N-Power: Kwara targets 25,000 beneficiaries

N-Power: Kwara targets 25,000 beneficiaries


 Tunde Akanbi, Ilorin

Jun 19, 2017

 
The Kwara State Government targets twenty five thousand unemployed youths to benefit from the N-Power Special Intervention programme of the Federal Government.

The Senior Special Assistant to the State Governor on Youth Empowerment, Mr Zakariyau
Babatunde stated this in Gwaria at the Flag off of the second phase of Kwara North Senatorial district sensitization campaign on N Power, during the empowerment programme of the lawmaker representing Gwanabe- Adena- Bani- Gwaria at the State House of Assembly, Mr. Mohammed Suleiman Ba’a Ziki.

The Governor’s aide, who was the special guest of honor at the programme, said the state is setting its pace for the enrollment of the unemployed youths within the age of eighteen to thirty five years on the programme, said if twenty five youths were enrolled, about N750m would be coming to the state monthly.

Mr Babatunde noted that those with required qualifications would be engaged for the N-Teach, N-health, N-Agro and N-Tax of the programme, pointing out that the federal government may consider some of the outstanding volunteers or beneficiaries for government’s employment.

He said it was discovered that lack of sensitization and awareness of the youths on the programme caused low turn- out of the beneficiaries in the first phase, pointing out that Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has however directed that all local government areas across the state must be sensitized to enable the youths key into the programme.

The Senior Special Assistant on Youth Empowerment therefore stressed the need for those enrolling for N-Power programme to have correct and accurate bio data by printing out their Bank Verification Number page, bank account details and active email address while applying for the programme.

Alhaji Zakariyau Babatunde however stressed that youths must be prepared for leadership role through quality education and employment opportunities, saying that leadership is not by accident, but it must be planned for effectively.

Meanwhile, about two hundred thousand people from Gwanabe- Adena- Bani- Gwaria areas in Kaiama Local Government Area of the State benefited from the empowerment programme of the lawmaker representing the constituency at the state house of Assembly, Mr. Muhammad Suleiman Baziki.

Items worth N2m including Grinding machine, sewing machine, agricultural herbicides, farming tools, computer sets, exercise books, and clothing materials were distributed to the beneficiaries.

The Chairman of the occasion and former lawmaker, Alhaji Al-Hassan Bagidi, commended Mr. Ba’aziki, for empowering the people of his constituency and warned them against selling the materials.

The Special Guest at the occasion and Senior Special Assistant on Youth Empowerment, Mr Babatunde, said the lawmaker was passionate about the welfare of his people since he was the Youths Empowerment Coordinator of Kaiama.

Mr Babatunde therefore donated two hundred and fifty N-Power forms to the constituency office of the lawmaker and five hundred to the local government secretariat, asking youths in the area to key into the programme.

In their address, the State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Doctor Aminat Ahmad and TIC Chairman of Kaiama local government, Alhaji Usman Gunu Yerima, lauded the lawmaker for empowering the people of his constituency and charged the beneficiaries to judiciously use the materials.

Earlier, the lawmaker, Mr. Muhammad Suleiman Ba’aziki, said he was motivated to provide the materials for his people as dividends of democracy towards impacting directly on the lives of the people and cushion the economic challenges.N-Power: Kwara targets 25,000 beneficiaries

Source

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF . . BARRISTER TITILOPE AKOGUN - BTA FOUNDATION

VISION AND GOALS  OF BARRISTER TITILOPE AKOGUN - BTA FOUNDATION
1.           To wipe away tears and be problem solvers to many in my generation.

2.                  To facilitate capacity building training programs through seminars, workshops, and entrepreneurial trainings towards financial Stability of Kwarans.

3.                  To assist artisans with soft empowerment finance and organize Agricultural Festivals towards genuine financial growth to self sustenance.

4.                  To create financial impacts for small and medium entrepreneurs for the purpose of expanding their businesses towards creating employment for youths and the aged.

5.                  To support and give education to the less privileged children in the society, while giving best students in the WAEC/NECO/WASC Scholarships for their tertiary education in Federal institutions.

6.                  To support and engage in massive town to town voters’ education.

7.                  To support and engage in Human Right Advocacy for the down trodden and people who fall prey to injustice.

8.                  To engage in Community Development Services while complementing the Government at both state and Federal level.

9.                  To assist youths and school children vide inter school competitions towards the development of their potentials, realization of their academic/personal ambitions and to become productive and useful instruments for societal growth and development.

10.              To organize inter – city football competitions towards fostering unity among the youths.

SO HELP US GO

SOME DETAILS OF THE ELECTORAL ACT ( AMENDMENT) BILL 2017 JUST PASSED BY THE NIGERIAN SENATE

SOME DETAILS OF THE ELECTORAL ACT ( AMENDMENT) BILL 2017 JUST PASSED BY THE NIGERIAN SENATE
1. There shall now be full biometric accreditation of voters with Smart Card Readers and/or other technological devices, as INEC may introduce for elections from time to time.
2. Presiding Officers must now instantly transmit accreditation data and results from Polling Units to various collation centers. Presiding officer who contravene this shall be imprisoned for at least 5 years (no option of fine).
3. All Presiding Officer must now first record accreditation data and polling results on INEC’s prescribed forms before transmitting them. The data/result recorded must be the same with what they transmitted.
4. INEC now has unfettered powers to conduct elections by electronic voting.
5. Besides manual registers, INEC is now mandated to keep Electronic registers of voters.
6. INEC is now mandated to publish voters’ registers on its official website(s) for public scrutiny at least 30 days before a general election and any INEC staff who is responsible for this but fails to act as prescribed shall be liable on conviction to 6 months’ imprisonment.
7. INEC is now mandated to keep a National Electronic Register of Election Results as a distinct database or repository of polling unit by polling unit results for all elections conducted by INEC.

8. Collation of election result is now mainly electronic, as transmitted unit results will help to determine final results on real time basis.
9. INEC is now mandated to record details of electoral materials – quantities, serial numbers used to conduct elections (for proper tracking).
10. A political party whose candidate dies after commencement of an election and before the declaration of the result of that election now has a 14-day window to conduct a fresh primary in order for INEC to conduct a fresh election within 21 days of the death of the party’s candidate;
11. Political parties’ Polling Agents are now entitled to inspect originals of electoral materials before commencement of election and any Presiding Officer who violates this provision of the law shall be imprisoned for at least1 year.
12. No political party can impose qualification/disqualification criteria, measures or conditions on any Nigerian for the purpose of nomination for elective offices, except as provided in the 1999 Constitution.
13. The election of a winner of an election can no longer be challenged on grounds of qualification, if the he (winner) satisfied the applicable requirements of sections 65, 106,
131 or 177 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and he is not, as may be applicable, in breach of sections 66, 107, 137 or 182 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. [For example, a person’s election cannot be challenged on the ground that he did not pay tax, as this is not a qualifying condition under the Constitution.]
14. All members of political parties are now eligible to determine the ad-hoc delegates to elect candidates of parties in indirect primaries. The capacity of party executives to unduly influence or rig party primaries has been reasonably curtailed, if not totally removed.
15. Parties can no longer impose arbitrary nomination fees on political aspirants. The Bill passed prescribes limits for each elective office as follows:
(a) One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N150,000) for a Ward Councillorship aspirant in the FCT;
(b) Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N250,000) for an Area Council Chairmanship aspirant in the FCT;
(c) Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000) for a House of Assembly aspirant;
(d) One Million Naira (N1,000,000) for a House of Representatives aspirant;
(e) Two Million Naira (N2,000,000) for a Senatorial aspirant;
(f) Five Million naira (N5,000,000) for a Governorship aspirant; and
(g) Ten Million Naira (N10,000,000) for a Presidential aspirant.
16. Relying on the powers of the National Assembly in Paragraph 11 of Part II (Concurren

RE : GOVERNOR AHMED'S SSA MEDIA - SHONGA FARMS, THE PETTINESS OF THE KWARA STATE GOVERNMENT

I want to sincerely commend the SSA Media to the Executive Governor of our dear State; Dr @phemmmy Akorede for clearing the air on some of the issues raised yesterday in my article titled "Shonga Farms and the Pettiness of the Kwara State Government".

I also want to address some of his responses.

1. He said  "Shonga Farm is owned by @kwaragovt, banks and Farmers. We should focus on the benefits from the farm".

2. He also said "Valentines Chicken at Asa-Dam road sells chicken 4rm Shonga Farm, Kwara Hotel &other eateries in town".

3. His view was also that "Shonga Farms has provided jobs for over 1000 people, and there are still more opportunities."

Let me humbly state that I am not contending the ownership structure of the Shonga Farms and I wasn't trying to paint the State Government black. I am of the view that the benefits coming to Kwarans from Shonga Farms Ltd is so meagre compared to the #2 billion Naira being injected into the farm.

The benefits that would have accrued, if the #2 billion Naira had been disbursed to subsistence farmers isn't commensurate with those benefits Shonga Farms would offer Kwarans.

I feel development and /or productivity should be greatly assessed by Kwarans and not by a few organizations.

I know the deed is done. I was only of the opinion that venturing in masses' oriented programs and policies at the expense of massaging personal interests would indeed be appreciated at a time like this, when poverty and hunger is rampant in the State and in the Nation.

God bless the State of Harmony.

SHONGA FARMS AND THE PETTINESS OF THE KWARA STATE GOVERNMENT

Shonga Farms and the pettiness of Kwara State Government.

By Barrister Titilope Akogun

Permit me to appreciate the State Government administrators ever since 1999 till date. I must appreciate them because Governance isn't an easy task. Though the citizens complain of its leaders the same way football viewers complain of players fielded on the field of a football pitch.

It's not easy, I must confess!

The difficulty and / or otherwise in governance however proves the proweress in its administrators. I must confess that Some of the  policies of Governor Ahmed have gone down well with me, which I believe is same to some other persons.

You can't please us all.

@GovernorAhmed, I make bold to say that your recent action of seeking #2billion Naira loan to be injected into Shonga farms, is petty, diversionary and an abuse of the essence of CBN's intervention in agriculture.

I humbly posit that there are thousands of Kwarans who are farmers and are willing to transform their subsistence farming to commercial farming, but lack funding.

Permit me to refer you to a Local Government in Kwara State; Baruten Local Government. I lived their right from my childhood days till my Secondary education elapsed. The majority of people in this region of the state are subsistence farmers who feed the entirety of the south west, Lagos inclusive, with their farm harvests.

One would have thought investing in such region and it's people who were more passionate in what they do, would have been more beneficial to a large chunk of Kwara state.

I am further disappointed that the @SpNigeria Sen. @bukolasaraki personally marshalled the diversion of the funds supposedly meant for the the entire Kwara farmers to fund a private invested farm project with little State Government interest.

The pettiness is further entrenched by the alleged income the Shonga farm is presently generating.

Should we in the name of entrenching a project of the previous administration divert what should be meant for the entire state farmers?

Must we impose unpopular policies on the State?

How productive and beneficial has Shonga Farms Ltd being, since it's existence?

Do Kwarans get access to its products as it gets from other Kwara farmers?

Who would pay back the Loan sought from the Central Bank of Nigeria?

Would expending 2billion Naira in the agricultural Sector(Farmers)  in the state not boost agriculture in a state proclaimed to be an agriculture State?

Should it not have been an initiative supervised and channelled through the Ministry of Agriculture to provide ample food to many , and countless numbers of employment?

Would it not have been better that the funds are divided even with a larger percentage to Shonga farms to really  revive Shonga farms ltd with little state government interest?

I leave your Excellencies with the voice of Reason.
Please at a time like this, when poverty and hunger is ravaging the nation, we should stop embarking on white elephant projects with little or no benefits to the general interest of Kwarans.

GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU!

GOD HAS NOT FORGOTTEN YOU. HIS PROMISE WILL SOON COME TO PASS.

When tossed and perplexed with doubts about the methods of Providence, we must watch against temptations to be impatient. When we have poured out complaints and requests before God, we must observe the answers God gives by his word, his Spirit, and providences; what the Lord will say to our case. God will not disappoint the believing expectations of those who wait to hear what he will say unto them. All are concerned in the truths of God's word. Though the promised favour be deferred long, it will come at last, and abundantly recompense us for waiting. The humble, broken-hearted, repenting sinner, alone seeks to obtain an interest in this salvation. He will rest his soul on the promise, and on Christ, in and through whom it is given. Thus he walks and works, as well as lives by faith, perseveres to the end, and is exalted to glory; while those who distrust or despise God's all-sufficiency will not walk uprightly with him. The just shall live by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. Only those made just by faith, shall live, shall be happy here and for ever.

THE YOUTH  LEADERS: HOW TO GET THERE!

I align my thought with the call for youth development/inclusion in government, but like I will always enjoy intercourse with the truth, on it I shall ceaselessly stand.

We are bereaved of synergy, and that's our major problem as young people, that's our bane. Unnecessary rivalry, is our characteristics, that is occasioned by smart inferiority complex/mutual suspicion.

No body will take your position! Join forces with others in the line they toe as they do same for and with you; recommend others on their area of specialization.

 An aggregate of young purposeful forces can achieve a lot. It can only conduce to serious pressure on you from the older and your generation if you find yourself on the power corridor alone.

 It can only be better if we shun selfishness, sentiment, mutual suspicion and false personality grand stile. Synergy is the answer I repeat!

Let us come together with a United Voice in a formidable manner to establish our strength towards the long desired progressive and Productive Nigeria.

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.