₦airaland Forum

richmondefosa:
yes they do.

Eniola Akinkuotu , Abuja

The Federal Ministry of Health has advised mothers to stop giving water to babies under the age of six months but should rather focus on exclusive breastfeeding .

The Head of Nutrition , Family Health Department, Federal Ministry of Health , Dr. Chris Isokpunwu, said lthis in Abuja on Monday during a high - level consultative meeting with states on accelerating nutrition result in Nigeria .

Isokpunwu said statistics showed that at least 46 per cent of mothers were giving their babies breast milk and water.

The doctor said this was wrong because it made the children susceptible to diseases , adding that breast milk already contained water.

He said , “ Babies below the age of six months should be exclusively on breast milk . About 46 per cent of mothers give water to their babies along with breast milk . This is wrong and it must be stopped. It increases the risks of babies having diarrhoea and pneumonia. ”

Also speaking , the Minister of Health , Prof. Isaac Adewole , said Nigeria had the second highest rate of malnutrition in the world
Adewole, who was represented by the Director of Family Health Department at the ministry , Dr . Adebimpe Adebiyi , said nearly 1, 500 children in Nigeria died daily of malnutrition .

The minister said , “ With a stunthing rate of 31. 5 per cent in 2015, which translates to about 11 million children , Nigeria has the highest number of stunted children under age five in sub-Saharan Africa , and the second highest in the world .

“ Similarly , about 7. 2 per cent are wasted , that is acutely malnourished and 18. 6 per cent are underweight . It is also a well- established fact that, as an underlying cause of death , malnutrition accounts for more than 50 per cent of deaths of children under the age of five in Nigeria .

“ Every day, Nigeria loses about 2, 300 children under -five year of age and malnutrition accounts for more than half of these deaths . It is therefore obvious that we cannot seriously think about reducing deaths of children under the age of five without addressing malnutrition. ”

Adewole said analysis by the Micronutrient Initiative showed that unless Nigeria took effective action to prevent and control Vitamin A Deficiency, over 80, 000 Nigerian children would die annually.

The minister said the total amount of money needed to fund the project to combat malnutrition was $912m .

He thanked the World Bank for making $350m available and called on all states to make the dream a reality.

Shittu Mohammed is National Chairman of the newly registered Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA). In this interview with MUYIWA OYINLOLA, he spoke about the ideology of the party and why it has yet to constitute membership of some of its sensitive organs.

Your political party, APDA, is one of the newly registered parties in the country. What does it have to offer that other parties already in existence are not offering?

Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) is a party of like minds. They have looked at the challenges facing the country and they see that the country has no problem, but leadership, impunity and lack of enduring institutions. We believe that as a people, we must be able to chat a course for this country and develop our democracy beyond it’s present level. We are of the view that we need to advance the course of democracy in the country in such a way that people will take centre stage of whatever is done.

We want to advance the course of the electorate. As a party, we’re introducing e-payment so that our finance can be open to every Nigerian. We’re also introducing online registration so that you can register online. We’re also saying that you can’t just sit in your house in Abuja or Lagos and say you want to be president of Nigeria. You have to go to your ward. We’re also bringing in Electoral College whereby what you will need to be our presidential candidate will be just 37 votes. This will make us believe in ourselves, to see Nigerians as one. Not as Ibo man or Tiv woman, we must eliminate such tendencies. Only 37 votes give you our ticket to stand for presidential election. I know you’re trying to imagine how this makes sense. If I go to Oyo State and I get one million votes, and another person gets 29 votes, and another person gets 500 votes. Automatically, I have won there but that only gives me one vote. So, I must also struggle to win in other states, and we’re saying you must get this in 24 states and two third of 24 states.

That means you have to go round all the states to see the bad roads that your maladministration may have caused. You’re also able to see the projects you promised to do but that you did not do. You have to go round, from one door to another, from one village to another, from one ward to another. And when you eventually get to the office you will realise that you will still need to travel round again and you won’t want to go through the rigour of the bad roads, the bad airports. These are some of the changes we intend to bring in. We want to advance the course of this democracy.

What is your party’s stand on restructuring?
Restructuring is embedded in our manifesto. We believe that Nigeria needs to be restructured. We believe in devolution of power, where you take a look at the concurrent list and the exclusive list, and you juggle them, in such a way that each state or each component can look at its mineral resources and agricultural products that are available within its domain and take a comparative advance of them for development.

For instance, if look at Borno State today, they have Gum arabic in abundance. And you won’t believe that Gum arabic is more expensive than crude oil. If you can put Gum arabic in the whole of Sambisa forest that cuts across Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, even up to Lake Chad. They can depend on that. They also have Lake Chad, which means they can feed us with any type of food. They have the best specie of beans from that area, they can grow and even export their beans.

Go to Bayelsa State, forget about the crude oil there; look at the rice plantation in that state, and imagine what it will be like if you take advantage of that and engage young people who are looking for jobs in it.

We have to maximize the opportunities in the states rather than encouraging a situation where everyone runs to Abuja for allocation. We also have to do away with this issue of indigeneship/settlers. We have to see ourselves as one. We should see ourselves as Nigerians. These are some of the course we intend to advance.
We’re also looking at a situation where we will put up a bill where electoral process will be devoid of distributing rice and such items to the electorate during campaigns instead of serving them judiciously and make life better for them. We’re going to put that bill, as a party, before the National Assembly. And you need a vehicle to put all these things in place, and that vehicle is APDA.

A lot of Nigerians are of the opinion that the number of political parties are too many. What is your take on that?

Party formation is about ideology. There are about 170 political parties in the United States as at today. But they are ideology based. Some are about Animal Rights protection. Some are about environmental protection. Some are about heritage preservation. There are some that you find only in counties and you can’t win elections in those counties except you collaborate with them. And you will recall that the other day when Obama was losing election, how Tea Party came up to support him. That is their own ideology.

There was a noticeable presence of PDP and Labour Party members during the flag off of your party. Are you falling back on these individuals for support?

As you’re aware, I was National Chairman of Inter-party Advisory Council and I have sympathy of many political parties. You may have seen faces of PDP chieftains, Labour Party chieftains, we had PPN stalwarts there, you had NNPP chieftains there, and many more. There were so many people that came to show solidarity with us. Our doors are open. It is a new course. We’re introducing an ideological political party. It is devoid of any menace you may have seen in other parties. It’s a new baby and we want every Nigerian to come on board. This is the first time they will have an ideological political party. It’s not that we’re friends, it’s about ideology. It’s not about driving a government away so that we can form a new one, no. We’re bringing in what will redefine the nation’s political landscape.
Does the party have a BoT now? If yes, who are those who constitute it?

For now, we only have functional National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC). We left the Board of Trustees (BoT), because people who should constitute this should be people that have meritoriously served this country.
As a party that wants to change the political arena, we are not in a hurry to constitute it.
We have also not constituted Council of Elders. You know, you have to look at the antecedents, the ideology and pedigree of the people you’re bringing on board. So, it will take us time; other committees and sub-committees of the party will wait.

What is the numerical strength of your party and in which part of the country do you have more members?

We have members all over the country. We’re on e-registration. We’re not a regional party. We don’t believe in regionalism. We believe in one Nigeria. We believe that as a Nigerian, the problem you have as an Ebira man is the same problem that a Kanuri man is facing. What are those basic problems? Food. Do you have food on your table? Will your tribe put food on your table? The answer is no. Will tribalism give you electricity? No. Will your region give you qualitative education? No. Therefore, we in APDA believe that the unity of the country is paramount. We believe there should be an electoral process in place to advance the course of the common man.

The less privileged in Ebonyi will soon have a new lease of life as Africa Nations Development Programme , an Abuja -based NGO , has begun the construction of a N 7bn New City free for them .

The New City , sited at Uburu , Ohaozara Local Government area of Ebonyi , when completed will contain 5, 000 units of modern two - bedroom detached houses , schools , police stations, markets , hospitals among others .

The project in Ebonyi is one the many that will be sited in each state of the country with that in Cross River having been launched and will cost the organisation about N 2. 7tn.

In the South - East, Enugu and Ebonyi and two other states in South - South , Akwa Ibom and Cross-River have provided land for the project .

The project had started at Ikpa Nkanya in Cross River on a 250-hectare land provided by the government.

Also , Kaduna , Kano, Jigawa and Adamawa have promised to provide land in scattered locations for the project .

Dr Samson Omojuyigbe , Director- General of the ANDP, during the groundbreaking ceremony at Uburu on Saturday, said that the project was aimed at giving hope to the most vulnerable segment of the society who are buffeted on all sides of the economic divide .

“ This is important to us because the project is one of our efforts to ensure the practical fulfilment of the dream of the ANDP in providing relief for the suffering people of Africa .

“ I feel particularly happy that Ebonyi has become one of the leading states to benefit from the project presently after overtaking two other states hitherto in the run for the project .

“ I , therefore , congratulate the government and good people of Ebonyi as a member of the frontline states to proudly benefit first .

“ The most gratifying issue is that the state government will not make any contribution towards the project but will provide lands and the enabling environment to achieve its success, ’’ he said .

Gov. David Umahi said that land owners in Ebonyi would henceforth become equity owners of the investments from local and foreign investors sited on their lands .

According to him , the government in adhering to democratic tenets will not dispossess its people of their lands as they are enjoined to offer lands for joint participation in agricultural enhancement and other economic ventures.

“ We have concluded arrangements with Chinese investors to invest in any local government area that will provide between 5, 000-10, 000 hectares of land for agriculture and other economic ventures.

“ We will approach the state House of Assembly to enact a law that will ensure that no land will be allotted to investors without the active participation of the owners in its usage , ’’ he said .

Umahi noted that the desired rate of development would not be achieved in the state if the people hold firm to their lands as the government and investors were not expected to construct in the air .

“ All lands in the state, however , belong to the government as an investor has given us two weeks to commence a similar project in the Nwofe area and inject $10m dollars to expand and manage our fertiliser plant .

“ We have achieved much in road, bridge constructions among others and our attention will shift to large -scale mechanised agriculture and establishment of industries among other viable economic ventures, ’’ he said .

He thanked the ANDP for undertaking the project in the state, noting that he was fascinated being informed of the success of such project in Calabar, Cross River and other states in the country .

Mr Benjamin Eze, Country Director of ANDP, said that it was an offshoot of the United Nations Development Programme Initiative which undertakes programmes and projects to enhance the lives of the less privileged in the society .

“ The Ebonyi government would invest no funds into the project which involves 5, 000 detached bedroom bungalows with facilities such as roads , electricity, schools, police posts and other security installations , hospitals and fire stations among others , ’’ he said .

Mr Samuel Okoronkwo , Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters , debunked the notion that the land on which the projects would be sited was being disputed by a prominent indigene of the area .

Chukwudi Akasike, Port Harcourt


Some suspected cult members have burnt down a family house in Okpako- Ejemah , in the Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State , killing three family members .

One Alhaji Hamza Garuba , who was a trailer driver, his wife and stepson, were said to have been locked inside the house by the hoodlums , who set fire to the house.

The incident reportedly occurred at about 10. 55pm on Sunday.

Garuba’ s relative , Muhammed Sanni, explained that one of the hoodlums had attempted to rape Garuba ’ s wife before he was stabbed to death by the man.

Sanni said Garuba ’ s action could have angered the suspected cult members .

He said , “ The stabbing of the criminal might have infuriated other gang members , who quickly ran out of the house, locked the entrance door and set the house ablaze . My brother, his wife and a stepson were killed.
“ Nobody was around to rescue them and they were burnt beyond recognition. ”

The South - South , South - East Coordinator of Arewa Consultative Forum , Alhaji Musa Saidu, said , “ What happened at Okpako- Ejemah was a case of robbery and arson. ”
The state Police Public Relations Officer , Mr . Nnamdi Omoni , said two suspects had been arrested.

cc:lalasticlala

Oluwatosin Omojuyigbe


A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Thursday granted an embattled judge , Justice Rita Ofili -Ajumogobia and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria , Mr . Godwin Obla , leave to travel to the United States for medical attention .

Justice Ofili -Ajumogobia , a serving judge of the Federal High Court , is being prosecuted alongside Obla by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over N 5m bribe .

Justice Ofili - Ajumogobia through her counsel , Mr . Olawale Akoni ( SAN) , had sought the leave of the court to travel to the US for urgent medical attention in Morris Height Center, Bronx , New York .

In a 17 paragraph affidavit in support of her claim , Justice Ofili -Ajumogobia was said to be suffering from high blood pressure , hypertension , palpitations, and stress related issues.

Counsel for the EFCC , Mr . Rotimi Oyedepo , had countered the application , contending that if Justice Ofili - Ajumogobia was granted leave to travel , she might jump bail and not come back to face her trial .

Oyedepo also contended that Ofili -Ajumogobia ’ s request to travel for thirty days was a ploy to stall the trial.

Ruling on the application , the trial Judge, Justice Hakeem Oshodi, pointed out that the court has judicial discretion to rule on the application .

“ The prosecution failed to give evidence why the applicant’ s sickness cannot be treated in Nigeria . Also how the prosecution came to a decision that defendant would jump bail was best known to him .

“ I believe that the 1st defendant as a Federal High Court Judge has a lot to lose if she considered the idea of jumping bail.

“ The Chief Registrar is hereby ordered to release the international passport of the 1st defendant to enable her travel abroad between June 7th to June 13th , 2017. The defendant must return the passport to the Chief Registrar on or before July 1, 2017″ , Justice Oshodi ruled.

The judge also granted the second defendant, Obla , leave to also travel to Houston , Texas in the US for medical treatment .

“ The 2nd defendant is also granted leave to travel for medical treatment and must also return his passport to the Chief Registrar on July 4, ” the Judge ruled.

TTollie:
Why now