The ICT ONLINE TEAM – UnicornDivine Technologies, BSI
- Erena, BS; MB Shehu, BS: S. Rumala, Ph.D; F. Haruna, BTech.
NIGER - The Power State of Nigeria.
Transparency, Accountability, Integrity
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has established three Business Support Centres in Niger State. The centres located in Minna, Bida and Kontagora are expected to commence training of the first batch of 210 small scale entrepreneurs drawn from the three senatorial districts of the State. Already equipment worth N10m have been donated by the Agency for the take off of the Centres. Director General, SMEDAN, Mrs. Modupe Adelaja disclosed this at the official flag off of the centres. She commended Niger State on its efforts in implementation of entreprenuership development programmes in the country; adding that this disposition has encouraged the Agency to scale up the scope of its activities in the state.
July 01, 2008
July 02, 2008
July 02, 2008
July 01, 2008
July 01, 2008
In order, therefore, to avoid a similarity of previous scenario when agendas were set and eventual outcomes and impact were nothing to write home about, the present effort must take cognizance of certain fundamental denominators for the agenda for action in the context in which they have been articulated by seasoned educationists in the past as well as by some of the papers at the recent summit. Such fundamentals include the need for strategic re-planning of the entire sector (which to the credit of the commissioners has been listed already in the agenda), mobilisation of political commitment at all levels, community orientation for ownership of the sector, sustained minimum of 26% budgetary allocation to the education sector, funding the massive rehabilitation of infrastructure and facilities, reforming and re-designating of teacher education and the teaching career, curriculum reforms for appropriateness and value-addedness, and addressing salient cost issues in meeting educational needs of the excluded, marginalised and disadvantaged. These fundamentals, indeed, must inform the development and institutionalisation of State- Wide-Education Strategic Plans (ESP’s) and Education Sector Operational Plans (ESOP’s) as the very first item on the agenda for action.
July 01, 2008
Chronic electricity shortages are largely to blame for the loss of three million jobs and the closure of hundreds of factories in northern Nigeria's commercial hub, local business leaders say.
July 03, 2008
Tafa, a town on the Kaduna/Abuja expressway in Niger State has become the motorists nightmare. Hardly does a week pass without the occurrence of one or more accidents. Evidence of these accidents are the smashed and mangled carcasses of vehicles packed on top of each other at the frontage of the Police Station in the town. The accidents have claimed the high and low. One recent casualty was the 81 year old Alhaji Ladan Baki Wazirin Ayuukan Katsina, a minister in the First Republic who lost his life along with his wife, son and driver. He was on his way to see his physician in Abuja. According to an account the vehicle they were travelling in ran into a trailer which veered into the road without any thought about approaching vehicles. Other notable people have lost lives at the same sport in similar manner.
Some sources of General Ibrahim Babangida’s stupendous wealth have been revealed. According to Sahararareporters, Mohammed and Aminu, Babangida’s sons, own Fruitex International, London, an oil exploration company. It was registered, with number 4216189, to number 53 Marlborough Hill, Flat 4, London, NW8 0NG. The house is owned by Beaumont Group Limited, care of Ashley Wilson, Solicitors, 19-21 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0BD. Fruitex, according to Saharareporters, owns a rich oil block, “Block M” in Equatorial Guinea which is worth $8.2 billion.
Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State yesterday flagged off the distribution of 3,250 metric tons of assorted grains valued at over N200 million to groups in the state that cannot cope with the current food scarcity and soaring prices of foodstuffs. Dr. Aliyu said that the grains which include millet, corn and sorghum would be sold at government subsidized prices to the poor, warning that government would not condone any diversion of the food stuff. He ordered that the 100kg bag of sorghum be sold at the subsidized price of N4,000 while the 100kg bag of corn and millet should be sold at N4,200.00. "Let me warn that the grains should neither be diverted nor sold above the approved prices. Government will deal squarely with anybody who is caught thwarting our efforts at providing assistance to the people", he warned.
July 02, 2008
July 02, 2008
Niger State government has concluded arrangements to float an N8 billion bond to fast-track various developmental projects in the state. Governor Babangida Aliyu disclosed this in Minna on Wednesday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the state government and Dean Shanga Ltd for the resuscitation and leasing of the Badeggi Rice Processing Mill. Aliyu explained that the bond, which would be underwritten by First Bank Plc, would be used to finance the Minna City Project, as well as the Suleja Twin City project. According to him, part of the bond would also be used to finance some agricultural development projects in the state.
July 11, 2008
GOVERNOR Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has declared education free and compulsory in public schools in the state, in the government’s bid to improve the lot of its people. Speaking during the National Association of Niger State Students (NANISS) annual dinner and award weekend at Shiroro Hotel, Aliyu said the government in a bid to improve the lot of the people of Niger state had sent the bill making education free and compulsory to the state Assembly for ratification. He said under the bill, education would be free and compulsory for girls up to tertiary level and for boys to secondary school levels in all its public schools. He said the bill also spells out specific punishment for parents or guardians who withdraw their wards from school, or refuse to send their wards to school, as way of safeguarding the future of its youth. Aliyu also announced that a bill on the integration of Quranic schools into formal schools would also be sent to the Assembly for passage, to enable the government give formal education to those attending the religious schools. He said a census of pupils attending such schools would be conducted to ascertain their number and their teachers, to enable government plan adequately for their operations, adding that "their teachers will receive stipends for up keep." He gave the assurance that the free education policy of his government would be sustained throughout his tenure. Even the payment of NECO/WASC fees will be borne by my administration throughout our tenure in office.
July 13, 2008
Almost like an invading army, rapists are prowling the nooks and crannies of the country, raping 100 unsuspecting women
weekly and even defiling baby girls. Worst still, some of the victims die or are left with physical hurt and psychological trauma for life.
July 09, 2008
The Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) set up by the Niger State government to verify contracts awarded by the immediate past administration from 1999 to 2007, will not wind up now, the state governor, Dr. Mua-zu Babangida Aliyu, has said. Aliyu made this assertion yesterday in Minna explaining that the clarification on the life span of the commission had became necessary in view of the rumors being peddled by some people that it was about to fold up without achieving anything. The governor said that the sitting period of the commission was recently extended in view of the huge work before it, adding that government was so far satisfied with its performance. He said that government would implement to the letter, recommendations of the commission when it conclusively finishes its work and advised those peddling such rumors to desist from it.
July 09, 2008
FIVE students of Government Secondary School , Bosso Niger State descended on one of their teachers and beat him to a state of coma.
The teacher, Hamza Hashimu was said to have incurred the wrath of the students because he threw his weight behind the punishment meted out to one of their friends who tried to sneak out of the school without permission.
July 09, 2008
GOVERNOR Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has said involvement of governors in Federal Government’s declaration of emergency in the power sector was the political will needed to deal with the intractable problem.
July 09, 2008
The Second Division Volleyball League will begin in Minna, Niger State on July 11, with 20 clubs jostling for honours. The Secretary of Nigeria Volleyball Federation, Bode Durotoye, said in Lagos on Tuesday that the top two clubs would gain promotion to the first division.
July 09, 2008
FORMER military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has identified the adoption of current trends in technology as panacea to coping with challenges of road traffic administration in Nigeria.
July 09, 2008
The police in Niger State have arrested a 32-year-old man, Jonah Auta, for allegedly beating his 11-year-old niece to death. According to a police source, the man, a motor mechanic from Kaduna State, beat the girl, Perpetual Gimbiya, to death with an electric cable.
July 09, 2008
Muazu AliyuGovernor Muazu Aliyu of Niger State has been living up to his words of developing the state which he gave on assumption of office. The recent encomiums and awards on good governance showered on Aliyu seemingly highlight his achievements. Since his assumption of office on May 29, 2007, Governor Muazu Aliyu of Niger State has not hidden his determination to hasten the development of The Power State. As a result, he has pursued the implementation of his programmes with such speed that one would think he has only one year to spend in office. The governor’s efforts, so far, has attracted the attention of people both from within and outside the state. His achievements in the fields of tourism, education, housing and road construction, settlement of pensions and gratuities and revival of the civil service have, therefore, been recognised and endeared him to majority of people.
July 08, 2008
The high cost of building materials in the country has no doubt deprived many people including civil servants, the chances of building their own house. Consequently, this has resulted in the acute shortage of affordable accommodation and the high rate of renting houses in urban and rural areas of the country.
July 07, 2008
The National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in Niger State has announced a lifeline of N27 million to three small scale business enterprises in the state. The Niger State Coordinator of NAPEP, Dr. Illayasu Dhako made this announcement yesterday after an assessment tour of the factories located in Minna, the state capital. The benefiting enterprises, according to him, are the shea nut processing plant, the plastic waste recycling in Tayi village and the Shoe makers' production center all in Minna. Dhako said that the shea nut processing plant which was established with an earlier assistance of five million naira from NAPEP was ready for commissioning adding that the company would be given another lifeline of N20 million to enable it procure necessary machinery. He said that the Plastic Waste Recycling Center which was earlier given two million naira grant would be assisted with another loan of N5 million while the Shoe Makers' Production Center will under the new arrangement receive N2million to boost its business. The state coordinator said that the Shea nut processing plant was expected to be commissioned few weeks from now by the Director General of NAPEP Dr. Magnus Kpakol.
He said that NAPEP was satisfied with the performances of the three small scale enterprises especially in utilizing the first round of loans, adding that it was based on this that the beneficiaries were being considered for the new lifeline. He assured that his office will continue to monitor and evaluate the performances of the beneficiaries of the programme with a view to ensuring their progress and development.
July 07, 2008
To me, the entire issue of education for disadvantaged and marginalised groups needs to be re-packaged for quantum interventions based on strategic plan of actions for the subsector. It is suggested that the agencies for mass education in the North be restructured to become commissions or even ministries for the education of disadvantaged and marginalised persons in Northern states. The new structure will have specific departments in charge of such cohorts of programmes for girl child education, Quranic schools, out of school children (i.e. the almajirai), nomadic education, non-formal and adult education. The essence of the structuring will be for more definite budgetary allocations and a more serious approach to programme interventions. The chief servant of Niger State recently muted the idea of a students bank loan scheme in place of scholarship. This idea is worth considering by the Northern state governments as an alternative to the scholarship schemes that have become enmeshed in the fraud culture. A special committee needs to be put in place by the Northern Governors Forum to work out and advice on possible modalities of this potentially sustainable approach to assisting students of disadvantaged backgrounds.
July 07, 2008
Niger State male basketball team, Government Secondary School, Minna, and its Benue State female counterpart, Queen of the Rosary Secondary School, Gboko, have qualified for the national finals of this year’s Nestle Milo Secondary Schools Basketball Championship scheduled to hold in Lagos later in the year.
July 07, 2008
A former chairman of the caretaker committee of a local government area in the Niger North Senatorial District of Niger State (names withheld) has been arrested by the police in Minna over alleged fraud committed while he was in office. A private car of the former local government boss, a Peugeot 207, was seized by the police, who had detained the politician at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) since last Friday. According to a source, the former local government boss was being investigated over alleged fraud involving about N3 million when he was in the office. Nigerian Tribune learnt that the police arrested the politician as a result of a petition written by a contractor over the award of a contract for the supply of fertiliser. The contractor, in the petition, alleged that after he supplied the fertiliser, the former local government boss told him that the council had not paid for the job only for documents to show that the money had been released and collected by the former chairman.
July 05, 2008
TO a first caller at Masaba in Bida, Niger State, the unusual movement of a crowd in and out of an expansive two-storey building in the area should be a .
July 25, 2008
Senate President, David Mark on Thursday in Kaduna urged the governors of the 19 Northern states to excuse him from sectional or regional politics.
July 25, 2008
July 24, 2008
Niger State Police command has foiled an attempt to defraud the state government of N150million at a new generation bank in Minna, the state capital. Already six persons have been arrested in connection with the fraud involving the state leaders of Motorcycle Express Services Department Association (MESDA) otherwise known as Kabu-Kabu while attempting to withdraw the sum of N50million from the N150million lodged in the account of the association.
July 25, 2008
July 24, 2008
No fewer than 4,000 ghost workers have been detected to be in the pay-roll of the Niger State Government. The state governor, Alhaji Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, who disclosed this in his State of Service Address in Minna, said the ghost workers were detected in the on-going biometric data capturing exercise organised to ascertain the authentic number of civil servants in the state. Presently, the governor said, the state has 33,000 workers in its pay-roll. He explained that savings from the exercise would be used to deliver essential services to the people. According to him, the exercise would also be carried out in all the 25 local government areas of the state to determine the strength of their workforce.
July 24, 2008
The government of Niger State is making moves to develop Suleja to the present level of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This decision was made known by Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu at the State House of Assembly last week during his 'state of service address.'
The decision is part of the urban/rural city renewal aspiration and initiative of the state government to expand and develop the state in line with the vision 20-20 goal of the state government to provide essential infrastructure to the people. Aliyu said plans are already on to model Suleja after the FCT in terms of infrastructure. This decision may be due to the proximity of the town to Abuja. The governor said the state government has concluded plans to decongest traffic in the center of the town by constructing a 20.4 kilometer bye-pass from Maji to the Zuba fly-over on the western part of Suleja.
July 23, 2008
Niger Brass Volleyball Club of Mina and Famous Queens of Yenagoa have emerged winners of the male and female categories of the National Division Two and Three League. The league was concluded in Minna, Niger State last weekend.
July 23, 2008
Niger State governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu may have rekindled hope in the education system of the state. As he indicated in his "State of Service Address" last Tuesday, a major thrust of the government's intervention has been the "Education for All" programme that entails free education at basic level. His predecessor, Abdulkadir Kure, used to pay the school fees of indigenes to tertiary institutions directly when he discovered that many students could not afford the exorbitant fees. The Aliyu administration has increased the funds paid to many Nigerlites on scholarship at home and abroad. No doubt, the "chief servant" (as he would rather be addressed) is paying serious attention to this vital sector as any leader should. He should be encouraged to do more. Any governor that has not granted free education, at least to his state's young citizens, should accept the challenge from Niger State. It is ironical that the current governors, all of whom enjoyed one form of scholarship or the other during their student days, cannot extend it to the pupils of today, at a time unprecedented oil money is pouring into the coffers of government
July 22, 2008
A 30,000-capacity stadium is to be built in Minna to replace the Bako Kotangora Sports Complex, according to Sani Ndanusa, the Niger Commissioner for Works. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) today in Minna, Ndanusa said the stadium was part of the government's plan to accelerate sports development. He said the site for the stadium had been acquired, adding that his ministry's architects and engineers were in charge of its drawings and designs. The stadium will have an indoor sports hall and a games village, said Ndanusa, who is also the President of Nigeria Tennis Federation. The commissioner stated that Gov. Babangida Aliyu would ensure the early completion of the project.
July 23, 2008
An octogenarian India Hemp seller, who was arrested by men of the Niger State police command, has vowed not to quit the illicit trade because it was highly lucrative. The octogenarian who was detained by the police in Minna, stunned newsmen when he declared that he felt betrayed by the police because, according to him, some of them patronised him. On the day of his arrest, the old man said he thought the police had come to patronise him because the visit was late in the night.
July 23, 2008
The Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, recently gave his people an account of how he has been managing the finances of the state as a way of meeting developmental goals. Section 108 sub section 1 of the 1999 constitution provides that ‘ the governor of a state may attend a meeting of a house of assembly to deliver an address on state affairs or to make such statement on the policy of government as he considers to be of importance to the state’. In the political history of Nigeria, especially since the return to democratic rule, it has hardly been the norm for chief executives of federal or state governments to give account of their stewardship to the electorate that voted them into office.
July 23, 2008
ONE of the major problems of state- society relations in Nigeria is lack of accountability among those entrusted with the responsibility of governance. The overriding attitude of many a Nigerian political officer holder is like that of the fabled lord of the manor, who exercised power over all with himself subject to no one. WITH this condescending attitude, asking political leaders to render account of their stewardship is often seen by them as an intolerable irritation. What amounts they got as revenues, how and on what they were spent are details they often consider as being beneath their statuses to give to the very people who entrusted them with the power to manage those resources on their behalf. UNDER the blanketing dark cloud that is making accountability less visible in the polity, especially in corporate governance, there is a flicker of light. A few days ago, the Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, did the unexpected when he presented to the Niger State House of Assembly the account of his stewardship. Called the “State of Service Address”, the Governor, who insisted on being called the Chief Servant, gave details of all revenues that accrued to the state since he took the mantle of leadership, the amounts spent and how such money was spent. So detailed and so specific was this account, that even an expenditure of N2.5 million was captured in the address. DR. Aliyu did not stop at that. He challenged the legislators, the people of Niger State and all those who watched the address that was broadcast live on national and on cable television to track and verify both his revenue and expenditure claims. In his words, “the people that gave us the mandate to govern own the resources we expend on their behalf. They, therefore, deserve to know how the resources were utilised”. IN the Nigerian context, the action of Dr. Aliyu is as unprecedented as it is revolutionary. While what he did is normal and expected in truly democratic and transparent societies of the world, it is novel in Nigeria, because of the configuration of the country’s democratic machinery. But Nigeria’s democracy needs the Aliyu novel treatment to oil it and adjust the many distortions in its configuration. It is a novelty that must catch on. BUT we are not naïve to expect that other state governors and highly placed political office holders in the country will, of their own volition, emulate this example. After all, those who have things to hide will naturally not come into the open as Dr. Aliyu did.
July 23, 2008
July 22, 2008
Niger State Governor, Dr Babangida Aliyu is trying to introduce new lexicon into the governance vocabulary. At every opportunity, he emphasises the fact that those elected into positions of authority were elected or appointed to serve, and so are supposed to be at the beck and call of the electorate, not the other way round. That probably explains why the National Orientation Agency (NOA), saw no better place to hold its Concept of Leadership seminar other than Niger State, where the governor prefers to be addressed as the chief servant of the electorate, surrounded by other servants and that his wife, instead of being addressed as the First Lady, should be addressed as “Madam Chief Servant.”
July 22, 2008
FOLLOWING the poor network roads in Niger State, the state government has taken steps to establish its own Road maintenance Agency (ROMA) to maintain both federal and state roads across the state. The State Commissioner of Works and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Sani Ndanusa who disclosed this during a press conference also said that the state has also concluded plans to establish an Electricity Board to take over the activities of the existing Rural Electricity Board (REB).
July 21, 2008
July 20, 2008
July 19, 2008
The chairman Bosso local government council in Niger state, Hon. Shehu Bawa Beji has blamed the elite in the north for allowing the northern papers to die a premature death,
July 21, 2008
The government of Niger State has decided to create an alternative source of power generation to augment the epileptic national power source. This decision was reached at last week's state executive council meeting in Minna.
July 20, 2008
July 17, 2008
July 16, 2008
July 31, 2008
July 31, 2008
July 31, 2008
July 30, 2008
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July 28, 2008