is to salvage the aesthetic environment of strategic areas in the state that have been defiled by chaotic activities in recent years. This is also in line with the ‘THEMES Agenda’ of promoting healthy living, sustainable environment and safety of lives and property in any part of the state,” she said.

    Mrs Adebiyi-Abiola said the government planned to uplift the face of the state to open it up for more decent commercial and economic ventures to complement its greening project and further create an ambience befitting a 21st century city.

    According to her, the agency is clearing planting trees on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway from Eric Moore to Trade Fair.

    She said in line with the LASPARK’s mandate, all roads’ setbacks, road embankments, loops, medians and open spaces across the state would be aggressively sanitised and adorned with trees and beautiful flowers to ensuring a greener and healthier environment.

    The GM acknowledged that making the environment clean and habitable for everyone would enhance socio-economic activities, and implored residents to conduct themselves in a way that would help preserve the environment.

    The government is poised more than ever to prosecute anyone or group of persons undermining its efforts towards strengthening the greening culture across the state,” he said

  • FG, international body to develop parks

    The Federal Government and Conservation International (CI) have signed a five-year agreement for the development of the National Parks.

    The tripartite agreement was signed among CI Senior Vice President, Africa Field Division, Michael O’Brien-Onyeka, Conservator General of the National Parks Ibrahim Goni and the Executive Director of Human Rights Advancement, Development and Advocacy Centre (HURIDAC), Ayodele Ameen, in Abuja.

    At the pact signing, O’Brien-Onyeka said the partnership would include fund mobilisation from the Global Environment Fund to strengthen the service, build capacity of forest rangers well as improve livelihoods of the host communities in the states hosting the parks.

    He emphasised that the implementation process would be gradual as it is expected to further improve wildlife protection.

    “Conservation International believes that forest protection must have people at its centre. We are working to realise the Sustainable Development Goals especially through nature, clean air, water and protecting the ecosystem.

    “So, the scale of challenge is not a quick fix but a gradual process. At the moment the MoU is for 5 years.

    “We have used the MoU to capture range of areas we can collaborate. The next step is for the technical team of national parks, CI and other partners. When it comes to training and employment of rangers, we may have a different team that might dona better job.”

    “For instance, if it is to allow a more robust wildlife enforcement system, which might require changes in the law, then we will get more legal people to work on the draft legislation to work with the parliament.

    “There are additional funding coming for wildlife specifically within the GEF that does not affect the star allocation of the country,” O’Brien-Onyeka added.

    Goni applauded the international body for its commitment to supporting the service though the partnership.

    He pledged to provide needed support to ensure the partnership yields result.

    Executive Director of the implementing partner, Ameer Bashir said it took over 24 weeks of planning and meetings before the agreement could become a reality.

    Applauding the seriousness of the service, Ameer restated commitment of development organisations to improving the NPS.

  • Niger to build N29m parks

    Niger State is planning to build trailer parks in five of its communities.

    The Director General of the state Public Private Partnership Agency, Alhaji Isah Abdulkadir disclosed this during a capacity building seminar for Fadama III Staff in Minna, the state capital, saying the trailer parks will gulp N29 million.

    He said that the trailer parks will be built in Suleja, Mokwa, Makera,Lambata and Tegina to ease traffic on the road.

    The DG said that the Memoradum of Understanding has been signed and that work will soon start, adding that the parks will be completed before the end of the year.

    Abdulkadir who asserted that public private partnership is working in the state said that other intervention to develop the state is being taken through PPP.

    Speaking on the Minna City Centre which have been abandoned for years, he said that revival efforts are on ground to ensure the center is completed. “The Minna City Center have some technical issues which are undergoing some discussions on how to utilize it.”

    The Fadama state Project Coordinator, Mr Aliyu Usman Kutigi, an engineer, stressed the need to encourage private sector participation in a bid to manage scarce resources available in the sector.

    He further said that 8,000 farmers are being mobilised for the 2017 wet farming cultivation as Fadama is promoting all the year round farming.

    Picture the aesthetics the parks will introduce to the state. It will mop up much of the traffic congestion and disorder in Niger, which other states will like to copy.

  • Parks, parks everywhere

    Parks, parks everywhere

    The authorities have cracked down on vice, including operation of illegal motor parks in the nation’s capital, reports GRACE OBIKE

    There is a sense of nostalgia for the El-Rufai days in the nation’s capital. Demolition Man, as the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory was called, had little patience for disorder. He moved in his bulldozers at will, incurring the wrath of many. Those days, even motorists behaved themselves. Transporters knew their bounds.

    Mallam Nasir el-Rufai’s successor Bala Muhammed even ensured that there was some sanity in the city centre. He banned the 14- and 18-seater buses popularly refered to as the Araba buses in  the city, replacing them with the long El-Rufai buses, while registered and painted taxis where restricted to motor parks and specific bus stops.

    These days, motor parks have sprung up everywhere, even where there used to be none. You find them at Churchgate Junction, Bolingo Junction, Wuse General Hospital bus stop, under the Wuse Zone 3 Bridge; more than six parks have also recently being created at the Wuse market alone and on both sides of the Mabushi Expressway, Nicon, Banex Junction under the newly created overhead bridge and walkways, Sheraton Junction, along Transcorp Hilton, the National mosque, Grand Square Junction and a lot of other parts of town.

    Why bother about the parks? They create traffic gridlocks in most parts during rush hours.

    The situation is worst outside the city centre, along the Kubwa Expressway, the activities of these taxis both painted and unpainted, sometimes cause accidents or create terrible gridlocks.

    Fortunately, something is being done about it. In order to return sanity to the city, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello constituted a Ministerial Task Team on City Cleansing saddled with the task of sanitising the nation’s capital city and restoring its beauty.

    The Committee which is chaired by the Commissioner of Police FCT, CP Muhammad Mustafa was given the mandate to sanitise the Federal Capital City and rid of drug peddling, activities of scavengers, hoodlums hibernating in shanties, commercial sex workers, street hawking, beggars, Illegal operators of unpainted taxis, operation of motorcycles (Okada) in the city centre and restricted areas, tricycles (Keke Napep) in the city centre and restricted areas, traffic violators, and one-way driving, among others.

    This committee in a recent press statement revealed that it will carry out full enforcement of the ban on the operation of unpainted taxis within the Federal Capital City (FCC). This will also include the enforcement of the existing ban on the operation of tricycles (Keke Napep) and motorcycles at the City centre.

    According to them, operations of tricycles (Keke Napep) will again be restricted to Estates while motorcycles (Okada) are to operate only at the satellite towns keeping 100 metre distance from the highway.

    Authorised painted taxi operators where advised in their best interest to confine their operations to only designated motor parks. Those arrested acting in disobedience to this advice should note that they will be prosecuted in accordance with the appropriate sections of the law. They are therefore warned.

    It revealed that mobile courts have been constituted to prosecute those arrested for violating the ministerial order and constituting nuisance.

    Scavengers where advised to restrict their activities to only designated dump sites and guard against loitering in the city centre.

    The Committee also reiterated that security personnel using motorcycle as means of transportation to work must be fully dressed in their uniform, with reflective jackets and crash helmet. Any security operative acting in disobedience to this directive will also be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the law.

    The Chairman of the Committee and Commissioner of Police FCT, CP Muhammad Mustafa enjoin members of the public to cooperate with the committee as it

    Now these same taxis that where restricted to parks have begun creating illegal parks of their own all over Abuja, creating nuisance all over and causing major damages to infrastructures all over the city.

     

  • Dubai Parks and Resorts on the move

    Dubai Parks and Resorts on the move

    Dubai Parks and Resorts is set to bring unprecedented amazing themed park experiences to millions of visitors across the world, including Nigeria beginning from October 31, 2016 when it officially opens the new Wonderland.

    With a focus on becoming the largest integrated themed park in the Middle East, six cumulative experiences await visitors including Motiongate Dubai; Bollywood Parks Dubai; Legoland Dubai; Legoland Water Parks; Lapita and Riverland Dubai all fused into the 25 million square feet Dubai Parks and Resorts landscape.

    The park is designed to offer new heights in entertainment with the Motiongate Dubai showcasing everything Hollywood while Bollywood Parks Dubai brings to life first-hand experience of the globally celebrated Indian movie industry and the Legoland Dubai and Water Parks, the very first of its kind in the Middle East region.

    To attract visitors from Nigeria and West Africa, Dubai Parks and Resorts recently signed partnership with four leading travel management companies in the country – Tour Brokers International, Wakanow, Quantum/Ajala, based in Lagos and All States Travels based in Abuja, to provide exclusive information and marketing support services on behalf of Dubai Parks and Resorts to teeming Nigerian and West African visitors.

  • Transport unions to establish health centres at parks

    Some transport unions in Lagos State have reiterated their plans to establish health centres in motor parks to ensure that their members are healthy.

    Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede and Alhaji Musa Mohammed, Lagos State Chairmen of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers’ Association (RTEAN) made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Saturday.

    They said the decision to establish the centres was prompted by a report of the Lagos State Government in 2015 that most commercial drivers diagnosed, had high blood pressure and other related diseases.

    “We have always taken the health care of our members paramount and had been sensitising them on their health as well as inviting health personnel at some of our gatherings to check their health status.

    “We hope to build standard centres with qualified medical personnel to work in them,” Agbede said.

    He said that the health centres would also help passengers because there were instances when pregnant women put to bed at the parks.

    Mohammed, on his part, said that establishing the centres at motor parks was very `essential and important.’

    He said that most commercial bus drivers found it difficult to create time and check their health at hospitals, but instead, preferred to take herbs and concoctions.

    “RTEAN conducts routine health check on drivers; we hope to intensify regular check on drivers before they embark on journeys as this would help reduce accidents.

    “Most accidents occurred due to fatigue or high blood pressure triggered by the deplorable condition of roads or longer hours on the wheels.

    “The need for health centres is not only for our drivers, but also passengers; on many occasions, we attend to sick people or women going into labour at the park, so there is need for the centres,” Mohammed said.

    Lagos State government last Thursday disclosed that over 99 per cent of commercial bus drivers are hypertensive. A condition, it said, could partly be attributed to the traffic congestion in the state.

    Mr Dayo Mobereola, the State’s Commissioner for Transportation, who was represented at a forum by the Director of Transportation, Planning, Policy and Coordination, Dr Olufemi Salam, gave this indication.

  • ‘Give us more parks, bus stops’

    ‘Give us more parks, bus stops’

    Transport unions in Lagos State have renewed their appeal to the government to provide them more motor parks and bus stops to reduce friction between them and the authorities.

    The Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) made the call yesterday in Lagos in the wake of the continued arrests of their members.

    Alhaji Musa Muhammed, Chairman of RTEAN, said provision of more parks and bus stops would ease the flow of traffic.

    “While we advise our members to obey traffic laws, we also want the government to help us.

    “There is need for provision of more bus stops to help the transport operators. The bus stops are still few and cannot meet the demand of this time,’’ he said.

    Muhammed also urged the union members to be law-abiding to prevent harassment and arrest by the authorities.

    He urged them to avoid driving on dedicated lanes of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses.

    Alhaji Tajudeeen Agbede, the NURTW Lagos Chairman, said the inadequate bus stops and motor parks for commercial vehicles caused gridlock.

    He said: “We plead with the state government to help stop this untold hardship faced by our members by providing more designated bus stops for our operations.

    “I am not always happy when I hear that the operation of our members picking and dropping passengers at illegal bus stops constitute nuisance to the public.

    “We need more bus stops and motor parks; we have made this call before, let the government help for the benefit of all.”

    Agbede said the NURTW would continue to do its best to help free Lagos of gridlock with the union’s task force which monitors and sanctions its erring members.

    The chairman said the leadership of the union would ensure that the good image of the union is protected at all times.

    “We are law-abiding, responsible professionals and we are willing to help move Lagos forward,” he said.

  • FCT warns against illegal document on parks

    The FCT Administration will not release any title document on any park and garden within the 8,000 square kilometers of the Federal Capital Territory.

    The FCT Minister, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed made this disclosure, while receiving the 17-member delegation of the Indian Defence College that was in Abuja on a study tour of Nigeria, at the FCDA Conference Room, Central Business District, Abuja.

    The minister revealed that all Certificates of Occupancy meant for the parks and garden in the territory are domiciled in the Department of Parks and Recreation in the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council.

    Senator Mohammed reiterated that no title document on any of the gardens would be released to the Park Operators because such areas are only being sub-leased and would be taken back at the expiration of the lease period depending on activity on such areas.

    According to him, the activity on such parks determines the lease period, which is being graduated between five and 35 years that is the maximum.

    Senator Mohammed disclosed that since inception, the FCT Administration has been able to develop 30 percent of the Federal Capital City comprising of 250 square kilometers.

    “Accordingly, the FCT Administration has out of 79 Districts of the Federal Capital City developed 11 with 68 districts still undeveloped,” he stressed.

    The minister noted that India and Nigeria have similarities especially on their demographic challenges, which his administration is determined to turn into its utmost advantage.

    He lauded the sound diplomatic relations between Nigeria and India including their economic ties, which both nations have exploited to the benefit of their citizens.

    The leader of delegation of the Indian National Defence College, Air Vice Marshal IP Vipin appreciated the warm reception accorded his team.

    AVM Vipin who praised the rapid development being witnessed in Abuja within the short time of its conception, remarked that India and Nigeria have long standing history and would work to strengthen it.