The Nation Newspaper

Tag: provide

  • Senate to provide legislation for education development

    Senate to provide legislation for education development

    Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki yesterday said the National Assembly would provide necessary legislation for the development of the country’s education sector.

    Saraki spoke at a public hearing on “Innovative Education Technology: E-Learning and Blended Learning in the Education Sector’’ in Abuja.

    The session was organised by the Senate Joint Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary), Tertiary Institution and TETFUND and Communications.

    Represented by Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan, Saraki expressed concern over ailing standard of education in the country.

    According to him, the Senate remains resolute in ensuring that every effort is deployed to facilitate the provision of necessary infrastructure and legislation for the development of our nation’s education sector.

    He, however, said that the adoption of technology-mediated learning was a viable option towards reviving the country’s educational system.

    “The ailing standard of education in Nigeria has been a major concern to all stakeholders for many years now.

    “However, one viable option proffered by experts and education stakeholders as a means of reviving and transforming our ailing educational system is the adoption of technology-mediated learning.

    “Many argue that this method of learning encompasses different teaching and learning approaches and is supported by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

  • President-elect urged to provide enabling environment for companies

    President-elect urged to provide enabling environment for companies

    The President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) has been urged to create the enabling environment for small-medium enterprises to grow by giving them access to proper funding through interest-free loan, tax waivers or rebate as a way of fast-tracking economic development of the country.

    The incoming President was also admonished to concentrate more on the power sector to encourage the SME, and also ensure proper industrialization of all major sectors of the economy, particularly the pharmaceutical industry in order to grow the economy.

    Speaking on the Buhari-Presidency in a statement in Lagos, Mr. Godwin Ezeoke, Chief Executive officer, Goche Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, said the easiest way to grow the pharmaceutical industry is by providing interest-free loan, tax waiver or rebate and low import duties on pharmaceutical products and equipment which will give Nigerians free access to affordable generic products to improve on the health needs of Nigerians and promote economic growth.

    On promotion of the health sector, the Goche CEO, called on the incoming government to pay more attention to establishing specialist hospitals with modern technology as available elsewhere in the world to cater for the health needs of Nigerians at home which will also reduce capital fight to foreign lands.

    Mr. Ezeoke pointed out that Nigerians are full of great expectations from the Buhari presidency and therefore urged the incoming administration to assist potential industrialists in the pharmaceuticals health and food processing sectors of the economy to promote massive employment generation in the sectors, leading to fast economic growth.

    He explained that encouraging generous economic measures with easy access to proper funding through tax waivers or rebate and low-interest loan facilities to industrialists will encourage growth of the middle class and reduce the widening gap between the super-rich and the low income earners which the outgoing administration had not paid much attention to.

    The industrialist also advised the incoming President to place high priority on security, particularly as a retired general  to guarantee proper security of lives and property of the citizenry.

  • ‘Provide for persons with disabilities’

    ‘Provide for persons with disabilities’

    A Professor of Neurophysiotherapy at the University of Ibadan (UI), Talhatu Hamzat, has urged governments to provide facilities to make it easy for persons living with disabilities to access public buildings.

    He spoke at UI’s Trenchard Hall at the weekend while delivering his inaugural lecture as the first professor of Neurophysiotherapy in West Africa.

    The lecture was titled: “From Ward to Ward: The Neurophysiotherapist as a Returning Officer”.

    Hamzat regretted that persons with mobility disabilities were not considered in the plan of most public buildings, an oversight he described as injustice.

    He said: “Nigerian governments at every level, as well as institutions, should promulgate laws/edicts/regulations and enforce compliance with the enacted laws on the accessibility of public buildings and utilities to people with disabilities, most especially of mobility type. We should all remember that injustice to one is injustice to all.

    “Everyone is prone to one form of disability or another. We should all think of our old age, when arthritis or even neurological disorders may prevent independent walking, when walking stick becomes the third leg and wheelchair becomes a customised ‘chair-car’.”

    He pushed for the inclusion of Neurophysiotherapy in Nigeria’s primary health care system, urging health policy makers and administrators to examine the scope of physiotherapy to improve health care delivery.

    The 44-year-old scholar described Neurophysiothe-rapy as a branch of physiotherapy that deals with neurological disorders, which are an important cause of disability affecting all age groups.

    He said neurological deficits impact greatly on the country’s socioeconomic life as well as the psychology of citizens afflicted or indirectly affected.

    Urging stakeholders in the health and education sectors to intensify efforts to increase the number of neurophy-siotherapy experts, the professor said the role of experts in this field were too important to be ignored.

    He said: “Neurophy-siotherapists deal with a variety of patients and clinical conditions, ranging from the pregnant woman down motor nerve disorder to the newborn who has some form of paralysis at birth to the middle-aged man afflicted with stroke or spinal cord injury to the geriatric patient who has Parkinson disease or dementia.”

  • TUC to provide100,000 houses for members

    THE Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) is partnering a developer Rock of Ages Properties Limited to provide 100,000 houses for its members.

    The ground breaking is expected to be performed by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu and the Federal Cpaital Territory (FCT) Minister, Senator Bala Mogammed on Thursday at the Women Development Centre, Abuja.

    The Executive Director of the firm, Mr. Chux Adike, told reporters that the two sites slated for the ceremony in Abuja are AMAC Estate, Lugbe and Deidei, two satellite towns in the FCT.

    The airport road sites measuring over 600 hectares, The Nation learnt, are about seven minutes drive to the city centre, while the over 300 hectares site at Deidei is about 12 minutes drive to Maitama, a high brow area of the capital city.

    Adike said the interesting thing about the project is that apart from his firm and the TUC, other agencies in both public and private sectors, such as Shelter Afrique, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Mortgage Refinancing Company are International Finance Corporation (IFC), are part of the deal.

    On the conditions to be met, he said a contributor to the National Housing Fund (NHF) and a pension contributor should pick a form for N10,000 for the house of his choice.

    The project is that people will be home owners by paying 10 per cent of the house of the choice while the balance will be paid over 10 years.

  • Bamidele: LP’ll provide good leadership

    Bamidele: LP’ll provide good leadership

    House of Representatives member Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central) has said the Labour Party (LP) will provide responsible leadership in the country.

    Bamidele said LP will revolutionise the act of governance, if voted into power in next year’s governorship election in Ekiti State.

    He said he has the political structure and clout to win the election adding: “The LP has enhanced my popularity among the people”.

    Bamidele, an LP governorship aspirant, spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, at the end of his tour of the 16 local government areas.

    He said the tour enabled him to reach out to people in remote areas and identify their needs.

    During the tour, the lawmaker donated 200 wheelchairs to physically-challenged persons in the councils and pledged to earmark a fraction of the state’s income to them if elected.

    He said: “This is a mission we must actualise. It is a race I must pursue to the end to end the era of inconsistent policies and programmes in Ekiti. Ekiti needs serious interventions at this critical time and God has given us the scientific understanding of what the people’s needs are and how to solve them.

    “LP is a broad based coalition of determined people, who are ready to bring the needed change to Ekiti. This is not a matter of political parties, but efforts to rescue Ekiti from doldrums.”

    Bamidele urged other aspirants to focus on issues and shun violence.

    He said conducts that could bring respected scholars and intellectuals in the state to disrepute should be avoided.

  • APC will provide better leadership, says Igbokwe

    APC will provide better leadership, says Igbokwe

    THE Publicity Secretary of the Lagos State Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), Joe Igbokwe, has said that the new mega party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), will provide effective leadership for the country.

    In a statement in Lagos, Igbokwe noted that Nigerians have been asking sundry questions about what impact the APC would make, when it is registered. He assured that the country will certainly make progress under the party.

    He said: “Some Nigerians are asking what the new party can do to restore the dignity of Nigeria. As we move close to 2015 Presidential elections, political watchers are asking to know the difference between APC and PDP. A lot of questions are coming to the political desks of APC throughout the country: is this party different from PDP? Are the progenitors not the same Nigerians we know? What does this party have in store for 150 million Nigerians? Can this new party make a difference? Can it fill in the gap in Nigeria’s political landscape? Can APC have the courage and the political will to fight the dreaded monster in Nigeria called corruption?

    “Nigerians want change and APC is ready to provide the long-awaited change. But the change is not going to come easy knowing the antics of the ruling party and their criminal disposition when it comes to electoral issues. To them, every presidential election is a do or die affair, a fight to finish, and the mother of all battles.

    Igbokwe asked Nigerians reclaim the country from the hand of pretenders.

    He added: “It is left for Nigerians to fight to reclaim their God-given country from pretenders and to all intents and purposes this is not going to be easy. This is a struggle for the soul of Nigeria, a struggle for economic, social and political freedom, a struggle to reclaim our rights to life. It is now or never. Yes, we can!

    “Well, APC may not have all the answers to these very strong questions posed above, but the truth of the matter remains that things will never be the same again. One thing is clear: Nigeria is not making progress in the midst of plenty. Nigeria is not making progress in the age of success. APC believes that investment funds must be retrieved from the pockets of few corrupt Nigerians and the money ploughed back to the economy to create jobs”.

    Igbokwe hinted that the party would invest massively in education as a panacea to poverty.

    He stressed: “APC leaders know that the only way to fight poverty is through massive investment in qualitative education. I can go on and on but APC cannot do everything in one fell swoop. Please take notice that this is not the manifesto of APC. After the formal registration, the party will sell its manifesto to Nigerians, and I know that it may not be too far from what I have said above.

    “Nigeria’s problems are well known for a long time in this country, dating back to the early 90s. For over 20 years we have been dancing around our problems without addressing them frontally and today we have gone full circle. The problems have magnified to become an octopus.

  • Fayemi: Ekiti’ll provide food for Southwest next year

    Fayemi: Ekiti’ll provide food for Southwest next year

    Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi has said the state will supply poultry and agricultural products to Southwest markets by the end of next year.

    He spoke at the weekend during a tour of eight projects initiated by his administration under the Youth Commercial Agriculture Development (YCAD) programme.

    Fayemi said the administration’s vision of making Ekiti the food basket of the Southwest was not a tall dream.

    He said the state would also generate 50 per cent of its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from agriculture by next year.

    The governor has always said Ekiti could generate at least N1 billion daily from the supply of food products to half the population of Lagos State.

    He said: “Our promises in respect of the agricultural potentials of this administration are already coming to fruition.”

    Fayemi visited fish farms in Efon, the YCAD Nursery point at Igede, the cassava plantation in Iyemero and the Farmer’s Academy at Isan-Ekiti, among others.

    He said: “The inability of markets around the state to absorb YCAD products is proof that the state’s vision to become the food hub of the Southwest is being realised sooner than expected.”

    Fayemi said the government would work towards expanding available markets and creating new ones to accommodate the produce of young farmers.

    He expressed satisfaction that YCAD participants were ready to move from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.

    During his visit to the Efon YCAD Fish Farm, Fayemi said his earlier visit to a privately-owned fish farm of about 275 ponds, which produces 30 tonnes of fish daily, combined with the output of youths in the YCAD programme, have proved that the state is achieving its “Modernising Agriculture” agenda.

    He said the government limited crops cultivated under the YCAD programme to cocoa, cassava and oil palm to help participants access the markets and sustain a base for the products.

    Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources Mr. Jide Arowosafe said the government has grown over 1,150 hectares of cassava in Iyemero and other parts of the state in the first phase of its cassava revolution, adding that 2,000 hectares were being prepared for the next planting season.

    Arowosafe said the government has 18 nursery points, where over 20,000 cocoa seedlings are raised for sale to farmers. He said products of the hybrid nurseries, which should be harvested after two years, would be sold at N15 each.

    The commissioner said the government would subsidise the product from N60 to N15.

    He said 10,000 oil palm and teak were being raised in nurseries and would soon be available for sale to farmers.

    Arowosafe said the Fayemi administration was determined to achieve its vision for agriculture next year.

    The governor was accompanied on the tour by the Chief of Staff, Mr. Yemi Adaramodu; Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation Tayo Ekundayo; Commissioner for Integration and Intergovernmental Affairs Funminiyi Afuye; Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism Chief Ronke Okusanya; Commissioner for Local Government Affairs Paul Omotoso; Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters Ayodele Jinadu and the Special Adviser, Government House and Protocol, Mrs. Kehinde Daramola.