22/06/23

SHINA J.O

PRESS RELEASE

The Presidency has denied approving a purported 114% increase in the salary for the President, Vice President, elected Federal and State political Office-holders, and judicial officers.

The Presidency also said it followed with consternation the viral story of the purported 114% increase in the salaries of Political office-holders and Judicial officers.

Special adviser to the president on Special duties, communications and startegy Dele Alake, in a statement on Thursday, says without any equivocation that President Bola Tinubu has not approved any salary increase, and no such proposal has been brought before him for consideration.

According to him, while the Presidency recognised that it is within the constitutional remit of Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to propose and fix salaries and allowances of political office-holders and Judicial officers, such cannot come to effect until it has equally been considered and approved by the President.

He said it was important to note that RMAFC, through its Public Relations Manager, has responded to the fake story being circulated, and had already set the record straight.

Alake noted that the fact the unfounded story gained prominence on social media and, in a section of mainstream media, again brings to the fore the danger fake news poses to society and our national well-being.

He said, “the misinformation was, obviously, contrived to create ill-will for the new administration, slow down the upward momentum and massive goodwill the Tinubu-led administration is currently enjoying among Nigerians as a result of its fast paced, dynamic and progressive policies.

“It is important to reiterate to Journalists, Media Managers, and members of the public that stories on Government activities and policy issues that do not emanate from approved official communication channels should be ignored.

22/06/2023

SHINA J.O

Cross River State
Governor,Sen.Bassey Otu has banned the activities of Commercial Motorcycles, popularly known as Okada in Calabar and its environment.

Otu in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Emmanuel Ogbeche, said the decision was taken after consultation with Security agencies as part of the measures to restore Calabar Metropolis to a safe and secured City.

The Governor however,said those willing to use their Motorcycles for Commercial Purpose should restrict their activities to remote villages in the State.

According to Governor Otu, anyone caught going against this directive apart from those authorised with permit,will have the motorcycle impounded and the offender prosecuted.

20/06/23

PRESS RELEASE

SHINA J.O

Following the dissolution of Boards of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions and Government-owned Companies, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has clarified that the Boards of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) are exempted from such dissolution.

This was confirmed in a statement issued by the director information OSGF Wille Bassey on Tuesday.

President Bola Tinubu had on Monday approved the immediate dissolution of the Governing Boards of all Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-Owned Companies in the exercise of its Constitutional Powers and in the Public interest.

20/06/23

BY NNIMMO BASSEY

Welcome words at Health of Mother Earth Foundation’s 10th Anniversary Conference with the theme ‘Advancing Environmental Justice in Africa’ held on 19 June 2023 at Abuja, Nigeria. 
The struggle for environmental justice in Africa is complex and broad. It is the continuation of the fight for the liberation of the continent and for socio-ecological transformation. It is a fact that the environment is our life; the soil, rivers and air are not inanimate or lifeless entities. We are rooted and anchored in our environment. Our roots are sunk into our environment and that is where our nourishment comes from. We do not see the Earth and her bountiful gifts as items that must be exploited, transformed, consumed or wasted. The understanding of the Earth as a living entity and not a dead thing warns that rapacious exploitation that disrupts her regenerative powers are acts of cruelty or Ecocide.  
We bear in mind that colonialism was erected on the right to subjugate, erase or diminish the right to life and the right to unfettered cultural expression of the colonized. In particular, the colonized were dehumanized and literally transformed into zombies working for the benefit of the colonial powers. Ecological pillage was permitted as long as it benefited the colonizers. This ethos has persisted and manifests in diverse forms. Grand theft by the colonial forces was seen as entrepreneurship. Genocide was overlooked as mere conquest. Slavery was seen as commerce. Extractivism was to be pursued relentlessly as any element left unexploited was considered a waste. What could be wasted with no compunction was life. So, most things had to die. The civilizers were purveyors of death. Death of individuals. Death of ecosystems. 
Thus, today people still ask: What would we do with the crude oil or fossil gas in our soil if we do not exploit them? In other words, how could we end poverty if we do not destroy our environment and grab all it could be forced to yield? We tolerate deforestation, unregulated industrial fishing and run a biosafety regulation system that promotes the introduction of needless genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and by doing so, endanger our biodiversity and compromise our environment and food systems.
Plunder is presented as inescapable and desired under the cloak of foreign investment. Political leaders in despoiled regions pliantly offer ease of doing business templates, tax holidays, sundry lax rules, and other neocolonial governance policies. The reign of exploitation and consumption without responsibility has driven Africa and indeed the world to the brink. The current civilization of death seeks ready investment in destruction through warfare and extractivism rather than in building resilience and adapting to the environmental changes that result from corporate and imperial misadventures. 
We are in a reign in which condescension is the hallmark of multilateralism. The collective action needed to tackle global warming has been reduced to puny nationally determined contributions that add up to nothing. Rather than recognizing and paying a  clear climate debt, we expend energy negotiating a loss and damage regime to be packaged as a humanitarian gesture. Pray, who negotiates what is offered as charity? 
Today, Africa is facing multiple ecological challenges. All of these have resulted from the actions of entities that have seen the continent as a sacrificial zone. While the world has come to the conclusion that there must be an urgent shift from dependence on fossil fuels, we are seeing massive  investments for the extraction of petroleum resources on the continent. And we must say that this investment comes with related infrastructure for the export of these resources out of the continent in a crass colonial pattern. A mere 1 percent of the labour force in the extractive sector in Africa are Africans. A mere 5 percent of investment in the sector is in Africa. More than 85 percent of the infrastructure for fossil gas in the continent is for export purposes. 
The shift to renewable energy brings the same old challenges to Africa. Extraction of critical minerals for renewable energy is done without prior consultation with and consent of our people. The continent’s environment is being degraded just as it has been with the extraction of oil/gas, gold, diamond, nickel, cobalt and other solid minerals. The array of solar panels and wind turbines could well become markers of crime scenes if precautionary measures are not taken now.

 
Are we against renewable energy? No. They provide the best pathway towards ending the energy deficit on the continent. However, this should be pursued through discrete, autonomous and socialized ownership schemes. 
While the world knows that we must rebuild our biodiversity, what we see is the push towards more deforestation in Africa and for monoculture agriculture, all of which are against our best interest and that of  the world. A sore issue, land grabbing has not disappeared with the coming innovations. 
We have a great array of thinkers to lead the conversation at this conference that should move us resolutely towards environmental justice in Africa. As Eneke the bird said in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, since men have learned to shoot without missing, it would fly without perching. For us, until the despoilers of our environment halt their destructive acts, we will intensify our resistance and never give in to their designs. We believe this conference will not only break the yoke of colonialism, it will puncture the hold of coloniality. Our book, Politics of Turbulent Waters is one of the tools towards these ends.
Ten years ago, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) was birthed from a dream. It was a dream to have a think tank focused on approaching knowledge from the basis of diversity and built on a multiversity of co-learning and co-knowing tools. For ten years, with a team of vibrant and committed young activists, we have pursued knowledge and unearthed the roots of exploitation and despoliation of communities and nations on our continent. We have collaborated and stood with fishing, forest, farming, mining and oil field communities. We have worked as part of networks and movements for environmental and climate justice across the continent and the world at large. Ten years. And we are just starting!
Permit me to end these remarks with some recommendations and points to ponder. Every African nation should:1. Commit to issuing an annual State of Environment Report to lay out the situation of things in their territories.2. End destructive extraction no  matter the appeal of capital.3. Demand climate debt for centuries of ecological exploitation and harms.4. Require remediation, restoration of all degraded territories and pay reparations to direct victims or their heirs.5. Support and promote food sovereignty including by adopting agroecology.6. Adopt and promote African cultural tools and philosophies for holistic tackling of ecological challenges and for the healing and wellbeing of our peoples and communities.7. Promote and provide renewable energy in a democratized manner.8. Recognize our right to water, treat it as a public good, halt and reverse its privatization.9. Recognize the rights of Mother Earth and codify Ecocide as a crime akin to genocide, war crimes and other unusual crimes.10. Ensure that all Africans enjoy the right of living in a safe and satisfactory environment suitable for their progress as enshrined in the African Charter on Peoples and Human Rights.

We all have a role in saving the environment.
See something, say something

Kome Odhomor

Media/Communications Lead

Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)

19/06/23

PRESS RELEASE

SINA J.O

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has approved the dissolution of the Governing Boards of all Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-Owned Companies in the exercise of its Constitutional Powers and in the Public interest.

The dissolution does not, however, affect Boards, Commissions and Councils listed in the Third Schedule, Part 1, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.

In view of this development and until such a time new boards are constituted, the Chief Executive Officers of the Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions, and Government-Owned Companies are directed to refer matters requiring the attention of their Boards to the President, through the Permanent Secretaries of their respective supervisory Ministries and Offices.

Permanent Secretaries are directed, also, to route such correspondences to Mr President through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Consequently, all Ministries, Departments and Agencies are to ensure compliance to the provision of this directive which took effect from Friday 16th June, 2023.

Permanent Secretaries are particularly directed to inform the Chief Executive Officers of the affected Agencies under the supervision of their respective Ministries/Offices for immediate compliance.

-Signed-

Willie Bassey
Director, Information
For: Secretary to the Government of the Federation

19/06/23

SHINA J.O

President Bola Tinubu has called for a stronger and better cooperation with the United States, as Nigeria and the rest of the world move in the quest for renewable and other sources of clean energy.

The President said this on Monday during a meeting with United States Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, Ambassador Geoffrey Praytt, at the State House, Abuja.

President Tinubu presented his own perspectives to the US delegation on the role of Nigeria as an oil producing country and the importance of revenue from fossil oil to national economic well-being.

Nigeria, according to the President, will honour all its obligations to climate change and quest for clean energy.

President Tinubu appealed to the United States and other developed nations to recognize that Nigeria and Africa have a challenge of poverty that must be addressed, saying in the race for energy transition, the world must have a right balance between the fossil fuel and green energy.

“Nigeria is an oil producing nation and a developing economy that needs revenue from fossil fuel for growth and development. The new energy we are talking about represents just 5% of global energy requirements. We must find the right balance between new energy and fossil fuel because we have problem of poverty in Africa.”

On the nexus between the problem of poverty in Africa and fragility of democracy on the continent, President Tinubu admonished the United States to work with Nigeria to protect the government of the people.

He also urged the Assistant Secretary of State to impress on his home government the urgency of responding to the needs of Nigeria.

“Our democracy needs protection like all other democracies in the world. We cherish our partnership with the US. My concern is whether United States is giving us enough as much as we need. The US should not make us hungry to the point we will have to eat the dinner of our enemy.

“We need the funding support to help us drive and accelerate our energy diversification. There are bottlenecks that must be unbottled in terms of how the US bureaucracy responds to our needs. Help must be given when it is needed. We are ready to learn and develop to join 21st century economy. Please take it home that we need help and very quickly too. I am honoured with your recognition of the baby steps we have taken so far. I want to assure you that Nigeria will honour her obligations on climate change and renewables,” the President said.

Ambassador Praytt in his remarks extolled the bold economic initiatives already taken by President Tinubu with respect to fuel subsidy removal and unification of multiple foreign exchange rates.

He said he was in the country partly to inform the President that President Joe Biden is in support of the steps taken so far by Nigeria to reduce the impact of fossil fuel.

“We are opening a new page in US relations with Nigeria. Nigeria is taking important steps in growing the renewable energy to meet the need of her citizens.

“We are very happy with our work with NNPCL and your team. Your new Special Adviser on Energy is already doing very well,” the US Envoy said.

Earlier in his introductory remarks, Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, told the President that the Energy Industry in Nigeria had been engaging the US Department of Energy on the energy transition.

Kyari acknowledged the support the Nigerian government received from the US Department of Energy to develop the Petroleum Industry Act.

19/06/23

SHINA J.O

President Bola Tinubu has promised to give priority attention to the health and safety of Nigerians, noting that for any country to develop, the health of its people, particularly the workforce, is critical.

The President said this Monday when he received in audience the Co-founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and Africa Richest man Aliko Dangote at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

While saluting the courage and commitment of Bill Gates in working for humanity, The President commended the partnership with Aliko Dangote Foundation.

The President in a statement issued by his special adviser on special duties, communications and startegy Dele Alake said his administration would do all that is required to make their work in Nigeria and Africa successful, particularly in the area of eradicating polio, measles, malaria and other diseases from the continent.

he warned about the budgetary constraints and other issues around funding.
The President praised Bill Gates’ efforts in the area of Climate Change and in eradicating polio and malaria from Africa.

He, however, told the philanthropist that the West needed to hear more from him with respect to the plight of the developing countries, saying “you have all it takes to help developing nations more.”

Dangote, in his remarks to the media after the visit, congratulated President Tinubu on his election and successful assumption of office.

He said the visit to the Villa was to brief the President on the activities of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Aliko Dangote Foundation, highlighting their commitment to improving the health sector in Nigeria.

Dangote expressed the Foundations’ willingness to cooperate further with the government in achieving its goals.

He seized the opportunity to commend the President for the removal of fuel subsidy, expressing confidence that more state funds would be allocated to education, health, infrastructure, and other critical areas of the economy.