Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State in North-East Nigeria is currently being considered by the armed rebels of the Niger Delta as the best type of governor for the vastly polluted oil and gas region. This is coming as the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), an umbrella network for the Niger Delta militants gave their governors a thumb down, claiming that that the oil region under the governors’ watch has become ‘’a failed’’ area. Spokesperson of the rebel group, Cynthia Whyte, who dropped this bombshell in an online media parley said, ‘’the Niger Delta is a failed region. With a critical…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
The outspoken Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has taken on President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, claiming that the administration is marked by supremacist and divisive policies that will eventually push Nigeria to the brink. Kukah who was speaking on Wednesday morning in Kaduna at the funeral mass of the slain Seminarian, Michael Nnadi, at Good Shepherd Seminary, Kaduna said, “no one could have imagined that in winning the Presidency, General Buhari would bring nepotism and clannishness into the military and the ancillary security agencies, that his government would be marked by supremacist and…
More than 25 ecological civic organizations, networks, and community resistance groups from Africa and around the world literally ambushed African leaders who were attending the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, and tried to knock some missiles into their brains in a seeming desperate bid to jerk them into their environmental responsibility to the continent. Unlike the rampaging terrorists of North-East Nigeria and other African countries, the aim of the ambush was not to draw the blood of the summiteers among, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, the giant of Africa. The warlords had only one simple…
A civic group, the Golden Heart Foundation (GHF) has visited the Ibadan campus of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), to explore a partnership deal. President of the group, David Ogbueli, led a team to the institute to secure a partnership agreement on youth empowerment. GHF is focusing on youth value reorientation, leadership, youth empowerment, and entrepreneurial development. It believes that partnering with IITA will foster the development they seek through agriculture. Emphasizing this, Ogbueli said, “we are strong in national transformation; we want to bring youth out of unemployment and poverty, that’s why we have come to find…
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has started to document all agricultural assets in Nigeria. To ensure a successful documentation exercise, all directors of agriculture throughout the country, have been directed to commence the exercise immediately. Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Sabo Nanono, issued the directive last week at a meeting on evaluation of the previous year’s projects where he bemoaned that some of the country’s agricultural assets, including lands and buildings, were unaccounted for. According to the minister, ‘’we have enormous unutilized assets They are so many that we do not even know where they are. We…
At the launch of the 2020 African Economic Outlook of the African Development Bank (AfDB), a flagship annual publication that projects economic growth trends on the continent, the Bank President, Akinwunmi Adesina, offered the political leaders of the continent some hard nuts to crack. Adesina wants governments in Africa to urgently work towards improving the quality of lives of their citizenry beyond what economic statistics tend to show, stressing that growth must be felt in the lives of the people because ‘’at the end of the day, it is not Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth that matters. Nobody eats GDP’’.…
Rice farmers in Kebbi State, Northern Nigeria on the platform of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) are currently exploring how to secure an out of court settlement with the Federal Government on their N17 billion debt burden. They, however, obtained the seeming huge amount as loans from the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). But, they were not repaying the loan because they erroneously thought it was doled out to them as their share of the national cake. RIFAN Chairman in the state, Muhammed Sahabi Augie, who made this known said that only 200 farmers were able to settle their loans,…
A group, Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) has said that the United Nations Security Council wants to see a regional and politically driven approach to conflict resolution in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This development, however, came when the Council held an informal dialogue on the role of the Central African region in stabilising the country. ‘’This is a welcome approach, as military operations alone are unlikely to put an end to armed group activity in a country where many militias are community-based or operate with the backing of opaque political and criminal networks’’, CIVIC said. CIVIC which is concerned…
The Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga, has warned that Africa’s food importation cost will soon hit $110 billion from the current level of $35 billion. He has also pointed out how new agricultural challenges of Africa can be solved. He was speaking at the University of Florida’s Future of Food Forum, sponsored by the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. At the Forum which was attended by some 250 professionals from six countries and 19 states comprising farmers, researchers, chefs, aquaculturists, students, academics, with one-third of the registered audience from the private sector, Sanginga also…
Forty-one students from the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine and Health Science of Afe Babalola University, have benefitted from a training programme organised by the Bioscience Centre of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). IITA is, however, a non-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. The 5-day Basic Molecular Biology Techniques and Bioinformatics workshop took place last January at the Ibadan campus of the institute in Oyo State. The purpose of the workshop was to equip students with the basic knowledge of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics and allow them to…
Access to Seeds Index has said that improving access to seeds for farmers in regions that are currently considered food insecure is key to meeting their future food demands. Hunger is a daily reality for almost one billion people around the world. The global population is expected to grow by a further two billion in the coming decades, precisely in those regions that are food insecure. According to World Vision, a group that is concerned with pulling up the roots of poverty and planting the seeds of change, hunger appears to be on the rise after a years-long decline. But…
Apparently shaken by the worrisome unemployment situation in Nigeria, the Osun State Government in Western Nigeria is currently setting its eyes on the agriculture sector for a solution. The state is assiduously pushing to raise agribusiness tigers that will be its new massive job providers in the state. To this end, the government is collaborating with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) through the IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA) and Start Them Early Program (STEP) platforms, to raise agribusiness ambassadors in Osun. Education Commissioner, Folarunsho Oladoyin, has already visited the IITA Ibadan campus with his Assistant, Bukola Elufisan and the Special Adviser to the…
Final Investment Decisions (FID) on some key offshore oil projects in Nigeria have been delayed because of the failure of the Legislative arm of the Federal Government to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which has been in the works for at least 15 years. The offshore projects are expected to create an additional production capacity of 875,000 b/d and hopefully attract around $100 billion in new investments. The projects include: Shell’s Bonga and Southwest Aparo which is expected to add 225,000 b/d; and Bonga North (100,000 b/d); Eni’s Zabazaba-Etan (120,000 b/d); Chevron’s Nsiko (100,000b/d); ExxonMobil’s Bosi (140,000 b/d); Satellite Field Development Phase Two (80,000 b/d); and…
A leading independent provider of information, benchmark prices and analytics for the energy and commodities markets, S&P Global Platts, has reported that the rampaging coronavirus has started to have a knock-on effect on the global commodities shipping market. The coronavirus outbreak in China has, however, forced several countries to resort to stringent quarantine checks in their battle to contain the spread and the measures are affecting the global commodities shipping market seriously. Delays in loading and delivery of cargoes in the tanker, dry bulk and container shipping segments are being reported due to ships being forced to sit idle amid…
After the House of Representatives under the watch of its Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, un-tactically called for the resignation of the service chiefs, the speaker in seeming about-face is now appealing to the security chiefs the National Assembly wants to be thrown out of their jobs, to redouble efforts at shoring up internal security. Gbajabiamila told the service chiefs that Nigerians are on the necks of their representatives in the House over the security situation in the country, claiming that the anxiety among the citizenry was enough reason for the military commanders to redouble their efforts, challenging them to take the…
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, one of the big oil states in Nigeria, has said that his administration was perfecting the Real Madrid Football Academy as a fundamental development tool that will serve as a catalyst for uniting kids from all backgrounds under the auspices of football. In a keynote address during the 83rd Congress of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday, Wike noted that sport is an avenue to raise young people with the right character and determination to be successful in life. “In Rivers State, more than 50% of the population falls within…
The Red Chamber of Nigeria’s bicameral Legislature has started to explore the best possible means to give the security architecture of the country a shot at the elbow. To this end, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has inaugurated an 18-man ad-hoc panel of senators to look into the matter. The panel which was set up on Tuesday is saddled with the responsibility of recommending ways to improving the present security situation in the country. The Senate had last week, after exhaustive deliberations on the security situation in Nigeria resolved to set up the ad-hoc panel on Nigeria security challenges: urgent need to restructure, review and…
Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has charged the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to hit the ground running on how to contain the rampaging coronavirus and Lassa fever that is raiding parts of the country. Gbajabiamila who was speaking at a meeting between the House Committee on Healthcare Services chaired by Yusuf Tanko Sununu, and the management of the centre, said Nigerians are worried about the emerging pandemic. He, therefore, wants NCDC that was led by its Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu, to attach more seriousness to the coronavirus, same with Lassa fever.Gbajabiamila’s Special Adviser on Media and…
A Lassa fever war has erupted in Rivers State, the oil and gas capital of Nigeria, forcing the state government to take some tough measures in a seemingly desperate bid to contain the spread of the epidemic in the big oil state. Chief of Staff to Governor Nyesom Wike, Chukwuemeka Woke, an engineer, who made the war against Lassa fever in the state known while declaring open a one-day Sensitisation Seminar on the fever for staff of Government House, Port Harcourt, said in the last one week the state has not recorded any new cases following the maximum support the…
A civic group, Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), has begun to mobilize local people in Liberia and empowering them to resist a wave of land grabs in some parts of the country allegedly led by elites and concessioners. The group said Protecting Communities and Forests against a Surge in Land-grabs in Bomi, a project which is taking off in Tubmanburg, is a follow-up to its 2019 report on the situation in the county. That report found that the officials, with help from tribal chiefs and elders, possibly converted more than 9,000 acres of land in the Senjeh, Klay and Suehn-Mecca Districts. Sime…
The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has appreciated its Director-General, Dr Nteranya Sanginga, for initiating the Start Them Early Programme (STEP), an intervention designed to take agribusiness studies to primary and secondary school students, engaging them in club participation, course work, and experimental learning. The Board has also given a vote of confidence and commendation to the Institute’s management under the leadership of Dr Sanginga for the eighth time. Board Chairman, Dr Amos Namanga Ngongi, expressed great pleasure over the management and growth of IITA over the last eight years, and in particular, the vast array of…
Oyo State Government in Western Nigeria has taken on the Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, claiming that the decision of the minister on the local government crisis rocking the state is partisan. Malami’s counterpart in the state, Oyelowo Oyewo, a law professor, is insisting most of the minister’s actions in the affairs of Nigeria are partisan and not based on the Constitution, pointing out that many All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled states are operating caretaker committees and dissolved elected local government leadership, ‘’yet policemen have not been sent to enforce anybody’s rights as it were’’. Oyewo,…
Hundreds of native families in Kiryandongo, Uganda are being violently and forcefully evicted off their land by Great Season Company, owned by South Sudan nationals, Witness Radio Organisation says. According to the radio, the eviction is being backed by the Kiryandongo District Police. Witness Radio Organisation, witnessradio.org is a non-partisan and not-for-profit registered network of investigative and human rights reporters/writers using media leaning approaches with the main focus to promote economic, social and cultural rights and development in Uganda. Started in 2016 by a team of senior human rights and investigative journalists, the organization uses Information Communication Technology (ICT) platforms as its…
Labour markets in Latin America and the Caribbean are going through a moment of uncertainty, which can be seen in a slight rise in the regional unemployment rate and these signs of instability could get worse this 2020. These key findings were presented during the launch of the 2019 Labour Overview of Latin America and the Caribbean.Regional Director of the ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan Hunt, said while speaking during the report launch event in Lima, the Peruvian capital, “the labour market situation is complex.” The estimated average regional unemployment rate for the end of…
Nigeria and some other African countries are featuring prominently in two new work programmes that include innovative ventures to expand marine protected areas and engage indigenous peoples for biodiversity protection and climate change resilience-building efforts in the least Developed Countries (LDCs). The two programmes are to gulp more than $600 million. Representatives of the Global Environment Facility’s 183 country members that met in Washington DC, approved the set of five programmes and 48 projects, including four multi-trust fund projects, to be implemented in 87 developing and LDCs. The $588.5 million in GEF Trust Fund financing approved by the GEF Council…
Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Guy Ryder, has called for a whole-of-supply-chain approach to address child labour in global supply chains during his opening statement to the conference. He said that efforts against child labour in global supply chains will be inadequate if they do not extend beyond immediate suppliers and include those involved in the extraction and production of raw materials. He also urged governments to address the root causes of child labour in global supply chains, such as poverty, informality and insufficient access to education. “Today, 152 million children are still in child labour. The need to…
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said at the concluded 12th Summit of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, that employment policies and strategic alliances to seek effective and sustainable solutions are key to address the challenge of international migration. ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Juan Hunt, speaking at the closing plenary session of the forum recalled, “most migration is directly or indirectly related to the world of work, where there are now 164 million migrant workers or 70% of all working-age migrants, and nearly half are women.” Hunt stressed that…
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a United Nations agency, has appealed for an urgent $76 million funding to tackle a Desert Locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa to protect livelihoods and food security. The locust outbreak is the worst to strike Ethiopia and Somalia for 25 years and the worst infestation that Kenya had experienced in 70 years. Djibouti and Eritrea are now being affected. Already, FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, has said that the Desert Locust upsurge in the Horn of Africa is threatening to provoke a humanitarian crisis. Out of the $76 million needed, FAO has mobilised $15.4…
US President Donald Trump has finally unleashed a missile attack on Nigeria by slapping immigration restrictions its citizens including six other countries, in addition to the list of nations already targeted by his controversial travel ban. The US embassy in Nigeria had announced that it was no longer accepting visa renewal applications via international courier service DHL. In a statement posted on Twitter, the embassy said Nigerians seeking to get US non-immigrant visas must apply online. They “will be required to appear in-person at the US Embassy in Abuja or US Consulate General in Lagos to submit their application for…
In 2018, about two billion people experienced food insecurity, and more than 820 million others, which is equivalent to more than 10% of the world’s population, were hungry. This challenge exists in the context of a global population that is projected to grow from the current 7.7 billion to 8.5 billion in 2030, just a decade away, and rise to 9.7 billion in 2050. The majority of those facing hunger and food insecurity live in developing countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey. These countries, including many Least Developed Countries (LDCs) like Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African…
