The Senate has finally confirmed Dr. Abdul Malik Mohammed Durnnguwa as one of the Commissioners for the National Population Commission (NPC).
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Durnnguwa was confirmed on Thursday after he was previously rejected last week.
While presenting the report of the Committee on National Identity Card and National Population on the screening of 23 nominees for confirmation of appointment as commissioners at the plenary session held on Thursday last week, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi said “Dr. Abdul Malik Mohammed Durnnguwa’s nomination was stood down due to questionable certificates”.
While Senator Ali Ndume noted that “When you have questionable certifications, it is the duty of the Committee to verify”, Senator Sam Egwu said: “These screenings were done for months and now it is not right to give an individual another two weeks. We cannot function that way”.
Senator Gumel Abdullahi stated that his concern was whether the nominee wrote Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and passed.
Eventually, 22 other commissioners were confirmed last week leaving out Durnnguwa.
Those confirmed are Nwanne Nwabuisi, Dr. Clifford T.O. Zirra, Dr. Chidi Christopher Ezeoke, Barr. Isa Audu Buratai, Navy Captain Charles Iyam Ogwa, Sir Richard Odibo, Okereke Darlington Onuabuchi, Mr. A.D. Olusegun Aiyejina, Ejike Ezeh, Hon. Abubakar Mohammed Danburam, Prof. Uba S.F. Nnabue and Suleiman Ismaila Lawal.
Others are Professor Jimoh Habibat Isah, Dr. Sa’adu Ayinla Alanamu, Nasir Isa Kwarra, Barr. Aliyu Datti, Yeye (Mrs.) Seyi Adereinokun Olusanya, Prince (Dr.) Olanadiran Garvey Iyantan, Senator Mudasiru Oyetunde Hussain, Mrs. Cecillia Arsun Dapoet, Dr. Ipalibo Macdonald Harry and Sale S. Saany.
Durnnguwa was finally confirmed as Commissioner for the NPC after Senate dissolved into the Committee of the Whole for the clause by clause consideration of the report of the Committee on National Identity Card and NPC.
Tag: npc
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Breaking: Senate finally confirms Durnnguwa NPC commissioner
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Senate rejects Buhari’s NPC nominee over certificate scandal
Abdul Malik Mohammed Durnnguwa, a commissioner-nominee for the National Population Commission (NPC), has been rejected by the Nigerian Senate.
Durnnguwa was among the twenty-three nominees sent by President Muhammadu Buhari for confirmation as NPC commissioner.
Giving a reason why Durnnguwa was not cleared, the Senate on Thursday explained that Durnnguwa’s West African Examination Council (WAEC) certificate was questionable.
According to Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, “ Dr Abdul Malik Mohammed Durnnguwa’s nomination was stood down due to questionable certificates.”
In his contribution, Senator Ali Ndume said: “When you have questionable certifications, it is the duty of the Committee to verify.”
Similarly, Senator Gumel Abdullahi noted that “My concern is whether he took WAEC and passed.”
President of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki thereafter referred Durnnguwa’s nomination back to the committee on National Population for further action. -
How we arrived at Nigeria’s 198m population figure — NPC
The National Population Commission (NPC) says Nigeria’s estimated 198 million population figure recently announced by the commission is based on an annual population growth of 3.2 per cent, spanning from 2006 till date.
The NPC Chairman, Eze Duruiheoma, made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.
The NPC had on April 11, put Nigeria’s current population at 198 million people, with urban population growing at an average annual of about 6.5 per cent.
Duruiheoma announced the figure in New York while delivering Nigeria’s statement on Sustainable Cities, Human Mobility and International Migration at the 51st Session of Commission on Population and Development.
The NPC boss said the current estimated figure of 198 million was not just concocted but from annual growth of 3.2 per cent, judging from the last census of 2006.
He added that “there are deaths and births and nobody imagined that there will be more deaths than births.
“Irrespective of what anyone thinks about deaths, there is always more births than deaths and that is why the 3.2 annual growth rate is used in arriving at the current population figure.
“The most important thing now is to conduct another census to ascertain the country’s actual population.
“We want to do away with the projected figure because there is more to census than funds and we are waiting for a presidential proclamation that will empower NPC to conduct the head count.’’
Duruiheoma said having accurate data about a country’s population was essential in planning as it would be used for social, economic, political and other needs.
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Buhari’s NPC nominee remanded in prison for alleged N182m fraud
A Kwara State High Court sitting in Ilorin has remanded Dr. Saadu Alanamu in prison custody for alleged fraud to the tune of N182m and abuse of bail condition.
Incidentally, Alanamu’s name was forwarded to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari last week for confirmation as a commissioner of the National Population Commission.
Recall that there had been reports last year that Alanamu was nominated into the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) by the then acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, despite being probed by the same agency.
However, following public outcry, Osinbajo withdrew his nomination after which the ICPC arrested and arraigned him for fraud.
Alanamu, who is a former Chairman of the Governing Council of the Kwara State Polytechnic, was charged alongside the Chief Executive Director of Namylas Nigeria Limited, Salman Sulaiman, for allegedly collecting a bribe from a contractor.
He was initially granted bail by Justice Mahmud Gafar but was remanded in prison on Monday following allegations by the judge that some persons had offered him a bribe to dismiss the case.
The spokesperson for the ICPC, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, said in a statement that in the course of trial, the defence counsel alleged that Alanamu was “forced, harassed, intimidated and coerced” into making his statement to the ICPC investigators and therefore, the statement should not be admitted in evidence.
Consequently, Justice Gafar ordered a trial-within-trial, which commenced the same day.
This, he said, was for the court to determine whether the statement was made voluntarily or not.
While delivering his ruling on the trial-within-trial, Justice Gafar overruled the objection of the defence and admitted Alanamu’s confessional statement into evidence.
The trial judge also went on to revoke Alanamu’s bail for abuse of bail conditions.
The case was adjourned till Thursday (today) for hearing.
The commission, in the charges accused Alanamu, who was also the Chairman of the Kwara State Polytechnic Tenders Board, of collecting N5m bribe from a contractor, Salman Sulaiman, as a kickback for the award of a contract.
The counsel for the ICPC, Sunny Ezeana, told the court that Alanamu received the bribe through his First Bank account on February 11, 2015 from Namylas Nigeria Limited, a company owned by Sulaiman, who is also his friend.
The court heard that Alanamu ensured that the contract for the construction and furnishing of an auditorium in Kwara State Polytechnic, at the cost of N182,369, 625.00, was awarded to Namylas Nigeria Limited even when it was found that the company was not qualified to execute the contract.
The ICPC said its investigation into the petition had revealed strong evidence of collusion, bid rigging and corrupt practices against Namylas Nigeria Limited in the bid process; and that the company used falsified, forged and doctored PENCOM Compliance Certificate, Tax Clearance Certificate and ITF Certificate of Compliance to submit its bid during the bidding process.
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Nigeria’s population now 198m – NPC
The National Population Commission (NPC) has put Nigeria’s population at 198 million.
It said urban population was growing at an average yearly rate of about 6.5 per cent
Its Chairman, Mr. Eze Duruiheoma, spoke in New York while delivering Nigeria’s statement on Sustainable Cities, Human Mobility and International Migration at the 51st Session of Commission on Population and Development.
Duruiheoma said: “Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa, the seventh globally with an estimated population of over 198 million.
“The recent World Population Prospects predicts that by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populated country in the world.
“Over the last 50 years, the Nigeria’s urban population has grown at an average annual growth rate of more than 6.5 per cent without commensurate increase in social amenities and infrastructure.
“It grew substantially from 17.3 in 1967 to 49.4 per cent in 2017. In addition, the 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects report, predicts that by 2050, most of the population – 70 per cent – will be residing in cities.
“The 2010 human mobility survey report revealed that 23 per cent of the sampled population were of more females than males”.
He said the category of population mostly engaged in urbanisation and migration were young people of teenage and adolescents’ girls and boys, women of child bearing age and the working age population.
He said existing urbanisation trend coupled with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in cities, pose critical challenges to securing sustainability of our cities, including efforts to make them smart and responsive to human influx.
“The Displacement Tracking Matrix round XXI of January 2018 identified estimated 1.7 million IDPs in over 321,580 households across six states of North-East Nigeria with 40 per cent residing in camp-like settings in urban areas plus 1.4 million returnees.
“The number of IDPs represented 4.5 per cent increase compared to the 1,702,680 identified in Round XX (Dec. 2017).”
Duruiheoma said like in other developing countries, Nigerian cities hosted widespread poverty, under-employment and unemployment at an average of 18.4 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics 2017 report.
The NPC boss bemoaned the insecurity and inadequate and inequitable healthcare services for adolescents and women of child bearing age.
“Nigeria continues to commit to solving the challenges of insurgents in the Northeast, which has induced a high number of internally displaced persons.
“We are committed to providing adequate healthcare services, reducing maternal mortality, rebuilding safe schools and empowering our women, ensuring no one is left behind in terms of achieving sustainable development.”
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Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa-NPC
The National Population Commission (NPC) has put Nigeria’s current population at 198 million people with urban population growing at an average annual growth rate of about 6.5 per cent
Chairman of NPC, Mr Eze Duruiheoma, stated this in New York while delivering Nigeria’s statement on Sustainable Cities, Human Mobility and International Migration at the 51st Session of Commission on Population and Development.
Duruiheoma said: “Nigeria remains the most populous in Africa, the seventh globally with an estimated population of over 198 million.
“The recent World Population Prospects predicts that by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populated country in the world.
“Over the last 50 years, the Nigeria’s urban population has grown at an average annual growth rate of more than 6.5 per cent without commensurate increase in social amenities and infrastructure.
“It grew substantially from 17.3 in 1967 to 49.4 per cent in 2017. In addition, the 2014 World Urbanisation Prospects report, predicts that by 2050, most of the population – 70 per cent – will be residing in cities.
“The 2010 human mobility Survey report revealed that 23 per cent of the sampled population were of more females than males”.
He said the category of population mostly engaged in urbanisation and migration were young people of teenage and adolescents’ girls and boys, women of child bearing age and the working age population.
He said existing urbanisation trend coupled with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in cities, pose critical challenges to securing sustainability of our cities, including efforts to make them smart and responsive to human influx.
“The Displacement Tracking Matrix round XXI of January 2018 identified estimated 1.7 million IDPs in over 321,580 households across six states of North-East Nigeria with 40 per cent residing in camp-like settings in urban areas plus 1.4 million returnees.
“The number of IDPs represented 4.5 per cent increase compared to the 1,702,680 identified in Round XX (Dec. 2017).”
Duruiheoma said like in other developing countries, Nigerian cities hosted wide spread poverty, under-employment and unemployment at an average of 18.4 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics 2017 report.
The NPC boss bemoaned the insecurity and inadequate and inequitable health care services for adolescents and women of child bearing age.
“Nigeria continues to commit to solving the challenges of insurgents in the Northeast, which has induced a high number of internally displaced persons.
“We acknowledge that women, children and particularly the girl child are often the most vulnerable in these displacements, and in this regard, we remain focused on the wellbeing of these vulnerable parts of our population.
“We are committed to providing adequate health care services, reducing maternal mortality, rebuilding safe schools and empowering our women, ensuring no one is left behind in terms of achieving sustainable development.”
Duruiheoma said these challenges adversely impacted on the quality of life and standards of living of the urban populace.
According to him, Nigeria stays committed to the twin goals of the Habitat Agenda – adequate shelter for all and the development of sustainable human settlements in an urbanising world.
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2019: INEC moves to remove dead persons in voter register
The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday urged the National Population Commission (NPC) to furnish it with record of dead citizens since 2015 to enable it to “sanitise’’ the voter register.
Chairman of the commission, Mahmood Yakubu, a professor, made the request when he visited the Chairman of NPC, Eze Duruiheoma, in Abuja.
He said that the records were necessary to enable the electoral umpire to expunge names of dead persons from the national voter register.
“We will like to partner NPC and ask that the population commission make available records of dead citizens since 2015 to enable us take necessary steps to remove them from the voter register.
“We are confident that you will oblige us so that we can further clean up our voter register ahead of the 2019 general elections,” Yakubu said.
According to him, the commission is determined to do whatever it takes to sanitise the voter register as a free, fair and credible election is dependent on a sanitised voter register.
The chairman said that as provided by the Constitution, both commissions were saddled with similar responsibilities.
“While INEC is saddled with the responsibility of registering eligible voters, the population commission registers births and deaths of citizens across the country,” he said.
He disclosed that a draft copy of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both agencies had been submitted to the population commission for its consideration.
“When the MoU is signed, it will formalise and enhance collaboration between the sister agencies for the general development of the country,” Yakubu said.
Responding, Duruiheoma commended INEC for the initiative to sanitise the voter register using records of NPC.
He said the collaboration between the sister agencies in the performance of statutory duties was very pivotal to national development.
According to Duruiheoma, “if we get our elections and censuses right, our nation will be on the way to greatness.”
He said that the commission would commence the process of making the records of deaths across the country available to INEC.
He, however, said that the commission could not pretend to have the records of every birth or death that had occurred since 2015.
“We look forward to the day when every single birth or death case will be efficiently documented by the commission,” Duruijeoma said.
He said that copies of the MoU had been circulated among relevant officers within the commission and that necessary inputs were already being made.
He assured the INEC chairman of his readiness to sign the MoU once it was finalised.
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Adopt birth control to avert population disaster, NPC warns Nigerians
The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duruiheoma (SAN), has advised families to adopt birth control measures to avert population disaster and harness demographic dividend in Nigeria.
Mr. Duruiheoma gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja while briefing newsmen as part of the activities to commemorate the 2017 Annual Population Lecture Series (APLS) scheduled to hold on October 30.
He noted that Nigeria’s population was its greatest asset, but the population size can become a curse if investments were not adequately made in some key sectors.
According to him, more investments should be made on education that would enable the youth to become equipped with the skills they need to succeed in life.
He added that public and private sectors should also provide job opportunities for the youth after schooling; these efforts among others would lead Nigeria to the realisation of demographic dividend.
“It is not a matter of how many youths we have in Nigeria, but the youths we are talking about falls within the productive age of 14 to 40 years.
“This category of the population makes about 65 per cent of the population.
“We want families to decide the number of children they want to properly carter for, if we are able to start at this level we will effectively control our birth in Nigeria,’’ the chairman said.
The 2017 APLS has a theme “Achieving Demographic Dividend: Strategic tool for national economic recovery and sustainable development’’.
Mr. Duruiheoma said the theme was in tandem with the efforts of the government to revamp the nation’s economy through the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
He added that the APLS aimed to deepen government and other stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of the benefits of appropriate systems and sectors to reap demographic dividends.
He said the meeting would arouse public interest on the need to key into the tenets of Nigeria’s Roadmap on Demographic Dividend, among others.
Earlier, Muhammad Tola, the Chairman, APLS Media Sub-committee, said the lecture series was essentially designed to sensitise stakeholders to mobilise ministries, departments and agencies to harness the dividend of population.
Mr. Tola, who represented the Chairman of the main Planning Committee Kole Shettima, added that the goal of the lecture series was to ensure that human resources are explored, developed and harnessed towards national development and improve the life of Nigerians.
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NPC/AMNETT new media confab holds Tuesday
All is now set for a two-day workshop on optimizing new media opportunities and managing electronic vandalism.
The workshop which is a collaboration between the African Media Network and the Nigerian Press Council is scheduled to hold Tuesday and Wednesday, July 25 and 26, 2017 in Lagos.
A release by the President/CEO AMNETT, Aniekan Umanah said “the workshop will provide insights into new media opportunities, advantages and exploration for the benefit of government, corporate bodies and individuals.”
Mr. Umanah said the social media being the “most popular haunts on the internet” has revolutionized the way people communicate and socialize, on the one hand, even as the conspicuous and uncontrolled effects of the new media have left government policies, programmes, organizations and officials including children and women falling prey to electronic vandalism which often create falsehood, image erosion, tension and distress, on the
Mr. Umanah, further stressed that the workshop targeted at Information and corporate communication managers shall ventilate the need for key officials saddled with new media management responsibilities to be equipped with requisite knowledge and skills needed to confront the negative effect of new media and position their organisations for improved productivity and acceptability.
The workshop is billed to attract wide range of professionals and resource persons who would speak on the various sub themes which include New Media Resources, Exploration, Exploitation and Development, Dr Pius Onobhayedo of the Pan African University, Lagos.; Cyber Hounding, Online Crisis and Reputation Management, Emeka Onyekonwu, an online reputation and crisis management strategist; The Power of Contentby Tayo Olosunde who is the Lead Facilitator Google sponsored Digital Skills for Africa.
Other sub-themes include Online Media Tracking and Intelligence by Babajide Ogunsanwo, a foremost Nigerian Expert Data Analyst and ; Cyber Crime and the Law , Mr. Basil Udotai, a Technology Attorney and Digital Marketing and Online Advertising Strategies to be taken by Okemini Otum, a Digital Business Strategist, Blogger, Google Ad-words professional and social media consultant.