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Arrest of Zamfara lawmakers undemocratic-Speakers
By Musa Abdullahi Krishi
The Conference of Speakers of State of Legislatures in Nigeria has described the arrest of the Speaker of the Zamfara State House of Assembly, Sanusi Garba Rikiji, his deputy, Muhammad Abubakar Gumi and other principal officers as undemocratic and capable of causing anarchy in the country.
The legislators were arrested Tuesday by operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) and detained in Abuja over plans to impeach Governor Abdul-aziz Yari.
But the conference of speakers said in a statement in Abuja yesterday by its Administrative Secretary, Busari Sarafadeen, that it would not accept such action, which it said was aimed at stifling and suppressing the state legislature.
“The unprovoked arrest, which is unconnected with the executive arm of government of the state, is not only undemocratic but a bad precedent which is capable of throwing the state in particular and the general into the state of anarchy.
“The conference wants the executive arm to desist from such activities that are aimed at stifling and suppressing the legislative arm of government in the state,” the conference said.
While calling on Nigerians to rise against “authoritarian and tyrannical tendency” of the executive, the conference said a system of government whose legislative arm was stifled, suppressed or at the mercy of the executive arm of government was undemocratic and despotic.
Parents urge re-opening of Borno schools
Some parents in Borno yesterday appealed to the state government to re-open public schools closed since May 2014, to allow their children continue with their education.
The schools were closed in May 2014, following attacks on students in neighbouring Yobe.
The influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to Maiduguri frustrated the state government’s efforts at re-opening the schools.
A cross section of the parents who made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Maiduguri expressed reservations on the continuous closure of the schools even with the relative return of peace in the state.
Malam Muhammad Askira, a parent, said the state government had no excuse to keep the schools closed, following the evacuation of the IDPs from the buildings.
“Our children have been out of school for over two years, now that we have relative peace, we did not hear the government saying the children should go back to school.
“Three months ago, the IDPs occupying schools like Yarwa Girls Secondary School and five other schools were relocated to other camps for the schools to be reopened, so what are they still looking for?’’ Askira asked.
Malam Sadiq Mu’azu, another parent, supported the call, saying it was time the schools were re-opened.
“I am not surprised because this is about three months since they evacuated IDPs out of schools and up till this moment no school was re-opened. ‘’
Mrs Zainab Abubakar, another parent, appealed to the government to reopen schools to reduce youth redundancy.
“When you go round you will see our youths engaging in all forms of nefarious activities without been checked. We are not happy that schools are closed, we hope the government will do something about it,’’ she said. (NAN)
Agriculture Nigeria’s “new oil”-Akabueze
By Adelanwa Bamgboye/Clement A. Oloyede
Agriculture is the “new oil” for Nigeria and the only way to get the country out of the present economic downturn, the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, has said.
He spoke Thursday night at the Lagos Business School Alumni Association Abuja Zonal dinner at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
Akabueze said there are two alternatives to oil-agriculture (as Nigeria’s best shot to improved economy) and solid minerals, where Nigeria still has a long way to go.
Explaining the opportunities in agriculture, he said over 79million hectares of the total land mass in Nigeria was arable with less than 50% already being cultivated. “Nigeria is only behind Brazil with this much arable land mass”, he said.
He cited Ethiopia’s economy that is built on agriculture and has been growing on an average of 11% as a challenge to Nigeria. He said the country which had half the population of Nigeria could boast of about 45,000 extension workers while Nigeria had fewer than 10,000. As a way forward, about 100,000 Nigerians would be trained as agricultural extension workers, he said.
As an introduction, he said for the first time since 2004, Nigeria had recorded negative growth in its economy, adding that although the result for the second quarter was not yet out, when out, Nigeria would be officially in recession, a situation which last occurred in 1994. He added that despite the negative growth in the economy, agriculture grew at about 3%.
He highlighted some of the factors that led to the present economic downturn to include a global growth slowdown which averaged 3.1%. Nigeria closed 2015 at 2.9%.
Others include the slump in oil price and insurgency. He said Nigeria was not able to take advantage of the increase in the price of oil at the global market which had risen to N42 per barrel as against the benchmark of N38 per barrel because of the deep in production from the projected 2.2 million per barrel as a result of the activities of militants in the Niger Delta.
Expert urges intervention in health care financing
By Chris Agabi
A leadership development expert, Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, has called for an intervention fund to revamp health care delivery in Nigeria like those offered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to agriculture, aviation and the manufacturing industry.
Dr. Ohiri who is the Health Leadership Academy (HLA) advisory board member/CEO, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation, told our correspondent in Abuja that such a fund was critical to help raise health care delivery standard in Nigeria.
“There are several market failures in health care that need to be addressed, one of which is access to capital. In the other sectors they have had intervention funds, they’ve ways of reducing the cost of capital and I think the health sector needs something of that nature. Either intervention funds or a market driven approach to reduce the cost of capital, it could even be by risks guarantee or other financial instruments,” he noted.
He also urged the government to create an enabling environment to attract private sector investments in healthcare delivery.
“How do we as a country create the enabling environment to attract private sector investments in health care delivery and compliment what the government is doing? Also, how do we set the right policy framework to ensure that care is accessible to everyone, rich or poor?” he asked.
He said HLA was focused on building competencies in health care institutions so they can run the institutions profitably.