Superstar singer, Davido has raised an alarm of the Naira losing more value against the Dollar.
The singer who disclosed that the exchange rate from dollar to Naira is now around N500, added that it almost made him cry.
Davido tweeted;
Dollar don reach 500 … I changed naira to dollar today and I almost cried smh this country nawa
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The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has said two persons died while three were injured when a 20-feet container fell on a commercial bus at Ilasamaja on the Oshodi-Badagry Expressway.
LASEMA Director-General, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed the accident on Sunday in Lagos, said the dead bodies and injured persons had been taken to Isolo General Hospital by LASEMA Responder.
Oke-Osanyintolu said those who died had been identified as a male and female.
He said when the LASEMA Responder got to the scene, it discovered that a truck with registration number SGM 715 XA and loaded with a 20-ft container had collided with a commercial bus discharging passengers under the bridge at Ilasamaja at about 7p.m.
Oke-Osanyintolu said the impact of the fallen truck led to the immediate death of two passengers.
He added that three other passengers, including the bus driver, were rescued with injuries and had been transferred to Isolo General Hospital by LASEMA’’s Responder.
“Another three passengers escaped unhurt.
”The dead and the injured had been transferred to Isolo General Hospital by LASEMA Responder,” he said.
He said that the Lagos State Transport Management Authority and the police were involved in controlling traffic in the area. (NAN).
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has warned of imminent flood in 102 Local Government Areas across 28 states during this year’s rainy season.
AVM Muhammadu A Muhammed, Director-General of the agency, said that the yearly Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP), and Annual Flood Outlook (AFO), that were released by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), predicted this in June.
He listed Kaura, Zaria, Kaduna North and Chikun local governments of Kaduna state as being within probable risk areas as some of the 102 local governments area with highly probable risk.
He advised governments to organise State Humanitarian Coordination Forum meetings in order to prepare stakeholders for mitigation and response to floods when they occur.
Mohammed called on State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) and front line local governments to be prepared.
The director-general advised them to sensitise vulnerable communities to prepare for safe evacuation.
Mohammed further suggested that refuse, weeds, water hyacinths should be removed from drainage channels, water channels and “all avenues for river run-offs so as to allow free flow of flood waters’’.(NAN)
Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the state Commissioner of Information, who disclosed this at a news conference in Minna, said that the decision was approved during the weekly Executive Council meeting.
He said that the executive decision on street begging takes effect from March 5, noting that credible reports at the disposal of security agencies made it necessary to begin vigorous enforcement of law on street begging.
“This is because security challenges in the state is on the rise, therefore putting a ban on street begging will help mitigate and address the security challenges,”he said.
Idris noted that the efforts was to safeguard lives and property of the residents, adding that modalities had been put in place to prosecute defaulters.
He added that adult beggars would be prosecuted, while parents of children seen begging would also be prosecuted.
Similarly, Alhaji Mamman Musa, Commissioner of Budget and Planning, said that the council also approved the second phase of development plan for Niger state Blueprint for 2019 to
2023.
He said that the Blueprint was to serve the operational approach for the people of the state to prepare for the desire development.
“Consultation from all sectors in the state are currently ongoing to come up with the Blueprint,”he said.
Thousands of activists are expected to join a Fridays for Future climate change protest fronted by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, the movement’s founder, in the south-western English city of Bristol.
Thunberg, 17, tweeted that she was “looking forward to joining the school strike in Bristol.”
“Bristol is feeling inspired,” said Sandy Hore-Ruthven, the Green Party’s Bristol mayoral candidate.
“Greta is the rock star of our young peoples’ voice – inspiring millions to take action,” Hore-Ruthven wrote for local news website B24/7.
Mike Jackson, executive director of Bristol City Council, and Andy Bennett, the commander of Bristol police, said in a joint statement that they expected “major disruption to the city,” with people travelling to the protest from across Britain.
Jackson and Bennett warned parents that the organizers’ usual security controls “may not be adequate, especially for primary school children and people with disabilities.”
Organizers Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate rejected the safety concerns, saying they would deploy more than 80 stewards and keep a “safe zone” for younger children.
City councillor Helen Godwin said on Thursday that she was unsure if she would take her own young children to Friday’s event.
“Greta’s commitment, resilience and passion for making climate change pivotal to global political discussion can only be admired,” Godwin wrote in a blog post.
“It feels like a once in a lifetime event and opportunity to hear from a young woman who has used her voice so powerfully to change the world,” she said.
The Federal Government says it is planning to make critical changes on Ogoniland clean up with intent to accelerate the pace of the project.
Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, disclosed this while inspecting some of the 21 remediation sites in Alode, Eleme Local Government Area, Rivers on Friday.
Abubakar said the Federal Government was worried at the slow pace of work by contractors handling the remediation sites.
“We know that work is going on but there is need for comprehensive review and changes that must be undertaken.
“We must make some changes for the project to be on track so that we can finish the project as at when due.
“Going by what we have seen the project is not going to be completed at the stated date,” he said.
Abubakar said that he decided to visit the sites to see first hand the progress of work as well as ensure the newly-hired contractors did not face obstacles at sites.
He said some changes that would be made included procurement and timelines for the remediation.
“In our recent meeting with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Geneva, Switzerland, we both agreed to reassess the project. We intend to do this as quickly as possible.
“We must ensure the project is done according to specifications for the clean up to succeed. President Muhammadu Buhari is clear about this.
“We all know UNEP’s capabilities, and as such, we must follow their recommendations to avoid derailment in their specifications,” he pointed out.
The minister solicited for more support from residents of areas to make the project a success.
Abubakar had on Thursday handed over 36 smaller remediation sites to contractors in addition to the 21 old sites.
Ogoniland comprises four local government areas in Rivers, including Eleme, Gokana, Khana and Tai. (NAN)
To halt bad climate conditions in the country through tree planting, two Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have mobilised 120 volunteers to begin their one million tree planting target on Saturday in Lagos.
The tree planting campaign that targeted 50 trees per day until the 1 million goal was achieved, was being organised by Urban Tree Revival Team (UTRT) Lekki Urban Forestary and Animal Shelter Initiative (LUFASI).
Volunteers who came to the office of the organisers for accreditation ahead of Saturday’s kick-off of the tree planting campaign said they were ready to plant trees for the future.
Mr Godspower Kuku, a volunteer, who once lived in the United Kingdom said that climate change was impacting on everyone, hence the need for all to imbibe tree tree planting and not to be left for government to handle.
“It will be a disservice to the unborn generation of our dear nation if we stand aloof and feel unconcerned without planting trees to shield them from the subsisting climate unfriendly conditions.
“Other climes are taking steps to remedy the situation, we should be seen to be doing something in that direction too to sustain life in our society.
“We are ready to storm the streets of Nigeria with tree planting until the target of one million trees is planted this year as part of our service to humanity,” he said.
Ms Jane Asuka, who said she was recruited online for the tree planting campaign, expressed excitement for the community service.
Asuka, a student of the Lagos State University (LASU) added that, with the recent climate crisis such as the Australian bush wild fire, actions should be taken to prevent such in Nigeria.
“We need to learn from the experiences of other people and act accordingly to avert crisis,” she said.
The Convener of UTRT, one of organisers of the event, Ms Omobola Eko said that all logistics arrangement had been made to kick-start the ecosystem reclamation event.
She said the tree planting campaign would begin from the Lekki Lagos axis toward inner Lagos to other parts with a tree planted on every available space.
According to her, the group would ensure that the trees are nurtured to maturity over the years.
Environment experts said presence of trees could lessen climate change havoc on human beings as it removed carbon in the air, halt ecological degradation and provide medication too. (NAN)
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency on Thursday in Abuja, said that it would release 2020 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) on Jan 21.
NiMet’s Director General, Prof. Sani Mashi, made this known at the media briefing on the forthcoming 2020 seasonal rainfall prediction.
According to him, the 2020 rainfall prediction will highlight vital information that may affect socio-economic activities in the air, land and water transportation, agriculture, water resources, disaster management and mitigation.
Others, he said, are tourism, sports, health, building and construction, energy sectors among others in the course of the year.
“In order to help policy makers and farmers plan ahead, we wish to announce that this year`s Seasonal Rainfall Prediction will be unveiled to general public on Tuesday, Jan.21, 2020 at the NAF Conference Centre, Abuja.
“Forecast information that have been provided include; the onset and cessation dates of the 2020 rainy season; the downscaled total amount of rainfall expected in all the 774 Local Government Areas of the country.
“Temperature forecast as well as malaria and meningitis forecast. The socio-economic implications of the expected rainfall and temperature patterns for major sectors of the economy will also be discussed during the event, “ he said.
Mashi said NiMet had witnessed increase from 54 to over 157 meteorological stations within three years and had acquired ISO 9001:2015 for Aeronautical Meteorological Services (AMS) delivery as first meteorological organisation in Africa to achieve the feat.
The director general said the agency also acquired ISO 29990:2010 for training services at the Regional Training Centre, Lagos, to be the first again in Africa.
“On this, NiMet`s meteorological institution is the only institution in Africa and one of the seven in the world to have achieved this ISO Certification.
“In addition to the WMO RTC NIMet is operating, we have also established a new National Meteorological Training Institute in Katsina, where we shall be training Nigerians in Meteorology at OND and HND levels.
“National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has already granted provisional approval for commencement of the programme.
“Our first batch of students shall resume in September 2020. The institute is the only one in Africa, but second in the world beside the South American Training Institute in Ecuador,“ he said.
Mashi commended efforts of the stakeholders involved in achieving new and improved condition of service for the agency. (NAN)
The Green Resilience, a climate and environment advocacy group, has urged the Federal Government to enforce laws on environmental pollution and prosecute environmental polluters in the country.
Mr Kingsley Adindu, a member of the group, gave this advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the group’s meeting with the Rivers Ministry of Environment in Port Harcourt.
Adindu urged the federal government to be directly involved to ensure that the industrial activities in the state which brought the fall out of the soot did not affect the people’s health.
Soot was a mixture of very fine black particles created by the product of incomplete combustion and primarily made up of carbon, but could contain trace amounts of metals, dust and chemicals.
Residents of Port Harcourt had since November 2016 woke up to see their city covered by a thick fog of black powdery dust known as soot.
Soot is believed to be related to the destruction of illegal refineries.
“The Ministry of Environment and its agencies should make sure that environmental regulations are taking seriously.
”Also, environmental enforcement should be carried out to check illegal refineries which are one of the causes of the environmental pollution in the state.
“Soot has been in the state for over four years now and it started with some industrial activities.
“We are hopeful that with the Ministry’s support of our partnership with the National Oil Dictational Response Agency (NOSDRA), that they are going to come up with a climate bill that punishes those responsible for the pollution,” he said.
Mr Peter Uzoma, amembers of the group, said that the minister was told the truth about some basic climatic change issues facing the state.
He said that the Minister was shown some solutions on how to tackle the soot that had affected the state.
Uzoma said that the group would partner with the NOSDRA to tackle environmental pollution in the state.
Dr Sampson Oladipo, Operational Head, NOSDRA, said that laboratory operations in the agency was impotent because the indices of the pollutions were not physical.
Oladipo said that the agency had taken some samples of the soot from every part of Port Harcourt to the laboratory to find out effects on the environment.
“We will be able to advise the public on measures to take after the analysis are done in the laboratory and we have the result,” he said. (NAN)
A former Governor of Imo, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, says over 100 million or 50 per cent of Nigerians are directly or indirectly threathened by desertification, deforestation and erosion.
Ohakim made this known in a paper he delivered at the 2019 Public Service Lecture and Award Series of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association, Imo State Branch.
The lecture which held in Owerri had the theme: “Nigeria: The Leadership Question”.
Ohakim said that the annual rate of deforestation in Nigeria stood approximately at four per cent or about 400,000 hectares to 450,000 hectares.
According to him, out of 909.890km2 of the country’s land area, about 600,000km2 or 65.94 per cent of the total land area had been lost to desert encroachment.
“Over 100 million people or 50 per cent of our citizens are directly or indirectly being threatened by desertification, deforestation and gully erosion,” he said.
Ohakim called on Nigerians to cooperate with governments in curbing deforestation by stopping what he called “people’s bizarre behaviour such as refuse madness, indiscriminate cutting of trees, open defeacation, over grazing and others in the midst of climate emergency”.
“It is an inescapable fact that we have got to the point of profound disconnect from our environment and one another.
“We have behaved in a shortsighted way, dealing heavy blows to the environment, and the environment is fighting back,” he said.
The former governor said that leadership transcended politics, adding that Nigerians must take serious acount of leadership at the family, community, church, institutions and organisational levels, ‘otherwise those at the helm of affairs would excape scrutiny’.
He described leadership as the ability to inspire change and make a paradigm shift, urging that leadership must move a people or an organisation to the next level.
According to him, a leader must be a man of courage and convinction if he must change the status quo, as well as be visionary to effect the desired change.
Ohakim added that leadership was essentially a selfless enterprise that often attracted a heavy price.
” The urgency of our situation demands a new, clear and different structure through which our people will be organised to face the 21st century challenges,” he said.
The Chairman of the occasion, Mr Mike Okiro, a former Inspector-General of Police, represented by Amb. Pascal Asor, hailed the alumni association for the programme.
He urged the members of the association to live up to people’s expectations by bringing their wealth of experience to bear on the development of the country.
The Chairman of the state branch of the alumni association, Mr Richmond Amaechi, noted that the lecture was the second edition.
He said that the first held in 2018 with theme “Restructuring and National Development in Nigeria”, was delivered by Chief Jerry Alagbooso, Member representing Orlu, Osu and Oru East Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
He said that the association, had through the lecture, been contributing its quota to nation-building and sustenance of democracy.
Amaechi said that the assocation would give honour to Nigerians who had distinquished themselves in their chosen professions.
He hoped that the lecture and responses from it would add value to the nation’s quest for good leadership.
Eight distinguished Nigerians received various awards including the Imo Gov. Emeka Ihedioha who recieved the Leadership Award of Excellence.
Ohakim recieved the Leadership Award of Excellence as Founder of Clean and Green Africa Initiative.
Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta and Sen. Theodore Orji, a former Governor of Abia received Alumnus Award of Execellence.
Ohakim, on behalf of the award receipients, thanked the association for finding them worthy of the award, and promised to continue to support it. (NAN)