UNHCR commences vocational training for female IDPs

Onyeka Onwenu

UNITED Nations High Commission on Refugee in partnership with the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) have commenced a vocational skills training programme for female Internally Displaced Persons across states affected by insurgency.

The training programme, which began yesterday in Abuja, witnessed the commencement of skills acquisition for the first batch of 50 female IDPs.

Director General of NCWD, Onyeka Onwenu explained that the first batch of IDP would be trained for two weeks and during the period the IDPs would be housed, catered for and trained in different vocational skills like; tailoring, catering, among other skills they may want to acquire.

To enable the displaced persons start up their business, they would be paid a stipend of N28, 000 each, and in addition they would also be given the equipment to which they have acquired skills.

Onwenu disclosed that the project which would last for 1-year is to train all the female IDPs in batches of 50 IDPs, adding that after training all the IDPs in Abuja, they intend to move to camps in the North Eastern state till the project elapse.

The UNHCR Country Representative Ms Angele Dikongue-Atanga at the inauguration of the IDPs training informed that the aim of the training programme was to provide opportunity for proper rehabilitation of the IDP women and children through enhanced psychosocial, vocational and business skills.

She noted that the training programme would also go a long way in restoring their dignity and to ensure diversification of their means of livelihoods, in camp sites and host communities.

Dikongue-Atanga said while ensuring immediate, life-saving humanitarian assistance is necessary and urgent, authorities, civil society organizations, among other stakeholders in the country must identify sustainable solutions for the IDPs and host communities.

She pointed out UNHCR and it local partners hope to reach a limited number of the most vulnerable displaced populations and host communities affected by the insurgency activities in the Northeast region.

She added, “These intervention will help restore their lost individual and communal livelihoods and are able to make safe and sustainable living that meets their basic needs, contributes to their dignity and provides protection for full enjoyment of their human rights at displacement and return locations.

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Jummai noted that there was a lot more to do in order to restore the dignity of the IDPs, she said apart from the daily handouts of food ration and other basic necessities of life, what happens to most of them, when they finally go back home is critical issue to be addressed.

She stressed the need for a programme for the holistic rehabilitation of the IDPs with a goal of resettling them into a meaningful livelihood, which would address their strategic interest.

She noted that the training by the national Center for Women Development (NCWD) offers an opportunity for proper rehabilitation of the IDPs through psycho-social and vocational skills, for the purpose of restoring their dignity and ensuring diversification of their means of livelihoods not only while in the camp, but even, after they leave the camps.

The Minister further pointed out that the 1-year project is aimed at equipping the female IDPs with necessary vocational skills in a practical manner that would bring about improvement in the socio-economy wellbeing of the female IDPs and that of their families.

President releases N407.076 billion for fuel subsidy

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has released the sum of N407.076 billion for the settlement of claims by petroleum products importers aimed at arresting the lingering fuel shortage in the country.

This sum exceeds the amount released by the Federal Government for the execution of projects under the capital votes for the 2015 fiscal year as only the sum of N197 billion has been released for the implementation of capital projects.

The World Bank on Tuesday said at the moment 18 percent of Nigeria’s total revenue generation goes into subsidy payments and projected that it will grow to 30 percent if the trend continues.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has said the government will finally remove the subsidy on petroleum products after palliative measures have been introduced.

Odigie-Oyegun, while speaking with journalists said, “I do not know what is contained in the budget. What is covered or what it does not cover, we do not know because it is still in various stages of construction. Whether subsidy goes or stays is an intricate and major issue. If it has to go, the government must have to provide the palliatives to cushion the effect of the hardship that may come on the ordinary Nigerian.”

Anyway, eventually subsidy will have to go, but we have not reached that stage yet because you cannot just wake up and announce that subsidy has been removed without putting the adequate programmes in place to cushion the negative aspects that may be involved.”

Development Economist, Mr. Odilim Enweagabra, has however advised the World Bank to stop meddling in Nigeria’s fiscal policies, particularly issues concerning subsidy administration.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who confirmed the release said that the President has directed that payments be made immediately in order to bring to a quick end the lingering fuel crisis.

The minister’s confirmation is contained in a statement by the Director of Press in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Marshall Gundu.

The statement said: “The minister also said that despite dwindling revenues, the government is committed to ensuring continuous availability of fuel to Nigerians. The payments include arrears from the 2014 financial year as well as payments for the current year. It is expected that the recipients would ensure adequate supply of fuel to end the persistent fuel shortage in the nation.
“Details of the approved payments under the subsidy scheme will be published in the national dailies as has been the practice,” the statement added.

Enwegbara argued that his position and advice to World Bank was hinged on his understanding that even in Europe and the most advanced nations in the West, including the United States which houses the World Bank, there exist one form of subsidy or the other.

According to Enweagbara, “I’ve always said it that the problem with fuel subsidy is not that the subsidy is bad in itself. After all, not only do governments in EU, U.S. and most other OECD countries spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually subsidising agriculture so as to make food always readily and cheaply available.”

They also go as far as subsidising many social amenities, including electricity, winter heaters, and telephone subscriptions both for the poor and for businesses in an effort to make local businesses more competitive.

“That is why I strongly believe that there will always be one form of subsidy or another since to move petroleum products from either the refineries or depots to remote and distant parts of the country so as to maintain uniform pump price across the country, government should subsidise the cost of transporting fuel to distant fuel stations.”

Britain implores Nigeria to pass disability bill

THE British High Commission has implored Nigeria to pass into law the Nigerian Disability Bill with a view to addressing the plight of those with special needs.

In a statement from the High commissioner, Paul Arkwright, to commemorate the Human Rights Day today, he urged that the country should work to make disabled persons, who are usually the poorest in the society, to have a sense of belonging, pledging his commitment to work with government in achieving the goal.

I appeal to the relevant authorities to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its optional protocol by ensuring the passage of the Nigerian Disability Bill into law. The Act will provide for the establishment of a National Commission for persons with disabilities which will serve as the platform for the implementation and enforcement of all provisions of the Disability Act.
“On our part, we will continue to work with the Nigerian Government, NGOs and civil society to promote human rights for all including those living with disabilities.
“Already, the UK Department for International Development has a number of programmes designed to address some of the exclusion people with disabilities have to deal with,” Arkwright said.

Meanwhile, three Nigerian youths have been selected for the young leadership award from Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. Imrana Alhaji Buba, Olanrewaju Adeloye and Olumide Femi Makanjuola are among the 60 young people from across the Commonwealth who are being recognised as exceptional leaders in their communities.

These 60 young people will receive a prestigious Queen’s Young Leaders Award.
The statement further indicated that the award will be presented in London by the Queen in 2016, and is part of her Young Leaders Programme.

The award celebrates the achievements of young people who are taking the lead to transform the lives of others and make a lasting difference in their communities.

This year’s award winners, aged between 18 and 29 and who come from all over the Commonwealth, are working to support others, raise awareness and inspire change on a variety of different issues, including education, climate change, gender equality, mental health and disability equality.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, in partnership with Comic Relief and The Royal Commonwealth Society, had established The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme in honour of Her Majesty’s 60 years of service to the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee.

The awardees are to attend a week-long residential programme in the UK in June after which they will receive the award at Buckingham Palace.

40 years after, group remembers Ugep Black Wednesday

IN a bid to set the records straight, the Umor Otutu socio-cultural organisation has commenced the process of unearthing the truth surrounding the 1975 massacre of dozens of persons in Ugep community in Cross River State by a contingent of Nigerian soldiers, who went berserk over the death of one of their own.

President General of the group, Pastor Ben Arikpo, who addressed reporters in Abuja on the 40th anniversary of the 1975 Ugep Massacre, described that day as a black Wednesday, where citizens in Ugep were massacred by soldiers over an offence they did not commit.

Arikpo gave the assurance that members of the association would do all within their powers to obtain the white paper, based on the report of the late Justice Okorobidu-led panel of inquiry set up by the late Head of State, Maj. Gen Murtala Muhammed. He believed the report of the panel might be in a government archive somewhere between Calabar, Enugu, Jos and Lagos.

He explained that the initiative was borne out of the need to not only seek compensation for the family of those affected but also pacify frayed nerves in the community required to ensure lasting peace and security in the polity.

Going down memory lane, Arikpo said the attack came after an erroneous assumption that the people of Ugep had killed a soldier, who was serving in the Army barracks that was then at Ugep. “Acting on the unsubstantiated allegation, soldiers from the barrack attacked the town at night, killing, raping and setting houses ablaze.”

From official report, 13 people were killed, 100 injured and 7,500 houses burnt. But the claim in the official report was, however, debunked by the people, who claimed the casualty figures were under-reported.

Oshiomhole seeks Okonjo-Iweala, ex-officials’ trial over arms deal

Oshiomhole

• Attempt to link me totally false, says former minister

ONGOING probe into the billions of dollars arms deal may not be meaningful, if search light is not extended to the Finance Ministers, under whose watch the deals were allegedly struck and executed, Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole has said.

Speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, the governor, noted that restricting the probe to the National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and those facing investigation, without extending the dragnet to the approving authorities would not yield the desired results in the president’s attempt to institutionalize a regime of transparency, integrity and honesty in governance.

Oshiomhole, who spoke on a wide range of issues pertaining to the economy, lauded the government’s current moves to regenerate decaying infrastructure through increased budgetary spending.

Oshiomhole said he was not surprised about the revelations coming out of the probe exercise.
His words: “I’m not shocked but I have been saying it and I have told a couple of persons that the government has to go the whole hog because I know as a governor that no money gets out of the treasury even after I have approved as the governor without the Commissioner of Finance endorsing it.

Those are the procedures. So the probe should go into whether or not these monies were properly appropriated.

“Through who did the money go out of the treasury? The Minister of Finance under the rules must endorse before money gets out of the treasury before the Central Bank of Nigeria will release the money.

“So all those Ministers of Finance, include Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, irrespective of what people say, must give account of what they did. You cannot be coordinating a corruption-ridden economy and you pretend to be an angel.”

However, Dr. Okonjo Iweala has condemned the attempt to link her to any misuse of those funds for any purpose other than security.

The rebuttal signed by Paul C Nwabuikwu, Media Adviser to the former Finance Minister said linking her as far as she understood it is totally false and cannot stand.

Okonjo-Iweala

Okonjo-Iweala said “she insisted on three conditions:

(a.) Only a part, not the entire Abacha funds would be spent on the arms; the rest would be invested in developmental projects as originally conceived

(b.) The money was to be treated as borrowed funds, which would be paid back as soon as possible

(c.) The NSA’s office was to account for the spending to the President who was the Commander in Chief, given the fact that the Minister of Finance is not part of the security architecture and does not participate in the Security Council.”

Speaking on other issues, Oshiomhole believes the 30 percent allocation to capital projects in the 2016 budget proposal by the government is a step in the right direction to begin the process of bringing back to life the almost comatose infrastructure by the government.

If you look at the amount allocated for capital projects for 2015 by the previous government, you didn’t have more that 10 percent for capital projects and this simply means that you are going to watch your infrastructure decaying by the day and plenty crisis in infrastructure across the country.

“But if you are going to reverse that trend and put more money on capital projects, then you need to increase the size of the budget.
“Now the option open to government is if you want to cut personnel costs in order to reduce recurrent expenditure then two things will happen; you either reduce wages or you reduce the number of workers, but because this government is committed to job creation, that option is clearly not on the card.”

According to him, “With all due respect to my brother governors, they missed the point.”
First it is offensive to talk minimum. How can the food of the steward be the reason why the elders have nothing to eat? In a conventional wisdom about tradition, if there are crises in the system, it is those who have excess fat that will shed weight, not the skeleton.
That is why the idea of using the term ‘minimum’ is very offensive to my own sense of morality.”