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Abia government renames technical colleges
The Abia State Executive Council has approved the renaming of some existing colleges in the state. The institutions renamed are, Boys Technical College, Aba to Government Technical College, Aba and Secondary Technical School, Afara to Government Technical College, Afara. The decision to rename the colleges was taken at a meeting presided by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu held inside the Executive Chambers of Government House Umuahia on Wednesday. This was disclosed in a release signed by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Barrister Chris Ezems and made available to newsmen in Umuahia on Friday. According to the release, the Council approved that all students enrolled in the Technical schools will enjoy free education whilst Abia State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB) should as a...
Kwara governor: Let’s fight terrorism, poverty, not ourselves
Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara has called on Nigerians to unite in the fight against terrorism, banditry and mass poverty. AbdulRazaq made the appeal at the closing ceremony of 2 Division Inter-Brigade Corporals and Below Competition 2021, at the Sobi Barack Ilorin on Friday. The governor described these challenges as “our common enemies” and urged citizens to stop seeing one another as enemies. According to him, these are elements bent on terrorising the people and tearing the nation apart. He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his patience and support for the security agencies to discharge their duties as well as commitment to national peace and security. “The security agencies, particularly the military will continue to symbolise the unity of the people and the strength of t...
WHO seeks G7 support to meet vaccination targets
The Director-General, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus has solicited the support of G7 health ministers to meet vaccination targets by the end of the year. In his remarks at the G7 Health Ministers’ meeting in Oxford, Ghebreyesus appealed to the ministers to provide leadership for strengthening WHO on sustainable financing. “First, we seek your support for reaching our vaccination targets for September and the end of the year; sharing doses with COVAX now is essential for achieving those targets. “We need 250 million doses by September and we need 100 million doses just in June and July. “As G7 nations, you are in a unique position to pool doses and make this happen; second, we seek your leadership for strengthening WHO, including through sustainable and predictable f...
Mass grave reopens wounds among indigenous survivors of colonial Canadian school system
The discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Canada has reopened wounds for survivors of the system, they said, as the government pledged to spend previously promised money to search for more unmarked graves. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc indigenous nation in British Columbia announced last week it had found the remains of 215 children, some as young as three, buried at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, once Canada’s largest such school. Between 1831 and 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated about 150,000 children from their homes and subjected them to abuse, rape and malnutrition at schools across the country in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 called “cultural genocide”. Run by the government and c...
Governor Umahi: Ebonyi government to immortalise late commissioner
Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi Wednesday paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Commissioner for Housing, Mrs Uchechi Okah, at the deceased’s Abakiliki residence. Umahi, who was accompanied by top government functionaries, described the deceased as a dependable ally in his administration’s success story. He promised that the state government would immortalise her, saying he would name a street after her at the new David Umahi University of Medical Sciences, Uburu. “There are things that are beyond words and I don’t know how to start talking about Uchechi, who was like my daughter. “It is a fact that without her and Chioma, we would not have realised the Ebonyi Ring Road project but her legacies will be with us,” the governor said. He further promised that the government would contin...
Senate committee gets 14 days to process President Buhari’s N2.343 trillion loan request
The Nigerian Senate has given its Committee on Foreign and Local Debts 14 days within which to process President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a fresh ₦2.343 trillion ($6.183 billion) for approval. Senate President Ahmad Lawan gave the directive at the commencement of Tuesday’s plenary session shortly after the Senate Majority leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, drew the attention of the Senate to the pending request. The Senator Clifford Ordia-led Committee on Foreign and Local debt had approved a total of $28 billion so far. The current request will take the total loan approved to $35.683 billion. Buhari had urged the Senate to approve N2.3 trillion ($6.183 billion) external borrowing. He said the loan was to finance the 2021 budget deficit of N5.6 trillion. The President indicated that the loan ...
Governor Makinde: We have tackled poverty, unemployment in Oyo
Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, has said his administration had made steady progress in tackling poverty and unemployment in the last two years. The governor, who stated this during a special thanksgiving service to commemorate his second year in office, held at the Cathedral of St. Peter, Aremo, Ibadan, also promised to provide more equipment for security agencies. He said his administration will do more in the area of security where it has already invested heavily, adding that all hands must be on deck to secure the state. The governor explained that 299 primary health care centres were being remodeled by the administration, in line with its determination to ensure that there is a functional primary health care centre in each of the 351 Electoral Wards in the state. He lauded clerics a...
FRSC: 90% of trucks in Nigeria over 30 years
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says 90 per cent of trucks in the country are over 30 years. The FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, disclosed this in an interactive session between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the FRSC and Haulage operators on Monday in Lagos. Oyeyemi called for an improvement on the maintenance and standardisation schemes for vehicles as most of them lacked safety measures like lighting, reflectors and other parts. He stressed the need for an intervention from the Federal Government to ensure truckers had fleet renewal as vehicles that had been on the road for 30-years should be scrapped. Oyeyemi pointed out that “due to the age of the trucks, they frequently breakdown on the road prolonging the days goods spend on the road before getting to its destinat...
Sultan: Scrapping NYSC scheme not interest of Nigeria’s unity
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, says agitation for the scrapping of the National Youth Service (NYSC) scheme is not in the interest of Nigeria’s unity. Abubakar spoke when he hosted some selected members of NYSC Batch A stream 2 corps members posted to Sokoto state in his palace on Monday in Sokoto. The Sultan said that those agitating for the scrapping of the scheme did not mean well for the country. The emir explained that the NYSC scheme was established to foster the nation’s unity and strengthen ties among Nigerians. “I heard there are efforts for the scrapping of the NYSC scheme, I assure you that those behind that struggle do not mean well for this country, ” Abubakar said. According to him, the NYSC scheme is the most needed programme in view of the present situation wh...
NCC: Internet subscription hits 154 million in Nigeria
Fix Africa News Magazine Executive Vice Chairman, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, on Monday disclosed that the number of clusters of access gaps has been reduced to 114 from 217, in the Commission’s efforts to ensure that more Nigerians are digitally-included in the ICT ecosystem. He revealed that Nigeria’s telecoms sector had reached basic internet subscription of 154 million; over 87 million broadband subscriptions, representing 45.93 per cent broadband penetration; over 207 million voice subscriptions with teledensity standing at 108.94 per cent as at October, 2020. Danbatta made the disclosures when hosted a delegation from Autoridade Reguladora Nacional (ARN), the Telecom National Regulatory Authority of Guinea-Bissau who were in a week-long ben...
Presidency: One million Nigerians benefitting from survival fund
The Presidency yesterday said that over one million Nigerians have so far benefitted from the Survival Fund scheme under the Federal Government’s Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP). The Presidency said there are 500,000 beneficiaries from the MSMEs Payroll support track, 44,500 under the one-off General MSME Grant, and another 265,425 under the artisan support track, among others. Recall that payment to new beneficiaries of the Payroll Support track and the one-time General MSME Grant had commenced at the end of April. A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, in Abuja last night explained that so far, under the ESP there are currently over one million beneficiaries nationwide from the various schemes...
Guatemalan president says graft fighter biased, ahead of Harris visit
Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei criticized the country’s best-known graft prosecutor for what he said was a left-wing politicization of the fight against corruption, a view at odds with strong U.S. backing for his work. Speaking in an interview with Reuters late on Tuesday, Giammattei nonetheless expressed hope that a visit to Guatemala next week by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will produce shared strategies to create prosperity in rural areas prone to emigration. Harris, a Democrat, is in charge of Washington efforts to tackle the causes of mass migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, collectively dubbed the Northern Triangle, including a focus on corruption and poor governance that she says limit opportunities. There is a $4 billion U.S. aid package to the reg...