Residents of Kaura Namoda and it’s environ in Zamfara State have cried out to Government for help as their community is threatened by flood.
The call for intervention in the area was made in statement by the spokesman of Kaura Namoda Empowerment and Development (KANEDEF), Abdulrazak Bello.
Bello in the statement appealed to all concerned authorities to do the needful to save lives and property of residents through enlightenment, counselling and directives, especially to those living around riverine areas.
According to Bello, the quantity of water overflow, the danger it posed to the area and the destruction to the community as witnessed by officials of KANEDEF who visited the River Gagare in the early hours of (Friday), calls for urgent action to salvage people of the town from danger.
in a chat, the officer in charge of Nigeria Merological Agency, Gusau Office, Muhammad Garba, told Radio Nigeria that the Agency had earlier issued flood warning to people of Maru, Gusau, Gummi, Shinkafi, Tsafe and Zurmi Local Government Areas including their neighboring towns which Kaura Namoda is among them.
To avoid impending danger to lives, Radio Nigeria reported further that Garba urged residents living in the riverine areas to vacate for their safety.
River Gagagare is said to be the major River that crossed the city of Kaura Namoda to the north.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, accompanied by aides during a tour of the State's Organic Farm in Badagry, Friday, August 7, 2020.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Friday visited Badagry, where he promised to revive a 279-hectare Avia-Igborosun Organic Farm, which was acquired by the state government in 2012 for commercial agricultural project.
He assured that his administration was ready to revive the abandoned farmland for the take-off of Lagos State Food Production Park project.
The governor disclosed that the state would be engaging private sector to secure an investment into the project, which, when completed, he said, would create thousands of direct jobs and improve the wellbeing of the residents.
“I have been fully briefed about this project but I considered it necessary to personally embark on this journey to Badagry in order to take assessment and see what exactly we need to do in terms of intervention.
“After taking a tour of the project site, what I observed is that the entire project looks more as a job that has not been completed. Therefore, we need to improve on the interventions to the Ministry of Agriculture.
“With very minimal resources, we have seen what the ministry has done to keep the project afloat. Government will raise the resources and turn around this project to the level it should be. We will need to deploy more resources to revive and scale up all the machinery and systems put already in place. We will complete the project and open it for commercial production,” he said.
The governor added that the revival of Badagry Organic Farm and creation of more food production parks across the state were part of the strategies designed by his administration to increase food security level from 20 per cent to 50 per cent, thereby raising Lagos’ food sufficiency.
He noted that the project would give rise to similar agro-allied businesses that would open up Badagry’s economy for more growth, while also boosting its tourism business.
Sanwo-Olu said: “Lagos is a big state in terms of population, but we also can intervene in our food production value chain. What we are also trying to do with the revival of the project is that, we want to produce various agricultural products we can consume internally in order to reduce our dependence on external food sources. The Food Production Park, which we are creating across the state, will be a trigger to other value-added agricultural production our citizens can provide.”
As part of the move to turn around the Organic Farm, Sanwo-Olu promised a total rehabilitation of Igborosun Road that leads to the farm.
Some of the agricultural projects to be developed for commercial production in the organic farm include fishing, poultry, piggery and agro-forestry, among others.
Sanwo-Olu also inspected a 105-bed Mother and Child Care (MCC) recently completed by the state government in the premises of Badagry General Hospital. The MCC would be commissioned in September, the governor assured.
During a tour of the hospital, Sanwo-Olu proposed an expansion of the Accident and Emergency Department. The project, he said, would take off in the next nine months.
The governor also stopped at Marina area of Badagry town, where the state government would be building a modern jetty. The project, Sanwo-Olu explained, was part of his administration’s blueprint to promote waterways transportation across the state.
A collage of All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, Bola Tinubu and Edo State Governor, also Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 19 Edo Gubernatorial Election, Godwin Obaseki
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Friday condemned Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, for resorting to the strong-arm tactics of dictators over crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.
Tinubu, in a terse statement titled: “In Defence of Constitutional Democracy,” which he personally signed, said: “The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern.
“Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators.
“First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly Building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words.
“As a pretext for his refusal to allow Edo State House of Assembly to function, Governor Obaseki’s actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the state’s budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons.
“Governor Obaseki’s governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigeria’s constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson.”
Tinubu added: “The legislative function is, perhaps, the most foundational obligation of any government. In the UK, the Parliament was famously said to be “that supreme and absolute power, which gives life and motion to the English government.” In most democratic systems, the legislature is the arm of government containing within itself the people’s representatives in government.
“As such, the legislative arm is critical. It is an important symbol of democratic governance. The voice, will and desires of the people are reposed in their elected representatives sent to the legislature to express and distill their amorphous will into the laws and codes by which the society has agreed to live.
“In the context of a constitutional democracy such as ours, the legislature’s authority stems, in effect, from the recognition that it is the authentic mouthpiece of the people, entrusted with the responsibility of representing their collective will and the power to interpret and mould it into the laws of the land. It is, in short, not to be toyed with as a plaything of an errant and ill-disciplined governor. Undermine the legislature and you imperil democracy and allow governance to descend into anarchy.
“Indeed, it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution. The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states. Indeed, the Constitution makes clear that a Governor’s role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his state’s legislature.”
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, alleged that Obaseki’s conduct in the past year was undoubtedly impeachable.
“In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above our nation’s constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment.
“These legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offense? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt.
“In his campaign for re-election, Governor Obaseki promises to represent and defend the interests of all the people of his state. Yet, so blinded is he by his personal ambition, he sees no irony in the fact that his actions have denied two-thirds of the people of his state their right to representation in the state’s only legislative chamber.
“Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time.
“The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one man’s ambition. Governor Obaseki’s woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the state’s democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired.”
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Friday directed the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to provide security for the 17 lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State.
Malami, in a letter dated August 5 based on a petition to his office by Idahosa-West Chambers, said the security measure has become necessary to prevent breakdown of law and order.
The 17 lawmakers, who are supporting APC governorship candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, have been locked in a battle to access Edo State House of Assembly complex on Ring Road, Benin against seven legislators loyal to Governor Godwin Obaseki.
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja assented to the Companies and Allied Matters Bill, 2020 recently passed by the National Assembly.
The President’s action on this important piece of legislation, therefore, repealed and replaced the extant Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, introducing after 30 years, several corporate legal innovations geared toward enhancing ease of doing business in the country.
Some of the innovations include:
“Filing fee reductions and other reforms to make it easier and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to register and reform their businesses in Nigeria;
“Allowing corporate promoters of companies to establish private companies with a single member or shareholder, and creating limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships to give investors and business people alternative forms of carrying out their business in an efficient and flexible way; Innovating processes and procedures to ease the operations of companies, such as introducing Statements of Compliance; replacing ‘authorised share capital’ with minimum share capital to reduce costs of incorporating companies; and providing for electronic filing, electronic share transfers, e-meetings as well as remote general meetings for private companies in response to the disruptions to close contact physical meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
“Requiring the disclosure of persons with significant control of companies in a register of beneficial owners to enhance corporate accountability and transparency; and
“Enhancing the minority shareholder protection and engagement; introducing enhanced business rescue reforms for insolvent companies; and permitting the merger of Incorporated Trustees for associations that share similar aims and objectives,” said Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
President Muhammadu Buhari presents APC flag to the party’s governorship candidate in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. The presentation was witnessed by Chairman, APC Caretaker Committee, Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe, Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano and Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi in State House on 6th Aug 2020
Credit: Femi Adesina
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday received the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and contestant in the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, Osagie Eze-Iyamu.
The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, made this known in a statement on his Facebook page.
Adesina in the statement stated that President Buhari officially presented the APC flag to Eze-Iyamu as it is traditionally done before the party’s candidates go into polls.
The Edo gubernatorial candidate was accompanied to the State House by the APC caretaker committee Chairman and Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni and Chairman of the APC National Campaign Council for Edo State Governorship Election, also Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
However, the former APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, who is also a former Edo State governor, was absence at the meeting.
While making comments after the meeting, the Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the APC, Mai Mala Buni said President Buhari was impressed with the performance of the candidate who emerged through a transparent process.
Eze-iyamu, however dismissed as untrue, report that four members-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly had met in his house on Thursday with the aim to impeach the Speaker of the House and elect new one.
The governorship candidate added that it is not true that President Buhari did not want to see him.
The Chairman of the APC National Campaign Council for Edo State Governorship Election and Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who also commented on the politics in Edo State, described Eze-Iyamu’s contender in the forthcoming election, Godwin Obaseki, as an incumbent Governor who had not only failed but remained a liability to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ganduje said: “I can assure you that Governor Obaseki is a liability to the PDP. I can assure you that we are contesting against a governor who failed woefully”.
According to the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, all APC governors are working to ensure victory for the party at the September 19 gubernatorial poll.
Bagudu describes as “laughable” suggestion that the party’s governors were not backing Pastor Ize-Iyamu, confirming that they were all involved in the campaign process.
Eze-Iyamu, had previously contested for the position of Governor in Edo State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and against incumbent Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who was a member of the APC until recently when he defected to join the PDP.
Governor Abiodun stated that the recommencement of the road was “in continuation of our drive to complete all projects abandoned by the immediate past administration.
“At the moment, engineers are working on the Afa River area, after comprehensive measures have been put in place to enable vehicles move with ease as work continues”, he said.
Emphasising the importance of the Agosasa-Odo Afa road to the entire road network in Ipokia Local Government Area and axis, Prince Abiodun said: “It is a major road that connects towns within the LGA.
“Its significance aside, taxpayers’ welfare is also of priority to this Government.”
Governor Abiodun however, pleaded with everyone affected by the development to be patient as work on the road is expected to temporarily alter daily activities in the area while engineers strive to complete the road.
File photo: President Buhari at the Council Chamber, State House, Abuja.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and state governments on enforcimg the use of face masks in public places across the country.
This was disclosed Thursday by the Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, at the daily briefing of PTF in Abuja.
In his review of the activities PTF, Mustapha, said the president ordered that the current phase of the National Response to COVID-19 should be maintained for another four weeks, but allowing some modifications.
Mustapha stated that: “President Buhari also asked the PTF to partner with states and local governments to improve community sensitisation and engagement to step up response to the COVID-19 response.
“He also encouraged state governments to collaborate with local government authorities to intensify necessary measures such as contact tracing, grassroots mobilisation and risk communication.
“He also ordered that collaboration with other mandate groups at federal/state levels to harmonise the country’s COVID-19 response be strengthened on the short, medium and long-term basis,” he said.
Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), warned against stigmatisation and skepticism among Nigerians in the fight against COVID-19.
“I wish to remind all Nigerians that this fight is for every one; everyone must take responsibility.
“Disbelief and skepticism will further complicate our situation; we should not stigmatise anyone infected. Our communities should own the response and educate our citizens,” he said.
A 2019 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance has disclosed that climate financing by seven of the world’s largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) now totalled $61.6 billion as at 2019, of which $41.5 billion (67 per cent) was in low- and middle-income economies.
The study expanded the scope of reporting for the first time to all countries with multilateral development bank operations, providing data on MDB climate finance commitments beyond those directed solely at developing and emerging economies, but with the focus remaining on low- and middle-income countries.
This year the report combined data from the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group), the World Bank Group (WBG) and – for the first time – the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), which joined the working group in October 2017.
In 2019, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) also joined MDB working groups, and its data was presented separately within the current report.
The 2019 report showed that $46.6 billion, or 76 per cent of total financing for the year, was devoted to climate change mitigation investments that aim to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming. Of this, 59 per cent went to low- and middle-income economies.
The remaining $15 billion, or 24 per cent, was invested in adaptation efforts to help countries build resilience to the mounting impacts of climate change, including worsening droughts, extreme flooding and rising sea levels. Ninety-three percent of this finance was directed at low- and middle-income economies.
Additional climate funds channelled through MDBs, such as the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Trust Fund, the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), the European Union’s funds for Climate Action, and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which play an important role in boosting MDB climate financing.
In 2019, MDBs reported a further $102.7 billion in net climate co-finance – investments from the public and private sector – taking the total of climate activity financed in the year to $164.3 billion.
MDBs have reported on climate finance since 2011, based on a jointly developed methodology for climate finance tracking.
The 2019 edition of the Joint Report on MDBs’ Climate Finance was published in the midst of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has caused significant social and economic disruption, temporarily reducing global carbon emissions to 2006 levels.
Speaking on this development, the Director of Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, Anthony Nyong, noted: “Our investments that contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement continue to grow. The climate finance provided by the bank increased from $3.2 in 2018 to $3.5 billion in 2019 – representing 35 per cent of total project approvals worth $10.2 billion.”
The largest climate finance investments were made in the energy, agriculture and transport sectors.
Importantly, the bank exceeded its target of achieving parity between adaptation and mitigation finance by allocating 55 per cent of its climate finance resources to adaptation and 45 per cent to mitigation, whereas globally more than 70 per cent of climate finance is allocated to mitigation. More global efforts are needed to build climate change resilience and adaptation in Africa.
“As African economies face the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, slacking action or redirecting financial resources from climate change will further compound these impacts in a diverse and complex manner,” Nyong said.
Spokesman, People's Democratic Party (PDP), Kola Ologbodiyan
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the reviewed broadcast code being foisted by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government, describing it as another draconian measure to muzzle the media and suppress free speech in Nigeria.
The party alleged that APC and its government “adopted the reviewed code with its N5 million fine to intimidate the media and gag whistle blowers from further exposing the humongous corruption, abuse of office, violation of human rights as well as officials’ betrayal of trust and abuse of office in the Muhammadu Buhari administration.”
The opposition party further alleged that “the code is also a grand plot to suppress and muzzle Nigerians and the media from publicly opposing plots by the APC to mortgage the sovereignty of our dear nation to foreign interests as being witnessed in the anti-Nigeria clauses in the loan agreements with China.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had Tuesday unveiled the reviewed Nigeria Broadcasting Code which contains the antitrust provision aimed at boosting local content and encouraging the growth of the local industry, among other provisions.
In his remarks at the unveiling ceremony organised by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in Lagos, the minister said the antitrust provision would boost local content and local industry due to laws prohibiting exclusive use of rights by broadcasters who intend to create monopolies and hold the entire market to themselves.
He added that the antitrust provision would also encourage open access to premium content.
”I must explain that this provision is not new to Nigeria Broadcasting. Exclusivity was disallowed at a certain time in the history of our broadcasting. I recall Multichoice sub-licensing EPL matches to other local operators in Nigeria. I recall HITV engaging several local operators on sub-licensing the EPL when they got the rights,” Mohammed said.
He explained that the revised code contains the law prohibiting backlog of advertising debts in order to promote sustainability for the station
owners and producers of content, as well as the law on registration of Web Broadcasting, which would grant the country the opportunity to regulate negative foreign broadcasts that could harm the nation.
“The provisions on responsibility of broadcast stations to devote airtime to national emergencies…obviously mandates terrestrial and Pay TV channels to make their services available to Nigerians at time of national emergencies – like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – for their education and enlightenment,” the minister noted.
He said the amended code also includes the provision raising the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to 5 million.
Mohammed clarified that the amendments were necessitated by a
Presidential directive, in the wake of the 2019 general elections, for an inquiry into the regulatory role of the NBC with a view to repositioning the regulator for optimum performance.
He said despite the attacks by some vested interests, who believed that their singular business interest was superior to national interest, over the provisions of the amended code, the Federal Government remained unperturbed,
“But, as it currently stands, the 6th edition and the amendments, which we are unveiling today, remain the regulations for broadcasting in Nigeria. Our intention remains the good of the country. We need to catalyse the growth of the local industry. We need to create jobs for our teeming creative youths. The opportunities must be created and we believe that effective regulatory interventions are a sure way of
attaining this. That’s why we will not waver,” the minister said.
But, PDP, in a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “The APC has been jittery over the stench of monumental corruption oozing out from its government as well as its anti-Nigeria activities, and now seeks to suppress public opinion and media reportage of their atrocities against our nation.”
PDP tasked Nigerians to note the alleged “APC administration rushed to review the broadcast codes and introduced draconian clauses at the height of public revelations and media reportage of its corruption and plots to mortgage our nation’s sovereignty to China.”
“The reviewed broadcast code therefore validates the stance by Nigerians that covering of corruption and the scheme to mortgage the sovereignty of our nation are official policies of the APC which has not denied that it is the headquarters of corruption.
“Our party however, wishes to inform the APC and its administration that the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and other laws guiding media practice, which guarantees a free press and freedom of opinion by Nigerians are clear and that no matter how much the truth is suppressed, it must always come to light.
“Moreover, the APC must know that we are in a democracy and that Nigerians cannot be suppressed from exercising their rights of speaking out in the face of injustice, corruption, abuse of trust in the APC administration, which President Buhari had also admitted,” PDP alleged.
The party charged Buhari “to direct the Ministry of Information and Culture to retrace its steps and stop all acts that further acerbate the ugly situation in our country under the APC corrupt and anti-people administration.”
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