The Nigerian Army said on Tuesday that scores of women and children held captive by Boko Haram insurgents have been rescued by troops along Banki, Kumashe and Bama axis in Borno.
The acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman confirmed the development in a statement issued in Abuja.
He said the advancing troops cleared four camps along the axis, while several others were cleared in Bolungu 1 and 2, Bula Doye and Cheehi Dare areas also in Borno.
“Nigerian troops advancing to clear all known Boko Haram terrorists camps towards Banki, Kumshe axis and Bama axis have cleared 4 more camps earlier on Tuesday.
“They were able to clear the terrorists’ camps at Bolungu 1 and 2, Bula Doye and Cheehi Dare and secured a very important bridge linking the towns of Miyanti and Banki in Borno State.
“The gallant troops also rescued dozen of kidnapped women and children held captive by Boko Haram terrorists.’’
It said more enclaves of the insurgents would be cleared as troops involved in the operations advanced towards more areas previously occupied by the insurgents.
The statement said the offensive operations by ground troops and aerial bombardments by the Nigerian Air Force would continue in the region until the insurgency was ended.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the military had intensified offensive against the insurgents with the aim of ending their reign of terror in the North East.
Wife of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel, has identified lack of business skills, saving support and financial literacy as factors militating against women in business. The governor’s wife made the disclosure at the 8th edition of the Onna Women’s day held at the Onna sports stadium.
Represented by the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Glory Edet, the first lady noted that though many women have business ideas, they do not often have information and access to the small capital they need to launch themselves. “Our women need business skills, saving support, and financial literacy, often times, they have good ideas but they do not have access to the small capital they need to launch out and help themselves and their families.” She remarked.
Mrs. Emmanuel stated that the need for the empowerment of women is long overdue, hence remains a key priority of the Udom Emmanuel’s development agenda, adding that on her part, she is poised to do all she can towards ensuring that Akwa Ibom women will never take the back seat in the economic life and development of the state.
As part of the celebration, the governor’s wife performed the ground breaking of the Onna Women’s daily market along Onna-Eket road.
The chairman of occasion, Mrs. Ini Akpauso, thanked the governor’s wife for her love and support for the event adding that over the years, any programme aimed at touching and impacting the lives of women, she is always passionate about it. She appreciated the founder for the insight of establishing the programme saying it will go down in history.
She also congratulated the governor on his first 100 days in office saying that with him on the saddle, the women will be better off.
Also speaking, the founder and initiator of the event, Akwa Obongawan Patience Akpabio Ukpa appreciated God for making the week long programme a success.
She appreciated the governor’s wife for her motherly and supportive role in making sure the event was a success as well as her pivotal role in encouraging and developing Akwa Ibom women saying that indeed she is a noble and worthy daughter of the soil.
Dignitaries at the event were thrilled with various cultural dances and renditions by the various women groups. Traditional titles were also given out to deserving daughters and friends of the area for their meritorious and selfless service by the Paramount Ruler of the area, His Eminence Akwa Edidem Akpabio Udo Ukpa, Oku Ibom Ibibio (111).
Among dignitaries who accompanied the first lady were, former chairman, Technical School Board, Comfort Etuk, wife of Commissioner for Investment, Commerce and Industry, Mrs. Anne Enoidem, wife of Commissioner Housing and Urban Renewal, Mrs. Inem Enobong Uwah, legislators’ wives and wives of transition chairmen.
Star actress and producer, Stephanie Okereke-Linus was recently named ambassador for the Fight Against Violence on Women in Elections (VAWIE).
The actresss, while accepting the honor at the Abuja venue of the event said, “I pledge my full support, my voice and everything within my capacity to make sure that these issues are brought to light and to help educate people about this violence and see ways we can put an end to it so that we can have a better society for ourselves, and future generation.”
The award was given by the NDI, and USAID, in recognition of her interest in feminine gender issues, especially in her movies, some of which tackle a host of feminine problems like, domestic abuse, Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), and so on.
Although the expectant thespian is heavy with her first child, this has not slowed the hard working lady one bit.
A Non-Governmental Organisation, the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), has called on governments at all levels to provide adequate support for women farmers to make them contribute their quota to the policy of national food security.
The Executive Director of the WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, made the call at a capacity building workshop organised for women farmers in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
She disclosed that women farmers have just 14 per cent holding rights on the land where they farm and therefore, have limited access to land, credit facilities, farm inputs, training and advice, technology and crop insurance, which the government is in better position to provide, but has failed to oblige them.
Dr. Akiyode-Afolabi lamented government’s neglect of women farmers despite their deep commitments to farming and enormous contributions to food production and security in Nigeria.
She advised government to motivate women farmers in actualising their dreams in farming.
According to her: “Nigerian women play important roles in food and agriculture. It has been reported that women small holder farmers constitute 70-80 per cent of agric labour force. They produce the bulk of food for domestic consumption and they are the drivers of food processing, marketing and preservation.
“In spite of their strategic roles in food production, the government hardly focuses on supporting them. I am also calling on government to involve women in the policy-making processes in agriculture to improve their participation in government’s hunger and poverty eradication agenda.”
She lamented that most of the organisations advocating for government support for farmers were made up of male advocates who exclude women’s contributions.
Akiyode-Afolabi, said the workshop was organised to push for a parading shift from male domination and ensure that gender approaches are introduced to government’s agricultural policies and programmes.
Shea butter production was the focus of a programme anchored by Lagos-based entrepreneur, Mrs Mobola Sagoe, to assist women hone their entrepreneurial skills. DANIEL ESSIET reports.
THE Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shea Origin Nigeria project, Mrs Mobola Sagoe, knows the importance of teaching local women to get involved in shea butter production. She is one of the most successful businesswomen, who have made fortune from promoting beauty products.
Her companies, which include a spa and beauty clinic, supply cosmetics and export shea butter to the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States. A prominent woman entrepreneur,the CEO, Shea Origin Nigeria Inc, studied beauty therapy at the Pivot Point Beauty School, Chicago, United States.
Upon graduation, she relocated to the UK where she started her first beauty business, La Feminic, in 1988. She knew that women take great pride in their appearance and was convinced that there it was a niche market she could delve into. Thus, she went for further training in beauty techniques, eventually returning home to establish her firm. She has been at the cutting-edge of professional skin care and the manufacturing of organic skin care products.
Mrs Sagoe
Mrs Sagoe, a professional esthetician (skin care therapist), with 28 years’ experience, has not only developed and manufactured organic skin care products to give and maintain smooth, healthy, supple and bright skin, but also treat problem skin with her products: the Flawless® skin care range, and the Shea Butter Origin® range. These are the core ingredients used at the three Beauty spa outlets by La Feminic in Lagos.
Today, she is recognised for her skincare beauty products and marketing. Her skincare line has been a huge success because she took into account black skins and the Nigeria’s climate. She based her beauty products on shea butter ingredients, incorporating a centuries-old tradition that uses ‘the power of the plant’ in health and beauty treatments.
According to her, the use of shea butter has been increasing in recent years as consumers are demanding better quality natural, minimally processed ingredients in personal care items and food. Internationally, 90 per cent of shea nuts is used for the food and confectionary industry, for the production of cocoa butter equivalents or improvers, confectionaries and margarines. Nigeria is a leading producer of sheanut in the world.
As part of her commitment to promoting a sustainable shea industry, she is implementing a pilot project to help women gather the shea nuts and process them into butter. But one of the things that make her proud is taking over the shea processing centre in Saki,Oyo State to train villagers, mostly women, on how to pick and process shea nuts and make a living from it.
She promotes empowerment by organising and training them to produce, market, and sell high quality shea butter themselves.
Supported by The USAID Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport Program (NEXTT), her firm strives to lift women and their families out of extreme poverty through improved shea production.
She is convinced she will achieve a lot for the women by shea is in high demand in various sectors and world markets. The principal factors driving demand include continued rising demand for cocoa butter equivalents (CBEs) due to rising world consumption of chocolate, high prices for cocoa, and strong demand for natural cosmetics and soaps.
To her, shea butter is “Women’s Gold” for the dollars it yields.
The villagers get involved through manually collecting, sorting, crushing, roasting, grinding, separating the oils from the butter and shaping the finished product.
The raw nuts collected from the are processed into unrefined shea butter.
Also,they make money by selling the raw nuts to companies who extract, refine and export the oil abroad for cosmetic purposes. In the process, she said a hefty markup is added which create profits through the value chain. Major destinations for Nigeria’s shea nuts are the European Union and Japan while for the shea butter, they are in Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Of the estimated 600,000 tonnes of shea nuts from West Africa, about 350,000 tons are exported, mostly as raw nuts. The balance are processed for local consumption. The market, according to her, values high-quality nuts because they deliver higher yields when processing butter.
According to her, the oil content is the most crucial element of the shea nut as that component is an important ingredient in the composition of the butter that goes into Cocoa Butter Equivalents and other by-products. If the oil content is higher and the FFA and moisture content is lower, then the exporter will receive a price premium.
With an investment of as little as N50,000, Mrs Sagoe said entrepreneurs could go into nuts gathering for big merchants.
According to her, profits from the business will provide income to communities where most of the population live below poverty line.
What she intends to achieve is to ensure that companies source products directly from producers in the villages. And she seems, indeed, bent on helping women to make money through shea production.
Shea products, she said, have been produced by women in poor, rural areas for generations. Improving quality, encouraging demand and increasing production, she added is a way to alleviate poverty. She sees the growth of the industry as beneficial for these producers.
The joy of putting smiles on the faces of people that this business offers, is making her want to do it forever. According to her, support at the national level, community groups, associations and strong corporate linkages can produce results. But to ensure long-term sustainability and widespread economic growth in the sector, she said changes must be made to improve the capabilities of the women involved in the business at a national scale. One reason she has been successful is because of her commitment to her work.
She believes it takes a certain mindset to succeed. This includes the refusal to see problems as setbacks.
Her firm has also been selected as global supply partners for Shea Radiance,an international organisation that supplies communities with locally fabricated equipment to help increase production output, relieve physical labor of production and provide a consistent and improved quality of Shea butter. Shea Origin centres on a community-based cooperative and seeks to improve the livelihoods of women shea nut producers by offering training, greater ownership within the supply chain and access to improved technology.
The Acting Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Hajia Amina Bala-Zakari will speak tomorrow at the 2nd edition of SheForumAfrica at the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja.
Other speakers are publisher of Today’s Woman, Adesuwa Onyenokwe, founder/Director at The Contact Project, a global Enterprise, Jennifer K. Lynne and Vice President – Women in Politics Forum, Sharon Ikeazor. Others are Angela Ajala, an astute Educational Entrepreneur/Administrator; Aisha Attah, a Personal Development Consultant; Dr. Ify Monye, a Primary Healthcare and lifestyle medicine expert , Lola Adele-Oso, Executive Director of Act 4 Accountability UK, an African diaspora organisation, and Terri Pardonu – host of the popular ‘WE WOMAN’ radio talk show.
In a bold and novel demonstration of the commitment to bridge the generational knowledge gap, SheForumAfrica 2015 features a number of young panelists representative of various age brackets among them, Rinsola Abiola; Adaora Asala, the dynamic MD of Easy Taxi Nigeria, Lois Auta, Mandela Washington fellow and founder Ceedar Seed Foundation and Fatima Musa Aliyu.
Also in the line-up are Hajia Saudatu Mahdi of WRAPA, Dr. Christianah Kwabe, a GP with Asokoro General Hospital, Chioma Kanu, a gender exponent/Programme Manager, CISLAC; Laura Ajoiyi, a Legal Practitioner, and Amina Salihu, foremost gender activist and Chairman Board of Trustees, HADIS Foundation.
The keynote presentation on the topic: “Being a Voice not an echo: Synergising for Sustainable Impact” will be delivered by frontline broadcast journalist, author/trainer, motivational speaker and life coach, Mrs Eugenia Abu.
The maiden edition of SheForumAfrica held last year with participation from two countries.
According to conference host and founder of the Friendraiser Community, Inimfon Etuk, “the conversation this year across the Forum’s 4 Panels will reflect the road travelled by the average African woman, with a priority on demystifying persisting stereotypes that keep women at the bottom of the ladder, especially in the areas of health, basic education and the ability to function optimally in the enlarged entrepreneurial space”.
The theme for SheForumAfrica 2015 is “Risk the unusual – make it happen”.
Chelsea star Mikel Obi has secretly fathered two children with different women in England, according to media reports.
According to a report in the Mirror of UK, the 28-year-old Nigeria international is a dad to a four-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter after short relationships with the women. He is now dating Russian businesswoman Olga Diyachenko. A spokesperson of Mikel confirmed to The Sun that the Nigeria midfield star is a proud father.
“This is an entirely private matter. John provides for and cares for his children. And will continue to do so. He asks that their privacy is respected,” his spokesman said.
He was said to have bought a £500,000 house in 2013 in the Home Counties for his son and mum and is keen to play a part in the boy’s life.
A source told The Sun: “John also agreed to give her tens of thousands a year in upkeep and agreed I think to give her a new car every three or five years.”
Mikel also financially supports his daughter who was born after the couple met at a London nightclub in 2013.
A friend of the girl’s mum added: “John has provided for her and the girl. She seems to have come to money since having the baby and keeping a low profile.”
Earlier this month, a top official, Obinna Ogba, suggested the Chelsea star get married as this will make him a lot more responsible against the background he is indifferent to the Super Eagles cause.
Nigeria coach Sunday Oliseh recently disclosed he has yet to reach Mikel despite numerous attempts and so he overlooked him for next week’s AFCON clash in Tanzania.
A group, Women Protection Organisation (WOPO), has organised a workshop for Women School Based Management Committee (SBMC) on Lagos Island and Epe Local Government Education Areas (LGEAs).
The workshop was to strengthen women’s participation in education and on schools improvement by forming a women committee.
According to WOPO, the workshop would also help the proposed committee to ensure schools are safe places for students and free of violence.
Speaking at the event, which held at Christ Church Cathedral Primary School, Lagos Island and Epe Local Government Area, WOPO’s Programme Officer, Dr Adekunle Towobola, said the programme was aimed at sensitising women on their leadership role to build successful students, in addition to managing schools’ affairs.
He said schools should form a women committee that will be drawn from the community regardless of whether they have children in the schools or not.
He said WOPO expects the said committees to be active in their roles to bring about development in the schools and for the children to have a brighter future.
Towobola said: “The training is addressing children safety and protection at school and community level and also to respond to violations against children whether linked to issues of abuse, neglect, discrimination, safety or conflict.
“This committee will help protect our children for a brighter future. The women will be drawn from the community because the school belongs to them. Some of them are parents while some are artisans who may not necessarily have children there but for development and to help the students.
“Toilets of some schools are unacceptable which makes some students contract diseases which affect them in the future.”
Executive Secretary, Lagos Island Local Government Education Authority Mr Mayegun Moshood, described the workshop as a ideal.
He described women as champions in areas of taking care of the children.
“It is a good initiative and to be sincere, it is not too much if we have more of such committee to go round and monitor schools.
“We cannot shy away from the fact that we have lost our pupils to private schools but the government is doing everything humanly possible to ensure the population increases and we improve teaching and learning in our schools.
“I am proud to say at any forum that government schools have the best materials in terms of human resources where you can find qualified teachers, and all we need is to ensure they deliver qualitative education and a proper monitoring.
Boat disasters have claimed the lives of 14 women in two villages in Munya Local Government Area of Niger State.
A family at Dan Gunu village lost 11 women in a boat mishap on River Sarkin Pawa. Three others from Guni village died in a similar accident on River Guni.
The disasters reportedly occurred when the villagers were returning from farm on Monday about 6pm.
Sources said the women had gone to harvest groundnuts in company of two men.
The Nation learnt that their trip became boisterous, following a windy shower, which over-powered the men who paddled the two boats, leading to the boats capsizing. The men survived the accident.
Some of the victims were identified as Munau, Wara, Fiddausi, Zainab, Najaatu, Ikilima, Fatima, Ladidi, Balaraba and Hafsat.
It was learnt that while the villagers at Dan–Gunu village were mourning the death of their beloved ones, a report of a similar accident came from Guni, a neighbouring village, which had it that three people died in a boat mishap.
The lawmaker representing Niger East, Senator David Umaru, in a condolence message to the affected villages, described the mishaps as shocking and unfortunate.
He decried lack of good roads and bridges in the senatorial district, saying: “This has shown the need for the immediate take-off of the Hydro-electric Power Producing Area Development Commission (HYPPADEC).”
