Poor access to Reproductive Health has emerged as a major reason youths in Nigeria are unable to develop intellectually.
The issue, which was highlighted in the pilot of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) Youth Development Project on Social/Youth Development, and Reproductive Health, topped a myriad of others ranging from lack of access to good education to disconnection from main stream development agenda.
Coordinator of the NAS programme, Prof. Akinyinka Omigbodun, who spoke on some of these limitations faced by the youths in Nigeria said, despite making up 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population, they are faced with “poor or non-existent access to functional education, high unemployment rates, exposure to conflicts, vulnerability to adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes, including gender-based sexual violence,” stating also that 60 per cent of them live below the poverty line.
Presenting further outcomes of the pilots held in Ekiti and Nasarawa states of Nigeria, Omigbodun said an unimaginably high number of Nigerian youths are faced with the worst consequences of early sexual exposure, poor teaching and learning environments among others.
This, he said, is further exacerbated by poor information flow, adding that “The main sources of information for youths on both puberty (53 per cent) and reproductive health (56 per cent) were school teachers,” despite that they preferred such were from family members, health workers and the media in that order of preference.
The situation, according to the NAS finding, is made dire by poor science teacher to science student ratio, which currently stands at 1:8 in Nigeria.
From left: Dr. Oladoyin Odubanjo, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS); Professor Oyewale Tomori, President, NAS; Professor Alfred Adegoke, keynote speaker; Professor Akinyinka Omigbodun a Fellow of NAS; Professor Temitayo Shokunbi, Academic Secretary, Biological Sciences, NAS; and Professor Domingo Okorie, Academic Secretary, Physical Sciences, NAS, at a Media Roundtable for the NAS-Youth Development and Reproductive Health Programme, in Lagos on Wednesday, 10th of September, 2014
Professor Alfred Adegoke of the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, who stressed the link between the poor youths development in Nigeria and Reproductive Health, said the events in Nigeria is not isolated, as premarital sex is globally, becoming more widespread.
He said many who become sexually active at an early age do not know how to protect themselves during sexual activity, adding, “One third of the sexually transmitted infections (STIs) contracted each year globally are among women and men younger than 25 years of age.”
Highlighting the critical indicators of the Reproductive and Sexual Health of young people as presented in National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS, 2008), he said, “The median age at first intercourse was 17.7 for women and 20.6 for men.”
According to Adegoke, this also increases the risk of new HIV infections, as it has also been found that only seven per cent of young men and women in Nigeria had been tested for HIV and received their results within the 12 months before the survey.
On how to get the country back on track, the programme stated the need for increased awareness and enlightenment on risky sexual behaviour and its effects through school health programmes. It also urged increased awareness on effects of substance abuse, use of peer educators in schools, as well as creation of opportunities to encourage parental and religious involvement in addressing and educating youths on reproductive health matters.
The battle to contain the human to human transmission of Ebola virus in Nigeria continues, especially through the neighbouring countries.
But is a fresh outbreak of the disease possible through animal sources?
I traveled to Osun State ,South Western Nigeria and it was business as usual. Locals preparing bush meat with their bare hands and eating bush meat to prove to our cameras that they are free of Ebola virus.
It was interesting to hear what the traveling customers who pull over to buy had to say to support of bush meat consumption irrespective of the recent alert to stop pending when Ebola outbreak ease off.
More than $1bn (£618m) is needed to fight the West Africa Ebola outbreak – a tenfold increase in the past month, the UN’s Ebola co-ordinator has said.
David Nabarro made the announcement as the World Health Organization (WHO) described the health crisis as “unparalleled in modern times”.
It has killed 2,461 people this year, half of the 4,985 infected by the virus, the global health body said.
There has been criticism of the slow international response to the epidemic.
Later, the US president is to announce plans to send 3,000 troops to Liberia, one of countries worst-affected by the outbreak, to help fight the virus.
A host of rural community dwellers in Delta State is benefitting from an initiative designed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, save time and money spent on firewood, curb respiratory diseases and enhance the education of the girl-child.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State
A collaboration involving the Climate Change Department of the Delta State Ministry of Environment, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Ecobank is improving household energy efficiency through the provision of locally fabricated eco-stoves in some rural communities.
The scheme, which is an offshoot of the state’s Women Climate Change Adaptation Project, commenced recently with community mobilisation and sensitisation in the three communities of Emonu, Ebor and Ugono-Orogun in Ughelli North Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
The later phase of the project, which held 11th to 12th September 2014, entailed training/orientation of local stakeholders on the production of the stoves at Ebor Orogun Community, which was facilitated by officials of JIL Environmental Services and EnviruMedic.
Representatives of the project promoters: left to right: Okon Ekpenyong, Deputy Director, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN); Muyiwa Odele, Team Leader, Envieonment/Sustainable Development, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Felicia Edun, Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Environment; Famous Ajemrona, Regional Head, Edo/Delta, EcoBank; Emmanuel Duku, Area Manager, Delta Central, Ecobank; and, Ese Patricia Okogu, Finance Manager, BOI/UNDP Access to Renewable Energy (AtRE) Project, Bank of Industry (BOI)
Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Environment, Felicia Adun, described the training and production of energy efficient eco-stoves as one of Quick Win Projects for mitigation and adaptation to climate change being executed in vulnerable communities. Others are tree planting to form a green belt, installation of bio-sand water filter and biodigesters, provision of solar water heater, solar borehole treatment plants and solar refrigerators in primary healthcare centres across the state.
She said the projects are part of a programme tagged Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC), which seeks to reduce vulnerability of local communities to the “anticipated impacts of climate change and develop a low carbon and climate resilient society.”
The added: “The TACC programme thus far recorded a huge success as it has come up with very useful and tangible outputs such as the completion of a Biophysical and Socio-Economic Assessment of the nexus of Environmental Degradation and Climate Change in the state which has generated data and information necessary for an evidence-based policy making, programme planning and development.”
Team Leader, Environment/Sustainable Development at the UNDP, Muyiwa Odele, described climate change as a global phenomenon that is not limited to only Nigeria. Saying that women are mostly affected by the effects of climate change, he reminded the gathering of the extensive flooding in 2012 that effected several states including Delta.
But, according to him, climate change also offers an opportunity for people to become owners of their own destiny.
He said: “You need a lot of resources to do this, hence this partnership. You are being trained now so that you can manufacture the stoves yourselves. If you now know how to make the stoves, you can make them for yourselves, and even make more to sell to other people and make money for yourselves.
“But take note that it is your project, not ours. So you need to keep and preserve it well.”
Regional Head, Edo/Delta, Ecobank, Famous Ajemrona, described the project as one of the banks numerous attempts to promote environmental upkeep. He added that the success of the project would encourage the bank to do more.
Ajemrona addressing the gathering
“So we charge you to pay a lot of attention to the training so that it becomes a success. If you do it well, Ecobank might have no choice but to establish a branch in this community,” he added.
A woman leader in Emonu Orogun Community, Grace Osajoku, while testifying to the eco-stove, said that she now uses considerably less firewood “to conveniently fry more bags of garri.”
She went on: “The eco-stove is really effective. As I fry garri, I don’t feel the heat or smoke anylonger. We are really very happy. Even the garri we fry using the eco-stove is better. However, we find it difficult to get the clay (for the manufacture of the stoves), especially when it rains. Now that we have experienced this, we do not wish to go back to our old ways of cooking.”
An already fabricated eco-stove with two burners and a chimney hole
Chief Executive Officer of EnviruMedic, Monday Itoghor, while demonstrating how the stove is manufactured, disclosed that the major raw material is clay, which is processed and moulded to a stove with the desired numbers of burners and a chimney that will direct the smoke away from human contact. He said one can be built within a week as time is needed for the moulded clay to set and dry.
Okun Alfa is a coastal community located in Lagos, South-West Nigeria, on the coastline by the Atlantic Ocean.
The community beach, known as Alpha Beach, used to be a popular tourist destination for many fun seekers at weekends and festive periods.
However, an increasingly worrisome ocean surge and shoreline erosion in recent years have claimed the beach and now threatening the existence of the community, with massive flooding which has destroyed property worth millions of Naira.
The surge has washed away powerlines and poles, throwing the entire community into darkness
The only primary health care centre in the community has been destroyed and abandoned by health workers as the raging sea eats away land and destroys buildings
The once-thriving and renowned Alpha Beach, which used to host diverse socio-economic activities as well as local and international concerts, is now a ghost town, with the local economy crippled.
Some residents of Okun-Alfa believe that the unrelenting surges is a consequence of the multi-billion-dollar Eko Atlantic project being undertaken by the Lagos State Government across an adjourning area of the Lagos coastline. The project is the development and construction of a high-brow mixed-use development proposed to inhabit some 250,000 residents among other commercial property ventures on lands that are currently being reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean.
The project involves the reclamation of 10km of land from the ocean which would be used for the construction of a Dubai-like city in Nigeria’s economic capital. The state government is reported to have embarked on the project in a bid to protect the Bar Beach (where the reclamation is ongoing) and the adjourning Ahmadu Bello Road on Victoria Island, as well as the entire island, which experiences flooding when the ocean water surges. Observers claim that the project (Eko Atlantic City) does not follow the needed due diligence process. The purported Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project has never been made public amid claims by civil society practitioners that the undisclosed EIA is either incomplete or does not exist. But state officials insist that the project is an adaptation measure designed to restore what has been lost to the Atlantic Ocean in the past and then prevent future losses.
Recently, the state government commenced the construction of a drainage channel that is expected to align with a nearby channel in another community. This will allow the flood water in Okun-Alfa to flow out into the Lagos Lagoon. Residents see the drainage construction as a source of relief from the hardship they have experienced whenever there is a heavy downpour and surge of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Ogun State Property & Investment Corporation (OPIC), which is presently celebrating its 30 years of existence with a flurry of activities, has been exploiting inherent benefits of the state’s proximity to Lagos.
OPIC’s Agbara Estate
A handful of real estate developments by the Gateway State have of recent emerged, taking into consideration that a considerable amount of top executives of Ogun State-based companies reside in nearby Lagos.
Consequently, OPIC has initiated a series of estates not just to address residential needs, but also commercial as well as industrial.
For instance, the New Makun City will offer recreational centres and warehousing for industries along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It is designed to be a catalytic hub with standard recreational facilities like nature and amusement park in the heart of the Sagamu interchange.
The city, on completion, will deliver four residential districts, one educational district with zones for day and boarding facilities, three commercial districts, which include a regional/shopping/bazaar district, a multi-purpose convention centre and a light industry district.
The site clearing, mapping and delineation along with drainage works for the initial phase of the estate that commenced in March 2014 is still ongoing, adds OPIC officials, adding that a special anniversary promo sale of N2.5 million for 648sq.m is on for interested investors.
Similarly, OPIC is close to completion of the Orange Valley Estate, which is located in the government business zone of Oke-Mosan in Obasanjo Hilltop, Abeokuta. The estates provides facilities like commercial club house, swimming pool, 24-hour power supply, potable water, gymnasium and broadband data services.
OPIC boss, Babajide Odusolu, disclosed that while the first phase is nearing completion, the second will take off soon. The project commenced in January 2014 and the first phase comprising 50 units of four-bedroom semi-detached houses have been completed. The setting out of the second phase has commenced with bush clearing, ongoing construction of extended culvert bridge guarded by a natural gully and about 40,000m3 of sandfilling.
Furthermore, the New Dawn District, located within the OPIC Estate in Agbara/Igbesa, features two-bedroom terrace bungalows and three-bedroom detached bungalows. Construction of 30 units of two-bedroom terrace bungalows are nearing completion.
Each unit is fully ensuite with services being communally designed. While the tw0-bedroom terrace bungalows are going for N7 million, the three-bedroom detached bungalows sell for N16 million. Aspiring beneficiaries are to make an initial commitment of 20 percent of the total cost.
With the Ebola epidemic predicted to get worse, the Liberian government has taken action to silence news outlets critical of its handling of the health crisis which, according to Liberia’s Information Ministry, has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the country since March. Publishers have been harassed and forced to cease printing, and journalists were initially not exempt from a curfew, making it difficult for them to work, according to the Press Union of Liberia (PUL).
Security forces guard a checkpoint in an area on Monrovia that was in quarantine for several days as part of government efforts to contain Ebola in Liberia. Photo: Reuters
During this challenging time, the action by authorities is serving only to strengthen “the distrust” between the government and the media, PUL stated in a letter to Justice Minister Christiana Tah on September 4. In the letter, union president Abdullai Kamara cited several accounts of harassment and intimidation, including cases involving Women Voices, FrontPageAfrica, and the National Chronicle, which have all come under pressure in recent weeks.
Kamara cited police harassment in late August of Helen Nah, Liberia’s only female publisher, who runs the privately owned , over a story alleging police corruption in the distribution of funds meant for the Ebola crisis, according to news reports.
Kamara also condemned action by the police and Environmental Protection Agency over attempts to remove a generator from the independent paper, FrontPageAfrica, according to news reports. The police and agency did not have a court order, but were acting on complaints made by a former government minister, the report said. The critical paper and its staff have been harassed previously, according to CPJ research. In 2013, the newspaper was shut down, and its publisher Rodney Sieh imprisoned, for failing to pay $1.5 million in civil damages to Chris Toe, a former government minister. In 2012, International Press Freedom Awardee Mae Azango was forced into hiding over threats against the journalist and her daughter because of her reports on female genital mutilation.
PUL has highlighted the “disregard for the freedom of media” in Liberia, and noted how on August 20, despite consultation with the press, the government excluded the media from a list of professionals exempt from a nine-hour curfew imposed under the Ebola state of emergency. Although the government reversed course a week later, several accredited journalists with the privately-owned Daily Observer were stopped by police for about 30 minutes in the capital, Monrovia, as they left work on September 7, despite the journalists presenting press identity cards, Daily Observer publisher Kenneth Best told me. Police claimed they were not aware journalists were exempt from the curfew, Best said.
“We see these as deliberate actions to limit the role of the media in the national discourse, under the guise of a state of emergency,” Kamara said in the letter.
The government has also arbitrarily closed the National Chronicle. The independent newspaper was closed on August 14, a few hours after a press conference where Information Minister Lewis Brown gave a “last warning” to journalists about reporting critically during the state of emergency, according to news reports.
Dozens of police officers, without a court warrant and giving no official reason, used tear gas when they stormed the Chronicle’s offices in Monrovia, before sealing the premises, according to news reports and local journalists. The police beat three journalists – Emmanuel Mensah, Jah Johnson and Monica Samuel – and detained Mensah and technology employee Emmanuel Logan overnight, Chroniclepublisher Philipbert Browne told me. Computers and other items seized during the raid were later returned, Browne said.
On August 16, after a protest by PUL, the government released a statement to justify its actions, citing “urgent national security concerns” and a police investigation into articles the Chronicle published, which alluded to plans by a group of Liberians to form a new government. The Chronicle claimed that the group, which it said had international backing, mainly from the U.S. government, wants President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to step aside over allegations of corruption and misrule. Browne told me the paper had lined up a 10-part series, but published only three parts before it was closed.
Government spokesman Isaac Jackson announced the Chronicle had been suspended pending the police investigation, which would be “conducted and concluded in the shortest possible time,” according to news reports. In a telephone conversation, Jackson told me the government decided to prevent the Chroniclefrom publishing further reports that would “incite” an already disenchanted populace frustrated with the Ebola scourge.
Jackson said Browne’s full cooperation was needed to provide details about the alleged plans to form a new government. Browne, a former consul-general to South Korea and one-time deputy minister of defense under convicted ex-president Charles Taylor, may have access to important details, Jackson said.
“By virtue of his positions, he is likely privy to privileged information which is crucial to ongoing investigations,” Jackson told me. “The newspaper will remain suspended until the investigations are concluded.”
Browne has presented himself for questioning daily at police headquarters, yet the Chronicle remains closed nearly a month later. No charges have been filed, and no details have been released from the investigation, Browne said.
“The first days I reported, the police kept repeating the same questions, asking me for the numbers of the people in the reports. I told them I would not give them,” Browne told me. “Later, when I report, the police would just leave me unattended from morning till evening.”
On September 8 Browne informed police he planned to spend a week in the U.S. where he is due to attend a meeting about the Olympics on September 15. But police told Browne, who is head of Liberia’s National Olympic Committee, that he cannot leave the country until after the investigation, according to news reports.
Police in Liberia have a poor record for resolving investigations into the press, and cases of attacks on journalists have gone uninvestigated, even when their aggressors – at times police officers — have been identified, according to CPJ research.
The Chronicle’s reports on a proposed interim government, which the government stated was its reason for closing the paper, have since been reported widely in Liberia and internationally.
It is not the first time the Chronicle has been targeted and threatened by the authorities. The paper has been sued over its reports accusing lawmakers and government officials, including Sirleaf and her family, of corruption, abuse of office and criminal acts, according to media reports. The government denied the paper’s accusations, news reports said.
The Publishers Association of Liberia has called on the government to respect the rule of law and lift the ban on the Chronicle, which it noted is a legally registered and accredited corporate body, or to pursue legal action against the paper if necessary, according to news reports.
The harassment of the Chronicle and other publications is tarnishing the country’s image. Compared to many of its neighbours, Liberia is supposed to have an enviable press freedom record. It has a Freedom of Information law and officials are always quick to state that Sirleaf signed the Declaration of Table Mountain, which aspires to abolish “insult” laws and criminal defamation in Africa. Sirleaf is also a recipient of the Friend of the Media in Africa award, presented by The African Editors Forum.
As Liberia struggles to contain the health crisis, the government should show tolerance, and partner with the media to encourage the flow of information and debate.
By Peter Nkanga (West Africa Representative, Committee to Protect Journalists)
Global business leader and chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, has said that the group “has the ambition to generate at least a quarter of Nigeria’s power consumption needs in the next five years.”
Heirs Holdings’ interests in the power sector include Transcorp Ughelli Power, a gas-fired, thermal power generating plant which was acquired under the privatisation of Nigeria’s power sector.
Tony Elumelu
Experience at Ughelli
According to the Heirs Holdings chairman “the power industry is a catalytic sector and the development of our country and our continent cannot happen without fixing it.”
He describes the USA’s Power Africa Initiative as “an amazing opportunity to democratise access to power for Africans, and the $2.5 billion investment commitment we have made reflects exactly how excited I am about it. The present administration made a bold decision when it decided to affect the changes envisaged by the Power Sector Reform Act – legislation that had been on the books since 2005. And that bold step was reinforced during President Barack Obama’s last visit to Africa. We felt more strongly than ever, the need to help power Africa.”
He continues: “Our experience so far at Ughelli power plant is testimony to the size of the opportunity; our amazing team has taken that plant from 150MW capacity when we took over in November 2013, to 450MW today; we expect it to increase 700MW by October and to achieve 1000MW by the second quarter of 2015. At that rate, we’ll be contributing 20 per cent of Nigeria’s total power generation.”
Furthermore, he says they are working on a greenfield project that will expand the capacity of Ughelli by an additional 1000MW in the next three to five years and they have signed an MOU with GE and Symbion Power to facilitate this.
Challenges in Nigerian power sector
Elumelu lists three main challenges in the Nigerian power sector, namely unreliable transmission infrastructure, access to uninterrupted gas supply and timely settlement of invoiced payments.
He adds: “In Nigeria, one of the biggest challenges to power generation is transmission and in fact, while Ughelli Power Plant generated at full capacity for the first time in July, we’ve been asked to scale down generation because of the outdated transmission systems; for every 100MW generated and sent to transmission companies, 40 per cent is lost, in part because of this infrastructure issue.”
While regulation is not a key challenge, says the Heirs Holdings chairman, it is an issue within the sector that if addressed, has the potential to speed sector growth exponentially. “We need pragmatic regulation that recognises that within Nigeria, the sector is nascent and so policies must be designed to encourage growth. In fairness, the Federal Government is confronting these challenges head on.”
Africapitalism creating social wealth
Elumelu has termed his economic philosophy as “Africapitalism”, which he says places more weight on long-term investments in key sectors that drive growth. He explains: “My personal experience also suggests that sustained economic prosperity must be inclusive and must create social wealth. Africapitalism is my attempt to advocate and promote what has worked for me. We as Africans are uniquely qualified to take the lead and develop Africa. I think we need to be more self-confident in order to create the sort of future our children deserve. All the ingredients for success are here in Africa and investing for the long term in key sectors, our people, and processes, will help to solve our problems and retain wealth within the continent.”
Five species of sharks and two manta ray species on Sunday, September 14 received protection under the United Nation’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) when formal measures to regulate their international trade came into effect.
The Oceanic Whitetip shark. Photo: CITES
The five sharks and two manta rays species include Scalloped Hammerhead Shark Sphyrna lewini, Great Hammerhead Shark Sphyrna mokarran, Smooth Hammerhead Shark Sphyrna zygaena, Oceanic Whitetip Shark Carcharinus longimanus, Porbeagle Shark Lamna nasus and manta rays Manta spp.
All the sharks except Porbeagle are caught for their fins, which are exported to East Asia, especially Hong Kong, where they are the key ingredient in sharks-fin soup, an expensive, but popular delicacy.
The Porbeagle Shark is mainly caught for consumption of its meat within the European Union, while the gill plates of manta rays are highly valued as a health tonic in southern China.
All the species are commercially valuable and threatened through over-harvesting.
Under the newly introduced CITES measures, their commercial trade must be strictly regulated and the species can only be exported or taken from national and international waters when the exporting / fishing country certifies they were legally sourced and that the overall level of exports does not threaten the survival of the species.
In March last year, representatives from the 178 government Parties to CITES voted to include the shark and ray species within Appendix II of the Convention.
There are a number of technical issues associated with this listing, such as enforcement agencies learning how to identify products in trade, especially the fins that are usually traded in dried form and the Parties were given an 18 month period to prepare for the introduction of CITES requirements.
Many organisations, including the CITES Secretariat, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), plus non-governmental organisations including TRAFFIC and WWF have therefore worked to improve capacity on managing shark fisheries to bring them in line with CITES rules before today’s deadline.
Supported by the German government, TRAFFIC developed guidelines for countries who will need to make informed decisions – so-called “non-detriment findings” or NDFs – about the levels of trade shark populations can sustain, before CITES permits can be issued. The NDF guidelines are being widely distributed to fisheries management authorities.
In parallel, as part of a UK government supported project, TRAFFIC has developed M-risk, a novel method to quantify the risk of over-exploitation of shark stocks as a result of poor or inadequate management.
“TRAFFIC is fully committed to ensuring successful implementation of CITES measures for these shark and ray species, both in terms of demonstrating the value of the Convention for regulating trade in commercially important marine species and also that there is ultimately conservation benefit in doing so,” said Glenn Sant, TRAFFIC’s Fisheries Trade Programme Leader.
Many of the sharks are caught as a secondary catch by vessels targeting tuna.
“International co-operation to implement the new CITES measures will be essential, and the member governments of those organizations who manage tuna fisheries in the world’s oceans have a key role to play in ensuring their success,” said Sant.
“There are no insurmountable technical obstacles to overcome in implementing CITES requirements, and the NGO community, including TRAFFIC is standing by ready to assist, if required.
“There is a lot at stake here: restoring the world’s shark stocks is crucial to maintaining the health of our oceans.”
TRAFFIC and WWF have created Sharks: Restoring the Balance, a joint global initiative to promote responsible shark fishing, improve the regulation of international trade in shark products and reduce consumer demand for unsustainably sourced shark and ray products.
