From The States

Connecting Gender for Development (COGEN), a non-governmental organisation, has alleged that teachers are taking part of the ration meant for pupils in some schools in Kaduna state.

Rachael Musa, one of the monitors of the project, said this during a town hall meeting on the federal government’s home grown school feeding programme.

Musa spoke at the meeting which held in Kafanchan, Jema’a local government area of the state, on Wednesday.

She said the ration for the children do not usually go round.

Musa also said though every child was supposed to be given an egg once week, the egg do not usually go round because of short supply.

Similarly, Monday John, another monitor, alleged that some politicians were collecting money from food vendors on the grounds that they were not members of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).

John said some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have equally stopped their children from eating the food, saying it could be poisoned.

He described the development as serious, and urged those involved to stop the act so as not to sabotage the programme.

Esther Gushe, assistant head teacher, Aduwan III Primary School, confirmed that eggs were always in short supply in her school.

Yakubu Kyari, desk officer of the programme in the local government, said he receives between 300 and 400 crates of egg weekly instead of the 730 crates for the 177 schools in the area.

Kyari said teachers eating up food meant for pupils have been warned to desist from the act or risk sanction.

Ebenezer Omolekun, COGEN head of programmes, said findings by the NGO revealed that one egg is being shared for between two to four pupils in 46 schools, while two pupils share juice and biscuit in 26 schools.

He explained that the meeting with the theme, “Together We Can Build Our LGA and Make it More Prosperous” was primarily organised to mobilise communities and stakeholders to monitor the implementation of the school feeding programme.

He explained that COGEN, with support from MacArthur Foundation is tracking the programme in 60 schools, 20 each in Kaura, Jema’a, and Zangon Kataf local government areas.

He said the goal was to ensure successful implementation of the programme in promoting learning, enrollment, retention and completion of primary schools by pupils.

The official said similar town hall meetings were organised in Kaura and Zangon Kataf to enlist community support in monitoring the programme.

A total of 420 schools in the state are being tracked by five NGOs with support from MacArthur Foundation.

The Oyo State Government has shut down Bodija market, Ibadan, as police and butchers clash on Thursday.

According to the verified twitter handle of the Oyo State Government, @oyostategovt, it was shut after gunshots were heard in the market.

The tweet added that the chairman of Aare Laatosa Local Council Development Area, Adekunle Oladeji, said the closure was to prevent the loss of lives and property. “It is also to guard against the escalation of violence in the market to other parts of the state,” the tweet said.

The state government had directed that the butchers should relocate to a new abattoir outside the town but the butchers did not agree with the directive.

On Tuesday, the butchers staged a protest at the state secretariat in Ibadan over the demolition of the abattoir in the market by the government over the weekend.

Our correspondent learnt that Thursday’s clash began when some of the butchers accused their leaders of taking gratification from the government to support the relocation order.

The clash led to the closure of shops in the market while traders vacated the market because of the commotion.

When contacted, Public Relations Officer of the Oyo State Police Command, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said he would come up with a statement on the clash soon.

Edo State government will today, Friday, host the Senior Director, Governance Global Practice, at the World Bank, Debbie Wentzel, in continuation of the series of expert meetings and consultations between the World Bank and the state government to deepen the bank’s officials’ insights into the workings of the Obaseki-led government and pave way for a special support window from the bank.

Wentzel who will be accompanied by the bank’s Practice Manager, Hisham Waly, will be hosted to sessions to be led by Governor Godwin Obaseki.

The World Bank’s officials’ visit will build on previous discussions between Edo government and the Bretton Woods institution that has expressed its readiness to increase the tempo of its developmental activities in the state, after rating the Obaseki-led administration high on transparency, accountability and demonstrable commitment to the sanctity and integrity of development-based partnership.

According to the bank, “the meetings will provide the platform for the governor to share his perspectives on governance issues in Nigeria in general and Edo State in particular with a view to identifying possible areas of intervention by the bank, and to also discuss progress on the implementation of the State Employment and Expenditure For Results (SEEFOR) project which falls under Wentzel’s portfolio.”

The meetings will be followed by “visits to some project sites as well as interactive session with beneficiaries of the projects across sub-components on-site and their representatives.”

The Senior Director’s one-day visit is coming one week after the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mr. Rachid Benmassoud, paid a 2-day visit to Edo State.

Benmassoud was accompanied by senior specialists in various sector areas, such as institutional reforms, public works, gender, agriculture, water and sanitation.

Development experts who have been following the World Bank’s relationship with the Obaseki administration say Benmassoud’s visit was predicated on Edo State government’s impressive deployment of funding, technical and other assistance of the World Bank, which was attested to recently, by 11 Executive Directors of the World Bank, who were in the state recently, for on-the-spot assessment of the bank-sponsored developmental projects in the state.

Obaseki said Debbie Wentzel’s visit will deepen talks and insights of the bank on the developmental aspiration of Edo State, to enable the bank customise its developmental products to suit the peculiar needs of the state.

He assured the state government would expand ongoing development conversation with the bank on support for the state’s education and health sectors; rural development, job creation, gender issues and infrastructural development amongst others.

“The several visits of the World Bank officials lend credence to our commitment to bringing development to our people in the state, with the support of our partners,” the governor said.

He maintained that Edo State under his watch places high premium on the sanctity and the integrity of partnerships, contracts as well as an open and transparent process.

“Development partners like the World Bank, operate in an environment where stakeholders abide by rules governing the partnerships, and in which input, output and outcomes are measured from time to time. The World Bank will not take you seriously if all you do is to award ‘political contracts,” he added.

Some of the bank-sponsored projects such as erosion control projects under the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Project (NEWMAP), Edo State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR), covering road projects; agriculture (FADAMMA); water, sanitation and review policy.

Governor of Imo state, Rochas Okorocha has ordered all “leviable adults” in the state to pay N3,000 each as “development levy”.

According to a statement by Louis Duru, the state commissioner for community government, culture and traditional affairs, the money is to be used for  “autonomous community adult development”.

Duru said the state had registered at least 2,ooo leviable adults in each of the 637 autonomous communities.

He added that recognised communities will serve as the collectors and they are to pay not less than N6 million each.

Okorocha warned that the traditional rulers of defaulting communities will have their allowances or salaries suspended.

“To facilitate the payment, the state government through the ministry of CGC, since September 2016, has provided community adult registers for all autonomous communities in the state where the communities will enlist the names of at least 2000 leviable adults”, the statement read.

“Consequently, His Excellency Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha has directed that all recognised autonomous communities in Imo State should pay the minimum adult development levy of N6,000,000 (Six million Naira only) without further delay.

“Any recognised autonomous community that fails to pay the development levy will be merged with sister autonomous community that had paid and the salaries/allowances of the traditional ruler will be suspended.

“Government has concluded arrangements to embark on sensitisation meetings with traditional rulers at the local government areas to further emphasize His Excellency’s directives and monitor compliance.”

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has revealed the state government’s plans to strategically develop industrial layouts away from residential areas to ensure proportionate power supply to help actualize the state’s developmental plans.

Obaseki disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Benin City, Edo State capital.

According to him, “We have developed plans to help overcome the challenges of power distribution to industries, residential buildingsand other users. This includes building areas of use, that is, developing industrial parks, housing estates and other clusters that can be directly connected to generating plants.”

He said, “When these plans are fully achieved, the state would havesteady power supply to support businesses and other users. With time, Benin City and other towns in the state will be better planned and segregated so that industrial use of power can be separated from domestic use.”

“When this is done, the structural challenges along the chain of generation and distribution will then be reorganised and steady power supply will then be guaranteed,” he said.

He explained that steady power supply cannot be achieved overnight until the structural impediments are addressed, noting, “Even if the issue of generation of power is addressed, efforts must be made to address issues mitigating distribution and transmission.”

Obaseki said, “As long as we have determined people like the developers of Edo Azura Independent Power Plant (IPP), Edo state and Nigeria can become self-sufficient in power supply. As long as there is power generation, we will find a way to get it to users.

“If we have people who know what they are doing like the developers of Edo Azura IPP, we will overcome issues of power supply. In terms of generation, I believe, given the resources available, hydro, thermal and green energy, we can generate all the electricity to power the state and country.”