Amansea-Ebenebe-Awba-Ofemili road: Obi expresses dismay on lack of completion - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi has expressed dismay over lack of commitment to complete the Amansea-Ebenebe-Ugbenu-Ugbene-Awba-Ofemili road, which he started during his tenure, reports ITREALMS.

The Amansea-Ebenebe-Ugbenu-Ugbene-Awba-Ofemili road is about 37 kilometres from the capital.

He made this known at the 7th annual lecture by News Express Magazine at Ikeja Sheraton Hotel, Lagos on Thursday, as the special guest of honour and guest speaker, held under the theme: Getting Nigeria Out of the Woods – The Challenges of African Integration.

Obi, who expressed shock that the road has not been completed, over five years after he left office, however blamed the populace and especially community leaders for not holding those in political offices accountable.

As the first governor of Anambra State to visit Awba-Ofemili through Amansea-Ebenebe-Awba-Ofemili road, Obi expressed dismay that on his visit, the adults were busy dancing and hailing him despite lack of community healthcare, and functional school, instead of asking how to improve the livelihood of the community.

He disclosed that his interaction with students revealed that their school premises were not conducive for learning; hence he got focused on fixing the schools among other things whilst in office, urging citizens to always ask questions than eulogizing their leaders, which does not often help the leadership.

He obviously blamed adults for not showing our children the right values that make society great beyond wealth display and for personal aggrandizements.

Obi also expressed dissatisfaction that despite the fact the road has been down half-way at the time he left office, that Awba-Ofemili axis which is the end of the road has not been successfully completed.

He, therefore, advocated for revolution of ideas for our leadership, without which, current woes orchestrated by acceptance of corruption as a way of life will continue.

In addition, Obi called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police and security agencies directly or remotely involved in the conduct of election to see the elections holding in Kogi and Bayelsa states as opportunities to redeem the bartered image of Nigeria as a country unable to conduct free and fair elections.

Lamenting that the gains Nigeria recorded from the conduct of free and fair elections during the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan administration is fast fading away, Obi maintained that INEC must use this Kogi and Bayelsa elections slated for Saturday, November 16, 2019 to restore hope for Nigerians on elections as a means of freely expressing their franchise as against what he called the “return to kangaroo elections marred by violence and all that was vile” seen during the last election.

He declared, “Besides, it would also encourage well-meaning Nigerians to join in the future elections. … As the giant of Africa, Nigeria ought to be showing example to other African countries by encouraging free and fair election and allowing candidates with the highest vote cast to emerge winners.”

Remmy Nweke/DoP

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Safer Internet Day 2019: MAPinAfrica expresses dismay over rise in online pedophiles

ITREALMS:

Media Against Pedophiles in Africa (MAPinAfrica) has expressed dismay over the rise in online pedophiles across the continent, reports ITREALMS.

Speaking through MAPinAfrica co-Admin Faculty, Mr. Remmy Nweke, at the 2019 World Safer Internet Day, organized in Lagos by the Centre for Cyber Awareness and Development (CECAD), urged media practitioners to help save Africa, mostly those in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector among others.

He also said that media practitioners’ buy-in is very crucial so as to avail them with the requisite knowledge-base to educate the larger population on the continent with regards to the worrisome rise in the activities of pedophiles.

Pedophiles, Nweke pointed out, target children in poor countries for online abuse, outside the socio-cultural burdens with incentives, citing for instance that as far back as 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 73 million boys and 150 million girls under the age of 18 years had experienced various forms of sexual violence.

While the Center for Disease Control and the US Department of Justice study an estimated 7.9 per cent of males and 19.7 per cent of females universally faced sexual abuse before the age of 18 years, with the highest prevalence rate of Child sexual abuse (CSA) was seen in Africa at 34.4 per cent.

He pointed out that with the increase in Internet access, that this percentage has advanced, emphasising that the United Kingdom (UK) National Crime Agency (NCA) recently said that children from developing and war-torn countries are being targeted by pedophiles using live-streaming and other tech advances and have paid over 33,000 Pounds Sterling as incentives.

On ensuring safer internet or online presence for children, Nweke also urged parents to take time out to know what their children are doing online and possibly create a separate account for them with some privacy settings to avoid undue downloads pornographic photos.

Parents, MAPinAfrica faculty said, should place computers in a common area and possibly keep the screen names anonymous to keep online predators away.

MAPinAfrica campaign, he said, is advocate for policies and programmes to help meet basic needs of children and families who are victims of pedophilia across the continent and factor in changing the narrative for better Africa.

The summit, with the theme ‘Together for a better internet’, unbundled the peculiarities of Nigerian internet space, bringing to light many issues engendering the commitment of attendees to work towards a better internet.

Other highlights at the summit include:

- Digital Inclusion for African women, to enhance their productivity.

- Health risks of prolonged internet usage, particularly to the neck, the eyes, and the fingers.

- Health benefits of Internet to users going to through depression, etc.

- eWaste from smart devices, with stakeholders advocating a policy that ensures that product manufacturers bear responsibility for proper eWaste disposal in Nigeria.

- Safety of public internet infrastructure and prosecution of those who vandalize them.

- Need for government to develop the technical know-how to find out data privacy breaches and hold Google, Facebook, and the likes to account, just like they are in the western world.

- Nigeria has the largest number of Internet users in Africa, government needs to pay more attention to how tech giants like Google and Facebook use the data of Nigerians, and violate international law; because today data is wealth.

- Telcos need to do more to enlighten the public on internet Safety, because they sell the internet data and directly benefit from 'online Nigeria'.

*Nenye Dom/Editor

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