Director-General of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nteranya Sanginga, in a joint IPS News Agency op-ed with Young Africa Works Executive Manager, Aline Mugisho, and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, highlighted some of the required systemic changes. He is arguing that with Africa’s population predicted to double by 2050, creating challenges such as high unemployment rates, low income, food insecurity, and persistent poverty, there needs to be a systemic change targeting the continent’s youth, who will make up about 60% of the overall population. “The youth, despite representing the majority of the population, still feel marginalized from the economic mainstream”,…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
Piqued by the menace of Fulani herdsmen to food security in Eastern Nigeria, the hotbed of Biafra agitation, governors of the region have finally risen against open grazing. They have also floated a regional security outfit in a desperate bid to restore confidence in farmers who have been shunning their farms for fear of being killed by the rampaging herdsmen. Cases of raping women in their farms have been very rampant across the South-East geo-political zone, and have negatively impacted on food production in the area. To contain the worsening situation, the governors rose from their meeting on Sunday in…
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, has been named Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Goodwill Ambassador this International Day of Human Space Flight. In 2011, the UN declared April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of states and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.” April 12, 1961 was the date of the first human…
A 2018 survey reveals that 61 percent of childbirths in Madagascar take place outside of a health facility. This is largely due to poor roads and challenging terrain. For instance, Ambovombe is a landlocked district in the southern part of the country, where only about half of health facilities are accessible year-round because of poor roads and challenging terrain. And, even if one could get there, the cost of transportation is too high, resulting in the 61 percent of births taking place outside of a health facility. “The working conditions were not easy. I have traveled hundreds of kilometres to visit isolated…
50-year old Farina, (not real name) in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, does not remember how long ago she developed an obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury that causes chronic incontinence, infections and, often, ostracism from the community. She was married while just a teenager. Child marriage greatly increases the risk of experiencing obstructed childbirth, which, without timely treatment, is often deadly. Those who survive, like Farina, may develop an obstetric fistula. The excruciating experience often also results in a stillbirth. Farina had eight pregnancies, resulting in five living children. Yet it was only recently that she was able to receive treatment…
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has told the 10th Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum that leaders across the world need to “move beyond platitudes” about young people, and deliver a better future for them all. He described the gathering online as “the UN’s foremost platform” for tackling the many pressing challenges facing young people today, including the impacts of COVID-19, which, among other things, have rendered one-in-eight young people – the majority girls – without access to education. One-in-six are without jobs and mental health problems are rising fast. “In this context, we should not be surprised that both online and…
International Standard Organisation (ISO) says it is looking at some of the top risks the world is currently facing and how it can address and prepare for them, for a more sustainable post-pandemic world. This is coming as the latest World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report says climate change, human environmental damage and increasing inequalities due to the COVID-19 pandemic are amongst the top threats the world will be facing in the next 10 years. Effective global cooperation, information sharing and coordination, it states, are what is needed to get us through. While global lockdowns resulted in a drop in carbon emissions, the…
Women in Yemen are dying during childbirth every two hours, almost always from preventable causes. And now, the threat of famine looms. Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Natalia Kanem, says “the situation is catastrophic” during her recent three-day visit to the country. A midwife, Shrook Khalid Saeed, told UNFPA this week at the Al Shaab Hospital in the district of Crater, in Yemen “it was the morning of a normal working day before fighting escalated close to the hospital. I heard a mother screaming at the gate.” By the time she arrived at the entrance to the hospital, hostilities…
Women and girls have been frequently abducted in Jonglei, South Sudan because of their economic importance in demanding a bride price paid in the form of cattle, the UN Mission said in a statement. “The UN Mission believes that as many as 686 women and children were abducted during the clashes that took place between January and August of last year”, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular daily briefing. “Tragically, these abductions often involve sexual violence”, he added. After a recent peace conference in Pieri, where traditional leaders, women and so-called “cattle camp” leaders had discussed compensation for lives lost, and…
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Forest Centre, Nigerian Breweries, and Ogun State Ministry of Forestry are undertaking a 10-year project to reforest the Olokemeji Forest Reserve in the Western Nigeria state. The forest reserve is one of the largest in the region, covering 6,018 hectares of land. Community members have encroached on this forest area by clearing different portions of the land for various farming activities. The project however aims to sensitise and encourage the community members and other stakeholders to reforest the area. The IITA Forest Unit was set up January 1, 2015 to succeed the five-year Forest…
Google and Facebook are currently locked in two huge subsea cables project using a “new diverse route” across the Java Sea and connecting Singapore and Indonesia to North America. Called ‘Echo’ and ‘Bifrost’, The two trans-Pacific cables called Echo and Bifrost will increase data capacity by 70% and improve internet reliability in South East Asia. While Facebook is investing in both projects, Google is only investing in Echo, which also involves Indonesian telecommunications provider XL Axiata and is expected to be completed in 2023. Bifrost will include the Singapore-based Keppel Midgard Holdings and Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin) as local partners. In a company blog,…
Next generation cassava varieties are offering promising options for African smallholder farmers in resisting cassava diseases and marketing their crops to consumers. Five new cassava varieties developed with support from NextGen Cassava have already been approved for release in Nigeria. Named Game-Changer, Hope, Obasanjo-2, Baba-70 and Poundable, the five next generation varieties feature high yields and robust disease resistance important for farmers and characteristics sought by consumers. Poundable is the first fresh market variety released in Nigeria. Hope and Baba-70 have excellent garri and fufu quality to address the processed food market. Game-Changer and Obasanjo-2 have high and stable starch content, which is desired by industrial processors for flour, starch and ethanol. The varieties were approved last…
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a socio-cultural organisation of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria, has decried the killing of scores of Ndigbo in Ebonyi State by herdsmen, and warns that the ethnic group will not tolerate unjust killing of its people. Disturbingly also, reports say 200 gunmen raided a military base in Allawa, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, killing six soldiers and a mobile policeman. These are coming as Zamfara State Government has so far paid N970 million to bandits in nine years, and not less than 2,619 people killed in various attacks by menacing bandits in the state. The…
Despite increases in the number of women at the highest levels of political power, widespread gender inequalities still persist, according to the 2021 edition of the IPU-UN Women Map of Women in Politics. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)-UN Women Map presents new data for women in government and parliamentary positions as of January 1, 2021. The data shows all-time highs for the number of countries with women Heads of State and/or Heads of Government, as well as for the global share of women Ministers. However, after last year’s map showed a spike at 21.3 per cent of women ministers, progression has slowed…
There is an uneasy calm in the Ebonyi State axis of Eastern Nigeria as some boiling Igbo youths are spoiling for a reprisal attack against Fulani herdsmen who are allegedly making life unbearable in the area. Dangerously armed herdsmen allegedly shattered the relative peace of the state when they went on a killing spree in some rustic communities of Ishielu Local Government Area of the largely agrarian state, leaving scores of citizens literally drowned in their own blood. While search for more bodies are ongoing in the area, worried Bayelsa State Government is insisting on its 14-day quit notice given…
The IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians is monitoring a record 601 cases of alleged violations against parliamentarians around the world. This represents a significant uptick compared to 552 cases in December 2020. The caseload includes many new claims, particularly from Myanmar and Turkey. The committee took decisions on these and a number of other cases of alleged abuse of parliamentarians in Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Colombia, Eritrea, Gabon, Mauritania, Mongolia, Thailand, Togo and Venezuela. Since the military coup in February 2021, the IPU’s human rights committee has received specific reports of human rights violations against 39 parliamentarians elected in the November…
Young Africa Works, a project of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has concluded the first cohort of its training programme, which commenced February 1 in Lagos, Kaduna, and Kano states. The six-week training programme targeted young people between 18 and 35 years. It introduced the participants to agribusiness through classroom training, practical sessions, excursions to successful agribusiness firms, mentorship, sharing success stories, soft skills training, team-building exercise, experiential learning, and internships with technical hosts. The training mixed theoretical and practical methodologies in the employment and entrepreneurship tracks, positioning the beneficiaries to secure fulfilling jobs and establish their enterprises, respectively.…
Steps taken to prevent debt crises across the world sparked by the COVID-19 crisis do not appear to be sufficient to restore economic stability in many developing countries. UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is currently pushing for a decisive action to stave off debt crisis in the developing world. More than a year into the pandemic, the fiscal impacts of the crisis are triggering debt distress in a growing number of countries and is severely limiting the ability of many, to invest in recovery and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including urgently needed climate action, he said. According to his policy brief, 42 economies borrowing from capital markets have experienced sovereign downgrades…
Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Sabo Nanono, says the livestock sector is Nigeria’s next biggest economic changer than oil and gas. This disclosure is coming as Abuja has set up an Anti-Multi Taxation Committee to eliminate the prevalence of multiple taxation and imposition of illegal taxes on agricultural produce in transit. The country’s livestock sector, according to Nanono, can generate up to N33 trillion worth of investment and transform the economy, pointing out that Nigeria’s livestock has huge economic potential “which should be explored and harnessed”. He said the sector currently contributes 17 percent to the nation’s agricultural Gross Domestic…
Government of Sudan and one of the country’s rebel groups have resolved to end their conflict. They have also agreed to guarantee freedom of religion to all Sudanese in a civil, democratic federal state. The peace deal has attracted the commendation of the Executive Director of United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), David Beasley. He has this Monday congratulated leaders of the government and the rebels for agreeing to the peace initiative “It’s a great day, a day of peace’’, Beasley said. “But peace is not made on paper. Peace is made in the heart. And these leaders have come together…
More than 100 million more children than expected, are falling behind the minimum proficiency level in reading, due to COVID-related school closures. A new study by the United Nations cultural agency, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), reveals this. According to the UNESCO study, One year into COVID: Prioritizing education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe, even before the pandemic the number of children lacking basic reading skills was on a downward curve. In 2020, instead of 460 million children experiencing reading difficulties, that number jumped to 584 million. The rise of more than 20 per cent, wiped out two decades of education gains, the agency said. Since the beginning…
Despite the extensive mobility restrictions imposed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 2,000 people lost their lives at sea attempting to reach Europe in 2020. A new report from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)’s Missing Migrants Project points out that another 300 deaths already have been documented thus far in 2021. Director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) in Berlin, Frank Laczko, says “No one should have to risk their life to flee violence or instability, or to simply seek a better. “It will be important in the current discussions between the EU and African countries to prioritize concerted…
There is deep concern for thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region whose camps have been found burned to the ground. While there are confirming satellite imagery and testimony from those who have fled attacks, UN humanitarians reported at the weekend that aid teams have reached two camps for Eritrean refugees for the first time since fighting began in early November, only to find them destroyed and the former occupants “scattered”. UN refugee agency, UNCHR spokesperson Boris Cheshirkov told reporters in Geneva that all the humanitarian facilities at the Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps in the northern Ethiopian region were…
As suspected bandits abduct not less than eight members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Region 30, Trinity Sanctuary, Kaduna, on Friday, Northern Elders Forum has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to come up with fresh solutions to the unprecedented challenges facing Nigeria. Northern Elders Spokesman, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who was speaking on a Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily on Friday said President Buhari must step up his leadership of the country. The latest abduction in Kaduna is coming amid continued confinement of 39 students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State by bandits 18 days ago. The latest…
The Green Chamber of Nigeria’s bicameral Legislature has initiated a legislative move aimed at reforming the Nigeria Police with a view to aborting the repressive activities of the law enforcement agency. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, says the House under his watch will bequeath a police service to the citizenry that is civil in its conduct, pointing out, ‘’the House is working assiduously to achieve this goal.’’ According to Gbajabiamila, a trusted police force working within the limits of the law is what Nigerians deserve, and assured Nigerians that the 9th House under his leadership will bequeath…
President of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir says ending violence against women in politics is critical to encouraging more women to participate in public life. Bozkir convened experts from the UN, academia and civil society for an online discussion to examine links between political leadership and preventing violence targeting women and girls. “If we are to protect and uphold the rights of the people we serve, those who govern should reflect those who are governed. In short: we need to elect more women”, he said. ”We need to remove barriers to participation and end violence against women in politics. I believe that this…
Assistant High Commissioners Gillian Triggs and Raouf Mazou were fresh from the country, where they heard shocking stories from survivors of a crisis that is unfolding in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of several devastating cyclones. The violence is escalating, they told journalists in Geneva, with the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) increasing from around 70,000 roughly a year ago, to close to 700,000 today, and expected to reach one million by June. “If one looks at the speed at which we are seeing the number of internally displaced persons rise, we know that the window of…
The Defense Post has reported that the US Army is reviewing its gender-neutral fitness test and could revamp it to factor in the “biological differences” between men and women. The development is coming weeks after the US Congress directed the army to halt the six-event Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) until a study by a non-Pentagon body could assess its impact. Congress reportedly cited initial army data showing that women fail the test at a much higher rate than men (65 percent to 10 percent), particularly the leg tuck event, which requires soldiers to hang from a pull-up bar and tuck their legs up to their chins.…
Boko Haram’s ally, the Islamic State (IS) group on has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack against the Malian army almost a week earlier that killed 33 soldiers, going by a Defense Post report. “IS fighters set up an ambush last Monday for a convoy of the Malian army… and attacked it with different kinds of weapons”, IS propaganda outlet Amaq said. Dozens of assailants on motorbikes and in pickup trucks on March 15 stormed a military post southwest of the town of Ansongo, the Malian army said at the time. The bodies of 20 jihadists were found after the attack, it added. The ambush, near…
Stakeholders in the troubled education sector of Nigeria are calling on the Federal Government to beef- up security around schools across the country in a bid to prevent further attacks on schools by bandits. This is coming as Kebbi State Government on Sunday donated 10 Hilux vehicles and 30 motorcycles to the Nigeria Police in the state to contain the menace of criminals in the state. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the vehicles were presented to the police at the Cabinet Office, Birnin Kebbi. Presenting the vehicles, Governor Atiku Bagudu said that the gesture was to boost the morale…
