The Nation Newspaper

Tag: revive

  • Folarin to revive Ikere dam

    Folarin to revive Ikere dam

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Teslim Folarin, has said he will resuscitate the abandoned Ikere dam in Iseyin.

    He promised to collaborate with the Federal Government to ensure that the Oke Ogun region was given a university of agriculture, adding that the region was known for agricultural development.

    Folarin said the party’s campaign rally had been peaceful because some people have left the party.

    According to him, the Ikare dam was one of the Federal Government projects which have been abandoned as a result of the lackadaisical attitude of successive administration.

    “Since Iseyin is the centre of the Oyo Central Senatorial district, it is reasonable to start our campaign here. The first thing we are going to do is to resuscitate the Ikare dam for domestic consumption and irrigation.

  • Group holds songs competition to revive ‘old Lagos’

    Group holds songs competition to revive ‘old Lagos’

    How do you revive the Lagos of old where people lived in harmony and kept public infrastructure? A non-political, non-religious group, the Spirit of Lagos (SoL), is aiming to do so through music.

    It is staging a songs competition to create what it calls a saner Lagos.

    The competition, which begins today, is open to all residents, is aimed at selecting a theme song that will resonate with Lagosians and promote the ideals of a sane Lagos. The contest will end on September 26.

    According to the organisation’s Project Director, Niyi Omotoso, who addressed reporters in Lagos, the contest is expected to drive engagement and adoption of SOL’s messages among Lagosians.

    “The theme competition was conceived to engage Lagosians and create an opportunity for musical talent to thrive as well as generate thought and conversation around the values of the Spirit of Lagos. The best theme song must, among other things, be new and had never been played in any media platform or performed anywhere prior to the competition; promote the unique attributes that made Lagos a centre of excellence; inspire social justice, civic responsibility, citizenship and neighbourliness, and must not exceed three minutes,” Omotoso said.

    The winning theme song, he said, must align with the objectives of the Spirit of Lagos’ ‘Change your thinking’ campaign to restore those unique values that in the past, made the city a safe, just, prosperous and neighbourly place to live in and visit.

    The winner of the contest, he added, would gain, among other things, a recording contract, opportunity to be considered for SOL ambassadorship, a N500,000 cash prize and a chance to perform the song alongside some notable artistes at the Lagos State Governor’s Ball billed for the third quarter of the year.

    “The first and second runners-up in the contest will be rewarded with N200,000 and N100,000 cash prizes respectively, while the song with the highest vote will get N500,000 cash reward,” he said.

    A panel of judges consisting of performing artistes and record label owners, he explained, would select the winning song, adding that each song would be judged on creativity, originality, message content, balance/blend and overall acceptability.

    Prospective participants, Omotoso said, would have the opportunity to vote for their choice songs on SOL’s facebook page, www.facebook.com/spiritoflagos, or any of its online media platforms.

    Participants, he added, could also send their entries in a CD/DVD to The Spirit of Lagos Song Competition at the following places: PlayHouse, 2 Abieyuwa Amadasun Street, off Oduduwa Way, Ikeja GRA; C&F Porter Novelli, 26A Babatope Bejide Street, Lekki 1 or TBWA at Harold Shodipo Crescent Ikeja GRA.

    “Contestants are expected to enclose their full names, addresses and phone numbers in their entries as well as like the Spirit of Lagos facebook page before sending in their entries,” he said.

    General Counsel to Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Mrs Oyinkan Badejo-Okusanya, who was at the parley, expressed government’s willingness to support the project.

    She said the administration’s concern of this administration is to ensure an all-round sane Lagos, adding that the government would partner SOL to make the project a success.

    “The Spirit of Lagos believes firmly that we must live with a keen sense of ownership of the city by being part of any effort aimed at ensuring that it indeed remains the centre of excellence in all ramifications. This is in tandem with the fundamental objectives of the current administration,” she added.

  • ‘Revive Raw Materials Research Council’

    If the current trend where over 70 per cent of raw materials for paints and other products’ manufacturing is sourced from abroad must be revised, there is the need for the Federal Government to revive the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Chairman of DN Meyer Plc, Sir Remi Omotosho, has said.

    He said despite the fact that some of the raw materials for paints and other products manufacturing are available locally, the drive for local substitution embarked upon in the country in the 1980s was abandoned, and replaced in the 1990s by import syndrome with people relying heavily on imports.

    He said RMRDCwas set up to explore alternative sources of raw materials for the local industries, but regreted that all of a sudden, RMRDC disappeared from the radar. That agency ought to be revived,”he argued.

    He told The Nation to employ a carrot and stick approach in the drive for local substitution. “If you rely on local raw materials, manufacturers will be compelled to contribute to the research funds for that body because we are going to benefit at the end of the day. If, however, you want to rely upon imported raw materials, tariff should be able to take care of that.”

    Omotosho, however, pointed out that the paints industry is not the only area where the import syndrome is playing out. He said the automotive industry, for instance, is also hard hit. “About the same time TATA got licensed to produce spares for Mercedes Benz trucks in India, the one in Enugu (ANAMCO) got theirs. But where are we today?” he asked.

    According to him, the volume of spares produced in Nnewi, Anambra State, could be used basically to replace import of spare parts for vehicles. “If you don’t have a place where you have that assembly and things start to integrate backwards, you continue to rely on importing fully built vehicles, which is what you have today,” he said.

    While emphasising that a lot of materials used in the production of goods are available locally, the industrialist  regretted that those who should be developing local raw materials would rather go and import them and sale. “There is need for the government to get RMRDC back in place in a purposeful, focused manner, visionary in its approach by collaborating with manufacturers to get a lot of the input produced locally,” he insisted.

    He noted that putting RMRDC back on track is similar to the 10 per cent local content in the oil and gas industry. He said developing local substitute for imports by reviving RMRDC in line with the local content initiative in the oil and gas industry was necessary if Nigeria must realise her dream of becoming an industrialised nation.

    “After satisfying her local needs, Nigeria may even end up exporting to other countries,” he said, noting: “If we are compelled to rely on our own internal resources I can assure you that those who are importing will begin to see the need to develop local substitute for the imports. You must not expect the manufacturers themselves to be the developers of these raw materials; it’s not going to work, there must be other people along the value chain who can fill in that gap.”

    He said the government could encourage the drive for local substitution for raw materials through some sort of incentives since the government is mostly affected by the problem of import syndrome.

    “There has to be that facility provided or promoted through or by Ministry of Industry for production of local raw materials,” he argued, pointing out:“If we are producing the raw materials here, you know that people will be employed in those outfits manufacturing those raw materials. They will also be paying income tax and a lot of benefits will accrue to government.”

    The Chairman of DN Meyer also argued that by doing so, Nigeria will stop creating employment for others, particularly in a country where the rate of graduate unemployment is very high.

    “You must realise that those who are selling to you are not producing them here; they import and sell to you. Even when some of them say they have their own factory, they bring the raw materials and add some additives and sell to you. You can still do better than that because some of those basic things they are using to which they add some other agents can be produced here if we are dedicated and organised,” he admonished.

  • Dangote to revive local rice production with N50b

    Dangote to revive local rice production with N50b

    Nigeria’s foremost conglomerate, Dangote Industries Limited, will invest $300 million (N50 billion) in local rice production to make the country self-sufficient and stop importation of the produce.

    The group’s President Aliko Dangote broke the news of the planned investment at the just-concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

    He said his group planned investment in agriculture would create 180,000 jobs.

    On the group’s foray into agriculture, Dangote said: “If I dreamt five years ago that I would invest in agriculture, I will write it off as bad dream or nightmare but today, we’re investing $2.3 billion in agriculture, $2 billion in sugar, and $300 million in rice. In Nigeria, we have one of the most attractive investment policies through framework that the government has put in place to help businesses succeed.”

    It is expected that the planned investment will enable Nigeria to become self-sufficient in food production, as it has become in the cement sub-sector.

    The Dangote Group ended cement importation by establishing three plants at Obajana (Kogi State), Gboko (Benue) and Ibese (Ogun) to meet domestic demand.

    The group, through massive investment in sugar cultivation – as part of the national sugar master plan – will put Nigeria on the world map and end importation of raw sugar.

    Dangote Sugar, a subsidiary of the group, is a frontline player in the sugar backward integration policy. The company is working towards producing one million tonnes of white sugar by 2015, cultivating 100,000 hectares of sugarcanes in Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Taraba, Kogi and Kwara states.

    The Dangote Group said its investment in rice would boost local production and in the next few years and end the nation’s dependence on imported rice.

    The group is investing in agriculture because “it is motivated by the desire to create jobs and empower Nigerians, owing to a friendlier agricultural policy of the Federal Government.”

    Reputed to be the single largest private sector employer of labour in Nigeria, the Dangote Group is investing in fertiliser plant to boost agriculture.

  • Idowu: NASCOM will revive school sports

    Idowu: NASCOM will revive school sports

    Why did you accept to chair the board of NASCOM?

    First for me sport is a passion. Second, I consider this not just an appointment but a national assignment to help reposition Nigerian sports. When the Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi called me and unveiled his vision for the sector, I was moved by his passion for grassroots sports development and it was easy to connect with his new thinking and direction for sports in Nigeria. So I accepted to chair the Board of NASCOM, even though it meant more tedious work for me, considering my very tight schedule as a director of a National Bank and other associated business. I am also a member of the Governing Council for Bank directors where i am the secretary and I am a member of the National Industrial Policy committee. I am also a director of the Lagos Junior League. So it was not an easy decision.

    As the chairman of NASCOM what are your objectives and vision?

    My vision as the Chairman of NASCOM is to create an irreversible framework for grassroots sports development in Nigeria by increasing the participation of young people in all manner of sporting activities.

    My objective is to work consistently and tirelessly with all the stake holders to ensure that more young people start to enjoy sporting activities just like we all did when we were much younger. We would like to create a sporting revolution that starts from the school play ground.

    The NASCOM constituency is made up of school age children either in formal education or non formal education. We are not responsible for people above school age. This is the responsibility of the sporting federations under the National Sports Commision. The Honorable Minister has a “Playground to Podium” Vision which he intends to achieve by reforming the NASCOM, the Sporting federations and the National Sports commission. Nigerian Football Federation is just one of the many sports federations in Nigeria.

    Our strategy is simple. If we have a 1% chance of finding talented children in a normal distribution of children playing sports. Then it makes good sense to actively seek to increase the number of children playing sports if you want to increase your talent pool. To increase the number of children we will need something attractive and exciting to make them want to participate in sports.

    When we have a bigger talent pool, we should have enough exciting activities to keep them interested in sports for a longer period so that they can graduate to elite sports through a discovery program with the national sporting federations.

    Elite sports is not just talent, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication from all parties concerned. Parents, family and the larger community should also be motivated to support talented children so that they can have the required support structure in order to achieve success. my sister who is also an Olympian says “ Talent is cheap, dedication and commitment is rare”.

    Longer term if we follow this approach, we will start seeing the fruits of success. It will not be an instant success.

    How do you intend to achieve these vision cum objectives?

    We will work closely with individual schools, the Nigeria School Sports Federation, the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Sports Commission to realize our vision and objective. NASCOM needs to act the role of facilitator and supporter. We will not attempt to re-invent the wheel; rather we will complement already existing efforts by these bodies. For avoidance of doubt NASCOM will NOT be organizing any events at the grassroots level rather we will initiate ideas, brands and uniform products which will be easily recognizable for all stake holders to support and identify .

    You need to note that NASCOM will not duplicate existing efforts but to support, refine and repackage what is already on ground and galvanizing private sector support for grassroots sports. However, we will continue to encourage all stakeholders at the grassroots to embrace the kind of creativity and innovation that is youth-friendly and attractive to the private sector. If we can achieve these, our core objectives would have been far accomplished.

    The Dearth of competitions caused by lack of fund has been a major factor in school sports and how do you intend to ensure that series of tournaments are staged in order to engage the youths throughout the year?

    many countries with fantastic infrastructure and many competitions have never won as much as Nigeria. People win competitions not infrastructure. To win competitions you need to train well and practice hard. You do not need money to train, you need dedication and commitment on all sides. We intend to encourage all the Zonal Co ordinators of the National Sports commission, Principals of schools through the various organisations like the national school sports federation and other similar bodies to increase the participation of children in school sports. We will also make all the government sporting infrastructure available to schools and children free of charge during the week and for syndicated interhouse sports days for children of school age. School children should not compete with Owambe parties and religious festivals at Stadiums and sports grounds.

    Zonal Co ordinators will be encouraged to visit schools and invite local schools and local children to make use of their facilities. They will try to co ordinate sporting activities for schools at the inter school level and also provide technical support for the sporting activities of children. For example they may choose to ask a few schools to hold their inter house sports at the same venue on the same day.

    It will be easier to attract technical support and financial support for such local and regional events. It could even be an area wide competition of the best/ gifted athletes in the area. The Zonal Co ordinators will hold training clinics once a week for specific sports and it will be free for school children.

    This type of approach will require less funding because the events will be funded by the schools, parents and other stake holders. Surely it is easier for 300 parents to seek sponsors for an event than one zonal co ordinator who will probably be expected to approach the same sponsors for another similar event at the same venue on multiple occasions.

    We have designed a national campaign that will throw our country into a sporting frenzy within the next few months. The aim of the campaign is to help expand opportunities for youth participation in sports. The Federal Government will launch the campaign in the first quarter of 2013.

    Hopefully when we have many children participating in sports, we will have a larger talent pool within a short period. Then the next step will be talent discovery and enhancement.

    The National Sports Commission has instituted the National Youth U-17 Games, which will be organized by Ministry of Sports. This will be the only NASCOM event. The Games will serve as a platform to enhance school age participation and increase our national potential for talent discovery.

    How do you intend to run NASCOM in terms of funding?

    NASCOM has not received any money from government thus far. However, we hope that we will receive something to help the project. At the moment I am funding the project with the support of the minister and other like minded board members. NASCOM is empowered to seek for funds by itself and going forward we have created products that we believe can begin to attract the kind of private sector funding that we need. But note that private sector money is not charity. Corporate sponsorship must also bring value to the sponsor and private sector funding will only come when we have unique sponsorship friendly “products” to offer. So, in addition to what the National Sports Commission is able to provide as support, we are confident that we will be able to raise the kind of funds that we need and not just in terms of cash but also merchandise, a lot of which we need for our programmes and sporting activities.

     

  • Rights group seeks Ajimobi’s help to revive state hospital

    Some group of human rights activists under the aegis of Oyo Development Agenda have appealed to the Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, to provide adequate manpower to the State Hospital, Oyo town.

    This they said would guarantee prompt and effective healthcare delivery to the people.

    While painting a graphic situation in the hospital at a news conference in Oyo town, Adewunmi, said the hospital which serves six local governments (Afijio, Atiba, Oyo-East, Oyo –West, Iseyin and Itesiwaju) could only boast of four medical doctors instead of eighteen, and seventy-two nurses instead of one hundred and fifty.

    Adewunmi stated: “Recently, the hospital had three sets of ghastly motor accidents the same day. The first set came around 3am involving long journey trailer vehicle with about 53 victims. The chief Medical Consultant, Dr. Opabode, was called by the doctor on duty for assistance, whom he obliged. They were yet to finish this one when another set of accident victims were brought involving about 12 people.”

     

  • NPA to revive Delta port

    The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) plans to revive the Koko Port in Delta State, its Managing Director Mr Omar Suleiman has said.

    He told The Nation in his office that NPA is collaborating with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other investors to turn Delta port round.

    NPA, he said, is committed to making the ports the preferred destination for cargoes for West and Central Africa by providing the required infrastructure for their operations.

    He said the dredging of the Escravos channel, which leads to Warri Port, was included in this year’s budget, adding that when approved, it would attract merchant ships into the Delta Port.

    “We are going to do everything possible to revitilise the Delta Port. It is one of our priorities and we are determined to achieve it by spending part of our budget for this year on it,” Suleiman said.

     

  • Ogun to revive Technical Colleges

    All the seven Science and Technical Training Colleges owned by the Ogun State Government will soon be turned around when the bill on the inauguration of the Board of Technical and Vocational Education presently before Governor Ibikunle Amosun is signed into law.

    Special Adviser on Education, Science and Technology, Dr Tunji Abimbola, said this while addressing a delegation from the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his office.

    Abimbola blamed the sorry state of the colleges to neglect by past administrations, and lack of requisite teachers to handle the vocational courses offered in the schools.

    However, with the bill on Vocational and Technical Education Board before the Governor, Abimbola is confident of a change soon.

    “You can be sure that conditions of our Technical Colleges will change for the better if the bill which is before His Excellency is signed into law,” he said.

    Abimbola added that when the technical board is inaugurated the state will be able to access funds from the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) to improve facilities in the colleges.

    Earlier, the Head of the delegation, Mr Andre Boenne, said they were in Ogun through the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) office to partner on the economy. In addition, he said they would assist in improving the Technical and Vocational education sector.