State Security Services, SSS, agents on Tuesday arrested the Chairman of the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, Aminu Maigari, halting the federation’s meeting scheduled to take place in Abuja.
Mr. Maigari was arrested alongside Musa Amadu, the NFF Secretary-General, and Chris Green, a board member.
The NFF has been rocked by leadership crisis for months. The Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Tammy Danagogo, was quoted Monday as saying that the tenure of Mr. Maigari had ended.
The embattled NFF chairman was first arrested in July as he returned from the World Cup in Brazil. The arrest followed an order issued by a Plateau State court asking the NFF executives to step aside. Mr. Maigari’s removal as the NFF chairman led to the suspension of Nigeria by world football governing body, FIFA.
The suspension was lifted after Mr. Maigari was reinstated but he was controversially impeached thereafter, accused of financial abuse and corruption.
Shortly after the impeachment July 31, Mr. Maigari was again whisked away by SSS operatives from the Serob Legacy Hotel, Abuja where the NFF held a congress. He was again reinstated after the intervention of FIFA.
The Board of United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) Monday announced the appointment of Mr. Tony O. Elumelu as Chairman, succeeding Ambassador Joe Keshi.
The announcement was made in a statement signed by the Divisional Head, Marketing and Corporate Relations, UBA Plc, Charles Aigbe.
Elumelu is Chairman/CEO of Heirs Holdings, the pan-African proprietary investment company he founded in 2010, which holds stakes in a number of leading African businesses, including Transcorp, Nigeria’s largest listed conglomerate by market capitalisation, as well as UBA.
Elumelu retired as Group Managing Director and CEO of UBA in 2010, following the introduction by the Central Bank of Nigeria of 10-year tenure limits for bank CEOs.
He had served as CEO of the UBA Group for 13 years, where he was responsible for the creation of today’s UBA, a financial services institution that built a reputation for innovation and the democratisation of banking services and now spans Africa, providing services to more than 10 million customers, across the continent and in London, Paris and New York.
Widely regarded as one of the most influential business leaders in Africa, Elumelu has developed a reputation for identifying value and bringing a long term investment orientation and discipline to sectors critical to Africa’s development, including financial services, power, oil and gas, agribusiness, real estate and hospitality. As the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropy, Elumelu is committed to the promotion of entrepreneurship in Africa, based on his championing of Africapitalism, the philosophy that the African private sector is the critical enabler of the continent’s economic and social transformation.
The Chairmanship of UBA will complement Elumelu’s existing positions with other Heirs Holdings’ portfolio businesses, including the Chairmanships of Tenoil Petroleum & Energy Services Limited and Seadrill Limited.
“Tony Elumelu’s track record at UBA speaks for itself,” said Phillips Oduoza, Group Managing Director/CEO UBA. “His return to the Board brings a depth of knowledge and experience in the African financial services industry that is second to none. We are privileged to have him lead the Board at this critical stage in our development.”
Analysts and leaders of shareholder groups also welcomed Elumelu’s return. “Banking in Africa is a dynamic, exciting and an increasingly competitive and challenging industry,” said economic and financial analyst, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, Chief Executive of Financial Derivatives. “Tony is visionary, courageous and has shown an ability to both, think for the long term, and to create significant shareholder value. The drive, dynamism and competitiveness that we saw during his period as CEO of UBA, was one of the catalysts of the enormous changes in the Nigerian banking sector.”
President, Association for the Advancement of Rights of Nigerian Shareholders (AARNS), Dr. Farouk Umar, said, “We are delighted with this appointment. It bodes well for UBA and the banking industry, now and in the future. Elumelu is a transformer and value creator for shareholders. We are excited about his return.”
With operations in 19 African countries and presence in New York, London and Paris, UBA is one of the largest financial services institutions in Africa. The Bank recently unveiled its Project Alpha, a three-year roadmap of key transformation initiatives, designed to consolidate the Group’s strategic positioning and fully exploit the opportunities provided by Africa’s economic renaissance and the UBA Group’s unique platform.
“I am very much looking forward to returning to the Group – UBA represents a tremendous investment opportunity, and is at an inflection point in its growth path. We have an extremely powerful executive team and I am looking forward to bringing my experience and energy, to guide UBA’s long-term strategy.
“Financial services remain one of the key drivers of African growth, both in terms of social inclusion and regional integration, and the UBA Group provides a unique platform to deliver both extraordinary value and drive Africa’s economic success.
“I would also like to thank my predecessor, Ambassador Keshi and the entire board for their contributions to the growth and development of the bank,” Elumelu said.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Tuesday warned security officers in the state against consuming banned substances and hard drugs.
The Principal Staff Officer (PSO), Drug Demand Reduction Unit of the agency in Ekiti, Mr Peter Njoku, gave the warning at a seminar organised for Nigeria Immigration Officers and Federal Road Safety Corps in the state.
He said some of the factors which normally led to unlawful assault by security agents on people are mostly caused by illicit drugs taken by the officers on duty.
NJoku said apart from assault, regular intake of banned drugs could result to brain damage as well as affecting the job performance of the officers who indulge in such acts.
He advised security officers of the various agencies to be self disciplined and avoid patronising restaurants and joints where people smoke Indian hemp or take drugs like cocaine and tramadol, among others.
Njoku warned them to avoid friends that were addicted to drugs in order not to jeopardise their active performance in their offices.
He advised them to engage in recreational and religious activities to keep themselves busy during their leisure time instead of indulging consumption harmful substances. (NAN)
Mr William Pooley, 29, the first Briton to contract the Ebola disease in Sierra Leone has started receiving treatment in London.
Pooley, a volunteer nurse was flown in a military aircraft on Sunday to the Hampstead Royal Free Hospital, where he is being treated in a specialist isolation unit for highly infectious diseases.
The Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Pooley had worked as a volunteer providing palliative care at The Shepherd’s Hospice in Sierra Leone from March to July.
He then requested to be relocated to the Kenema Government Hospital to serve on the Ebola treatment ward, following reports that patients were being abandoned when health workers died from the virus.
Pooley has been described as a hero for his selfless service.
NAN quotes a BBC report on Mr Gabriel Madiye, the Executive Director of The Shepherd’s Hospice, as saying, “Pooley had been aware of the risks, but was determined to work there.
“We consider him a hero, somebody who is sacrificing to provide care in very difficult circumstances – when our own health workers are running away’’. Madiye said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Jonathan Ball, a virologist at Nottingham University, said there would be immediate testing to ensure all Pooley’s organs were functioning.
“He really is in the best place and will have the best possible care’’, Ball said.
The World Health has put the death figure from the Ebola outbreak to over 1500 mostly from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea (NAN)
The Enugu State House of Assembly has removed the state’s Deputy Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi, from office.
The Assembly voted Tuesday morning to sack Mr. Onyebuchi from office.
Details of the impeachment session is still sketchy but the deputy governor’s removal is believed to have been masterminded by Governor Sullivan Chime.
The Assembly accused Mr. Onyebuchi of operating a commercial poultry at his official residence and of disobeying Governor Chime, charges that, under the law, do no qualify as impeachment offences.
The impeached deputy governor had told the impeachment panel set up by the state’s chief judge that Mr. Chime also operated piggery farms at the Government House.
Giving evidence before the panel last Wednesday, Mr. Onyebuchi said the governor’s poultry was hurriedly evacuated shortly after the panel commenced sitting.
Mr. Onyebuchi revealed that the state government had budgeted for the maintenance of the poultry since 2011.
The embattled deputy governor, who tendered the state’s budget between 2011 and 2014, said funds had always been provided for the poultry he operated.
He insisted that he did not commit any offence that could warrant his impeachment and that the poultry farms he and the governor were operating were there before they assumed office in 2007.
The vision to establish a state-owned investment company in Ogun State originated under the military administration of Brigadier Oladipo Diya as state governor between (1984 and 1985). The late Chief Olawale Otesile, the then Permanent Secretary in the Civil Service, was seconded to the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC), at inception to midwife its take-off. Chief Otesile and his team of vibrant Ogun State indigenes first wore the mantle of OPIC leadership on September 1, 1984. Otesile’s team then commenced OPIC operation with very strong volition to succeed with the mandate to fully explore the potentials and opportunities that abound in border areas of Ogun State in particular and, by extension, other parts of Nigeria.
Equipped with Edict 10 of 1985 under the then military administration of Ogun State, the shrewd OPIC pioneers rose to the challenge of their callings, setting the pace of the growth of the newly-born OPIC, right from its cradle to mighty estates in Agbara, Isheri, Ikeja in Lagos, Abeokuta hill top while breaking new grounds in Makun New City by Sagamu Interchange on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The self-sustaining government-owned statutory corporation has not only stood firm on the ladder of revenue generation, and reaching the peak of the rungs at 30, OPIC is beaming smile of great promises to all and sundry. Its core objectives and responsibilities are centred on establishing residential and industrial estates that offer affordable accommodation.
The infrastructure provided over the years in OPIC estates and commercial buildings spread all over now serve as economic poles of attraction for Ogun State investors. Notable of these estates and commercial buildings are OPIC estates in Agbara (off the Lagos-Badagry Expressway), Isheri (off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway), Abeokuta (along the Abeokuta-Sokoto Expressway, and commercial plazas in Abeokuta headquarters, Isheri and Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way, Ikeja.
In furtherance pursuit of the goal to reposition OPIC, Governor Ibikunle Amosun appointed Babajide Odusolu as his Special Adviser on Properties and Investments with Management responsibility for OPIC as its substantive Managing Director/Chief Executive.
At the inception of this present administration, OPIC had a review of operations that culminated in a focused re-orientation and overhaul of the Corporation’s operating strategy and institution of new business direction.
To ensure enhanced performance, OPIC’s operation were merged with those of Gateway City Development Company Limited (GCDCL) in 2013. Through this merger, OPIC regained operational control over 22 hectares of land located at Isheri now christened Isheri Commercial City and 750 hectares located at the Sagamu Interchange, now known as New Makun City.
Odusolu embarked on series of developmental projects aimed at making life more meaningful for residents and industrialists in OPIC estates. These include housing units to help reduce massive housing deficit in the country. In the last three years, OPIC has witnessed institutional re-orientation and empowerment, urban recreation and infrastructure and new business initiatives.
As part of the institutional re-orientation and empowerment, ushered in by the present administration since May 2011, a panel of enquiry was set up to investigate OPIC’s operation in addition to comprehensive audit of OPIC activities. The audit exercise has been a periodic one and OPIC procedures in due process has always been found a ‘crystal white operation’. The GCDCL/OPIC merger occurred in this process and has been of no regret.
This institutional re-orientation and empowerment policy has further encouraged OPIC to invest more on staff training and re-training, office renovation and re-designing, resolution of various security challenges and lapses across OPIC estates, particularly Agbara; crackdown on land encroachers, land grabbers’ arrest and prosecution; sensitisation and regeneration of cordial relationship amongst OPIC residents, industrialists and the host communities. The enumeration of remaining illegal structures for amnesty in OPIC estates Agbara/Igbesa is also a notable re-orientation.
The partnership with Ministry of Housing/ROTH Inc. for development of a 650-hectare industrial park in Agbara, effective March 2012, is a confirmation of harmonious work relations that exists amongst government agencies in Ogun State. This synergy is gratifying in the review of project designs and creation of development guidelines; demolition of illegal structures within OPIC estates, Agbara/Igbesa after issuance of notices; completion of 18 bungalows at OPIC estate, Agbara/Igbesa between October 2013 and January 2014.
In addition, ongoing projects from January 2014 to date include the almost completed 5kms residential and 5kms industrial grade roads that commenced in January 2014 and 30 units of two- bedroom terrace bungalows in OPIC estate, Agbara/Igbesa that commenced in April 2014.
Other parts of the states are not left out in this infrastructural rebirth: the OPIC Orange Valley Estate, Presidential Boulevard, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta that commenced simultaneously with Agbara road construction project in January 2014 is already beckoning to prospective residents to tap the serene and scenic green living of OPIC estates. The estate’s first phase displays 58 semi-detached duplexes, 28 luxurious flats and recreational facilities.
The New Makun City, located at Sagamu Interchange along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, is show-casing Ogun State’s business-friendly potentials to the whole world.
It is a thing of joy that the strong volition sown 30 years ago by the pioneers of OPIC has grown to deliver a giant Ogun State Property and Investments Corporation ( OPIC ) with great achievements and projections that swing with the housing revolution policy of the present administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
By Adebisi Adeyemi-Adesina (journalist and public relations consultant)
The fourth in the series sheds light on the IPCC findings that, in the light of the fact that climate change has the tendency to amplify existing stress on agricultural systems particularly in semi-arid environments, adaptation will bring immediate benefits and reduce the impacts of the phenomenon.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of IPCC
In a world that is 4°C warmer, the current cropping areas of crops such as maize, millet and sorghum across Africa could become unviable.The adaptation challenges of a world that is 4°C warmer are not limited to agriculture, but extend to other critical sectors such as livestock, fisheries, tourism, health, water and energy.
Health is an area of particular risk in Africa’s changing climate. Already, people over much of the continent have insufficient access to safe water, good sanitation and adequate healthcare. The IPCC finds that because of this, climate change will exacerbate vulnerability to vector and water-borne diseases.For example, more floods in areas with poor sanitation and inadequate waste management will spread disease. Warmer nights and days will allow disease-carrying insects to spread to new latitudes.
The considerable threats could undermine the progress that African countries have made in tackling disease, malnutrition and early deaths in past decades, together with gains in improving agricultural productivity. Adaptation can reduce these risks and bring immediate benefits.
It is important to recognise that, even if global society ceased to emit greenhouse gases today, further warming is inevitable in the next few decades. Adaptation is the only effective option to manage the inevitable impacts of climate change that mitigation cannot reduce. The IPCC describes adaptation as “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects”.Through adaptation, societies and communities can seek to moderate the harm of current and future climate risks or to take advantage of new opportunities.
Adaptation brings benefits both today and in the future. For example, Africa has much to gain from adaptation actions like disaster risk reduction and social protection that reduce the impacts of warming that are already being felt, and from building resilience around critical sectors such as water, energy and agriculture. The IPCC emphasises that integrating adaptation into planning and decision-making can create many synergies with development.
Effective adaptation strategies can, and should, strengthen livelihoods, enhance wellbeing and human security, and reduce poverty today. ‘No regrets’ or ‘low regrets’ measures such as increasing access to information and resources, improving health services, diversifying cropping systems, strengthening access to land, credit and other resources for poor and marginalised groups and making water and land management and governance more effective are good for development, irrespective of changes in climate.
Even with significant resource and institutional investment on adaptation, for the most vulnerable there may be residual risks to food security, access to water, health and human security. In the long term, there may be limits to adaptation and the only way to reduce these risks is through global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced what appears to be the most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever. The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), is the work of 830 expert authors from 85 countries and its first three volumes already stretch to 5,000+ pages. The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) have created a guide to the assessment for decision-makers in Africa tagged “What’s in it for Africa”, which is intended to encourage understanding and discussion of the report worldwide.
Decentralised and renewable technologies such as improved cookstoves can markedly alleviate the workload and enhance the personal security of women and girls
According to the document, the IPCC recognises that Africa has low levels of emissions and that over time these emissions will increase moderately and to meet pressing development needs. In expanding economically and meeting their development needs, African countries have abundant opportunities to adopt clean, efficient low-carbon technologies and practices. They can side step the inefficient, fossil fuel-dependent infrastructure that more developed countries are ‘locked into’.
The report identifies many low-carbon opportunities and co-benefits; the measures to avoid greenhouse gas emissions provide generous gains in economic productivity, human development and quality of life.
Improvements in the performance and cost of renewable energy technologies are significant for Africa, given the huge renewable energy resource endowment across the region and the need to scale up energy services to meet demand. Encouraged by developments, many countries across Africa are investing heavily in new energy infrastructure as well as putting in place regulatory and policy measures to persuade the private sector to invest in energy.
In addition, decentralised, renewable energy technologies, such as improved cookstoves, can markedly alleviate the workload and enhance the personal security of women and girls. The cookstoves, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lessen the need for women and girls to walk long distances to collect firewood, and vastly reduce illness and death from indoor air pollution.
According to What’s in it for Africa, much of the urban space in Africa is yet to be developed, so urban adaptation provides opportunities for incremental and transformational adjustments towards resilient and sustainable systems. Reducing energy and water consumption through greening cities and recycling water, and developing resilient infrastructure systems can reduce the vulnerability of urban settlements in many parts of Africa.
At present, six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. Projections indicate that the region’s urban population will double to 760 million by 2030. Many city planners advocate for more compact city structures that would accommodate Africa’s growing urban population while curbing greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the need for transport. However, compact urban development may conflict with adaptation strategies, such as providing urban green spaces to counter urban heat island effects and moderate storm water run-off by increasing water filtration into the soil.
The cities and towns of Africa are very vulnerable to climatic changes and climate variability. Rapid urbanisation calls for significant investment to create jobs, and provide infrastructure and services but basic infrastructure services lag behind urban growth. What’s in it for Africa emphasises the major opportunity faced by Africa through the development of low-carbon mass transit systems which can boost economic productivity by reducing traffic congestion and can improve air quality, thus benefiting public health.
Energy use in the transport sector is growing rapidly in Africa. Social expectations will need to change quickly if the region is to follow a low- carbon pathway. Rising incomes as a result of development have, in the past, increased the consumption of energy in the transport sector and allowed more people to own cars. Rising energy consumption in the transport sector and car ownership lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and high levels of air pollution.
According to What’s in it for Africaand the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, part of Africa’s vulnerability lies in the fact that recent development gains have been in climate-sensitive sectors. Economically, many Africans depend for food, fibre and income on primary sectors such as agriculture and fisheries, sectors which are affected by rising temperatures, rising sea levels and erratic rainfall. Reduced crop productivity is associated with heat and drought stress and will have strong adverse effects on regional, national and household livelihood and food security. Solutions put forward by the report include technological adaptation responses, enhancing smallholder access to credit and other critical production resources, diversifying livelihoods, strengthening institutions at local, national and regional levels to support agriculture, gender-orientated policy and agronomic adaptation responses.
Stakeholders in the nation’s environment and development sector, who rose from a short session on Tuesday, 19 August 2014 in Abuja, have called on the authorities to make climate change an integral part of Nigeria’s Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Laurentia Mallam, Minister of Environment
At a parallel session on “Addressing the challenges of climate change and sustainable development” during the recently-held Presidential Summit on Millennium Development Goals and Post-2015 Development Agenda, participants suggested that the post-2015 targets should be climate-smart – targets that build resilience and adaptation, promote low-carbon development pathways, and deliver irreversible development progress.
While cautioning against confusion and inconsistency with the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) process, the participants declared in a communique released at the close of the event that climate change targets in the post-2015 agenda need to be consistent with, and at least as ambitious as, the objectives agreed under the UNFCCC.
The session was organised by the Climate Change Department of the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Millennium Development Goals Office.
In the process of mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation into development plans, the forum underlined the need for collective action to avoid dangerous climate change in accordance with the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and capabilities.
Participants called for concerted effort in the implementation of the National Framework for the Application of Climate Services, even as they urged the authorities to ensure that the process captures key areas of intervention critical to delivering concurrently on development and climate objectives including the highly-climate relevant areas of water, forests, disaster, energy, governance, and food and agriculture.
“There must be means of implementation that foster policy coherence, encourage synergies and win-win solutions and engage multiple stakeholders in a global partnership for sustainable development. Greater coherence in the objectives of financing for development and climate change finance will also be required, along with more joined-up approaches across governments,” submitted the gathering, calling for the pursuit of green growth, emergence of climate change action plan, as well as the incorporation of climate change in the educational curriculum.
Environment Minister, Laurentia Mallam, while opening the session, observed that about 60 per cent of the issues composed in the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda are related to climate change.
Her words: “This implies that climate change will determine whether the levels of development progress that have already been achieved can be sustained, as well as whether post-2015 development goals can be achieved. Put simply, development objectives will not be achieved unless the post-2015 framework is climate and future-fit.
“Similarly, the achievement of global climate change objectives – including keeping the average global temperature rise below 2oC – will depend on development decisions taken across sectors and in all countries. Although there’s already an international process in place to address climate change – under the UNFCCC – which needs to reach an agreement in 2015, the new climate deal will only take effect in 2020, by which time significant action will already have to have been taken to stay within 2o. Hence, we don’t have a fighting chance of achieving climate goals without development goals that start guiding countries down a climate-smart track.”
According to her, it is the realisation of the implication of climate change on attaining the Post-2015 Development goals that informed the Office of Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to request the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME) to organise the parallel session.
Rabi Jimeta, Permanent Secretary in the FME
Permanent Secretary in the FME, Rabi Jimeta, while warning that the reality of climate change has been proved beyond reasonable doubt by numerous evidences and global warming signals, stated that changes as a result of the phenomenon have significant ecological, social, economic and political impacts on the human race, including effects on food production, water availability, intensification of wildfires, changes in epidemic vectors of diseases and human security in general.
“There has been a paradigm shift from scientific realm to a developmental realm. This necessitates engagement of relevant stakeholders to integrate climate change issue into their development agenda both at the federal and state levels,” she stressed.
Both Mallam and Jimeta were represented by Dr Samuel Adejuwon, who heads the Climate Change Department in the ministry.
Dr. Samuel Adejuwon, Director, Climate Change Department in the FME
In the main presentation, environment and climate change specialist, Prof Emmanuel Ladipo, described Green Growth as growth in GDP that maintains or restores environmental quality and ecological integrity, and for meeting the needs of all people with the lowest possible environmental impact.
Prof. Oladipo
Ladipo urged the authorities to improve environmental sustainability, enhance environmental performance, promote environmental protection as an opportunity for sustainable growth, and integrate disaster risk management and preparedness in socio-economic development policies and planning.
In his remarks, Prof Chinedum Nwajiuba of the Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST) in Ibadan and Imo State University in Owerri wants the authorities to take the idea of no further business-as-usual in the management of the environment much more seriously, and not as mere words.
Prof. Nwajiuba
“Let us do some practical personal things to help the Nigeria environment. Government, civil society organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders should address the nation’s alarming population growth. It is not good for the environment, and not in tandem with sustainable development,” the declared.
He added: “We should appreciate the urgency of plan for a future without fossil fuel (oil) in a changing climate and degraded environment. We need to climate-proof development. Just as we request by law an Environmental Impact Assessment prior to development of certain category of projects, we should create a law that compels a climate clearance or climate-proofing for urban, human settlements, housing, telecommunications, and other projects.”
