By Emmanuel Oloniruha

The Federal Government has challenged stakeholders in the maritime sector to ensure successful implementation of the recently launched Nigerian Port Process Manual (NPPM) to accelerate the growth of the economy.

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at a sensitization meeting of stakeholders on the NNPM, organised by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC).

The manual was developed to address operational gaps as well as improve transparency and accountability in the system. It aims at eliminating operational bottlenecks in the port.

It is a step by step trajectory of processes at the ports. It outlines the actors and timelines for each process, it guides the user by highlighting all required documentation, payments, timelines, and responsible agencies.

It equally guides the port operators by detailing the implementation chain and provides clarity on the time required for each process.

According to Amaechi, the successful implementation of the NNPM, would complement the modernisation of critical transport infrastructure being driven by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The maritime sector offers the best alternative for economic diversification, as it has the potential for employment, investments and as an outlet for the facilitation and strengthening of Nigeria’s international trade,” he said.

The minister also called on other organisations at the port to cooperate with Nigerian Shippers’ Council saddled with the responsibility to drive the process and implementation of the process manual.

Amaechi urged regulatory authorities, operational agencies, service providers, users of shipping services and other stakeholders to support and comply with the Government extant directives and provision of the NPPM.

“The NSC, being the lead agency for the implementation, shall coordinate the implementation of the manual and ensure strict compliance with the rules.

“NSC also reserves the right to handout sanctions to any agency, service providers and users of shipping services for non-compliance as provided under its economic regulatory mandate.

“The ministry shall lend its support to the NSC in ensuring compliance with the manual by all stakeholders, not only in the implementation of the manual, but in other areas such as enforcement,” he said.

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Mr Hassan Bello, said that the essence of NPPM was to ensure transparency and efficiency.

Bello said that the whole essence was to attain world class standard in the maritime sector through the implementation of NPPM.

The manual, he said, was to be instruments of promoting transparency and efficiency in the business environment, and designed to facilitate the ease of doing business and cost reduction.

“We should do as it is done everywhere and it is to make it electronics so that it will be simply adapted,” he said.

Bello said that an effective successful systemic intervention in the port sector would rapidly change the narrative, the perception and the ranking of Nigeria in the Corruption Perception Index.

“This is not just shipper council as the lead agency to coordinate because many agencies had been doing that but we need to make it perfect, we need to reduce the time cargo spent in Nigeria which average is about 21 days now to average of seven days, that is our target.

“As you know that Federal Government is building infrastructure towards this, because it involves so many things, we need to have infrastructure, we need to have the port processes, we need to have attitudinal changes,” he said.

Speaking, Chairman ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, stressed the need for agencies at the port to ensure transparency and elimination of operational bottlenecks in the port.

Owasanoye also urged the Ministries Departments and Agencies to respond to ethics compliance score cards deployed by the ICPC to stem corrupt practices.

“The ministry and the agencies should respond to the card which would indicate area of corruption index and then we communicate our findings, then the management can always take appropriate step.

“Sometimes, the leadership may not know exactly what is going but this would help.

“We encourage all the other agencies that have anything to do with Port including the ministry of transport, to respond to the ethics compliance score cards.

“Some agencies do not respond, it is the first sign of corruption issues, and we publish last year some agencies that do not response,” he said. (NAN)

By Chimezie Anaso

The Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Anambra Chapter, Dr Jide Onyekwelu, on Tuesday advised the members of the National Youth Service Crops (NYSC) on the need to protect themselves from being infected with coronavirus.

Onyekwelu gave the advice during a training session for doctors undergoing the mandatory one year service programme at the NYSC permanent orientation camp at Mbaukwu/Umuawulu in Anambra.

According to him, there is a need for doctors and workers in the health sector to protect themselves against COVID-19 and other diseases.

Onyekwelu said the training was informed by the strategic roles doctors play in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 adding that the association had come to give them professional support.

He said that the world is in the era of community transmission of the second wave of COVID-19 where everybody anywhere is at risk of contracting the virus.

Onyekwelu said that doctors were the most exposed members of society as they deal with undifferentiated patients whose status was not yet determined.

He said that there was a need for the NYSC doctors to protect themselves in the camp and in the communities where they would be posted to serve.

“Medical doctors are more exposed than the general population, infected people are asked to isolate, non-infected persons are asked to stay away from infected persons but all these people go to hospital to see doctors.

“Doctors cannot abandon these people. This underscores the need for doctors to imbibe the infection prevention protocols.

“This is why we have come to see you. It will not be fair for any of you to contract or spread COVID-19 in Anambra,” he said.

Onyekwelu said that in addition to making effective use of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), the doctors should practise physical distancing, use of facemask, hand washing with soap, hand sanitiser and respiratory hygiene.

He said that the NMA had donated the PPEs which included surgical gloves, surgical facemasks and hand sanitisers to the doctors through the NYSC management in the state.

Dr Jane Ezeonu, NMA Anambra Vice Chairman and Chairman, COVID-19 Taskforce, decried the improper use of facemasks among doctors.

She, however, showed them the right and proper way to use the facemasks.

Ezeonu, also, a member of the NCDC response team in Anambra, said that doctors should not be discouraged by the enormity of the task in their hands at this time.

She said they should yield themselves to meeting the demands of society on medical workers.

Dr Dubem Awachie, a member on the team, urged the NYSC doctors to make impact in any community they would be posted for their primary assignment by rendering professional services to the best of their ability.

Awachie said they should also network with their colleagues in the association for assistance when necessary.

Responding, Mr Kehinde Aremu, Coordinator, NYSC in Anambra, said the visit of the NMA team was auspicious especially at this time of national health emergency.

Aremu said the doctors had done well by providing mentorship for their junior colleagues, adding that it was important for the strengthening of capacity in the health sector.

He said there was a need for doctors and health workers in the hinterlands, adding that the NYSC would also do its best to post doctors to those areas.

Aremu said that when they were posted to the hinterlands, the state government and the Health Management Board should also do their best to keep them there.

He thanked them for the PPE donations and promised that they would be judiciously used.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NMA team later addressed the entire corps members in the camp where they lectured on the universal prevention protocols against COVID-19. (NAN)

By Sylvester Thompson

Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Minster of Science and Technology, says Nigeria needs to reform its electoral system by adopting electronic voting to help eliminate errors caused by human factor in compiling results.

This was contained in a statement released by Josephine Ademu, Press and Public Relations Officer of the ministry, on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to her, the minister said this during a facility visit to the Electronic Development Institute (ELDI) in Awka, Anambra on Monday.

The statement said Onu was positive that if the country reformed its electoral system and adopted e-voting, election malpractices, fraud and less credible results would be a thing of the past.

He said that with this in place, more Nigerians would be willing to participate in the nation’s electoral processes.

Onu said the nation’s democratic processes would experience tremendous improvement with these reforms.

“Democracy is like a living organism that grows like humans, animals and plants but for this to happen,  we need electronic voting which shall reduce malpractices associated with human errors,” he said.

He noted that with the level of innovative work done at the ELDI, Nigeria would no longer need to import electronic products.

He said rather than import the products, they shall be produced in the country to satisfy local demand and the surplus would  be exported.

He added that this would help improve the nation’s gross domestic product.

The minister said his ministry had teamed up with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to build voting machines with encouraging results.

He also said Nigeria had a population of over 200 million people and needed to be in a position to feed its population, reiterating that to achieve food security,  mechanised farming must be embraced.

He enjoined investors to see farming as a lucrative business, while calling for more investment in large scale farming equipment such as tractors and harvesters, among others.

Earlier, the managing Director of the Institute, Dr Patrick Okwu, commended the minister and his team for the vigour and resilience brought to the science and technology sector.

He said the annual science and technology expo had not only brought healthy competition among various research and academic institutions, but also brought to the limelight technological capacity of Nigerians.

Okwu appealed for more funding from the government to enable the institute commercialise recently developed inventions and innovations.(NAN)

By Ibrahim Kado

The Police Command in Adamawa has banned unauthorised use of siren, tinted glass and covered number plates in the state.

The ban is contained in a statement issued by DSP Suleiman Nguroje, the spokesman of the command, on Tuesday.

Nguroje said that those acts could mislead security personnel as well as create fear in the minds of peace loving people of the state.

He said that the command was working with sister security agencies to put in place a robust crime prevention strategies such as visibility policing, foot and vehicular patrols.

Nguroje also said that the command had embarked on stop and search, constant raid on suspected criminal hideouts, traffic decongestions and rapid response among others.

“The Adamawa State Police Command wishes to assure all that 2021 would be peaceful as adequate security measures had been put in place,” he stated.

He called on the people to join hands with the police in keeping the state safe and to report any suspicious person or group to the nearest police station. (NAN)

By Deborah Coker

The Edo Deputy Governor, Mr Philip Shaibu, has described the late Prince Tony Momoh as a consummate politician and a master strategist whose impact in the nation’s development will not be forgotten.

Shuaibu stated this in a statement signed by his media aide, Mr Benjamin Atu, in Benin late Monday.

He said that the late Momoh, a member of his immediate constituency, was a leading light who charted the course of peace, unity and politics without bitterness.

He said the late Momoh consistently maintained his carriage as an elder statesman in the Nigerian political scene.

Shuaibu described him a doyen of mass communication and one of the last living legends of the journalism profession in Nigeria.

“The entire Afemai community has lost a father, mentor and brother,’’ he said.

The deputy governor described Momoh’s death as “a monumental and an irreplaceable loss’’.

Momoh, a Minister of Information under Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, died on Monday. (NAN)

By Ismaila Chafe

President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on the death of her mother, Alhaja Sadiat Abeke Erogbogbo, aged 90.

The president’s condolence message is contained in a statement issued by Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, in Abuja on Monday.

Buhari equally sent words of comfort to the other children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the departed  teacher and businesswoman, who was known as ‘Kind Teacher’ during her professional life.

He recalled that Alhaja Erogbogbo was a well-rounded Nigerian, born in Kano, schooled in Lagos, and later taught in Kano, Lagos and Jos.

The president noted that late Erogbogbo impacted positively on the lives of students who passed through her tutelage, hence the sobriquet, ‘Kind Teacher.’

He prayed that the soul of Mama Erogbogbo would rest well, and that God would comfort all those she left behind.(NAN)