Adeleke: We remain resolute, committed to good governance - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!


The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has reiterated his commitment to delivering good governance and infrastructure development, despite baseless criticisms from some politicians, reports ITREALMS.

According to a statement by Mallam Olawale Rasheed, spokesperson to the State Governor, Adeleke is set to flag off the dualization of Ila Orangun township road and the second phase of Osogbo-Ikirun-Ila Odo Kwara State Boundary road.

NCC resolute in pursuing digital transformation agenda - ITREALMS

ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

Telecom regulator in the country, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC),  is resolute in pursuing the digital transformation agenda of the federal government, reports ITREALMS.

This is coming as NCC has advanced plans to roll out two additional 3.5GHz spectrum licenses for the Fifth Generation (5G) licenses in 2023. 

Tinubu condoles Nigeria on Anenih: A resolute leader for unity - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The former governor of Lagos State and All Progressives Congress national stalwart, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has described the former Minister of Works, Chief Tony Anenih, who died on Sunday as a leader who was resolutely committed to the unity and cohesion of the country, reports ITREALMS.

He said in a statement last night by his Media Office and endorsed by Tunde Rahman, saying "Chief Anenih was a foremost politician and elder-stateman. He was resolutely committed to the unity and cohesion of this country. He worked for the upliftment of his Uromi hometown and Edo State, as he worked for the growth and development of Nigeria.

"A politician of immense repute. He gave so much to party politics and democracy in the country.

As one of the founding fathers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he played a key role in the country's resurgent democracy. It was no surprise that he later emerged the Chairman, Board of Trustees of PDP.

"Our path crossed in the Social Democratic Party where he was our national chairman. I recall that he was an energetic politician who played politics with all that he was imbued with.

"I commiserate with his family. I pray that they find the strength and courage to live without their patriarch. I also commiserate with Governor Godwin Obaseki and the government and people of Edo State".

Ayo Midele/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Pix: Late Chief Tony Anineh

FG resolute in tackling violent extremism - Mohammed

ITREALMS:

The Federal Government is resolute in dismantling the structural conditions that make violent extremism to thrive in the country, so says the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, reports ITRealms.

He gave this outline in Abuja on Tuesday at the public presentation of the 'Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism', identified such structural conditions to include unemployment, poverty, lack of education, corruption, and other social-economic factors.

According to him, the Federal Government has embarked on developmental programmes as part of efforts to dismantle the conditions that feed into violent extremism.

"For example, the Anchors Borrowers programme has created over 6.3 million jobs for farmers through rice farming. Equally significant, the Federal government has served no fewer than 246.4 million meals to Primary school pupils across 20 States under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) to encourage children enrolment in schools.

''According to a widely reported recent survey, no fewer than 10.27 million children have been enrolled in public primary schools in the North West and North Central Zones of the country in the last one year, representing an increase of 20% in some of the states. This was attributed largely to the school feeding programme. Development programmes like the school feeding scheme are at the heart of our efforts to prevent violent extremism.,'' Alhaji Mohammed said.

He also said the N-Power programme of the Federal Government has engaged and deployed over 200,000 young Nigerian to public primary schools, primary healthcare centre, and in agriculture development project centres across local government areas in the country, adding, 'This is with a view to helping build community resilience against violent extremist group. That number is set to increase by 300,000 this year."

The Minister said the government is also taking a bold step to address the issue of recharging the Lake Chad Basin, which has shrunk by 90% between 1963 and now, thereby impacting negatively on the livelihood of the people that depended on it for farming activities.

He said that as part of its soft approach in tackling security challenges, the administration is equally engaging in dialogue with different key stakeholders in order to find possible and lasting solutions to the issue of herder-farmer conflicts, which is one of the security challenges confronting the nation.

Alhaji Mohammed said the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture is committed to developing narratives and communication strategies that will completely dismantle and neutralize Boko Haram ideology and messages.

"We did that when we launched the national sensitization campaign against insecurity in December 2015. I am sure many of you would have heard the slogan, 'if you see something, say something. We intend to take that campaign further'.

"As you are very much aware, extremist groups thrive on two major things: One is to get their ideologies and messages out to the public, which today has been facilitated by the democratisation of the cyberspace, for the purpose of recruitment and radicalization. The second is publicity, which is the oxygen that they live on," he said.

While applauding the critical role the media is playing the fight against terrorism, the Minister encouraged the media to sustain the momentum and deny extremist groups the oxygen of publicity which they badly crave.

Alhaji Mohammed hailed the leadership and political will demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari, which has served as a morale booster for the military to decimate Boko Haram and put the terror group on the run.

He said the Sambisa Forest, which used to be the fortress of Boko Haram, has become too hot for the terror group, which is now escaping to the neighbouring communities.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Pix:(L-R) The National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Mohammed Monguno (rtd); Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and representative of Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. A Mohammed at the Public Presentation of Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism in Abuja.

Resolute implementation of bank, import policies yielding results - Emefiele

ITREALMS:

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has declared that with resolute implementation of the Bank’s policy, which currently restricts importers of certain items access to foreign exchange from the Nigerian Forex market, was what led to improvements in the local production of those items, which paved the way for reduction in nation's import bill, report ITRealms.

Speaking at the 2017 Annual Bankers’ Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, weekend, Emefiele declared that local manufacturers have started recording profits and major boosts to their revenue due to the policy.

As said by him, despite opposition to the introduction of the policy restricting 41 items from Nigeria’s foreign exchange market, the unbaised implementation of the policy has resulted into the considerable decline in Nigeria’s import bills. 

From an average of about US$5.5 billion, he revealed that the nation’s monthly import bill had fallen consistently to US$2.1 billion in 2016 and US$1.9 billion by half year 2017.

He so cited the example of Psaltry International Limited (PIL), an agro-allied company based in Oyo State, he said the introduction of the policy had reversed the fortunes of the starch-producing company. 

Noting that prior to the policy; Psaltry had only few customers and a huge backlog of inventory.

CBN boss noted that due to the policy, he disclosed that the company now has over 50 multinational clients including Nestle and Unilever, thereby saving the country $7 million in foreign exchange drawdown over the two years of the policy.

He insisted that the access restriction policy has freed Nigeria from the perennially embarrassing importation of toothpicks.

Also he said Unilever, which moved its production facility to another country a few years ago, had agreed to commission a new Blue Band Factory in Agbara, Ogun State before the end of 2017.

Ayo Midele/GEE ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!