Osinbajo Hails Dangote’s Immense Contribution To Nigeria’s Economic Growth

October 11, 2017

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has acknowledged the contribution of the President/Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, to the economic growth of Nigeria.
He is particularly happy over the proactive steps Dangote had taken towards building the Nigerian economy.
The Vice President, who visited the Dangote Exhibition booth shortly after declaring open, the 23rd Nigerian Economic Summit, acknowledged that Aliko Dangote has made significant contributions to economic growth of the country through strategic investments in Cement production, agriculture, infrastructure development and the production of essential and value-adding products to meet the needs of Nigerians.
“Dangote’s strategic investment of $14Bn World-class Refinery and PetroChemical complex and Fertilizer plants is to create revenues and more opportunities and jobs for Nigerians on a massive scale.
Osinbajo indicated at the Summit, that the dynamics in crude oil prices coupled with production losses caused by militancy has led to the worst GDP growth in Nigeria over the years while the balance of trade is in decline with high importation eroding the value.
“As such, Dangote and other notable captains of industries, organisations, government officials and stakeholders are to elicit and adopt a solutions-based approach in addressing the problems of the economy as Federal Government and Nigerians are still optimistic that with the right decisions, the country has strong potential to emerge stronger, having recently exited the recession.
“To leverage the economic fundamentals, Nigeria’s economic programmes need to be balanced between the current and future needs of her citizens.
Participants are therefore expected to ascertain the progress made in sector opportunities since the last Summit and benchmark them on the thematic pillars of Nigerian content, exploring linkages between economic opportunities, productivity, skills and competencies and the right policy pipelines to deliver them, strategic investment options, impact of specific legislation and tangible actions and collaborative efforts to deepen economic inclusion across the country.”
Represented by vice president of Dangote Industries Limited, Sani Dangote and executive directors of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote is committing to Federal Government’s rapid short-term recovery interventions and its medium-term growth strategies targetted at significant diversification of the Nigerian Economy.
Federal Government had launched its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020 indicating its alignment with the policy trajectory, set at the 2016 Summit to create a consensus among Nigerians on the need to significantly increase level of productivity across all sectors,
and in ensuring that the dialogue between the private sector and policymakers go to the next level in delivering solutions and conducive environment to drive economic diversification in the country.

Health Minister Confirms Outbreak Of Yellow Fever In Kwara, Kogi, Other States

Greenbarge Reporters

October 11, 2017

Health minister, Professor Isaac Folosunso Adewale has confirmed the outbreak of yellow fever in some states in Nigeria even as he announced the immediate commencement of immunisation in the affected states to contain the spread.
The minister, who briefed news men today shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said: “there is also an ongoing outbreak of yellow fever which started in Kwara (state). So far, we have recorded four cases in Kwara, two in Kogi, two in Plateau, one in Abia and one in Edo states, making 10 cases in all.”
The minister said that the federal government had decided to start reactive campaign in Kwara and Kogi state, beginning from Friday 13th of this month.
“We have also decided to start a nationwide vaccination against yellow fever; we are going to bring that forward to December because of what is currently ongoing.
“We quite recognise the fact that we have a large number of Nigerians who are un- immune to yellow fever and so we want to do a nationwide vaccination against yellow fever.”
On the new outbreak of what he called ‘less topical but less deadly’ monkey pox which started in Bayelsa State, the minister said that so far, 33 suspected cases have been recorded from Bayelsa, Rivers, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom,Lagos, Ogun and Cross River States.
He said that many of the cases so reported do not fit into the classic prototype of monkey pox.
“Before the end of today or early tomorrow, we should be able to confirm exactly what we are dealing with: is it truly monkey pox? But what is obvious is that we have a disease that is close to the pox family.
“One of our scientist Professors, Christian Appeh is looking into it in the laboratory to confirm if it is truly monkeypox. We are also doing a double confirmation in Senegal because Senegal also has a public health lab that could make diagnosis. We are looking at the two and hopefully in the next 24 or 48 hours, we should be able to make a diagnosis as to what we have.
Professor Adewale called on Nigerians not to panic but that they should report all suspected cases to health facilities and to continue to maintain a high level of hygiene.
“Let us wash our hands, avoid contact with dead animals, clean our surroundings and as much as possible, health workers should maintain barrier nursing while managing people with suspected cases of monkey pox.”
The minister said that there are two types of monkey pox: “there is the central African type and the west African type. We suspect that if confirmed, we probably have the West African type which is milder because so far we have not recorded any death from monkey pox.”

[myad]

Retrieved Chibok School Girls Are Doing Very Well In University, Osinbajo Confirms

Greenbarge Reporters

October 11, 2017

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has confirmed that over 100 Chibok school girls, released from captivity by Boko Haram insurgents in Borno State are now doing very well in their academic work in a Nigerian university.
Professor Osinbajo made this known today, Wednesday when he received in audience, a delegation of girl child rights advocates from various schools in Abuja, who were led by officials from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Save the Children International and the UNFPA at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to mark the International Day of the Girl Child.
The Vice President said: “we are happy to report that they (the retrieved Chibok school girls) are all doing very well. They are very excited about the new opportunities that they have and they are starting their lives afresh with a great deal of enthusiasm.”
Osinbajo promised that the Muhammadu Buhari government is committed to securing the release of the remaining abducted Chibok girls.
The Vice President made it clear that the Federal Government is working hard to ensure that all the abducted Chibok girls are released and returned home safely to their parents.
“We have had the unfortunate experience of having over 200 Chibok girls that were abducted. Again, as you know, some of them have been rescued; they have returned and are back home. But there are still some who are still out there, who we are still hoping and working every day to bring back home.”
Prof Osinbajo wanted the civilised world to challenge men and women all over the world about the kidnapping of girl child anywhere, adding the government is advocating that this kind of conduct must be met with the greatest possible objection and force.
“It is very important for us that those girls are returned; anyone who has a friend or child or anyone among the girls recognises that girls are more vulnerable than men, especially when they have been abducted by men stronger and older than themselves, and held in captivity for so long.
“We shouldn’t accept it. We should condemn it for the cowardly and wrongful act that it is, and do our best to give succour to the ladies who have suffered this particular injustice.”[myad]

NNPC Boss Vows To Turn The Corporation’s Trading Company Around

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Maikanti Baru is said to have vowed to consolidate the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), especially its trading arm for efficiency and profitability.

Since assuming duty, Dr. Baru is believed to have secured about $2 billion discounts in the last one year from renegotiated upstream contracts being executed by its various service providers as well as focus on utilizing local content in the execution of the Corporation’s contracts.

It was learnt that despite attempt by the minister of state for petroleum resources Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to cause distraction, the NNPC boss is focused on delivering the mandate given to him by President Muhammad Buhari to reposition the petroleum sector.

The GMD is said to be making concerted efforts towards changing the fortunes of NNPC trading company; Duke Oil to a profitable venture, as well as other NNPC subsidiaries, such as Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC); Integrated Data Services Limited; and NNPC Retail company.

“The whole idea of Dr. Baru is to empower all these NNPC subsidiaries. He is of the view that if all these companies are empowered, NNPC will be able to make enough money for the Federal Government to build infrastructure for Nigerians,” an aide confirmed to Greenbarge Reporters.

it was fruther learnt that through the effort of the management of Duke Oil, under the leadership of Dr. Baru, the company was able to secure the release of over $30 million trapped in a Swiss Bank PNB Paribas, following suspicion of unidentified transactions in the past.

It was gathered also that the recovered money has since been deposited in Duke Oil’s account under the Treasury Single Account (TSA), withe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Statistics of trading activities made available to our correspondent, on Tuesday, showed that NNPC trading company engaged substantial number of both local and foreign companies in its trading activities in order to widen its reach and diversify its operations.

An industry source told Greenbarge Reporters that unlike in the past where Duke Oil as the NNPC Trading company was excluded from lifting crude oil, the NNPC boss acting on the directives of President Buhari “has paid considerable attention to the activities of Duke Oil as the trading arm of the NNPC. The Buhari administration’s policy of change in the NNPC, has succeeded in repositioning of the esrtwhile moribund company to one of profitability, excellence and value addition. It has made a giant stride in the trading of crude oil, export and import of petroleum products, receiving substantial amount of liftings. The records are there for all to see .”

Reacting to the allegation that Duke Oil was solely lifting NNPC crude oil allocations, the source in the GMD office said the that NNPC Trading company “is lifting just about 6.5 percent of national production. This figure is very negligible when compared to similar trading companies in other parts of the world.”

Citing the examples of Angola and Norway, the source said: “Sonangol Limited, the Angolan Oil Trading Company lifts about 1.7 million barrels per day of national production while Norwegian Oil Trading Company, StatOil lifts about 2.1 million barrels per day representing 100 and 90 per cent respectively.”

The source said: ”Duke Oil has launched NNPC into international oil trading business by actively participating in the business using best industry practices. On daily basis, Duke Oil aspires to improve its participation in the international trading frontiers.”

It was learnt that Duke Oil is supplying Pertamina (the Indonesian National Oil Company) under commercial arrangement, which helps improve the Nigeria/Indonesia bilateral relations while negotiation are ongoing for Duke Oil to supply Congo-Brazzaville with Nigerian crude under similar circumstances.

“The current administration of President Buhari has succeeded in reversing the gradual decline of the NNPC trading. The story of Duke Oil is one of success,” the industry source said. [myad]

2 Combatants In NNPC Contract Saga: Kachikwu, Baru Reconcile

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

The two combatants on the issue of contract award and the controversies it generated, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, have reconciled their differences and charted ways to building a stronger and more efficient petroleum industry.

The two giants have since last week Tuesday, been on each other’s neck, with the first salvo, in the form of a letter by Kachikwu to President Muhammadu Buhari accusing Baru of insubordination and corruption. Baru responded on Monday, by debunking Kachikwu’s allegations.

However, during the third plenary session of the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) today, Tuesday in Abuja, both men spoke of a stronger, more encompassing regulatory authority that would soon emerge in petroleum industry after the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.

Minister Kachikwu said that the government is still working to make the regulatory environment in the industry better, pointing out that by the time the National Assembly completes its work on the PIB, a much stronger, a much larger independent regulator would emerge.

“Whatever model of PIB that we are pushing, the point that Dr. Baru made is very, very key: to see an independent regulator with very enormous powers, with less of political interference so that individuals could do their work and also whittle down the powers of the minister, so that these institutions could work and work well.

“The reality is that no one will work as a minister forever. You are going to hand over that portfolio. We should be looking for the system surviving and able to work well. So, it’s something that we are working with the National Assembly very hard on and I think if you look at the issues that come up, there are a lot of emphases on that independence.”

He said that government would develop policies that would ensure the global decline in fossil energy does not take Nigeria unawares any more, adding that government was already thinking in that direction.

‎The minister, who was the moderator in the panel on energy, said the government was currently dealing with the fundamentals‎ of ensuring the refineries worked, while ensuring the availability of energy sources to meet the country’s day to day needs.‎ ‎

On the forthcoming marginal fields bidding round, Kachikwu said government was determined to ensure transparency in the process, to give the public all that they need to know about who gets what and able to monitor the progress.

‎‎He said these were some of the issues the Niger Delta communities, and indeed all Nigerians, were always inquiring about.

“The more transparent it is, the better for us. We are developing models to ensure better regulations geared towards transparency in the bidding process, and we would alert Mr. President as soon as we are done.”

‎Earlier, Baru, lamented that previous marginal field bidding rounds has not achieved the objectives the government set out to achieve, saying only nine out 14 of those who won the licenses were operational.

Describing this as “not good enough,” Baru said he was committed to work closely with the minister to address the concerns and constraints that hindered the remaining five companies from appropriately operating the marginal oil fields.” [myad]

Gov El-Rufai Sacks 21,780 Teachers Who Failed Primary 4 Exam, Shops For 25,000 Fresh Ones

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State has sacked 21,780 who failed primary four test administered to determine their competence, even as he shops for 25,000 fresh ones to replace the sacked ones. This, the governor said, is part of the plans to restore dignity and quality to education.

Governor el-Rufai, who spoke when he received a World Bank’s delegation in Kaduna, said: “we tested our 33,000 primary school teachers, we gave them primary four examinations and required they must get at least 75 percent but I am sad to announce that 66 percent of them failed to get the requirements.

“The hiring of teachers in the past was politicised and we intend to change that by bringing in young and qualified primary school teachers to restore the dignity of education in the state.”

The governor said that teachers would be redeployed across the state to balance the issue of teacher-pupil ratio, saying: “we have a challenge with the teacher-pupil ratio in the urban schools; there is concentration of teachers that are not needed.

“In some local government areas, it’s a teacher-pupil ratio of 1-9 while in some places it’s 1-100.”

Governor el-Rufai said that in a bid to improve the education sector, the school Directors decided to enrol their children in public schools starting from this academic session.

Earlier, the World Bank representative, Dr. Kunle Adekola, expressed appreciation to the state for investing in education and for the priority given to the girl child.

“This state has demonstrated and supported us to achieve our goals.”

Adekola said that the Bank would invest N30 million in Rigasa Primary School, which has a population of about 22,000 pupils, as part of its support for the state.

It was learnt that the Education Intervention Fund by the World Bank and other collaborative development partners, is rendering support to about 13 Northern states and a state from each of the other four geopolitical zones of the country.

Source: NAN[myad]

We’re Being Forced To Take Arms, Proscribed IPOB Declares

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

Members of IPOB during protest in Anambra

Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has made it clear that the federal government and five state governments in the Southeast are forcing it to take arms and fight, which it promised to do in the near future.

In a statement by the media and publicity secretary of the group, Emma Powerful said members of the group had remained calm despite what he called brazen provocation and attack against its leader and members by the Nigerian army, adding that soon the group would shed its non-violent stand and take to arms as it has been pushed beyond limit.

“It was the Nigerian government and her security operatives that brought violence into the Biafra agitation, not IPOB. Should IPOB decide to engage in armed struggle at a future date, the world must hold the government of Buhari, Igbo governors and Ohanaeze Ndigbo responsible.

“We always held peaceful rallies and protests all around major cities across Biafraland without any violent incident or objection from the masses, but they decided to tag us terrorists in order to justify the violent crackdown on innocent Biafran populations. Our happiness is that today the world can see that IPOB is innocent and have totally vindicated us.”

Emma Powerful referred to the governors and the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo as political contractors who he said are envious of IPOB’s popularity and the demonstrable feat it had achieved in the struggle.[myad]

I Agree That Action On Babachir, Oke Is Too Slow, Buhari Aide

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

“On the specific issue of the suspended secretary to the Federal Government and the Director of the National Intelligent Agency, I would agree that action has been much too slow.”
This was the position of the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, when he spoke on Channels Television programme: Politics Today.
Professor Sagay stressed that President Buhari ought to have taken an “immediate action” on the two of the high-profile corruption cases that came to light under his watch.
“There should be an immediate decision on this matter so that we can put it to rest and move on.”
Ayo Oke, the director-general of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Babachir David Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation, were suspended in April for their alleged complicit in separate corrupt practices.
A three-man committee comprising Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Babagana Monguno, national security adviser and Abubakar Malami, attorney-general and minister of Justice, was set up by Buhari to investigate the allegations against the two men.
Lawal was grilled by the Osinbajo-led three-man panel over the N220 million meant for welfare of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in North-East, while Oke was suspended over the discovery of large amounts of foreign and local currencies by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in a residential apartment at Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos, over which the NIA made a claim.
The committee’s report was submitted in August but the president is yet to take action on it.
Sagay, however, said he had no doubt that the government was committed to fighting corruption in accordance with its mandate and promises. The government, he said, “is fighting corruption with all its might and resources.” [myad]

Gov Ajimobi Wants Federal Government To Hand Over Ikere Dam To Oyo State

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

Ajimobi of Oyo — Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi

Oyo State governor has asked the federal government to hand over Ikere gorge dam, described as the fourth largest earth dam in the world, to the state government.
He said that in the alternative, the state government should be made to participate in the running of the dam through Public Private Programm (PPP).
Ajimobi, who spoke to newsmen shortly after a private audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, today, Tuesday, said that the state would stand a chance to benefit from all the deliverables from the dam.
“Similar thing was done in Dakin Kowa dam in Gombe state. The dam was given back to that state. So Ikere dam can be given back to us as we are willing to make it work because it can serve Ogun, Lagos and Oyo State. I think we can make it work.”
The Ikere earth dam is said to
stretch almost 50 kilometers. The dam has the potentials of multiple uses, including irrigation, water supply both industrial and domestic. The dam can provide opportunities for farming and energy generation with a reservoir of 690 million cubic metres.

[myad]

Our Python Dances Well In Southeast, Nigerian Army Commends Self

Greenbarge Reporters

October 10, 2017

The Nigerian Army has assessed the operations of Python Dance II in the Southeast and commended itself for a job well done.

The Corps Commander of the Nigerian Army Signals, Major General CT Olukoju who, together with the representative of the General Officer Commanding 6 Division Nigerian Army, Brigadier General MA Sanusi, visited Exercise EGWU EKE (Python Dance) 11 theatre of operations, commended the soldiers for their commitment and sacrifices to the nation.
He advised them to strictly adhere to the Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct given to them.
He also commended them for the successes recorded so far in the areas of averting farmers – herdsmen clash, cultism, armed robbery and recovery of arms and ammunition.
The Senior Officers also visited Sector 3, in 82 Division Garrison Area of Responsibility where they were received and briefed by the Commander Garrison, Brigadier General LA Adegboye on the activities of the sector in the exercise.
Thereafter the duo were conducted round field locations where sector 3 troops are deployed.
The areas visited include Enugu – Abakaliki, Enugu – Okigwe and Enugu Ogbulafor/Nsukka checkpoints. Others are the Forward Operating bases at Orji River and Oba axis in Enugu State.[myad]

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