Yobe State governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, on Thursday presented an appropriation bill of N69.4 billion to the State House of Assembly for 2017 fiscal year.
The figure represents a fall of N19.5 billion or 22 percent over the 2016 budget which was N88.9 billion.
This shortfall, according to the governor, was as a result of “economic recession occasioned by the fall in price of oil and consequent need to ensure budget realism for attainment of optimum result in the implementation of planned programmes.”
The governor said that the 2017 budget was tagged “Budget of Consolidation and Self-Reliance,” and promised that his administration will involve every citizen of the state, development partners and other stakeholders in decision making towards realization of the administration’s developmental objectives.
He promised that his administration will place emphasis on due process, probity, accountability and transparency, adding that this is to lay “solid foundation for full participation of the private sector in accelerating the pace of the state’s economic growth by taking further proactive steps towards job creation as avenue to reduce poverty and unemployment in the state.”
The governor also promised to formulate “proactive and radical steps” towards increasing the IGR of the state for the attainment of economic self-reliance.
Gaidam revealed that the revenue stream for the budget include nternally generated revenue (N3.8 billion), statutory allocation (N35.4 billion), VAT (N7.4 billion), ecological fund (N2 billion), excess crude oil (N2.5 billion), grants (N3.5 billion), external loans (N490 million) and internal loans (N12.4 billion).
The breakdown showed that the economic sector has a total expenditure of N29 billion; law, peace, justice and security sector have N1.7 billion, social sector has N26.7 billion, and governance sector has N11 billion.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday named a new National Publicity Secretary when the North Central Zone of the party unanimously elected former Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, as the spokesperson of the party.
However, the suspended Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Timi Frank, said he remains the Acting National Publicity Secretary of the party pending the outcome of the case he instituted against the party.
The suit, which was filed before an Abuja High Court, will be heard on December 5.
Abdullahi, from Kwara state, is expected to replace Lai Mohammed who vacated the seat about one year ago when he was appointed Minister of Information by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Others elected along with Abdullahi are Mohammed Zakari who was elected Deputy National Treasurer, while Zakari Mohammed and Abdul Magun Ibrahim were elected to fill the vacant positions of Zonal Secretary and Zonal Organising Secretary respectively.
The event was attended by the governors of Plateau and Niger States, Simon Lalong and Abubakar Sani Bello respectively, the representatives of the Kogi and Benue States governors, the representatives of the Senate President Bukola Saraki, the National Vice Chairman of the zone, Zakari Idde, among others.
Abdullahi was nominated for the position by the Deputy Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Godiya Akwashiki and seconded by Senator Abdullahi representing Niger North senatorial zone before his nomination was confirmation through a voice vote.
Three others were also elected to fill vacant positions zoned to the North central as well as the zonal executive of the party.
Speaking on behalf of other elected officers, Abdullahi assured that he would operate differently from his predecessor and do everything humanly possible to endear the party to Nigerians.
He, however, told newsmen that he was conscious of the fact that the position of the spokesperson of the ruling party is an entirely different assignment from his former position as Minister of Sports.
Participants at the workshop on unemployment and drug abuse
By Chikezie Omeje
The governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, has lamented the abuse of drugs and substances such as vulcanizer’s solution, codeine in cough syrups and other medications, saying that it has rendered many youths unemployable.
El-Rufai stated this in Abuja on Thursday at a one-day workshop with the theme “Substance abuse: an impediment to gainful employment” organised by the National Directorate of Employment, NDE.
The governor who was represented by the Director General, Bureau of Substance Abuse and Treatment, Kaduna, Baka Isa Saaedoun, said no employer of labour, either in private or public sector, would knowingly employ someone battling with drug addiction, stressing that over 65% of those involved in this social malaise are the youth who truly constitute the national workforce and the future of the nation.
He said, “This ugly picture is a time bomb. We must understand that the army of young people who are hooked on drugs come from the most active part of the population for whom we must provide employment opportunities.”
He called on faith-based organizations, civil society groups and the well-meaning Nigerians to work together to support the fight against mass unemployment by ensuring a drug-free youth population.
Also speaking, the Minister of Youth of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige ,noted that substance abuse leads to crime and violence.
The minister who was represented by the Director of Special Duties in the ministry, James Olusoji, stressed that substance abuse often leads the youth to become vulnerable to crime, accidents, violence, promiscuity and could cause serious health complications.
He said, “in the workplace, substance abuse has the potentials to negatively affect the health, safety, productivity of employees and consequently leading to failure in the attainment of organizational goals.”
Suleiman was invited to share his experience following the publication of a two part series on “How Drug Addiction Threatens A Generation Of Northern Women” by www.icirnigeria.org, which he wrote.
He said the Centre’s investigation into drug abuse by women in northern part of the country revealed a serious problem that must be tackled.
Narrating a sad story of a graduate who abused codeine, he said the lady started with one bottle of codeine in a day after her boyfriend introduced her in it during her National Youth Service in Niger State.
He said the girl later graduated to eight bottles of codeines in a day and has not been able to secure a job since she graduated from the university in 2010.
Suleiman said that an increasing number of women now engage in drug abuse as discovered when security agents searched the hand bags of women at a wedding ceremony in Sokoto State where about 70% of them had codeines in their bags.
The editor said most of the women that abused codeine were led into it by friends and family members and urged parents to be more watchful about the lifestyle of their wards and the kind of company they keep.
The Acting Director-General of National Directorate of Employment, Kunle Obayan said that the seminar was organised to sensitize the public, especially the youth, on the dangers of substance abuse and its negative implications on the affected persons, the society and the economy.
He said that substance abuse was threatening the labour force, noting “the youths who are the future of the nation are hooked on the use of illicit substances such as alcohol, sedatives, depressants, cannabis, cocaine, heroin, among others.”
Nobel Laureate and Professor of Comparative Literature, Wole Soyinka, on Thursday made good his promise to destroy his United States residency green card and leave the country if Donald Trump was elected president.
“I have already done it, I have disengaged (from the United States). I have done what I said I would do,” he said on the sidelines of an education conference at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
“I had a horror of what is to come with Trump… I threw away the (green) card, and I have relocated, and I’m back to where I have always been” — meaning his homeland Nigeria.
Shortly before the just concluded US election, the 82 year-old Laureate had vowed to give up his US green card if Trump emerged victorious in the presidential race.
Justifying his decision later, he said Trump had built a mental wall in the minds of Americans and across the world during his electioneering campaign.
The prolific playwright, novelist and poet won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and has been a regular teacher at US universities including Harvard, Cornell and Yale.
AFP also reported Soyinka as stressing that he would not discourage others from applying for a green card.
“It’s useful in many ways. I wouldn’t for one single moment discourage any Nigerians or anybody from acquiring a green card… but I have had enough of it,” he said.
The implication of Soyinka’s action is that he would have to apply for an American visa like every other visitor, unlike when the green card gave him free access.
Soyinka, one of Africa’s most famous writers and rights activists, was reported to have recently completed a term as scholar-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs.
Kaduna State Senator, Shehu Sani, is again at daggers drawn with the governor of the State, Nasir El-Rufai, over the lawmaker’s public criticism of the governor.
Sani is calling out El-Rufai over the recent reports that he has been suspended by the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kaduna State, a move the senator described as worthless as “used tissue paper”.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sani said the purported suspension was orchestrated by El-Rufai, adding that party’s executive in the state were being induced and controlled by the governor.
Recall that the lawmaker had earlier been suspended by the state APC but the suspension was overturned by the national leadership of the Party.
He said the “new suspension” would not give the leaders of the party in the state “the public support they couldn’t gather with the “first suspension””.
Sani stated, “For a man who has been unable to address the pervasive insecurity and genocide in southern Kaduna; for a man who has been unable to stem the tide of rampant kidnapping and abductions in Kaduna, “suspending” Shehu Sani cannot be counted as an achievement.”
The lawmaker advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be careful of El-Rufai, whom he described as having been nurtured by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
He maintained that the “suspension” would not stop him from working for the good his constituents and the Nigerian masses in general.
A new vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is being tested in South Africa in what scientists say is the first large study of an HIV vaccine’s effectiveness since 2009.
The study aims to enrol 5,400 sexually active young men and women.
About seven million people in South Africa are living with the virus, which is one reason why the trial is taking place there.
Experts hope the vaccine will be “the final nail in the coffin” for HIV.
The vaccine regime being tested is based on one used in a trial in Thailand in 2009, which had a protection rate of about 30%. Results from South Africa are expected in four years.
Since the HIV virus was identified in 1983, efforts to develop an effective vaccine have proved unsuccessful.
Researchers are hoping that this might come to an end with the current study, which is code-named HVTN 702.
It is being led by South Africa’s Glenda Gray, a university research professor and head of South Africa’s Medical Research Council.
“It will tell us whether the initial success observed [at a smaller scale] will bear fruit in the form of a safe and effective HIV vaccine designed for the people of southern Africa,” Gray said.
AIDS remains the biggest cause of death among young people in Africa
According to the United Nations, more than 30 million people have died from AIDS since the 1980s.
Recent breakthroughs in anti-retroviral treatments have improved the lifespan of AIDS patients.
However, the only effective prevention remains abstinence or the use of barrier methods such as condoms during sexual intercourse.
As part of the present trial, study participants will receive a total of five injections over one year, says the US National Institutes of Health, NIH, which is sponsoring the trial.
Participants who become infected with HIV during the trial will be referred to local medical providers for care and treatment, NIH adds.
They will be advised on how to reduce their risk of transmitting the virus.
Minister of Health, ISaac Adewole, poses with the ‘Tobacco-free kids’ campaigners
Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has maintained his stance that tobacco companies should pay more in taxes as a way of discouraging the habit of smoking by majority of Nigerians.
The minister made this known when he received a delegation of anti-tobacco campaigners in his office in Abuja on Wednesday.
Adewole noted that the revenue which will be generated from increased taxes on tobacco industries can be used to fund other health initiatives of the federal government.
“Tobacco tax was used to fund Universal Health Coverage in Thailand. We need your advice on how to raise the tax,” he told his visitors whose campaign is named ‘Tobacco-Free Kids”.
He revealed that the fight against tobacco usage was personal to him as tobacco usage accounts for almost all cases of lung cancer and other related diseases.
“I have personal and official reasons for fighting tobacco. It is important to keep people from it while those who want to smoke will pay,” the minister said.
“Data shows (that) it is almost impossible to find someone with lung cancer without smoking history either active or passive.”
The minister said that the war against tobacco usage must be fought collectively and not left for government alone as the tobacco industry is being controlled by powerful people.
“We must not underrate the power of the tobacco industry and the resources available to it. It is a battle we must fight together.”
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is a leading force in the fight to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll around the world.
“Tobacco use kills more than 6 million people annually, 30 percent of whom will die from cancer-related diseases due to smoking,” according to an information on the cancer website, www.cancer.org
“If current trends continue, tobacco use will kill 8 million people annually by 2030, 83 percent of whom reside in low- and middle-income countries.”
Ahead of tomorrow’s World AIDS Day, the World Health Organization, W.H.O. has released new guidelines on HIV self-testing to improve access to and uptake of HIV diagnosis.
According to a new WHO progress report, lack of an HIV diagnosis is a major obstacle to implementing the organization’s recommendation that everyone with HIV should be offered antiretroviral therapy,ART.
The report reveals that more than 18 million people with HIV are currently taking ART, and a similar number is still unable to access treatment, the majority of which are unaware of their HIV positive status.
Today, 40% of all people with HIV (over 14 million) remain unaware of their status. Many of these are people at higher risk of HIV infection who often find it difficult to access existing testing services.
“Millions of people with HIV are still missing out on life-saving treatment, which can also prevent HIV transmission to others,” said Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “HIV self-testing should open the door for many more people to know their HIV status and find out how to get treatment and access prevention services.”
HIV self-testing means people can use oral fluid or blood- finger-pricks to discover their status in a private and convenient setting. Results are ready within 20 minutes or less. Those with positive results are advised to seek confirmatory tests at health clinics.
WHO recommends they receive information and links to counselling as well as rapid referral to prevention, treatment and care services.
HIV self-testing is a way to reach more people with undiagnosed HIV and represents a step forward to empower individuals, diagnose people earlier before they become sick, bring services closer to where people live, and create demand for HIV testing. This is particularly important for those people facing barriers to accessing existing services.
According to the report, between 2005 and 2015 the proportion of people with HIV learning of their status increased from 12% to 60% globally. This increase in HIV testing uptake worldwide has led to more than 80% of all people diagnosed with HIV receiving ART.
In Nigeria, 3.5 million people were living with HIV in 2015 and 250,000 new HIV infections occurred in the same year.
Reports say that only 24% of adults who are living with HIV receive antiretroviral treatment in Nigeria while 180,000 people die as a result of HIV in 2015 alone.
Ondo State governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu, has been issued with a certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The brief ceremony took place at the headquarters of the commission in Akure, the Ondo State Capital.
Receiving the certificate from INEC Supervising National Commissioner, Solomon Soyebi, Akeredolu said his victory in the governorship election was not only for himself and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, but for the people of the state.
He promised that his administration will carry everybody along regardless of whether they voted for him or not.
He said: “Today’s victory is of God through the good people of Ondo State. It is not for me or APC alone.
“It is a victory for the people of Ondo state, irrespective of which side of the divide you stood during the election. For me it is a call to service and a challenge to perform.
“Although we all had different points of view before the election but today, as members of one strong, vibrant and indivisible Ondo State family, we are all united and resolute with one single objective to save our beloved Ondo State.”
Akeredolu described his victory as a new dawn, adding that the time has come for the people of Ondo State “to rediscover and reinvent ourselves.”
“It is time to find what we lost, to rescue this land and its people from the myriad of poverty and pains which daily assail their lives.”
He called on fellow party members to put behind the rancor and controversy that followed the Party’s governorship primary election, which almost split the Ondo APC in two.
The governor-elect said little would be achieved unless the party was united and support the incoming administration in order to record appreciable progress, saying “we will take deliberate and decisive steps to optimally harness our overall potential for greatness, prosperity, peace and stability.”
Sally Mbanefo has been relieved of her duties as the Director-General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, NTDC.
This was contained in a letter addressed to the former DG by secretary to the government of the federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal.
The letter read: “I refer to the attached letter, Ref. No. SGF.6/S.23/1/568 of 8th October, 2013 in respect of your secondment from the Keystone Bank Limited to serve as Executive Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) for a period of two years with effect from 6th May 2013.
“You may note from the foregoing that the period of your secondment at the corporation had since lapsed on 5th May 2016.
“Consequently, you are to handover the affairs of the corporation to the most senior officer on or before Wednesday, 30th November, 2016.”
Mbanefo, who was appointed by Goodluck Jonathan, former president, in 2013, was alleged to have diverted N270 million.
The NTDC is a Federal Government Corporation established in 1992 under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism & National Orientation to develop the tourism sector of Nigeria.
