Day: March 24, 2023

An Entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer, Sotab Continental Limited, Dr Adesote Adebowale, has won a Yoruba youths group 2022/2023 humanitarian Icon award.

The President of Yoruba Youth Assembly (YYA), Mr Olarinde Thomas, in a statement on Friday, said Adebowale was selected for the award based on his giant strides on youth empowerment in Yoruba communities.

He also disclosed that Adebowale had been inducted into YYA 2023 Hall of Fame, given his outstanding humanitarian services.

YYA is an umbrella body of Yoruba youth groups globally, with 38 affiliates in Nigeria and the Diaspora.

It is a socio-cultural youth organisation designed to champion the unity, development and emancipation of young people of Yoruba nation, both home and in Diaspora.

YYA is a body that is founded on the principle of patriotism, justice, equity and egalitarianism to actualise harmonious, indivisible and indissoluble Yoruba nation, championed by the younger generation of Yoruba in consonance with the dreams and inspiration of Yoruba founding fathers.

Thomas said final results on the list of nominees’ indicated that Adebowale was the most outstanding personality amongst the pool of humanitarians nominated for the award in humanitarian services and societal development per excellence.

He described him as a man with love and passion for youth empowerment, having specifically empowered and mentored many youths in real estates, providing employment in construction sector for welders, bricklayers among many other artisans and business people.

He urged the awardee to continue his selfless service of uplifting humanity globally and the Yoruba youths in particular.

Adebowale thanked the YYA for finding him worthy to receive the award, saying it would spur him to continue his humanitarian services in greater dimension, especially to the downtrodden in the society.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Thursday said that Nigerians have missed enormous infrastructure development due to the protracted fuel subsidy regime in the country.

The NNPCL disclosed that the amount spent on fuel subsidy payment could provide 7,500km of road network at N400 million per kilometre and 37 well-equipped 120 Beds Tertiary Health Centres at N32 billion per hospital annually.

Mr Lawal Musa, Senior Business Advisor to the GCEO, NNPCL disclosed this in Abuja at a joint National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS)/Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) sensitisation workshop on the NNPCL Operations.

Musa, in a presentation entitled “Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the Nigerian Economy’’ said the Federal Government spent as much as N4.8 trillion annually on fuel subsidy at the expense of the wellbeing of Nigerians.

In an analysis of the opportunity cost of the subsidy spending, he said deregulation could deliver 500,000 new houses and education and skill up of two million Nigerian students, among others.

He said it could deliver N12 trillion in four years to Nigeria while annual Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) under recovery would escalate to N3 trillion.

He said the cost of fuel subsidy outweighed the direct benefits particularly to the masses.

He further said that deregulation could provide additional 27,000 megawatts of electricity to Nigerians and build and equip 2,400 hospitals in 774 LGAs.

“Nigeria is the largest producer of crude oil in Africa, possessing 28 per cent of Africa’s reserve, with petroleum contributing significantly to the country’s economy.

“The benefits derived have over the years been eroded due to the amount paid on subsidy, a regime has been fuelling the vicious circle of poverty in the country,’’ he said.

Musa explained that the PMS (fuel) was sold lowest price in Nigeria among most West African countries in spite of the average cost of $2.7 per litre globally, which amounted to up N570 per litre.

According to him, verifiable PMS demand data is critical to National planning and energy security.

In an overview of the PIA and New NNPCL structure, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, the Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, NNPCL, said the new entity was incorporated as a commercial company to be run like any other private company in the country, following the provision of the PIA 2021.

Eyesan, represented by Mr Vincent Ogbu, her Business Advisor said NNPCL’s activities were guided by three core values namely integrity, excellence and sustainability.

She explained that the signing of PIA into law overhauled the institutional, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian petroleum industry and provided structured approach for managing host community development and investments.

She further said that significantly, the PIA mandated incorporation of old NNPC and established NNPCL as a fully commercial entity.

“Under the Act, NNPCL is to conduct affairs without recourse to government fund. The new NNPCL is being owned by 200 million Nigerians with Ministries of Finance and Petroleum Resources as major shareholders,” she said.

Earlier, the NNPCL Group Chief Communications Officer, Garbadeen Muhammad, said the NNPC was engaging with students as critical stakeholders in the new organisation which belonged to over 200 million Nigerians including the Nigerian students.

Muhammad said the engagement which would be done annually, was aimed to enlighten the students and CSOs on the NNPCL as a new entity registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission under the Company and Allied Matters Act.

Also speaking, the National President of NANS, Usman Barambu, thanked the NNPC for the enlightenment workshop which had exposed the students on the new structure and operations of the oil company.

Barambu urged the company to ensure availability of fuel and tackle fuel scarcity in the country as well as opening of opportunities for ordinary Nigerian graduates to gain employment in the company.

Mr Olayemi Success, Chief Convener, Civil Society for Justice and Equity called for the removal of the fuel subsidy and urged government to channel the money towards improving the education sector.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Federal Government is ready to fulfill the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to ensure effective gender inclusion.

Sen. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment stated this during the inauguration and inception workshop of the project in Abuja on Thursday.

The protect is tagged: “The Nigeria Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT), Just and Gender Inclusive Transition (JGIT) Project’’.

The project is aimed at helping countries to better assess the impacts of their climate policies and actions and fulfill their transparency commitments.

Ngige said the objective of the inception meeting was to launch the ICAT Just Transition project and increase awareness among the national stakeholders for better understanding of its implementation.

He said that ICAT, an International multi-stakeholder partnership of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) was supporting Nigeria to set up Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of a Just and Gender Inclusive Transition(JGIT).

The minister, represented by Ms Daju Kachollom, Permanent Secretary in the ministry said Nigeria had signed a Project Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the UNOPS, represented by the ICAT management.

According to him, the PCA is to firm up the process leading to the take off and implementation of the project over a 12 months period.

‘`The objectives of the project among others include, to develop JGIT monitoring, MRV and ensure it links with the sectoral MRV system.

”Another objective is to Enhance Transparency Framework (ETF) implemented by the Federal Ministry of Environment to achieve synergy, institutional memory and stakeholder inclusion and cooperation.

“It will further enable a tripartite cooperation between government, labour and employer associations, to achieve a Just and Gender Inclusive Transition going forward with the implementation of the Paris agreement,” he said.

The minister said that ICAT project would be implemented by a team of national experts and international ICAT consultants under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Dr Yerima Tarfa, ICAT, JGIT Project Team Lead said the initiative would help to increase the overall transparence capacities of countries and assess the contribution of policies and development objectives.

According to him, this is by providing appropriate methodological information and tools to support evidence–based policymaking.

Tarfa noted that Nigeria was the largest economy and leading oil producer and most populous in Africa.

“It faces the unique challenge of having to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas and increasingly, coal) while responding to the unmet energy needs of its growing population.

“Nonetheless, Nigeria is turning this challenge into an opportunity by increasing the use of renewable energy, reducing its carbon footprints and eliminating gas flaring.

“Nigeria’s National Determined Contributions (NDCs) is committed to a 20 per cent emission reduction by 2030 unconditionally and 45 per cent conditional, with focus on power and electricity, oil and gas,” he said.

The team lead said the highlights of the NDCs include ending gas flaring by 2030 and 30 per cent energy efficiency level by 2030.

He said the inauguration of the inception workshop would provide the opportunity to create awareness and build a national cross knowledge sharing that would provide a platform for key stakeholder to facilitate the implementation of the Nigeria ICAT JGIT Project.

He added that this would further set up an MRV of Just and Gender Inclusive Transition and its Roadmap for implementation in Nigeria. (NAN)(wwwnannews.ng)

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Dr Musa Mohammed, Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria (CVON), has tasked stakeholders in veterinary practice to develop a robust database on animal health that would improved food safety.

Mohammed made the call in Abuja on Thursday at the technical committee meeting for development of database on Veterinary Services and Trans-boundary Animal Diseases in Nigeria.

He said that such data provided good evidence on livestock health and gave more insights needed for disease prevalence and production burdens, incidence of zoonotic diseases, economic impacts of diseases and the costs and benefits of interventions.

“It will improve food safety and enhance food security and international trade in livestock products in the country.

“The technical meeting on the development of data base is critical to harness vast volumes of animal health-related data from live bird markets, livestock markets, abattoir, veterinary practices, livestock farms and other relevant sources.

“These data will be used for planning and implementation of intervention programmes from time to time,” he said.

Mohammed noted that the existence of volumes of data on animal health and veterinary sub-sector from live birds, livestock markets, veterinary practices, farms and laboratories could be used to identify animal health-related risks, risk mitigation and management.

According to him, such data can be used in monitoring livestock trades, development of animal disease emergency preparedness planning, disease reporting and proof of freedom from diseases.

Dr George Uzoaga, Head, Epidemiology Division, Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services (DVPCS), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the transformation of animal health resources systems demanded new institutions and policy.

Uzoaga said it also demanded structural changes in existing institutions that generated, manage and disseminated agricultural information.

He said the new direction should be geared toward partnerships and collaboration arrangement between Federal, States, private, farmers associations and development partners.

The DVPCS head said there was urgent need to initiate mechanisms and processes that would develop a system of continuous generation, analysis and integration of data in the veterinary and livestock domain generally.

“To accelerate the process, there is an urgent need for a policy dialogue among stakeholders that will lead to development of appropriate strategies of investment in terms of finance and capacity to rapidly develop a database.

“The database will be called National Animal Health Resource Information System and will contain qualitative and quantitative information.

The meeting was organised by the National Animal Health Resources Information System and hosted by the DVPCS Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Participants were drawn from animal health related organisations which included the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services, and National Veterinary Research Institute and VOM.

Others included Directors of Veterinary Services from selected states, Federal Epidemiology Officers from states and private veterinary practitioners.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Chief of Administration (Army), Maj.-Gen. Okpe Ali, says the understanding of the major indigenous languages by the troops of the Nigerian Army will enhance their operations.

Ali said this during the inauguration of the Indigenous Languages Course 12/2023 organised by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the conduct of the previous 11 courses recorded tremendous success and informed the need to continue with the programme.

He said the 12th batch was being conducted for officers and soldiers of 2

Division, 81 Division and Army Headquarters’ departments and units within Abuja.

According to him, the aim of conducting the ILC is to ensure that army personnel are proficient in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

“As you are all aware, Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and multilingual society with the largest number of indigenous languages in the West African Sub-Region as well as the most populous nation on the African continent.

“Thus, our ethnic heterogeneity coupled with large population are drivers of conflicts posing serious challenges in the management of internal security as seen in the high and volatile level of ethno-religious conflicts and increase in the number of violent non-state actors and groups across the country.

“The threats posed by these groups and in fuelling conflicts have necessitated the deployment of troops in almost all the 36 states of the federation for internal security operations in aid of civil authorities.

“Thus, the importance and need for army personnel to understand the local languages, particularly in the areas where they operate will build trust and confidence in troops by the locals,” he said.

He added that the 2016 Order of Battle and its subsequent implementation had led to the establishment of new formations and units across the country where most of the residents spoke only their indigenous languages.

“This situation requires that all Nigerian army officers and soldiers have the basic knowledge of the three major languages that are widely spoken within the Nigerian operational environment.

“This will among others promote esprit-de-corps among personnel; afford troops the ability to effectively communicate with the locals and most importantly assist in gathering intelligence which is necessary in the execution of assigned tasks,” he said.

Ali said the 21st Century operational environment had changed with the emergence of the human domain of operation, which, according to him, comprises humans as physical beings, thought of mind, action and what they create.

He said the military’s objective in the human domain was the ability to influence targeted individuals and groups better than the adversary.

Languages, according to him, are seen as the best mirrors of the human mind, which in turn determine action and events.

“Consequently, a key requirement for success in the human domain operation is the ability to communicate with the local population which hinges on mastery of indigenous languages within the operating environment,” he said.

The Director General of NARC, retired Maj.-Gen. Garba Wahab, said understanding of local languages by troops was essential to achieving success in the ongoing internal security operations across the country.

Wahab said the deployment of the military in nearly all the states of the federation had made it imperative for army personnel to be able to communicate in local languages rather than English.

According to him, there are some words we find very difficult to translate, so when you understand each other, it is easier to deal with locals and people from particular areas and speak their language.

“They feel this is one of us and that is the essence.

“I believe that if you can speak my language I can understand you, and misunderstanding is reduced to great extent,” he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Federal Government has urged countries in Lake Chad Basin Region to establish an enduring network and synergy, to stem proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in the region.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, made the call at a Two-Day multilateral meeting with stakeholders of the Lake Chad Basin Region on Thursday in Abuja.

The meeting with the theme “Cubing Proliferation of SALW in the Lake Chad Basin Region” was organised by National Centre for the Control of SALW, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that representatives of the three other countries of Lake Chad Basin Region including Cameroon, Niger and Chad attended the meeting.

Mustapha said Nigeria along with other Lake Chad Basin countries, should take advantage of the epic meeting to address the menace of SALW in the region.

“The proliferation of small arms in the lake Chad Basin is a major security concern that has far-reaching consequences for the region.

“It has contributed to the escalation of conflict and violence and has impeded the economic and social development of the countries in the region.

“Small arms are slowly becoming weapons of mass destruction. Their widespread availability has caused tremendous harm to communities and individuals, especially women and children.

“It is, therefore, imperative that we work together to curb the proliferation of small arms in the Lake Chad Basin region.

“If we must put an end to the senseless and mindless violence of Boko Haram and other violence mongers that are widespread in the region,” he said.

He stressed the need to work together to implement the existing international and regional agreements, on small arms control and to promote the development and implementation of new ones.

“We also need to engage in dialogue and cooperation to increase public awareness and to mobilise resources for small arms control initiatives,” he said.

The National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Mongonu, expressed concern on the devastating effects of the illicit circulation of small arms and light weapons.

He said that the availability of these weapons fuels conflicts, exacerbates violence, and undermines peace and security in our region.

“We must take decisive action to address this menace and protect the lives and livelihoods of our citizens.

“This meeting provides us with opportunity to collaborate and share experiences and strategize towards curbing the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.”

He said that Nigeria was absolutely committed to playing its part in the efforts to tackle SALW proliferation in the Region.

Mongonu said that Nigeria had taken steps to enhance its national firearms control regime, including the establishment of a National Centre for the Control of SALW, and the signing of the ECOWAS Convention on SALW.

“ However, we recognise that this is not a problem that any one country can solve alone.

“We must work together as a region to address the root causes of this problem including poverty, underdevelopment and poor governance.

“We must also strengthen our border control measures to prevent the illicit flow of small arms and light weapons across our borders.

“Let us use this opportunity to build strong partnerships and develop practical solutions that will make a real difference in the lives of our citizens,” he said.

The National Coordinator of the National Centre for the Control of SALW, retired Maj.-Gen Abba Mohammed , decried the effect of the proliferation of SALW in the region.

According to him, the prevalent insecurity in the region has led to the loss of countless lives, displacement of communities and hindered the socio-economic development of the region.

“It behooves on us to take drastic measures to find lasting solutions that will help to reduce and eradicate the proliferation of SALW.

“It is therefore imperative that we come together as stakeholders from different sectors and nations to discuss this pressing issue and devise sustainable and pragmatic solutions to address it,”.

Mohammed said the meeting presents an exceptional prospect for stakeholders to rub minds, share experiences, adopt best international practices and laudable ideas to tackle the attendant threat caused by the proliferation of SALW.

“It also provides a forum for us to build new partnerships and strengthen already existing collaborations towards achieving our common goal.

“ I will not fail to reiterate the fact that this feat of eradicating illicit SALW in our society will be a protracted one, and would be an effort in futility without international collaboration,” he said(NAN)

Source: News Agency of Nigeria