Minister: Fed Govt to get more arms for National Parks.

Minister: Fed Govt to get more arms for National Parks.

Environment Minister Balarabe Lawal has said the Federal Government will buy more arms for effective operations of the National Park Service (NPS).

Lawal announced this when he visited the NPS headquarters and the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) in Abuja.

The minister said President Bola Tinubu was much concerned about the operations of the parks because of spate of insecurity in the country.

He said there was an ongoing collaboration with relevant agencies to rid the nation’s forest of bandits, illegal miners, and the coastal areas of oil thieves.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NPS is statutorily responsible for the preservation, enhancement and protection of wild animals and plants as well as other vegetation in National Parks, and for matters connected therewith.

Lawal urged the NBMA to be more proactive in its approaches and carry out more researches to curb the inflow of unwanted genetically modified foods.

“If you allow these genetically modified foods to come into the markets, there will be a very fierce war,” he said.

The minister praised both agencies for their efforts and urged them to do more in order to keep up to their mandates.

Lawal advised the agencies to work as a team and to be dedicated and punctual in their duties for effective discharge of their duties.

The Conservator-General of NPS, Dr. Ibrahim Goni, urged the minister to review upwards the subventions of the agency.

Goni also requested for the procurement of more arms for NPS to curb trans-banditry activities with Cameroon as well as commercialise the three parks.

NBMA’s Director General, Dr. Agnes Asagbra, solicited the minister’s help to enable the agency have a bigger office space and more trainings for its workers.

She also requested for machinery to fight environmental activities that impede the operations of the agency.

NAN reports that both agencies made elaborate presentations of their operations to the minister.

They also led the minister on a tour of NPS animal orphanage, mini-park, museum, NBMA’s laboratory before Lawal planted a tree to mark the visit.

Insecurity: No criminal will sleep in FCT – Wike.

Insecurity: No criminal will sleep in FCT – Wike.

Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, February 1, vowed to further ensure that criminals do not have rest in the nation’s capital.

This is following the incessant kidnapping in Abuja.

Wike made the vow on Thursday while inaugurating an emergency construction and rehabilitation of the nine-kilometre Paikon Kore – Ibwa Road, in Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT to promote rural development.

Wike said the project was part of 30-kilometre roads that would be constructed across the six area councils of the territory.

He assured the residents that President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda was not mere talk but action.

He explained that the road construction was designed to make rural dwellers comfortable and open rural communities for development.

He added that two additional roads would be constructed in each of the area councils before the end of the year, to make it three rural roads per area council.

The minister blamed the spate of rural-urban migration on the lack of roads and other basic amenities needed to make life comfortable.

According to him, the project will not only address insecurity but will equally improve access to schools, enable evacuation of farm produce to the market and boost economic activities.

The minister assured the contractor that funding would not be a problem, stressing that he would accept nothing short of the expected quality.

Wike said: “No criminal will sleep in FCT. We are after them and no rest for them. Funding will not be a problem but do it well; the people are entitled to quality roads.

“I will not tell you when I will come here for inspection. I will not also depend on a report from the director overseeing the project. What I will depend on is what I see with my own eyes.”

Similarly, the FCT Minister of State, Mariya Mahmoud, pointed out that the lack of access roads in communities had stagnated development in rural areas.

Mahmoud said that construction of the rural roads across the six area councils would not only open the rural communities for trade and commerce, but also improve access to market, health care, and education.

“The project is not just about laying down asphalt; it is about connecting communities, improving access, and fostering economic development in our rural areas.

“For too long, the lack of proper road infrastructure has hindered the progress of our rural communities.

“Farmers have struggled to transport their produce to markets; students have faced difficulties reaching schools; and medical emergencies have been compounded by the challenges of accessing timely healthcare.”

Also, Olusegun Olusa, Oversite Director, Satellite Towns Development Department, FCTA, said that benefiting communities were selected due to infrastructural deficits.

Olusa added that the project, awarded to Setraco Nigeria Ltd, would be delivered before May 29 to mark President Tinubu’s one year in office.

Earlier, the chairman, of Gwagwalada Area Council, Mr Abubakar Giri, commended the minister for the gesture, which he described as the first rural project to be executed by the FCT minister in the area.

Giri said the road, when completed, would improve security in rural communities due to improved access to communities and boost the economy of the people.

According to him, 90 percent of the people in the area are farmers, who will benefit immensely from the road projects by evacuating agricultural produce to the market.

In his part, the Chief of the area, the Aguma of Gwagwalada, Mr Mohammad Magaji, thanked the minister for taking the bold step to develop rural communities in the FCT.

Magaji expressed optimism that the project would facilitate development in rural communities which eluded local areas for ages.

He announced that the community has bestowed the traditional title of Sarkin Yakin (warlord) Paikon Kore on the minister and awaiting his approval for coronation.

The Managing Director of Setraco Nigeria Ltd, Mr Ziad Mouannes, promised to deliver the project according to specification.

Mouannes called for the support of the FCT Administration, particularly funding and security to ensure timely completion of the project.

Sanwo-Olu procures additional rolling stocks for Blue, Red lines.

Sanwo-Olu procures additional rolling stocks for Blue, Red lines.

Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the government has procured additional rolling stocks for the Blue Line and Red Line rail operations to bring more relief to residents.

The rolling stocks are expected to arrive in Lagos before the end of the year, he noted.

The Lagos team, through its partners, was able to secure an agreement for the additional rolling stocks to be ready and delivered before the end of the year as against the normal two-year period it takes for the construction company to build the coaches.

Governor Sanwo-Olu, during a meeting with President and management of the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) at its headquarters in Beijing, China, reiterated his administration’s commitment to completing the second phase of the Blue Line rail project and begin commercial operations of the Red Line.

He said: “We have made requests for additional rolling stocks for the Red Line and Blue Line. That conversation is ongoing.

“We have started making payments and hope that because of our commitment, we will get them before the end of the year.

” It would improve the journey experience of our people. It would improve citizens’ appreciation of what the government is doing to reduce transportation pressure in a big city like Lagos.

“With the new rolling stocks, we will have a more predictable journey time; the commuters and passengers would be more committed and we will see an improvement in the quality of lives and reduction of traffic gridlocks in the city.”

The Governor was accompanied to the meeting by Commissioner for Transportation Oluwaseun Osiyemi; Managing Director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mrs. Abimbola Akinajo; Chairman of Lagos House of Assembly Committee on Transportation, Temitope Adewale; his Environment Parastatals counterpart Rasheed Shabi and other top government officials.

The Governor also inspected one of the project sites of the China Railway Construction Group (CRCG) in Beijing, China. He said the fact-finding mission is connected plans for the construction of some major infrastructural projects, and his determination to increase the infrastructure stock of Lagos, especially in transportation.

FG working to make health sector driver of economy – Alausa.

FG working to make health sector driver of economy – Alausa.

The Minister of State for Health, Tunji Alausa, on Thursday, February 1, said the federal government is working to move the healthcare sector from a consuming part of the economy to one of the drivers of the economy as it is obtained in many advanced countries of the world.

He made this known while on a working visit to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

He said what President Bola Tinubu’s administration is working on is to ensure that the country’s healthcare care is at par with its counterparts in developed countries where the healthcare sector is a driver of the economy and not a consuming part.

The minister cited the example of the United States where the health sector contributes about 24 percent to the country’s GDP which translates to about $ 3.3 trillion annually.

He said: “We have a government being led by President Tinubu who is extremely passionate about healthcare, and not just healthcare alone, but passionate about taking our country to where it’s supposed to be among the comity of nations and we are more fortune that the attention he has given to the health sector hasn’t been given by any administration in the past.

“More so, the world is changing, we need to move healthcare beyond a consuming part of our economy to one of the drivers of our economy. You go to other advanced democracies in the world, the US for instance, healthcare contribute about 24per cent of their GDP which translates to about $3.3trillion spent annually.

“So the way we are going to move our healthcare forward would be in that direction where we would give our people opportunities and you see we have started and we have our four pillars.”

He listed the four pillars to achieving the feat to include: governance, improving population outcome, value chain and security.

“The first thing is governance. We’ve done a lot to start improving governance. Governance entails a lot of things like holding ourselves accountable and giving the citizens of Nigeria the care they deserve, the respect they deserve as we care for them.

“The second part of our agenda is improving our population outcome, and how do we do that, we have to strengthen our healthcare infrastructure, equipping hospitals, and providing the needed manpower.

“The third part of our pillar is unlocking our healthcare value chain. Moving our healthcare sector to provide durable, good, and sustainable services to attain transformation where we can begin to live a normal and respectable life.

“The fourth pillar, of course, we have to look beyond healthcare just providing physical security, we have to ensure it provides social security and national security”, he added.

The Minister also harped on the need to improve training as a way of addressing the dearth of human resources in the sector saying “UCH has done a lot in training and I look at the training programme that are here but we now have to start training not for now but into the future to meet our needs. Today, a lot of things have changed, the kinds of diseases that we have now were not in existence forty years ago.

“You will be so surprised if we take the census of the numbers of cardiologists that we have in Ibadan today, they are not up to ten but as a training institution, we must train excellent cardiologists. We need to erect a proper training structure that will produce specialized people in these new medical conditions that we are having now. We need to now begin to make super specialists in our country to meet the needs of our time.

“In regards to the tutor programme, we have about five Al over the country but then the nursing council decided that these schools should be turned into a degree awarding college. Ibadan nursing tutor programme did the right thing by doing what they were supposed to do.

“The others would be closed down because they don’t meet the standard anymore and the people in their wisdom that founded those tutor programmes did so because we had a shortage of nurse tutors and that’s why they found those programmes but into the future now, the nursing and midwifery council has redesigned their curriculum the way the training is being done, we now have enough nurse tutors across the nation, so there’s no need for keeping those schools but I want to commend those in Ibadan for following the new requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and for doing what needed to be done on time.

“Also on the human resources for health, we want to have more people engaged in our health sector. We have a lot of young people in the country that we must give opportunity for them to work. One of the ways to do this is to increase the acceptance percentage of these schools.

“The acceptance percentage of UCH School of Nursing is very low compared to schools like Harvard which is among the best in the world. So we have to increase production. We also need more structures and equipment, and we will be working with other agencies of government to come up with how we can mobilize funds for that.”

While commending the Chief Medical Director of the UCH, Prof Jesse Otegbayo, and the members of the management board for the job they are doing, the Minister said the issue of power, and water provision among other infrastructural needs and amenities will see him engage the required authorities for solution urging the management not to however rule out the possibility of homegrown alternative solutions, especially in addressing the power challenge.

Read Also: Toyin Alausa: Why I love playing the role of protagonist

“With regards to your request for power, we will speak to the minister of power on whatever solution we can come up with to solve the power problems. But we had to also look into the future, there are some generators now that are using CNG, I will suggest the hospital look into that, and we can also look into polarisation.

“We now have solars that can power the whole hospital, so I think we should look into that and as we begin to mobilize more funding into healthcare, you have to begin to do your homework well, do your energy survey, trust me the President is so committed to the healthcare sector.

“On the water problem, I saw the memo you sent and I have been talking to the minister of water resources on the dredging you made mention of and I’m sure we will be able to do something about that”, he added.

Oyo begins rehabilitation of water pipelines.

Oyo begins rehabilitation of water pipelines.

The Oyo State Government said it has commenced a phase-by-phase rehabilitation of water pipelines across the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dotun Oyelade disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.

Ojelade, while quoting the Chairman of the Oyo State Water Corporation, Elias Adeojo, said that the rehabilitation was to ensure that there are “more treated water drawing points to cater for the yearnings of the Corporation’s customers and boost its revenue drive.”

On January 21, the Oyo State Government urged an international organisation, Water Aid, to provide it with grants to revive the state’s water sector.

Adeojo had stated further that the Water AID fund would be used for water sanitation, hygiene, and extension of water pipelines, adding that the grant is for projects located in African countries.

He had also stated that the fund would be used for water sanitation, hygiene, and extension of water pipelines, adding that the grant is for projects located in African countries.

The Water Corporation chair disclosed that the paucity of funds had necessitated the need to carry out the rehabilitation project in phases.

Adeojo added, “The Eleyele drawing point has been facelifted by adding more treated water drawing points to cater to the yearnings of the Corporation’s customers and boost its revenue drive.”

EKSG presents 2024 budget breakdown.

EKSG presents 2024 budget breakdown.

Ekiti State Government has presented the breakdown of the N159.6Billion 2024 Budget signed into law by Governor Biodun Oyebanji on 27th December, 2023 to the public. 

At a public presentation of the breakdown and analysis of the budget tagged “ Budget of Sustainable Growth and Development”, held at Jibowu hall, Governor’s office, Ado- Ekiti, the state’s Commissioner for Budget, Economic Planning and Performance Management, Mr Niyi Adebayo, who gave a breakdown of the budget estimates, said  the thrust of the fiscal document is to sustain the administration’s policy of shared prosperity through the six-pillar agenda of the government.

According to Adebayo, the 2024 budget with a total size of N159.6 billion, which stemmed from both the six-pillar agenda of the administration and the State’s 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), represents an increase of 10 percent over the 2023 Supplementary Budget of  N144.7 billion. He stated further that actual revenue and expenditure for 2023 were N139.9 billion and N137.2 billion respectively, representing a performance ratio of 97 and 95 percent respectively when compared to the 2023 budgeted figures. 

He also affirmed that the budget showcases the commitment of the Biodun Oyebanji administration to economic reforms necessary for creating opportunities towards achieving economic recovery. It also reveals government desires on improved sectorial allocations to boost the economy towards achieving the shared prosperity agenda of the administration by stimulating sustainable economic growth and development.

The Commissioner explained that the objectives of the budget included shared prosperity agenda of government; expansion of revenue base; creation of enabling environment for MSMEs; youth and women empowerment as well as instilling good governance, among others.

He added that the budget would help in building and enhancing the capacity of civil servants; cushion the effect of fuel subsidy on the populace; create employment opportunities; guarantee food security; assist the state in her quest to boost her achievement along key dimensions of human development and stimulate economic activities in the state.

He explained  that the budget was prepared against the backdrop of continuing global and national economic challenges. 

Speaking further, Adebayo pointed out that the  estimate for recurrent expenditure in the approved Budget stand at N89,952,583,682.41 representing 56 percent of the budget, while the capital expenditure of N69,388,898,233.20 represents 44 percent of the budget.

The Commissioner noted that the Budget would focus more on ongoing and new capital projects and programmes that would enhance the achievement of the six pillar agenda of government through infrastructure and industrial development; agriculture and rural development; youth development and job creation; human capital development; arts, culture and tourism and effective governance, all of which would help unlock the economic potential of the state.

He highlighted some capital projects that the 2024 budget would address to include road constructing in and around the capital city of Ado Ekiti and other towns of the state as well as the new ring road; agricultural development; public building projects including completing the construction of Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, renovation and landscaping of state Secretariat Complex, and electrification and extension of Independent Power Project to key facilities in the state.

Sectorially, the Commissioner noted that the budget showed that the Biodun Oyebanji administration is deliberately committed to the economic emancipation of the state by allocating increased budget to the social and economic sectors, which comprise education, health, youth and sports, culture and tourism, agriculture, works and infrastructure.

According to the breakdown, the  state government projected to earn N53.6 billion in federal allocation, N28.2 billion in Value Added Tax, N22.5 billion in Internally Generated Revenue and N50.3 billion in grants and other capital receipts, among others.

Present at the budget analysis presentation include the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Habibat Adubiaro, members of the state executive council, Permanent Secretaries, financial experts  and representatives of the media and the Civil Society Organizations.

Adelami sworn in as Ondo Deputy Governor.

Adelami sworn in as Ondo Deputy Governor.

A former Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly, Dr Olaide Adelami, has been sworn in as the Ondo State Deputy Governor.

Last Tuesday, Adelami was picked by the state governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa as the deputy governor after which his name was sent to the state House of Assembly for screening and ratification.

At a ceremony held at the International Culture and Event Centre, Akure on Thursday, the new deputy governor was sworn in by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Olusegun Odusola.

Speaking at the inauguration, Governor Aiyedatiwa urged the new deputy governor to play the game according to the rules while in office and to shun all acts of corrupt practices.

He said, “I like to congratulate you and your families on your well-deserved appointment in the belief that you will serve diligently and patriotically.

“You must bear in mind that this administration has zero tolerance for corruption. We expect you to demonstrate transparent, open, and accountable leadership in your new office. You must also avoid discrimination as you have the entire state as your constituency, rather than serving sectional interests.”

In his acceptance speech, Adelami, who commended the governor and other stakeholders for appointing him to the position, promised to join hands with the governor to move the state forward and sustain the legacy of Late former Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.

“To the good people of Ondo State, I’m here to join hands with Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa to serve you and ensure that lives are made more meaningful for you in all facets. I want to therefore appeal to all our people in Ondo State at home and abroad to kindly support Mr Governor and I in our sincere desire to entrench good governance in our Sunshine State.

“You will agree with me that within a month that Governor Aiyedatiwa had been in the saddle of governance in our dear state, a fresh lease of life has manifested across sectors of the state. Contractors working on various infrastructural developments in Ondo State are back to sites and they are more committed than ever before, because of the assurance of Mr Governor that he would not abandon any of the laudable projects of our former governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON.”