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Tag: Theophilus Danjuma

  • Why I built maternity hospital in Taraba – Danjuma

    Why I built maternity hospital in Taraba – Danjuma

    A former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma  (retired), says high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria is the reason why his foundation, TY Danjuma Foundation, decided to build a world class maternity hospital in Takum.

    Danjuma disclosed this on Monday in his home town Takum during the inauguration of the hospital named after his late mother, Mama Rufkatu Danjuma.

    According to him, approximately 800 women die daily worldwide due to complications arising from child birth.

    Danjuma noted that majority of such cases were occurring in developing countries, hence his intervention to help reduce the rate.

    “Between 1990 and 2015 maternal mortality rate in the world dropped by 45 per cent, but Nigeria percentage of maternal mortality rate was on the rise.

    “This is why I have decided to assist to reduce the rate by donating this world class hospital in collaboration with Development Africa, Taraba Government and other international charity organisations.

    “I hope that this hospital will set a standard in the provision of health care delivery services in the country,” he said.

    The Minister of State for Health, Prof. Osagie Ehaniro, said 576 out 100,000 children die during birth in Nigeria due to poor maternity care which he noted was the worst in the world.

    Ehaniro commended Danjuma for the intervention to reduce the figure in Takum and its environs.

    He said the hospital was the first of its kind providing such specialised services in the country, noting it will also serve the primary health care needs of the people of Taraba.

    Also read :Help our son to live

    “The government of President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to provide Primary Health Care facility in each ward in the country with collaboration of the private sector and this is a right move by Gen. TY Danjuma,” he said.

    Gov. Darius Ishaku of Taraba commended the generosity of Danjuma in changing the lives of the people across the country.

    Ishaku pledged that the state government would provide the hospital with ambulances and residential quarters for doctors to enable them provide 24-hour services to the people.

    Earlier, Mr Joshua Kempeneer, the Country Director, Development Africa, the organisation that handled the construction of the hospital expressed worry over the high maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.

    He commended TY Danjuma Foundation for its intervention in reducing the rate.

    Kempeneer, who said his organisation had the mandate of Danjuma to manage the hospital for five years, assured that services to be offered by the hospital would be highly subsidised for poor families to access.

    “The hospital will charge less compared to what is obtainable in other hospitals, but would attend strictly to women and children under the age of eight,” he said.

  • Federal University, Wukari honours Danjuma, 2 traditional rulers

    The Federal University, Wukari in Taraba, has conferred honourary degrees on Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), as well as the Aku Uka of Wukari, Dr. Shekarau Angyu.

    Also honoured by the institution is the Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Baba Yunusa, who is also to be installed the first Chancellor of the institution which was established in 2011.

    Its Vice Chancellor, Prof. Abubakar Kundiri, disclosed this on Friday, at a press conference in Wukari, to kick start activities lined up for the university’s maiden convocation ceremony slated for Saturday, March 4.

    The Vice Chancellor said that the three Nigerians were being recognised for their enormous contributions toward a greater Nigeria.

    He announced that 394 candidates would be awarded first degrees, with 16 of them graduating with First Class.

    According to him, 116 bagged Second Class Upper Division, with 192 getting Second Class Lower Division, while 20 had Third Class degrees.

    Reviewing his achievements in the one year he had served as Vice Chancellor, Kundiri said that he was able to complete the library, ICT Centre, as well as two lecture theatres with capacities for 1000 and 600 seats, respectively.

    He said that many other facilities had been put in place to qualify the institution to resubmit its 18 unaccredited courses for further assessment by the National Universities Commission.

    Kundiri expressed satisfaction with the peaceful atmosphere of Wukari, hitherto seen as a war zone, noting that the school, for the first time, had an uninterrupted academic session between 2016 and 2017.

    He solicited stakeholders’ support toward building a conducive environment for effective learning, research and community service.

     

  • INAUGURATION UPDATES from Eagle Square

    INAUGURATION UPDATES from Eagle Square

    •    11.19am

    New President on parade inspection,  cheered at the Eagles Square.

     

    • 11.12am

    Ex-President Jonathan leaves inauguration venue

    Muhammadu Buhari being sworn in as President of Nigeria

    • 10.47am

    President-elect to take oath of office

    The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has been invited to the podium to take his oath of office

    • 10.37am
    • CJN administers oath of office on vice-president elect
    • The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmoud Muhammed, has just administered oath of office on the Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo
    •            10.25am
          Presidential inauguration begins with a prayer
    President of Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, prayed for success of the incoming administration and asked God to protect and help the outgoing President and his deputy.
    The Deputy Chief Imam of the National Mosque also offered prayer for the country.
    • 10.18am
    • President Jonathan arrives
    • The outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan has arrived the inauguration venue
    • 9.59am
    President-elect arrives
    The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has just entered the Eagles Square venue of the presidential inauguration.

    photo 2

    •  9.49am
    Osinbajo in inauguration venue
    The in-coming Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has just strolled into the Eagles Square.
    • 9.44am
    Sambo arrives Eagles Square
    The outgoing Vice President Namadi Sambo has just entered the inauguration venue
    • 9.38am

    U.S Secretary of State Kerry arrives 
    The United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, has just arrived the Eagle Square venue of Friday’s presidential inauguration.
    • 9:03 a.m

    Obasanjo arrives venue

    Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo arrives venue of the Presidential inauguration, greeting fellow former Head of States.

     

    • 8:15 a.m

    By David Lawal

    Tinubu arrives inauguration venue

    Asiwaju Bola Hammed Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state has just been spotted arriving the Eagle Square, venue of the inauguration ceremony for Nigeria’s next president, Muhammadu Buhari.

    Buhari is taking over the mantle of leadership from President Goodluck Jonathan

     

    • 8:01am

    Danjuma arrives Eagle Square

    Augustine Ehikioya

    Former Minister of Defence, Theophilus  Danjuma has just arrived Eagle Square, venue of the Presidential Inauguration in Abuja.
    As at the moment of filing this report, nothing less than 20 former Nigerian leader are currently at the venue to grace the occasion.
    • 7:15 am

    Jacob Zuma of South Africa arrives first

    President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, was the first supreme leader to arrive Eagle Square, venue of the Presidential inauguration in Abuja.

    Zuma arrived the venue to a beautiful welcome of the well decorated Eagle Square.

     

  • Fashola, Danjuma, others to honour Dare at 70

    Fashola, Danjuma, others to honour Dare at 70

    A former Defence Minister, General Theophilus Danjuma; Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), a leading member of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; frontline politicians, scholars and media chiefs will, on July 17, honour The Nation columnist and former Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian, Prof Olatunji Dare, on his 70th birthday.

    The event, which will hold at the MUSON Centre, Lagos, will attract leading figures in academics, politics and the media.

    The birthday celebration, which the organisers said will be chaired by Gen. Danjuma, will include a lecture to be delivered by a media scholar, Prof Kwame Karikari of the University of Ghana, Legon, titled: Memories of Censorship: Struggling for Press Freedom in Africa.

    A book edited by Wale Adebanwi, titled: Public Intellectuals, the Public Sphere and the Public Spirit: Essays in Honour of Olatunji Dare, will also be presented at the event.

    Contributors to the book include scholars, media chiefs and activists. They include famous poet, Prof Niyi Osundare; University of Swaziland don, Dr. Adidi Uyo; former Daily Times Editor, Dr. Ndaeyo Uko (now of Monash University, Australia); former Concord Newspapers Managing Director, Dr. Doyin Abiola; former Punch Chairman, Chief Ajibola Ogunshola; famous poet, Mr. Odia Ofeimun; Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi and Executive Editor of The NEWS, Mr. Kunle Ajibade.

    Others are: Prof Lai Oso, Mr. Segun Ayobolu, Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, Dr. Ebenezer Obadare, Mr. Olakunle Abimbola, Dr. Akin Adesokan and Dr. Sina Odugbemi.

    Dare, who is a professor of communication at the Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, United States, is Nigeria’s most celebrated satirist and one

    of the most respected newspaper columnists.

    The Nation columnist has been described as one who “remains a glittering advertisement for patriotic and conscientious journalism.”

    Prof Osundare said: “In Olatunji Dare’s writing, we encounter a productive marriage of the gravitas of content and the felicity of style.”

    Dare studied Mass Communication at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), graduating with first-class honours.

    He subsequently earned a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York, and a doctorate in Communication Research from Indiana University, Bloomington, with specialisations in international communication and public policy analysis.

    He taught at UNILAG from 1984 until 1988, when he was appointed a columnist and editorial page editor of The Guardian, Nigeria’s most influential newspaper then. Two years later, he became the chairman of the Editorial Board.

    As a correspondent for The Guardian, Dare filed stories from over a dozen countries on three continents, including from The White House in Washington, DC. He joined the Bradley Faculty in 1997.

     

     

     

    The frontline columnist has served as an editorial writer for The Seattle Times on a fellowship from the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

    He has also served as a consultant to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for International Development of the U.K. Foreign Office.

    Dare’s awards include The Robert A. Curry Prize in Editorial Writing from Columbia University; The Nieman Foundation’s Louis M. Lyons Prize for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism, and the Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching Excellence from the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at Bradley.

  • Dare turns 70

    Dare turns 70

    Prof. Olatunji Dare, a journalism scholar, famed newspaper columnist and editorial writer, will be 70 on July 17.

    According to a statement by his family, friends and associates, a public lecture and book presentation will hold on July 17 to mark the occasion. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma will chair the event, which would hold at the Agip Recital Hall of the MUSON Centre in Onikan, Lagos, by 11am.

    The lecture, to be delivered by Prof. Kwame Karikari of the University of Ghana, Legon and executive director at the Media Foundation for West Africa, is titled: “Memories of Censorship: Struggling for Press Freedom in Africa”.

    The book to be presented is Public Intellectual, the Public Sphere & the Public Spirit: Essays in Honour of Olatunji Dare at 70, edited by Dr. Wale Adebanwi, associate professor of African and African-American Studies at the University of California, Davis, U.S.A.

     

  • Overseas wedding for Daisy Danjuma’s son

    Overseas wedding for Daisy Danjuma’s son

    It was a parade of who is who in Nigeria and beyond last week as Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd) and his wife, Senator Daisy, hosted guests at the wedding ceremony of their son. Senator Daisy Danjuma’s first son, Yuki Ehime Omenai, and his lover, Moriam Omobolanle Rotimi, sealed their age-long romance with a fairytale wedding in far away Marbella, Spain last Saturday.

    The couple was joined in holy matrimony inside Gen. Danjuma’s plush home in Marbella, with the high and mighty from Nigeria and elsewhere also on hand for the ceremony. The beautiful city of Marbella stood still for the strictly-by-invitation wedding described by those who attended as classy.

    Close friends and associates of Senator Daisy Danjuma,including Priscal Soyemi, Terry Waya, Musa Danjuma and Bashorun Dele Momodu, were in attendance.

  • FG identifies threats to national parks

    FG identifies threats to national parks

    THE federal government at the weekend identified degradation and poaching of wild life as major threats to national parks in the country.

    The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Laurentia Mallam, stated this when Theophilus Danjuma Foundation paid her a courtesy visit at the ministry’s headquarters in Mabushin, Abuja.

    She identified attacks on parks protection officers, habitat destructions and infrastructural decay as the most daunting challenges to parks in Nigeria.

    She warned that most wide life would go into extinction if poaching is not checked.

    The minister said the ministry has stepped up efforts to address some of these challenges, while calling for collaboration with the private sector to overcome the challenges.   The minister said: “Our national parks are under threats from degradation and poaching. If these threats are not checked, our wide life like elephants may go into extinction”.

    She appealed to stakeholders to commit to the protection and conservation of the environment and its natural resources for sustainable development.

    The foundation’s founder, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (Rtd.), commended the Federal Government for its efforts in preserving the environment.

     

    He promised to collaborate with government to protect, restore and preserve Nigeria’s natural habitat.

    “Our wile life has been wiped out completely. The Place of human activities and human excesses play a great part in the degradation of wide animal in our country.

    ”We must work together to preserve it. We had parks with wild life when I was growing up as a child,” Danjuma stated.

     

  • Danjuma faults Obasanjo on letter to Jonathan

    Danjuma faults Obasanjo on letter to Jonathan

    A former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, has faulted ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter to President Goodluck Jonathan.

    He said it was better to join issues one-on-one with the President instead of writing a letter.

    He said Nigeria is undergoing a dangerous political period which imposes a responsibility on leaders to be cautious on what they say.

    Danjuma made his position known on Friday night at the 6th edition of the Abuja Praise Festival, which he hosted at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

    He said: “I wish to align with what Gen. Yakubu Gowon has said. These are difficult times and I urge leaders to be careful with their utterances, especially in the public.

    “When people ask me what I think of the letter, I said I don’t have to talk on the pages of newspapers. I have unimpeded access to the president. If I have anything to say to him, I would meet him directly.”

    Danjuma’s comments on Obasanjo’s letter were greeted with a loud applause.

    The former Minister added: “We should always pursue peace as believers because without peace, we cannot fulfill our destiny.

    “We as leaders must continue to have peace with men and with God.”

    A former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the event, also advised Nigerian leaders to be wary of comments that could compromise the peace of the nation

    He demanded caution from all in public speeches because “the times are indeed testy.”

    He said: “ Peace is a very important factor for growth. So, we must not be distracted. And we must not be tired of suing for peace. We must watch our utterances as leaders whether past or present.”

  • Umar ‘sends’ Danjuma birthday message

    Umar ‘sends’ Danjuma birthday message

    The ‘bitterness’ between Taraba State Acting Governor Garba Umar and former Defence Minister Gen Theophilus Danjuma did not allow Umar sign the birthday message he sent to Danjuma yesterday. Danjuma turned 76 yesterday.

    A goodwill message, purportedly sent by Umar, was signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Kefas Sule.

    The message reads: “We, in Taraba State, join millions of Nigerians, even in the diaspora, to wish you a happy birthday and God’s blessings.”

    According to analysts, the message came tactfully from the government, but definitely not from the acting governor.

    Sule, however, said the message was from the acting governor and there was no problem with him signing the message.

    “I am his (Umar’s) chief press secretary, so I can sign anything that has to do with media on his behalf.”

    Umar is reportedly not happy with Danjuma for consistently referring to him as deputy governor.

    He is allegedly scheming to become substantive governor, but Danjuma has refused to support his bid.

  • Tempting soldiers

    Tempting soldiers

    •The military should not be allowed to contemplate role in elections or any aspects of our democracy

    People outside the country must have been surprised over the news report that the Nigerian Army is training its men for the 2015 general elections. Speaking at a two-day seminar with the theme “State of readiness of units with 81 Division and challenges of internal security operations” for its men, the Commander, 9 Brigade, General A. Oyebade, said the army has mapped out some of the areas where the soldiers would be involved.
    The surprise of outsiders would centre on questions like: What should be the business of soldiers with elections? Are election days not like any other day that will come and go while the people perform their civic responsibility of voting? Yes, this is the way it is in civilised climes. But it does not work that way in our kind of environment. Here, as in many parts of Africa, elections have become ‘do-or-die’ battles, to paraphrase one of our former presidents.
    Considering this peculiarity, we should ordinarily thank the Nigerian Army for taking time out to think and talk about the 2015 elections. This is so much so that the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, General Obi Umahi, said that “no warning order has been issued and we have not been directed to prepare for the election. We have not even been told we will participate or not during the election but we are preparing so that we are not caught unawares”. In other words, the army was motivated by patriotic instincts to have begun preparations for the polls.
    We appreciate the patriotic instincts that would have made the army organise such a forum on the all-important 2015 elections. Without doubt, the poll promises to be important, if not ominous, especially considering recent political developments in the country. But we cannot support military involvement in election matters.
    This is strictly a job for the police that are in charge of internal security. The 1999 Constitution is clear on that. If we keep involving soldiers in internal security duties, we tend to give them a larger-than-life impression, which is dangerous for democracy. Again, many of our top military officers who should know, including General Theophilus Danjuma, have always warned against distracting soldiers with duties not having direct bearing with their core duty of protecting the country from external aggression because such duties particularly have negative impact on their professionalism.
    Moreover, whether our military authorities agree or not, Nigerians believe that soldiers’ presence during elections scares voters away. So, quite unlike how Gen Oyemade sees it, it is not a question of the military having code of conduct for participating in election. Don’t the police have? And how has that deterred them from being biased in favour of the ruling party? But that is not even the only worry; more worrisome is the fact that the country will be doomed if our soldiers get compromised and become as partisan as the police should they (soldiers) be given crucial roles during elections.
    It is a sad commentary on our politicians, particularly the ruling party, that elections have become ‘do-or-die battles’ to necessitate soldiers anticipating trouble at the polls that are still more than one year away.
    The government should face the reality of addressing the inadequacies of the police in order to make it more efficient. Apart from terrorism that the soldiers mentioned, most of the things that they are preparing to do ahead of the elections are what the police should be brainstorming on. For instance, Gen. Oyemade said that “The division is keeping a close watch on ethnic militias such as OPC … some politicians may want to use them for their political ambition …” This is the duty of the police.
    Many years ago, our soldiers were rarely seen in the public; they were contented staying in their barracks unless in compelling circumstances. That should be the template. Let the soldiers not lead themselves into temptation. Roles like this tease them into politics. Military rule and adventurism in our politics since independence fed on temptations like this. This is a DEMOCRACY for civilians, not a platform for soldiers to test and taste power.