By Emmanuel Antswen

The Police Command in Benue, on Sunday, said that a middle-aged man, simply identified as Nicodemus, has set himself and his girlfriend ablaze in Makurdi.

The commands Spokesperson, DSP Catherine Anene, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Makurdi that Nicodemus died on the spot, while the girlfriend, also identified as Shiminenge, died later at the Benue State Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.

Anene explained that Nicodemus committed the act at his girlfriends residence on Inkipi Street, High-Level area of Makurdi on Saturday evening.

She said that an argument had ensued between them, adding, however, that the cause of the argument was unknown.

The police spokesperson, said that Nicodemus had locked himself and the lady in her room before setting the room ablaze.

According to an eyewitness, there was an argument between them which we are yet to find out.

We understand that Nicodemus, while coming to Shiminenges house, came along with fuel.

He used the fuel to set himself and the lady ablaze after locking the house from inside, the police spokesperson said.

A neighbour of Shiminenge told NAN correspondent that Nicodemus had abandoned his wife and kids for the lady and that trouble ensued when the lady told him of her plan to marry someone else.

Nicodemus was not happy with the lady over her decision to leave him for another man.

He had earlier abandoned his wife and kids for Shiminenge. So, he couldnt bear the disappointment, the neighbor, who preferred anonymity, said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila

By Bolaji Buhari

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has urged Nigerians not to relax in taking the necessary precautions against COVID-19.

Gbajabiamila made the call while speaking at the opening of a two-day training programme he organised for some health workers on Sunday in Lagis.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the training programme is Improving Patients Outcome Through Ethical Conduct And Professionalism.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic was still very much around and posed existential threats, urging Nigerians to continue to observe all the prescribed COVID-19 protocols.

Gbajabiamila, who described as a cheering news the recent announcement that a COVID-19 vaccine had been developed , called on Nigerians not stop observing the guidelines as the vaccine was not yet readily available.

We are all delighted and inspired by the news that a vaccine is at hand to bring the global nightmare to an end.

Yet ,we must recognise and continue to act in a way that we are still far from the time when the vaccine is perfect and is readily available all over the world, he said.

The speaker said the effects of the pandemic had been devastating to families, communities and countries.

He commended health workers all over the world for their efforts in fighting the disease and saving humanity.

Gbajabiamila said health workers in Nigeria also gave a good account of themselves in helping to fight the pandemic and curb its spread.

He urged government at all levels to make the training and retraining of health workers, as well as their welfare a priority to motivate them to deliver more.

The speaker said the House of Representatives was committed to increased budgetary allocation to the sector for better healthcare delivery.

Gbajabiamila explained that he organised the training to build the capacity of health workers and support the health sector in the state.

He called on stakeholders to always support the capacity development of health workers.

The Speaker commended the Lagos State Government for some of its interventions in the health sector.

He said to further support the government he would build a multi-storey hospital in Surulere and hand it over to the state government.

The Speaker, who represents Surulere in the House of Representatives, said he was passionate about the area and would continue to do his best to impact positively on the lives of the residents.

In his speech, Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, praised Gbajabiamila for the training programme, saying the gesture showed he was passionate about healthcare delivery in the state.

He said the state government was committed to improving healthcare delivery.

For us in Lagos, we will continue to see health delivery as an important pillar in our T.H.E.M.E agenda, he said.

Sanwo-olu said the state would continue to increase its yearly budget for health.

He said the government would continue to do its best to raise the bar on healthcare delivery.

Speaking, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, also commended Gbajabiamila for the programme, saying it would impact positively on the health sector.

He described training and retraining of health workers as essential to improving healthcare delivery.

Mamora said the Federal Government was committed to the training of health workers to boost sectoral capacity.

He said the theme of the training was apt as ethical conduct and the pursuit of professionalism in the health were key to improving patients wellbeing.

The minister urged health workers to continue to show empathy and commitment in the service of humanity. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Ayo Fayose, Former Governor of Ekiti state

By Emmanuel Oloniruha

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has congratulated a former Governor of Ekiti, Chief Ayodele Fayose, as he attained the age of 60 years.

The party, in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, described Fayose as a courageous statesman.

The PDP said that Fayose had over the years demonstrated an uncommon commitment and zeal towards the unity, stability and development Nigeria.

It added that the former governor had also demonstrated an uncommon commitment and zeal in fighting for the rights, liberty and welfare of the common man, pointing out that this was in line with the manifesto and ideals of the party.

Unarguably, Chief Fayose is a fearless and very forthright leader whose outspokenness for justice, equality and fairness is well known.

Indeed, Osokomoles (Fayoses) sense of duty, particularly during his tenure as Governor of Ekiti State, where his exceptional transparency, accessibility, humility in service and love for his people propelled him to deliver an unprecedented development of Ekiti State, the PDP said.

According to the party, Ekiti witnessed an unprecedented development in all spheres when Fayose was the helmsman.

The PDP prayed God to grant Fayose many more years to continue in his statesmanship and selfless service to Nigeria and humanity. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Women farmers in Nigeria

No fewer than 80 women agri-preneurs in Ekiti have benefited from a N1.6 million grant provided under the Federal Governments Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises grant, as part of its vision of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

Dr. Umar Radda, Director General, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria, (SMEDAN), restated the commitment of the present administration to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next four years.

Radda, who was speaking on Sunday at the closing ceremony of the training of participants of the SMEDANs Women in Self Employment Programme, (WISE-P) in Ado-Ekiti, said that the training was aimed at raising the capacity of the participants to enable them utilize the funds effectively.

The DG of SMEDAN, who was represented by the agencys Director of Agric-business Development and Extension, Dr Robert Owaiye, noted that globally, MSMEs are recognized as engines of socio-economic transformation, as they offered opportunities to drive jobs and wealth creation, as well as income re-distribution within the society.

The WISE-P training and empowerment component is one the instruments available to SMEDAN to meet its mandate.

The focus is on providing capacity building, (inclusive of entrepreneurship and vocational training) with associated empowerment grants to existing women agri-preneurs.

This will procure for them the required mind-set and financial enablement, as well as place their businesses on the needed sound footing for impact in terms of pride, profit and diversification.

This is part of President Buharis vision of raising 100 million persons out of poverty over the next four years, Radda said.

The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN), reports that the DG, who explained that beneficiaries had been grouped into seven cooperative societies, with a grant of N230,000 each, urged beneficiaries to use the money judiciously.

Also speaking, the Ekiti state Commissioner for Trade and Investments, Chief Muyiwa Olumilua,reiterated the commitment of the state governor Kayode Fayemi to partner with SMEDAN and other agencies, to raise the standards of living of the citizens.

Participants at the training, Mrs Ruth Oladoja and Mrs Omoyeni Palmer, who spoke separately with newsmen, assured of equitable distribution and judicious use of the grants in order to contribute their own quota to the development of the economy.

Present at the occasion were the representative of NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank in Ekiti, Mr Dele Ayobami, and the SMEDAN Manager in Ekiti. Mr Ayomide Ilesanmi. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

AfDB building

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and partners have agreed to strengthen their commitment to gender equality.

The agreement is on the theme: Development Banks as Actors for Change towards Gender Equality.

AfDB Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society, Vanessa Moungar, joined high-level representatives from global financial institutions and UN Women in signing a joint declaration on gender equality.

The declaration was one highlight of a Finance in Common Summit panel hosted virtually by the French Development Agency, Agence Franaise de Dveloppement (AFD), during the Paris Peace Forum on 12 November, the bank says.

Panel organizers said gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa million each year.

Moungar and other panelists addressed the critical role and impact of public-private development banks in achieving gender equality for inclusive economic growth.

She said to change the status quo, the AfDB is taking the lead in accelerating efforts to address gender inequality and drive inclusive economic transformation for women across Africa.

It is doing this through mainstreaming gender in its operations as well as targeted initiatives, all supported by evidence-backed policy dialogue.

If women can participate in the continents economic growth and transform their livelihoods, Africas economies will be transformed, she said.

Moungar said that the Bank is investing in empowering women entrepreneurs through it Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) programme.

It is designed to tackle the challenges women in business face, from access to finance and training to the lack of an enabling environment.

Meral Murathan, Executive Vice President of the Turkey-based investment and development bank, TSKB, said her organization is mainstreaming gender approach to increase impact at the grassroots level.

We believe development bank actors hold the key to drive the gender equality and equity agenda, she further added.

Seblewongel Deneke Negussie, Gender and Social Specialist at Green Climate Fund, told the audience that the organization only considers funding proposals that include consistent gender analysis.

GFC also considers, assessment, action plan, and gender-responsive policies in project design and implementation.

It also views women as key drivers to build back better, resilient communities

The meeting recognised that the COVID-19 pandemics impact on women had widened gender inequality around the world.

To address these and other pandemic-related challenges, the AfDB Group launched a billion COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) in April 2020.

It provides a fast, flexible and effective financing mechanism to help African governments and the private sector.

Representatives from The Green Climate Fund said the Funds gender action plan and funding policies for development banks had set a strong commitment to linking gender equality with climate change. (PANA/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Nurses

By Justina Auta

Dr Ramatu Shuaibu, Consultant Endocrinologist, National Hospital, Abuja (NHA) has called for improved funding and training of nurses to help in the management of diabetes and reduce death rates caused by the condition.

She made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on the occasion of the World Diabetes Day (WDD), which has The Nurse and Diabetes as the 2020 theme.

Annually celebrated on Nov. 14 to raise global awareness and promote the importance of taking coordinated actions to confront diabetes as a critical global health issue, WDD is also aimed at prevention, complications and care for people living with the condition.

The WHO website defines diabetes as a chronic, metabolic disease characterised by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which leads over time to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves.

The report also says about 422 million people worldwide live with diabetes, with majority of them in low-and middle-income countries, and 1.6 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year.

Shuaibu, who said that about 2.8 million Nigerian adults suffer from diabetes, added that a substantial percentage of the work force was affected.

According to her, the COVID-19 pandemic has also exposed people with the condition to higher risk and difficulties in accessing treatment.

She, therefore, urged persons living with diabetes to seek prompt medical attention and to abide by the rules and regulations of managing it so as to live a normal and complication-free life.

The consultant said that the choice of the 2020 theme, The Nurse and Diabetes, was apt and emphasised the crucial role nurses played in supporting people living with diabetes.

She added that nurses have an important role to play in the management of diabetes through education and counselling, which included medical nutrition therapy, foot care, self monitoring of blood glucose and how to manage hypoglycaemia.

There is the need for special skills to perform these roles. Educating patients makes a huge difference in their prognosis.

Nurses can be encouraged by stakeholders in diabetes management by identifying specific roles for them in managing patients.

She, therefore, urged government to implement diabetes prevention programmes, diabetes-centred education in health institutions and in public institutions to reduce deaths from the condition.

The endocrinologist also stressed the need for the National Health Insurance Scheme to include the management of diabetes into areas it cover, and encouraged other healthcare facilities to improve ontreatment to patients in hospitals.

Shuaibu also advised the public to adopt healthy lifestyle, exercise more, eat healthy foods in the right proportions, hydrate adequately and get a lot of sleep to prevent diabetes. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

FOMWAN

By Justina Auta

The Federation of Muslim Womens Association in Nigeria (FOMWAN) has urged women survivors of rape and other physical violence to speak out to reduce the impunity enjoyed by some perpetrators.

The National Leader (Amira) of the group, Dr Halima Jibril, made the call when members of the association, the Women Wing of Christian Association of Nigeria (WOWICAN), the Nigeria Girls Guide and the UNWomen paid a courtesy visit to the Sapeyi of Garki in the FCT.

Jibril said that the visit was part of the Risk Communication and Community Engagement Project (RCCE) supported by UNWomen and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs being implemented by FOMWAN, WOWICAN and Nigeria Girls Guide in 20 local government areas across 10 states of the federation.

She explained that 10,000 women would be empowered through a non-conditional cash transfer in response to the ravages of COVID-19, which had led to deaths, unemployment and increase in violence against women and girls.

The FOMWAN leader said there is a culture of silence, especially among women, particularly in the North. Women are afraid to say their daughters are raped because of the stigma attached to it.

There is also the fear that such a girl might not get a good man to marry her.

When you look at the issue of rape, you cannot quantify the level of damage done to the survivor and her family; the psychological trauma, the medical implication, the effect of the abuse and how it robs the survivor of her dignity as a woman.

Survivors must speak out to get redress and get the culprit handed over for legal procedure than to keep quite, because keeping quite may encourage the perpetrator to do more, believing that he can always go unpunished.

She, therefore, appealed to community leaders to promote adherence to COVID-19 guidelines, promote education, support women empowerment, while assuring that the strategies were to eliminate all forms of Gender Based Violence (GBV), support survivors and ensure prosecution of perpetrators according to the law.

She also called on the traditional rulers to explore structures and culture that protect women and girls againstGBV, as well as re-examine practices that do not promote the wellbeing and dignity of women.

Ms Comfort Lamptey, the UNWomen Country Representative to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said that the project would improve the economic wellbeing of women, particularly the vulnerable ones.

Lamptey, who was represented by the UNWomen Programme Officer, Mrs Patience Ekechukwu, reiterated the commitment of the UN system toward supporting governments to eliminate violence against women and girls.

The Sapeyi of Garki, Alhaji Usman Ngakupi, commended the efforts of government and development partners toward supporting and alleviating poverty through implementation of programmes that would improve the status of the people.

The traditional ruler appealed to the people to instill morals in their children and emphasised his councils commitment toward curbing the menace of GBV in the community, while ensuring that perpetrators would be dealt with according to the law.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the delegates had earlier visited the Gomo of Kuje and some association leaders to canvass for support in the execution of the war against GBV project. (NAN)

Source: NAN News

Court symbol

A Malian jihadist leader of the Katiba of Ansar dine du Sud, Souleymane Keita, and two other men, all accused of terrorism, were sentenced to death on Friday by the Bamako Court of Assizes, according to judicial source.

A dozen men were also sentenced to death in absentia.

They are accused of preaching jihad in southern Mali and on the border between Cte dIvoire and Burkina Faso.

During the trial, Keita acknowledged the facts and expressed no regret for his actions. I do not regret anything because our fight is against the secularism of the Malian state. If I have the possibility, I will start again, he said bluntly.

I am not a terrorist; I am leading the jihad at the border between Mali, Burkina Faso and Cte dIvoire, in the name of Ansar Dine, he said.

Concerning his links with his accomplices, Souleymane explained that he had approached them to mount large-scale operations.

His two accomplices, Boubacar Sawadogo, 51, and Moussa Maga, 33, belong to the branch of Ansar Dine in Burkina Faso, their country of origin, he explained.

Keita, in his 60s, was accused of having, since 2012, fought in Konna, in the region of Mopti, in central Mali, attacked and ransacked the military camp of Missni and the town of Fakola, in the region of Sikasso, southern Mali.

Fighting alongside the Tuareg jihadist Malian leader, Iyad Ag Ghaly, in northern Mali, at the very beginning of the independence and Islamist rebellions in 2012, Souleymane created, after the French military intervention in January 2013, his Katiba, which is financially supported by Ansar Dine in the South, his home area. (PANA/NAN)

Source: NAN News

COVID-19

Kenyan doctors have issued a three-week strike notice, accusing the government of failing to provide them with adequate protective gear in the fight against coronavirus.

Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) on Sunday said they will go on strike unless their plight is addressed.

The Union said over the last eight months, it has continuously engaged all relevant government ministries to no avail.

They engaged parastatals and council of governors, the legislature and followed all relevant channels in employment and labour relations in a bid to address the plight of frontline healthcare workers.

The union had put the industrial action off the table but now we have been forced to review our options, said Chibanzi Mwachonda, the unions Secretary-General.

He faulted the government for failing to address their plight, leading to the deaths of at least 30 medical workers, including 10 senior specialists.

Not even court orders would dampen their resolve to fight for their rights, Mwachonda said.

Coronavirus pandemic has claimed 20 more lives in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday, bringing to 139 the number virus fatalities this week.

It also pushed the number of those who have succumbed to the virus since March to 1,269.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said 972 people had tested positive raising cases reported since March to 70,245.

Our cumulative tests are now 789,952, the Cabinet Secretary said while announcing that he had convened a special meeting to discuss the surge in infections and fatalities. (PANA/NAN)

Source: NAN News

Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu

By EricJames Ochigbo

Rep. Toby Okechukwu, Deputy Minority Leader, House of Representatives, has urged the Federal Government to immediately reopen the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, for ease of transport during the forthcoming festive period.

Okechukwu, representing Aninri/Awgu/Oji River Federal Constituency in Enugu State also called on the government to reactivate the remaining air facilities to allow international flight operations.

According to him, this call becomes expedient ahead of the Yuletide when Nigerians will like to come home from every part of the world.

He said in a statement in Abuja that multiple stopovers would expose people to more risks than a direct flight to their destinations in a time of pandemic.

The lawmaker said there was no economic wisdom in keeping the airport shut from international operations after investing over N10 billion to upgrade it.

The Christmas and New Year are the periods when our international airports are most socially and economically relevant to both Nigerians at home and in Diaspora.

The opportunity cost of keeping these airports shut from international operations can be quite high.

It ranges from higher risk of contracting COVID-19 through multiple stopovers to the issues of more man-hours, security risks, and auto crashes associated with compelling more people than necessary to travel by roads, he said.

The lawmaker urged the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) and the Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), to take necessary steps to restore full international operations in such airports.

There is no peculiar health risks that should warrant the continued restriction of any international air facility from full operations at this time.

The PTF and Ministry of Aviation should, therefore, do all that is necessary to ensure that this is achieved so that Nigerians will not have to suffer unnecessarily.

Enough provisions has also been made in the budget; in any case, they can always approach the parliament, should they need more support, as we are always ready to assist, he said. (NAN)

Source: NAN News