Day: May 9, 2023

Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi and Chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), Solomon Arase, have commended the leadership of Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), for their contributions to effective policing in Nigeria.

They gave the commendation at the 39th Etim Inyang Lecture Anniversary and Award Ceremony with the theme, “Enhancing the Ideals of Community Policing in Nigeria” on Tuesday in Abuja.

The minister, who was represented by Mrs Jaachinma Agu, said the establishment of PCRC by leadership of the Nigeria Police Force in 1984 had continued to yield its desired result.

He said it was evident in the fostering of partnership between the police and the community with a view to enhance efficient and effective policing through active partnership with members of the communities and critical stakeholders across Nigeria.

Dingyadi said the 39th anniversary lecture organised to honour the founder of PCRC, retired Inspector-General of Police, Etim Inyang, was a means of appreciating police contributions to safety of lives and property, good governance and improved living standard in Nigeria.

“This event is therefore highly commendable and reassures everyone here present including serving officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force, that their commitment and contributions towards tackling crimes and criminalities will not go unrewarded,” he said.

The minister, who is one of the awardees, said his nomination reaffirmed President Muhammadu Buhari’s germane desire to reclaim policing primacy through police reforms, capacity building, enhanced welfare and equipping to improve internal security arrangements in Nigeria.

He said the award was a great impetus to consolidate on rendering services towards deepening economic development, through formulation and implementation of sustainable policies and programs that had in the last three years, promoted safety of lives and property across Nigeria.

He said the ministry had recently organised Town Hall Meetings with PCRC stakeholders and the NPF in four Geo- political zones to enhance the unity and working relationship between NPF and PCRC.

According to him, the recommendations from the meetings are being implemented to ensure a smooth working relationship between the NPF and the PCRC to achieve maximum reduction in crimes and criminality in our nation.

On his part, the Chairman of PSC, Arase represented by Mr Olumide Sodeinde, said that PCRC had become a veritable means of ensuring effective community policing in Nigeria.

He said that even though PCRC was established in 1984, the concept of community policing did not materialise in Nigeria until the early 2000s when insecurity and increase in crime rates became major issues to contend with.

According to him, the foremost community police in Nigeria was the vigilante group which is still relevant in today’s community, a group of people taking off the mantle to ensure that the growing crime rates and insecurity in their community is highly controlled.

“The vigilante’s main goals is to ensure the protection of lives and property, crime control and promotion of community policing in Nigeria.

“The need for community policing in Nigeria came as a result of an evidence based study which showed that the use of traditional policing methods and core law enforcement approaches alone are insufficient in dealing with crime and social disorder in the society.

“That is more reason why we need to seriously support the PCRC,” he said.

The National Chairman of PCRC, Alhaji Mogaji Olaniyan, said the committee now operate from its permanent site with the support of the ministry and the I-G.

Olaniyan said that PCRC had grown in leaps and bound in its 39 years of existence, saying the committee was poised to do more in delivering on its mandate.

He pledged to continue to work with the police force to be able to achieve effective policing in the country.

He said the event was organised to recognised those who had meritoriously served the nation with passion and commitment.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, on Tuesday met to validate a new policy for the protection of critical national assets and infrastructure.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the participants are to review the Draft Critical National Assets and Infrastructure National Protection Policy and Strategy (CNAI-NPPS 2023).

The National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, said the meeting was to ensure the full implementation of all aspects of the National Security Strategy.

Monguno was represented by the Principal General Staff Officer, ONSA, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Ndalolo.

He said the document was being presented to relevant stakeholders to enable them make observations and inputs to facilitate seamless implementation of the document when approved.

“As we know, the survival and security of every nation and the quality of life of its citizens largely depend on the functionality of its critical national assets and infrastructure.

“Any attack on these assets and infrastructure will have adverse effect on national security.

“Contemporary concerns for the security of national infrastructures became more prominent in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States.

“Since that gruesome attack, the United States and many other countries have taken necessary steps to identify critical national assets and infrastructure with the aim of designing appropriate policies and strategies to secure them.”

He added that the UN Security Council Resolution 2341 placed premium on countries to prioritize the protection of critical national assets and infrastructure.

Monguno said Nigeria had since 2009 suffered immense loss of lives and properties due to activities of terrorists and other criminal elements across the country.

He said the document had identified and sectorised Nigeria’s critical national assets and infrastructure domain into 17 sectors, as well as prioritised their protection into three broad areas.

The areas according to him are Lifeline, Life support and Life enhancing sector groups.

He said that the document being validated explained in detail how to achieve the prioritised protection of the critical national assets and infrastructure.

The NSA said this was necessary as various criminal and terror groups in Nigeria sometimes attack assets such as schools, mosques, churches, hospitals, bridges, power towers and telecommunication masts.

He added that clashes between farmers and herders as well as inter-ethnic group conflicts also pose major threats to the country’s assets and infrastructure, as well as food security.

Monguno however said that the deployment of kinetic and non-kinetic methods by the government had considerably succeeded in protecting and safeguarding national assets and infrastructure.

“Nonetheless, there is the need to develop and continuously review measures to address dynamic threats to our infrastructure.

“Let me reassure you that ONSA remains committed to partnering with all relevant stakeholders in achieving lasting peace and security in our country,’’ Monguno said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, senior level officers from relevant MDAs and security experts, among others, were part of the validation meeting.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Vice President of the Prosperity Party (PP) Adem Farah underscored the need for more effort to strengthen support and create a favorable environment in the industry in order to realize the big goals set in the development of the sector in Ethiopia.

Adem Farah visited ‘Let Ethiopia Produce’ Expo today along with the Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration, Jantrar Abay.

During the visit, Adem said the expo indicates Ethiopia’s enormous potential in manufacturing sector and would contribute to accelerate industry linkages.

Noting the expo will create a great potential to attract other investors he said, “if we work aggressively, the manufacturing sector will play a pivotal role for Ethiopia’s economic growth and prosperity.”

‘Let Ethiopia Produce’ movement has been registering great results in terms of job creation, import substitution and increasing productivity, among others, according to Adem.

A lot of effort is expected from Ethiopia to properly utilize its potential in the manufacturing sector, he said, stressing the need for more work on creating a favorable manufacturing industry environment.

In its Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda and the 10-year Development Plan, Ethiopia has identified the industry sector as one of the next drivers of the national economy.

Addis Ababa City Administration Deputy Mayor and Head of Employment, Enterprise and Industry Development Bureau Jantrar Abay said that the manufacturing industry needs special support to benefit more from the sector.

He also explained that since industries are capable of creating huge job opportunities, supporting the sector is particularly important to address the country’s core unemployment problem.

Similarly, senior officials and mid-level diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited the Expo.

Recall that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed opened “Let Ethiopia Produce” expo last Saturday with an aim of rejuvenating and promoting the potential of the country’s industry sector.

Let Ethiopia Produce movement is a national effort to create a competitive manufacturing industry by solving the various challenges of the sector encountered in a sustainable and holistic manner.

Some 70 large and 54 medium industries are displaying their products and services at the five- day expo organized at the Millennium Hall in the capital.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

A purposeful investment in research and higher education is an engine to expediting growth, especially to ensuring sustainable development goals in Africa, Ministry of Education underscored.

The 21th international conference on Private Higher Education in Africa kicked off today in Addis Ababa in the presence of prominent educators, and researcher from Africa, Asia, Latin America, America and Europe.

The three day conference is taking place under the theme “sustainable development in higher education: Reality or Hype”

Opening the conference, State Minister of Education Samuel Kifle said the purposeful investment in research and higher education would be an engine for growth, especially for sustainable development.

He added that despite unfortunate occurrence in the continent, the expansion of higher education is showing tremendous progress.

At a country level Ethiopia has made efforts to ensure quality education by putting in place vital instruments, he said citing the recently extremely strict university entrance exam carried out for the first in the country.

Contrary to the previous years, the results of the students who took the school leaving examination under the new rigorous exam showed big differences in enhancing the moral of hard working students.

He noted that the ministry acknowledged the contributions that private educational institutions are making to fill the gaps created by limited capacity of public resources in the country.

St. Mary University President, Wondewosen Tamrat said the conference aims to initiate useful dialogue and discussion to strengthen higher education institutions in Africa.

He added that higher education institution should be active participants in the sustainable development goal.

African higher education institutions need to address the challenges the continent is facing by accelerating the implementation of sustainable development and agenda 2063.

The conference is expected to deliberate on issues pertinent to the enhancement of quality education in African institutions of higher learning.

It is also expected to generate policy relevant recommendations from various research papers, panel discussions and reflections under different themes.

The international conference is jointly organized by St. Mary University, the association of African Universities, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Ethiopia’s ministry of education, African Union, International Network for Higher education in Africa (INHEA) and UNESCO.

Initiated by St. Mary’s university in 2003, the conference has been organized on an annual basis for the past two decades aiming at creating a platform for a wide range of actors, educators, policy makers and higher education leaders among others.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency