The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Southsouth

  • SMEDAN, NDDC partner on Southsouth growth

    The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) will continue to work with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to achieve its mandate of developing Southsouth, Director-General Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda, has said.

    He spoke during a meeting with the NDDC Managing Director, Mr. Nsime Nkere, at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.

    Radda acknowledged the importance of the agency in helping to actualise the mandate of the commission, adding that the agency was set up to facilitate the development and promotion of MSMEs, and that the visit of Nkere to the agency was commendable.

    He added that the agency was well- positioned to create jobs and alleviate poverty and ready to work with the NDDC in implementing its work plan for the development of the region.

    Radda said the agency has 23 Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) nationwide, which provide technical manpower for industries , adding that four of these centres are located in the Niger Delta Region.

    He lamented that facilities in the IDCs are dilapidated with most of the equipment obsolete coupled with the problem of land encroachment.

    The Director-General however stated that the Agency received a grant from the African Development Bank (ADB) to study how the IDCs can be turned around to become enterprise clusters.

    According to him, SMEDAN is planning to convert the IDCs into enterprise clusters where enterprises involved in similar products and activities will be located in the same place with all necessary machines, equipment and trainings provided for them.

    He emphasised that being in the same location makes it easier for regulatory agencies to monitor their performances for financial institutionsto enable provide loans and help to facilitate linkage to markets for their products and services.

    Radda assured the NDDC chief that SMEDAN would collaborate with his commission to see how both institutions could develop the IDCs in the Niger Delta Region.

  • NYSC to get Southsouth skills centre

    NYSC to get Southsouth skills centre

    The construction of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Zonal Integrated Skills Acquisition Centre for the Southsouth has started with the ground-breaking ceremony performed yesterday at the project site in Ezi, Delta State.

    The project is a product of a collaboration between the NYSC and a real estate firm, Hall 7 Project, which offered to build the centre free of charge.

    NYSC Director-General  Brig-Gen. Sulaiman Kazaure said the SAED programme had empowered thousands of Corps members with vocational and entrepreneurial skills since its establishment in 2012.

    Kazaure said the programme had faced some challenges, which included inadequate skills training centres, lack of access to funding and proposal writing techniques.

    He commended the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Hall 7 Project, Mr. Olayinka Braimoh, for undertaking to build and equip the South-South SAED skills centre at no cost to the NYSC. He urged the chief executives of other private sector organisations to emulate his generosity.

    The Director-General also thanked the paramount ruler and people of Ezi Kingdom for providing land for the construction of the centre.

    Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa hailed the NYSC for initiating the centre.

    The governor was represented by the state’s Chief Job Creation Officer,  Prof. Eric Eboh.

    The Chief Executive of the Hall 7 Project said the project was a way of giving back to the society.

    Braimoh thanked the NYSC for offering the opportunity to contribute towards the quest for empowerment of graduate youths.

     

  • EFCC recovered N10b property from Southsouth in two years, says Magu

    EFCC recovered N10b property from Southsouth in two years, says Magu

    •Agency chief seeks more cooperation from whistle blowers
    •‘Looters of NDDC’s N10b facing prosecution’

    The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Mustapha Magu, yesterday urged Southsouth residents to take advantage of the Whistle-Blower’s Law to report cases of corruption and money laundering in the region.

    The EFCC chief said the agency recovered property estimated at over N10 billion from the region in the last two years.

    Magu spoke at this year’s annual national anti-corruption walk in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, through the Head of Southsouth, Ishaku Salihu.

    The anti-graft chairman said there was need to fight corruption until it is reduced to the lowest level in all sectors, especially when its consequences on recession were biting hard.

    He said: “As a body, EFCC has made great marks in the zone. Between May 29, 2015 and till date, it has traced, tracked and recovered assets worth over N10 billion within the period under review.

    “Today marks another milestone in our quest as a nation and a people to draw a line to walk against corruption.

    “Presently, the Federal Government’s anti-craft agency is prosecuting in court an indigene of the zone over N10 billion belonging to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    “If this stolen fund was injected into the system, it would have gone a long way in changing the landscape of the zone as well as the cry and agitation about underdevelopment and cases of pipeline destruction. Oil theft would have been taken care of.

    “We have also apprehended an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who collected and shared N23 billion across the country during the last general election. These are funds that would have been used to improve the social and economic conditions of states and communities across the country and their dwellers but were stolen by a few Nigerians.”

    Magu recalled some celebrated corruption cases the agency recorded within the period,  under his watch.

    He said: “It was in this country people converted septic tanks, usually constructed for human waste, into United States dollar volt and water tanks into naira containers.”

    Magu urged Nigerians to report every case of corruption to the commission manually or electronically, through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, among others.

    The EFCC chairman stressed that before any report is made, the petitioner must ensure the information is credible and verifiable.

    He said: “People should take advantage of the Whistle-Blowing Act to join the fight against corruption and save the country from the ill-activities of corrupt citizens.

    “The anti-corruption march is a wake-up call to all Nigerians on the dire consequences of corruption to us and posterity. Basically, the walk is meant to sensitise people on the effects of the twin evil of corruption and money laundering, with a view to getting everybody involved in the fight.”

    The march, which was led by the zonal head of the agency, started from the commission’s zonal office on Forces Avenue and passed through the popular Isaac Boro Park and Mile One flyover to the busy Ikwerre Road and other major streets on Azikiwe/Station Road.

  • 140,000 children malnourished in Southsouth, says UNICEF

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said yesterday 140,000 children living in Southsouth states were malnourished.

    It added that the cost of scaling up nutrition was about 46.7 million.

    UNICEF said 11,000 children living in Rivers State were malnourished.

    The organisation made the declaration at the end of the Southsouth summit on nutrition.

    The programme was organised by the Rivers State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in collaboration with UNICEF in Port Harcourt.

    Participants were drawn from the ministries of Health, Budgeting, nutritionists, civil society organisations and community leaders.

    Each state was given the opportunity to appraise its efforts, challenges and what was left to do to scale up nutrition.

    Reading a communiqué at the end of the summit, UNICEF’s Chief Communication Officer, Enugu branch, Mrs. Ijeoma Onuoha, noted that the country loses 2,300 under five-year-old and 145 women of child-bearing age daily.

    Onuoha said the percentage rate of stunting, wasting and underweight in the Southsouth were 20.0, 5.3 and 12.3, adding that it was above the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) recommended threshold.

    She said: “Participants observed that 11,000 children in Rivers State are severely malnourished. The percentage of malnourished children in the Southsouth is 140,000. The percentage rate of stunting, wasting and underweight in River States are 22.3, 2.7 and 8.8.

    “The cost of scaling up nutrition in the zone is about 46.7million. Participants at this summit observed that political will is imperative in solving policy and financial challenges related to malnutrition.”

    Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning Isaac Kamalu said multi-sectorial collaboration was necessary to improve nutritional status in the zone.

    He said it was important for the government to take the lead role by creating a policy framework, bringing together stakeholders, such as UNICEF, civil society organisations, the private sector and community leaders.

    Kamalu said: “The meeting was aimed at creating awareness on nutrition in the Southsouth, prioritising nutrition in the government development agenda, and identifying issues and recommendations that will support the upstream work in nutrition.

    “It was intended to help the government in the four field office states of UNICEF to identify nutrition champions and ambassadors, and identify commitments and action points to accelerate implementation of mapped strategies for advocacy.”

    Other participants said the government should use leadership in strengthening and developing high quality nutrition plan across the sectors and mobilise domestic resource for them.

    Mrs. Roseline Gabriel of the Federal Ministry of Health said governments would provide an enabling policy and proper nutrition legislation to address nutrition challenges.

    She advised the Ministry of Budget, Planning and Economic Development to take the lead in the coordination and leveraging of resources for the funding of nutrition activities.

    Gabriel said: “There should be increased production of nutritious food with regard to food groups, in which the region has comparative advantage. Schools’ curricula at all levels should be expanded to include nutrition specific strategies to solve malnutrition.

    “States’ committees on food and nutrition should be strengthened with adequate budgetary allocation to enable them coordinate and carry out oversight functions in all nutrition programmes and activities.”

  • Southsouth women farmers brainstorm to improve welfare in Calabar

    THE Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria (SWOFON) met in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, to rub minds on how to improve their farming skills.

    Facilitated by Action Aid International, the women farmers sought means to improve their capacity to understand and push for improvement.

    National Secretary of Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation of Nigeria Mrs Ejim Lovely in Nnenna said: “We are in Calabar to sensitise the rural women farmers in Calabar and to make them have an interface and synergy with their duty bearers so that they would know that they can relate with the top authorities who have what they need to do their farm activities.

    “We are targeting to get as much as we can, rural women farmers in the agricultural sector for them to come out of their shackles to know they are important and needed in this country. 80 per cent of the workforce is women, so we want to bring them out of their shackles to let them know where they belong. We also to make the country sufficient in having what to eat because our major problem now is food. We want to flood our markets with what we produce, so we would not have any need to go outside before we eat. Again we need to make our youths understand that this phase of adults will one day go and it would only be left with them. So let us go into agriculture as the only best alternative and try to propagate the new policy about the agricultural development of this country. So that we all together will make it happen. Oil is fast going down. Agriculture is the target, so let us do it.”

    On challenges they face as small-scale women farmers, Nnena said, they include access to land, funds and government policies.

    “Land is a major challenge. Funds is another. Again government policies is a challenge because they do not call us to sit when they are deciding. So we feel that when they are making these policies, we should be involved because it is us they are talking about. Also when the policies are made, in the process of implementation they should let us know and call us into it, because it is what itches you that you know how best to scratch.”

    The chairperson of SWOFON coordinating committee in the state, Maria Ekanem AyiUkpayang, also said: “The purpose for this forum is to bring all small scale women farmers of Nigeria in the south-south region of Nigeria to x-ray what has been done by SWOFEON committees, get to know ourselves and then forge the way forward. We want to get engaged with government, particularly in the agricultural sector and make government really aware of small-scale women farmers.”

    International Manager for Public Financing for Agriculture, Action Aid, Ms. Constance Okeke, said, they were focused on building capapcities for small women farmers across Africa.

    “We are building them to understand policy processes especially in terms of budget. The idea is basically aimed at supporting the women farmers to understand how a policy is designed and how the policy processes run in terms of finances of agriculture in their different countries.”

    A representative of the State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Justina Ulafor,  promised the state would continue to support women farmers.

  • Southsouth, Southeast lawmakers reject Grazing Bill

    Speakers and members of Houses of Assembly in the Southsouth and Southeast yesterday kicked against Federal Government’s proposed Grazing Bill.

    The lawmakers met in Owerri, the Imo State capital, for the first parliamentary session of both regions’ assemblies on the proposed Grazing Bill.

    They urged their counterparts in the National Assembly to also reject the bill.

    At the joint session, the lawmakers insisted that the proposed bill would undermine the nation’s unity.

    They also brainstormed on the renewed militancy in Niger Delta and proffered solutions to end hostilities in the region.

    The host and Imo State House of Assembly’s Speaker Acho Ihim said the Southsouth and the Southeast states had many things in common, including the challenges facing them.

    He said this necessitated the first joint parliamentary session to address the challenges.

    On the militancy, the lawmakers urged the Federal Government to have an effective dialogue with critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta to resolve the dispute and operate the rule of engagement without causing collateral damage.

    They also advised the Federal Government to revisit the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report and the Hydrocation Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) to strengthen grey areas and improve their implementation.

  • Southsouth APC, Ekiti party chief fault minister

    Southsouth APC, Ekiti party chief fault minister

    The South South chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday asked Minister of Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachukwu, to resign, if he is not capable of resolving the fuel scarcity.

    In a statement by the National Vice Chairman in charge of the zone, Prince Hilliard Eta, the party asked the Minister, who doubles as the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to resign.

    In the statement entitled “No split in APC: Tinubu right to criticise Kachukwu”, the party said it was high time the Minister climbed down from his high horse to face squarely the duties required of him by his office, as responsibility to the people is one of the cardinal points of the APC which he professes membership.

    The zonal Chairman said the south south chapter of the APC feels that Kachukwu has not entirely cast off the orientation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was, pointing out that this is manifest in his actions and utterances such as the recent one that attracted opprobrium from many Nigerians.

    The statement which denied in any split in the party reads: “Following reports in the dailies that there is a major rift in our party, the APC due to the statement by one of our party leaders and statesman, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, I am compelled to set things straight from the stand point of the southsouth chapter of the party which the Minister is a member of.

    “It is important to reiterate here that winning the federal election in 2015 has not eroded the core ideology of progressivism which we espouse as it is the very foundation on which the party rests.

    “This progressive ideology strongly emphasises government as a tool for service to the people who are the custodians of power in the first instance. In line with this, it is not wrong or out of place for Tinubu to call the Minister of State for petroleum, owing to the anti-progressive statements.

    “Secondly, we in the APC believe that it is proper to immediately correct mistakes or errors committed by any member of the party, no matter how highly placed and we are developing a culture of accountability to Nigerians who government is meant to serve.

    Also yesterday a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Halims Agoda, called on  Dr. Kachikwu to resign from office if he is unable to bring the petroleum scarcity to an end.

    In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the former Delta State lawmaker said the minister’s recent remark where he claimed that he did not have the magic wand to end the scarcity is uncalled for.

    He accused the minister of trying to bring down President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, as he noted that Kachikwu never worked for.

    Addressing the minister directly in the statement, the ex-lawmaker said: “Your  statement  is  uncalled  for.  If you cannot  turn  around  the petroleum  sector  for  the benefit  of  Nigerians,  you better  resign.

    “We  worked  hard  for  this  government  to  come  in  solely  to  turn  around  the fortunes  of  Nigerians  for better.  Honestly,  your statement  is  unwarranted.

    “Good  initiative  and  creativity  is  not  the amount  of  your   ‘grammar’   or  showmanship  but  coming  on  top  out  of  serious difficulty.

    “Since  you came  in, nobody  is  impressed  with  your  so-called  approach  to  issues.

    “Please, do  not  bring  down the government  of  President Muhammadu Buhari, for the  president  will  not  make  such  careless  statement.

    “If  you are  running  out  of  positive  ideas,  you should  resign.” He added.

  • 500 firms for Southsouth fair

    No fewer than 500 firms from West Africa have shown interest in the First Southsouth International Trade Fair being organised by the Forum of Southsouth Chamber of Industry, Mines and Agriculture (FOSSCCIMA).

    The fair, slated  for Isaac Boro Park, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, from  April 10 to 30, is expected to attract businesses across all sectors of the economy, according to the organisers.

    FOSSCCIMA President, Prince Billy Harry, who spoke to reporters in Port Harcourt, said the association would strive to create strategic partnership with the government to attract investment and grow the region’s economy.

    He noted that the fair would create opportunities for unemployed youths, stressing that the organisation’s focus is to reduce youth restiveness in the Niger Delta.

    According to Harry, the group will strive to create strategic partnership, sound coordination and cooperation with both the federal and state governments in the region.

    This, he said would attract investment, encourage more companies to make investment in the region, engage youths and provide platform for continued dialogue towards reduction of youth restiveness.

    He said: “We believe that the chains of poverty, environmental degradation, neglect, economic abuse, injustice and absence of visible economic investment in the Southsouth needs to be severed and not just symbolically but radically through investment in infrastructure, improved youth empowerment and engagement, sustained growth of SMEs and new opportunities.”

    At the fair, he noted that a project termed Registration of Unemployed South-South Youths (RUMSSY) would be launched and it is going to run throughout the duration of the fair.

    The project, he added would provide an avenue for unemployed skilled and unskilled youths in the Southsouth region will be registered.

    He said the registration of all the unemployed south-south youths (RUMSSY) is one of the most critical and significant socio- economic change requirements in our region.  “What we need in the entire country today is youth empowerment, youth engagement and youth unemployment. This is reported to be as high as 35per cent especially among the 18-24 year range,” he said.

    He further stated that the past administration established the Graduate Internship scheme (GIS) as part of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE P) which was claimed to be capable of creating jobs for 50,000 youths across the country to develop their skills and empower them for employment in the short/medium/long. However, he lamented that the effectiveness of that programme and its real/positive impact on youths in the South-south is yet to be realised.

  • Biafra: Southsouth didn’t betray Ndigbo

    Govement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) factional leader Solomon Ordu Chukwu has said contrary to beliefs in the Southeast, the Southsouth did not betray Ndigbo during the Civil War.

    Chukwu spoke in an interview with reporters. He said: “During the war, people said the Niger Delta denied Biafra. It is not true; the major betrayers of Biafra were even from the Southeast than the Southsouth.

    “People like Ojukwu’s second-in-command, Gen. Philip Effiong, fought for Biafra till the end. My father and many strong men of Niger Delta fought for Biafra. I’m a Biafran from Ikwerre extraction in Obio/Akpor council of Rivers State. I’m a true son of Niger Delta. Forget about the role of people like Ken Saro-Wiwa, but in the Biafra mainstream, many Niger Deltans stood to be counted. Today, they still support Biafra. Now, Asari Dokubo, Kalada George, Uche Okwukwu, among other great Niger Delta sons, support Biafra.

    “Before now, everybody was saying Biafra is for Ndigbo and Southeast, but today the story has changed; the people of Niger Delta have realised the need to actualise Biafra. Again, with what Uwazurike has done in shifting the leadership of MASSOB to the Niger Delta, everybody has also seen that Biafra is not the business of the Southeast alone. People have embraced Biafra and it keeps expanding more than what they knew.”

    Chukwu said MASSOB has embarked on sensitisation visits to all cities in the Biafran territories and also opened liaison offices. He praised the support of the people of Niger Delta for the struggle to actualise an independent state of Biafra.

    “Today, people from the former Eastern region and Niger Delta attend MASSOB meetings. Recently, we were in Warri, Delta State, where the people received us with a rousing welcome. They jubilated that this time, there will be no more dichotomy. There will be no divide and rule; that Ikwerre is not Biafra or Niger Delta is not Biafra. The former Eastern region and Niger Delta are working in unison to actualise an independent Biafra,” Chukwu said.

  • Shell scholarship for 60 Southsouth indigent pupils

    THE Anglo-Dutch multi-national, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Nigeria Limited has offered 60 pupils from public primary schools in the Southsouth zone admission into four top private boarding secondary schools in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital under her Cradle-to-Career (C 2 C), scholarship scheme.

    The scheme is designed for gifted children from indigent background under Shell joint partnership with NNPC/TEPN/Agip Oil Company, but operated by Shell.

    The 60 beneficiaries from Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa states are the sixth batch since the programme began in 2009 – bringing to 350 the total number of children reached so far.

    Presenting his address at the award/closing ceremony of the 2015 orientation camp held for the new inductees in Port Harcourt on Monday, the country chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Okunbor Osagie said the initiative offers the pupils opportunity to enjoy quality education at no cost to their families.

    Represented by General Manager, External Relation Shell, Igo Weli, he added that the pupils passed through rigorous selection process and competitive examinations before selected from among over 400 applicants.

    “These are 60 gifted young people, who probably would not have had the opportunity to access the kind of quality secondary education that they will get through this programme,” he said.

    He said the two-week orientation programme was to introduce them to academics, character and psychological training “to integrate them into their new learning environment.”

    He expressed optimism that the scheme would help develop a sound human resource base for development in Nigeria.

    The pupils would be posted to Archdeacon Brown Education Centre (ABEC), Brookstone Secondary School, Bloombreed High School and Jephthah Comprehensive College.

    Responding to the gesture, the Permanent Secretary, Rivers state Ministry of Education, Minaebi Micheal-West; lauded the efforts and contribution of Shell in education development in the region.

    He saId: “We admit that education sector is capital intensive, however, the state government has made a law that made education free and compulsory that any parent who does not send a child to school at least at the UBE level can be charged to court, but education in the state is free up to secondary school level.

    “The difficulty the government faces in running free education make us to appreciate the private sector and companies like SPDC, who have keyed into this sector because it is a burden that the government alone cannot carry. The involvement of SHELL to education service delivery is heart-warming and commendable.”