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.