The Federal Executive Council has okayed the continuation of the Federal Capital Development Authority land-swap scheme which started under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, revealed this after Wednesday’s FEC meeting presided over by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), held at the First Lady’s conference room, presidential villa, Abuja.
According to him, the scheme valued at about N1 trillion under the previous administration was established to address the infrastructure deficit in the FCT by “swapping” parcels of land with private investors who would in turn set up basic infrastructure within the city.
He added that the Council okayed the resumption after he presented a memo on Wednesday.
However, the council will not proceed wholly with the previous arrangement as amendments have been made to the original form of the initiative, one of which is the establishment of a legal framework to protect all parties involved.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has disclosed it will honour four journalists with the 2021 International Press Freedom Awards.
It said the journalists from, Belarus, Guatemala, Mozambique, and Myanmar were stood by the people to confront violence, harassment with their reportage.
“In the midst of a battle over the control of information, these journalists are on the side of the people, covering events, informing communities, and ensuring accountability,” CPJ executive director, Joel Simon, said.
“They have paid a price, confronting violence, harassment, repression, and persecution but refusing to back down. We honor their commitment and sacrifice and look forward to celebrating their courage, alongside all those who stand firm for press freedom and independent journalism.”
According to a statement released by CPJ Monday, the awardees include Belarusian Katsiaryna Barysevich, a staff correspondent for the influential Belarusian news outlet Tut.by; Guatemalan Anastasia Mejía, a radio journalist based in Joyabaj; Mozambican Matías Guente, the executive editor of Canal de Moçambique, an independent weekly investigative newspaper, and its daily digital publication CanalMoz; and Burmese Aye Chan Naing, co-founder, chief editor, and executive director of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).
The journalists will be honoured on November 18, 2021, at CPJ’s annual awards ceremony, a gala that will be both virtual and in-person.
The event will be chaired by the president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker, and hosted by ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.
The awardees: Katsiaryna Barysevich (Belarus): Barysevich is a staff correspondent for the influential Belarusian news outlet Tut.by, where she covers legal and social issues. In 2020, Barysevich was reporting on pro-democracy protests in the country and published a story about a protester allegedly killed by law enforcement, contradicting authorities’ official statements. As a result, she spent six months behind bars and faced fines. Her colleagues at Tut.by continue to face detentions and harassment.
Anastasia Mejía (Guatemala): Mejía is a radio journalist based in Joyabaj, a town in the central Guatemalan departmen t of Quiché. She co-founded Xolabaj Radio and Xolabaj TV to cover issues of importance for the local community, particularly topics of concern to Indigenous women. In September 2020, police arrested Mejía on criminal charges connected to her coverage of local demonstrations, and she was held in pretrial detention for five weeks before being released on house arrest. Today, her journalistic work is severely restricted.
Matìas Guente (Mozambique): Guente is the executive editor of Canal de Moçambique, an independent weekly investigative newspaper, and its daily digital publication CanalMoz. Over the years, he has faced a myriad of threats for his hard-hitting reporting, including police interrogations, charges of violation of state secrecy and conspiracy against the state, and an attempted kidnapping in 2019. In 2020, unidentified individuals set the outlet’s offices ablaze.
Aye Chan Naing (Myanmar): Aye Chan Naing is co-founder, chief editor, and executive director of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), an independent broadcast media group in Myanmar. As a pioneer in Myanmar’s exile media movement starting in the 1990s, he led DVB’s transition from exile-based to in-country operations in 2012, despite continued harassment from the government.
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to be more effective in securing the lives and property of Nigerians.
Commenting on the widespread insecurity in the country, Wike accused Buhari of attempting to shift his constitutional powers of securing lives and property to governors.
The governor spoke at the commissioning of the 21-kilometre Odufor-Akpoku-Umuoye Road in Etche Local Government Area of the State on Tuesday.
Wike said the All Progressives Congress-led federal government has no idea of how to tackle the troubling security issues and make the country safe for Nigerians.
He enjoined the federal government to admit that it can no longer fulfill the promises it made to Nigerians, adding that admitting weakness publicly when there is failure makes a leader respectable.
“Mr President, you are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You appoint Inspector-General of Police, you appoint the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, the Commissioner of Police, Director of Department of State Service, and other heads of security.
“Which one do we appoint? How can people appointed by Mr President be under me?
“It is not only to borrow money for Nigeria that you’re in charge. You must also be in charge of other things including security. Who signed order 10? Is it the governors?
“Mr. President was short of calling names of those governors who run to Aso Rock when they are supposed to stay in their states to see the needs of their states and people. Mr. President should have come out openly and said, my APC governors, stop worrying me. Go back to your states and do your work. On that, I support him.
“Thank God, Mr. President knows that I am not one of those that go to visit him over one problem or the other. I, as the governor of Rivers under PDP, you’ll never find me there.”
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday announced the creation of additional 56, 872 polling units across the country.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners.
According to him, Nigeria now has a total of 176, 846 Polling Units from the initial 119, 973 following the conversion of voting points and voting points settlement to full-fledged Polling Units.
Yakubu said the commission had also removed 749 Polling Units from inappropriate facilities, with nine of them from shrines and several others from religious houses, royal palaces and private property.
“After wide-ranging consultations with stakeholders and fieldwork by our officials, the 56,872 voting points and voting point settlements were converted and added to the existing 119,974 Polling Units.
“Consequently, the commission is glad to report that 25 years since the current polling units were created in 1996, the hard nut is finally and successfully cracked after several unsuccessful attempts. Nigeria now has 176,846 full-fledged polling units,” he said.
Professor Yakubu stated that the history of creating and expanding polling units in Nigeria has been long and complex.
He explained that their adequacy and accessibility, in terms of number and location across the country, were some of the challenges that had to be addressed in the interest of credible elections.
The INEC boss said before 2010, the electoral umpire operated on a round figure of approximately 120,000 polling units.
He added that a census undertaken by the commission before the 2011 general elections arrived at the precise figure of 119,973 polling units.
Professor Yakubu disclosed that INEC has also made efforts to relocate many polling units from inappropriate places to public buildings accessible to voters, polling agents, observers, and the media during elections.
He listed some of the locations to include private residences and properties, palaces of traditional rulers, and places of worship.
The INEC Chairman attributed the establishment of voting points and voting point settlements across the states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to the several unsuccessful attempts to create additional polling units.
“The voting points were tied to the existing polling units and voting point settlements. The number of registered voters in a polling unit and the voting point settlement in the FCT, was used to determine their voting points, based on the upper and lower thresholds of 500 and 750 voters respectively,” he said.
Yakubu, also said on Wednesday that the election in Ekiti will hold on June 18, 2022, while that of Osun will hold on July 16, 2022.
“In keeping with our policy of announcing the dates of elections in advance to enable early and effective preparations by all concerned, the Commission has approved that the Ekiti State Governorship election will hold on Saturday, June 18, 2022, while the Osun State Governorship election will hold one month later on Saturday, July 16, 2022,” he said.
Professor Yakubu added, “Looking to the near future, the Commission is preparing to conduct the remaining off-season end of tenure elections ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“Already, activities listed in the timetable for the Anambra State Governorship election are being implemented. So too are those of the FCT Area Council election holding on February 12, 2022.”
He informed the meeting that the detailed Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the two governorship elections have been uploaded on the website and social media platforms of the electoral umpire.
The INEC boss, therefore, appealed to political parties and aspirants to ensure rancour-free primaries and conduct peaceful electioneering campaigns.
He stated that the history of creating and expanding polling units in Nigeria has been long and complex, noting that their adequacy and accessibility, in terms of number and location across the country, were some of the challenges that had to be addressed in the interest of credible elections.
Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri has disclosed his government’s readiness to to assent to a bill seeking to make compulsory the payment of fees for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and the National Examination Council by the state government for students in public schools.
This was stated by the Director Media and Communications, Government House, Yola, Solomon Kumangar, while speaking with PUNCH newspaper on Tuesday.
Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly that lawmakers had earlier revealed that the state legislature were preparing a bill backing the compulsory payment of WASSCE and NECO examination fees by the state government for students in public schools.
Reacting, Kumangar, said Fintiri would welcome the idea.
He said, “It is a good thing because it is a bill that will entrench the payment of WASSCE and NECO fees and make it mandatory for the state government to do. The governor will welcome it and assent to it.”
Kumangar noted that education remained the governor’s priority.
He said since assuming office in 2019, Fintiri resumed picking up the bill for students sitting WASSCE and NECO exams, as well as bursary scholarship for students of tertiary institutions studying within the country and overseas.
The House of Representatives has ordered the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, to disclose the whereabouts of the sum of $7.5million, being a part of the N37.5million recovered by the security agency in 2017 as proceeds of crimes.
The House panel also demanded for details on a N360 million recovered as bribery from 26 Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, officials who conducted the 2019 governorship election in Rivers State.
During an investigative hearing on Tuesday by an ad hoc Committee of the House investigating the assessment and status of all recovered loots, movable and immovable assets from 2002 to 2020 , the Police admitted to a lodgment of only $30million in a Central Bank of Nigeria account, from the total proceeds, but however, failed to account for the balance of $7.5million.
The Police Force, represented by the representative of the Inspector General of Police, DIG D. O. Ogbunike, could not explain to the panel, how a document submitted before the committee claimed that on March 10, 2017, separate amounts of N4.198million, N26,714,224.195 and N3.85billion were lodged by the Police, but did not reflect in any account at the CBN.
The lawmakers accused the police of a lack of recovery account to pay in proceeds of loots, with representative of the Accountant General corroborating same.
The lawmakers said the attitude of the Police “gives the impression that police just pays tithes from recoveries.’’
“ Does the Inspector General of Police give monthly returns on items recovered as proceeds from criminals? From our findings, the Police system is too opaque. The system makes stealing easy; it does.’’ The Chairman of the committe, Adejoro Adeogun asked.
We examine vaccine hesitancy among Catholics in Nigeria and why a proclamation from The Pope is not a strong enough influence for Nigerian Catholics to accept the vaccine.
It is 8am, worship time in Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, Trans Ekulu, Enugu, a city in Nigeria’s Southeast.
Inside the church and around the parish, people have their masks on and try to keep a physical distance from each other. But once outside, masks are off, and they abandon any semblance of adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols.
It’s the same experience in major cities in Nigeria. A look at that scene and you would be correct to think that Nigeria has finally achieved its goal of vaccinating 70% of its population in record time.
But in reality, Nigeria can only vaccinate about 2 million of its more than 200 million citizens.
Barely making a dent in their goal so far.
Why would anyone risk living as if coronavirus did not exist, you ask? Well, in Enugu, like in most of the country, people do not believe that the virus is real and those that do think it’s exaggerated by the government.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Enugu was on 28 March 2020. Six months later, it came to over 4000 cases and 90 deaths in the south-eastern region, according to the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC).
The Catholic church was not spared. They estimate that 115 priests lost their lives to COVID-19, according to Catholic news journals.
The church was not careless or in denial about the virus. She encouraged her members to observe safety precautions and quickly restricted physical services when it became necessary to do so.
Journalists who report on the Church in Nigeria said that they changed several rituals to fit the times. They suspended the shaking of hands and the sign of the cross, and even the manner of receiving holy communion changed. Instead of giving it to the congregation directly into the mouth, they gave it to the palm.
A survey conducted in September and October by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) found that one in five persons in Lagos, Enugu and Nasarawa had been infected with COVID-19.
Now, when you do a keyword search on Google, Bing and Yandex for reasons Catholics are hesitant about the COVID vaccine, its connection to aborted fetal cells pops up.
We began this investigation from there only to find that Catholics in Nigeria have their unique concerns, and it has nothing to do with fetal cells. Not immediately, at least.
To the Igbos of South Eastern Nigeria, Catholicism is as old as time. And this connection is not of the fervently religious, it’s a loyal one formed out of a shared tragedy. There’s a record of this by researchers in the Religious and Public Life, Harvard Divinity School. It says that in the 15th-century Portuguese explorers came to Nigeria bringing Catholicism, but it was an unsuccessful mission.
A few centuries later, it reappeared, this time successfully, in Lagos, in 1865 by priests of the Society of African Missions of Lyon, spreading throughout Nigeria to the 1950s when it created the first archdioceses of Kaduna, Lagos and Onitsha.
Today, they assign Nigerian priests all over the world.
The world’s largest Catholic seminary is the Bigard Memorial in Enugu State at 99 years old. Its 2019/2020 calendar registered 855 seminarians.
Bigard Memorial, Enugu.
The Catholic Church cared about the Nigerian- Biafran Civil war. Between 1967 – 1970, it took the news of the suffering out to the rest of the world, and in 1968 a Vatican mission visited Biafra.
Pope Paul VI spoke out on behalf of Biafran Igbos, personally. But when the war was over, the Nigerian government expelled about 500 missionaries who supported the Biafran Igbos from Nigeria – and no missionaries served in the country until the mid-1970s.
In Enugu town, the capital of Enugu State, many Catholics are skeptical about the vaccine, and some have already decided not to ever get vaccinated for COVID-19 when vaccines are available.
Father Matthew Adetiloye,a Salesian of Don Bosco and a chaplain for the Saint Don Bosco Youth Center tells us that people are not convinced about the deadliness of the virus. Also, there is not enough communication around the vaccines leaving many locals unaware or unconcerned about it.
On 31 December 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed its first vaccine for emergency use, the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. Since then, five other vaccines have joined the list, Moderna, Sinovac, Sinopharm Johnson & Johnson, and the Oxford-AstraZeneca (now called Vaxeria or Covid Shield). Almost all of these vaccines used fetal cell lines in different stages of production.
Bishops in the United States, Australia, Canada and South America opposed these vaccines publicly, asking Catholics to reject them. Catholic Doctors in Kenya would not even recommend them as it was against their beliefs.
Accounts on Twitter and Facebook claiming to be Catholic priests spread misinformation about these vaccines.
The most widespread claim among Catholics online was the false claim that these vaccines are created vaccines fetal tissue.
Then the Catholic Church made public her position on these vaccines. The Vatican pronounced it “morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.” Because of the pandemic, she said, “all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience knowing that the use of such vaccines does not mean formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive.”
Following the lead, Catholic Bishops Conferences in countries where disinformation around the vaccines was viral issued statements on their positions on these vaccines. Bishop Conferences in the United States,United Kingdom, Canada, and Kenya made public statements echoing the Vatican.
A clear contrast to their actions during the early months of the pandemic and lockdown. For instance, in April 2020, Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike relaxed the lockdown to allow for Easter Celebrations. The Bishop of Port-Harcourt dioceses rejected the order and asked Catholics to stay safe and stay home. During this same period, the Bishops Conference of Nigeria donated all 435 hospitals and clinics owned by the church for COVID-19 patients. These Bishops in their respective dioceses donated food and supplies to families who suffered most during the lockdown months.
All these make their silence rather saddening.
Some bishops have spoken positively of the vaccine and encouraged acceptance. The conference of Bishops itself has been silent.
Is their silence a lot louder now? Now that vaccines are available, yet all the economic and social conditions of the pandemic are worse to a considerable degree?
Their silence leaves room for speculation. Leaving Nigerian Catholics to find these answers in charismatic chat rooms on social media where they adopt mis- and disinformation about COVID-19 cures and vaccines as fact.
Using targeted keywords, we searched across social media. But with restrictions placed on Twitter by the Federal Government, we kept our search to Facebook groups and blogs. Members of Facebook groups like the Catholic Charismatic groups shared misinformation amongst themselves and false cures like rosaries soaked in water for getting rid of COVID-19.
Social media groups provide the same sense of community and belonging that physical social groups give. We like and share our views on any subject comfortably, even if they are false and controversial.
These groups were open, allowing anyone with a Facebook account to engage and distribute these false recommendations. Facebook and Twitter have strict rules on content sharing and will immediately remove any content classified as mis- or disinformation leaving only traces of this content for us to find. It is more likely that closed and encrypted spaces like WhatsApp groups would have a lot more COVID-19 misinformation, and it will be shared faster and quicker.
Have you found these in any groups you belong to?
We reached out to the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria and the Health Unit of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), for this investigation but I met with silence. On the CBCN website, there is a dedicated number for the health department. When someone eventually came to the phone, an impatient voice said he no longer worked there and hung up.
The Secretariat referred us to Father Peter Babangida, who never picked up or replied to our text.
For Catholics in other countries, their concern may be about fetal cells and if it is morally permissible to take these vaccines?
For Nigerian Catholics, it is more nuanced.
Is it safe?
Can we trust the government?
And will it cause infertility?
Some church members wouldn’t speak to us on record but they felt that The Pope probably endorsed the vaccine because the coronavirus cases are worse in Europe, but that has no bearing on their choice to not get vaccinated. Some others said they did not know where to get these vaccines.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency’s (NPHDCA) website shows an updated list of COVID-19 vaccination sites in all 36 states including the federal capital Abuja. And factual information on these vaccines can be found there.
The Vatican assures all Catholics that accepting COVID-19 vaccines does not compromise the Catholic faith but that is not enough to persuade many Nigerian Catholics to take these vaccines.
Contrary to what non-Catholics think, Catholics are not all the same; and they care about different issues.
The Nigerian Catholics prefer a more conservative church and are more opposed to gay marriage and female priesthood than their brethren in the west.
In this same way, they differ in their reasons for rejecting the COVID-19 vaccine.
For the western catholic the concern is ethical. Should a Catholic doctrinally opposed to abortion accept a vaccine even remotely connected to it? But the Nigerian Catholic asks, can I trust my insincere government not to harm me with these vaccines?
Perhaps, for the Nigerian Catholic, it’s not so much distrust for the ethics of COVID vaccines, but a distrust of the government.
FACT-CHECK:
The primary purpose of these vaccines is to prevent us from getting sick with the coronavirus, and the vaccines are very efficient at this. Also, there is now more evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can reduce transmission of the virus by reducing the number of people who get infected and reducing the virus levels in those who get infected.
It means that we can hope to live in a COVID-19 free world someday.
But, even the best vaccines are not absolute. Some people may end up catching the virus. GAVI, the vaccine alliance working to ensure a fair distribution of these vaccines to both the rich and poor, calls them the breakthrough cases.
It says that recent results show that Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines reduce the chance of passing on the virus by 40-60%.
So if they vaccinate you and you get the virus, you are less likely to get sick and only half as likely to pass it onto another person. You protect not only yourself but those around you.
The reason we need to wear masks and continue observing safety precautions after taking the vaccine is to protect our neighbours who may not have access to the vaccine and even those who will not take the vaccine. Wearing a mask after vaccination is not evidence that these vaccines are not effective.
Also, there is no evidence of these vaccines causing infertility, and there’s no record of any deaths by the AstraZeneca vaccine in Nigeria.
These claims are the same ones shared on social media which have now clearly made their way into real-life decision making. We conducted several domain analyses across websites that published COVID-19 mis- and disinformation. This process essentially mapped out the domains where a specific website both drew content from and sent users to.
Then we extracted anecdotal information on the percentage of site visits based on user location. It tells us where people who accessed this false information are. This shows us how many Nigerians had access to misinformation.
Vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis A, Rubella, and COVID-19 are all made by growing the viruses that cause these diseases in fetal cells.
Take chickenpox, for example, you may know someone who was infected with chickenpox at one time or the other, either as children or adults, maybe you were. Think of it this way, the reason the virus isn’t fatal today is that many of us, in our childhood, were vaccinated against it. It did not prevent us from having chickenpox, but it kept us alive and made it less fatal.
We were also too young to remember the side effects of the vaccine-like swelling, soreness, or redness at the site of the injection. Some may also develop a mild rash or a low-grade fever after vaccination and severe side effects are rare. That is the same experience with COVID-19 vaccines.
The Fetal Cells Lines/ Fetal Tissue Confusion:
Fetal cell lines grow in the lab and they’re NOT fetal tissues. They come from cells taken from elective abortions in the 1970s and 1980s. Those cells have since multiplied into many new cells over the four or five decades creating a fetal cell line. These current cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue. They do not contain any tissue from the fetus.
Vaccine production goes back to the 1800s when scientists only tested on animals. Animal testing is still one step in vaccine trials, but it is expensive. The animals are carefully monitored, and even then they may have other bacteria or viruses that could contaminate the vaccine in the end. Some pathogens just don’t grow well in animal cells, like the chickenpox virus.
Catholics, like many people, are conflicted about COVID vaccines. In March, Kenyan Bishops Conference released a statement encouraging Kenyans to take COVID vaccines, saying it was safe and effective and “ an act of love for our neighbor and part of our moral obligation for our common good”.
Yet, Kenyan Catholic doctors refused to recommend the vaccine to their patients.
It is possible that the silence of The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria is telling of the current insecurities in the country . Catholic priests are being abducted in the spate of kidnappings in the country and sometimes, killed.
Catholic bishops have not been silent on this. They speak out against the state of insecurity in Nigeria as the country deals with terrorists, insurgents, and career kidnappers. Maybe, the COVID-19 vaccination is no longer a priority for these bishops.
Yet, their silence leaves room for misinformation to spread among Catholics in Nigeria, increasing hesitancy and outright rejection of these vaccines which is a potentially dangerous outcome .
Throughout this investigation, we followed a simplified open-source intelligence (OSINT) process. In digital investigations, open-source intelligence is information shared in open sources. In terms of social media, it refers to anything you post publicly and in open groups. We identify, verify, preserve, analyse, assess and report on any content that contains mis- or disinformation within the context of Nigerian Catholic communities and unjustified apprehension toward the various COVID-19 vaccines.
Catholics are reverent of those guiding their faith, the hierarchy of the church, and the order it brings to their lives. The Pope, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
In this hierarchy, the Pope and Cardinals are far removed from the average Nigerian Catholic who looks to their bishops and priests as a direct line in their connection to God. When this is unattended, it allows for false information to determine their decisions. Silence from Nigerian Bishops Conference only impedes vaccination efforts.
The accruals to the three tiers of government from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), stabilised to N640.31 billion in February, 2021, after a major leap was recorded in January at N619.4 billion.
The NBS disclosed this on tuesday in its FAAC February 2021 disbursement Report, saying: “The amount disbursed comprised N482.96 billion from the Statutory Account and N157.35 billion from Valued Added Tax (VAT).”
According to the report, the federal government received a total of N227 billion from the N640.31 billion. This was four percent higher than N618.30 billion received in January. States received N177.17 billion, down by 0.6 percent when compared to N178.30 billion received in January.
Local Governments received N131.40 billion during the period, representing a 0.3 percent decline when compared with N131.78 billion received in January.
The report further stated: “The sum of N28.78 billion was shared among the oil producing states as 13 percent derivation fund.
“Revenue generating agencies such as Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) received N6.92 billion, N11.40 billion and N4.69 billion respectively as cost of revenue collections.
“Further breakdown of revenue allocation distribution to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) revealed that the sum of N120.83 billion was disbursed to the FGN consolidated revenue account; N3.89 billion shared as share of derivation and ecology; N1.95 billion as stabilization fund; N6.54 billion for the development of natural resources; and N5.31 billion to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja
The Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule said that his government is invoking the no-work-no-pay rule for striking civil servants in the state.
This was part of the resolutions taken at an emergency expanded security meeting, which was held at the Government House, Lafia the State Capital on Tuesday.
The emergency meeting was convened at the instance of Governor Abdullahi Sule, aimed at an amicable resolution of the plight of the striking workers.
According to the statement issued at the end of the meeting, signed by Barrister Mohammed Ubandoma Aliyu, Secretary to the Government of Nasarawa State, while government recognizes the right of workers in the state to embark on strike, it however enjoins the organized labor to carry out its activities within the confines of the law.
The state government expressed dismay over the action embarked upon by the organized labor, especially the indefinite strike action, as well as the picketing of offices, thereby depriving workers of gaining access to their offices.
The statement added that the government has directed permanent secretaries at the various ministries, departments, and agencies, to open attendance registers, to actualize the no-work-no-pay rule.
While also expressing its desire for continuous dialogue with the organized labor in the state, the statement went on to say that, the government has however directed security agencies to deploy its personnel to man all MDAs, to restore law and order.
The Nasarawa State government said it will also seek legal interpretation of the action embarked upon by the organized labor at the law courts.
Recall that Organised Labour in the state had begun an indefinite strike action from Tuesday, June 15, over the partial implementation of N30, 000 minimum wage and other welfare-related issues.
The strike was declared on Monday in Lafia after the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting of the labor movement in the state.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration on Tuesday said it would revoke undeveloped plots of land in serviced areas allocated to individuals and corporate organisations.
The Director, Information and Customer Service, AGIS/Lands, Muhammad Sule, disclosed this in a statement titled ‘FCTA to revoke undeveloped plots In Abuja.’
The statement read in part, “Equally, the administration will soon commence revocation of plots allocated to various developers under the Mass Housing Scheme but remains undeveloped since allocations were made.
“The director explained that this action has become necessary because the government has expended a huge sum of money in the provision of basic infrastructures in these areas and will not allow them to remain unutilised.
According to him, the administration has listed the developed and undeveloped plots including mass housing across the FCT and would soon revoke the undeveloped titles and reallocate them to “serious developers”.
He added that some of the plots in question have been allocated in the FCT for a long time for various purposes including private residential, commercial, as well as Mass Housing; with terms and conditions which some developers have failed to comply with.
He lamented that “some of these allocation papers have been kept in briefcases without considering the terms and/or Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Government.”
He complained that these developers have not only failed to develop these vast plots of land allocated to them, they have also denied access to affordable housing to thousands of residents who are eager to own houses within the FCT.
He said, “There is the need to remind all those with such allocations to do the needful because the FCTA had in the past allocated huge plots of land in various districts for mass housing projects across the territory. But sadly, some of these allottees are yet to develop them.
“Accordingly, the FCTA has carried out several sensitizations both in the print and electrotonic media for them to be responsive by developing the same in line with the terms of allocations, yet, some of the developers remained adamant.”
He urged all the allottees of mass housing plots in the FCT that have developed them to submit the names of their subscribers or beneficiaries to the AGIS and Land Administration Department for the necessary documentation and subsequent issuance of Rights of Occupancy and the Certificates of Occupancy that would be bankable.
The DG, however, commended a few of the Mass Housing Developers who have complied with the terms of agreement entered into with the authorities.
The World Bank has revealed that an estimated 7 million Nigerians were pushed below the poverty line in 2020.
This was contained in a press statement titled, ‘Critical reforms needed to reduce inflation and accelerate the recovery, says new World Bank report,’ issued by the World Bank’s Senior External Affairs Officer of Nigeria, Mansir Nasir.
The press statement was released in line with the latest World Bank Nigeria Development Update.
According to the report, surging inflation and rising prices were responsible for the poor economic statistics.
It however acknowledged that the Federal Government “took measures to protect the economy against a much deeper recession” but it was recommended that certain policies should be set for a strong recovery.”
The statement read, “The NDU, titled ‘Resilience through Reforms,’ notes that in 2020 the Nigerian economy experienced a shallower contraction of -1.8% than had been projected at the beginning of the pandemic (-3.2%). Although the economy started to grow again, prices are increasing rapidly, severely impacting Nigerian households.
“As of April 2021, the inflation rate was the highest in four years. Food prices accounted for over 60% of the total increase in inflation. Rising prices have pushed an estimated 7 million Nigerians below the poverty line in 2020 alone.”
Quoted in the statement, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, identified some of the challenges faced by the country and recommended a way forward.
“Nigeria faces interlinked challenges in relation to inflation, limited job opportunities, and insecurity.
”While the government has made efforts to reduce the effect of these by advancing long-delayed policy reforms, it is clear that these reforms will have to be sustained and deepened for Nigeria to realise its development potential,” Chaudhuri said.
Also quoted is the World Bank Lead Economist for Nigeria and co-author of the NDU, Marco Hernandez, who also gave a recommendation.
“Given the urgency to reduce inflation amidst the pandemic, a policy consensus and expedite reform implementation on exchange-rate management, monetary policy, trade policy, fiscal policy, and social protection would help save lives, protect livelihoods, and ensure a faster and sustained recovery,” Hernandez said.
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has formed an alliance with the Oduduwa Volunteer Force, OVF.
The alliance, according to the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Emma Powerful, carried out a joint training session of personnel.
Powerful, in a statement, said the command was formed to protect the Southeast and Southwest from marauding killer herders.
The statement reads: “Biafra and Oduduwa Volunteer Force for the liberation of Southern Nigeria.
“This is to put the Nigeria Government and her security agencies in Nigeria on notice that Biafra and Oduduwa has further strengthened their bond as one people, following the joint training of personnel from both sides.
“These joint volunteer forces will secure the territories of Southern Nigeria against ‘foreign Fulanis terrorists and any unwarranted aggression from any external force.”
The alliance also called for the demilitarization of the Southern part of the country because “we are now ready to defend our territories against aggression.”
“Today we have trained together, dined together and drank together. Should duty call for it, we shall die together in defense of the entire South. We shall defend our land together, this is historic day for both nations.”
Meanwhile, the embattled leader of the IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has taken to his social media handle to make known his solidarity.
“We trained together, we dined together, we drank together & should duty call, we shall serve together; and if necessary, we shall die together”- Solemn Declaration at the end of the 2nd Joint Training of Biafra & Oduduwa Volunteer Force #ThisIsNot1967 #WeMoveAsOne,” he tweeted.
