By Ella Anokam and Joan Nwagwu

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called for proactive measures to curb high rate of oil theft and pipeline vandalism to spur productions in Nigeria.

PENGASSAN President, Mr Festus Osifo, made the call on Wednesday, in Abuja at a news conference heralding its new Advocacy Programme with the theme Chasing Oil Thieves and Vandals out if Business.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the PENGASSANs Awareness Campaign Programme which aims at highlighting evils of oil theft and pipeline vandalism will hold Thursday, Sept. 8, in various zonal locations of the association nationwide.

Osifo, who urged the government to take immediate action on the criminality, threatened that after the associations advocacy if no traceable progress was seen, it would be forced to withdraw its workforce.

He expressed worry that Nigeria had been struggling to meet over 1.8 million barrels per day production quota of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) due to challenges occasioned by oil thefts and pipelines vandalism.

He decried the fact that due to this real time challenges a lot of oil companies were shutting productions and folding operations because they lacked sustenance and could not pay salaries.

Our members are loosing jobs in the service companies. Agip has literally shut down productions , Addax petroleum shut down its OML 124 completely, Total OML 58 has challenges and shut too, while SPDC was one of the worst hit as at today.

This is the first time in years the crude oil price is hitting the roof and risen astrometrically and crossing hundred dollars per barrel in the international market.

When you shut in a single barrel, you shut in a hundred dollars, when you shut in 10,000 barrels, you shut in 10,000 multiple by a hundred dollars, he said.

On this note, he said the association, had earlier engaged the government including, captains of industry, security chiefs and agencies whereby it proffered some solutions to curb the menace.

The president, while listing some recommendations the association proffered to government said it requested for consequent management and advocated sanctions to be put in place for officials in charge.

According to him, the association also advocated the use of latest technologies for pipeline surveillance and control room monitoring being evolved globally especially, in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and others that.

He said it also advocated that three per cent assigned for host communities to be increased to five per cent while local chiefs should be empowered to monitor the channels before intended proactive measures.

He said it equally advised that security chiefs should hold the security officers sent to the creeks in Niger Delta accountable and anyone that derailed or compromised should be punished or sent to prison as deterrent.

According to him, the engagement overtime has not yielded any fruit or results rather the menace continue to bedevil the country.

After the advocacy rally, our Central Working Committee will appraise the situation after one or two months, if there is no substantial or traceable progress made, the association may be forced to withdraw its workforce from productions.

Government must wake up, we want to see tangible evidence and results. The rhetorics must stop. This is the time to practicalise the talks, government must develop muscle to tackle the menace, he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola

Source: NAN News

By Naomi Sharang

A research finding by the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) has indicated that financial support for youth employment programmes in the country is inadequate.

A researcher on the PEPs project, Dr Iyabo Olanrele, made this known at a validation workshop on the Empirical Review of Youth Employment Policies in Nigeria organised by PEP and held in Abuja on Wednesday.

Olanrele while stating that it was a known fact that unemployment had remained a major issue in the country added that there was need for government to fund such projects.

According to her, funding of youth employment programmes is necessary to take the teeming unemployed youths away from the streets.

The issue of financial support is perceived to be inadequate. All hands must be in deck to curb this, she said.

Other challenges to the programmes she said included insecurity which had made it difficult to implement some of the youths employment programmes in a large scale.

Olanrele also said that as a way of response to these issues, government had initiated policies and programmes including the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme and N-Power to curb the issue of unemployment

She said, Enormous resources were expended to make sure they are implemented. However, it is not yet known how these programmes have worked because of lack of systematic attempts to review the programmes to determine if they are effective.

According to her, to improve effectiveness of youth employment programmes, the issue of sustainability is important.

Sustainability systems need to be created into the programmes to ensure continuity, she said.

In his remarks, Deputy Director Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr Michael Nwaogwu, described the youth as a very important group in Nigeria.

He said, They account for 46 per cent of the population but are unemployed.

According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), unemployment in Nigeria is as high as 33 per cent.

Unemployment among young people is even more serious. This situation could create a phenomena called demographic disaster.

He further said that efforts to address the ongoing insecurity must take into consideration the issues facing young people in the country.

Nwaogwu, however, said that the ministry had developed a new youth employment policy framework, Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (NIYEAP) to address the issue of unemployment.

Director of Labour in the Ministry of Labour and employment, Mrs Gloria Oghifo, called on other stakeholders to collaborate with the ministry to curb level of unemployment in the country.

She said government has a National Employment Policy aimed at addressing youth employment issues.

On his part, the Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig.-Gen. Muhammad Fadah, said that the corps was partnering the National Directorate for Employment (NDE) for the training of corps members in various skills.

Fadah who was represented by the Chief Agric Officer in the Corps, Mr Onarigu Abubakar, called on youths to engage in skills acquisition and entrepreneurial programmes to be self-employed after service.

Leader of the Nigerian Youth Parliament (NYP), North-west Caucus, Mr Aminu Usman, he called for the reorientation of youths to be actively engaged in meaningful ventures.

The youths in Nigeria are ready to be engaged and work for the country to see that the country develops.

Earlier, the Team Lead for the PEP project, Mr Sola Omoju said the vision of PEP was to bring together researchers and research institutions across the globe.

He said they are to build capacity and undertake research that provided contextualised solutions to key economic and social policy challenges in developing countries.

He added that Around the world, PEP had supported 314 research projects like this in 62 countries. In Nigeria, PEP has funded 22 projects.(NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Julius Toba-Jegede

Source: NAN News

By Stephen Adeleye

A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Connected Development, has advised women and youths in Kogi against selling their votes to the detriment of their future.

Amb. Hamzat Lawal, the Executive Director of the CSO, gave the advice when speaking with over 350 women at Upogoro/Odenku ward in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State.

Lawal, an International Election Monitor, advised the women to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and vote for credible candidates in 2023 elections.

He noted that the cash donation, distributed to the women, was to boost their petty trading as part of the efforts to improve the livelihoods of the people at the grassroots.

He explained that the empowerment was also part of the sensitisation of the grassroots against vote buying and selling.

According to him, the organisation was in the community to kick start a door-to-door, house-to-house and ward-to-ward sensitisation advocacy for the collection of PVC.

He described vote buying and selling as a great threat to the political development of Nigeria and urged the electorate to resist any attempt by money bags politicians to deceive them with items and money at the detriment of their future.

As a mobiliser working with grassroots, my simple message is that if politicians that are corrupt come to you to induce you with petty items, you should reject their offers.

Do not collect money rather vote on issues, listen to them and ask them salient questions about their ideas and what are their plans.

Vote for people you can hold accountable and people that can deliver dividend of democracy to improve your well being, Lawal advised.

Responding, the women leader, Mrs Bilkisu Ahmed, commended the organisation for the pre-campaign sensitisation and assured that women in the ward would heed to the advise of no selling of votes.

Also speaking, Mr Usman Abdulsalam, a youth leader, said they were impressed by the sensitisation.

He said that the meeting had opened their eyes to consequences of selling their votes, and assured that henceforth their votes will be based on capacity and antecedent of candidates. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Kamal Tayo Oropo/Isaac Aregbesola

Source: NAN News

By Stephen Adeleye

The Kogi Enterprise Development Agency (KEDA) on Wednesday, launched Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato (OFSP) programme toward boosting food production in the state.

KEDA Managing Director, Hajia Rekiyat Sanni, said during the launching of the OFSP that the training and empowerment programme for women and youths was organised in commemoration of the two years of operation of the agency.

Already more than 50,000 women and youths have been trained by the agency on various entrepreneurial schemes and programmes in the state.

Its our belief as an agency that the OFSP programme will go a long way not only to boost food production in Kogi and Nigeria, but will transform the lives of both women and youths.

The new variety of the potato will also help improve the peoples health and quality of life, giving its nutritional value to mankind, she said.

Sanni said that the vision of the agency was to enhance businesses of the people of Kogi, especially women in cooperative societies.

She said that the agency had been operating an open door policy.

She noted that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries of their programmes were women and urged beneficiaries to listen attentively to get all the value addition on the OFSP products and embrace it.

The State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who flagged-off the programme, congratulated the head and management of KEDA for the positive impacts they had recorded within two years of operation of the agency.

Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Dr Afolashade Ayoade, Bello urged the beneficiaries to take the training very seriously as it would increase their socioeconomic wellbeing, the state and the nation at large.

The governor assured the agency of governments support to all its empowerment programmes, especially as the 70 per cent beneficiaries were women.

He urged the beneficiaries to put up a new effort to ensure they achieved the best of the OFSP programme to set a new record for products exportation.

Let us not repeat the error of Cocoa and Palm tree. Let us set a new record of ensuring that the OFSP will be produced to the maximum not just for Kogi but Nigeria at large and for exportation.

Let our focus be toward large scale production and exportation of the fleshy sweet potato, Bello said.

In their goodwill messages, the State Commissioners for Agriculture, Commerce

By Bridget Ikyado

A legal practitioner, Mr Joe Abaagu, has cautioned youths in the country against electoral violence, saying anyone caught will go to jail for two years without option of fine.

Abaagu who is the Acting Chairman, Justice, Development and Peace Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said that the new Electoral Act has very strong provisions to tackle electoral violence, snatching of ballot boxes and destruction of election materials.

The current electoral act is very harsh on electoral violence.

For instance section 116 of the Act which deals with disorderly behaviour at political meetings punishes anybody who goes to disrupt a meeting with the punishment of either N500,000 as fine or 12 months imprisonment.

This is quite stiff compared with previous legislations.

Similarly, Section 125 of the Electoral Act also deals with disorderly conduct at elections and also punishes with the same amount of N500,000 or 12 months in prison.

Section 126 which deals with offenses on election day and especially Subsection 4 which deals with snatching or destroying electoral materials, punishes an offender with 24 months imprisonment without option of fine.

You will go straight to jail and your future will be destroyed, he added.

The legal practitioner, therefore, said the youths should not allow themselves to be used negatively by politicians during the 2023 elections.

He said they should rather demand from the politicians, details of how they intend to tackle the myriad of issues affecting the country.

My advice to the youths is to beware; politicians who love them will be finding solutions to their joblessness, their problems, seek permanent solutions to endless ASUU strike so that they can resume school and continue their education.

Politicians who love them would seek their quality education at all levels starting from the foundational levels all the way to the tertiary level.

Politicians who love them would be looking for things that will make them grow to be very useful and responsible citizens of the country, he added.

He, therefore, urged the youths not to waste their future on politicians who do not have anything valuable to add to their lives and the nation.

Abaagu said the youths should embrace the purpose of good governance and peaceful election.

You should demand from politicians to use their own children or their own wards as political thugs if they are in need of thuggery, rather than children who are poor in our society, the lawyer said.

To the politicians, Abaagu said they should campaign on issues affecting the country rather than try to exploit the nations fault lines for their selfish interests.

There are a lot of issues that we hope politicians will use in campaigning this time around.

There are issues of poverty, there are issues of our economy, there are issues of violence, there are issues of insecurity, there are so many things that the politicians can use in campaigning.

The citizens would welcome campaigns, based on issues, rather than hate speeches and campaign of calumny and derogation, and campaign seeking to divide the country on our fault lines of ethnicity, religion and the like, he said.

According to him, only politicians who lack issues to campaign on that go to these fault lines and begin to use them to malign the opponent.

This is where they bring in youth to fan embers of hatred, disunity and discord in the polity and making the youths become fawns for easy use on the chess board of politicians, Abaagu said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Maharazu Ahmed

Source: NAN News

By Deji Abdulwahab

The National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has called on the IBB International Golf and Country Club to patronise Made-in-Nigeria products in its tournament to celebrate 62Nigeria Independence Anniversary.

The Director-General of NCAC, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, gave the advice when the Chairman, Independence Planning Committee of the Club, Dr Banjo Obaleye, paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.

Runsewe pleaded with the committee to ensure that local materials were sewed for jackets for golfers who would participate in the tournament, adding that the committee should also focus on Nigerian cuisines.

According to him, this will not only promote arts and culture, but it will also enhance jobs creation and boost the economy.

Let me plead with you, because I dont know what your plans are. The jackets, if it is possible, we should use local materials.

Let me start by saying that Im happy that you are sewing the jackets in Nigeria so that our tailors will get jobs.

The materials, for instance, as you know me very well, I dont play golf with foreign materials. I use local materials to play golf.

I use to say that If there are over three million golf fans in Nigeria; if all of us should patronise our tailors, we will be adding value to them, NCAC boss said.

He said that the council would support the club in organising cultural exhibition to showcase the nations arts and crafts to the world.

For the exhibition, I want to assure you that we will take charge of the entire 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

At the corridor of IBB Golf, we will make sure that every state is being represented.

If we dont do that for you, others will take over the space and sell Nigeria from the wrong angle which will not be of our interest, Runsewe said.

According to him, what IBB International Golf and Country Club was doing was a story awakening us to our consciousness of unity of our country.

If Oct. 1comes and goes without doing anything, I want to tell you the danger, all those embassies will say what is wrong with our country.

But, if there are activities going on, the negative stories can be overcome with positive ones which will make a lot of difference.

So, for me, IBB Golf Club has made an impact in developing and making Nigeria to be seen in the right angle, he said.

Earlier, Obaleye, who is also Vice Captain of the club, said the visit was to seek the NCAC support for the independence tournament, aimed at developing sports and tourism in the country.

Independence tournament is the biggest event in the history or calendar of the club every year.

This year is not going to be an exception. We are going to start with rider cobbler match play between Nigerian community and International community and a winner of that tournament will have a trophy.

Again, the winner of the overall tournament will have a jacket and we will equally prepare a jacket for past winner, he said.

Obaleye said that the club was planning to have exhibition of arts and culture aimed at showcasing Nigerias heritage.

He added that Korean Embassy has indicated interest to participate in the cultural exhibition.

According to him, IBB International Golf and Country Club is a premier club in Abuja and the major focus is to develop sports and tourism in Nigeria.

It is also aimed at showing our cultures to a very big global community.

The club has numerous national teams that represent the expatriate and local community, he said. (NAN)

Edited by Remi Koleoso/Bashir Rabe Mani

Source: NAN News

By George Odok
The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) has handed over six completed erosion sites to the Cross River Government on behalf of the benefiting communities.

Dr Inyang Asibong, the Commissioner for International Development in Cross River, handed over the sites to Mr Timothy Akwaji, Head of Civil Service in the state on Wednesday in Calabar.

Asibong, also the Acting Project Coordinator of NEWMAP in the state, said NEWMAP was initiated to reduce vulnerability to soil erosion in targeted sub-catchment.

The completed sites that were handed over to the state government are Nyagasang, Ikot Anwatim, Ikot Ekpo, Atakpa, Lemna and Federal Agriculture.

The commissioner said that before NEWMAP intervention, the erosion had caused havoc and damage to the affected communities.

She said Cross River Government and NEWMAP sought to achieve sustainable land management by promoting innovative erosion techniques in view of the devastating effects of the erosion sites.

The project was not just launched into the sites, we carried out several stakeholders engagement with different groups comprising men, women and youths in a bid to make them part of the project implementation.

The project team identified project affected persons: these are persons affected in the course of carrying out civil intervention at the gully sites.

Compensation was paid then following survey of their property to enable them secure alternative accommodation.

The project provided succour to the community members whose sources of livelihood were also affected by training them on alternative sources of livelihood skills, she said.

Asibong said that grants were also provided for members of the affected communities to start some businesses such as poultry, fish farming, farming, tailoring and shoe making.

Having successfully completed work on the six sites, it is imperative for NEWMAP to handover the sites to the relevant stakeholders/end users for maintenance and sustainability, she said.

Speaking, the State Head of Civil Service, Akwaji, thanked the World Bank for providing the funds to the state government for the intervention.

He said that the release of the counterpart fund was also an indication of governments commitment towards ameliorating the plight of the people.

Awaji urged the benefiting community members to make good use of the projects by avoiding dumping of refuse along the drainage system and unnecessary excavation of soil.

Dr Francis Obo, who responded on behalf of the benefitting communities, thanked NEWMAP and the Cross River Government for the successful completion of the projects.(NAN)

Edited by Chidi Opara/Ismail Abdulaziz

Source: NAN News

By Muhyideen Jimoh

The All Nigerian Football Players Union (ANFPU), has called for better structure and sponsors for all tiers of football leagues in the country.

Abdul Sule, President of the Union told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the league remains the soul of football development in any country.

The ex -international who lamented the state of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), said in spite the abundance of talents, stressed the need to change the narrative.

There is need to urgently get sponsors for the league (NPFL), and how do you get sponsors? the League must have a proper structure.

The most important thing is the structure and the structure starts from the grassroots, we must have good facilities (pitches) and proper remuneration for our players and officials, he said.

He said the union would be working more closely with the clubs and League Management Company (LMC) to ensure better structure and welfare for players.

The former Stationery Stores FC player expressed optimism that once the right structures are put in place, the Nigerian league would be among the best in Africa.

The former Kogi United FC Chairman said, the Union had lined up series of workshops and seminars for former and active Nigerian footballers to enhance their capacity building and welfare.

He called on those looking for seats on the board of the next Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) board, to come up with policies that would fast-track the development of Nigerian football. (NAN)(www.nannnews.ng)

Edited by Jopseph Edeh

Source: NAN News

By Adeyemi Adeleye

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says about 21, 352 of 34,242 newly printed Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for new registrants are still uncollected in Lagos State, four months after release.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, disclosed this at the State Level CSO Engagement Visit organised by the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) powered by the EU-Support Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) in collaboration with INEC.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the engagement is: Womens Political Participation and Inclusion and 2023 General Elections.

Speaking, Agbaje, who decried the huge number of old and new PVCs lying fallow at INEC offices in the 20 local government areas, said the staggering amount of the PVCs belonged to women, being important stakeholders in elections.

Permanent Voter Card (PVC) is the sole instrument required from the Voter to participate in an election, it is an important eligibility instrument for voting without which no citizen would be allowed to partake in an election.

However, the total number of uncollected old PVCs in the state is 928,362 as at 5th Sept. 5, no doubt, the uncollected PVCs for women may be in the neighborhood of 436,451 (47 per cent).

Meanwhile, the total number of uncollected New PVCs is 21,352 out of 34,242 received PVCs, while the rest of the new PVCs for the 2021/22 registration exercise is being awaited.

The implication of this is that the commission is having a staggering number of PVCs that should be collected by the women and other eligible voters to enable them massively participate in the forthcoming 2033 general elections, Agbaje said.

According to him, it is imperative that women folk, particularly the Nigerian Women Trust Fund under the Gender Election Watch (GEW) and other stakeholders rise up to the challenge to ensure the PVCs are collected without further delay.

Agbaje, who expressed dissatisfaction over low number of women flag-bearers in the forthcoming general elections, said women needed support, encouragement and needed to be bold to fight like men to take leadership and political positions.

We have fewer women than men going for elective positions (in 2023). It is not too good, we have to continue to improve through this kind of engagement so that in future elections, we will have more women coming out for elective positions, he added.

The INEC boss urged stakeholders to mobilise women for PVCs collection and encourage them to vote in the 2023 general elections, saying that INEC had taken a number of measures aimed at ensuring the smooth conduct of the general elections.

Agbaje said that the just-concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) captured 12,298,944 out of which a total of 6,224,866 were female while male registrants were 6,074,078.

In her welcome remarks, Mrs Mufuliat Fijabi, the Chief of Executive Officer, NWTF, said the main objective of the engagement was to build synergy and cooperation between the group, INEC and other critical stakeholders like CSOs, religious and traditional leaders.

Fijabi said the engagement was to see how all stakeholders could work together to improve women political participation in the country.

There is need for more synergy in advocating for more women in leadership and political positions and the commitment to achieving this vision, Fijabi said.

On the overview of the project, Malliya Manu, the NWTF Programme Manager, said the EU was worried about the low participation of women in decision making processes in Nigeria, saying the project wanted to ensure increase in women representation.

Manu said that critical stakeholders like wives of governors, CSOs, religious and traditional leaders, INEC and others should step up games to bring in more women in politics.

According to her, average women participation in politics is 25 per cent globally, about 22 per cent in Africa and 4.8 per cent in Nigeria.

She said that Nigeria could not have a strong and balanced democracy because of marginalisation of women in politics, saying the just concluded political parties primaries had shown a decrease in women as flag-bearers.

Manu highlighted barriers against women to include lack of effective government will to implement international conventions, money politics and system of god-fatherism, exclusion of women in parties leadership positions as well as patronage-based political system.

Nigeria should be able to ensure 25 per cent of women representation in Africa. By 2027, we want to see more women being elected as candidates of political parties, she said.

Speaking, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, the Deputy Director, Gender Relations, Gender and Inclusivity Department, INEC, said the commission plans to enlighten stakeholders on the INEC gender policy, the objective of the policy and the implementation of the policy which is mandatory for the commission and other stakeholders in the electoral process.

Eta-Messi said that not much was achieved during the party primaries by women as many could not clinch tickets to contest the 2023 elections.

So, already, it is not very promising outlook with regard to women candidates. What we want to achieve now is to ensure and to see that many women turnout to vote.

Beyond 2023, we also hope that those lapses that were noticed for the 2023 general elections would have been bridged and all barriers would have been addressed and taken care of so that many more women will participate in the electoral space.

One of the stakeholders, Mrs Hilda Nwanekwu, Executive Director, Initiatives for Sustaining Gender Empowerment, stressed the need for more bonding among women to take over leadership and political positions.

Also, Dr Angela Daniel, Executive Director, Women Entrepreneur Association of Nigeria as well as STAGE for Women Development Initiative, decried that political parties had continued to refuse to admit women, urging stakeholders to give opportunity to women.

NAN reports that the event had in attendance, various women leaders advocating inclusion of women and People Living With Disabilities (PLWDs) in Nigeria. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Chioma Ugboma

Source: NAN News

By Muhammad Nasir Bashir

A 45-year-old housewife died while her husband sustained injuries in a building collapse in Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa.

Spokesman of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state, CSC Adamu Shehu confirmed the incident in Dutse on Tuesday.

Shehu said the incident occurred on Sunday at about 11:30 p.m., as a result of heavy downpour recorded in the area.

One Talatu Shehu, aged 45, a housewife at Auyakawa quarters in Gwaram LGA lost her life as the building in which she was sleeping together with her husband collapsed.

The incident occurred on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022 at about 11:30 p.m., following a downpour which led to the collapsed of the building while the couple were asleep, he said.

He said the husband, Malam Shehu NaAllah, 60, survived the incident and referred to hospital for medical attention, while his wife, Talatu died in the rubble.

The spokesman added that the remains of the deceased had been released to her family for burial after she was certified dead by a medical doctor.

According to him, the rain which lasted for many hours caused havoc destroying several mud houses in the area.

Shehu said the commands disaster management personnel had evacuated residents whose houses were on the brink of collapse. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by AbdulFatai Beki/Rabiu Sani-Ali

Source: NAN News