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Tag: July

  • French President, Emmanuel Macron to address joint session of National Assembly in July

    President Emmanuel Macron of France is billed to visit Nigeria in early July and will seek to address the joint session of the National Assembly, Ambassador of France to Nigeria Mr. Denys Gauer, has said.

    Speaking when he paid a visit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon Yakubu Dogara, at the National Assembly, Mr. Gauer said President Macron has interest in the future and development of Nigeria.

    He revealed that Mr. Macron had worked in the French embassy in Abuja early in his career for six months some years ago and that whereas relations between the two countries in the last few years have centred on security, Mr. Macron hopes to use the visit to further deepen relations with Nigeria especially in areas such as youths development, culture and creativity.

    Responding, Speaker Yakubu Dogara said that members of House of Representatives and indeed the National Assembly will want to listen to the French President whom he described as “a man of our generation”.

    He has brought a lot of youthful zest, dynamism charisma and appeal to French politics and we will want to yield the floor to him.

    The Speaker also commended the French government for assisting Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists and pledged to give expeditious passage to all bilateral agreements that will be signed between Nigeria and France during Mr. Macron’s visit.

  • Supreme Court set to abolish manual communication for E-mail in July – CJN

    The Supreme Court on Friday said that it would phase out manual means of filing and serving court papers by July 2018.

    It also said communication between judges, court staff and lawyers, as well as between lawyers, would only be through electronic means.

    The Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Justice Walter Onnoghen, while announcing the new policy in Abuja on Friday, said a legal e-mail platform had been put in place to replace the manual system.

    The CJN said this during the formal presentation of the newly “retrofitted court and the legal e-mail system.”

    The event held in the Retrofitted Court in the Supreme Court complex, Abuja.

    According to the CJN, all lawyers must acquire the “legal e-mail” to be able to prosecute cases before the apex court as from July 16, 2018.

    Justice Onnoghen said lawyers who had acquired the legal e-mail could immediately start using it for communicating electronically with the court and with one another.

    He said the legal e-mail would become the mandatory means of communication, filing and service of court processes at the Supreme Court at the end of the deadline.

    He, therefore, directed that processes filed before the Supreme Court must bear the lawyer’s legal e-mail address.

    He said, “I would like to implore all judges and lawyers to join us on this quest for excellence by subscribing to and acquiring the legal e-mail, as a manual form of communication with the Nigerian courts will soon be phased out.

    “Henceforth, lawyers who have acquired the legal e-mail can now communicate electronically with courts and with each other. However, by July 16, 2018, it becomes mandatory.

    “The Supreme Court will only serve processes by electronic means (legal mail) on all matters. Hence, all new filings as from July 16, 2018, must bear the counsel’s legal e-mail address.”

    According to Justice Onnoghen, the new legal e-mail is a major component of the policy being pursued through the Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee inaugurated in 2012 by a former CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, who died recently.

    He said the policy was put in place to enhance justice delivery in the Nigerian court.

    He said legal e-mail would ensure “seamless exchange of information electronically within the judicial ecosystem” and would be replicated in all Nigerian courts.

    He also said that in the desire to automate the Nigerian judiciary, the Nigerian Case Management System had been developed and deployed.

    The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Abubakar Mahmud (SAN), hailed the new policy and urged lawyers to key into it to enhance the nation’s justice delivery system.

    Malami, who was represented by one of his aides, Mr. Abiodun Aikomo, said the legal e-mail project “will open the door to a silent, but long overdue revolution in the practice of law in Nigeria.”

  • Okowa approves launch of contributory health scheme in July

    Okowa approves launch of contributory health scheme in July

    Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta has given approval for the official launch of Contributory Health Scheme in July, Director General of the State Contributory Health Commission Dr. Ben Nkechika has said.

    Nkechika made this known on Saturday during a sensitisation meeting with primary health care centres coordinators organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Delta State Primary Health Care Development Agency, (DSPHCDA).

    The meeting was held as part of efforts to actualise the “Primary Health Care Under One Roof” (PHCUOR) programme, alongside reviewing primary health care laws.

    He said therefore, appealed to the primary health coordinators to support the commission to register workers.

    Also speaking, Board Chairman of DSPHCDA, Dr Richard Kofi, said that the meeting became necessary to put the state at par with its contemporaries in the country as regards effective primary health care service delivery.

    He said the PHCUOR policy would make primary health care centers organise for easy information flow and personnel management.

    Dr. Kofi noted that the policy was in line with Governor Okowa’s health for all Deltans at all times.

    Also speaking, a health specialist with UNICEF, Dr Eghe Abe stressed the need to revitalise the health centres across the state.

    “Re-branding of the health centres will attract more patronage especially from rural dwellers. Ebola virus was effectively combated through primary centres,’’ he said.

    He said that the UNICEF was desirous of collaborating with the state, local government as well as agencies in providing qualitative healthcare services to the people.

    Also, the state Director of Planning, Research and Statistics of the Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Gloria Patrick- Ferife, said the PHUOR campaign was geared towards international practices based on the WHO guidelines stringed under one management, one plan, and one monitoring and evaluation system.

    She said the target was to reform and strengthen the state health sector by creating an integrated and decentralised management structure for primary health centres in line with state government “SMART’’ agenda.

    While advocating for reorientation of staff, sustainable funding, a governing board and repositioning of staff and logistics, Ferife said functional primary health centres would dissuade people from going to hospitals for treatment of minor ailments.

     

     

    NAN

  • FG to enforce ban on importation of dirty fuel by July 1

    …Says it will suspend exportation of rosewood from Nigeria to other countries effective from December 31, 2016

    The Federal Government has set a dateline for the ban on importation of dirty fuel with high surphuric content from Europe to Nigeria to begin from July 1, 2017.

    The government also announced that beginning from December 31, 2016, it would suspend the exportation of rosewood from Nigeria to other countries in a bid to address the increasing level of deforestation across the nation.

    This is as stated by the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed at an event organised by the ministry in Abuja on Friday to mark her one year in office.

    Recall that on December 1, 2016, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire agreed to introduce strict standards to ensure cleaner, low sulphur diesel fuels and vehicle emission standards, effectively cutting off Europe’s West African market to export its dirty fuels.

    Mohammed stated that the Federal Government had decided that the sulphur in fuels imported into the country should be reduced from 3,000 parts per million to 50 parts per million, as this would result in major air quality benefits in Nigerian cities and would allow the country to set modern vehicle standards.

    In her words: “From July 1, 2017, we will commence the enforcement of the 50ppm sulphur in fuel. And the July deadline is on all fuels, your diesel, petrol and kerosene. Everybody knows that this is going to take some efforts, which is why we gave the six months’ notice. What is more important is that we are working with the refineries on a long-term approach.

    “Some of the new refineries that are coming into position in Nigeria are coming in at 10ppm; South Africa is 15ppm. But for us, it is a West African problem and we hope that we can lead in West Africa by reducing it. So, there is no reason why we can’t do that.”

    On deforestation and the suspension of rosewood export, the minister stated that over a million trees were being cut down per day in the country without any alternative in terms of afforestation.

    According to her, the suspension on exports of rosewood would last for three months, beginning from December 31, 2016.

    She stated further: “On the suspension of wood export as a result of deforestation, let me make it clear that first of all, it is a suspension on rosewood and any semi-processed rosewood that goes out. For it goes out in thousands of containers. So, what we are saying is that we do not see any alternative to replenishing what is going out hugely.

    “It is not that this is the worst part of deforestation; the use of trees as fuel is one, the logging is another, which is illegal in most cases, but we must find alternatives. So, we say suspension because we intend to continue to see better performance when we want to deal with the export of semi-processed wood.

    “This involves factories, young people, trade revenues and more. We don’t want to stop it in a way, but we don’t what to do it at the cost of taking down all our forest cover in this country. Which was why we had enough consultation before the date of December 31, 2016 was arrived at,” the minister said.