Mr Ibrahim Alkali, Project Desk Officer, FADAMA III Additional Financing (AFII) project, says states in the North East need more intervention programmes to restore agricultural production in the region.
Farmers on the FADAMA project
Alkali said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, November 1, 2017.
He said that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East needed more interventions, which the FADAMA AF II programme alone could not provide.
He said that the programme only targeted 24,000 persons, out of the millions of people who were displaced due to the insurgency.
“This figure, 24,000, is just a small portion. The demand is high; we are hoping that the Federal Government will reach out to the World Bank to provide more funds to restore the livelihoods of the IDPs.
“Looking at the North East generally, their main source of livelihood is agriculture but the people have been devastated because of the insurgency; they have lost all their belongings.
“Some have returned home and some still live in camps; they are helpless. I think it very important for the government to reach out to donor agencies to seek more funds for the people’s rehabilitation,’’ he said.
Alkali, however, noted that in the area of agricultural intervention, the FADAMA programme had performed creditably in the country.
“We have advantages because the FADAMA programme has existed for some decades; our experience and structures, from national to community levels, have been beneficial in the project implementation across the country,’’ he said.
Alkali said that the FADAMA III AF II package, which was specifically designed for the North East, was a complete package that covered all aspects, including livelihoods restoration, training, advisory services and environmental concerns.
“We provide food assistance for the people so as to make them to maintain the agriculture support given to them because you cannot support them without providing the food they can eat for them.
“We also provide social amenities for some of the communities in order to make life easier for them and make the project implementation more effective,’’ he said.
Alkali said that the National FADAMA Programme Office had just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Food Programme (WFP) to boost food production and people’s livelihoods in Borno.
“This is the first time that FADAMA is intervening in an emergency situation; the WFP has been in that sector for long and has recorded great results.
“For us to be fulfilled, we need an international agency to assess our performance.
“The one-million-dollar pilot project would be executed in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere Local Government Area; and its target is to reach 7,500 households,’’ he said.
Alkali said that the main objective of the project was to enhance income generating businesses in the neighbourhoods via the provision of start-up capital and skills strengthening schemes.
“I believe that the collaboration will also improve the beneficiaries’ access to food and community assets, with a positive impact on food security and nutrition.
“We are doing that purposely to work with experts; the project will also serve as a training opportunity for our staff, as they would be able to gain experience and learn from the approach of WFP to such interventions,’’ he said.
Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group has said that the United Nations climate change conference (COP23) holding in Bonn, Germany, from November 6 to 17, 2017 should be a summit of finance and support.
Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, Gebru Jember Endalew
Gebru Jember Endalew, Chair of the LDC Group, said: “COP23 is a vital step on our journey to setting out a clear rulebook that will fully implement the vision laid out at Paris. This is the last COP before the work programme of the Paris Agreement is to be finalised, so we hope to leave Bonn with a draft negotiating text, that can be fleshed out over the coming year.”
The impacts of rising global temperatures continue to worsen. In the lead up to COP23, we saw historic monsoon flooding, resulting in over a thousand lives lost and the displacement of over two million people in South Asia; the impact of consecutive seasons of drought in Africa; historic rainfall (with Hurricane Harvey setting a single-storm rainfall record in the United States, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage); and historic windspeeds laying waste to many Caribbean island territories (with Hurricane Irma recording the highest windspeed on record for the open Atlantic Ocean).
The catastrophic impacts of these extreme weather events underlie the urgency of substantive progress and action here in Bonn at COP23. LDCs will be pushing to deliver a Paris rulebook that catalyses greater ambition to correct our current trajectory and put the world on track to keep warming below 1.5°C. This means robust frameworks for reporting, implementation and compliance, and gauging progress across all facets of the Paris Agreement and climate Convention.”
“COP23 is also an important opportunity to bridge the widening finance gap, a serious barrier to ambitious climate action worldwide. The Paris Agreement set a vision for an ambitious global response to climate change that will keep warming below 1.5°C, in a fair and equitable manner that promotes sustainable development. Not only do existing climate pledges fall far short of this goal, but the finance mobilised by developed countries is also inadequate to help developing countries meet their climate goals and adaptation needs while important sources of support such as the Least Developed Countries Fund sit empty. LDCs and other developing countries cannot take ambitious action to address climate change or protect themselves against its impacts unless all countries fulfil and outdo the pledges they have made.”
“As the 47 poorest countries in the world, the LDCs face the unique and unprecedented challenge of lifting our people out of poverty and achieving sustainable development without relying on fossil fuels. Global solidarity and the support of the international community is essential for LDCs to achieve our ambitious climate plans, and protect our people from the devastating impacts of climate change that are already taking their toll.”
“The LDCs are calling for COP23 to be a COP of finance and support.”
“At COP23 the LDC Group will call on developed countries to rapidly accelerate the delivery of climate finance, with a particular focus on public finance. Both the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Adaptation Fund need to be replenished continuously and as soon as possible”
“Clear guidelines and adequate technological and capacity building support is also vital to enable LDCs to carry out actions to adapt to climate change and cope with losses and damages that threaten the survival of poor and vulnerable LDC communities,” said Mr. Endalew.
The LDC Group convened in Bonn for preparatory meetings from October 29-30 to consolidate LDC positions and strategies ahead of the upcoming negotiations.
National and State Emergency Management Agencies are in dire need of government’s support to cope with the increasing challenges associated with management of disasters in the country, a survey by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has revealed.
A flooded neighbourhood in Lagos, Nigeria
The survey, carried out in all the six geo-political zones of the country, indicated that whereas the challenges in some of the agencies are minimal, the situation in others is so critical that the agencies have lost their relevance, thereby losing public confidence.
Few others are however receiving the required support from their respective governments, thereby enabling them to discharge their duties.
Executive Secretary of Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Alhaji Yusuf Babura observed that most such agencies at the state level lacked enough facilities to tackle flood and fire disasters, as well as other natural calamities.
Babura advised that management of emergency situations should be a collaborative effort between the state, federal and non-governmental organisations.
“Our major challenge is lack of enough funds to buy equipment and logistics to carry out our statutory function.
“I am very optimistic that if we have the necessary support from the Federal Government and other agencies, we will discharge our duties effectively,” he said.
He however said that Jigawa government had not relented, adding that it expended about N50million in the management of fire and flood disasters from January 2017 to date.
Mr. Bashir Idris, Coordinator of NEMA in Adamawa said his office established its presence in the state since 2013, following the emergence of Boko Haram insurgency.
He said that the agency had carried out various humanitarian services in the state, including establishment of camps and the feeding of Internally Displaced Persons.
Other services included provision of medical facilities to some hospitals in the state and assisting returnee IDPs with building materials and food items.
He said the state office had standard ambulance with sophisticated medical equipment.
On the issue of quick response to emergency situations in the state, Mr. Haruna Furo, Executive Chairman, Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), said the agency and NEMA were working closely.
On its part, Borno SEMA said it had established nine mobile clinics and procured 40 ambulances to enhance emergency response services in the state.
Chairman of the agency in the state, Mr Satomi Ahmad, told NAN in Maiduguri that the ambulances were equipped with modern gadgets and deployed to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and communities liberated from insurgents.
“We have nine mobile clinics providing emergency services and routine immunization in IDP camps and liberated communities,” he said.
Satomi added that the agency, in collaboration with the Federal Government, had trained its personnel on disaster risk management, designed to expose the personnel to best practices in First Aid treatment.
Satomi also said that the agency planned to set up four fire station outlets to enhance rapid response to fire disasters.
Malam Abani Imam, Head of Operations National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in charge of Gombe and Bauchi states, said the role of his agency was only to coordinate operations of state and other agencies during emergency situations
“We in NEMA are vested with the responsibility of coordinating disaster management.
“NEMA only comes in where there is need to provide succour for the victims.
“State emergency management agencies are there to handle situations; we only come when the situation is overwhelming,” he explained.
Dr Danlami Rukuje, Executive Secretary, Gombe SEMA, said his office collaborated with relevant agencies in the state to ensure prompt response to emergencies.
He however appealed to members of the public to always inform the agency on time whenever emergency situations arose.
In the South West geo-political zone, many state governments said they were strengthening their emergency response institutions to meet current demands.
Mr Akin Makinde, the Director of Oyo State Emergency Management Agency (OYSEMA) told NAN that the agency was being adequately funded and equipped to discharge its responsibilities.
“We always collaborate with NEMA, State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and security agencies,’’ he said.
According to him, government’s efforts are geared towards mitigation the effect and reduction of disasters, rather than distribution of relief materials.
Mr Adebakin Aremu, the Director of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in Ogun, also said the agency had put in place, measures to ensure immediate response to disasters across the state.
He said the relationship between SEMA and NEMA had been cordial, saying that NEMA had been helpful in information dissemination to assist the state agency.
Head of Operations of NEMA in the state, Mr Saheed Akiode, said his agency was partnering with the state government in training SEMA officials on disaster management.
In Ilorin however, the Special Adviser on Emergency and Relief Services, Alhaji Duro Mohammed said the major challenge of SEMA in the state, was inadequacy of funds and personnel.
Mohammed appealed to the state government to provide speed boats for the Office of Emergency and Relief Services to enable it move to all parts of the state during emergency situation.
“We have not been able to cover all the 16 local government areas of the state, especially areas like Kwara North, because of inadequacy of personnel and other logistic requirement,’’ he said.
Mr Oluwasegun Adanri, Focal Officer of the SEMA in Ondo State, said the agency only embarked on skeletal work as the bill establishing it was yet to be signed into law, in spite of the fact that the state House of Assembly had passed it.
Adanri said that most staff of Ondo SEMA were deployed from ministries on a temporary basis.
“I believe things will change when the bill is signed into the law by the governor,” he said.
Some stakeholders in the South-East also identified poor funding, lack of equipment and dearth of manpower as major factors hindering emergency response activities in the zone.
In Owerri, NEMA Coordinator, Owerri Operations office, Mr Evans Ugoh, said lack of equipment and logistics were the major hindrance to quick response to emergency situations in the state.
He said the agency lacked modern equipment to effectively confront major challenges.
The General Manager of SEMA, Mrs Jane Ezeoyeasi, admitted that there were obstacles hindering quick response to emergency, but added that government was addressing the issues.
“What we see sometimes is lack of cooperation from the people and when we are not given the needed cooperation, it becomes a problem,” Ezeoyeasi said.
In Enugu, the NEMA Zonal Coordinator, Mr Walson Brandon, said that the agency had been proactive in discharging its duties in the state.
“We have facilities to attend to emergency cases; our major challenge is inadequacy of personnel,’’ he said.
Also, in Abakaliki, the stakeholders said responses of SEMA to emergency situations, had been impressive.
They told NAN that though there were fewer natural disasters in the state in 2017 compared to other years, SEMA’s response had been impressive.
Mr Ken Oziomaeze, SEMA’s Executive Secretary, said that both the state and Federal Government should be commended for the collaborative efforts.
In the south-south,some stakeholders in statutory government agencies as well as non-governmental organisations told NAN that government had been supportive, while others said they were sometimes ill-equipped to respond adequately to emergency situations.
Mr John Inaku, Director General, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (CR-SEMA) said that the agency had dedicated personnel in the 18 Local Government Areas
“The government is not sleeping. We have equipment ready on ground to tackle disaster cases,” he said, adding that one of their challenges was how to gain access to areas with difficult terrain.
But Mr James Eze, the former South-South, Zonal Coordinator, NEMA, told NAN in Port Harcourt that the situation at the national level was quite different now.
He noted that lack of funding accounted for what he called ‘deplorable state of NEMA’ and called on Federal Government to come to the rescue of the agency.
The situation is also lamentable at the Plateau SEMA, where its Executive Secretary, Alhaji Alhassan Barde, complained of dearth of funds, equipment and personnel.
Barde told NAN that the Plateau government had fulfilled the critical aspect of enacting a law to back the agency, but had not addressed the key areas of equipment and personnel.
The Executive Secretary said that the agency needed both structural and miscellaneous support to perform optimally.
“The agency tries to bridge the gap by liaising with relevant government agencies and ministries like the fire service, in case of fire.
“We also rush to the Ministry of Health if the disaster requires immediate medical attention,” he said, adding that the duties of the agency had been reduced to the “minor” task of coordinating relevant agencies whenever disasters occurred.
Voicing out similar complaints, Head of NEMA in charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara, Alhaji Muhammad Suleiman, told NAN that the agency had no fire fighting vehicle, but had a Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance that catered for disaster victims.
Sulaiman explained that NEMA served as coordinating body to all disaster management service providers and its officials were included in all response and planning committees in the states.
An ecologist, Mr Richard Inyamkume, has called on state governments to establish forest protection agencies to enforce the extant regulations on forest management in the country.
Deforestation. Photo credit: telegraph.co.uk
Inyamkume, who is Senior Programme Officer, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiative (CCMAI), made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday, November 2, 2017.
He, however, underscored the need for the federal and state governments to engage relevant stakeholders to strengthen existing mechanisms for forest protection and management.
“Government needs to urgently call for a policy dialogue with all stakeholders to strengthen the mechanisms for forest protection and management.
“I think it’s high time each state created a State Forest Protection Agency that will assist in enforcing specific guidelines on forest management.
“It is very sad that Nigeria is reported to have depleted its forest resources to below five per cent.
“This is against the recommended 25 per cent forest cover made by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations; this is embracing and regrettable,” he said.
Inyamkume noted that Nigeria was a developing country with an increasing urban and rural population that depended directly or indirectly on forest resources.
“Yet, the government and its citizens seem to be unenthusiastic about the conservation and management of forest resources.
“Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, especially now that the impact of climate change is becoming more severe on communities across the globe,” he said.
Inyamkume said that if forests were properly managed, they had the potential of neutralising extreme atmospheric temperatures and purifying air.
According to him, good forest management will also support positive economic outcomes and create millions of jobs for citizens.
“In Nigeria, there are a substantial number of forest reserves which have been neglected by government.
“Some of the forests that have been uncared for have now become operational bases for criminals and terrorists.
“A notable example is the Sambisa forest (in Borno) that has become notorious because of terrorist activities in the North East,’’ he said.
Inyamkume stressed the need for government to make national forests safer through purposeful policies and legislation that would protect the forests.
He said that this would address abuses, misuses, illicit exploitation and maltreatment of the forest reserves.
He urged Nigerians to sign up for the ongoing advocacy for forest conservation, while engaging in tree planting projects.
“State and local governments should be able to formulate a forest recovery strategy and implement it.
“We need to invest and reinvest in forestry. There should be in place a new set of forestry targets for each state in this country.
“By 2020, Nigeria should be able to boast of at least 10 per cent forest cover and redeem our national image in the global community,” he said.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), says it is set to establish meteorological infrastructure in 34 universities in Nigeria.
Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Prof. Sani Marshi
The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of NiMet, Prof. Sani Marshi, said this in a statement issued by Mr Muntari Ibrahim, the General Manager, Public Relations Unit, NiMet on Thursday, November 2, 2017 in Abuja.
Marshi said the establishment of meteorological infrastructure was in furtherance of its target to increase the network of meteorological stations and boost its data collection.
The director-general spoke when he visited the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed.
Mashi said that NiMet had embarked on an aggressive programme to massively expand the network of meteorological stations in the country to about 1,000 by December.
According to him, one of the strategies the agency will employ to achieve this is to partner with Nigerian universities.
“Part of the things we said we would do is to see how we can extend our services to the Nigerian universities.
“NiMet has carried out an independent assessment of the universities and looked at the existing meteorological stations that these universities maintain.
“One of the things that are missing is the linkage between the universities and the agency.
“NiMet has the expertise and knows what should be in place, while the universities have the capacity to teach, but may not have the technical competence to know the best equipment for the best results.
“We feel that what we need to do, we need to come up with a way to help the universities get their infrastructure upgraded,’’ he said.
Mashi said the partnership with the universities was a win-win situation, explaining that once the meteorological stations were upgraded, they would start generating data.
“This partnership according to him will expand the agency’s network of stations, because the universities’ infrastructure has been upgraded.’’
The NUC executive secretary Rasheed, assured NiMet that the commission would fully support the initiative and promised to talk to the Vice Chancellors about it.
He commended NiMet for the initiative and expressed the hope that universities in the country would be covered by 2018 as well as Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday, November 2, in Abuja said it would create one million jobs in the Agasha/Guma area of Benue trough of a bio-fuel project.
Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru
The NNPC had on October 31, 2917 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ondo State Government to establish a 65,000 million litres bio-fuel plant in Ondo to provide one million jobs.
The NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, said this in a statement by Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the Corporation’s Group General Manager Group Public Affairs Division.
“Benue State stands to benefit a lot, especially in the area of employment generation as the project has the capacity to generate about one million direct and indirect jobs.
“Other benefits of the bio-fuels project include a sugar cane feedstock plantation of about 20,000 hectares; a cane mill and raw/refined sugar plant capable of producing 126,000 tonnes annually.
“Also, a fuel-ethanol processing plant capable of producing 84 million litres annually will be included.
“With the bio-fuels projects, we hope to establish the Bagasse co-generation power plant which will generate 64 MegaWatts; a carbon dioxide recovery and bottling plant that will produce 2, 000 tonnes annually.
“There will also be an animal feed plant that will produce 63, 000 tons annually,’’ Baru said.
Leading a delegation from the Corporation to Gov. Samuel Ortom, Baru urged him to facilitate the release of the Certificate of Occupancy for the 50,000 hectares of land required for the bio-fuels project.
“I am convinced that the success of the results from IDSL’s seismic data acquisition will lead to the drilling of exploration wells in these areas.
“This, hopefully, would launch Benue state into the league of oil-producing states in the country,’’ Baru said.
Responding, Gov. Ortom expressed delight over NNPC’s oil exploration and bio-fuels projects in the state, assuring of the total support of the people.
“I can assure you of our total support for these projects.
“We will work with our traditional institutions to sensitise our people to the need to massively support you,’’ Ortom said.
A trainer in emotional intelligence, anger and stress management, Mr Isaac Onoja, has advised allied health workers to employ all aspects of emotional intelligence to reposition the health sector.
University College Hospital, Ibadan
Onoja, who is also a pharmacist and neuro-linguistic programmer, gave this advice on Thursday, November 2, 2017 in a lecture he delivered in Ibadan.
It was organised by the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), University College Hospital (UCH) chapter, to mark the 2017 Health Week of the union.
The theme of the week is entitled: “Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria”.
He said: “To heal the health sector, all team members must activate emotional intelligence.
“Once this is done, the sector will come out stronger. Health workers should never drive patients away by going on strike.”
Onoja described Emotional Intelligence as “the ability to understand and manage your emotions and those of people around you”.
According to him, people with high emotional intelligence know what they are feeling, what their emotions mean and how these emotions can affect other people.
Onoja listed the five key elements of emotional intelligence which every leader must possess to include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
“Nigeria health sector is in crisis today because the health workers had failed to employ these key elements. A leader must be able to manage each of these areas effectively,’’ he said.
Onoja decried the situation among health workers, where strike was employed as the last resort in driving home their demands from the government.
“Sick people are our targets as health workers and when hospitals are closed down during strike, the patients are driven away and so their money, too.
“People who hold down other members of the team will never win.
“The health sector is like a field track race. Every member must remain in his track. Doctors should stay on their tracks while allied health workers remain on theirs and together remain a team.
“Learn to choose yourself in the health team. Identify your job responsibility and move on. Don’t do another person’s job.
“Heal yourself. Activate your consequential thinking and when you are angry, think about the consequences of your actions in the team.
“Show empathy to other team members and the patients whose lives you swore to protect and save,” he said.
In his welcome address, Mr Olusegun Sotiloye, the Chairman of NUAHP UCH chapter, said that there was a lot of emotions on display in Nigeria’s health sector and those emotions need to be channelled properly.
Sotiloye said that members of the union would continue to contribute their quotas to the development of the health sector in whatever form they could.
Also, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, the National President of NUAHP, described the topic of the symposium as very apt, considering the present negative situation being faced by health workers.
Ogbonna said that the sector was bedeviled with myriads of problems leading to medical tourism in the nation.
“For us to perform to the optimal level in the health sector, we need to be emotionally stable.
“Economically, Nigeria is going through a lot of challenges from all sectors.
“Union situations make the emotions high, but we shall get the panacea to emotional stress through this lecture.
“I believe that at the end of this lecture, health workers will be emotionally stable enough to move the health sector forward,’’ Ogbonna said.
A new report out on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 from the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) co-published with Corporate Accountability International, ActionAid, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development and ETC Group exposes how the industries most responsible for climate change, especially fossil fuel TNCs, are obstructing real progress to address the climate crisis across key policy areas where urgent progress over the next couple of years will largely determine how habitable man’s future will be.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), fossil fuel TNCs and other industries intent on exploiting the climate crisis are hijacking the talks, stifling ambition, pushing false solutions, and blocking the financing (and therefore withholding the availability) of real solutions. Who can doubt, for example, that the failure of the United States to secure domestic climate legislation, or ratify the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement, is largely the result of industry interference?
Perhaps as troubling is that the UNFCCC not only overlooks this obstructionism but welcomes these industries with open arms, further legitimising them in the eyes of the world. It might look like world governments are in the driver’s seat, but behind the scenes, it is the industries most responsible for, and those seeking to profit from, climate change that are pulling the strings.
However, without the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, Global North governments like the US and EU are left free to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, while the rest of the world – especially Global South countries, low-income communities, people of colour, women and children – continues to pay the price. World governments can use the negotiations at the UNFCCC to insulate climate policymaking from corporate capture at all levels, and to hold recalcitrant Global North governments accountable for doing their fair share to address climate change.
We know the Paris Agreement as it currently stands is not enough to stop the climate crisis. Even if all countries honour their current pledges to decrease emissions, the world would still warm by 3 degrees Celsius or more. Yet without the Paris Agreement and what it could be without the interference of Big Polluters, we are unlikely to achieve the global progress that must be made in an extraordinarily short time.
Governments have the opportunity to ensure that the rules and procedures they are currently developing transform the agreement from words on paper into ambitious action. By the end of 2018 at COP24, countries have agreed to develop the guidelines that will chaperone the implementation of the pledges governments have made. This is our opportunity to make sure that the meaningful, equitable, and sustainable solutions at our fingertips become reality.
This report highlights how within the U.N. climate talks, key negotiating tracks undermined by industry interference include finance, mechanisms for international cooperation, agriculture, technology, and observer participation. But all is not lost. The report also highlights what can be done in each of these tracks to protect against corporate capture and implement the solutions already at our fingertips.
Cattle dealers in Benue State say their business is on the verge of collapse because of the anti-open grazing law, which came into effect on Wednesday, November 1, 2017.
Cattle dealers: The association said that the law failed to differentiate between herdsmen and cattle dealers
Some officials of the Cattle Dealers Association of Nigeria made the claim while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Makurdi, the state capital, on Wednesday.
They said that the law failed to differentiate between herdsmen and cattle dealers, adding that action had consequently affected the business of cattle dealers.
Alhaji Mustapha Aliyu, the chief of the main cattle market in Makurdi, said that cattle dealers in the market had lost over 10 cattle, excluding the calves.
“The cattle have no water to drink, no food for them. The situation is particularly harrowing for the pregnant ones that are about to deliver. Most of the dead ones are the pregnant cows who couldn’t cope with the situation,’’ he said.
He said that the cattle were going through tough times, adding that if nothing was done to salvage the situation on time, the cattle would all perish.
Aliyu alleged that a member of his association was arrested in the Gbajimba neighbourhood for flouting the law, adding that he was later released after paying some fine.
He said that 10 other cattle locations in the state were sealed by members of vigilante groups and moaned that hoodlums had taken undue advantage of the law to extort money from herdsmen and cattle dealers.
He noted that the vast lands allocated to the cattle dealers during the administration of ex-Gov. George Akume were encroached upon, adding that the lands had shrunk from 113 hectares to only 12 hectares.
Another official, Suleiman Ahmad, said that top government officials had brought their cattle to the market for rearing at one time or the other.
He said that some of the officials were even members of the Gov. Samuel Ortom’s administration.
Ahmad wondered why the government failed to consider the interests of cattle dealers when the law was being conceived, saying that cattle dealers were not herdsmen but businessmen who had contributed a lot to the growth of the state’s economy.
He said that the market had a population of about 5,000 cattle, with over 200 cattle owners.
Ahmad said that the law would destroy all the cattle and make the cattle owners to lose their livelihood.
He recalled that the cattle market was established by the Federal Government during the tenure of the Akume-administration between 1999 and 2007.
Another member of the association, Yusuf Mohammed, said that the cost of keeping cattle in a ranch might be too excessive for those involved in the cattle trade.
He said that the government’s decision to include trade cattle in the open range cattle grazing prohibition law was aimed at destroying the business of cattle dealers.
However, Mr George Ibese, the Commandant of the Vigilante Group in Benue, denied the claims that some cattle markets were closed, saying that the vigilantes only went to the markets to explain the law to the dealers.
He also denied the allegation that a cattle dealer was arrested and ordered to pay a fine.
He, however, conceded that three herdsmen from Shendam, who were passing through the state, were arrested by the vigilantes and handed over the police.
Ibese said that the herdsmen were later escorted out of Gbajimba to Daudu on the outskirts of the state, prior to their return to their base in Shendam.
When contacted, retired Col. Edwin Jando, the Chairman of Benue Anti Grazing Committee, said that he was not aware of any infringement of the law.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 queried the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) over alleged importation of 70,000 tons of genetically-modified (GM) maize by Olam Foods.
Dr Rufus Ebegba, Director-General and CEO of the the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA). Photo credit: climatereporters.com
The House also directed the agency to submit the list of companies importing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into the country as well as confirm the allegation.
The directive was given at the public hearing of the Ad hoc Committee investigating the Production and Distribution of Drinks Manufactured by the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) PLC and other drinks marketed in Nigeria.
It will be recalled that the House in a motion lamented the health implications of its citizens over the alleged importation of seven ship-loads of maize by Olam Group without clearance from the NBMA.
The committee also reacted to the agency’s position that it only worked to ensure that GMOs were not imported into the country as such and had no business with the production of drinks.
It, therefore, questioned the agency on alleged importation of GMO maize by Olam Group and how the group was able to do so without the knowledge of the agency and other regulatory agencies.
A member of the committee, Rep. Simon Arabo (PDP-Kaduna) challenged the claim by of the agency’s representative and Director of Environmental Safety, Mr Ukpai Agha, over the reported importation.
“If you say your agency’s responsibility is to ensure that GMOs do not get imported into Nigeria, how then did Olam Group import about 70,000 tons of maize?
“Are you even aware that Olam Group imported GMOs into the country?’’ Arabo queried.
Chairman of the committee, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, consequently directed the agency to submit the list of companies found to have imported GMOs and also confirm the alleged importation by the food company.
Meanwhile, the committee has implored manufacturers of carbonated drinks and fruit juice to ensure that health of consumers took precedence over profit-making.
Gbajabiamila was reacting to the presentation of the representative of Nigerian Bottling Company PLC, Mr Fred Chiazor, who said that the use of beta carotene as a preservative was more cost-intensive than sunset yellow.
The lawmaker stressed the need for manufacturers to take a cue from counterparts from developed countries who strive to ensure that the well being of consumers was a priority.
“I know that every business is out to make profit but you need to consider the health of consumers first before profit.
“These countries have banned the use of sunset yellow because research has shown it can be harmful to the health but here you are still using it because according to you, it extends the shell-life,” Gbajabiamila said.
