The Aare Ona Kakanfo of the Yoruba, Dr. Gani Adams, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to mandate security agents to “arrest blood-thirsty maniacs masquerading as herdsmen and bring them to justice to avoid a breakdown of law and order”.
He said: “The first fundamental right of a Nigerian is the right to life. It is when you are alive that you can enjoy other rights. Once this right is taken away from you through any form of killing, you cannot enjoy any other right. Nigerians demand the right to life.
“More than a thousand Nigerians have been killed in the last one year. Is Nigeria at war? There is more to all these killings.”
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Kehinde Aderemi, the Yoruba Generalissimo also described the killing of the Officer-in-Charge of Saki Unit of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Oyo State Police Command by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Tuesday night as “one killing too many”.
The Coordinator of Oodua Peoples Union (OPU) decried the spate of insecurity in the country.
The SARS operative, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), was macheted to death by suspected Fulani herdsmen during an operation in a forest on the Saki-Ogbooro Road in Oke-Ogun area of the state.
According to him, all right-thinking Nigerians must condemn activities of killers “who are now bold enough to start killing security officers”.
Adams said the Yoruba would resist conspiracy “aimed at killing our people at will”.
Interest in fitness is growing.Young entrepreneurs are using innovative new business models to turn their passion into thriving brands. DANIEL ESSIET reports.
Hassan Balogun’s love for fitness began few years ago. Last year, he and his partner, Buhari Jjemilu, started Fitness Montagne.
He said: “We started the company as students last year before graduating from studying Architecture at Oduduwa University, Ile-Ife.
“I used to take up little jobs which, including ushering, security, activation and making and selling of framed pictures.”
Balogun said Fitness Montagne started as a fitness page on Instagram to showcase the experts in the fitness world. Later they posted fitness tips and workout routines, before turning it into a business page where they engaged in online training.
“We got messages from potential clients asking about the training fees and after the enquiries, we don’t hear from them anymore. I later got to know that most of the youth who were interested were handicapped by funds and couldn’t register,” he said.
Balogun had to make the online training free, but he couldn’t continue after a while because he found it difficult to raise funds for data subscription.
He disclosed: “At the point the online training became free. I had to ask for money from my mum to subscribe on time, so I could attend to clients. Later I stopped because it was too hard to sustain.”
As the health and wellness programme continues to gain popularity, the fitness boot camp was added. To Balogun, it filled a large void in the industry— a comfortable place to exercise and become healthy.
The first boot camp was a success. Many participants were satisfied with the camp’s services, which included tips on healthy foods, exercises, self-defence, dance, fun games and diet talk and creating an atmosphere where like-minded women and men can come together, build confidence and inspire one another through fitness.
He thanked officials of the Lagos State Public Service, who sponsored the event.
He announced that another camp would hold at the jjt Park, Alausa, Lagos on February 24. It is expected to attract dignitaries, such as Chairman, Lagos State House Committee on Health Services, Hon. Olusegun Olulade and House of Assembly member from Badagry1, Hon. Alayonde Ibrahim Olanrewaju.
Balogun added that the camp would be unique as more exercises had been included.
In journalism, what makes news are uncommon incidents in uncommon places at uncommon times. These days, most news stories, are rather sad than pleasant because of their common identities. The phenomenon that dominates news stories nowadays is generally tendentious and prone to sadness. That is why the hitherto uncommon news stories have become common even as the usually known common stories have become uncommon. Thus, any pleasant news these days may sound like no news at all even if is to the benefit of mankind. The topic here today is a typical example of a good news with a sour taste.
MDG and SDG
How many Nigerians know what Milennium Development Goal (MDG) or Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) means? These two concepts were initiated by deep-thinking people from outside the African Continent who felt pity for the less privileged people especially those of Africa. It was meant to be the turning of the scew for the downtrodden masses of the developing countries. MDG was initiated at the commencement of the 21st century in year 2000. Its aim was to introduce a new, favourable economic and environmental trend to the poor people of Africa and the rest of the world through a new empowerment era in the new millennium. As a new idea MDG was test run for 15 years from 2999 to 2015. But unfortunate, very few people knew of it and its benefit until about 2015 when it was almost rolling off.
Thus, when it became clear that the 15 year programme was rolling off without the knowledge of those for whom it was meant, a new precept was coined as an addendum to mdg. That new precept was called SDG. And except for such efforts as the conference under report here, the 15 years of SDG too may roll out unnoticed.
Conference of religious leaders
Two weeks ago, (June 21, 2017), Some representatives of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) and those of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) met at Osun State University, Osogbo, to commonly deliberate on an uncommon subject that is common to all Nigerians irrespective of tribe, faith and political affiliations. It was a rare conference. The forum that brought those religious leaders together was facilitated by a popular Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Nigeria (SDSN) coordinated by Professor Labode Popoola, who, incidentally, is the Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Osogbo. Each of the Muslim and Christian bodies was represented by about 10 clerics while the traditional religionists were absent for a reason best known to them. The NSCIA delegation was led by Prof D. O.S. Noibi, a member of the General Purpose Committee of NSCIA and the Executive Secretary of the Muslim Ummah of the Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN). Yours sincerely was on that delegation.
Observation
The issue here is not about religion per se. But in the wisdom of the organisers of the conference, religion is a veritable means of mobilising Nigerian citizens for any good and beneficial venture in the contemporary time. This is because religion has virtually become the last bastion of hope for most Nigerians as an aftermath of economic failure in the country. Thus, any idea that requires quick dissemination and popular support must involve religious leaders who control the minds of Nigerian worshippers in Churches and Mosques. The objective was to allow for spiritual inputs into human social services for the wellbeing of mankind. What does the Qur’an or the Bible say about Sustainable Development Goa? And how can these help the growth of the society?
Why the Religions?
According to Professor Popoola who explained the involvement of religious leaders:
“The recognition of the engagement of religions in the sustainable development agenda is that of their commitments to fundamental service to humanity and serving communities.
These commitments are through divine preaching and exemplary leadership in the expression of respect for the creatures, protecting nature, reinforcing people’s trust and confidence at good deeds and rewards”.
Motive of the SDG
Analysing the real motive of the SDG, Professor Popola said: “The SDGs were developed as a road map for inclusive growth, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability, to succeed the former Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that started in 2000 and ended in 2015.
These goals were based on a common knowledge that our world is faced with very many complex challenges, ranging from socio-economic, environmental challenges; and natural disasters. The 17 SDGs became operational since January, 2016
How much do we know about these goals and how do we spread the knowledge about them to inspire actions at all levels and across regions.
The past experiences on developmental agenda implementation revealed many gaps, including lack of effective stakeholders’ mobilization and participation, which is addressed by the new shift to inclusiveness and ownership.
In response to, and in recognition of the above facts, we note that Nigeria is a religious country and in fact it is very rare to find a Nigerian without religious inclination.
In other words, every citizen has one or more religious leader (s) he or she is attached to. More so, statistics show that there are more worship places in every settlement and cities than socio-economic structures.
Evidence of facts
Evidence reveals that every class in our society respects religious leadership even more than government institutions.
Therefore, engagement of religions in the process of implementation of, and action on SDGs is very crucial to achieving the deliverables of the Agenda at all levels.
Priority
The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Nigeria (SDSN Nigeria) prioritizes holding this high level forum with religious leaders in the country under the umbrella of Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Traditional Religion Groups.
“We believe that this choice of ours is very strategic, timely and relevant to all of us especially at this period when our country is making progress in the war against extremism, terrorism, corruption, intolerance, insecurity, economic recession, unemployment and all sort of humanitarian crises.
Sustaining the momentum
More than ever before, we need to maintain the tempo and sustain the progress for increased momentum in peace, economic recovery, socio-welfare and security, human prosperity and safe environment
We hope that the forum will help in propagating the ideas of SDGs for optimization of its benefit to humanity. The space here does not allow for details.
History of Sustainable Development
In a paper delivered through Power Point by Dr. S.O. Jimoh of the Department of Forest Resources Management, University of Ibadan and entitled: ‘The Roots of the Concept of ‘Sustainability’, the idea of ‘progress ‘ as the antecedent to the notions of ‘development’ became known.
In the lecture, Dr. Jimoh, quoting one Bury 1932, explained that the idea of progress as emphasizing ‘that civilization has moved, is moving, and will move in a desirable direction’ .
“Thinking about progress slowly started surfacing during the classical Greco-Roman period (Guthrie, 1950)
The Roots…
The French scientist, Fontenelle first articulated the Idea of ‘Progress’ in 1683 saying that mankind, with the new science and improved technology had entered on a road of necessary and unlimited progress’ (Von Wright, 1997).
“The idea reached its peak in the Western civilization in the period between 1750 and 1900. During that period, the link between progress and modern, empirical, and exact science was consolidated according to Nisbet,1980 and Von Wright,1997.
The Revolution
The Industrial Revolution started unfolding on the world stage from the 18th century; irrevocably transforming human societies (Worster,1993). According to Worster (1993),Industrialization caused ‘the greatest revolution in outlook that has ever taken place’.
It led people to think that it was right for them to dominate the natural order and radically transform it into consumer goods.
The benefits and rewards of the world economic system flowed primarily to the industrial countries, the gap between the rich and poor societies widened.
Environmental degradation
A big issue linked to industrial development, was environmental degradation caused by an unprecedented exploitation of raw materials on a global scale as indicated by Goudie, 1986 and Boyden 1997. This led to a growing concern universally, about ‘sustainability’.
Emergence of the term ‘Sustainability’
Landmarks in Sustainable Development Since 1968 when the International Conference for ‘Rational Use and Conservation of the Biosphere’ held in Paris, France was organized by UNESCO, series of similar conferences have been held on ecological sustainable development.
1987 Report on Environment
In 1987, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development popularized the term ‘Sustainable Development’. The report now known as Our Common Future Brundtland Report defined ‘sustainable development’ as “…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Also, in 1992 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and known as Earth Summit was established as a common goal of human development for about160 countries that attended the meeting.
It recognized sustainable management of forests as key component to sustainable development and included non-binding Statement of Forest Principles that provided guidelines for sustainable forest management. Many other conferences were held around the world to salvage the world from the threat of environment.
Conclusion
The evolution of the concept of Sustainable development is born out of the compelling need to balance the human drive for better living with the necessity to preserve the environment which provides the required resources to power the drive.
Therefore, for our development to be sustainable, we must manage and utilize resources wisely so that those coming behind can remain useful perpetually.
The conference was just a first step for religious bodies to get familiar with the SDG and environment. More may be written in this column on this subject as further efforts are made along this line to educate Nigerian public through religious leaders.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) financial inclusion project is motivating banks to take their services to the underserved, especially the youth. Sterling Bank is not only providing products and services to meet youths’ needs, it has also built an e-library and promoted financial literacy among them, writes COLLINS NWEZE.
Banking is no longer exclusive to adults. Children can also engage in the exercise, saving their ‘hard-earned’ resources in preparation for a prosperous future. Doing this requires the backing of not only their parents or guardians, but financial institutions that are committed to their financial future and education.
Sterling Bank Plc has not only shown commitment in getting the youths to know more about banking through its financial literacy schemes, but has introduced array of products with attached benefits to youthful savers.
• Adeola
The bank’s Managing Director/CEO, Yemi Adeola said funding and supporting education sector remains management’s priority. “The bank’s focus on education is strategic. It is looking at all actors in the value chain. For instance, it has set up an education desk to look at the total value chain of education, from suppliers of inputs to the end users. It intends to use its expertise to contribute to the development of the sector through a variety of initiatives,” bank said.
Continuing, he said: “Sterling Bank is poised to change the poor state of education sector in the country for good. Its focus is to enrich lives by adding value through quality capacity building and development as government alone cannot solve the problem of education in Nigeria. There is a need for the intervention of the private sector in the development of education to bring the sector back to its rightful place in the country. Government is doing its best, but we are not there yet”.
The bank chief believes the private sector must come in and invest in the education sector to enable the children get quality education without having to pay so much for it adding that its intervention in the sector will help to ameliorate some of the challenges currently affecting it.
He explained that in line with this objective, the bank introduced the ‘I-Can-Save’ Reward Scheme for its new and existing customers, who have opened and maintained a balance of N50,000 and N10,000 in their accounts. The customers, he said, will be rewarded with various types of gifts like school bags among others. The product provides other freebies such as exercise books, cultural heritage books, pencils and pens to children at the account opening point.
Explaining further, he said the parents can get school fees finance facility to bridge cash crunches experienced with instant financing for school fees. The product allows parents to put their kids in school while awaiting salaries and other receivables.
“Also, schools that open (or pledge) salary accounts for their teachers this season automatically qualify their teachers for our Personal Financial Management training,” he said.
The product, according to the bank, also gives account holders opportunity to acquire household equipment like refrigerating sets, television sets among others with flexible repayment schedule spread over three months at discounted rates.
“Through the product, schools can access facilities to bridge working capital gaps, expansion purposes and asset acquisition with a maximum tenor of 60 months at interest rates lower than the industry benchmark. The funds can be used for acquisition of school buses, generators, renovation, among others,” he said.
Adeola said the bank’s commitment to education motivated it to commission e-library built for the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State. It also presented branded uniforms for street sweepers and highway managers. The banker, who was commended by the state government for the projects, noted that the e-library project was meant to reposition the state’s education sector in line with the goals of government.
“We commend Sterling Bank for the e-library project. This shows its commitment as a responsible corporate citizen of this country to support government at repositioning the education sector in the country. With this development, Sterling Bank has keyed into the landmark programmes of the Ekiti State government towards providing quality education to our children,” the state government said.
Prof. Aladejana
Provost of the College, Prof. Francisca Aladejana said with the commissioning of the e-library, the institution has fulfilled one of the major requirements for which her academic programmes had been denied or granted interim accreditation in the recent past, by both the National Commission for Colleges of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC).
“The e-library is the first product of any partnership with any organisation in the history of the college and we must commend Sterling Bank for this. Equipped with computers of high grade and broad bandwidth of a very high capacity to connect users with international libraries, the e-library is unquestionably at par with global standards. Such a facility can rarely be found in higher institutions in the country. Sterling Bank has indeed, put smiles on the faces of all stakeholders,” she said.
Adeola assured that the lender will continue to support educational institutions with projects that impact positively on the students.
The bank chief, who was represented by its Commercial Banking Business Executive for the southwest, Ademola Adeyemi, said the e-library will provide the students and other users with unlimited access to real time global educational resources that aid learning and research, adding that the project is part of the bank’s contributions towards improving the nation’s education sector under its ‘One Education’ initiative.
“Sterling Bank is known for innovation in several areas. As it concerns Education, which has become a major focus of the Bank. We believe our business is to enrich lives in innovative ways. When you invest in people, especially young people, you are enriching their lives and they will in turn enrich the society,”he said.
Also, in fulfillment of its commitment to raise the bar in education financing and support government efforts at repositioning the education sector, Sterling Bank Plc has rolled out various offerings that would make education funding easier.
The bank has also partnered with the Lagos EKO Project, using its staff as volunteer teachers to teach various subjects. “All of these are part of our corporate social responsibility to support education. Apart from that, bank has helped to improve the look and feel of some schools and is also supporting with books, writing materials, as well as textbooks. Its books ‘My Little Money Book’ and ‘Funds’, is its way of providing a learning/teaching guide on savings, loans and other financial concepts,” he said.
He continued: “Some other landmark events instituted by the bank include building of e-library for College of Education, IkereEkiti, Ekiti State; introduction of shopping dash to appreciate the students; provision of tablets for secondary and university students with pre loaded content to aid learning and research and also rolling out of various products and services for stakeholders in the education sector.”
Financial literacy
During this year’s Financial Literacy Week observed annually under the National Money Week, the bank put in place an initiative that would see it enriching the lives of children in the country, especially in the area of financial literacy. The bank said the exercise was part of its strategic focus on education and commitment to youth empowerment and development.
It also adopted a school in Port Harcourt where a team of staff under its Volunteers Teaching Programme and other top management staff, engage the children on financial literacy.
Adeola described the Sterling Volunteers team as a collection of dedicated and resourceful professionals, noting that the existing partnership with the Eko Project, an initiative of the Lagos State Government, would help address the challenges of inadequate teachers and consequently improve students’ performance in various examinations in the state. “The Sterling volunteers’ team will use the opportunity of this year’s programme to impart useful knowledge, discipline and patriotism to the younger generation,”he said.
He recalled that as part of the activities to mark the week last year, the bank supported the “We are the Future of our Nation” (WATFON) programme, an Initiative of Edumark Consult, which attracted over 3,500 final year pupils of secondary schools.
The Sterling Bank chief executive added that the programme provided opportunity for young Nigerians to meet and interact with accomplished professionals and national leaders in the society, who have excelled in their chosen endeavours.
The bank, according to him, demonstrated its commitment to youth empowerment through initiatives such as “Raise A Child” and the sponsorship of Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), Hour of Code and a free Boot Camp for kids and adults to spread awareness of the need for computer science education among the youth in partnership with Audax.
Sterling Bank is also supporting the ‘Raise A Child Project’, which is aimed at putting smiles on faces of millions of children in the country and giving hope to those who need it most.
The project is an online fundraising platform that enables people, who are passionate about raising money for charitable causes the means to connect with donors and raise money securely online to put smiles on millions of children across the nation this season of love.
The bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Shina Atilola, said the Raise A Child Project’ was to enable the lender to give back to the society particularly the children in continuation of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disposition especially at a time when they needed to be shown love and care.
“This is a mission dedicated to support our children through different charities across Nigeria. It goes a long way to show how much Sterling cares about the children and the extent to which the society, the general public, who are expected to make a difference by supporting the Sterling Bank through online donations care about the Nigerian child. However, Sterling Bank will match every naira donated towards the course by members of the general public,” he said.
Capacity Building
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drive towards supporting skill acquisition among youths to prepare them for self-employment, Sterling Bank Plc has signed a partnership agreement with Field of Skills and Dreams (FSD), a vocational training institution that provides training programmes for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Under the agreement, the bank will sponsor the training of NYSC corps members in various vocations during the course of their service year to align with its expressed purpose of enriching lives. The bank has also funded the training of about 100 NYSC members in various vocations during the pilot stage through the NYSC-Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development.
It has equally equipped a 20-seat ICT laboratory of the FSD, which will provide all participants with rotational access to free ICT training.
Sterling Bank in a statement explained that the need to support the development of skills among the youth has become inevitable given the growing rate of unemployment in the country. “We believe that the steps we have taken so far would help in ameliorating the problem of unemployment in the country and support other initiatives such as the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) and the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU-WIN) introduced by the government to checkmate the relatively high rate of unemployment in the country,” it said.
Some entrepreneurs have made successful businesses in surprising ways. They call themselves ‘angels of time’. For example, they provide errand service. One of such entrepreneurs is Mrs Omotola Omosebi, Chief Executive, GmotyShop, Lagos.
In today’s busy world, many people don’t have time to run around on errands and would be very happy to hire someone to take the load off their hands.
Mrs Omosebi came to provide a solution to their problems. She helps working families pick up the laundry and do grocery shopping.
Running errands has made her dream a reality. She undertakes errands on behalf of people and organisations. Her company offers helping hands to those with busy lifestyle and schedule. It provides time-saving solution for busy people.
At GmotyShop, she provides fast and reliable delivery of orders to homes and offices. “Our goal is to save you the ‘market wahala’; we shop at local markets; take the stress off you.Count on Gmotyshop to provide fresh food. The service is designed to promote self-sufficiency and bring a sense of pride for individuals,” she said.
Mrs Omosebi is an example of the kind of success stories the ‘busy’ economy has helped to create.
On how she started, Mrs Omosebi said the concept of GmotyShop was created when she realised how much she enjoyed helping and supporting parents and family members.
“We decided that we needed to expand our support to other citizens in our community. We saw that there is such a need for ‘honest’ help and it was decided that this would be our mission,” she said.
On how much she started the business with, Mrs Omosebi said she started from nothing. “Without much money to start, you can become an errand runner, she said and that the business is still growing. The business is not expensive to start. The start up cost is next to nothing. By using their service, customers can spend time doing the things they really enjoy. They don’t need to spend extra time picking up groceries,” she said.
She said starting an errand business for her was easy because I have “passion for it.”
She said the business primarily serves the untapped corporate market in Lagos.
She said the company is able to do almost any errand the clients need, providing fast and reliable delivery of orders, expanding and giving our clients the free time they can never seem to find.
“We pride ourselves on offering shopping services that you need at the best possible price. We provide fast and reliable delivery of your orders to your homes or businesses with the same quality that you demand and for your family,” she added.
On working hours, she said: ”We work Mondays to Fridays, including public holidays and weekends. One of the fastest growing service businesses is running errands for seniors.”
She said the elderly are their target because they are incapable of doing some things.
“New mothers are also part of our potential clients.
“Most new mothers find themselves tied up with duties associated with their newborns that need their undivided attention and suddenly, find themselves incapable of handling their daily chores of grocery shopping and food items,” she said.
On what it takes to run a successful errand business, she said: From experience, I will say that it takes passion and determination to run a successful errand business. If you are willing to compromise certain liberties and don’t mind working around your schedule, limiting some of your free time, then you can easily succeed in running an errand service.”
She said the company understands the needs working people have and is trying to find that balance between family and career obligations. “If you are busy, travel a lot, or you want somebody to do your errands, we are at your service,” she said.
She is so excited about running the business, because she has a passion to help others. Right now, she is working on building a good name by offering several services. This has not only increased her chance of expanding the business, but people know she is their one stop-shop for their errand running needs.
