FG To Tackle Challenges Facing Cotton Industry – Minister

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April 6, 2022

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, has given assurance of Federal Government’s determination to tackle challenges facing the cotton industry.

The minister, in a statement issued on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Media, Ifedayo Sayo, said this was with a view to create jobs for unemployed youths.

Addressing a delegation of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) who visited him in Abuja, Adebayo said that the cotton industry had the capacity to transform Nigeria’s rural economy.

He added that it could revive the textile and garment industries by creating over two million jobs and improving internal revenue across the three tiers of government.

The minister said that it could reduce 4.0 billion dollars import bill incurred annually on textile and apparel, earn foreign exchange, and make Nigeria a global player in textile and apparel.

“In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, Nigeria was home to Africa’s largest textile industry with over 180 textile mills which employed close to over 450,000 people,” Adebayo said.

He said that the industry contributed over 25 per cent of the workforce in the manufacturing sector.

“Today, most of those factories have all stopped operations; textile factories are operating at below 20 per cent capacity with a workforce of less than 20,000 people.

“I am happy to announce to you that Mr President is determined to change the narrative and rewrite the history of Nigeria’s struggling Cotton, Textile and Garment sector.

“In 2019, the government flagged off the wet season cotton input distribution to 150,000 farmers in Katsina under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

“They are cultivating over 180,000 hectares of cotton that will feed our ginneries. Production is also ongoing across many states with more to come onboard in the next planting season,” he said.

Earlier, President of NACOTAN, Anibe Achimugu, appealed to the Federal Government to revamp the cotton industry to provide jobs for the Nigerian youth.

Achimugu said that if the sector was revived, it would not only help to take youths off the streets but also help to address restiveness, banditry, drug abuse and emigration issues.

He said that the industry is the second largest employer of labour in the country and deserves the attention of the Federal Government.

“This will enable the industry to contribute its quota to the economic development of the country,’’ Achimugu said.

He said that the prevailing global economic development called for a wider and more sustained approach to dealing with the challenges in the industry.

Achimugu urged the minister to prevail on the Bank of Industry/Leasing Company of Nigeria for special intervention for the cotton industry.

He also sought support of the minister for the payment of Nigeria’s assessment to the International Cotton Advisory Committee for the periods, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, which he said is 58,500 dollars.

Senate Summons Minister, NFF President Over Abuja Stadium Vandalisation

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Koko Lawrence

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April 6, 2022

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The Senate has summoned Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, over vandalisation of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, by hoodlums on March 29, after the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

The upper chamber equally invited the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, and other agencies involved in the maintenance of the stadium.

The resolutions were sequel to a Point of Order raised by Sen. Michael Nnachi (PDP-Ebonyi) during Wednesday’s plenary.

The senate also mandated its Committee on Sports and Youth Development to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the failure of the national team to qualify for the World Cup in spite of the numerous government support.

“Violent reaction by irate fans reportedly took place in the aftermath of the Nigeria vs Ghana qualifier leading to vandalisation of facilities at the stadium and the unfortunate death of Zambian CAF official, Joseph Kabungo.

“The national stadium was packed with highly expectant Nigerian fans throughout the controversial match and the alleged violent reaction of those fans to the outcome of this match has become a subject of local and international media criticism.

“A lot of valuable facilities at the stadium were destroyed but the extent of destruction is yet to be determined by the relevant government authority.

“There is no gainsaying that the destruction will cause the government of Nigeria several millions of naira to either replace or effect repairs.

“Apart from several unidentified football fans who were injured as a result of this incident, the death of Dr Joseph is a huge loss to the global football community,” he said.

Supporting the motion, Sen. Abba Moro (PDP-Benue) said it was a very sad day for Nigeria.

“It is sad that Nigerians vented their anger and frustration on the physical stadium.

“There is an urgent need for this senate, if possible, to intervene to see that our stadia across Nigeria are properly structured and made in such a way that future occurrences or fans invading the pitch or destroying the stadium will be prevented,” he said.

Zimbabwean Central Bank To Introduce $100 Note

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Koko Lawrence

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April 6, 2022

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The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Wednesday said that it was set to introduce a new 100 Zimbabwean (ZWL) dollar note.

This followed instructions by the Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube.

The instructions were given by Ncube in a “Statutory Instrument’’ published in the April 5 “Extraordinary Government Gazette.’’

This follows the introduction of a 50 ZWL note in July 2021.

At Tuesday’s weekly foreign currency auction, the ZWL’s rate fell to 145.8721 ZWL to 1 U.S. dollar, down from the previous week’s 142.4237 to 1 U.S. dollar.

Black Lives Matters Founders Reportedly Used Donations To Buy Cali Mansion

By

faith Jegede

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April 6, 2022

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Patrisse Cullors and the rest of the BLM top squad are in a bit of a pickle after a video surfaced of the three women Alicia Garza, Melina Abdullah and Cullors, sitting out on a nice looking patio, of a $6million dollar mansion drinking wine and making small talk.

The women have been accused of using money contributed to the black lives matter social movement, off the back of the late George Floyd to purchase several mansions.

According to reports, the video which has now been restricted was made to mark the first anniversary of George Floyd. the 6500-square-foot estate has over 6 bedrooms and bathrooms, multiple fireplaces, a pool, and parking for more than 20 cars was reportedly purchased in October 2020 with funds donated to black lives matter global network foundation.

The purchase was made by Dwayne Pascall, Patrisse’s financial manager two weeks after the group received $66.5 million from its fiscal sponsor.

Patrisse Cullors, resigned back in May of 2021 as the executive director of the movement following criticism for buying three homes in the Los Angeles area and Atlanta.

Speaking on the homes that were allegedly bought as a creative space for influencers and content creators, that BLM had always planned to disclose the homes’ legal findings and it doesn’t serve as anyone’s personal residence.

The purchases raised several questions from donors and those who were supposed to benefit from the funds and have led to an investigation into the uses of the funds.

A black lives matter page on Twitter described Patrisse as the executive director of the group who works as a volunteer and receives no salary or benefits

Burkina Faso’s Ex-President Compaore Gets Life Imprisonment Over Sankara Murder

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Koko Lawrence

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April 6, 2022

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A military tribunal on Wednesday ruled that Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaore be sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara in a coup.

The charismatic Marxist revolutionary Sankara was gunned down in the West African nation’s capital Ouagadougou at the age of 37, four years after he took power in a previous putsch.

Compaore was charged in absentia along with his former Head of Security, Hyacinthe Kafando, who was also sentenced to life imprisonment.

Both have previously denied any involvement in Sankara’s death along with 12 other defendants accused of involvement in the plot, three of whom were declared innocent on Wednesday.

“The court finds Blaise Compaore and Hyacinthe Kafando guilty of attack on state security, complicity in murder and concealment of a corpse,” the tribual said in its ruling.

Compaore went on to rule for 27 years before being ousted in another coup in 2014 and fleeing to Ivory Coast, where he is still believed to live.

Fondly known as Africa’s “Che Guevara”, Sankara took power on a promise to thwart corruption and post-colonial influences, denouncing foreign aid as a control mechanism.

He rolled out mass vaccination against polio, banned female circumcision and polygamy, and was one of the first African leaders to publicly recognise the growing AIDS epidemic as a threat for the continent.

A former fighter pilot, Sankara won public support in the impoverished nation by selling a government fleet of Mercedes, lowering the pay of well-off public servants and forbidding first class state travel.

He cut his own salary, refused to work with air conditioning and jogged through Ouagadougou unaccompanied.

Critics said his reforms curtailed freedoms and did little to enrich ordinary people. But admiration remains.

Over the weekend, students gathered around white flowers marking the spot where Sankara was shot.

Experts warn against applying Earwax on Boils

By

Cleopatra Okohai

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April 6, 2022

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Medical experts have warned Nigerians against applying earwax on boils, warning that it could cause further complications of the health condition.

According to the experts, using unconventional forms of treatment for boils is dangerous and could lead to infections.

Earwax, also known as cerumen, is a brown, orange, red, yellowish, or gray waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and other mammals. While a boil is a painful, pus-filled bump under the skin caused by infected, inflamed hair follicles.

Speaking with Newsmen, a professor of public health, Tanimola Akande said individuals who have boils should seek appropriate treatment from physicians at healthcare facilities.

“This unconventional form of using earwax for a boil is not medically verified. Such people should access modern health care to get appropriate treatment for their ailments.

“Repeated boils may be a sign of diabetes that may not be detected through this mode of treatment,” Akande said.

Also speaking with our correspondent, a Consultant Nose, and Throat Surgeon, at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, said it is wrong to use ear wax to treat boils.

“First, you don’t even advise people to clean their ears not to talk of getting a large quantity of ear wax to treat boils. The moment you begin to poke the ears for its wax, you hurt the ears and the patient can come down with serious ear infections or ear injuries.

“We are against cleaning the earwax because it can cause injuries to the ear and cause ear infection; you can imagine harvesting much to treat or apply on boils, that is unhealthy,” he said.

A medical expert, Dr. Chinonso Egemba warned against using cotton buds and other objects to clean the ears to avoid damage to the eardrum.

Dr. Egemba, popularly known as ‘Aproko Doctor’, said earwax is

not dirt but it keeps the ears free from insects and dirt.

In a thread on his Twitter page @aproko_doctor, he explained that cotton bud pushes the wax inside the ear and does not extract it.

“Use the cotton buds you bought and clean your phone’s charging port. It’s not for your ears.

“Earwax is not dirt. It actually keeps your ear free from insects and dirt for instance! Also, because it is acidic, it prevents fungi from growing in your ear.

“So removing your wax does more harm than good,” he said.

Psychotherapy may be key to managing chronic back pain -Report

By

Cleopatra Okohai

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April 6, 2022

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A comprehensive new study involving more than 13,000 patients suggests that the best treatments for chronic back pain should cover both physical and mental aspects – rather than concentrating solely on physical remedies.

The report which was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal The BMJ conflates a systematic review of 97 previous trials covering 17 different approaches to handling chronic back pain.

Researchers found that adding psychological interventions to treatments – mainly behavioural therapy and pain education – led to the most sustainable physical benefits for both function and pain intensity.

“Clinical guidelines consistently recommend a combination of exercise and psychosocial therapies for managing chronic low back pain,” says physiotherapist Emma Ho from the University of Sydney in Australia.

“However very little is actually known about the different types of psychological therapies available and their effectiveness,” Ho said.

Researchers identified six main types of psychological interventions for statistical analysis to include behavioural interventions, cognitive-behavioural therapies, mindfulness, counseling, and pain educational programs. The sixth type was trials where two or more psychological approaches were combined.

For improving physical function, both cognitive behavioural therapy with physiotherapy and pain education with physiotherapy were better than physiotherapy alone. For help with pain intensity, behavioural therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and pain education were all shown to be effective additions.

The effectiveness changed over time though, with different trials operating over different durations. Pain education and behavioural therapy were shown to have the most impact over six and 12 months after treatment. Based on the available data, these interventions appear to be safe too.

“Examining the comparative effectiveness and safety of the wide range of available psychological interventions for chronic lower back pain might help to improve the clarity of guideline recommendations and better support clinicians and patients in treatment decision making,” the researchers write in their paper.

Chronic back pain is defined as pain that lasts more than 12 weeks, and it often comes with psychological effects attached, including anxiety and depression. Those mental health impacts can then cause the physical health of an individual to deteriorate further.

The outcomes that the team looked at besides physical function and pain intensity were health-related quality of life, safety, compliance with treatment, and fear-avoidance – that is, avoiding movement through the fear of pain. Again, treatments with added psychological measures were shown to get better results.

There are some limitations to the study to talk about: the researchers say the long-term effectiveness of these treatments (beyond 12 months) still needs to be assessed, and some of the trials used in the analysis had poor quality safety reporting data.

However, taken as a whole, the new research provides important insights into which psychological interventions work best, and how much more effective complementary treatments can be overall compared to relying solely on physical treatments and exercises.

“Clinicians should consider incorporating psychological interventions with physiotherapy care (mainly structured exercise) to maximize improvements in health outcomes,” write the researchers.

FG Detects 1,500 Federal Workers With Fake Appointment Letters

By

Koko Lawrence

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April 5, 2022

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The Federal Government has detected over 1,500 workers who joined the Federal civil service with fake appointment letters in the past year.
Over 1,000 culprits were said to have been discovered in one ministry while 500 others found in other ministries, departments and agencies during a service-wide verification exercise will be delisted from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, made this known in her keynote address at the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria,’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, in Abuja on Tuesday.
The programme was attended by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, the Provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria, Prof Olatunde Babawale, Prof Isaac Obasi and other dignitaries.

The HoS explained that her administration has taken decisive steps to nip in the bud the alarming sharp practices and acts of impunity being perpetrated on the IPPIS, as well as to purge the system of all infiltrations.
She stated, “It would be recalled that in March last year, the office informed of the detection of fake letters of employment presented in some ministries. For instance, in the past year, in one ministry alone, over 1,000 individuals bearing fake letters of appointment were detected.
“In the light of the aforementioned, it is disheartening to point out that the office recently received a report from the Federal Civil Service Commission forwarding the names of over 500 persons in various MDAs in possession of fake letters of appointment and which are to be delisted from the IPPIS platform.

Nigeria To Become Africa’s Fertilizer Power House – Pres. Buhari

By

Angel Gimalo

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April 5, 2022

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja attributed Nigeria’s rising prominence as Africa’s fertiliser powerhouse to the implementation of the right policies by the present administration.‘‘With our over seventy blending plants operating, Nigeria is on its way to becoming Africa’s fertiliser powerhouse. And with our mega Urea production facilities, Nigeria is definitely a global player in the Urea space,’’ the President said at an audience with the Executive Committee of Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN).The President noted that this remarkable achievement, in a very short period of time, had ensured a steady flow of investments to the sector from the private sector; bringing prosperity to millions of Nigerians and good returns to the investors.The President expressed delight that the era of persistent shortage of fertiliser in the country was now a thing of the past, commending FEPSAN for partnering with the Government in the very patriotic backward integration project of enhancing the agricultural value chain.The President used the occasion to recount steps taken by his administration to limit overreliance on imports, ensure the availability of the commodity and achieve self-sufficiency in food production in the country.‘‘When this administration came to office in 2015, our focus was on three key areas; Security, Economy and tackling corruption.‘‘For every nation to have peace and prosperity, its economy must be inclusive.‘‘For Nigeria, a predominantly agrarian nation, having an inclusive economy meant we needed to prioritise the enhancement of our agricultural value chain.‘‘We quickly identified the persistent shortage of fertilizer as a key reason for the low yields experienced in our farms.‘‘This historical scarcity of fertiliser was due to our over reliance on imports and the inefficient participation of the Government in distributing this essential commodity to the farmers.‘‘As a government, it was very clear to us that these practices needed to change. Nigeria is naturally blessed with most of the raw materials needed to produce fertilisers.‘‘Nigeria has all the skills and manpower required to convert these raw materials to fertilisers.With the right enabling environment, Nigeria has the entrepreneurs who are ready to invest in the sector.‘‘So we went to work. And as the Chairman of FEPSAN mentioned in his remarks, the rest is now history,’’ he said.The President noted that a key indicator of the present government’s successful policies is the fact that the country had no shortages of fertilizers during the global COVID lockdowns.‘‘Today, I am pleased to hear your assurances that we will not have any shortages in Nigeria because of the Eastern European conflicts that have impacted the global fertilizer trade. All these trends indicate our backward integration policy was the right policy.’’Appreciating those who have invested and continue to invest in the sector, the President said:‘‘Through these investments, you are double blessed as you are making profits and bringing prosperity to millions of Nigerians working in the agricultural value chain.’’In his remarks, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said fertiliser remains a key input to achieving food security and in realisation of this, the apex bank has continued to place great importance on its availability and accessibility by farmers to improve yield, productivity and ultimately, output.Highlighting some CBN’s interventions, including the Real Sector Support Facility, Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme, National Food Security Programme and the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI), Emefiele said a total of over N114.09bn has been disbursed to support the fertiliser industry in the last five years.He explained that the interventions were long-term loans at concessionary interest rates to support domestic blending and distribution across the country.

2023: INEC Warns Parties Against Violation Of Electoral Act, Election Timelines

By

Koko Lawrence

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April 5, 2022

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Ahead of next year’s general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has warned political parties in the country against violation of electoral timelines as well as provisions of the new Electoral Act 2022 (as amended).

6Noting that it had on Saturday 26th February 2022, released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, the electoral umpire said it will stick to the timelines and also monitor political parties primaries.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr. Festus Okoye in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja said the Timetable provides detailed activities, including the conduct of primaries, nomination of candidates by political parties and other activities leading to the Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for Saturday 25th February 2023, followed by the Governorship and State Assembly elections on Saturday 11th March 2023.