The Nation Newspaper

Tag: town

  • Town celebrates annual festival

    The indigenes of Loburo  in Obafemi/Owode Local Government Area, Ogun State are set to celebrate the annual festival.The festival will commence tomorrow with paying homage to their fore-fathers.

    Others activities include appeasement of River Loburo, the god of the land, on Friday. Prayer comes up later at the community mosque. The masquerade will entertain the indigenes and guests to a traditional display.

    The grand finale takes place on Saturday and will be attended by sons and daughters from within and the Diaspora.

    The special guest of the day is Olu-Igbein of Igbein land, Oba Festus Oluwole Makinde (Mesisoye 1).

  • LASU urged to match gown with town

    The Secretary to the Lagos State Government (SSG), Mr Tunji Bello, on Tuesday urged managers of the Lagos State University (LASU) to tailor its academic programmes along societal and entrepreneurial needs and development.

    Speaking on “The challenge of town and gown partnership in Lagos” at the 4th Annual Distinguished Lecture and Awards of Association of Nigerian University Professional Administrators (ANUPA-LASU), Bello said that the university must be able to think outside the box and address socio economic problems.

    “We must begin to channel our energies in a direction that would ensure an effective tackling of our societal problems at large. This will surely restore significance of the gown as credible symbol of intellectual attainment,” he said.

    He added that the Institution should be a key component of the brain box of the Lagos State government and an intellectual resource base for adding value to public policy in the emergence of a mega city.

    With its professional administrators and immense intellectual capacity at its disposal, Bello said LASU can play a more active role in helping the state exploit its potential and overcome its challenges.

    “Lagos is naturally endowed with aquatic lives, how has this been beneficial to the state economy?  LASU should be able to lead research into this through its school of Fisheries. This Institution should be able to boost a world class research in coconut and its sustainable economy uses. The University administrators must facilitate the process.  They must act as bridge builders.  They have to be the purveyor in fast attacking the process of helping researchers relate to town,” he said.

    Bello listed other challenges to include infrastructural development – particularly roads and the aggressive provision of electricity to the communities in Badagry and the Ibeju Lekki/ Epe areas that have been singled out for transformation into centres of dynamic socio-economic activities – technology to transform waste to wealth, among others.

    The event which also featured presentation of awards to Bello, the Elegushi of Ikateland, Oba Saheed Elegushi, a former Head of Service and member of LASU Governing Council, Mr Akinsanya Sunny Ajose, was graced by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Lanre Fagbohun, management of LASU and ANUPA executives.

  • ‘We must rid councils, satellite towns of waste’

    The FCT Minister Malam Muhammad Bello has directed that a comprehensive waste evacuation exercise be undertaken in all the council areas as well as satellite communities of the territory.

    The operation is scheduled to last seven days.

    The Acting Director of the Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD) Mrs. Victoria Imande disclosed this, saying that the STDD has concluded arrangements to commence the seven-day exercise.

    Mrs. Imande stated that the FCT Administration is poised to clean up all the nooks and cranny of the satellite towns.

    She solicited for the cooperation and understanding of all the residents of the Federal Capital Territory particularly those resident in the Satellite Towns, by keying into the exercise to make it a success.

    The Director urged the residents to take personal interest in the exercise by owning the initiative and making personal hygiene part of their daily personal lives.

     

  • Town planners blame lack of planning for retarded growth

    Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) Chairman, Mr. Anifowoshe Abiola, has said the inability of governments and stakeholders to match economic planning with physical planning is responsible for lack of opportunities for wealth creation in the country.

    Abiola, who spoke at a briefing on the 50th anniversary of the NITP, also rued the absence of  proper and professional planning, saying such omissions led to the arbitrary development of cities and towns.

    He blamed stakeholders and governments for the misnomer.

    He said if Nigeria paid more attention to physical planning, it would have an improved economy with more opportunities for wealth creation, disclosing that Lagos  has a comprehensive Master Plan to guide physical development in the next 25 years.

    Abiola, also the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development in Lagos State,  said  the key objectives of NITP centred on advancement of public awareness of the importance of living and working environments,  with the inclusion of advancement of town planning education, training, research and practice.

    He said: “As professionals, we have for many years been emphasising the benefits/values of orderliness, well planned communities, not only for the health of the citizenry, but also for their economic well-being.

    “This, we believe, will be better achieved if and when economic planning at state and federal government levels is treated as mutually exclusive.”

    NTIP past president, Dr. Bunmi Ajayi, said there had been plans to guide cities’ development, but that lack of finance to  implementation  them has been a challenge.

    “If the government fails to commission plans, there is nothing any town planners can do,” he said.

    Another former president of the institute, Mr. Remi  Makinde, chronicled the achievements of town planners  since  the inauguration  of NITP. According to him, they initiated  plans for the development of FESTAC Town, Satelite Town, Gowon Estate, Ipaja Low cost housing, formation of Federal Environmental Protection Agency and development of  Abuja as a new federal capital among others

    In Lagos State, Abiola said the institute offers advocacy and interfacing with public sector towards mapping out policies, laws and regulations.

    “As we celebrate 50 years of planning profession in Nigeria, we have resolved to continue to play the lead role in stimulating efforts to promote habitable settlements,” he said.

  • Inside a forgotten town

    Inside a forgotten town

    Without electricity, hospital, paved road or healthy water, Ungwar Maikanti near Kaduna city is no better than a Stone Age settlement, reports TONY AKOWE

    Every community has its well-off class. In Ungwar Maikanti, just 25 minutes away from Kaduna metropolis, the richest man owns a motorcycle. Its residents enjoy the bliss only the Stone Age offers.

    Women deliver their babies at home unaided. There is no medical personnel in sight. Only a lorry that probably comes to get firewood from the community plies the road into Ungwar Maikanti. There is no potable water, nor hospital, nor electricity. The only school there has never received any form of government attention since the residents built it in 1997.

    Located West of Rigasa in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, the community, which is surrounded by Ungwar Daudu, Kwati and Rigar Fulani, is always cut off from other communities and the state capital for about two months during the rainy season because the only road to the state capital is always flooded.

    Aliyu Bala, the 70-year-old head of the community, said, “Our town usually gets cut off for about two months from other towns and villages around this area”.

    Pa Bala added that the predominantly Gbagyi farming community has about 3000 inhabitants but has been neglected over the years by successive governments.

    He said, “We have been here for centuries because my parents and forefathers spent their lives here. We have no social amenities in these communities. No road, no water, no hospital, even the school here was built with mud by our people without government support. We are farmers but we cannot transport out farm produce to nearby markets because of bad road. The water we drink here is so bad that it causes sickness to our people.”

    Investigations by The Nation revealed that the residents drink water from a pond which is located far from them. Women and children wake up early in the morning to get water which is not drinkable from the pond. Women trek a distance to fetch water from the pond.

    One of the residents of the community, Talatu Iliya said the water from the pond smells and is sometimes covered by dry leaves, “but that is what we use to cook because we have no choice”, she lamented, adding, their children complain of frequent stomach ache and also suffer from cholera.

    She said, “You can see the kind of water we drink. Even dogs wouldn’t drink from the pond. The water smells and that is what we use to cook our food”.

    There is only one water well in the village said to have been dug by a white lady who visited the community years back. But the people hardly get water from it. Women in the community complain that they can only get water from the well very early in the morning and that in most cases, they can hardly fetch more than a bucket of water from it. They have however decided to reserve the water in the well for the primary school children who attend the community primary school. They want government intervention by constructing a borehole for them to get water for their use.

    Another major problem confronting this community is lack of health facilities. Pregnant women in the community do not attend antenatal because of lack of a health centre.

    Elizabeth Jacob who identified herself as one of the women leaders in the community, said they have lost several women due to complications from childbirth and other pregnancy-related ailments.

    She said: “We’ve lost scores of women during pregnancy and childbirth, because we don’t have any place to take them for medical care if the pregnancy came with complications. Our women give birth at home without support from any birth attendant. We only give them herbs to drink”.

    One of the women who died from complications, was identified simply as Asabe. She was said to be in labour for several hours but without medical help, she passed on.

    Nobody owns a car in the community; only one person ows a motorbike.

    It is only in Rigassa that they can access  a primary health care centre. But it was night and at that time, the lorry was nowhere to be found.

    Two weeks after Asabe’s death, another woman and mother of four identified as Lami lost a child due to complications during childbirth.

    In the area of education, The Nation was informed that even the local government has never come to the aid of the only primary school in the area built through community effort. It was learnt that over 80 percent of the youth in the community have not gone beyond primary school level. One of Youth Leaders in the community, Jacob Maiunguwa said “Our youth have not gone beyond primary school which is why they end up unemployed. Some of them joined their parents in farming, but during dry season they become idle, doing nothing”. Chairman of School Based Management Committee (SBMC) Peter Alkali said the only school in the village has not received any learning material from both local and state governments since it was built by the community in 1997. He said: “the School lacks chairs and other teaching materials the pupils miss classes during rainy season, because the only route linking the community with others get flooded and so it’s not safe for them to attend classes”.

    A block of classroom constructed in the area was said to have collapsed due to failure by Igabi local government authority to roof the building.

    But the people are still hopeful that with the promise to revamp health facilities and construct new ones across the state, the stage government will remember them and build a health centre for them.

    They are also hopeful that the Senator representing them in the National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani will come to their aid and provide them a functional borehole and clinic.

  • Update: Ijaw, Urhobo towns clash over land  

    Fears of a bloody ethnic crisis gripped Delta state on Thursday as  Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja,  Ijaw and Urhobo communities in Warri Southwest and Udu local government areas of the state clash over land.

    The two communities have been locked in battle over the ownership of a strip of land over which they went to war in 1996.

    Various sources said the latest in a series of clashes between the warring neighbours was sparked off when armed Urhobo warriors from Aladja invaded Ogbe-Ijoh in the wee hours of Thursday.

    At the time of this report on Thursday evening the sound of gunfire was booming from ‘warfront’ with at least a dozen persons reportedly missing.

    A soldier and several Ogbe-Ijoh community indigenes sustained machete wounds in the attack.

    Two speed boats conveying hundreds of residents fleeing Ogbe-Ijoh to neighbouring Warri were also reportedly seized by the warriors.

    An indigene of Ogbe-Ijoh, Mr Richard Koremene told our reporter on telephone that three of his kinsmen had been butchered.

    “Some Ogbe-Ijoh persons have been injured, including a soldier man. There is tension – very high and there is concern that the hostility might escalate.”

    The Chairman of Warri Southwest LGA , Chief Government Ekpemupolo, told our reporter on telephone that tension was “very high” even though the Warri Area Command of the Nigerian Police had waded into the matter.

    Mr Aaron (surname withheld) blamed the crisis on the abduction of an Aladja woman from the farm on Wednesday evening.

    “The woman who went to the farm was seized and taken to Ogbe-Ijoh by the youths who detained her behind a counter.”

    “So Aladja youths in reprisal blocked the only road leading to Ogbe-Ijoh. They said the road would remain closed until the woman is released.

    Meanwhile, residents of Ogbe-Ijoh, including NYSC corps members, are fleeing Ogbe-Ijoh in the wake of Thursday attack.

    The Chairman of the Waterways Security Committee, Chief Boro Opudu, who confirmed the report said security operatives were battling to restore normalcy to the area.

    He said soldiers from Nigerian Army and mobile police force have been deployed to the community to restore law and order.

  • Latest comrade in town

    Guess the latest unionist agitator in town?  Comrade Senate President, Omo Baba Oloye, Dr. Bukola Saraki!   Did you catch him pump his fist in the air the other day?

    Ah, that would make Adams Oshiomhole green with envy, as the Americans would say! But when did the alliance between an elitist eighth Senate, which has not quite been able to throw off the perception crisis of its forebears, and a populist Labour movement, always mouthing aluta continua, victoria ascerta, even if it stumbles from one defeat to another, in an industrial space spiked with more than its fair dose of neo-liberalism, start?

    And wonders and wonders, Omo Baba Oloye was not alone!  With him, as captured by a picture which The Nation published in its February 9 issue, was Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, product of Saraki’s rebellion against — and conquest of — his party, in the all-important task of choosing principal officers for the Senate.

    With them on the aluta dais was Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Bobboi Kaigama and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Ayuba Wabba, both comrades in the new battle to force Babatunde Fashola’s Power Ministry to force service; before brow-beating longsuffering power consumers, to pay even more for the darkness they get now, instead of light.It was at a rally at the National Assembly, Abuja.

    That rally kick-started the nationwide picketing of DISCOs (electricity distribution companies) and GENCOs (electricity generating companies), as the new Great Satan (to use Iran-speak, in its high rhetoric with the United States), in the eyes of a baleful electricity — or sorry, darkness — consuming masses; and their organised Labour champions and chaperons.So, between the elite National Assembly and a rabidly populist Labour, when did the entente start?  Well, maybe there is no entente, as such.

    Maybe elitism and populism have not morphed into some strange alchemy, which sees both diametrically opposed economic dramatis personae hug themselves like some long lost lovers.

    Maybe there is only politics of perception, which winning symbolism symbiotically works for both sides!For once, Labour seems happy to have in its corner the Senate, an all-important ally against the Power Minister Babatunde Fashola, SAN, who for the umpteenth time, needs to work on his emotional intelligence.

    It is only a Fashola, who would believe in the manifest goodness of his crusade of rescuing the power sector by asking angry consumers to pay first, and ask question later. He dubbed it a bitter pill that must be downed for the future good of all! For another, the embattled Saraki, with his Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) trial set to open soon, would appear to need some healthy dose of populism to weather the fierce journey ahead.  Smart bloke!  He knows the battle would be fought in the law court as it would be in the street.

    If he must win that perception game, he could not afford the folly of the Roman Coriolanus, who mocked the plebs that their breaths reek of garlic. Even if they do, Omo Baba Oloye perhaps has enough courtly street wisdom (and common sense) to merrily gulp them down! So, when next Bukola Saraki comes throwing his punch in the air, in your neighbourhood, know he is preparing for the long haul.

    To win the perception war, is a task that must be done, so seems to say Bukky, the latest unionist agitator in town!

  • How town planning can benefit society, by practitioners

    The real estate sector is estimated to hit  $13.6 billion this year, accounting for 7.6 per cent of the gross domestic product. This may be good news for investors, but experts are calling for caution, writes MUYIWA LUCAS

    Town Planers have identified some of the profession’s challenges and proffered the way out.

    The Nigeria Institute of Town Planners (NITP), at a colloquium  in Lagos, promised to make its activities more visible for the benefit of all.

    The theme of the seminar was: Making town planning more visible, with sub-themes on “The planning profession and the state of the nation; challenges of practice; Branding the profession; and technology and planning.”

    Chairman of the Organising Committee, Mr. Waheed Kadiri, said one of the challenges of the profession is the government’s attitude and the low appreciation of urban  and regional planning.

    Kadiri,  a past president of NITP, regretted that planning is remembered when there is need to blame someone or a group, adding that when decisions  are taken, budgets are proposed and decisions are taken, they are mostly done without consideration for urban and regional planning implications.

    “There is also the problem of political interference rather than intervention in the planning process to the detriment of the resulting planning actions and a perverted perception of what planning is all about,” he said.

    Also, a former Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development in Lagos State, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, rued the desperation to make money at all cost without observing the professional steps, and lack of discipline among professionals were major issues that needed to be addressed.

    Ayinde urged professionals in the public service to fast-track  approval of  plans submitted to them by their colleagues in the private practice provided  that required document are submitted and laid down rules are followed.

    “Communal success is the only thing that is sustainable. You must assist your colleagues to make them succeed and make planning profession successful. Practitioners in the public service should seek synergy among those in the private service for good success of the profession,” he advised, adding that through this effort, the profession would be better appreciated.

    Similarly, a Town Planner with the Lagos State  Government, Mr. Tunji Badejo, argued that the loss of values, lack of understanding, scarcity of information and data for planning, the band wagon effect and lackadaisical attitude, all pose challenges for the profession.

    Immediate past president, Association of Town Planners Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), Mr. Moses Ogunleye, said the state of the industry on policies’ inconsistencies; training of town planners, running-down-yourself syndrome and negative perspective of image of town planners by the public have affected the profession.

    A media don, Prof Lai Oso, urged the institute to be pro-active in reacting to public issues.

    The position to be taken by the body, Oso explained, must be articulate and communicate the values of town planners to the public.

    Town Planners, he said, should  up their game to compete favourably with other professions in the built environment.

    He listed the need to explore other professions, effective communication, adherence to code of conduct and monitoring among others as brand strategies needed to promote town planning profession.

  • Truly, a new sheriff is in town

    SIR: It is now very clear to most people in Nigeria, and even the international community after sixteen years of democratic clowning, that Nigeria’s public sector and governance instruments can really work to ensure law and order in the conduct of human relations and business activities for a balanced social order.

    Chinua Achebe, it was who said that there is really nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else; that the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership – “…the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.”

    A keen and dispassionate observer of the Nigerian environment since May 29 will agree and commend the current Federal Government for the rejuvenated efforts it is making in ensuring a sane operational environment for private sector operators in Nigeria amidst few other flashes of rebirth in public attitudes.

    As the year draws to an end, citizens can beat their chests and say that this year of transition did not pass without an achievement – a change in national political leadership which is yielding gradual results in a steady and sustainable manner.

    The fight against corruption which went comatose has been rejuvenated under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are now alive to their responsibilities in such a manner that a critical observer would question if these agencies of government were really in existence before the inauguration of the Buhari administration.

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently sanctioned the multi-national telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria for contravening its directives on SIM Card registration. The CBN has shown new vigilance, given the extraordinary swiftness with which it discovered the violations of Treasury Single Account directive. It also noteworthy that National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) has been up and doing with N1 billion fine on Guinness Nigeria for using expired raw materials in the production of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

    Under President Buhari’s watch, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has raised the tempo of its activism and regulatory courage, by slamming the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) with an N18 million compensation to the family of eight-year old Faith Yakubu who died when a worker of AEDC disconnected the wire feeding Yakubu’s residence over allegation of accumulated bills.

    There is no doubt that these corporate violations over the years in Nigeria that went unpunished and ignored contributed immensely to the destruction of Nigeria’s economy and the loss of revenue that slowed down governance all over the country.

    The point should not be lost that the activation of the laws and operational codes for business operations in Nigeria by relevant regulatory agencies and their sudden awakening from long term slumber to their mandates and responsibilities have directly and indirectly established a new public order. It has also sent a new message of hope to the world on Nigeria. Effective and efficient monitoring have promoted Nigeria image abroad as a nation of law and order, where rules and regulations are upheld. This is impacting on Foreign Direct Investment and the conduct of business and human interactions in Nigeria. The rest of the world has increased confidence in Nigeria’s economy and its people because the new sheriff in town has reputation for discipline, law and order and zero-tolerance for corruption.

     

    • Ugo Jim-Nwoko,

    Abuja.

  • Town planners for AGM October 27

    The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) has started a campaign to address the failure of the cities to promote a sustainable environment.

    The body, which holds its 46th Conference and Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Ilorin, Kwara State October 27 to 30 has fixed “Making cities in Nigeria functional” as its conference theme.

    It is aimed at using the conference to create awareness on the issue.

    Organising Committee Chairman and First National Vice-President of the NITP, Mr. Luka Achi, explained that the focus of this year’s theme is on making settlements functional.

    He however regrets that this dream has continued to be an illusion for Nigerians, as settlements of various sizes and characteristics exhibit elements of disjointed and dysfunctional space use and inter-relationship.

    “The impact of this can be observed in the absence of physical plans, poor transportation and related services, absence of social amenities and services and a general neglect of the socially disadvantaged group of the society. Where these plans exist, they are either distorted or not complied with,” Achi said.