IWPG harps on dangers of female genital mutilation

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PHOTO: Public Radio International

The International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG) yesterday stressed the importance of women and the strategic roles they play in society with an injunction that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is dangerous to the health of women in all climes and cultures.

This was the focus of this year’s IWPG forum, held in Lagos to commemorate the International Women’s Day (IWD) with the theme: Female Genital Mutilation. It also doubled as workshop for women and girls in society.

The South Korean-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) was founded by Mrs. Nam Hee Kim to foster peace in the society through women.

Representative of IWPG in Nigeria, Kemi Olalokun, said the group comprises women who embrace life with a motherly heart for peace and well-being of women around the world.

She pointed out that all women in the world were becoming one to end wars globally so that the younger generations were no longer sacrificed in wars.

“The group looks into women’s welfare, protection of the female gender. The reason being that when there is war, women and the girl-child are always the victims. This is the reason why women should be enlightened to know their rights and try to follow peace,” she said.

Olalokun restated that female genital mutilation must be stopped because the way they go about it was wrong, adding: “They use the same tools for dozens of women. It is disastrous and we must stop it.”

Speaking on ways the IWPG improves the lot of the Nigerian women, President of Health for the Aging Foundation, Jumoke Kolawole, who is also member of IPWG said: “We create awareness through workshops and empowerment programmes for members.”

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Unmetered electricity consumers cry out in Lagos

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Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company

Electricity firms links metering challenges to forex crises

More than three years after they took over operations of the power sector, the distribution companies (Discos), handling retail distribution and marketing of electricity in Nigeria, have not been able to effectively tackle the issue of metering, thereby leaving millions of their consumers at the mercy of estimated billings.

When the nation’s power sector was privatised, many Nigerians had hoped that things would get better, especially with regard to improving power supply and quality of services provided.

But, both the Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (DISCO) and Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) who lament the high cost of foreign exchange, insisted that they are trying their best to ensure every customers within their networks are metered.

Consumers had expected that upon the takeover by the new owners, metering would be one of the issues that will be urgently addressed to restore confidence in the billing system, as this is the only way to determine actual consumption of energy.

The Discos have a five-year agreement post-privatisation agreement with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to meter their customers. But three years down the line, the Discos seem to be in no hurry to fulfil their part of this agreement, preferring to hound customers with jaw-dropping estimated bills.

For this and many more reasons, some consumers including individuals and corporates prefer to provide electricity for themselves.Dammy Okegbami, a shipping consultant in Apapa, told The Guardian he has never used the public power in the four years he has been running his office, but relied on his generating sets.

He explained: “when I got to this complex four years ago all the occupants of this complex run their various businesses with power generators. Of course Eko Electricity Distribution Company brought us estimated billing that was very outrageous and very difficult for us to pay, so we all decided not to pay them and we were cut off.

“I applied for a pre-paid meter long time ago, the answer I got was that meter was not available. I spend N13,500 monthly to fuel my generator, which does not include the money I spend on the maintenance of the generator. If I had been properly metered I may not be paying this much, but still cheaper than the estimated bill,” he said.

Tunde Ibrahim, a residence of Ilasamaja, a Lagos suburb, told The Guardian he is being frustrated by the high estimated billing he has been subjected to for over two years.

He said he had complained many times to the Ikeja Electric, the distribution company about his ordeal but nothing has been done to relieve him of the burden.

According to him, “I live in a room and parlour and I usually paid less than N2,000 a per month before the prepaid meter I was using with my landlord got spoilt about two years ago. Since the meter got spoilt, we have been placed on estimated billing, the amount they bring keep increasing every month.

“There was a time we complained and they promised to do something about it, although the subsequent bill they brought after the complain was moderate, but the bill that they brought after that one went up again, so we do not know what exactly is wrong with this people,” he lamented.  

A consumer, Blessing Okafor, who lives in Itire, another Lagos suburb, said while she is billed between N3,900 and N4,900 monthly for her one room self-contained apartment, her next door neighbour, who is on prepaid metering spends N2,000 monthly, even with more electrical appliances.

Okafor said although she has applied for a prepaid meter since 2013, she is yet to have one installed, as Ikeja Electric insists the meters are not available.

More frustrating, she said, is the fact that switches off all her appliances, when she went to work daily, but and her neighbour’s wife, who is mostly at home with her children and use more power end up paying less, while she paid more.

Another consumer, Mrs Tayo Odutola, complained that she went from paying N2,000 to N7,000/month after her prepaid meter got spoilt in 2014, and she was placed on estimated billing.

She said she has complained to Eko Disco about her ordeal and she was told to disregard what is on the bill and pay at least N3,000 monthly, to avoid being disconnected.

Speaking on the company’s efforts to meter every customer in its network, the Chief Executive Officer Oladele Amoda, said the devaluation of the Naira compared to the dollar has partly contributed to inadequate meters within the Eko Disco’s network.

But he said the Disco had signed an agreement with Mojek International, an indigenous smart meter manufacturing company, for the supply of over 100,000 meters in December.“We also signed another agreement with Huawei Technologies Company Limited, an international company based in this country, to supply the remaining 100,000 pre-paid meters.

“We have started metering consumers under our network with these meters. It is our responsibility to meter all consumers and we are looking at being able to deploy the 200,000 meters before the year runs out. The motive is to eliminate estimation of consumers billing by 2017,” he said.

Amoda said the company had been on a metering programme since 2015, and would have metered all its customers, but for some challenges confronting successful implementation of the scheme.

He listed inflation and increase in foreign exchange rate as challenges the company had to contend with.Also speaking with The Guardian yesterday, spokesman for Ikeja Electric Plc, Felix Ofulue, believed that the scarcity of dollars has increased the price of installing meters in the country.
He claimed the Disco had metered 90 per cent of its customers in the zone, to make the electricity billing based only on energy consumed.

He said the company is doing its best to ensure all its customers are metered, adding that “Recently, the estimated billings of consumers are coming down because more consumers are now under the company’s database.”

Ofulue however noted that: “The reason why it seems many costumers are yet to be metered is because there are a lot of developing areas under our network, which are yet to be reached; it is a gradual thing. We are not going to reach everybody the same day, but will definitely do our best.”

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Delta’s N350m children hospital in ruins, houses urchins, others

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Nkoyo Ibori Children Referral Hospital

The N350 million paediatrics hospital, Nkoyo Ibori Children Referral Hospital, on the Agbarho axis of the East-West Road in Ughelli North Local Council of Delta State is in shambles, as it now houses suspected criminals and rodents.

Built in 2003 by the former Governor James Ibori administration through his wife, Nkoyo’s pet project, “Delta Manna Foundation”, the facility was to provide better lives for children of indigent citizens of the state.

Sited on a 10-acre of land and with a capacity to cater for 20 mothers evenly distributed in two wards for patients as well as meeting the needs of 30 teenage patients in the adolescent wards, the project was supervised by a former commissioner in the state, Comrade Ovouzorie Macaulay.

He confirmed that the project was successfully executed according to specifications, adding that since the hospital was not put into use, expectedly, there could be traces of seeming abandonment that would create room for insinuations.

That facility, whose funds were majorly sourced by the foundation, was inaugurated amid fanfare by the then Minister of Health, Professor Alphonsus Nwosu.

Thirteen years after, residents of the host community told The Guardian that the facility had barely treated a child before being allowed to hit the current dilapidated state.

A visit shows that the ultra modern facilities in the various wards and the lavish furniture are in ruins, just as its four ambulances had disappeared.

In a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nicholas Azinge, said the hospital among others would be part into use soon, adding: “We have gone to the place to inspect the facilities. It is really sad they are rotting away, and the premises over grown. The state government will do something about it.”

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Neither PIB nor amnesty deal will end militancy in Niger Delta, say Uduaghan (Read full details)

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Niger Delta militants

Stakeholders in the Niger Delta, including former Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, believe that neither the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) nor the amnesty programme could tame militancy in the region.

To Uduaghan, “both are important in reducing the militancy.” The spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Eric Omare, contended that both projects cannot solely address the problem, noting that the two issues do not completely address the underlying issues fuelling the crisis.

His words: “The only issue that can end militancy is for communities to be given an ownership right in the process of oil exploration. Resolution of the resource ownership and control issue is the key to taming militancy in the region.”

Also speaking, the coordinator of Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption (FHRAC), Alaowei Cleric, who admitted that though the proposed piece of legislation was one of the key demands of the people, he, however, submitted that its eventual passage by the National Assembly would not cure the operational defects in the nation’s oil and gas sector.

He, therefore, made a case for visible participation of the host communities in the sharing of the oil sector’s benefits, just as he called for the expunging of 10 per cent equity for host communities from the proposed law if the crisis was to be addressed.

Cleric went on: “In all, the passage of the bill will calm some frayed nerves. Granting amnesty to the militants is not an end to the crisis. It was just a means to end the crisis. Amnesty is not a solution-bound approach to the crisis. What Niger Delta people want is to exercise control over the resources in their land. The PIB is part of our cardinal demands.”

But the Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in its recent list of demands advised against the scrapping of the amnesty project, urging the Federal Government to instead, increase its budget.

The group premised the appeal on the fact that the programme was central to taming militancy in the area.

Neither PIB nor amnesty deal will end militancy in Niger Delta, say Uduaghan

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APC wins Edo federal legislative bye-election, loser to review outcome (Read full details)

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APC

• Party officials reject electronic voting in Kaduna
• Lagos PDP tasks Fayose on govs’ forum membership

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Etsako Federal Constituency of Edo State by-election at the weekend, Johnson Oghuma, has been declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He polled 39,876 votes to beat his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, Jude Imagwe, who got 18,193 ballots. The Returning Officer, Prof. Shola Omotola, who announced the results yesterday, gave the breakdown as: 58,427 valid votes and 874 rejected ballots. The total vote cast was 59,301.

Speaking to newsmen after his declaration, Oghuma assured the people of effective representation. Though there were minor cases of failure of the card readers where incidence forms were used as alternative, the entire exercise was peaceful, as soldiers, anti-riot policemen and officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were deployed in strategic locations to provide adequate security.

Oghuma replaces former occupant and current deputy governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, whose elevation created the vacancy. However, Imagwe and the PDP are to review the outcome. The former presidential aide in the administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan told reporters that his party would make its position known in due course.

He, however, promised to uphold the results if reflective of the activities that held on the election day. Meanwhile, PDP officials in Kaduna State yesterday vowed to reject electronic voting in the forthcoming council elections.

The state party chairman, Hassan Hyet, who spoke shortly after the swearing-in ceremony of the Kaduna North ward executives, noted: “If the information we are gathering concerning the anticipated and long over-due local government elections in the state is anything to go by, that is, the introduction of electronic voting for local government polls, we will reject it.”

Also yesterday, the Lagos State chapter of the PDP called on the Chairman of the party’s Governors’ Forum, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State to co-opt all state chairmen into an extended forum where key issues could be shared first-hand, especially in states where the party is not in power.

In a statement, the state party chairman, Mr. Moshood Salvador, pledged support for Fayose, urging him to take advantage of his new role in facilitating genuine and lasting mobilisation, reconciliation and structural dynamism within the party.

APC wins Edo federal legislative bye-election, loser to review outcome

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PENGASSAN rejects NASS bid to amend NLNG act (Read full details)

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Oil workers, under the auspices of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), have opposed the proposed plan by the House of Representatives to amend the NLNG (Fiscal Incentives, Guarantees and Assurances) act, describing the proposed amendment as unnecessary.

PENGASSAN stated this during its recent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja, saying, “the amendment can cause imminent losses that will far outweigh any doubtful gains.”

A statement by the President, Comrade Francis Johnson, and acting General Secretary, Comrade Lumumba Okugbawa, said that amendment will impact negatively on the image of Nigeria.

It argued that the international community would perceive Nigeria as a country, which does not honour its promises as well as one which does not take its call for foreign investments, led by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, seriously.

PENGASSAN rejects NASS bid to amend NLNG act

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