Tag: Nigeria

  • Nigeria’s power sector operated in errors  – Saraki

    Nigeria’s power sector operated in errors – Saraki

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki on Tuesday said there had been errors in the privatisation process and the model by which the power sector is being operated.

    Saraki also declared that the power sector has failed and nobody was willing to “tackle the issue headlong.”

    Addressing his colleagues on resumption of plenary, after a three-week break at the red chambers, he ascribed the poor performance of the power sector to errors in the privatisation process.

    Faulting the model through which the power sector is being operated, the Senate President said lawmakers are determined to find a lasting solution to the “crippling power deficit.”

    According to Saraki,“Distinguished colleagues, before we left for the break, myself and a select few met with stakeholders in the power sector to get an understanding of why no progress has been made thus far, despite the best intention; and the revelations were mind-boggling.

    “There had been errors in the privatisation process and the model by which the power sector is being operated – whether at generation or distribution – will never take us where we need to be. It has failed and nobody appears willing to tackle the issue head-on in order to bring about a permanent resolution.

    “I have mandated the senate committee on power to continue the consultation with the relevant parties to forge a path to solving our crippling power deficit. After all, if we are going to drive Nigerian industry, we need to resolve this and fast.”

  • NBS to release 162 reports on economy

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is to release no fewer than 162 reports on different sectors of the economy this year.

    According to the 2017 tentative data release calendar posted on the bureau’s Website on Monday in Abuja, the NBS is expected to release 34 data in the first quarter.

    According to the calendar, analysed by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the bureau released data on consumer price index and inflation, price watch on diesel, petrol and kerosene.

    Other items on the calendar are telecommunications sector data, monthly Federal Account Allocation Committee disbursements, gross domestic products and capital importation in the quarter.

    Also in the statistics are foreign trade merchandise, airline and passenger travel, multiple indicator cluster survey and report on women and children.

    Unemployment and under-employment watch, labour productivity report and online recruitment service report are also listed.

    The bureau is expected to release 43 data in the second quarter.

    The data will focus mainly on statistics on corruption, motor vehicles, road accidents, energy and environmental statistics.

    It will also focus on airline and passage travel data in addition to petroleum products and inflation reports.

    In the third quarter, the bureau will release 38 data ranging, from financial services data, household consumption expenditure, port activities, national agriculture sample survey and solid mineral and mining sector survey.

    However, the bureau will be releasing 47 reports in the last quarter which will be the highest data in the year.

    It will also be releasing social statistics report for 2016, demographic statistics bulletin and 2016 statistical report on men and women, among others.

    The bureau will also be releasing monthly reports on FACC disbursements, consumer price index and inflation reports as well as price watch on diesel, petrol and kerosene.

  • FG allocates 4.3bn for revival of Ajaokuta Steel Company

    The federal government has allocated over N4 billion for the resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel Company. The allocation is contained in the 2017 appropriation budget which was presented to the National Assembly in December by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    According to the breakdown, a total sum of N4,272,797,371 was appropriated, higher than the N3.9 billion budgeted for 2016.

    Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Fayemi Kayode, had reiterated the commitment of the federal government to settle all litigations between it and Global Steel Holdings Limited, as regards the steel company.

    The company is Nigeria’s leading steel plant, and was intended to be the leading supplier of quality steel products in all the major economic sectors including construction, packaging and wire drawing/nail making industry.

    Since its inauguration in 1983, however, the plant had been embroiled in managerial inaptitude, controversy ranging from allegations of obsolete machines and outdated blast furnace model.

    Despite its initial completion, the plant had suffered years of neglect under successive administrations.

    According to the ministry’s budget, the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) got N3.8 billion, chiefly for the generation of geological data which hadn’t been updated recently.

    The National Metallurgical Development Centre, Jos got N821 million, the Metallurgical Training Institute, Onitsha got N722 million, while the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences was allocated N472 million.

    About N99 million was earmarked for Artisanal Mines and Registration Mineral Buying Centres.

  • Constellation sets Q1 Date for NLP licensed practitioner’s program in Nigeria

    Constellation (INL), an international consulting and coaching company has concluded arrangements for a nine day long NLP Licensed practitioner Training in Nigeria.

    It promises to be a landmark event in management executive training for corporate Nigeria.

    The coaching programme which holds from March 2017 will see Constellation imparting knowledge from its flagship training course outline, the Neuro-Linguistic Programming Licensed Practitioner International Certification program. Geared towards imbibing a culture of coaching, people enhancement, communication, and change management skills in leaders of organizations, the programme is expected to benefit major top executives and senior H.R. Practitioners in corporate Nigeria and West Africa.

    This programme is in line with the global shift from classroom based training to other forms of experiential learning such as coaching.

    The NLP certification is targeted at helping leaders deviate from the traditional ‘carrot and stick’ and ‘threaten and train’ approach which causes several forms of negative results such as early burnout, low commitment, poor performance, among others.

    Fit for this program are a wide array of persons in leadership positions such as Board Executives, Sales teams, Influencers, H.R Practitioners, Experienced Trainers, Teachers et al.

    What is this NLP? The concept as conceived by NLP co- creators will be explained and practiced in a simple way that imparts deep and permanent understanding in a purposefully active learning environment.

    NLP is the most practical, results-driven method there is for detecting, understanding and controlling our conscious and unconscious thinking. Constellation Group will show participants how to harness the power of NLP and apply it to yourself and others – individually, in business and as a coach at our NLP Practitioner Training.

    What makes the difference between coaching, mentoring, counseling and psychotherapy? Who needs a coach? How can one begin to coach others almost immediately? These and many more, the program will shed more light on.

    Attitudinal imbalances such as limiting beliefs, phobias, depression, fear of failure, burnout, and lack of motivation, which now pervade the corporate world, will be dissected and dismantled during the sessions.

    Structuring mutually satisfactory relationships with a company’s best people and nurturing employees’ development in sync with organizational goals will form one issue to be focused on. Though a lot of strides have unarguably been made in several components of business disciplines, a full grasp of understanding subjective human behavior which are not readily identified even by feedback and assessment mechanisms have not yet been attained. The coaching will also explore this area.

    Constellation’s cutting edge specialty is in coaching Top and Mid-level Managers. It endeavors to acknowledge and honor the individuality of the coachee in a customized manner. The company’s philosophy is based on the premise that there is the brilliance of a star in each person. So when the Constellation team collaborates with your own corporate team, its from the perspective of a collaboration of stars. Constellation Executive Coaching is way distinct from other forms of Coaching such as Life Planning, Career Counseling, health advice, public speaking etc. Rather, what it does is to serve as an outsourced supplier of candor, providing executives with objective, sword-sharp feedback needed to catalyze their growth.

    Entrenched within the core of the program are diverse cognitive skills among which are; Understanding Language, Communication and behavior; Rapport skills and pattern detection; developing perceptual positions; Assessing nonverbal cues; understanding personal congruency and the unconscious mind; NLP language models; Phobia resolution; Management of high performance states, to mention a few.

    A crown in the icing of the program is its international standardized nature. As the certificates to be disbursed from the program are signed by the Nigeria n Lead Coach, Mrs. Joké Coker (J.C.) and Co-creator of NPL worldwide, Dr. Richard Bandler.

    Leading the Constellation (Formerly INL) is Oyejoke Coker (J.C.), a highly accomplished global executive with more than 25 years of success within financial services, telecommunications, banking and now coaching. She leverages extensive corporate leadership, both domestically and internationally. She is a much sought-after Coach, Speaker and Trainer. She serves on various corporate and philanthropic boards.

    She brings a unique combination of corporate experience into the Executive Coaching; Team Coaching; Life Coaching and Business Coaching arena.

    As a widely recognized thought leader, J.C. is a frequent keynote speaker on a range of topics including NLP, Coaching, Motivation, Team building and emerging markets. She is a guest lecturer at the Lagos Business School where she analyzes business strategy case studies with MBA students.

    Continuous and never ending improvements would serve as a key tool for the progress of all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It is only through such acquisition and sharpening of such required skills on a regular basis that corporate entities can build their workforce and prepare them for the challenges of a dynamic global economic environment.

    Compaines, particularly, the multinationals that understand the need for such regular upgrading of executives’ toolkit can now save scarce foreign exchange by taking advantage of these global standard opportunities now made available in Nigeria.

    According to the Lead coach, Mrs. Joké Coker, in a recent chat with journalists “We believe in human excellence and the capacity to overcome challenges. As a leader, it’s not what happens to you that matters (in work, life or play), its your chosen response that determines the quality of the outcomes you achieve!’ Great International speakers such as Tony Robbins have been trained Mr Bandler who co- signs the Constellation NLP Practitioner’s certificate which will be available in Nigeria in Q1, 2017.

    Coker further identified that Constellation Coaching Group also has programs available for aspiring or existing coaches who seek to develop an expertise in the field or raise their game to a higher level. Such persons would be coached on how to open an entrepreneurial NLP practice, acquire membership of the NLP society and get a globally accredited practitioner license.

  • Pastor Adeboye is a genuine man of God, Nigeria needs more leaders like him – Atiku

    Pastor Adeboye is a genuine man of God, Nigeria needs more leaders like him – Atiku

     

    Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has urged Nigerians to emulate the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.

    The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, described Adeboye as a unique example of inspirational leadership, saying Adeboye’s influence cuts across tribe, class, and even religion.

    This is coming after Adeboye, on Saturday announced he was stepping down as the General overseer of the church in Nigeria, but will continue to head the ministry worldwide.

    In a statement, Atiku praised the religious leader’s influence on multitudes of Nigerians over the past four decades as the church overseer.

    He added that Nigeria needed more religious leaders like him.

    He said, “Pastor Adeboye is the kind of religious leader I pray that we see more of in Nigeria. He is a man beloved, and who loved one and all without discrimination.”

    Atiku hailed the role that the G.O. had played as a converging figure for other religious leaders in Nigeria, as many openly attend his services or consulted with him despite being of different denominations.

    Some of the most prominent personalities Nigeria has been blessed with have been those who learnt from the pulpit of Pastor Adeboye. A most recent example is our current Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.”

     

  • Buhari set for Ghanaian president elect, Akufo-Addo’s inauguration

    President Muhammadu Buhari will today attend the inauguration of Ghana’s president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo in Accra.

    The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said this in a statement yesterday.

    Adesina said Buhari would join other Heads of State and Government to witness the swearing-in of Akufo-Addo and the vice president-elect, Mahamudu Bawumia.

    He said President Buhari once again congratulated Ghanaians on the peaceful elections and orderly transfer of power from an incumbent to an opposition candidate.

    He said Buhari also commended out-going president, John Dramani Mahama, for his maturity and statesmanship.

  • Patoranking, Flavour urge FG on Nigeria’s tourism

    Nigeria’s tourism sector has huge potentials if tapped into.The duo of Patoranking and Flavour urged the Federal Government to grow the sector so as to generate more money

    According to Flavour :”If you look around most African countries, they have started working on their hospitality business for revenue generation. I think it is time for us to take a cue from that. Those countries can hardly organise a show without inviting Nigerian artistes – comedians and musicians – and the reception is always great. Before other African nations beat us to it, I think it’s time we beef up our tourism and entertainment industry ”

    For Patoranking, there has to be an -up-to-date-directory of hotels and lodges in the country in the interest of tourists.

    “The security situation in the country is not as bad as portrayed, but a lot still needs to be done to create a better platform for our God-given resources that visitors need to see,” he said.

    The tourism sector was reported to have generated over $1.1 billion in 2015 from over 6 million visitors, and $853 million from 4.8 million visitors in 2014.

     

     

  • Arik Air laments incessant attacks by passengers on staff, property

    Arik Air on Thursday lamented incessant attacks by some aggrieved passengers on its staff and property at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

    The airline made this known in a statement signed by its Communications Manager, Mr Ola Adebanji and obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    The statement said the airline staff and property were attacked by the passengers on Wednesday while its flight operations were disrupted again on Thursday.

    It said the issue started when the airline’s Lagos-New York flight was rescheduled from Wednesday to Thursday due to the shortage of aviation.

    “Our Lagos-Johannesburg service and Lagos- Accra service were also on ground awaiting fuel while the Lagos-New York service was standing by for fuel.

    “Aviation fuel supply has been epileptic in the country over the past weeks where availability of stock and terms of service are not guaranteed on a consistent basis by the marketers.

    “Arik Air pursued all possible options to source fuel for the international flights but when our Customer Service Manager approached the passengers to explain the situation to them, one of the passengers chased and attacked him. ”

    Adebanji said this is was followed by a mob of passengers who brutally beat, kicked and chased the Arik Air staff through the terminal building upto the Immigration Section of the terminal.

    He said the staff was later rushed to the hospital where he was treated for injuries sustained “during this reckless and inhuman attack”.

    According to the spokesperson Arik Air managed to source a small quantity of fuel and despite eventually sorting out the departure of the Johannesburg service, some of the passengers again on Thursday disrupted the airline’s check-in process.

    He said this led to the cancellation of some of the international flights, including the Lagos-London Heathrow-Lagos service.

    “Arik Air strongly condemns the incessant and increasing number of attacks on our staff and property in the recent months.

    “As a flag carrier for Nigeria, the airline expresses it disappointment and dismay that the Aviation Security Department (AVSEC) of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and all the other security agencies in the country cannot ensure or guarantee the safety of our personnel when on duty across the various airports in the country.

    “This serious breach of security and lawlessness by some of the passengers to assault and cause bodily harm to the airline’s personnel cannot and will not continue to be tolerated.

    “Passengers continue to take the laws into their hands and the severity and frequencies of such criminal acts are on the rise due to lack of appropriate action or preventative measures from the security agencies.

    “The resort to verbal or physical violence in any form by a passenger is not acceptable to Arik Air and the airline would henceforth deploy all measures necessary against any passenger who takes the law into his hands.”

    It said the airline would also pursue legal action and engage local and foreign security agencies to investigate, identify and prosecute, to the full extent of the law, all of those passengers in Nigeria and overseas, involved in the attacks.

    Adebanji said the airline also intended to formally address the regulators, security agencies and aviation authorities both in Nigeria and overseas to get an immediate resolution to this matter.

    “Security at our airports ought to be improved to guard against unwarranted and uncalled for assaults on airline personnel and passengers.

    ” Despite repeated appeals and calls for intervention on numerous occasions, the airport authorities and security agencies have done nothing to protect the lives of staff and property of Arik Air in the wake of these attacks.

    ” The same authorities are however spontaneous in sanctioning the airlines whenever there is a service disruption without providing adequate support or security to prevent passengers from disrupting the service in the first instance.”

  • Buhari has no plans to Islamise Nigeria – Osinbajo

    Buhari has no plans to Islamise Nigeria – Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday urged faith-based organisations in the country to shun rumours that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was moving to Islamise Nigeria.

    He told religious leaders after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria (SCM) in his office, that they should dwell on facts.

    Recall that before the election in 2015, Prof. Osinbajo spoke out that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was not secretly plotting to Islamise Nigeria if it won the election.

    Osinbajo He again reaffirmed that stand stressing that the rumour making the rounds about plans to make Islam the official religion of Nigeria were unfounded as the country “can’s be Islamised”.

    Osinbajo emphasised that it was impossible to Islamise the country given the 1999 Constitution that forbids state religion.

    He urged religious bodies to channel their energies towards proffering solutions to the numerous challenges facing the country.

    The vice president also challenged Nigerian youths to wake up from slumber and take advantage of abundant opportunities in ICT, agriculture and other sectors. While noting that the opportunities were far much more now than they were in the past, Osinbajo harped on the need for young people to take responsibility for their future and be creative.

    He also emphasised the importance of using the internet to acquire knowledge as well as learning a second language to boost their global competitiveness.

    Expressing appreciation to SCM for the honour, the vice president solicited the organisation’s assistance in disseminating factual information about the Federal Government’s policies and programmes.

    Earlier, the National President of SCM, Rev, Eric Ighalo, commended the government for its social interventions such as the N-Power initiative and the conditional transfer scheme.

    Ighalo expressed the willingness of the body to partner with government in several areas including serving as government ambassadors in their constituencies.

    The SCM national president said that the award was conferred on the vice president in recognition of his integrity and outstanding leadership he had demonstrated over the years.

    The award presentation, according to him, culminated the 75th anniversary of the organisation.

  • We have not recorded any polio case in Nigeria since 2016 – FG

    We have not recorded any polio case in Nigeria since 2016 – FG

    The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says there has been no recent history of polio in Nigeria since August 2016.

    Dr Emmanuel Odu, the acting Executive Director, NPHCDA, who stated this while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, urged the public to report any case of child with fever and sudden weakness or paralysis of the limbs.

    Odu also called for effective use of available Primary Health Care services to forestall any possible outbreak of the disease.

    The acting executive secretary said the media briefing was to make clarifications on a report by some sections of the media on the suspected case of polio in Cross River state.

    He said NPHCDA had deployed its technical team and representatives of its development partners to the suspected community in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River, where a two-year old male child, suspected to have been infected was tested.

    “Features found on this child were not consistent with those of poliomyelitis.

    “A two year-old male child with a history of deformity, particularly a twisted right foot, which was observed at birth for which he was attended by a local bone-setter at the age of three weeks.

    “Meanwhile, he had been administered with six doses of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) already, in his course of life.

    “There was no recent history of fever as far as this particular instance was concerned.

    “And so physical assessment or examination revealed that the sign that suggest complications of polio virus infection were not present in this child.’’

    He urged the public to report cases of fever and sudden weakness or paralysis of the limbs in children.

    He said the Federal Government and its development partners would continue to implement immunisation and other primary healthcare services throughout the country.

    According to him, there is an active ongoing effort to quickly detect any child paralyzed by polio through effective nationwide surveillance system employed by the government and partners.

    He said: “We urge Nigerians to continue to contribute to the survival and development of the children by presenting them for vaccination.

    “We assure all Nigerians that our efforts have continued to yield results as we have not recorded any case of polio since August 2016.’’

    Recall that Channels television had reported a suspected case of Polio in Cross River State on Tuesday January 3.

    The case was vehemently rejected by the Director-General of the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu.

    Edu maintained that the state remained polio free.