“At the onset of my administration we developed a blueprint for economic growth and development called the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). The plan was focused on economic recovery in the short-term and sustained growth and development in the long-term. It enabled this administration, through the flagship agriculture initiative, the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), to provide access to credit to over four million smallholder farmers in 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT” By Kadiri Abdulrahman The need to achieve financial inclusion, the mission to accommodate Nigeria’s large underserved population into the country’s financial system has been in the…
Author: Editor
By Sumaila Ogbaje The push by the Nigerian Armed Forces to end insurgency in the North East of the country has so far led to the surrender of 82,237 fighters and their families since July 2021. The bulk of the surrendered fighters of Boko Haram and Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist groups, were women and children of the fighters and others rescued by the military. The administration of this huge number of combatants and their families has raised immense interest from local and international stakeholders. Nigeria has been confronting insurgency and terrorism in the North Eastern states of…
On 01 November 2011, history was made— a little-known son of Africa would take over perhaps the largest agricultural research institute on the African Continent. That person was Dr. Emmanuel Nteranya Sanginga, who would become the first African-born Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. Before his assumption of office, IITA was 44, and the leadership had been in the domain of Europeans and Americans. This heroic appointment came with mixed feelings—on one side, there was the fulfillment that, alas, one of our own—an African— is a director general, but on the other side, there was…
Love or hate her persona of courage and candour, there is no denying the fact that in the leadership equation here in Nigeria and elsewhere, in every democratic dispensation, loyalty and commitment to service pay Those factors come of course, with character, hard work and being passionate to a cause one firmly believes in. That may perhaps, explain why the name, Lauretta Onochie sends shivers down the spine of her traducers, all because she has stood solid and strong with her abiding loyalty to the President Muhammadu Buhari’s cause to promote integrity, quality service delivery and gender equity especially in…
As expected, this article on perennial flood attracted reactions from many readers of this column, my Facebook and Tweeter handles. Many were unhappy, if not furious of why our nation has been given lip service to a preventable but calamitous incident occurring annually. The nation is endowed with experts, technocrats, and wherewithal to prevent or mitigate the effects of this type of disaster. If Netherland, a small European nation was able to reclaim part of the ocean by pushing the water back into ocean, and still avoided serious flood incidences, why not Nigeria? In fact, the French people call Netherland…
“The plan to restore history as an inevitable frontline teaching subject was first recommended in 2016. That the announcement of its implementation came in 2022, that is, six years later, derogates largely from the urgent public importance of the subject” Last week’s decision by the Nigerian government to approve the restoration of ‘History’ as a stand-alone subject to be taught in Nigerian schools was a right step in the right direction because anyone who seeks to comprehend the present so as to plan for tomorrow must first understand yesterday. Although history is that important; I am yet to clap for…
My Dear Good People of Osun, As I step aside today following the conclusion of the four-year tenure you freely gave me, I thank God and I thank you for your support, cooperation and prayers over the years. I recall how the journey began four years ago; how by your belief in me and your conviction in the plans and programmes of our Party, you exercised your right to vote for me. Motivated by God’s promise, my conviction, we promised that we would serve you with steady heart and hands. We promised that we would hit the ground running once…
Stopping the proliferation of fake news isn’t just the responsibility of the platforms used to spread it. Those who consume news also need to find ways of determining if what they’re reading is true. We offer several tips below.
Cornucopia, a word with Latin origin and Greek history, comes from the Latin cornu copiae, which translates literally to “horn of plenty.” Cornucopia is believed to represent the horn of a goat in Greek mythology. Legend has it that it was from this horn that the god, Zeus, was fed as an infant. Later, the horn was filled with flowers and fruits and given as a present to Zeus. The word first appeared in English in the early 16th century; a century later, it developed the figurative sense of an overflowing supply. And so, cornucopia means abundance, plenty, an inexhaustible amount…
November 18, 2009 was such day that I cannot forget in as much as I am alive. It was the day of mighty crumble of one of the channels through which I appear on earth. I cannot pen down the nostalgic recollection of the immutable agony of an irretrievable loss of a 65 year old father. It was painful, indeed. Today it is eight (now 13) years of his physical departure from us to attend a transcendental life of eternal tranquility. May the paradise be his final abode, amin. In addition to being a father in the true sense of…