The Lagos State Government on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 arrested a total of 24 persons including cart pushers, street traders and some residents for dumping waste on road medians and canals contrary to the Environmental Sanitation Laws of the State.
Cart pushers, street traders and some residents arrested for illegal dumping of refuse on road medians and canals by the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) on Wednesday, J
The suspects, who have been charged before the Special Offences Court sitting in Ogba, Ikeja, were arrested in an early morning operation carried out by men of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) recently inaugurated by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
Giving details on the operation, LAGESC Corps Marshal, Daniel Isiofia, said the suspects were arrested following investigation which revealed that cart pushers and some residents were indiscriminately dumping domestic refuse at sites not designated for waste disposal and canals, thereby sabotaging the ongoing efforts to make the State clean and hygienic.
He said: “Recently, there has been clamour for cleaner Lagos and the Governor has been very keen on making Lagos clean. To this end, he gave us a mandate to ensure that Lagos is kept clean by ensuring that acts that lead to the city to be dirty are curbed.
“We know that there have been massive efforts to clear the backlog of refuse on the road and our men went on surveillance and we eventually discovered where the cart pushers are operating at Ogunlana Street by Ogbomosho in Itire area. We raided the area and saw the cart pushers whose job is to collect refuse on payment from some residents who feel that they cannot dispose their refuse according to government directive and dump on road medians and canals.
“Often times, if you go to the canal at Itire-Ijesha area, you will see the cart pushers dumping refuse into the canal thereby blocking the waterways which leads to flooding. So, with the determination to stop this menace, we raided them at about 4am this morning and we succeeded in impounding 150 waste carts used for this purpose and arrested 11 suspects while others fled.”
Isiofia, who is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, advised residents to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse in public places, as well as patronising cart pushers, saying such were against the law, just as he vowed that ongoing efforts to stop the menace would be sustained.
“We are going to sustain this process. I like to advise the operators of the waste carts to know that Lagos is not a place for them. They should leave Lagos or look for another job and to those who patronise them, if we get them, we will charge them to court because they are running foul of the law.
“We are appealing to the citizens to know that a clean Lagos is a healthy Lagos. It is for the benefits of all of us for our environment to be clean. Some people see us as enemies but we are not; we are only doing this job for the benefit of all.
“We are partners in progress; Lagosians should assist us. Governor Ambode too has pleaded with the people to support the bid to make Lagos clean and we are joining the Governor to appeal to people to desist from indiscriminate dumping of waste and make Lagos a very clean city,” Isiofia said.
Meanwhile, four hoodlums have been arrested for attacking LAGESC officials while performing their lawful duties.
The hoodlums carried out the attack on men of the agency on Tuesday at Brown Street area of Oshodi while on their way to enforce the ban on illegal dumping of refuse and street trading.
Two LAGESC officers, Olasilola Muyiwa John and Haastrup Ifealuwa, were seriously injured while a Black Maria used as operational vehicle was badly damaged. All the suspects have since been charged to court.
African civil society organisations on climate change have been at the forefront in building momentum for vulnerable people on the continent and other developing economies to access climate justice.
Mithika Mwenda, Secretary General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). He will represent the interests and concerns of CSOs in the African region with regard to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. Photo credit: cloudfront.net
The voices were high and loud going into the UN Conference of Parties (COP21) on Climate Change which produced the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015.
But these voices have gone down low after the talks.
Two years after Paris, most countries on the continent have slowed in climate action. Sudanese scientist and climate activist, Dr. Shaddad Mauwa, has sat in meetings, shouted and held placards in demonstrations at the local, continental and global stages to clamour for climate justice.
He acknowledged that though African climate change actors – governments, parliamentarians, negotiators, civil society – are doing better than before, there seems to be a wall that has become difficult to break.
“There are many issues still not going in the line of what Africa will like to see,” he said.
For him, these issues include the commitment of developed economies to heed to the Paris Agreement in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lack of access to climate funds by developing countries and poor implementation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to be climate-resilient.
Pushing the African Climate Agenda
The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has for almost a decade served as the largest advocacy platform for CSOs in Africa.
The activities of the Alliance resonates with the global call for action against climate change proclaimed by the United Nations, with a singular clarion call that no single individual, institution, country or region can single-handedly defeat the threats posed by the changing climate and the quest for achieving a sustainable development while leaving no one behind.
Secretary-General of the organisation, Mithika Mwenda, however, says the major concern is how to make the Paris Climate Agreement relevant to the vulnerable farmer who needs to irrigate his farm all year round to produce food and the community that gets displaced by flood anytime it rains.
“Having the Agreement is one thing and getting it implemented is another thing,” he said. “One of the things we’ve been trying to do is to push the governments to focus more on implementation because now we have a framework which is supposed to go on the ground.”
It is a shared opinion that Africa is not deficit in policy formulation. But getting the thoughts off paper to achieve set goals on the ground becomes problematic. Lack of finance for implementation is often cited as hindrance.
PACJA has been pushing the international community to provide sufficient funds for the implementation of provisions in the Paris Agreement, which includes each country’s NDCs, to ensure integration of climate change into the new paradigms of low-carbon development and climate resilience pathways.
“We are very optimistic, though it is not an easy thing to do. Africans and the global community have no choice; we have to act on climate change. We have frameworks in countries that if we build on, we can have very transformative economies,” said Mithika.
Building a stronger CSO Alliance
The adoption of the Paris Agreement left many stakeholders and countries unable to shift from the negotiation mode to implementation, including many civil society groups.
PACJA envisions a global environment free from the threat of climate change with sustainable development, equity and justice for all.
The Alliance acknowledges there is still more ground to cover around low-carbon, climate-resilient, green economy discourses.
At its Second Extra-Ordinary General Assembly meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Tuesday, January 23, 2018, the Alliance elected the Continental Executive Board as the implementing organ of decisions and policies of the organisation.
Newly elected Chairperson of the Board, John Bonds Bideri, says building capacities of local CSOs remains crucial to PACJA to support grassroots initiatives to deal with climate vagaries.
“The most important thing is that the vulnerable people should have that protection at the global, continental and community levels in terms of responding to issues or challenges that affect them,” he stated.
The Federal Government is to build an independent power plant at Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State as part of it’s policy to connect all federal universities to the national power grid.
L-R: DPPWS, Dr. A. I Ezeocha; Mr. Heaven Upadhyay; Akhileshkumor Singh; Registrar, Mrs. Odisa C. Okeke; VC, Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba; DVC, Prof. Sunday Elom; Bursar, Alhaji R. K Aliu; Piyush Budhauliya; REA team leader, Mr. Saheed Oseni-Wahab; and the University Librarian, Dr. O. O Adediji
This was made known recently when a team from the Rural Electricity Agency (REA), Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing visited the university to take-over the project sites for its eventual commencement.
Giving an insight on the project, the leader of the REA team, Mr. Saheed Oseni-Wahab, noted that the idea was initiated in 2016 by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing to take all federal universities to the national power grid, adding that FUNAI is among the nine universities selected for the first phase of the project.
“FUNAI is one of the nine universities that are benefiting from this power project in the first phase,” he said.
Other beneficiary institutions are Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Efurun; University of Lagos, Akoka; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Federal University of Agriculture, Markudi; Bayero University, Kano; Usaman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; and Abubakar Tafa Belewa University, Gubi Campus, Bauchi.
He further stressed that the power project would not only lead to the construction of a solar farm but also an independent power plant and a training centre in the university.
Welcoming the team to the university, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Chinedum Nwajiuba, thanked the Federal Government for choosing the institution as one of the first beneficiaries of the power project, charging the contractor to start work immediately and, more importantly, to ensure quality work.
“Let us have action immediately. It is our dream to switch-off all generators
“Our university is young and growing. Our interest is that you carry out a quality work,” the Vice Chancellor stated.
Responding on behalf of the contacting firm, SWL Nigeria Limited, Mr. Heaven Upadhyay, noted that the power plant when completed would be a hybrid system, with the capacity to work with or without the power grid.
He further stated that, through the project, a solar farm would be constructed in the university to generate one megawatt of renewable energy, adding that it would enable the institution overcome power problem confronting most organisations in Nigeria.
The Katsina State Fadama III agricultural initiative says it will supply farm implements to 100 tomato farmers in Daura in a bid to boost commercial production of tomato in the state.
Tomato farming
Alhaji Bashir Zango, the state Fadama Programme Coordinator, made this known on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at the distribution of the implements to deserving farmers in Daura, a town and Local Government Area in Katsina State.
He said the programme was organised in collaboration with the state government to ensure early procurement and distribution of farm implements to farmers.
Zango said the beneficiaries were drawn from the 10 registered tomato growers associations in the area.
“We will in due course expand the scope to accommodate more farmers who have interest in the programme,’’ he said.
Zango said the implements include 300 bags of fertiliser, 30 insecticides sprayers, 30 water pumping machines and 1,000 water pipes for channeling water into the farms.
“We have also provided hundred of gallons of insecticides to farmers,’’ he said.
Zango warned the beneficiaries against diversion of the implements, stressing “we have inscribed the name of the programme on the implements for easy identification.’’
In his remarks, Alhaji Rabe Bala, Chairman of tomato growers association in Daura, lauded the efforts of the state government on the programme.
He said the initiative would encourage production of tomato in commercial quantity and provide stable income to farmers.
Bala said the state government has provided `a ready-made’ market for the commodity in Katsina and every registered farmer is expected to sell at least 60 per cent of his harvest to a government accredited tomato processing industry.
The chairman also commended the Federal Government for placing a ban on importation of tomato, stressing that the singular act had encouraged local farmers to engage in mass production of the commodity.
“With this intervention, I may cultivate 6 hectares of tomato this farming season,” he said.
Bala described Fadama III programme as timely and a very important source through which agricultural activities would receive deserved attention.
“We were provided with improved, treated seedlings and insecticides against tomato ebola disease,’’ he said.
Bala called on youths to key into agriculture with a view to becoming self reliant and contribute to the growth and development of the nation’s economy.
The National Coordinator, Environmental Advancement Initiative, Habib Omotosho, has urged government at all levels to provide an enabling environment for the use of clean cooking stoves to curb tree felling and air pollution in the country.
Clean cook stoves
Omotosho, who is an ecologist, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, January 24, 2018 that governments should subsidise the production of clean cooking stoves.
According to him, the current trend of felling trees and the use of wood for cooking would result in deforestation and air pollution.
“Governments should create awareness about the hazards of indoor air pollution and deforestation.
“If people can actually see the benefits of clean cooking technologies, they will embrace it easily, and it will ultimately translate to a better environment for all,’’ he said.
Omotosho also urged the government to provide land for relevant stakeholders to plant economic trees for commercial purposes to contain deforestation.
He said that such land was necessary because some stakeholders, particularly rural women, depended on firewood for cooking.
According to the coordinator, unless the government provides alternatives to tree felling, the trend will continue at the detriment of people’s health.
He stressed the need for government at all levels to provide an enabling environment by way of supporting stakeholders with seedlings and other farm implement.
The ecologist reiterated that tree planting and campaigns against deforestation would help government’s efforts in tackling effects of climate change in the country.
“One of the best ways to mitigate the effects of climate change is by planting more trees that can absorb and reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
“This is because younger trees absorb carbon dioxide quickly while they are growing.
“However, as a tree ages, a steady state is eventually reached and at this point, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed through photosynthesis is similar to the amount lost through respiration and decay,’’ Omotosho stressed.
The Federal Government on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 said it would intensify efforts to ensure its “waste-to-wealth” programme alleviates poverty in the country.
Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology
Mr Abayomi Oguntade, Director, Bio-Resources Technology, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST), made this known in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to him, the aim of the waste-to-wealth programme of the ministry is to implement a sustainable end-to–end solution for an Integrated Waste Management System in Nigeria, through a well-coordinated national plan.
He said the “Waste-to- wealth” programme of the ministry established in the six geopolitical zones in the country had started improving the health and livelihood of citizens.
The director explained that the programme had started revealing the considerable quantity of direct employment across various sectors by driving the spread of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Oguntade affirmed that the projects had the potential to promote large scale industries in all six political zones in Nigeria, where they were domiciled.
“There is technology in place that guarantees sustainable development of the country through accurate and reliable data collection and development, analysis and documentation,” he said.
He said the ministry was determined to channel efforts towards advancing productive decision making processes.
He maintained that the condition of any country was directly related to its technological know-how and facts.
Oguntade said better understanding and utilisation of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) helped in almost all spheres of human endeavour, which improved the standards of living of many known great nations.
According to the director, Nigeria cannot be excluded.
Beides, he said the ministry had also planned to accelerate achievements of its stated action plan by collaborating with relevant international organisations.
The 2018 class includes experts in infectious diseases, community-led development, human rights, health and vaccinations, and environmental conservation
New Voices Fellowship Director, Andrew Quinn
The Aspen Institute on Tuesday, January 23 announced the 2018 class of the New Voices Fellowship, a programme designed to ensure experts from the developing world have a voice in the global development discussion.
The 20 new Fellows are leading public health specialists, doctors, scientists, activists, social entrepreneurs, policy experts, researchers, and economists, and come from 12 countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
“Across the world, local experts and local communities are taking charge of their own futures,” said New Voices Fellowship Director, Andrew Quinn. “These are the voices we should be listening for when we listen to the story of global development – because these are the voices that show the way forward on humanity’s greatest challenges, including infectious disease, food security, good governance and climate change.”
The 2018 New Voices Fellows come from Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Liberia, Mexico, Maldives, and South Africa. They will undertake a program of intensive media training and mentorship to reach a broader global audience through both traditional and new media, as well as speaking engagements.
This year’s fellows include:
a human rights expert from Uganda who built a center for human-trafficking survivors in Uganda;
a real-life “Slumdog Millionaire” from Pakistan focused on health and education in the slums, where he taught himself how to read using newspaper scraps;
a microbiologist from Nepal who has worked extensively in the growing global problem of antimicrobial resistance;
a physician from Mexico committed to social justice and service to marginalized populations;
a Nigerian social entrepreneur who founded of a food processing company and a consulting firm focused on improving nutrition in West Africa;
a Kenyan scientist who has extensively studied immune response in mother-to-child transmission of HIV; and
a Ugandan activist who fought against the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality bill.
During the programme’s first five years, New Voices Fellows were featured over 2,000 times in media outlets and delivered numerous TED and TEDx talks. Under a training partnership with The Moth, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, New Voices Fellows have told their stories to live US audiences and through radio and podcast syndication.
Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Open Societies Foundation, the New Voices Fellowship was established in 2013 to bring the essential perspectives of development experts from Africa and other parts of the developing world into the global development conversation. Application to the fellowship is by nomination only, and nominations will open in August 2018 for the next class.
One year ago, on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump was inaugurated 45th president of the United States. The year has however been seen by environmentalists and sustainable development campaigners as a challenging one, in the light of the number of controversial moves made by the White House within 365 days. Washington, DC-based non-profit organisation involved in education and advocacy related to climate change, Climate Reality, lists the decisions, saying however that it remains as hopeful as ever
With coal miners gathered around him, President Donald Trump of the US signed an Executive Order rolling back a temporary ban on mining coal and a stream protection rule imposed by the Obama administration
Choosing Profits Over People The White House has revoked or repealed dozens of environmental rules, including ones that prevent coal companies from dumping mining debris into local streams and ban offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
A rule preventing coal companies from dumping mining debris into local streams – Revoked. A ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans – Repealed. A proposed rule asking mines to prove they can pay for potential future cleanup efforts – Reversed. Guidance for federal agencies to include greenhouse gas emissions in environmental reviews – Withdrawn. Review of strong fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks – Reopened. An Obama-era rule regulating royalties on oil, gas, and coal extracted from federal or tribal land – Rescinded.
So who loses? Pretty much everyone else.
To start, burning fossil fuels pollutes our air directly and immediately with irritants like particulate matter and soot, and as these greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and average temperatures rise, they also contribute to higher levels of ground-level ozone that can cause acute and long-term respiratory problems.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “Climate change is among the greatest health risks of the twenty-first century. Rising temperatures and more extreme weather events cost lives directly, increase transmission and spread of infectious diseases, and undermine the environmental determinants of health, including clean air and water, and sufficient food.”
But instead of listening to the scientists at WHO and elsewhere, the administration seemed to be listening to, well, fossil fuel executives. The White House went even further and directed federal agencies to stop using the “social cost of carbon,” a tool for estimating the real monetary damage that comes with spreading disease, rising asthma rates, and other impacts of carbon pollution and climate change.
Climate Change and National Security In December 2017, the White House dropped climate change from the list of global threats to the nation included in the official National Security Strategy (NSS). This action stands in stark contrast to the NSS under the Obama Administration, which recognised climate change as a key threat to national security.
What’s shocking about these moves is that they directly contradict the public stance of the current (and well-respected) secretary of defense, James Mattis.
Secretary Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are said to have also arguedagainst President Trump’s decision to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement.
There are countless ways the climate crisis impacts the internal stability of nations around the world. But don’t take our word for it. Just listen to some of our nation’s greatest military minds.
Not even a week before releasing the new NSS, the president signed the National Defense Authorisation Act, which includes a section titled “Report on Effects of Climate Change on Department of Defense,” where Secretary Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others, elaborate on the various and numerous threats climate change poses to the safety and security of America’s military.
The conclusion: “It is the sense of Congress that climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States and is impacting stability in areas of the world both where the United States Armed Forces are operating today, and where strategic implications for future conflict exist.”
EPA Leadership: Not That into Protecting the Environment In October, the Trump Administration proposed repealing America’s Clean Power Plan, a centerpiece of President Obama’s commitment to tackle climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of US power plants.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has set his sights on undoing America’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), in particular. In October, the Trump Administration proposed repealing the CPP, a centerpiece of President Obama’s commitment to tackle climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of US power plants.
Repealing the CPP moves the United States in exactly the opposite direction as the rest of the world is heading in increasingly shifting from fossil fuels to renewables. It’s also yet another example of the US abdicating its traditional role as a global leader (and the White House sacrificing real business opportunities for American companies and workers in the growing clean energy revolution).
Sadly, the writing was always on the wall once Pruitt was nominated to lead EPA. Prior to becoming administrator, Pruitt was an outspoken denier of climate science who led the coalition of state attorneys general suing the agency over the CPP during his tenure as attorney general of Oklahoma. He also received nearly $300,000 in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, and took industry messages straight from lobbyists for official state correspondence to President Obama and EPA.
Perhaps, or at least among, the most public assaults on environmental regulation, climate science, public opinion, and common sense undertaken by the Trump Administration came in an announcement made last summer. In a speech from the White House Rose Garden, President Trump declared, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” and announced the US would begin the lengthy formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.
The historic agreement, which was signed in 2015 and entered into force in late-2016, united the world around a major goal – to cut greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and together limit global warming. The accord rallied the world around the existentially important cause of limiting global average temperature increases to less than 2 degrees Celsius.
Adding insult to injury, during his Paris announcement, the president also declared his intent to stop payments to the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations programme “which helps fund climate finance investment in low-emission, climate-resilient development through mitigation and adaptation projects and programs in developing countries.”
Unsurprisingly, the president’s announcement was met with widespread condemnation from other world leaders, who promptly strengthened their commitments to fighting climate change – and then some.
We could say an awful lot more here, but we’ll leave it at this: The United States is now the only country in the world opposed to the Paris Agreement. That pretty much tells us all that we need to know.
So Where Do Things Stand?
All of this is pretty bad for the planet, of course, but it’s also antithetical to the administration’s “America First” policy. In any scenario where the US attempts to expand fossil fuel production as the rest of the world moves on quickly to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, everyday Americans citizens lose. Beyond even the obvious dangers the climate crisis poses to our short- and long-term well-being, we also lose out on being part of the future of energy and jobs – all so the Big Polluters of today can line their pockets before the jig is truly up.
“The irony is that we may well meet our obligations under the Paris treaty, even with the current administration playing an adversarial role,” Dr. Michael Mann told Climate Reality late last year. “That’s simply because of all of the progress that we are seeing now at the state level, at the municipal level thanks to efforts by folks like Al Gore to really mobilize the American people on this issue.”
He continued, “Ironically, (leaving the Paris Agreement) puts the US in a less competitive position. The rest of the world recognises that the future of our global economy will be in renewable energy. That’s the great economic revolution of this century. And what Trump and those whose agenda he’s advancing are doing is holding us back as the rest of the world moves on, and guaranteeing that we lose out in this economic race.”
In the face of these attacks on the health of our shared planet and the US’ role as a global leader, are you ready to be a voice of reality? Are you ready to take action?
Here’s the deal: As discussed above, the Trump Administration is working to repeal (and possibly replace) America’s Clean Power Plan. Backed by powerful oil, coal, and gas companies, EPA Administrator Pruitt claims the original CPP overstepped EPA authority. But we know this is really about protecting Big Polluters’ bottom lines – no matter the consequences.
Americans agree our families should have clean air to breathe, a safe climate to live in, and a thriving, job-rich future powered by renewable energy.
The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Co-Laureate, Ouided Bouchamaoui, has warned that Africa’s growing youth population could be a plus for Africa or a political time bomb. This, according to her, depends on how leaders anticipate the future.
Ouided Bouchamaoui
In remarks she made at the African Development Bank’s Eminent Speaker Series seminar on Monday, January 22, 2018 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on the theme “African Cooperation: Dream or Reality?”, Bouchamaoui argued for a new vision for Africa that is hinged on modernity and progress that goes beyond economic development.
“My message is clear: let’s give priority to the youth, university cooperation, the development of initiatives, networking and institutional capacity-building,” she said, highlighting the need for African leaders to tap into the creative energy of the youth to pilot the projects of the future.
Bouchamaoui said integration should include partnerships in academia, the arts, entertainment, science, technology, governance and culture.
Bouchamaoui was the first woman elected to head the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA). She was head of the organisation in 2015 when the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, which UTICA had formed with the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Lawyers Association two years earlier, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Quartet organised negotiations between Tunisia’s political parties to ensure a successful transition following the “Arab Spring” that led to the fall of President Zine Abidine Ben Ali.
In her presentation, Bouchamaoui called for greater economic cooperation among African countries and a greater focus on academic and vocational training, scientific research, technology, government and culture, which she said had remained largely untapped.
“Africa bucks current demographic trends because 70% of its total population is composed of young people below the age of 25 years, representing a market of over one billion consumers. By 2050, this population is expected to soar to 2.5 billion inhabitants, of which half will be less than 25 years old; and by 2025 there will be 500 million more urban dwellers,” she said.
The first step, she said, is to engage in active and massive training of the youth. She also advocated for the establishment of strategic partnerships among African universities as a key to strengthening intra-African bilateral and multilateral relations.
Bouchamaoui observed that leaders must invest in the acceleration of a Digital Africa to help create smart economies, smart cities, smart countries, and subsequently a smart continent.
According to the Nobel Co-Laureate, online learning remains a formidable tool for pooling energies and building bridges of innovative education for the benefit of African students. She reminded the audience that Africans in the diaspora are key to consolidating the linkages between African countries.
Africa should foster economic cooperation by developing new funding sources, growing the labour force, and training and technological innovation.
In her view, African cooperation and integration is possible.
Ouided Bouchamaoui was voted Best Business Woman of the Arab World in 2013 under the auspices of the G8 Deauville Partnerships, and awarded the Business for Peace Award in 2014.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, in January 2015, the Tunisian President, Beji Caid Essebsi, decorated Bouchamaoui with the Grand Officer of the Order of the Republic – First Class. In the same year, His Majesty, the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, decorated her with the Royal Order of the Polar Star. A month later, former French President François Hollande conferred her with France’s Legion d’honneur.
Bouchamaoui’s vision for Africa includes investing in the creative energies of Africa’s youth through skills development and dynamic partnerships between African universities – including an Erasmus programme to produce the next generation of Africa’s best brains.
The African Development Bank’s Eminent Speakers Lecture Series was launched in 2006. Its goal is to provide a platform for a robust exchange of ideas to meet the challenges of African development.
Zambia is close to containing a cholera outbreak that has killed 78 of the more than 3,600 people who have fallen sick since October, the government said on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.
Zambian Health Minister, Chitalu Chilufya
Health Minister, Chitalu Chilufya, told reporters the number of cholera cases being recorded daily had dropped to less than a quarter of what was being reported two weeks ago.
“We continue to record a drop from an average 164 cases daily to an average 25 to 30 cases per day.
“In the last 24 hours, we have had a total of 32 cases,” Chilufya said.
Zambia on January 14 relaxed rules, including the closure of markets and schools, imposed to curb the spread of cholera as the number of new cases being reported halved.
Cholera is a bacterial disease transmitted through food and water that causes severe diarrhea that can lead to sometimes deadly dehydration.
Chilufya said the measures put in place to contain the outbreak were clearly working.
President Edgar Lungu last month directed the military to clean markets and unblock drains to help to fight the spread of the disease.
“The civil-military operation that has been going on has paid dividends,” Chilufya said, referring to the presidential order for the military to join the clean up exercise.
Chilufya said by January 20, the government had vaccinated 1.3 million people, including inmates in congested prisons, against cholera.
