By Angela Atabo

An NGO, Building Blocks for Peace Foundation (BBFORPEACE), working on peace and security in Nigeria has elected new members of its Board of Trustees to further promote peace and security in Nigeria.

They are : Prof. Charles Ukeje, a renowned scholar of International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and Princess Moyinoluwa Falowo, the Regent of Ibule-Soro Kingdom, Ondo State.

The Executive Director of the foundation, Rafiu Lawal, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

Lawal said that the new board members would be working with their colleagues to provide strategic direction and guidance for the organisation’s peacebuilding activities across Nigeria from 2023 through 2027.

He said: “Other members of the Board of Trustees include : Mr Rafiu Lawal, Mrs Lantana Bako Abdullahi, Mr Mautin Akapo and Chief (Mrs) Olayinka Lawal.

“In this role, starting from 2023 through 2027 year-end, the core responsibilities of the board will be to supervise its operations and ensure that it maintains its public confidence.

“It will also be mobilising resources and support for the organisation’s peace and security work across Nigeria. They will serve as its ambassadors.”

According to Lawal , the foundation works on conflict prevention, peacebuilding, accountability governance and sustainable development in Nigeria.

He said that the organisation also advocates for youth inclusion in governance and works for the implementation of the UN Agenda on Youths for good governance, to curb insecurity, among others .

Lawal said that the foundation clinched the best youth peacebuilding organisation in Nigeria award from the West African Network for Peacebuilding in Nigeria. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Bashir Rabe Mani

By Perpetua Onuegbu

The Federal Government has urged the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) to check incessant building collapses in the country.

 Mr Mahmuda Mamman, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works and Housing, gave the charge during a visit by members of COREN.

He charged the council to strategise and ensure proper checks and mandatory monitoring on construction activities.

This, he said, would ensure that  Nigerians would be living in well constructed building without fear of collapse.

” COREN being a federal government regulatory body is vested with the mandate and powers to check and control building standards in Nigeria to ensure that cases of building collapse  is stopped.

”There seems to be a disconnect somewhere between Nigerian Engineers and COREN. COREN, must as a matter of urgency proffer an urgent solution to this situation,” he said.

He also urged all regulators in the engineering body to come together and seek audience with the Ministry of Finance, especially as regards the recent federal government policy directive of self-funding for all such bodies .

The permanent secretary told the delegation to consider of levies as a way of generating revenues to assist the council.

Manman urged the council to come up with implementable plans and guidelines by going back to the drawing board for them to be able to reposition COREN for better performance and impactful services to Nigerians.

Earlier, the Registrar of COREN,  Prof Adisa Bello, said the council was in the ministry to brief the permanent secretary on its activities.

According to him, COREN is a statutory regulatory organ of the Federal Government of Nigeria , established by Decree No. 55 of 1970 amended by Degree No. 27 of 1992, now Engineers (Registration).

The registrar said the promulgation of Decree 27 of 1992 , COREN was merely a registration body of engineers and it was then known as Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria .

“However with the expansion of its functions in 1992 , which now includes regulation and vontrol of the engineering family, COREN’s name was changed to what it is now,  but still retaining the acronym, COREN.

“Our mandate include regulate and control engineering practice in Nigeria with all its aspects  and ramifications, among others” he said.

The News Agency of Nigetia (NAN) reports that the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), recorded 62 building collapsed either fully or partially in 2022 alone.

The immediate past President of BCPG, Eddy Atumonyogo, who disclosed in his speech at the Guild’s Annual General Meeting, AGM held virtually, on Dec. 27, 2022, said that in the 48-year period between October 1974 to November 2022, Nigeria recorded 541 incidents of building collapse.

The guild said that Lagos State is at the top of the table with 322 incidents, followed by Anambra -20; Oyo -19; Abuja -18; Kano-17; Ogun -12; Delta -12; Ondo -11; Abia -11; Rivers -10; Enugu -9; Kwara -7; Imo -7; Plateau -7; Kaduna -6; Edo -6; Osun -6; Ebonyi -5; Jigawa -5; Cross River -4; Benue -3; Adamawa -3; Niger -3; Ekiti -2; Akwa-Ibom -2; Nasarawa -2; Zamfara -1; Kebbi -1; Sokoto -1; Bauchi -1; Kogi -2; Katsina -1; Borno -1; Taraba -1; Yobe -1; Bayelsa -1 and Gombe -1. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Sadiya Hamza

By Abiodun Azi

A Non-Governmental Organisation, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC),  on Thursday called for total replication of the Federal Government’s anti-corruption efforts at the state levels.

The Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, made the call at the opening of a two-day anti-corruption workshop for representatives of state-led anti-corruption agencies in Lagos on Thursday.

At the workshop organised by CISLAC, Rafsanjani urged the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to work out the modalities for its members to establish anti-corruption agencies in their states.

According to him, the fight against corruption should be taken seriously by governments at all levels.

Rafsanjani stated that corruption was a huge threat to the sustainable economic development of the nation.

“It is also a threat to the promotion of ethical values and justice; corruption is a destabiliser of society, it endangers the rule of law.

“So, it is imperative to replicate the Federal Government’s anti-corruption efforts at the state and even the local government levels,’’ he said.

The executive director said that having anti-corruption agencies at other tiers of government would strengthen the campaign against corruption in the country.

In his speech, CISLAC’s Senior Legal Officer, Bathsheba Tagwai, urged the participants to seize the opportunity to strengthen their capacities as anti-corruption agents.

“Use the lessons learnt here to strengthen your abilities to institutionalise Federal Government’s anti-corruption efforts at the sub-national level,” he said.

A participant, Jonathan Ogunsanya, the Deputy Director, Public Prosecution, Lagos State Ministry of Justice, said the state had already enacted laws empowering it to establish anti-corruption agencies.

“We are at the level of putting the right structures in place. As a state, we are working towards it,” he said.

A representative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Iheanacho Ekele, noted that there was a need for more stakeholder collaboration in the nation’s anti-corruption campaign.

He said that political leaders at the state levels should show commitment towards the establishment of state anti-corruption agencies.

Another participant, Mrs Chioma Ude, representing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), expressed the commission’s willingness to deepen the fight against corruption in the country. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Azubuike Okeh/Oluyinka Fadare

By Emmanuella Anokam

Ms Olu Verheijen, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, said on Wednesday that the development of gas was a priority for the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Verheijen said this at the opening of the “Decade of Gas” secretariat in Abuja.

“It has been a long journey with gas in this country,” she said.

The “Decade of Gas” programme is a Federal Government project designed to ensure that Nigeria propagates the supply and distribution of gas as the main source of energy both to power- and gas-based industries on commercial bases.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this project is expected to be achieved between 2021 and 2030.

Verheijen said that the president placed high premium on gas and as such was committed to seeing the country utilise it to its fullest.

“We have gone from being a major exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), to looking into our future, when gas is going to play a big role in the industrialisation of our country,” she added.

Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said that the country was working towards becoming more of a gas-based country for local consumption and export.

“It is a matter of empowering Nigeria on the utilisation of gas, so the sponsors group agreed that there should be a secretariat.

“In the past, this project was coordinated from Shell as a sponsor group and they thought that the ideal location should be a regulator and NMDPRA being the Midstream regulator was chosen as the host of the secretariat.

“That is why we are here to commence the process of taking over and informing the former secretariat of the Energy office in Jabi,” Ahmed said.

Coordinator of the project, Mr Ed Ebong, said that they were already working on about 15 different projects from the industry in the short term.

Ebong said that the projects would be the deciding factor of the country’s future if the right policy framework were put in place.

“A lot of work has been done; projects have been identified and we are now in the process of sitting with the operators to bring the issues to the surface; that is for the gas supply.

“We also need to provide comfort to the investors by clearing the areas of about US$ 1 billion that the gas companies owe for gas supply in the past and that is the clear priority.

“Gas will not get to where it will get to if we do not begin to build physical and virtual pipelines.

“Physical pipelines are physical lines, while virtual pipelines will enable us to have Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) operators that can move gas from where it is today to the areas where it is needed.

“The last is building capacity and these are those that will work in the gas sector,” Ebong added. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Vincent Obi

By Lizzy Okoji

The Leprosy Mission Nigeria (TLMN) says it has stepped up measure on ending the disease by 2035,  as it inaugurated its new country office building in Abuja on Wednesday.

The National Director, TLMN, Dr Sudnay Udo, said   at the inauguration ceremony that “the expansion of the mission goes beyond a bigger space to an innovative space where strategies will be developed to ending leprosy.”

According to him,  TLMN’s new office building not only celebrates the physical manifestation of growth and progress but a significant milestone of a mission striving for zero transmission to leprosy, zero disabilities and zero discrimination.

“It is not about the building, it is not about the bricks and walls, it is about a space that is conducive for us to think, plan, innovate, we want to actually end leprosy in our life time.

“We want to control Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), we want to eradicate NTDs, we are not playing.

“TLM as a global entity will be 150 years next year and we have told ourselves that 150 years, it is time to end this thing.

“As we speak, we are putting together strategy for zero transmission of leprosy by 2035. That is our next major goal.

“We have done that as a health community for small pox, polio has already been squashed to the ground. Leprosy is the end as far as I am concerned. By 2035 it will be thrown to the dustbin of history,’’ Udo said.

Udo lauded TLM England and Wales for their support, the governments of Nigeria, Australia and Sweden, and other partners.

Mr Peter Waddup, Country Leader, TLM England and Wales said that TLM England and Wales was honored to be part of the journey to ending Leprosy in Nigeria.

Waddup expressed optimism that the new office building would enhance the capacity of TLM Nigeria, as he advised on early detection and treatment.

“We believe that eradicating leprosy in our lifetime is possible and we are just so thrilled to be part of the Leprosy Mission family and working in partnership with the leprosy mission Nigeria.

“And now that they have this new facility, we believe that they can make great strides to the goal of ending leprosy

“I will say that everyone needs to understand that leprosy is curable and very, very quickly.

“If you find the early signs of fair patch of skin then go to a doctor, come to the representatives of Leprosy Mission in Nigeria, they will give you the pills. It is when you hide in the way that it becomes an issue,” Waddup said.

Prof. James Ayatse, Tor Tiv and President, Association of Christian Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, said that the building would serve as a strategic hub that would enable TLMN to achieve its goals.

Ayatse also shed more light on leprosy, waring against the myths surrounding the disease, urging everyone to be agents of ending the disease, avoid discrimination against people with the disease, and show them love.

“This building will serve as a strategic hub, enabling TLM Nigeria to expand its reach, foster greater collaboration with stakeholder at all levels, enhance its research capabilities.

“And sustain its interventions towards transforming the lives of people and community affected by leprosy.

“Leprosy is treatable, curable, preventable and its treatment is free. We must keep challenging the deep-rooted myths and stereotypes surrounding the disease. It is not contagious, it is not hereditary and it is not a curse.

“We must eradicate the stigma and prejudice associated with leprosy. People associated with the disease are like you and me, deserving of acceptance and support.

“Let us build a society where no one suffers in silence and stigma becomes a thing of the past,” Ayatse said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Australian High Commissioner of Nigeria Leann Johnston, Swedish Deputy Head of Mission to Nigeria, Joran Bjallerstedt congratulated TLMN on the giant stride, pledging the continuous support of their governments. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

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Edited by Isaac Aregbesola