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Ismaila Chafe

The Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari on Monday hosted a meeting involving the leadership of the Governors’ Forum and some Ministers over the Executive Order 10, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Executive Order 10, which was recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, gives autonomy to State Legislature and the Judiciary.

The meeting, which was presided over by Prof. Gambari, was attended by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice , Abubakar Malami and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed while

the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi led the governors’ delegation to the meeting.

Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and his Sokoto counterpart, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal accompanied Fayemi to the meeting.

Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the closed door meeting, the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Fayemi, ruled out court action against the president for signing the Order, as being speculated in some quarters.

Fayemi disclosed that President Buhari had agreed to delay gazetting the Executive Order 10 after given a listening ear to the concerns raised by the governors on the modalities for the implementation of the Executive Order 10.

According to him, after listening to their concerns, about the constitutionality of the Executive Order, the president agreed that the gazetting of the order would be delayed.

He said: “We have a delegation of the governors’ Forum here to discuss some matters of fundamental importance to the nation and the President has asked that we meet with the Attorney General, the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the issue.

“It is an issue that has seized the interest of many of you in the media and a lot of people in the federation; it is about the autonomy of the State legislature and the judiciary.

“We have met with the President before now on it and the President was very pleased that for us as governors, we are all united in support of the autonomy of State judiciary and the legislature; that’s the position of the 36 governors of the federation.

“What is at issue is on the constitutionality of the modalities of what had been put in the Executive Order and the President was gracious enough to say okay, given your concerns about that we will delay the gazetting of the order and allow you meet with the Attorney General and the Minister of Finance out work out the modalities.”

He disclosed that the governors had since embarked on consultations with the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures, in order to work out an amicable resolution of the matter.

“In any case, we have been meeting at our level with the conference of Speakers.

“The Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum; Gov. Tambuwal of Sokoto State, was delegated as the Chair of a number of Governors who have gained legislative experience either because they were in the House of Representatives or they were Speakers of State Assemblies, or they were Senators.

“The committee has been meeting with a delegation of the Conference of Speakers, working out these modalities and we believe that all of that would be settled amicably without any resort to court.’’

Hassana Yakubu

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on Monday in Kaduna, condemned the rampant cases of rape, especially  in the northern part of the country.

The condemnation was contained  in a statement issued by Mr Emmanuel Yawe, the National Publicity Secretary of the forum.

Yawe described the rising cases of rape as “alarming.”

“Daily, we read with horror in the newspapers, social media or hear on the electronic media horrific cases of rape; sometimes of under- aged girls as young as two years,” he said.

According to him, these acts are ungodly to all religions being practised in the north;  Islam, Christianity and African.

“ACF calls on parents, guardians, young girls, school managers, religious leaders to take note of this dangerous trend and protect these innocent girls from this abuse and barbarism.

” Sadly, sometimes these criminal acts are performed by those whom the girls look up to for protection, like fathers and other close family members,” he said.

He also called on law enforcement agencies to be more proactive in protecting girls and women.

“The judicial system must also review its processes and strengthen them to protect the girl-child.

“We regret to observe that as it is now, the girl-child in the northern part of Nigeria has become an endangered specie because of rampant cases of rape.

“Sometimes, the rapists go to the extent of killing their victims. This is a sad development that must stopped,” he said.

 

Joan Nwagwu

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for actions geared toward promoting public health and safety by regulating, detecting, preventing and managing food borne risks all over the world.

Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President made the call in a statement on Monday in Abuja to celebrate the 2020 World Food Safety Day (WFSD).

The theme of the 2020 commemoration is, “Food Safety is Everyone’s Business”.

Wabba said the call for action was imperative to promote public health and safety.

“This global event, being marked for the second consecutive year, is aimed at raising public awareness on the need to protect food sources from contamination arising from unsafe production, storage, processing, retailing and consumption.

“The theme of this year’s commemoration “Food Safety is Everyone’s Business” buttresses the link between food safety and public safety.

“The suspected origin of the current novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from a food market in Wuhan, China, is a very good example of the relationship between food safety and public safety.

“As it is popularly said, “we are what we eat”. It is therefore important for governments all over the world to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with unhealthy food sources.

“It is noteworthy that the Chinese government is taking this matter very seriously as it has reviewed its laws on food safety and consumption going as far as removing some food items from the menu,” Wabba said.

He noted that as it has been proved from the epidemiology of the COVID-19 pandemic, one unsafe food in any part of the world could be the source of sickness, deaths and massive global socio-economic dislocation and widespread misery.

The NLC president further said that in the global fight to protect food sources, it was important to reach consensus through empirical scientific evidence on a list of harmful agrochemicals and food additives.

He also said it was important to work concertedly and in synergy to eliminate such toxins from the global food chain.

He said that the measure has become crucial given the increasing link between harmful pesticides, herbicides, in-organic fertiliser and additives with some terminal illnesses in human beings.

According to him, this will go a long way to promote global food security, economic prosperity, tourism and sustainable development.

“It is important to develop and enforce global standards that will promote food safety from farm to the table.

“These standards should be structured in a way that it promotes job addition and income preservation.

“Perhaps, a good direction to look at might be the promotion of wholesome organic farming and incentivizing the value chain, both knowledge and material, to make organic farming practicable, scalable and profitable,” he said.

The labour leader added that the role of increased organising of agricultural workers and robust cooperation between the social partners in facilitating these goals cannot be over-emphasised.

“This is because food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers, agricultural workers and consumers of agricultural products, ” he said.

Ayodeji Alabi
The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Akure branch, on Monday donated N500,000 to Ondo State Government to cushion the effects of recent dynamite explosion.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a truck conveying dynamite exploded on March 28, at Eleyewo Community on Akure-Owo Highway in Akure North Local Government of the state.

NAN also reports that the incident destroyed schools, roads, several houses, place of worship and public buildings in the community.

The society Chairman, Dr Christianah Ijagbemi, presented the cheque to Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, in Akure.

Ijagbemi urged the state government to purchase building materials for timely return of the victims to their daily routine.

She also pledged some professional services, aside the preliminary assessment carried out by the society at the blast site.

Earlier, Akeredolu commended the engineers for the support to cushion the impact of the explosion on the community.

The governor also pledged to include the engineers in the indigenous contractors to complement the engineering section from the state ministry.

He commended personnel in the state Ministry of Works
for their efforts to assiduously improve the state infrastructure.