19102020 - #EndSARS: Stop Army's planned Op Crocodile Smile

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28 — Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2020 Food insecurity, poor infrastructure impeding life expectancy of Nigerians — EXPERTS By Chioma Obinna AMID statistics by the United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA) showing that Nigeria has the 3rd lowest life expectancy rate in the world (55) years for men and 56 years for women), the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Ipalibo Harry –Banigo has linked the nation’s low life expectancy to poor infrastructure, lack of food security and poor economic indices. Banigo said health experts and other stakeholders must team up to address these factors responsible for the short life span in order to raise Nigerians’ standard of living from the current abysmal level. Data from the World Health Organisation, WHO, published in 2018, showed that life expectancy in Nigeria is 54.7 for males ahd 55.7 for females, with a total life expectancy is 55.2 which gave Nigeria a World Life Expectancy ranking of 178. Speaking in Lagos on the topic “Improving life expectancy in Nigeria” Harry –Banigo said: “We also have social problems, infrastructure problems, poor and inadequate portable safe water supply, poor states of our roads, poor housing and rental challenges, amidst other economic variables. Inequitable distribution of income has wiped out the middle class in our society. “This has also added to a high level of unemployment, a lot of stress, ranging from students schools fees, house rent, electricity bills, medical bills, generators and parts repairs, powering and fueling, feeding the family, and clothing of families. Also is the huge numbers of demands, siblings demands, vigilante bills, work stress, police stress on the road, variable stress, kidnappers fears, armed robbery fears, and all these are adding to our low rate of life expectancy.” She spoke added that for Nigeria to improve on its life expectancy there is an urgent need for collaboration with all sectors. “Our government has a critical role to create a conducive environment for businesses to thrive and ensure the sustainability of the ease of doing business in all the sector of our economy. “It must address the numerous challenges breaking the health sector in Pharm Obinna Emeribe, Head of Marketing, Pharm Chukutem Chukuka, Executive Director, Pharma Sales & Marketing, Pharm Nnamdi Okafor, Managing Director/ CEO and Pharm Yetunde Adigun, Head, Pharma Plant <strong>Op</strong>erations, all of May & Baker Nigeria PLC at the Media Launch of Malact tablets, the company's new anti.- malarial medicine in Lagos at the weekend. terms of facility, equipment, manpower, and also curtailing preventable and avoidable diseases. “Also, the government needs to improve on budgetary allocations to the health sector, and take measures to control population growth. A situation where we have a population growth increase which is higher than our GDP is not sustainable. Hence we need to educate our people, and educate the women on birth control’’ Speaking, Former Director & General Manager, Human Resources & Organization, Nigerian, Agip Oil Company Limited, Papa Patrick Amaechi, who spoke from London, also proffered solutions on how Nigerians can live to a ripe old age. Narrating his experience, he said this can be achieved through discipline, knowledge about diets and regular check-up to ensure one stays in good shape all year round. “We are what we eat,” he said, adding: “It is important to find out what kind of food is good for us as individuals and what exercise that is appropriate for us with moderations” Earlier, the Chairman/ CEO St. Racheal’s Pharmaceutical, Mr. Akinjide Adeosun observed: “Two years ago, we commenced a 20-year journey into living our purpose on the continent of Africa starting from Nigeria. This journey will see us launch into many markets on the continent, expand our offering from our core base of antibiotics into brands that will supplement Life & brands that will prevent diseases. “These are our tri-growth strategies. Everything is <strong>planned</strong> with eyes on our Vision – To eradicate diseases in Africa. Malact debuts against malaria from May & Baker stable By Chioma Obinna IRKED by the rising cases of resistance among malaria drug users, May & Baker Nigeria Plc has introduced a new anti-malarial medicine that would revolutionize malaria treatment in the country. The new drug, Malact, is a Dihydroarteminsin- Piperaquine combination-based formulation which ensures fast relief from malaria and guarantees better post treatment protection. The World Health Organisation, WHO, recommended Artermisinin based Combination Therapies (ACTs) as first line drug for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. However, most ACTs have since then shown limitations including resistance to treatment, but Dihydroarteminsin- Piperaquine combination, has shown excellent efficacy in multiple trials and is considered the most promising drug currently available for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. Speaking at the media launch of the antimalaria in Lagos, Managing Director/ CEO of May & Baker, Mr. Nnamdi Okafor, said the introduction of Malact was part of the company’s efforts at continually confronting the malarial scourge by providing effective and affordable medicines for treatment of the disease. Okafor said further that Malact was the latest and most effective arsenal in the toolbox for the fight against malaria, adding that the goal of May & Baker was to quickly regain their leadership position in the market segment by building a strong one-stop-shop for quality antimalarial medicines. On his part, the Executive Director, Pharma Sales & Marketing of May & Baker, said “Malact has a reliable efficacy which guarantees patient faster relief compared to other ACTs in the market. It also has better post treatment protection because of the Piperaquine content that makes it possible for patients not to experience relapse for at least six weeks. Malact prevents malaria for up to six weeks and prevents recrudescence of malaria. YEDI laments Nigerians' noncompliance to COVID-19 protocols ... Distributes over 2,000 health packs to Lagos communities By Gabriel Olawale YOUTH Empowerment and Development Initiative, YEDI has decried Nigerians’ non-compliance with the non-pharmaceutical procedure of curbing the COVID-19 spread since after the lifting of lockdown. To this end, it is distributing over 2,000 free health packs to residents in Oshodi/ Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos. Speaking, during a Two- Day exercise in partnership with GrassrootSoccer, ExxonMobil Foundation, and M.A.C AIDS Fund among others at the Local Government Council, the Executive Director of YEDI, Mr Oje Ivagba said at the beginning of lifting lockdown, people observed good level of compliance with the non-pharmaceutical processes but it seems people are gradually relaxing as many people no longer wear a mask, adding that, “This is wrong and it will be terrible for us as a country to witness the second wave of this virus due to non-compliance. So people need to fight this battle till the end.” Ivagba said the initiative was to support underserved members of the communities to remain safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today, aside from donation of personal protective equipment, PPE to the health facilities, we are giving out over 2,000 health packs such as hand sanitizer, soap, nose mask among others to help people stay protected. These activities will also take place in Abuja, Ogun and Akwa Ibom state. Our focus is to reach over 6,000 people in all these four locations.” Ivagba admonished beneficiaries and the general public not to give up yet in an effort to stay protected, “Sometimes it is frustrating for people to stay at home for so long or to be doing what they are not used to before, but we need to look at the big picture. We are so lucky i this part of the world that we did not record many deaths as a result of efforts from government and development partners like YEDI. Local Council Chairman, Fehintola Bolaji describe the programme as laudable and indication that people at the grass-root level are not forgotten. Free virtual physiotherapy assessments for Nigerian pensioners, elderly By Juliet Umeh AS part of activities marking the 2020 International Day of Older Persons, a physiotherapist, Prof Efe Useh, has offered to provide free virtual physiotherapy assessments to Nigerian pensioners and other elderly people with low back and neck pain for the rest of the year. Useh, a Nigerian physiotherapist based in South Africa is offering free services on the platform of Virtualphysio, the online physiotherapy care provider. All that the elderly person requires tondo to access free care is to call or send sms to +27739898869. A statement from Virtualphysio, the online physiotherapy management platform said Prof. Useh an accomplished Physiotherapist with over 37 years of national and international working experience, will be joined by other international virtualphysio consultants to evaluate and manage various conditions suffered by the elderly. These include body and joint aches resulting from poorly assumed postures when they were active at work; backache as a result of poor postures in general, long sitting and standing, job hazards etc. Aching and heaviness of the neck which could be due to wear and tear around the neck bones; Painful Shoulders of an unknown origin, Sprains of different joints and Strains of muscles result in the inability to use the affected part of the body. Arthritis of the neck, back, and knees are also common amongst the elderly. "We at virtuaphysio.org are aware that 2020 has been a challenging year for us all, and the impact of COVID-19 on the elderly in our societies has been devastating. "The economic impact on financing our healthcare by these groups that are no longer on medical aid or support could be overwhelming. For that reason, we have decided to offer a free service to these citizens to ensure an improved quality of life. This provides our pensioners with any of the conditions mentioned above to be examined and managed simultaneously by multiple practitioners across the globe.
Vanguard, MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2020—29 STATE OF THE NATION: Nigeria must be made to meet yearnings of citizens now – Fayemi •List gains, challenges of governing Ekiti By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State marked two years of his second term at the weekend. In this anniversary chat, he shares his thoughts on the state of the nation, how to make Nigeria work for all Nigerians, his achievements, challenges and constraints as governor in the last 730 days, and legacies he would like to be remembered for. On the gains, challenges, constraints of governing Ekiti State in the last two years During the campaigns in 2018, I said I had unfinished business which was the reason I was returning to Ekiti, not that I didn’t have an alternative or I just wanted to be governor for its own sake. I was a minister at the time I chose to go back because of the circumstances of my exit from office. I wanted to ensure that we win the state back and then complete many projects embarked on in my first term as well as entrench an irreversible development trajectory. In the four years that I was out of office, there was widespread suffering and poverty in the state. Ekiti, many will still argue, is essentially a civil service state. Payment of workers’ salaries should not be considered as an achievement. However, in a civil service state if you are operating in a situation where people have not been paid for almost a year, then it becomes a big deal when you take that burden off those directly affected. It’s therefore clear that we needed a change of leadership in order to get good governance back on the agenda and a sense of purpose back to government. Reclaiming Ekiti My campaign focused on restoring the values and reclaiming the land of Ekiti. What was to be reclaimed? Take the social intervention programmes that we had in the state when I was Governor. They were all cancelled by my successor. There was no longer a free education programme up to senior secondary level as we used to have in my first term. The monthly stipend for the elderly citizens, “owo arugbo” and the Food Bank, “Ounje arugbo”, as we call it in Ekiti also disappeared. The free health programme for the under-five, over-65, the pregnant women and people with disability were also cancelled by the previous government. Now, all these are back in Ekiti and our people are enjoying them. Given our parlous financial state, we figured out a way to run an economy that has also generated more investments for the state. If you look at our agricultural sector, we decided, policywise, that the only way we can transit from being a subsistence agricultural state was to find a mechanism to attract more commercial investment to the agriculture sector in the state. We have brought such critical players to the Agric sector like Terra Agric, Dangote Farms, Stallion Farms, FMS, Promise Point and Cowbell (Promasidor) to Ekiti and in another three months, Promasidor would have reached full scale production of dairy products. This is something that has led to the revival and resuscitation of the Ikun dairy farm that has been moribund for over two decades. We are establishing a special agriculture processing zone supported by the African Development Bank, AfDB, and the World Bank. We are in partnership with the World Bank on rural access to farms to aid the agricultural marketing process. Basically, what that does for us is open up the state by fixing the feeder roads, linking the farms to the market. Roughly, 1,000 kilometres of rural roads in addition to other agricultural infrastructures have been done. In terms of roads, one of the most critical roads we have, that some of you have passed and complained about, is the Ado- Akure road. When you go on that road, you will know the problem we have with the so-called federal roads. One of the very first things I did on coming back was to secure support of the African Development Bank to fix the road, then we ran into a hitch with the Federal Government, when they insisted that we should not fix their road, that they would fix the road themselves. So, the Governor of Ondo State and I had to approach the AfDB with the support of the Minister, Babatunde Fashola, to relocate the funds to the Federal Government. The road is now ready for construction and the contractor - Dantata and Sawoe, is mobilizing to the site as I speak. We hope they will finish it in good time for the people to really benefit from it. We have our legacy projects, which for me are the ones that, over the long term, can be treated more as the gains of the state and the restoration of values I was talking about. Our knowledge zone, which is basically an aggregation of opportunity in the knowledge service industry, is a special economic zone, probably the first in the country that is focused on intellectual capital. This is informed by who we are as Ekiti people, it is what we are known forour intellect, our passion for education. How do we turn this to wealth rather than just reading for the sake of getting degrees? That was what informed this special zone we created in our education quadrangle, where we have about four higher institutions feeding this zone in biomedical, health, agric technology, and information technology. About a month ago, I was at the “Nigerian Export Promotion Zone Authority, NEPZA, to discuss with them the granting of the status of a special economic zone for the sector. We are also working on an airport for the state, an agric cargo airport, which is something that in the short term appears a luxury in the state but over a long time, the economic trajectory will become more sensible to those who are accessing the state. We have the best hospital in Nigeria in Ekiti. The airport will also make the hospital accessible because of Ekiti’s landlocked nature. •Gov. Fayemi Challenges What you can see as challenges for us of course include resource constraints. Ekiti, as I said, is not exactly a buoyant state. If you look at the ladder of states, we have just N3.3billion coming from the federation account monthly. When you earn N3 billion and you spend N2.6 to 2.8 billion on recurrent expenditure, you have to be more creative, in order to deliver on the promises you We are fast getting to a point in which we must confront our reality as a federation. Finance is always a constraint at the state level. There is what I call the tyranny of unfunded mandates. We can’t continue to run an economy the way we are doing. made to the people. We have been fortunate because we have international partnerships that we are benefiting from. So, we have been able to fill the gap a little bit. We have a comprehensive water programme that is supported by the European Union and the World Bank for example. We used to have water from the “tap” in Ekiti up to the early 70s and then water disappeared. We have brought back all the dams, replaced all the pipelines and off course got to a point of commissioning the various water projects that would enable virtually all the local governments access to water. Similarly, our RAAMP projects in the rural areas are things we have done with the support of the French Development Agency, FDA and the World Bank as well. In housing, we have a partnership with the United Nations, to develop 50,000 affordable houses within the next 10 years. Of course that would be beyond my time of office but it is an MOU that has enabled us to establish a special purpose vehicle that would not be affected by any transition because it is a publicprivate partnership. Challenges should not be the problem of anybody who is in public office. If you have thought through what you are doing and you are prepared for office, you are bound to have challenges, economically, politically because there are those who feel that the resources of the state should be shared. If you do not come from that school of thought, you are definitely going to run into challenges with some elements, who may see things differently. Again, that is the price you pay for leadership, and leadership is not just a title, not just about being called “His Excellency”, it’s what you do to affect the lives of people. You have to take your stand on some of these issues without any equivocation, even if it means you will run into some political qualms as a result. Constraints, need for devolution of powers We are fast getting to a point in which we must confront our reality as a federation. Finance is always a constraint at the state level. There is what I call the tyranny of unfunded mandates. We can’t continue to run an economy the way we are doing. We have to figure out a structure, a formula that will enable us to generate more funds internally and at the same time ensure equitable and fair distribution of what is available in the Federation’s coffers. We need a formula that is more responsive to the yearnings of the population. The current structure obviously favours those who are more associated with the unitary structure that privileges concentration of powers and resources at the Centre rather than a genuine federal structure that is more accountable to the people and responsive to the challenges that the people have. What that formula should be has been a subject of debate from all sides of Nigeria. Clearly, the federal structure we have now is problematic and it is not working as it should and there is a justification for more devolution of not just functions, unless you want to suffer from a tyranny of unfunded mandate. You can’t devolve functions and not support it with resources and that is what we are faced with now. Thankfully, the government is more responsive under President Buhari. Federal roads that had been fixed for the past 20 years and not one naira was paid by the governments of Presidents Obasanjo, Yar Adua and Jonathan have now been paid by President Buhari. He asked the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola to go round the 36 states, check all the federal roads that have been fixed with evidence that they were actually fixed by the states and then pay. And he paid! That is not something that we have experienced since the dawn of this democratic dispensation. Frankly, the issue is we still have to ask: What is a federal road? The people who are plying the road in my state don’t know the difference between a federal road and a state road. All they will say is that ‘Mr Governor you are not doing your job,’ only for you to start explaining that ‘it’s not my road and I need permission to even work on it’ just as we have experienced trying to work on Ado- Akure road. It is the same story all over. These roads are bad, the federal government has no money to fix them. Some they will fix via Sukuk bonds, some via Sovereign Wealth Fund. We don’t have the resources, so we have to devise a very sustainable means of addressing these issues beyond what we do on a medium scale basis. Federal government can always borrow to cover any shortfall but sub nationals cannot except we go through the FG. Wearing my other hat as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, this is an issue that has been on the front burner of our work. We hope Nigerians would be able to push the argument to a point where the resources and the powers that reside in Abuja can be devolved to the states with the resources also devolved to solve the responsibilities carried out at that level. It may not automatically improve performance but I believe it would improve accountability by bringing government closer to the people. Read more online @ vanguardngr.com
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19102020 - #EndSARS: Stop Army's planned Op Crocodile Smile

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