Category: News

DISASTER IN IKONO UYO: AKHA steps in

April 13, 2023

…as Uyo Lawmaker makes case for Victims

Member Representing Uyo State Constituency in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Hon. Anietie Eka, during today’s plenary raised concern over massive destruction caused by devastating tropical wind in Nung Asang Ikono, and Ikot Obio Villages in Uyo Local Government Area and called for urgent government intervention.

Hon. Eka raised the concern on the floor of the House by way of matter of urgent public importance titled: Massive Destruction Caused by Devastating Tropical Wind Storm in Nung Asang Ikono and Ikot Ebo Communities in Uyo Local Government Area.

In a three prayer, Hon. Eka urged the State delegation including the State Emergency Management Agency to undertake an assessment of the extent of damage occasioned by the natural disaster with a view to providing relief and aid to these affected communities and those displaced by the windstorm.

He also prayed for government to urge the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare to intervene and provide succor to the affected homeless widows and children.

He urged the House to mandate the relevant House committee or special committee to liase with the various agencies of government towards providing a proactive emergency management and response to Akwa Ibom citizens.

The speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Bassey, directed the House Committee on Environment to collaborate with the State Emergency Management Agency, look into the matter and report back to the House within one week.

Agenda Setting for Pastor Umo Eno

April 12, 2023

Asked why he settled for Pastor Umo Eno as his preferred successor, Governor Udom Emmanuel gave a simple unambiguous answer. “I mean well for Akwa Ibom State,” he said.

Governor Emmanuel further amplified what he meant. Like a man who saw tomorrow, he delved into the realm of prognostication. He reeled out an agenda of expectations he believed, Pastor Umo Eno is coming, equipped and vested to accomplish.

Describing Pastor Eno’s credentials Governor Emmanuel said, “He is a successful entrepreneur who has employed our people and lifted thousands from poverty to prosperity.”

Governor Emmanuel added assuredly that, “He(Pastor Umo Eno), will be coming to the office of Governor with an economic blueprint that will further guarantee employment, development, and economic prosperity for our people.
He is a man of peace and will ensure that the peace and security of life we have enjoyed… will be maintained.”

With that point blank attestation, Governor Emmanuel had set a lofty agenda for the incoming Governor. At this time, the ARISE Agenda wasn’t born. It was in the womb of time and destiny of a man God had predestined for the top job of leading Akwa Ibom State from May 29, 2023.

God opened Governor Emmanuel’s eyes to see beyond the ordinary. He was spot on. When Pastor Umo Eno unveiled his blueprint for the future, to launch Akwa Ibom State into socioeconomic development and prosperity as encapsulated in the ARISE Agenda, any keen observer could only in retrospection exclaim, “Udom is right!”

Although a very detailed workplan and concise document spelling out, programmes, projects and policies for implementation, timelines in the short, mid and long term, expected outcomes and accomplishments, the ARISE Agenda is abridged to five nuggets, outlined as:

*Agricultural Revolution,
*Rural Development
*Infrastructural Maintainance/Advancement
*Security Management
*Educational Advancement

One cannot honestly interpret the ARISE Agenda without agreeing with Governor Emmanuel that this suffices as an economic blueprint that will guarantee employment, development, and economic prosperity for our people.

Pastor Umo Eno is a man prepared for the onerous task and isn’t coming to learn on the job. In his private capacity as an entrepreneur, he has a track record that speaks volumes. Undoubtedly, he is blessed with the midas touch.

I agree with Governor Emmanuel also that, Pastor Umo Eno’s life story resonates with the story of most ordinary Akwa Ibom people who rise to the occasion and greatness through daunting challenges to make their mark.

A new golden era is upon us inhabitants of the territory called Akwa Ibom State. I see too many happy hours. I hear the rain of abundance. Are you even ready for what is coming? God help the Governor-Elect, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno.

#Ariseagenda

Akwa Ibom Governor’s Aide Admonishes Christian Youths Towards Perseverance

March 2, 2021

The Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel on Entrepreneurial Development, Mrs. MefLyn Anwana, has urged youths in Akwa Ibom State and across the globe to be persistent, committed and dedicated in developing their inherent entrepreneurial acumen.

Mrs. Anwana gave the charge on Sunday in Uyo at Holy Ghost Ambassadors Church during its 2021 youth conference with the Theme: Triumph in Christ.

The conference featured some top government personalities within and outside the shores of Akwa Ibom State including: Rt. Hon. Onofiok Luke, Member representing Etinan Federal Constituency and Chairman House Committee on Judiciary in the National Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aniekan Uko, member representing Ibesikpo Asutan in the AKHA, and Akparawa Michael Bush, Special Assistant to Governor on Electronic Media among others.

Mrs. Anwana lauded the significant strides made by His Excellency, as embedded in the Dakkada Philosophy he introduced to the Akwa Ibom people in 2015, in line with the present administration’s master plan to drive human capacity development across a broad spectrum of industries.

Clearly, the economic infrastructure that will scale AkwaIbom is seeing the light of day. The youths to drive the active business ecosystem and economy of AkwaIbom State are ready to rise to the faith of their greatness, knowing that with God all things are Possible.

The Governor’s aide who spoke on the topic: “The Brazen Look of Perseverance” opined that Perseverance is the ability to keep going in the face of seeming challenges. It is the ability to disregard distractions and stay focused. For every success there are tons of failures. For those who actually research leaders, the inventors and the financially successful, there is an attribute common to all: the attribute of Perseverance. We can achieve anything we put our minds to!

She added that youths should be resolute, committed and dedicated towards the effective and efficient discharge of their entrepreneurial goals which, according to her, will give them a better platform to compete with their contemporaries in the society amongst other benefits.

Mrs. Anwana who also drew her homily from Romans 5:5 “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”., enjoined that hope does not disappoint as the love of God is sufficient for all.

“In your entrepreneurial Journey, once God has laid a seed in your heart, just bring Forth, bear fruit, be fruitful, Multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; that is proliferate and Dominate. Then while you unlearn negative habits, seek knowledge and learn positive habits, keep the right attitude; do it with all your heart, might and strength, persevere until Hope comes alive because God’s word doesn’t disappoint. As long as the earth remains seed time and harvest shall never cease’ she stated.

Speaking further, Mrs. MefLyn Anwana disclosed that: ‘Perseverance isn’t something that you can go out and buy, it is not something that you receive vicariously or by chance and it is not something that is beyond what you already have. Take, for example, the perseverance you demonstrated when you first attempted to learn how-to walk. I can say with absolute confidence that it was very unlikely that you walked upright without falling down the very first time you tried.

“As long as you persevere and realize that the detour is simply another alternative path in the direction of your goal, you will continue to move forward. Those who see a detour as a reason to quit, lack perseverance. You will always face challenges as you work towards your goals.

“To think that you will not encounter any obstacles along the way is to think that a long lost rich relative will leave you a fortune. It takes effort and belief to persevere and stay dedicated to accomplish your goals”. She admonished.

She however maintained that in the course of their entrepreneurial journey in life, many challenges, obstacles and setbacks will be encountered while aiming towards greatness and that they should not allow those challenges mar their business ideas but should be encouraged that consistency, persistency and perseverance are prime badges to wear towards the realization of goals.

Nigerian government blames mismanagement, incompetence for demise of Nigeria Airways

February 12, 2020

The Federal Government of Nigeria said on Tuesday mismanagement and incompetence by officials led to the demise of the old national carrier, the Nigeria Airways.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Engr. Hassan Musa, who disclosed this at the 7th Aviation Workers’ Week in Abuja, described Nigeria Airways as one of the “positive legacies” of colonial rule in the country.

Nigeria Airways, according to the permanent secretary, if it had been well managed, would have remained a major contributor to the nation’s economy today.

Hassan, however, pledged the commitment of the present administration to bringing back the glorious days when Nigeria Airways was the preferred choice of Nigerians across the social strata.

He said: “You will agree with me that right from the inception of Nigeria’s nationhood, our founding fathers had resolved to sustain some positive legacies of our departing colonialists among which was the existence of a national carrier.

“Sadly, while it was expected that the then national carrier would serve as a cash cow among other revenue generation sources for the nation, brazen degree of mismanagement, incompetence, nepotistic tendencies and old-fashioned system of aviation business crept into the operations of the airline.

“The end result of all these noxious factors is well documented for posterity. It’s indeed a very sad chapter in Nigeria’s chequered history.

“With the benefits of insight coupled with the zeal and determination of the current minister to return the nation to its glorious past, Nigeria in collaboration with other core investors and stakeholders is on the path to resuscitating the national carrier project.

“The concept of this noble dream is well thought out while a phased execution of this resuscitation has reached advanced stages of fruition in the nearest future.”

Central Bank of Nigeria approves 6 companies for milk importation

February 12, 2020

In a new twist to its imposition of Forex restriction on milk importation into the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Tuesday gave six companies the nod to import the product into the country.

The major policy shift limited all the Forms ‘M,’ required for importing milk and its derivatives into the country, to the following firms – FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Chi Limited, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Integrated Dairies Limited, Chi Limited and Nestle Nigeria PLC (MSK only).

The CBN disclosed that the gesture aimed at stimulating local production of milk, its derivatives and dairy products.

Apparently, the measure rewarded compliance, by granting the companies that conformed with the CBN backward integration policy the liberty to import milk, why it punished others who did not meet its conditions by withholding approval.

Backward integration refers to a situation where a company takes ownership and control of one or more key component(s) of its supply value chain. In this context, the six companies that have keyed into the CBN backward integration must have invested directly in major segments of the supply value chain like dairy farming, milk extraction, etc.

The apex bank last July said plan to curb forex for milk production was afoot.

The new measure had sweeping industry-wide reverberations with many Nigerians misconstruing the restriction for an outright ban.

While stakeholders like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) claimed there were not carried along, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) called on the CBN to revisit the decision with a view to rescinding it.

The CBN is concertedly seeking to up local milk production from the present 500,000 metric tonnes per annum to about 550,000 tonnes in twelve months.

The measure aims among other things to promote local production, create employment, conserve foreign exchange and trigger economic growth.

Nigeria lost N4.57tn revenue to crude oil theft in 4 years

February 12, 2020

Nigeria lost a mind-blowing sum of N4.57 trillion to oil theft activities in the four years between 2015 and 2018, estimates of the Nigeria Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) has shown.

Put differently, the Federal Government lost about 43 per cent of its revenue to oil theft in four years.

Bunmi Olatunde, Deputy Director of Programmes at New Nigeria Foundation, who made revelation at a workshop titled Creating Innovative Technology for Artisanal Refineries in Lagos on Tuesday, admitted that oil theft and illegal oil bunkering practices were eroding government income generation potential acutely.

Just last October, Nigeria officially became the oil theft capital of the world when the NNRC released data, suggesting that the highest ever reported crude oil theft in the world took place in Nigeria.

The sobering statistics emphasised that Nigeria, as the most notorious country in the world for oil theft, lost roughly 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), dwarfing the figure (between 5,000 and 10,000 bpd) posted by Mexico, who came distant second by at least 3,900%.

By implication, more than one fourth of Nigeria’s average daily production (1.57 million bpd as of December 2019) is currently lost to oil theft.

According to the NNRC October 2019 study, revenue lost by the Federal Government between 2011 and 2014 ranged from $7 billion to $12 billion (between N2.545 trillion and N4.362 trillion) every year.

It is worthy of note that Nigeria’s budgets for 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 stood at N4.6 trillion, N4.8 trillion, N4.99 trillion and N4.962 trillion respectively.

One wonders why the Federal Government could choose to burden the citizenry with VAT increase and its negative consequences of rise in inflation and plunge in the value of Naira when it could easily cast its glance elsewhere by making diligent efforts to generate more income by curbing oil theft in order to fund its budget.

Beyond the outrageous revenue erosion that oil theft triggers, Mrs Olatunde also made mention of negative impacts such as environmental degradation, loss of livelihoods, loss of lives, violence and health hazards posed to the host communities.

Babajide Soyode, an engineering consultant with Dangote Refineries, who also spoke at the symposium pointed out that only the government had the capacity to make enduring social investment in the oil producing communities by holding the relevant agencies responsible for developing such communities accountable.

He said “how does Niger Delta Development Commission spend the money allocated to it? The agencies of the government should be held accountable. What alternative services can be provided for the youths in the Niger Delta region? The solution is not modular refinery.”

He went further to say that “crude oil theft has grown into a multibillion-dollar enterprise with a lot of actors at various levels. Therefore, no single approach can solve the problems. Interventions should be multifaceted at different levels.”

On its part, Alex Ogedengbe, Vice President Nigeria Academy of Engineering, affirmed that erecting artisanal refinery was not an answer to crude oil theft and illegal oil refining in the Nigeri Delta given that it constituted enormous hazards to the operators.

CBN injects $210m into Forex Market

February 12, 2020

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has injected the sum of 210 million dollars into the inter-bank Foreign Exchange Market to boost liquidity in the sector.

The bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Isaac Okorafor made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.

Okorafor explained that authorised dealers in the wholesale segment of the market received the sum of 100 million dollars, while the Small and Medium Enterprises segment received the sum of 55 million dollars.

He said customers who were seeking foreign exchange for Invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments and Basic Travel Allowance, among others, were allocated a total of 55 million dollars.

The director stated that the CBN’s commitment to sustaining liquidity and ensuring stability in the market remained paramount on the minds of the management of the bank.

According to him, the continued intervention by the bank underscored the resolve of the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to guarantee access to all those who genuinely required foreign exchange from the forex market.

The bank was on Friday, injected the sum of 218.41 million dollars and CNY18 million into the Retail Secondary Market Intervention Sales segment.

Meanwhile, the Naira on Tuesday, remained stable, as N358 was exchanged for a dollar in the Bureau de Change segment of the market.

Malaysia’s population rises to 32.68 million

February 11, 2020

Official data released on Tuesday has revealed that Malaysia’s population in the fourth quarter 2019 was estimated at 32.68 million, an increase of 0.6 percent from the same quarter in the previous year.

According to the Malaysian Statistics Department, citizens accounted for 90.4 percent of the total population.

However, live births fell 2.3 percent year-on-year to 124,240, with male babies outnumbering female babies.

Total deaths for the quarter increased by 0.8 percent year-on-year to 43,623.

WHO renames coronavirus

February 11, 2020

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has renamed the new coronavirus as Covid-19.

WHO announced the new name in its tweeter handle at @WHO that “we now have a name for 2019nCov disease.

“The new name is COVID-19.The CO stands for corona, the VI for virus and the D for disease.”

The UN health agency wanted a name that do not refer to a geographical location, animals, an individual or a group of people.

WHO is leading a two-day global research and innovation forum to mobilise international action in response to coronavirus outbreak in Geneva.

China’s National Health Commission said there were 2,478 confirmed new cases in the mainland and 108 additional deaths, most of them in Hubei province.

As of Monday night, the government said a total of 42,638 cases have been confirmed and 1,016 people have died in the country.

The outbreak’s epicentre is in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, with 28 countries and territories around the world also affected.

Nigeria Custom seize bags of contraband rice disguised as beans

February 11, 2020

The Adamawa/Taraba Command of the Nigerian Customs Services (NCS) has impounded a trailer load of 256 50kg bags of contraband rice, each bag hidden in bigger bags packed with beans.

Customs Area Comptroller, Kamardeen Olumoh, who addressed newsmen at the headquarters in Yola on Tuesday, said the trailer was impounded and brought to the headquarters with the rice and beans content from where it was seized along the Yola-Mubi road.

He said the rice was hidden and presented as beans to deceive Nigerian Customs personnel who have been enforcing the federal government’s policy against the importation of rice.

The Customs Area Comptroller who gave the media briefing standing on a podium mounted beside the impounded trailer said, “This trailer you see here was intercepted supposedly carrying bags of beans but found on examination to have concealed bags of smuggled rice in bags of beans.

“At the end of the count, we discovered that 256 bags of parboiled rice smuggled into the country were packed with the beans.”

He said both commodities and the trailer conveying them would be forfeited and warned owners of trailers and trucks to be mindful of those who drive their vehicles as vehicles found to have been used to convey contraband goods would always be seized with the goods.

He said two persons were arrested in connection with the seized trailer of rice and that they would be charged to court and would, by legal provisions, bag five years in prison without option of fine if convicted.

The Customs Area Comptroller who gave a summary of the performance of his command, which comprises the states of Adamawa and Taraba, in the 2019 operational year, said the year recorded improved Customs operations.

“During the year under review, the Command achieved major anti-smuggling feats,” Kamardeen Okumoh said, adding, “A total of 74 seizures were made, with the arrest of 20 suspects.”