Day: October 5, 2023

The Federal Government has expressed readiness to deepen bilateral relations with European Union (EU) on security cooperation.

The Minister of Defence, Mr Mohammed Badaru, said this in a statement by the Acting Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Defence, Mr Hope Attari, on Thursday in Abuja.

Badaru disclosed this when he received the delegation of the European External Actions Service ( EEAS), on Wednesday, at the Ship House.

He said that Nigeria as a nation was desirous of restoring partnership with EU and strengthening collaboration with the union in fighting violent extremism, maintaining peace and security as well as enhancing regional cooperation .

He noted that the country needed intelligence and security equipment from the EU to combat insecurity in the country.

According to him, the major challenges facing the country were banditry in the North West and North Central, Boko Haram in the North East, Oil vandalism in the South South, sectional agitation in South East and general insecurity at the Gulf of Guinea and the Lake Chad region.

Similarly, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Bello Matawalle, said that Nigeria as the “Giant of Africa” needed the cooperation of the EU in the fight against insecurity bedeviling the country.

He noted that the safety of Nigeria was the safety of Africa, and therefore called for cooperation of the EU in the fight against insecurity in the country.

Earlier, the Head of the delegation, Deputy Secretary General of the EEAS, Helena Konig, said the purpose of the visit was to seek Nigeria’s area of priorities in terms of security issues where the EU could intervene.

Konig added that the priority areas would be discussed extensively at the forth coming high ministerial meeting.

According to her, EU wants to work extensively with Nigeria in counter terrorism, to stabilise the region, considering that the country was a strong supporter in maintaining the Africa territorial region.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Mr Benson Olugbuo, Country Director, Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), has called on the Federal Government and relevant stakeholders to intensify efforts at mitigating conflict in Nigeria.

Olugbuo made this known on Wednesday during a project close-out webinar on “Advancing the Protection of Civilians and Stabilisation of North-East Nigeria Project.”

The project is funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by CIVIC, a Civil Society Organisation (CSO).

The country director, while stating that CIVIC had contributed its quota over the years to conflict mitigation, said such was necessary to engender peace in the country.

He said: “The peculiarity of Nigeria is such that there is conflict in virtually every part of the country.

“The challenge is that we as CIVIC cannot be in all the 36 states.

“However, we collaborate with other agencies like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and also train military and security institutions.”

The country director said that, while the primary responsibility of protecting civilians from harm was not that of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) but the government, CSOs would continue to support the government in achieving that.

“We are not the government and we can never be the government. So what we do at CIVIC is to remind the government of their responsibility.

“We make sure we remind the government of meeting her primary responsibilities and obligation to protect lives and properties,” Olugbuo said.

CIVIC’s Project Manager Saratu Pindar said that the CSO had resolved 100 out of 135 concerns through the project, adding that part of the resolution included returnees who had no access to accommodation.

Pindar said that with the collaboration of the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, several other milestones had been achieved.

This, she said, included establishment of 17 dialogue platforms, enhancement of civilian protection as well as training of 374 civilian vigilantes among others.

The CIVIC Team Lead, Mr Mujidand Sitdang, said that strengthened civilian protection and improvement in civil-military relations through dialogue platforms had facilitated dialogue to encourage security agencies collaboration.

Sitdang stressed the need to look for renewed funding, adding that there would be opportunity to continue to engage in the discourse.

Mr Julius Gaiya, Communications and Programmes Manager, CIVIC, expressed satisfaction that the programme had made so much impact.

He said that “When we started Phase I and II, it was to provide an avenue to sustain training among security institutions.”

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) says it is imperative for the country to sharpen its focus on broadband development and intensify support for data centre services to boost digital sovereignty.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umaru Danbatta, said this on Thursday during the Telecoms Sector Sustainability Forum (TSSF) 4.0 organised by Business Remarks in Lagos.

The theme of the event was: “Mainstreaming Data Centres in the Nigerian Digital Economy.”

Danbatta, who was represented by Dr Sunday Atu, Head, Tariff Administration NCC, said mainstreaming data centres required collective efforts.

According to him, there is need for support to ensure data centres not only operate to guarantee national digital sovereignty, but also prioritise contents reflecting the country’s cultural norms, contexts and ideological values.

He said data was regarded as the new oil globally with increasing intensity in the context of the emerging digital economy.

For that reason, Danbatta explained that data had become a subject of special consideration by regimes, requiring appropriate structures and frameworks to truly tap and optimise the opportunities provided by this new order.

Danbatta noted that data centre services, no doubt, held the keys to the ultimate crystallisation of the new line of thinking within the ICT sector and by extension to the greater national economy of nations in so many ways.

“Recent developments point to the limitless treasure within this space. Africa has recently assumed a new frontier and compelling destination for global big tech players.

“Tech giants, like Google with its Equiano subsea fibre cable spanning 15,000 km from Portugal to South Africa and strategic landing points in Nigeria and Namibia, are expected to increase connectivity more than five-fold within Nigeria while creating an expected 1.6 million jobs.

“Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is equally on the threshold of launching its own subsea cable called 2Africa in 2024 to connect 16 African countries at an estimated cost of 1 billion dollars.

“It is targeted to generate close to 36 billion dollars of economic output within two to three years of operation.

“While these, no doubt, portend significant socio-economic impacts for Nigeria, they bring to the fore the debate around digital sovereignty and the need for national policy and regulatory frameworks to further localise traffic and data,” he said.

According to Danbatta, the global data centre market is worth billions of dollars, and Nigeria is well-positioned to attract a fair share of this investment.

He explained that by providing a reliable and secure environment for the services they offer within a well nurtured policy and regulatory framework, Nigeria would represent an attractive destination for more investment in data centre services and operations.

“With the commencement of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the role and critical nature of data centres become increasing overwhelming.

“This is underscored by the kind of efficiency derivable when critical resources are shared at costs far significantly smaller than the actual costs of setting up such resources from scratch,” Danbatta said.

He said this would provide a veritable platform for greater productivity for businesses and public sector entities to effectively harness the opportunities to be unlocked from the estimated 1.2 trillion dollars latent treasure within the AfCFTA block through its 1.3 billion people.

In his remark, the Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Data Centre Ltd., Ikechukwu Nnamani, said: “If we look at other parametres

Nigeria should be at the fore front of data centre industry in Africa.

“Unfortunately we are lagging behind and surprisingly African countries like South Africa and Egypt are way ahead of Nigeria.

He explained that from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) point, broadband connectivity, and in terms of mobile subscription, Nigeria had significantly lower figures than other African countries.

Nnamani stressed the need for Nigeria to be put in its rightful position as the giant of Africa, not just in terms of population, but also in the area of quality of life of citizens, GDP and the digital benefits.

Also speaking , Bukola Olanrewaju, the convener of TSSF stressed the pivotal role data centres played in the digital era, saying beyond data storage and accessibility, they underpinned the digital world, fuelling economic growth, environmental sustainability and data security.

Olanrewaju said currently, there were only 86 colocation data centres in 15 African countries, with the majority concentrated in the big four African countries, which included South -Africa , Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

She said according to Allied Market Research, the global data centre market was valued at 187.35 billion dollars in 2020 and was anticipated to reach 517.17 billion by 2030.

According to Olanrewaju, data centres, alongside fibre optic broadband expansion and telecom towers, are poised to become the new backbone of Africa’s economic growth. (

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Maternal Reproductive Health Research (MRHR) Collective, an NGO, says that its programme, campaigns and financial support for women,will reduce maternal mortality rate in Nigeria by five per cent by December 2023.

Prof. Bosede Afolabi, Chairperson, MRHR Collective, made this known at a news conference organised by the organisation on Thursday in Lagos.

Afolabi said that MRHR Collective campaigns tagged “Women For Her” targets to save the lives of 5,000 pregnant women at the rural communities, by ensuring that they do not die at child birth.

She said the objective was to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria by five per cent between October and December 2023.

She explained that the organisation planned to achieve the target by ensuring that the indigent women have access to quality healthcare, received the needed information and give birth under a safe and skilled care environment.

According to her, MRHR Collective campaigns will provide health financing support for institutional interventions and care delivery at the grassroots to the women using traditional and innovative finance vehicles in partnership with public, private and development sector.

She decried that Nigeria had the highest number of women dying at child birth, saying that the country contributed to 30 per cent of the global maternal mortality.

She said,l: “Maternal mortality occurs in the urban areas but it is more common in the rural communities where access to healthcare is usually a challenge.

“We believed that part of the causes is that most women are not well informed.

“So, awareness is key and that’s why part of our programme centered on awareness campaigns to ensure that women have access to the needed information and care before, during and after pregnancy.

“The targeted 5,000 indigent pregnant women will be picked from the rural communities, registered in healthcare facilities and ensured that they give birth under a safe, secured and skilled healthcare”.

Speaking, Mrs Temitayo Etomi, Board Member, MRHR Collective, said that the ‘Women For Her’ campaign aimed at raising N100 million that would go into savings 5,000 Nigerian women from maternal mortality.

According to her, statistics shows that 82,000 women died in 2020 at childbirth, saying that the goal is to put an end to the trend because maternal mortality can totally be prevented.

She explained that part of the activities to inaugurate the campaign was the grand finale – ‘maternal health walk’ scheduled for Oct. 28, where every participant will register with the sum of N20,000.

“Statistics shows that it cost N20, 000 to have a safe delivery free from maternal mortality.

“So, if a person registers for the maternal health walk with N20,000, it means that such individual has succeeded in saving one pregnant woman from maternal mortality.

“And if 5,000 pregnant women are saved from dying at child birth between October to December, that will translate to reducing the maternal mortality by five per cent,” Etomi said.

Prof. Abidoye Gbadegesin, Chairman, Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), Lagos Chapter, identified primary postpartum hemorrhage as major causative factor of maternal mortality.

Gbadegesin said that bleeding (hemorrhage) after child birth and other birth complications contributed to a greater percentage of maternal mortality in Nigeria.

According to him, poverty and lack of access to quality healthcare, long trekking during labour to health facilities, lack of adequate preparation for delivery among others can cause a woman to die during delivery.

Gbadegesin, who applauded the Initiative, reiterated readiness of the Society to partner any organisation on programmes to reduce maternal mortality, which he said was high at five digits in Nigeria while other countries were dealing with a single digit.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

The Acting Comproller General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mrs Wura-Ola Adepoju, says 112,351 passport booklets are yet to be collected by applicants across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

Adepoju, who said this during a press briefing at the Service headquarters on Thursday in Abuja, added that the figure was as at Oct. 5, 2023.

She said the service had cleared all the 204,332 passport application backlogs after the Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo’s two-week deadline to the Service.

“91,981 passport booklets had been collected so far. There are 112,351 others not yet collected,” she said.

The NIS boss called on applicants to go to their respective application centres to collect the travel document.

“I invite applicants who have applied for passports to come and pick them up without paying anything extra,” Adepoju said.

The Ag. CG observed that there was high demand for the travel document in the last few years as a result of the ‘Japa syndrome’ in Nigeria

She assured that the two-week timeline set by the Minister for the processing of passports would be adhered to.

“The Service and its partners had upgraded their facilities to meet the demand for the document by Nigerians.

“NIS is working with its partners to make the passport application process fully automated and when the process is completed, an applicant would only visit a passport office for biometric capturing, ” she said.

Adepoju warned applicants to shun touts, urging them to contact the Service via 08067761196 if any personnel demand for bribe from them to get a passport.

“Any personnel caught demanding bribe would be severely punished; the minister has directed that we make scapegoat of any corrupt official caught,” she said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, has solicited enhanced defence cooperation with the respective militaries of all allied countries in Nigeria.

Abubakar made the call when he hosted foreign Defence Attachés of allied countries accredited to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the gathering of the military diplomats had showcased the profession of arms as not only a guardian of territorial integrity, but also bridge builder across geopolitical and strategic boundaries.

The CAS said the increasingly fragile global security landscape had brought to the fore, the indispensable role that military forces played in ensuring peace and stability in the world.

He added that the event underscored the long-standing commitment of the countries to maintaining strong ties in the field of defence and security.

The event, according to him, offers him a unique opportunity to share his command philosophy with them and solicit their cooperation towards realising his vision for the Nigerian Air Force.

According to him, the NAF as an integral component of the Nigerian Armed Forces, has consistently played a pivotal role in regional stability in Africa, and the West African subregion in particular.

“The NAF’s role in tackling security challenges in concert with other security services, demands sustenance of a diverse range of credible air power capabilities.

“These capabilities are often products of innovations and advancements in technology developed beyond the shores of anyone country, hence the need for strong alliances orchestrated by Defence Attachés.

“As Defence Attachés representing the respective military services of your countries, you are charged with the task of developing and promoting the defence interests of your respective countries in Nigeria.

“It is thus pragmatic to pursue those interests within the context of NAF’s aspirations.

“By so doing you would easily sustain a synergistic and symbiotic relationship with us,” he said.

Abubakar said his command philosophy was, “To transform the Nigerian Air Force into an agile and resilient force that effectively meets the airpower demands of national security in all operational environments.”

He enumerated five key enablers of his philosophy to include optimising force structure and establishment for enhanced operational effectiveness and deliberate training and mission-oriented force development.

The third key enabler, he said, was proactive logistics support and strong maintenance culture, while the fourth is prioritising research and development leveraging cutting-edge technology, strategic partnerships and lessons learnt.

The fifth according to him is maintaining a highly motivated force by enhancing welfare and infrastructural renewal.

The air chief said he considered Defence Attachés and Advisers as crucial players in translating his vision into reality by promoting collaboration, and mutual growth between the NAF and their respective militaries.

He said the NAF was ready to partner with friendly military forces on international defence and security and expressed willingness to extend similar assistance to allied partners in any identified area of NAF’s defence interest.

He thanked the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI) and his team for making the meeting possible, adding that it was an opportunity to strengthen relationship and deepen defence cooperation with all allied countries.

The defence attachés were led to NAF Headquarters by the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI), Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel Undiandeye.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Elder Statesman and legal icon, Afe Babalola, on Thursday said if there was anything called life after life, his prayer would be to return to life as a farmer.

The 94-Year Babalola, who is the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), expressed this view at the opening ceremony of the 2023 annual edition of Afe Babalola Agric Expo, (ABAEX-2023) in Ado-Ekiti.

He described farming as the most profitable and energy charging profession if well pursued.

Babalola instituted ABAEX eight years ago to give millions of naira annual cash reward and tools as well as encourage more farmers’ to participate in food production.

“If I am to come back to this world, and asked what I love to do, I will pray to return to life as a farmer, and not as anything else; farming is an act of God; farming is of God; it is the only profession identified with creation.

“Any country that has genuine interest in growth and development must first embrace farming, ditto the citizens.

“Aside being a major source of employment generation, farming varnishes hunger and discourages laziness and stealing in any form.

“Those who started acts of corruption in Nigeria are not farmers but educated people who are invariably public officers.

“ An average farmer is known to be hardworking, contented and perseverance.

“People say I am a successful lawyer and wonder why I should have anything to do with farming, but I tell them, I will continue to identify with farming because I grew up with it and enjoyed it.

“ It may surprise many Nigerians that there is nothing we consume in my home that I buy from market; I grow them and I am proud of that; if many others can emulate me, Nigeria will be better for it,” he said.

He called on all tiers of government, especially Federal Government to focus more on agriculture, right from the grassroots, and through the local government councils, while every individual, no matter their profession, should also embrace farming.

“Farming is best done at the local government level, and by extension, the grassroots; this is why I am again calling on the Federal Government to allocate local government funds to them directly, and not through state governments, many of which often divert such funds,” he added.

He said he had established Industrial park in ABUAD which accommodates over 100 industries to further boost food production.

According to him, the industrial park will buy farm products like mornings, rice, maize and others, direct from farmers, so as to put a stop to incidences of wastage and economic losses on the part of farmers.

Babalola promised to continue to invest his money and everything humanly possible in Agriculture, and lift as many farmers that showed interest, until Nigeria had a change of attitude in that regard.

Speaking earlier, the Local Organisng Committee, (LOC) Chairman of ABAEX- -2023, Prof. Abiodun Ojo, explained that the agricultural revolutionary vision of Babalola was to transform Ekiti into a prosperous society, through agricultural rejuvenation of farmers with financial support.

He said ABAEX programme provided agricultural extension services to the farmers to evaluate their farms for productivity yields in large scale.

Ojo said that that the programme was implemented in all the local government areas of the state, adding the sum of N32 million had so far been committed to 2023 edition.

In her welcome address, the ABUAD Vice Chancellor, Prof. Samaranda Ayorinde, said the institution was doing as much to promote agriculture in diverse ways with huge investment in the country.

The vice chancellor commended Babalola for his patriotism and generosity.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria