Abuja illegal parks operators under searchlight

Abuja illegal parks operators under searchlight …as FCTA begins revalidation of titles Okechukwu Jombo Worried by the activities of those it described as illegal operators of parks and those misusing open space in the Federal Capital Territory , the FCT administration has directed a revalidation and recertification of all existing parks and gardens in the nation’s capital. The move, according to the Chairman of a Committee set up to carry out the exercise, Barnabas Atiyaye was also informed by the need to provide adequate security for lives and properties in the FCT as most of the parks are being used for purposes other than they were designed for. He stated this in Abuja recently at a meeting with owners and operators of parks and gardens in the FCT during which he noted that the FCT administration was fed up of illegal operators of parks. His words: “It is revalidation of open space and parks in the FCT. Government wants to undertake the exercise because of the misuse of parks, and two, it has also been identified that there are some people who are operating illegally. The purpose is to identify those genuinely allocated parks in the FCT. We want to do away with those people that are operating parks illegally. By this, we therefore, eradicate illegal operators of parks. We also want to cross check whether these parks are used for the purposes they have been allocated and if they are not then there would be penalty for that”. He said after the verification, all plots discovered to have been converted to other use will be revoked. Atiyaye however said all genuine title holders will be issued a certification letter after the exercise while a comprehensive report of the exercise will be given to the FCTA for appropriate action. He added that the exercise is aimed at ensuring that all parks operators in the city adhere to stipulated guidelines on the operation of park in the city. The Chairman said all parks operators coming out for the exercise are to pay a non-refundable fee that will be based on the size of the plot for the verification exercise.

The need for more alternative roads from north to the south of Nigeria

The need for more alternative roads from north to the south of Nigeria By Okechukwu Jombo It is no longer news that the recent closure of the Abuja-Lokoja bypass has exposed the need for an alternative route to the north from the south or vis versa in the event of eventualities such as the current flooding has bestowed on the nation. It has also taught the country the lesson that it needs further routes connecting the north and south of the country in the event of war It has also brought to the fore the urgent need to embark on reconstructions of already existing routes such as the Lokoja-Abuja road,Makurdi-Enugu,Mokwa-Jebba-Illorin road so as to make them standard and not what they are now. Even at that we have been told the journey from Abuja to Enugu can be decreased by three hours if a bridge is constructed from Bagana in kogi to Guto in Nasarawa state.The contract for the construction of the bridge was said to have been awarded since 2009 We plead that the federal government should complete the abandoned Abuja-Keffi-Guto-Bagana-Anyigba-Ajaokuta Road would have been the best alternative instead of the much longer and much more expensive way of going through Makurdi in Benue State in order to get into the FCT. The potentials of this bridge were just about to be unleashed on not only the communities of Bagana and Guto, but also on the country at large, when it was savagely cut short, and to add some bit of bad luck, another report filtered in that a fresh bridge of the same magnitude was about to be constructed not too far away. We belief the impropriety of the construction of the Loko-Oweto Bridge at the expense of an ongoing Bagana-Guto is evident on all fronts. First, the cost of the bridge is a staggering N36 billion, as against N24.3billion for the Bagana-Guto bridge, of which more than N10 billion has been sunk, excluding professional expertise. Again, the span of the Loko-Oweto Bridge has been found to be many times more than that of Bagana-Guto. Besides, the location of the Loko-Oweto bridge, that is on the Benue state side of the River Benue, not only constitutes a great inconvenience to commuters, but utterly defeats the ideals of the proponents of an easier access to the Southern part of the country, in terms of precious time wasted. The Bagana-Guto bridge is the only link that would aptly pass as the much-desired “Handshake across the Niger”, in terms of convenience and cost, and the economic potentials inherent in the emergence of that bridge is one that the nation as a whole cannot afford to miss. We expressed regret that construction work at the project site had been abandoned since last three years. We therefore call on Federal Government to as a matter of urgency complete any of these alternative rotes while at the same time completing the work on the already existing ones.The Abuja- Lokoja route has been under construction for a long time and needs to be finished We discovered that work on these projects were abandoned for lack of funding and plead that Government should fund them so that they will be completed by the companies already handling the jobs at least before Christmas in other to alleviate the suffering of the people that will be travelling for the yuletide. The alternative routes such as Zungeru-Minna-Lambata-Suleja-Abuja or Jebba-Mokwa-Kutigi-Bida-Lapai-Lambata-Suleja-Abuja roads are in deplorable states and can not serve the purpose. Even Motorists driving from Lagos that are to divert to Okene-Ajaokuta-Ayangba-Ankpa-Makurdi Lafia-Akwanga-Abuja route are not finding it easy for the same reason. The story is the same for those from the South East who are using Otukpa-Makurdi route and those driving from Abuja to Lokoja using Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi-Ankpa-Okene route all are crying and therefore need help urgently We urge Government to repair these roads quickly while providing better alternatives

World food day-matters arrising October 16, 2012 – MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. USA – Established in 1981 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, World Food Day (October 16) provides an opportunity to highlight solutions to hunger and poverty and achievements in food security and agricultural development. This year’s theme, “Agricultural cooperatives: key to feeding the world,” recognizes the role cooperatives, producer organizations and other rural institutions play in improving food security around the world. IFDC recognizes World Food Day and is committed to continuing to build and improve agricultural linkages through the development of farmer/producer and agro-dealer groups. “Working with cooperatives allows IFDC to reach thousands of farmers in order to transfer information and technology,” said John Wendt, program leader for Natural Resource Management in East and Southern Africa. For example, IFDC’s CATALIST project worked with national, provincial and local governments and cooperatives in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa to provide information on integrated soil fertility management and best agricultural practices. Over 200,000 farmers in the region adopted IFDC-recommended technologies and agricultural practices. IFDC is now implementing CATALIST-2, which will continue to significantly improve food security in that same region. The project is expected to help 700,000 smallholder farmers increase their incomes by 50 percent; together, they are expected to produce an additional 1 million metric tons of marketable cereal equivalents over the course of the project. A similar project – CATALIST-Uganda – is increasing crop productivity and linking farmers to input and output markets by improving value chains, which link the numerous steps that a commodity takes from the farmer to the ultimate consumer. Across its projects, IFDC emphasizes linking smallholder farmers to markets and promoting trade to increase food availability and incomes. IFDC helps strengthen, organize and professionalize farmers, and supports growth in agro-input, processing and marketing industries that facilitate the expansion of the entire agribusiness complex. “We assist smallholder farmers to move from subsistence to commercial farming,” said Dr. Amit Roy, IFDC president and CEO. “In addition, IFDC is improving fertilization techniques and developing new, more efficient fertilizer products that increase crop yields while protecting and conserving natural resources.” For example, fertilizer deep placement (FDP) is a simple yet innovative technology that IFDC has been using in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh for over 30 years. When used on lowland rice, FDP involves the placement of 1-3 grams of fertilizer briquettes at a soil depth of 7-10 centimeters shortly after the rice is transplanted. FDP increases nitrogen use efficiency because most of the fertilizer’s nitrogen stays in the soil, close to the plant roots where it is absorbed more effectively. The benefits of the technology are significant – crop yield increases average 20 percent, nitrogen losses decrease approximately 40 percent and 35 percent less fertilizer is used. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by IFDC, the Accelerating Agriculture Productivity Improvement (AAPI) project in Bangladesh is expanding FDP technology to over a million hectares involving 2.5 million farmers. IFDC, headquartered in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA, is a public international organization, governed by an international board of directors with representation from developed and developing countries. The nonprofit Center, with over 700 employees involved in projects that span more than 35 countries in Africa and Eurasia, is supported by various bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, private foundations and national governments. IFDC focuses on increasing and sustaining food security and agricultural productivity in developing countries through the development and transfer of effective and environmentally sound crop nutrient technology and agribusiness expertise.

The Mubi Poly Students slaughter; matters arising

The sanctity of life in Nigeria is fast becoming a mirage as incidence of outright murder of innocent citizens is now a daily occurance.Its either people are cut down in there prime by insurgents such as Boko Haram or armed bandits. Even those in there houses are not left out. We have heard stories of airplanes falling from the sky and killing people right inside there homes.Bombings in churches and offices that claim huge numbers of death That is why the recent killing of over 42 students in Mubi Adamawa state should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet like others before it making it pertinent for Security agents to fish out the gunmen who invaded Mubi, Adamawa State, that night, killing about the students from three higher institutions in the state as a deterrent to others . May that was why their search for the killers led to a house-to-house search in Mubi during which an unspecified number of suspects were arrested. The state Police Commissioner, Mohammed Ibrahim, who confirmed the arrest , declined to give further details. The search began just as President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the security forces to intensify efforts to fish out the killers, widely believed to be Boko Haram insurgents, while Senate President David Mark called for capital punishment for the attackers. The gunmen who had attacked students of the Federal Polytechnic, Adamawa State University and the School of Health Technology, all in Mubi, were said to have gone from room to room in a building in the town on Monday and killed the people they found there with guns and machetes. However, the police were also said to be investigating whether the killings were as a result of a feud inside the college. Ibrahim said the police were still keeping an open mind on whether the killing spree was carried out by militants or rival students, but there were signs of an “inside job”. “Relatives of the slain students said the assailants called their names out before killing them. The majority were killed with gun shots or slaughtered like goats,” he added. One possibility was that the killings were related to a dispute between rival groups at the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, following a student union election on Sunday, Ibrahim said. “The second day after the election winners were declared, you have the killings ... Really we cannot rule out the possibility that the attack may have been carried out by either the Boko Haram or a gang,” he added. Jonathan, who was briefed about the incident, along with other cabinet members, by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i, at a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday in Abuja, condemned the attack. According to the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president, Dr. Reuben Abati, Jonathan described the killings as tragic, sad, barbaric and shocking. “The president has directed security agencies to investigate the matter and get to the root because this kind of incident, where people are called out and shot, is really shocking,” he said in a statement. Mark, while reacting to the attack, advocated capital punishment for the killers to serve as a deterrent to others. Mark, in his remarks while the Senate was considering a motion by Senator Bindowo Jibrilla, from Adamawa North Senatorial District, said the time has come for the country to test the capital punishment clause as enshrined in the statute books. Before observing a one-minute silence for the victims of the attack, the Senate urged the Federal Government to swiftly bring the perpetrators to book. Mark added that the need to provide security in the area had become expedient because of the swelling insecurity in the region. He said: “The security challenges before us in this country are grievous and we have to tackle them headlong. On the specific issue of this are the Mubi killings. “I think it is a pity that people will go from one room to the other calling names and slaughtering the people. It is totally unacceptable. Even if it is just attacking the symptoms now, those involved must be arrested and brought to book. “I know that this is a democracy and with due respect to all of us, but capital punishment is still in our statutes.” He said the time and opportunity had come for the country to apply the death clause in the statute books and use it as a deterrent to others. It will be recalled that at least 42 students were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Mubi, north-eastern Nigeria. The attack happened at a student hostel away from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi campus, A lecturer of the university said that more than 40 students were short . The reported killing came a few days after a major operation against the Boko Haram militant group in the town. The lecturer, who did not want his name to be used, said that the students were asked to say their names after lining up. He says it is not clear why some were killed and others spared - some of those killed were Muslims. "Everybody is scared and staying indoors now," he said. He added that students left left the town placing tree branches over their cars, which is a traditional sign of neutrality in Nigeria.

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Erosion and flood dares Nigeria

Erosion and flood dares Nigeria By Okechukwu Jombo For the up tempt time stories of the menace of all manners of erosion and flood, has continued to prevail in Nigeria with lives and properties lost at will even at times displacing families and relocating farmlands. Roads, markets and schools threatened, among others in most communities of the country. While the north is under the hammer of flood, the South east has continued to be terrorized by erosion.Just two days ago 26 communities in Anambra were cut off from civilization with the State Governor shouting for intervention from the federal government. In the Northern states such as Benue ,Adamawa ,Jigawa ,Niger ,Taraba,Plateau and many others have all lost substantial number of lives and property even with more warning from NEMA that more flood is on the way. Most times both the state and federal government are incapacitated by lack of funds to help the communities to fight the scourge leading to communities taking there fate into their own hand by resorting to self help. Each state has its own share of the scourge which is even more severe as the rain continues to hammer the region. The people of Nanka a rural community in Anambra state in concert with their State government and the World Bank, have risen in unity to confront gully erosion in the community, determined that no families would be submerged or wiped out in future by gully erosion. This is one of the aims of the Nanka 2012 convention planned for October this year. Officially, there are 18 erosion sites in Nanka which is the same story across the south east Even though many reputable personalities like former Central Bank Governor Dr Chukwuma Soludo and Former Nafdac Director general and former minister of information Dora Akunyeli and others all hail from that area help still couldn’t come from the federal government Other communities like , Amaokala, Aguly Nnobi, Njaba are not spared of the scourge too. A recent example is when the Anambra state commissioner for Environment, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna said that he has submitted a list of 62 erosion sites to Abuja that will cost Anambra state government more than N17bn. He went ahead to state that the 62 sites are “the critical ones”. Other non-critical include “550 very active erosion sites and 1, 000 erosion sites”. According to Okwenna “Last year, we did not receive any grant for ecological problem, what we did was that we used our internally generated revenue and part of the federation account to try to solve the problem Even at that the problem of erosion menace has not been solved in Anambra state and will not be solved but controlled and managed to the extent that erosion sites will no longer force people to abandon their homes and farm lands. Worthy of mention here for all genuinely concerned with the menace of erosion in South Eastern Nigeria in that the threat posed by the “non-critical” 550 very active and 1,000 erosion site identified by the commissioner far exceeds the present 62 critical sites that attention is being focused on. In the next fifteen to twenty years, these so called “non-critical” sites will develop into erosion monsters affecting human settlement, agricultural lands, thereby seriously hampering economic and social aspects of human existence in South Eastern Nigeria. There is a long history of erosion in the southeast part of Nigeria. In early May 2009, the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Investigation of Transport Sector said, after a visit to the southeast, that the state of roads in the region was "the worst in the country". That description confirmed what most people already knew. Chairperson of the committee, Heniken Lopobiri, said at the time that the "deplorable condition of erosion" in the southeast zone meant that previous federal governments did not regard road rehabilitation and reconstruction as priority projects in the southeast. He identified gully erosion and years of federal neglect as the main reasons for the poor state of roads in the southeast. In his capacity as chairperson of the southeast governors' forum, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State advanced reasons why soil erosion should be deemed a priority problem that deserves urgent attention by state and federal governments. Obi argued that the scope and destructive nature of soil erosion in the southeast zone underlined the need for the federal government to accord it the same level of priority as other problems in various parts of the country, such as deforestation and desertification, which the federal government is tackling in the north. Obi told journalists at the end of the meeting of the governors: "The entire South-East zone has been steadily and remorselessly ulcerated by landslides and gully erosion. This has created a problem so monumental that it is far beyond the initiatives and financial capabilities of the South-East zone to address. Whole communities have been buried in deep gullies, farmlands wiped out and roads truncated." He added: "It is a matter of deep regret that, over the years, successive Federal administrations looked the other way while the natural disaster of erosions wrought incalculable havoc on our section of the country. The same cannot be said of the northern parts of the country where concerted federal efforts are ranged against desert encroachment. Nor can it be said of the South-West where federal authorities are pitted in a continuing battle against the ravages of the Bar Beach in Lagos." Four years ago, it looked like help was near.When in October 2008 to be précis news filtered in that the southeast geopolitical zone of the country would receive more federal attention when it is declared a “disaster zone”. The news emerged following a meeting between the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states. Like most promises made by the federal government, there was a catch attached to the pledge. A committee would be set up to map the details of the funds required for the program, as well as the different ways the government could intervene. Assembling a committee has become the most effective way the federal government annihilates projects it doesn’t want to take off. Investigation reveal that the natural causes of the scourge include the type of the landscape like hilly, sloppy and sandy areas the nature of the soil, the nature of the rocks and the nature of surface and ground water. We also discovered that human elements also cause erosion, especially demographic factors such as human population, and factors such as deforestation and urbanization, industrial technological development, poor agricultural practices such as bush burning and the rush for modernization among local communities. People have asked to know why have we failed to effectively control this erosion menace that has been observed since the early 40s? Why have successive governments at all levels failed to give the issue the attention it deserves? The reasons for this is not far farfetched as one can see that its an endemic disease the whole country has been caught up with. The sickness of waiting until infrastructures dilapidates beyond manageable level and we then start seeking intervention, quoting huge contract sums and playing the blame game. The same old vicious circle has been played out over and over again in South Eastern Nigeria – waiting for grant from the ecological fund from the federal government. The commissioner is eagerly awaiting the passage of a bill that would see the emergence of a new agency to manage ecological funds by the National Assembly. He is hoping that the agency would now come out with criteria that would determine which state gets ecological fund. Nonsense. Every state is waiting for that easy money from the federal government under whatever guise or classification. Funds that end up not been accounted for.

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Poverty eats deeper in Nigeria amidst plenty

Poverty eats deeper in Nigeria amidst plenty Poverty in Nigeria is rising, with 112 million (60.9% of the 163 million population poor, despite 7.6 gross domestic product (GDP) growth recorded in Africa’s second largest economy in 2011, data from National Bureau of Statistics showed recently. The percentage of Nigerians living in abject poverty – those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing – rose to 60.9 percent in 2010.The bureau predicted this rising trend was likely to continue. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer but the sector has been tainted by accusations of corruption. According to the report, absolute poverty is measured by the number of people who can afford only the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing. The NBS, a government agency, said there was a paradox at the heart of Nigeria as the economy was going from strength to strength, mainly because of oil production - yet Nigerians were getting poorer. Despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year, although it declined between 1985 and 1992, and between 1996 and 2004.Statistic show that in 1980 about 17.1 million were living in poverty, while in 1985 34.7 million entered the poverty level , in 1992 it increased to 39.2 million Nigerians, while in 1996: 67.1 million it increased to 68.7million in 2004 and in 2010 went up to 112.47 million Nigerians Oil accounts for some 80% of Nigeria's state revenues but it has hardly any capacity to refine crude oil into fuel, which has to be imported. Last month, there was a nationwide strike when the government tried to remove the subsidy on fuel, angering many Nigerians who see it as the only benefit they received from the country's vast oil wealth. The NBS said that relative poverty was most apparent in the north of the country, with Sokoto state's poverty rate the highest at 86.4%. In the north-west and north-east of the country poverty rates were recorded at 77.7% and 76.3% respectively, compared to the south-west at 59.1%. The report also revealed that Nigerians consider themselves to be getting poorer. In 2010, 93.9% of respondents felt themselves to be poor compared to 75.5% six years earlier. Nigeria has been in stagnation and relative decline since 1981, from a per capita GDP of US$1,200 in 1981 to about US$300 in 2000. In 1992, 34.1 percent of the population was below the poverty line, according to the CIA World Factbook 2000 ; about 70 percent fell below that line in 2000, according to the World Bank. For many Nigerians the quality of life has declined rather than improved since independence 40 years ago. By contrast, the standard of living for a few privileged Nigerians—military officers and their civilian associates, corrupt politicians, and big contractors—has improved substantially. The average salaried worker cannot earn enough to support a family because of inflation and rises in food prices and transportation costs. The national minimum wage of N18,000 (about US$105.00) per month, adopted by the federal government but rejected by most of the states, falls far short of what is needed to cover housing, food, education, health care and transportation. The material condition of women, who comprise 50 percent of the population, is even worse than that of men because the welfare of women in general, including education, political participation, and workforce, had been neglected over the years until recently. The incidence of prostitution of Nigerian women within and outside the country has therefore increased. It is no wonder, given these prevailing conditions, that hypertension has become a major sickness among Nigerians since the 1980s. Housing and living facilities for the wealthy are very similar to those available to their counterparts in countries of the western world. Middle and lower-level income groups in the urban and rural areas live in individual houses or crowded flats (apartments). Rural dwellers live in cement or mud block houses with tin or thatched roofs, and have no running water for the most part. Water and electricity services in the major cities are erratic. Water supplies in many rural areas are infested with disease-carrying worms, while electricity services, under government auspices, are seldom available. We urge Government to wake up to it responsibilities and fight poverty headlong paying lip service through its many anti poverty agencies like NAPEP and its like is no longer working. They should provide Electricity, Housing, Hospitals, Schools for its teeming populace.

The IGs kick against the media over Boko Haram

When the inspector General of Police ,Muhammed Abubakar identified media coverage of the activities of the Boko haram sect as motivational factor for the group to see themselves as relevant and therefore passionately appealed to them to henceforth stop giving them such publicity he did not know that he has shot himself on the foot with his own gun because just as the police has the right to fight criminals and criminalities the media also have the right to constitutionally report to the public. We are also of the opinion that security organizations should stop putting there frustrations on the media whenever they fail in there duties as the media as long we can recall has never reported anything concerning the menace of the sect that the police didn’t know. Most times what the media repor are informations from press briefings organized by either the Joint Task Force,The State Security Services or the police. Instead of velifying them they should rather work hand in hand with the media whose only gain is to expose Boko Haram for what they stand for which is terrorism. No where in the world has the media blanked out on a serious issue such as terrorism which has taken so many lives. Apart from just reporting incidence such as when a bomb explodes or an attack on buildings carried out by the sect the media has the job of educating the public on what is going on and what to do so as not to be safe. Security organizations are not to choose for the media what they should report and what they shouldn’t report. Even though National security sometimes come to play it should not be an excuse to shot up the media. In the past issues that has little or nothing to do with National Security have been swept under the carpet .We should therefore be careful when determining what constitute national security. Does reporting a bomb blast that killed so many people constitute National Security? Dose also reporting a press statement by the sect that carried out the attack a breach to National Security. Will it be in whose interest that the blast was not reported or the perpetrated not exposed. Shouldn’t Nigerians know why they are been killed in there own country and how many of them have already died or don’t you think the press would be failing in its duty if it did not bring these information to the public glare. We think the inspector general of police owes the media accolades and not condemnation .Already many journalists have died trying to do what the constitution mandated them to do. The war against terrorism is not between the media and security organizations. It is with the sect and every security organization should concentrate on how to win it We are in the era of free press and any attempt to muscle the media will be resisted with every constitutional means necessary. That was why the National Assembly Passed the freedom in information Act.This is not to say that the media should not exercise restraint why reporting matters bothering on National security. They should. However they should not in restraining themselves censor news which would have informed or educated the people because it is there right to know and be informed. We are therefore calling on all concerned to exercise some degree of restrain why bearing in mind the right of the citizenry to know.