The Nation Newspaper

Tag: urges

  • Ambode urges association to support govt’s programme

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has urged members of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) to support the government’s environmental sustainability programme.

    He said they should utilise recyclable materials and ensure that the location or placement of advert billboards and signages conformed to the standard set by the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA).

    The governor, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend at the ADVAN Awards for Marketing Excellence West Africa 2018, said the appeal became imperative because of the danger the usage of non-recyclable materials for adverts of brand projection constituted and the negative approach which cost the government a lot of money to remedy.

    Ambode, represented by Information and Strategy Commissioner Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, stressed the need for ADVAN to abide by the regulatory standards in carrying out its activities.

    He said LASAA as the ombudsman was established to regulate the placement or location of advert billboards or signages across the state; hence ADVAN must cooperate with it in ensuring the sanitisation of the environment.

    “While it is a fact that the advertising industry has a role to play in facilitating economic growth, we cannot overlook the fact that the state of the economy has its impact on the industry and indeed other sectors of the economy.

    “Therefore, as the government is working hard to build an enabling environment for the business and investment to thrive, ADVAN must synergise with the government by upholding high professional standards and ethics of the profession,” the governor added.

    He hailed the leadership and members of the association for remaining true to the ideals of its founding fathers by sustaining the legacy of recognising innovative and effective contributions of stakeholders in the growth and development of marketing as a tool of economic development and growth.

  • President urges Olukoyede’s confirmation as EFCC scribe

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has forwarded the name of Olanipekun Olukoyede for confirmation as the secretary of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    The request for confirmation of the appointment of Olukoyede as the secretary of the EFCC dated September 10, 2018 was read by the Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday.

    Buhari said the request was in compliance with the provision of Section 2(3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act 2010.

    The President said he was looking forward for the usual expeditious  consideration and confirmation of the nominee.

  • Group urges Buhari to disregard rumours

    The Integrity for Northwest (INW) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to disregard rumours and propaganda designed to heat up the polity and disorganise his political consolidation ahead of the 2019 elections.

    A statement by the spokesman, Comrade Isah Bulama, insisted that “no amount of propaganda and blackmail will stop the Northwest from ensuring that our own President Muhammadu Buhari and the progressive governors from being re-elected in 2019”.

    The statement reads: “The recent trends in the political landscape have opened a leeway for political fugitives to use their weapons, including blackmail, to heat up the polity.”

    He recalled a video of a governor receiving N5 million bribe, which was published online, describing it as “a calculated attempt by those who lost in the primaries to cause confusion”.

    INW urged the media to be “bold enough to name the culprit-governor.

    “Nigerians are aware of how fraudsters and desperate politicians can clone video clips to achieve their unpatriotic agenda.

    “We urge President Muhammadu Buhari and discernable Nigerians to disregard the fictitious story, and advise political destitutes who orchestrated the blackmail to face the realities on ground.

    “We also declare our continued support for the Change Agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari and his merited re-election in 2019.”

  • Lagos urges residents to ensure proper waste disposal

    Lagos State Ministry of the Environment has urged residents to ensure proper waste management, for a healthy environment.

    An Assistant Director in the Environmental Services Department of the ministry, Mrs. Tolulope Adeyo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos that residents should ensure proper bagging of their waste, to prevent epidemic.

    She said: “Lagos State Ministry of the Environment has a mandate to ensure a clean and serene environment.

    “In a bid to do this, we encourage communities to take responsibility for their environment to bag their waste properly and ensure they don’t block the drains.

    “We advocate that when waste is not disposed properly, residents are the immediate victims of a hazardous environment.

    “We want people to understand that the issue of public health is key. When you have a clean environment, you spend less in hospital.”

    Adeyo said the ministry had been enforcing its directive by using the carrot and stick approach in sanctioning residents over indiscriminate dumping of refuse.

  • Ambode urges women accountants to translate career passion into enterprises

    Professional women accountants should translate their career passion into enterprise, to improve human experience and enhance financial independence for womenfolk, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said yesterday.

    The governor, in his goodwill message to the annual seminar of Professional Women Accountants in the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (PROWAN), said the global economy was fast evolving with an increasing need for professionals to expand the frontiers of knowledge.

    The seminar, with the theme: “Economic Independence: A Catalyst for Financial Balloning-Nigerian Women on the Front Burner”, was held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Ikeja.

    Ambode, represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Samuel Olukunle Ojo, said the imperative of innovation was premised on the dynamism of the global system, which was the language every up-and-coming entrepreneur must learn and understand to be a frontline player in the business world.

    PROWAN Chairman Princess Elemanya Ebilah said the seminar’s theme was chosen to ensure added value to the womenfolk.

    She stressed that when women have financial independence, they have choices.

    Ebilah said they must exhibit the highest level of professionalism, adding that the place of women in driving the economy was paramount, as they had shown commitment in the development of the economy.

    “The population of our women involved in Small Scale Medium Enterprises is very high. Hence there is need to come up with good financial strategy to ensure accountability, proper documentation and time management,” she said.

    Lagos State Accountant-General Mrs. Abimbola Shukurat Umar said financial independence should begin from homes, noting that women should strive to become active partners financially.

    “I know most of us do this already. We buy children’s lunch boxes and sometimes pay for after school lessons, buy dresses, etc. These can only be possible if we are financially independent. Purposeful entrepreneurial activities with diligence and discipline are contributory prerequisites in the quest for financial independence,” Umar, who is also the permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance, said.

    Head of Service Mrs. Folashade Adesoye said in order for economic independence to act as a catalyst for financial ballooning, individuals, especially women, irrespective of their income, must have access to financial services and products, which are beneficial to them and the economy.

    She assured participants that the government would be in the forefront of women development.

  • Bayelsa elder statesman urges PDP delegates to elect son

    A founding  member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and elder statesman in Bayelsa State, Chief Thompson Okorotie, yesterday appealed to the party’s delegates for the House of Assembly primary to vote for his son, Ebikebina.

    Chief Okorotie, ex-member of House of Assembly in old Rivers State, told delegates from Ekeremor II, that his son  would ensure quality representation.

    Okorotie, who is an associate of Governor Seriake Dickson, warned the delegates not to elect someone who will dump them after winning.

    He said most of those who had won PDP tickets in the past, abandoned their constituents only to remember them during fresh elections.

    Speaking in Yenagoa at an event organised by his son, he said past representatives allowed their constituents to wallow in poverty but deceived them with cash when seeking re-election.

    Presenting Ebikebina, he said: “Are you happy that somebody goes to the assembly and he forgets about you completely until another four years? That is what we must change. We have an opportunity to change that.

  • Artist urges people to work for change

    A Nigeria will not  progress except citizens resolved to bring change and progress, a script writer and film producer, Victor Negro, has said.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that at 58, Nigeria was at a crossroads and still talking about election inconsistencies.

    “If citizens resolve to positively bring change and progress in Nigeria, the country will see its growth, because lack of development is self-imposed by the citizens.

    “Without the citizens, there will be no Nigeria and every hand must be on deck for the nation to grow.

    “It is ridiculous when an average citizen blames the government for every problem and any trouble in the country. The government themselves do not help matters.

    “The government use Nigerians to accomplish their individual policies because most of their policies are not citizen-friendly,” Negro said.

    He said if Nigeria is at a standstill, it is because the citizens have become stumbling blocks in the wheel of her progress.

    “When I speak of citizens, it does not exclude those in government appointments; I am saying that collectively we have stagnated the development of Nigeria. We should be ashamed of ourselves,” he said.

    Negro said: “I am not satisfied with where we are as a nation, because we are underdeveloped, viewed from all development yardsticks.”

  • BPE urges media monitoring of privatised enterprises

    The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has charged media practitioners to assist it in monitoring the activities and performance of privatised enterprises. The Bureau said this will alert the privatised enterprises of obvious public attention on them in spite of ownership transfer.

    The Director, Development Institutions and Natural Resources Department, BPE, Mr. Joe Chigbo Anichebe, gave this charge at the Quarterly Seminar of the Association of Business Editors in Nigeria (ABEN), during the week.

    Anichebe in his paper titled, “The Role of the Media in Nigeria in Managing Privatisation Program” said the media should not just stop at chronicling what was sold and at what cost; it should be telling the public the performance rating of the privatized enterprises.

    He said the need for the media to up its game in the watchdog role it plays in advancing the privatization program of the Federal Government was necessary because supervision and monitoring of the performance of privatised enterprises was one area the BPE has focused more attention in recent times.

    According to Anichebe, many privatised enterprises have recorded very striking, real and measurable performance improvements, while some have failed to fulfill the terms of the share purchase agreements.

    He said privatised enterprises that have failed to fulfill the terms of the share purchase agreements meant that they are not providing the services and goods, job creation and economic development objectives of the privatisation program.

    He added that it, therefore, meant that “More work need to be done.”

    “It appeared we had been so pre-occupied with getting the job done

    that we have not, until recently, gone out to collect hard evidence on what the privatised firms are actually doing. That has now changed,” Anichebe said.

    Continuing, the BPE spokesman said: “The question is: after reforms and privatisation, what next? Do we fold our arms and watch the privatized enterprises run at the whims of the new owners?

    “In other words, is the government merely interested in selling and allowing the investors determine the fate of these companies, for better or for worse? This is our concern and indeed, the concern of many Nigerians.”

    He, therefore, reiterated that the media ought to assist the BPE in monitoring the activities and performance of the privatised enterprises. He said, for instance, that till date, no medium has done a comparative financial analysis of privatised enterprises and their sector counterparts that were private investor founded.

    Anichebe said the BPE had established its Post Transaction Management Department in 2006, but reinvigorated it in 2017 to address the concerns of Nigerians with regards to the activities and performance of the privatised enterprises.  “In line with the restructuring that the current BPE Director General, Mr. Alex A. Okoh, introduced since his appointment in 2017, the Post Transaction Management Department is being strengthened.

    “This was to attain the government’s broad objectives of privatisation, especially in the implementation of business plans and post-acquisition plans submitted by investors,” he added.

    Anichebe explained that the idea was to ensure prompt achievement of economic value envisaged for the Nigerian economy through the fulfillment of contractual, legally binding agreements and the growth of the privatized enterprises.

    “Through the monitoring, we should also collect information on privatised enterprises, identify appropriate legal and regulatory business climate and identify policy bottlenecks for necessary adjustments,” he said.

  • CACOL urges EFCC to probe oil and gas sector

    The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL) has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to fast-track investigations on acts of corruption in the oil and gas sector.

    It welcomed the commission’s partnership with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

    CACOL hopes the collaboration would ensure that issues bordering on any infractions in the oil and gas sector are quickly resolved.

    Its Executive Chairman Mr. Debo Adeniran said more needs to be done to uncover alleged acts of corruption in a sector that is the economy’s mainstay.

    “The bulk of Nigeria’s revenue has always come from this same oil and gas that accounts for about 85 per cent of national revenue, with so much infraction, manipulations and all kinds of financial corruption bedeviling the sector.

    ‘The creation of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April 1977 to encourage ‘ease of doing business’ and refining of the products has constituted more problems than preferring solution, with that organisation having been turned to a cash cow by unscrupulous politicians.

    “The organisation has been running its affairs as if it is far and well above the law of the land,” the group said.

    In a statement by the centre’s Media and Publications Coordinator Adegboyega Otunuga, the group added: “As the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, noted when he paid the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, a courtesy visit, the need to fast-track investigations on issues relating to oil and gas sector can never be over-emphasised as the board’s Chairman vows to refer serious fraudulent discoveries from its audit department to the commission for further action.

    “And just like the Chairman also noted, the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit, set up to tackle corruption and unethical behaviour within the oil and gas sector through NCDMB, needs to be adequately equipped with information and expertise in discharging its obligations expeditiously and judiciously to the nation through the technical know-how of the EFCC.”

    CACOL said the fight against corruption could not be left to anti-graft agencies alone.

    “The fight against corruption needs to be collectively owned by all Nigerians, especially those with the power and privilege to dispense responsibilities and the ordinary employees positioned to access critical information on finance.

    “This informs why the Whistleblower arrangement is pivotal in the fight against corruption and why Mr. Wabote’s initiative to create the Whistleblowing portal on their website is quite commendable,” CACOL added.

  • Lagos urges parents, guardians on better parenting

    Lagos State Commissioner for Youth and Social Development Mr. Agboola Dabiri has urged parents and guardians to develop good parenting skills.

    He said this would save the world from ills.

    The commissioner, represented by the Special Adviser on Social Development, Mrs. Joyce Onafowokan, spoke yesterday at a one-day town hall meeting on “Better Parenting Plus”, with parents, guardians, school administrators and caregivers.

    The event was held at Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.

    He said parenting is an important aspect of societal growth and development, which has been taken for granted over the years, “as it takes more than just money and love in raising a child properly.”

    Dabiri added that most parents and guardians saw parenting as a natural occurrence and just lived by the day, bringing the children up to the best of their knowledge and ability, thereby abusing and causing permanent emotional damages on them.

    He said: “It is important to note that most forms of societal decadence begin from the values instilled in the children from home, which is a primary function of parenting.

    “There is no perfect parents and each child is unique in his or her own way, but understanding who your child is will help in building them into an independent and emotionally- stable adult, equipped with life skills to face real life challenges.”

    The commissioner said the ministry had just concluded a three-day workshop on “Better Parenting Plus”, using the newly revised curriculum comprising 20 modules and additional session on “Early Childhood Development and Parenting Adolescent” for 25 participants, who would take the message back to their local governments and communities.

    The Permanent Secretary, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, said: “Better Parenting Plus” is aimed at positive behavioural change towards parenting styles.

    He added that performing parental roles does not have to do with only biological relationship, but with anyone coming in contact with a child.

    “It takes the whole community to raise a child and we should try as much as possible to be our brother’s keeper, notice and do something when any child needs to be given extra care or protection.”

    Muri-Okunola enjoined the participants to pass the message learnt to families, friends, teachers and others in order to help attain better parenting styles in the society.