The Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria has been urged to commit adequate funds to address the growing menace of malnutrition, with experts and stakeholders saying the way to avert the danger is for the country to not just fund projects targeted at treating the millions of children stunted by malnutrition but commit to awareness campaigns to prevent the disease.
A malnourished child
Speaking recently in lagos at a one-day symposium on “Malnutrition, child development and the media” organised by the Media Centre Against Child Malnutrition (MeCAM), Sunday Okoronkwo, a project manager at the Civil Society on Scaling Up Nutrition Nigeria (CS-SUNN), explained that the country currently does not have proper funding to address the problem, warning also that figures such as 11m Nigerian children being stunted may well be a poor representation of the reality.
Okoronkwo, who stood in for CS-SUNN project director, Mrs Beatrice Eluaka, at the event also attended by other top pro-nutrition civil society groups, including Community Health and Research Initiative (CHRI), Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network Nigeria and Global Alliance on Improved Nutrition (GAIN), lamented that the country’s $912 million action plan on nutrition for the years 2014 through 2019 remains largely unfunded, with Nigeria’s $100 million counterpart funding of the policy hardly making it into the annual budgets.
According to him, the country’s 2017 budget has no provision for the plan which expires in 2019.
Speaking on “Dealing with nutritional Fads and Fallacies”, Dr. Aminu Garba, chairman of CHRI, called for declaration of emergency on malnutrition, even as he clamoured for sustained media engagement, among other steps, to address the many fallacies around the question of nutrition.
Garba outlined these to include cultural claims that giving newborns colostrum exposes them to witchcraft or that children and women should not eat meat or take adequate milk.
Remmy Nweke, the national coordinator of MeCAM Nigeria, said the organisation evolved from the unique need for the media to respond to the national emergency on malnutrition. He insisted that government’s funding to combat malnutrition is not “commensurate” to the volume and potential consequences of the unfolding crisis.
“Well done is better than well said…” ( Benjamin Franklin, Founding father of the United States of America, 1706-1790.)
The Millennium Park in Illinois, Chicago, USA
In the 1950s to 1970, a timeframe of 20 years, the city of Lagos evokes nostalgia. It was then a city which Lewis Munford, the erudite historian who earned the moniker…city binocular for being a keen watcher/great city thinker of his era (1895-1990), would aptly describe as a “model of a perfect city.” Lagos was livable. A clean city full of greenery having trees lined up on both sides of the urban roads. The evergreen trees served as natural umbrellas from the scorching tropical sun of the climatic zone which Lagos is situated. There was a popular “botanic garden” affectionately called “love garden” by the locals. A stretch of tranquil/unpolluted water-front (marina) and a mandatory noiseless zone where the residential buildings of the colonial governor and other colonial top government officials lived was full of greenery and rainbow of garden flowers. The King George V stadium (as it was then known, now Onikan Stadium) occupied a conspicuous space surrounded by large species of evergreen and fruit trees.
Within a walking distance from the stadium was another sports ground for horse racing frequented by popular jockeys and horse racing enthusiasts. In the same precinct was Nigeria’s legislative building, the Parliament House; well-landscaped and overlooking at a distance was a federal government towering 25-storey skyscraper appropriately named “Independence Building” because it was built as a commemorative edifice to mark Nigeria’s attainment of independence from Britain in 1960.
A daylight thriving and night time glittering Central Business District (CBD) was created in central Lagos through which runs the city’s longest arterial road, “Broad Street” partially lined with trees in accordance with the tradition of urban development of that era.
A magnificent Lagos City Hall building and one of the pioneer secondary schools in Lagos, the “Kings College”, sandwiched between trees, can be found within the radius of the public space. The school environment was full of flowers constantly managed by a gardener. Other federal buildings such as the Supreme Court, Federal Surveys, and a neighbourhood Post Office are visible structures.
The Tafawa Balewa Bus Terminal was where government and non-government workers converge to board public transportation to any part of the city and to the border towns of Mushin, Oshodi, and Ikeja, which was then under the administrative control of the Western Region government.
The affluent residential hoods of Ikoyi and Victoria Island were virtually immersed in what could pass for a forest because of the extensive greenery common in the two strictly residential districts, contrary to the present incompatible/mixed land uses.
Over to the mainland section of the city lies a planned middle-class residential quarters where most property owners have front and backyard gardens.The roads were laid in grid-iron (pattern), very motorable and street connectivity was made simple and suitable for driving without a tremor on the surface of the coffee. Meaning that there was no bumpy roads for the few number of vehicle owners that plied the roadways.
In a nutshell, the narrative above paints a picture of the Lagos of yore as a community-made “garden city” of that era in history, when both the government and the residents were committed to greenery and did so in words and actions. The government and the governed are both true biophilia.
A view of the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
Paradise lost
The turn of event and the fall from grace to grass coupled with the attendant urban degeneration started shortly after the oil boom late in the 1970s. Lagos became the magnet and a “choice” destination city for many Nigerians in search of the Golden Fleece, especially job seekers – both skilled and unskilled applicants. There was spiral industrialisation. Lagos became the hub of so many manufacturing companies and heavy industries. Job oppourtunity was unlimited. And in tow was the torrential wave of internal migration of job seekers. It was a like a river cutting through a hard rock with its persistence. It was an unstoppable and controllable migration from all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria…east, west, north and south with Lagos as the “centripetal city”… a convergence zone for most people.
The city rapidly became cosmopolitan due to the additional influx of foreign immigrants from the ECOWAS sub-region. There was equally uncontrolled physical expansion at the city periphery and other hinterlands which were formerly agricultural farm lands. Most of these fringe settlements are grungy and poverty-ridden. Like a blown balloon, the Lagos population started to increase in number year after year to a certain extent the city was grossly overpopulated.
How the rot began
Suddenly, the link chain snapped.The government capacity to cater for the needs of the huge population in terms of housing, water, employment, health care services, transportation and other necessities of life required by the residents was Herculean and financially tasking. Proper city management was arduous. Urban planning was worse hit and not spared. Feeble attempts were made to guide development on the Lagos Island and Ebute Metta, but the rest of the outer fringes are spontaneous shanty settlements without any trace of urban planning.
Graving for expansion and, in the process of providing physical infrastructure such as road network on the Lagos Island, the government unconsciously and extensively bulldozed most of the trees, leading to tremendous loss of greenery. The marina was completely degreened in the course of construction of a major roadway, and the Tafawa Balewa Square partly became a commercial hub and partly public parade ground with a concrete base and a home to a social club: The Club Arcade.
The felling of trees in Ikoyi and Victoria Island was condoned under the guise of urban expansion. Land reclamation by both government and private sector developers was part of the destructive activities that eliminated some of the wetlands around the city and further pushed back the territory of the Lagos lagoon. An entire public park, the Ikoyi Park of fame, was converted to a high-end residential estate. Similarly, the quest for city expansion led to the gradual sand filling of the Lekki peninsula for housing development with very little consideration for the provision of drainage channels and concern for the surrounding fragile ecosystem.
Many residential estates developed by both the Lagos State Government (LASG) and Private Real Estate developers dotted the landscape of Lekki and Ajah axis of Lagos metropolis. The gale wind of uncontrolled urban development and a frenetic wave of construction activities has not subsided till date, a fact Dr. Babatunde Adejare, the incumbent Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, alluded to during the recent flag-off of the 2017 Tree Planting campaign when he said that, “Lagos lost its biodiversity (and greenery) to development activities and unrelenting urbanisation.”
In trying to describe Lagos greenery in a recent publication, Abimbola Adelakun, a columnist with The Punch newspaper, lamented, “You can fly over large swathes of Lagos without encountering greenery whereas there is a park in the heart of Manhattan in New York City, USA, one of the most urbanised spaces in the world.” (The Punch, Thursday, July 27, 2017.)
Given consideration to all these short-comings and city management problems expatiated above, it is, therefore, fair to truly infer that Lagos was formerly the perfect model of a city, but, currently, it is no more the model of a perfect city in terms of greenery.
The environmental crisis is real
The alarm raised by the Commissioner quoted in this piece is justified. Globally, all humanity is neck-deep in an environmental crisis of immense dimension triggered by human developmental and detrimental activities, extraordinarily consumptive and technology-driven lifestyle resulting in the humongous generation of degradable and non-degradable waste materials, some of which are toxic/harmful to human and the purlieu. The footprint of the environmental crisis is in all villages, towns, cities, regions, and countries of the world, (Lagos and Nigeria inclusive). Indicative of the global environmental crisis, we now have commonly used terminologies such as “global warming”, “climate change”, “rising sea level”, “ocean surge”, “Co2 emission”, “sustainability”, “greenhouse gas emission”, “renewable energy”, and a host of other environmentally conscious jargons.
Seen as a threat to human survival and city sustainability worldwide, national governments unanimously endorsed the “Paris Agreement on Climate Change” to aggressively combat climate change through mitigation measures such as tree planting, waste recycling, manufacturing of energy efficient automobiles, smart growth to cap urban sprawl, renewable energy sources that are far less polluting than coal or oil, conservation/preservation and sundry Environmental Action Plans to save the future of world cities and humanity in general.
Staging a comeback to greenery
To heed the warnings of global warming and climate change, the LASG has commenced efforts to re-green the Lagos City-State and bring back its legacy and glory of a state that put people and nature at its centre of development. A new agency, the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK), was specifically set up in 2012 by the government for the purpose of greening Lagos through the development parks, gardens and urban beautification in all ramifications. A green-related programme, “Greener Lagos Initiative”, is already on course and in action. The government started a mandatory tree planting yearly campaign to create public awareness about the importance of trees in the living environment. The programme, now in its 10th year, has some 6.8 million trees planted (Lagos State Parks and Gardens, LASPARK).
During the flag-off of the 2017 Tree Planting Day, the present Administration pledged to plant 500,000 additional trees statewide in addition to the creation of more green areas in the form of parks, parklets, and recreational open space. Well said. But there is palpable apprehension that LASPARK is yet to look outside the box and is less proactive. The Agency is unconsciously committing some mistakes in its line of duty; same observation about the LASG which is inadvertently not following the provisions of its Environmental Sustainability Policy.
We note and suggest as follows.
There must an increased tempo in tree planting
The output of tree planting in Lagos State to-date is 6.8 million 10 years after the first Tree Planting Day was launched in 2007. This on the average is 680,000 trees being planted per annum, whereas a figure of 500,000 was proposed for 2017 creating a shortfall of 180,000. For a state in a speedy race to become carbon-free, greener, cleaner, and healthier in order to raise the quality of living standard, tree planting out-put per year desirably should be on a higher increase. It should not be on a downward trend. A concerted effort must be made in ensuring that at least a minimum threshold of one million trees per year is set as an achievable goal. It may seem impossible until it is done. Tree planting ought to be a continuous function for LASPARK, not just a symbolic one-day exercise after which there is a weakling spirit in tree planting activity.
The re-greening of Lagos must be invigorated and redirected
LASPARK should focus more on recovering the loss of greenery within the CBD, Broad Street/Marina axis and along all primary arterial roads in the mega city. By design, the Agency should create a linear island or vest pocket space along roads which are currently bereft of greenery. Such areas are ubiquitous in Lagos. The road sidewalk/median, for example, in some areas of the mega city, can still conveniently accommodate tree planting. This is a common practice in most American cities especially around the central business districts (CBDs), where different species of trees galore. It gives the visual impression that one is in a park or forest because of the lush and luxuriant foliage of the trees.
Chicago’s iconic 24.5 acres public park, the Millennium Park, is located in the middle of downtown Chicago “atop of a commuter rail station and a parking garage”. The park “is considered the world’s largest rooftop garden.” It is a tourist’s destination and delight. The public park has so many interesting side attractions which include an exotic food court, a variety of sculptures, unique water fountain, botanic garden, a large open-field concert facility, event hall, image gallery, children playground and free seasonal events/activities for tourists. In 2016, the Millennium Park recorded 25 million visitors out of a total 58 million people that visited the city of Chicago (Wikipedia).
Operational lapses should be revisited and corrected
Since its inception in 2012, LASPARK was able to establish 327 parks comprising public event parks, gardens, and public playgrounds. The ownership of the parks is broken into 212 (LASG), 85 (private concerns) and 31 (established in schools), as reported on the LASPARK website. However, the flaw in most of the parks is that they cannot be regarded as public parks in the true sense of the word. They are not user-friendly due to their dangerous/vulnerable/isolated locations.
For example, one is located under high tension electric cables along Osborne Road, Ikoyi. Some are located inside the loops of bridges or in awkward places without direct access and along the expressway having a high volume of vehicular traffic. Constant exposure of prospective visitors to imminent danger while making attempts to cross the ever busy roads is one sure way to discourage people from using the parks.
Although the sizes of the parks are not specified on the LASPARK website, which is a serious oversight, they are “parklets or mini playgrounds… smaller versions of a standard public park”. Most public parks are usually accompanied with useful information about the history, size, the attractions within the parks and sundry activities for the benefit of visitors. LASPARK scores very low in this aspect of public park management. The website is not replete with adequate information which could be very useful to both local and foreign tourists. This is could cause a dent on LASPARK’s public image because the Agency is not information prolific.
Avoiding past mistake
While the effort of the present administration is commended in the areas of city-wide urban renewal, it seems the mistake of the past is still being repeated in most of the state’s physical development projects such as housing, bus terminal and road construction. This writer had the privilege of visiting the Lagos Homes housing estate being developed at Sangotedo area along the Lekki Expressway and the newly-built Ikeja Bus Terminal. The two projects occupy very large tracts of land. However, when compared to areas earmarked for landscaping and tree planting, there is disequilibrium. The Sangotedo estate is overbuilt with residential buildings without the commensurate ratio of open space and playground or a nearby outdoor public park big enough for the anticipated use of the estate’s large population.
The Ikeja Bus Terminal has very minimal trees planted within the complex. For the benefit of commuters, more trees are required to be planted which, in the future, would provide shade during inclement weather conditions for passengers while waiting to board the bus. The proliferation of trees within the bus terminal is desirable. It serves a good purpose at reducing the harmful effects of carbon dioxide emission from the fleet of buses regularly coming and going out of such a localised area where human traffic is expectedly high. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen to sustain human life.
Aim high and be the first, nobody remembers the second
Lastly, if the noble intention for the enhancement of tourism is to go beyond mere sloganeering and the Tree Planting campaign is not a propaganda, Lagos State is in dire need of iconic public park in each of the IBILE Districts (Ikorodu, Badagry, Ikeja, Lagos, and Epe). Activities to do and places to visit, where is the restaurant to eat local foods/delicatessen and places of entertainment/concerts to attend are the primary factors that gravitate tourists to and sustainable tourism in the city or country. For Lagos to be competitive in the world tourism trade, the proposed parks should not be less than 200 hectares in size but could be more. Prototype design should be avoided. Each district must have a different design with unique attractions and features. As a Centre of Excellence and a trail blazer State, the parks must be of high international standard and the call for design must be open to local and international competition so that the best design would be chosen.
The city-state of Singapore is a best practice in tourism and park development. It has many unique attractions and creatively designed “one-of-a-kind” public parks, architectural buildings, nature reserves and awesome city aesthetics that put Singapore in number one position among “the best ten world’s tourism cities in 2016.”
With a strong political will, Lagos State can reach the same enviable height but it should be mindful of Arnold Glasgow’s immortal caveat: “an idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.”(Arnold Glasgow, 1905-1998).
Former Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, has identified three things that the Federal Government must vigorously pursue if Nigeria must get out of economic recession.
L-R: President, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Musilikilu Mojeed; Zonal Commanding Officer, Zone 2, Lagos, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Sheu Zaki; Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media, Femi Adesina; Prof Akin Olugbinde; Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Bayo Onanuga and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, during the 1st Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in Lagos
Mr Obi was a Guest Speaker at the 1st Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) held on Thursday, August 10, 2017 at the Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja in Lagos.
Speaking on the theme “Sustaining growth through diversification of the economy”, he contended that the Nigerian economy is already diversified.
Buttressing this, the former governor said the non-oil sector is contributing about 80% to the nation’s GDP, noting that the tragedy is that the oil sector however accounts for 90% of the foreign exchange earnings.
He listed three ways to put the economy back on the path of growth. According to him, government must as a matter of urgency embark on aggressive savings, diversification of the economy towards manufacturing and lastly investment in developmental education.
“Our economy is fully diversified because the non-oil sector is actually contributing about 80 per cent to our GDP today.
“But the tragedy of our economy is that 90 per cent of our export revenue is derived from just one sector – oil.
“Diversifying our economy through manufacturing and investment in education is what we require today to turn around our economy.
“And by aggressive savings we’ll be able to get the resources to bring about micro economic stability to the country, defend our currency and be able to attract FDI and portfolio investments and unlock the resources to invest in our deteriorated infrastructure,” Obi, who described himself as a trader and businessman, said.
Another Guest Speaker and Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga, charged GOCOP to come up with code of conduct for online media practitioners.
He also charged the leadership of the Guild to pursue capacity building for members through workshops and seminars to broaden their knowledge.
The NAN MD assured that his organisation would collaborate with GOCOP in generating contents, not only text but videos and photographs.
On his part, the keynote speaker, Prof Akinyemi Onigbinde, posited that the nation needs to restructure the polity before talking about diversification of the economy.
“Let me say this, and it is with all sense of responsibility, that the proponents of this ‘diversification’ theory, with respect to the chronically ill Nigeria economy, are not being honest.
“Indeed, I dare say they are being mischievous, just as they insist on playing Nero as our Rome prepares to go up in flames. Truth is, for Nigeria, it may well be one-minute to midnight, if we continue to ignore the ‘first principle’ in nation-building.
“So, what is responsible for Nigeria’s arrested development, to put it in a counter thesis to GOCOP request: Nigeria economy cannot enjoy a sustainable growth and neither can it be diversified because there is even no basis for economic growth.
“As I had earlier suggested, what economy are we to diversify? And As I had also insisted on, there can be no economy to be diversified, hence there will be no growth as to speak of ‘sustainable growth.’
“But let us, however, say that Nigeria will continue to remain in a state of suspended animation, economically, so long as some sections of the Nigerian nation space feel short-changed by the Nigeria political economy, due, largely, to the operations of present structure of the Nigerian state.
“Truth is, so long as the centre holds a ‘veto power’ over the economic activities of Nigeria so-called federating units, so long will Nigeria manifest destiny remain dormant,” Prof Onigbinde said.
Representatives of GOCOP key partners like FRSC, Mobil, NLNG, EFCC delivered goodwill messages calling for sustained relationship while the GOC 81 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General PJ Dauke, presented a paper on counter-insurgency.
At the end of the one-day conference, the newly elected Executive Committee of GOCOP was inaugurated under the leadership of Mr Dotun Oladipo, Publisher, The Eagle Online.
The Presidency has assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will not muzzle the media.
L-R: President, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Musilikilu Mojeed; Zonal Commanding Officer, Zone 2, Lagos, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Sheu Zaki; Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media, Femi Adesina; Prof Akin Olugbinde; Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Bayo Onanuga and Director, Public Officer, EFCC, Osita Nwajeh, during the 1stGuild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in Lagos
Presidential Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, gave the assurance on Thursday, August 10, 2017 while speaking at the First Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) held at Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
Adesina said the Buhari administration is committed to freedom of press hence, would not gag the media.
He, however, enjoined the Nigerian media to be responsible and to only engage in constructive criticism of government activities.
“This government is not interested in muzzling the media in anyway. We are committed to freedom of speech.
“Media should be positively critical, media should be responsible.
“Count this government out of muzzling the media, Adesina stressed.
The Presidential Media Adviser told the ‘August’ gathering that he had been part of GOCOP from inception because members of the Guild are credible professionals that all stakeholders must identify with.
He said: “When you see responsible organisation like GOCOP, we all must support them.
“I identify with GOCOP because I know it has what it takes to do the right thing. I have been a part of GOCOP from the beginning.”
In his welcome address, the outgoing President of GOCOP, Musikilu Mojeed of Premium Times, traced the history of the Guild, saying it has been committed to peer review.
He noted that the number of online news platforms has ballooned in the last few years, stressing the need to protect the cyber space by setting stringent conditions for online publishers to join GOCOP.
Mojeed expressed the readiness of the Guild to partner with relevant government agencies to sanitise the online media practice.
“We are ready to name and shame any member who engages in misconduct,” he told the gathering.
However, he pointedly said the Guild would not welcome any attempt by the government to muzzle or gag the online platforms in any guise.
Immediate past Head of Department (HOD), Communication and Media Enterprise at the Pan Atlantic University (PAU), Dr. Isah Momoh, has said that the Nigerian mass communication needs to focus more on science reporting.
2016 Nigerian Academy of Science Media Awards: Tunde Ajaja of The Punch (2nd left) receiving his award plaque, gift and price money at the NAS Science Media Awards in Lagos on Thursday, August 10, 2017. Photo credit: Innocent Anoruo
In a keynote address delivered at the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) annual appreciation luncheon for science journalists on Thursday, August 10, 2017 in Lagos, Momoh noted that Nigeria missed the path to development because science has not met communication in the country.
“Nigerian journalism and mass communication need to focus more on science reporting, coverage, features and analysis.
“The new Nigerian journalism needs also to be done scientifically. This new journalistic genre and style are part of the development journalism thrust for Nigeria’s accelerated development,” he said.
At the event where prizes were presented to winners of the NAS Science Media Awards were NAS president, Professor Mosto Onuoha, who chaired the occasion; NAS Foundation Fellow, Professor Sylvester Adegoke; Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) Provost, Gbemiga Ogunleye; and Professor Sunday Atawodi of the Biochemistry Department, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, who gave the opening speech.
Tunde Ajaja of The Punch emerged winner of the prize with his story, “One physician to 3,500 patients, yet Nigerian doctors beg for posting”. The runner-up was Mojeed Alabi of New Telegraph with his story on pollution.
While encouraging other print, broadcast and online journalists to work harder so they could win next time, he urged NAS to partner with relevant bodies to widen the scope of the awards.
“The awards should not be just for journalists, but for science literature, especially science fiction and other journalistic innovations, as well as other innovativeness,” he added.
Executive Secretary of NAS, Dr. Oladoyin Odubanjo, said the awards was instituted by the academy to promote science reporting in Nigeria, and that it is open to all print and broadcast journalists, including online. He added that just one entry is accepted per journalist from stories written the previous year.
According to him, the winners were picked from 22 entries received by the academy, including 17 print, four online and one broadcast.
At the event also, NAS was asked to show strong presence in the social media, as that is where Nigeria’s readers are presently.
To make the awards more effective, Momoh advised NAS to outsource the awards’ planning, organisation, marketing and presentation.
In his brief remarks, Prof. Adegoke urged journalists not to yield to gratifications to the detriment of their jobs, but to research and inform the society on the fruit of their research.
“Nigerians are not absorbing the fruits of science. In the quest for development, we look for foreigners while our people make waves overseas,” he added.
For him, aside the President of the country, the media is the next in line when it comes to making weighty statements.
The goal of World Elephant Day, according to its promoters, is to create awareness of the urgent plight of African and Asian elephants, and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better care and management of captive and wild elephants.
Poaching: Forest elephants are poached for their ivory and skin, and threatened with extinction
African elephants are listed as “Vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. According to conservationists, both African and Asian elephants face extinction within 12 years.
The current population estimates are about 400,000 for African elephants and 40,000 for Asian elephants, although it has been argued that these numbers are much too high.
The World Elephant Day is an international annual event on August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world’s elephants.
On August 12, 2012, the inaugural World Elephant Day was launched to bring attention to the urgent plight of Asian and African elephants. “The elephant is loved, revered and respected by people and cultures around the world, yet we balance on the brink of seeing the last of this magnificent creature,” a conservationist was quoted as saying.
The escalation of poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict and mistreatment in captivity are said to be some of the threats to both African and Asian elephants.
Working towards better protection for wild elephants, improving enforcement policies to prevent the illegal poaching and trade of ivory, conserving elephant habitats, better treatment for captive elephants and, when appropriate, reintroducing captive elephants into natural, protected sanctuaries are the goals that numerous elephant conservation organisations are focusing on around the world.
“World Elephant Day asks you to experience elephants in non-exploitive and sustainable environments where elephants can thrive under care and protection. On World Elephant Day, August 12, express your concern, share your knowledge and support solutions for the better care of captive and wild elephants alike,” says worldelephantday.org.
Dr. Stephen Blake, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology states: “Elephants are simply one more natural resource that is being caught up in human greed on the one hand and human need on the other. We somehow need people to become reacquainted with nature or they can have no clue as to the interrelatedness of cause and effect.”
Graydon Carter, Editor of Vanity Fair: “We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior.”
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in partnership with the Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA), during a rally held in Abuja on Thursday, August 10, 2017, expressed support for tobacco control polices promoted by the Federal Minister of Health. Akinbode Oluwafemi, Chairman, NTCA, says in this presentation to Prof Isaac Folorunso Adewole, the Health Minister, that youths and underage are now the target of tobacco corporations
Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) during the rally in Abuja
As has been amplified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco kills nearly six million people annually and, if current trends continue, it will kill more than eight million people worldwide by 2030. A large chunk of these deaths will come from developing nations like Nigeria.
For the NTCA, the signing of the National Tobacco Control Act on May 25, 2015 provides the legal framework for the protection of present and future generations of Nigerians from the devastating health, social, economic and environmental consequences of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke. This singular legislation gives effect to the obligation to protect citizens against tobacco-related harms in the promotion of health and other human rights as contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) and other related treaties to which Nigeria is a Party.
We commend the efforts of the Ministry of Health at ensuring optimum quality health for every citizen of this country. We are particularly enthralled by the announcement on the occasion of the 2017 World No Tobacco Day that the Nigerian government would commence the implementation of nine provisions of the NTC Act that do not require regulations. This news is particularly refreshing to us when viewed from the prism of the tobacco burden our nation carries because of the tobacco industry target of the youth as replacement smokers for a dying older generation.
The implementation of the nine life-saving provisions as we await the full implementation of all sections of the Act will send a message to tobacco corporations and indeed the global community that Nigeria is serious about ensuring the wellness of its people in line with recommendations of the WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
This feat notwithstanding, there are still some issues on the table which we believe your intervention will address.
BATN and the Health of Nigerian Workers
We would like to revisit the reported violation of Nigeria’s labour laws by British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) which elicited a response from the Ministry of Labour and Employment via a fact-finding visit to the Ibadan factory of the company where the alleged infractions occurred. Unfortunately no report of the finding has been made public and we do not know why.
Mr. David Folarin – one of the violated workers – died of his ailments last month without getting justice.
Folarin and the other ex-workers of BATN accused the firm of deliberately exposing them to tobacco hazards and other poor factory conditions that cumulatively led to their current poor state of health. Those still alive live with strange ailments that have defied medication and a burden on their already meagre finances.
BATN was also accused of sending ill workers to particular hospitals whose services were solicited to cover up the workers’ injuries even though documents that show these workers were in optimal health at their entry into the company exist. The identified hospitals still operate with impunity.
The workers describe sub-human conditions in BATN Ibadan factory where they were forced to work without protective gear.
Youths and Aggressive Tobacco Marketing
It is no longer in dispute that BATN and other tobacco entities operating in Nigeria continue to exploit the absence of Regulations for the implementation of the NTC Act to continue aggressive campaigns targeting our kids and young ones represented here by members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
A recently-released five-country report on tobacco industry marketing of tobacco products near schools across Africa listed Nigeria among countries where this disturbing practice by the tobacco industry is prevalent. The summary of the findings is that the tobacco industry is using every deceptive means to catch them young.
The youths have been the target of the secret smoking parties orchestrated by BATN across the country to conscript first time smokers. At these illicit parties supposed role models that the youths look up to, are recruited to perform “all night” while smoking tobacco products.
Worse is the fact that the youths and underage are now the target of tobacco corporations’ inundation of the Nigerian market with flavoured brands of cigarettes aimed at stoking appeal.
The situation is grave and requires speedy response. The support which our youth corps members have come to show for your leadership as helmsman of the Federal Ministry of Health is in sync with NTCA perception of the achievements of the ministry and opportunities that still exist for more milestones.
Like the NYSC members, we support the call for a fast-track of effective regulations for implementation of the NTC Act. We see our youths as agents of positive change, and not replacement smokers for an older generation of smokers who we view as victims of the tobacco industry stranglehold on lungs.
Our Demands
Extend support to the Ministry of Labour and Employment which is investigating the anti-labour practices in BATN Ibadan factory in Ibadan, especially in relation to the health hazards that workers have been exposed to. We urge you to use your good office to champion the cause of the disengaged ill workers
Conscript Commissioners of Health in all the states in the enforcement of the nine provisions of the NTC Act that do not require regulations
Fast-tracking of implementation guidelines and effective regulations for the implementation of the NTC Act so that it gets the National Assembly approval.
We assure you that the organisations we represent and the entire Tobacco Control community are ready to support the Federal Ministry of Health in its policies aimed at safeguarding the health of our citizens.
The theme of the African Union Decentralisation Day 2017, celebrated on Thursday, August 10, 2017, is “Youth Participation”. According to the Local Government and UCLG Africa, this translates as “Investing in Youth”.
Participants of the Conference of Youth COY 11 last year in Paris. COY 12 focuses on the role of education and capacity building in empowering young people to take action on climate change and to bring about positive change in society
According to the US Census Bureau in 2010, 63% of the Africa’s overall population was below the age of 25. The average age of the African population is 19. We are talking of over 300 million people that will become 500 million in less than 20 years from now.
A threat or an opportunity?
Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa considers it threat “if one considers that Africa has the worst schooling outcomes in the world with 51% out of school in the age group of six to 14 years. This translates into the emergence of the phenomenon of ‘Street Children’ in African Cities where more and more children and young people are homeless and live and sleep in the streets”.
In sub-Saharan Africa according to International Labour Organisation (ILO), three in five of the unemployed are youth, and 72% of the youth population live with less than $2 a day. In addition, 10 to 12 million young people join the labour market each year, adding year in year out to the African working poor.
The African Union has declared 2009-2018 “the African Youth Decade” but, according to the UCLG Africa, young people in Africa do not have any real taste of the implementation of the political declaration. The group adds that the persistence of conflicts and wars on the continent continues to fuel uncertainty for the resolve of African leaders to strive and propose a better life for the youth and future generations, “not to mention all the adverse decisions around youth due to poor governance on the continent”.
“For sure there is no quick fix for the youth situation and the unemployment boom, but the reality is that more and more young people in Africa are losing hope of having any future on the continent. Hence, their despair and struggle to find a better life out of the continent, taking incredible risks to try and cross the Mediterranean sea at the expense of their own lives.
“Is the situation definitively desperate? Of course not. Even if there remain a lot of concerns.”
Africa represents over 30% of the world’s youth population. Africa is the youngest continent in the world: 21% of the 1.2 billion people on the continent are between 15 and 24 years old, whereas 42% are less than 15 years old. In the next 20 years, Africa has the opportunity to benefit from a “demographic dividend” where there will be a large workforce supporting fewer children and the elderly, lowering the dependency burden and freeing up resources for development and the improvement of productivity.
Experts say there are good reasons to hope that educational efforts can yield results in terms of a better quality and skilled workforce. In that sense, they add, the youth should be considered as the key and unique player for the economic and social structural transformation of Africa.
“They are the energy and creativity of the future. That is where Africa’s renewal and renaissance will come from,” says Mbassi, adding the the second piece of good news is the determination of young people on the continent to take control of their own lives, creating their own jobs in the popular economy, investing in the tech- economy by adapting new technology’s to fit the reality and economic context of Africa.
“But this good news still remains fragile,” he laments, pointing out that, to transform the emerging potential into capabilities with effective scale-up and implementation on the ground, there needs to be a drastic transformation in the way African societies consider youth participation.
“It takes affirmative action to create an enabling and conducive environment for youth participation in society; and local governments should be at the forefront of this endeavour.”
One of the remarkable initiatives in that regard is the proposal from the UCLG Africa network of female Mayors and local elected women of Africa (REFELA) to launch a campaign this year on “African Cities Without Street Children”, to address the emerging phenomenon. The UCLG Africa invites all African local governments to take part in the initiative.
According to the UCLG Africa, local governments should also be proactive in opening up new opportunities for youth by:
Organising open-door operations for youth in order to acquaint them with the functioning of local councils and administrations;
Encouraging the creation of municipal councils for the youth that supports and prepares young people to understand more about the dispensation of city management responsibilities;
Opening a youth desk at the local government premises to collect ideas from young people on the way to address burning issues that impede the improvement of the living conditions of the population or that can boost efficiency in service delivery;
Launching a youth empowerment programme addressing the main concerns of young people, including job creation; support for entrepreneurship; education, culture, arts and heritage; sports and leisure.
Mbassi submits: “But for local governments to be in a proactive position, they themselves need to be empowered by their national governments. It is striking that despite the strong political will expressed by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union, that adopted the African Charter on Values and Principles of Decentralisation, Local Governance and Local Development at their Conference in June 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where only 11 AU members signed it, and only two have ratified it. Not to mention the situation where local elections are not organised regularly or in a timely way that allows people to democratically choose their local leaders; and even worse, where elected officials are being replaced by appointed ones to manage local governments.
“This is a clear demonstration that celebrating a Decentralisation Day has no meaning, if the African Union members cannot honour even commitments made by their Heads of State and Government. Always remember this Egyptian wisdom: ‘The heart of the matter is not about speculating around the action, but to act’.”
By the year 2050, Orlando commissioners want all the electricity used in the city to come from renewable sources of energy like solar and wind power.
Orlando, Florida
In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, August 8, 2017, the Orlando City Council agreed to adopt this goal, joining San Diego, Salt Lake City and 37 other cities across the U.S. that have adopted a 100 percent clean-energy target.
Orlando is the largest city in Florida committing to this goal so far, according to the Sierra Club, with St. Petersburg and Sarasota right behind. Aside from combating climate change and pollution, the city argues the move toward renewable energy increases economic opportunities in Central Florida by creating local jobs in the industry. Orlando Mayor, Buddy Dyer, didn’t call out the climate change aversion of President Donald Trump or the Republican-led Florida Legislature by name, but did say city mayors had to lead the fight against rising seas and increasing temperatures.
“This administration has decided not to honour our commitment to the Paris climate accord, but a lot of mayors around the country have picked up the reins to say if we’re not doing it at the federal level, its incumbent that we lead at the local level,” Dyer says. “More than 50 percent of the world’s population now lives in cities, so we have to be the ones that are leading on the important issues that are of consequence for not just this year, but for decades and even centuries to come.”
Chris Castro, director of sustainability for the city, says over the last decade, Orlando has been trying to move the needle through its Green Works Orlando initiative to become one of the most sustainable cities in the Southeast. The city has already committed to reducing 90 percent of its air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 in accord with the Paris Climate Agreement. To achieve this, Orlando has already set a goal of powering 100 percent of municipal operations using renewable energy by 2030. Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Solar Foundation declared Orlando a “SolSmart City” for its leadership on expanding clean energy sources.
“The power from the sun is cheaper to produce electricity than the power from fossil fuels, including coal and even natural gas,” Castro says. “What we want to do is maintain the affordability of our electricity rates. A lot of people think that just by going solar, it’s going to be more expensive, and that is not the case. We’re actually going to be able to levelize our cost of power over decades, and we’ll be able to maintain the affordability and the reliability of our power here in the City of Orlando.”
The council is also particularly interested in the potential employment opportunities created by having this commitment to clean energy. Castro says last year in Florida, solar jobs grew 10 times faster than the overall state economy, adding 1,700 new jobs. Commissioner Sam Ings proposed moving the citywide goal of 100 percent renewable energy to 2035, and Castro said that target could be updated as more technology comes along.
The resolution was applauded by members of the First 50 Coalition, a broad alliance pushing for local sustainability issues that includes the League of Women Voters of Orange County, the Sierra Club and FL SUN.
“I see this vote as historic and a first step toward what we can do in leadership on the national stage,” says Sara Isaac, director of partnerships for the League. “I think that you are sending a signal across the nation of the kind of city Orlando wants to be.”
In a statement, Phil Compton from the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign in Florida also praised the decision by Orlando commissioners.
“All across our state and our nation, cities are committing to a future powered by 100 percent clean and renewable energy for all,” Compton says. “Today, Orlando joins this growing movement of cities that are ready for 100 percent clean, renewable energy.”
Two anti-corruption bodies on the continent, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the National Anti-Corruption Commission of the Republic of Cameroon (NACC) have called for cooperation among African countries to tackle the problem of corruption on the continent.
Ekpo Nta, Chairman of ICPC
Heads of the two agencies, Mr. Ekpo Nta (ICPC) and Rev. Dr. Dieudonne Massi Gams (NACC) jointly made the call recently in a parley at the ICPC’s headquarters, Abuja, noting that Africa was ripe to come up with its own collaborative mechanism that would help solve the menace of corruption across the continent.
Rev. Massi Gams, who was on a visit to ICPC with the top management of his organisation spoke first and said he was in Nigeria to understudy the work of ICPC with a view to improving on the operations of his organisation back home in Cameroon.
He explained that the achievements of ICPC in the war against corruption were good enough to be replicated in other African countries.
Gams said, “I think is it useful for us to learn what you are doing to combat corruption because the fight against corruption is global. But we need to first centralize it on the continent if we must go on to make our lives better.
“We used to look beyond to the West before this time for solutions, but now we have the options to learn from one another by creating a southern bloc. We need to see if it is possible to sign a convention of cooperation by African countries against corruption.
“South-South cooperation is not very well done in Africa. We used to think abroad out of the continent but we have many things that we can share here on our continent. That is why I think we must begin inside Africa.”
Mr. Nta, in his remarks, told his Cameroonian colleague of his willingness to collaborate with other African countries in the war against corruption, adding that the continent needed to pull her resources together to tackle one of the biggest problems facing it.
He lamented that only a few African countries (Algeria, Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria) were members of the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) which he said was a drawback for Africa and promised to help Cameroon join the academy.
The ICPC Chairman described in details the various preventive initiatives the Commission was deploying to rid the country of corruption. He spoke about the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units (ACTUs) domiciled in government establishments; the System Study and Review tool; the Corruption Risks Assessment initiative as well as a host of others.
Nta spoke further on assistance to the Cameroonians: “On the issue of collaboration, I do not see any problem. It will go into my handing-over note. I will assist you to have your country join IACA. We have few African countries as members at the moment which is not good for us.”
The ICPC boss who pointed out that he was on his last official assignment because his tenure was drawing to an end, also promised to sign an agreement with NACC that would allow for staff exchange between the two bodies.
The Rev. Massi Gams and his entourage were taken on a tour of ICPC’s training academy, the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN), Keffi, Nasarawa State.
The Reverend was impressed at the state-of-the-art facilities at ACAN and promised to send his staff there for training as soon as he returned home.
