Dakuku Calls on Men to Support Women Achieve Objective

·        Stakeholders Clamour for Gender Balance in Sector

The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Aisha Buhari, has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to provide platforms that will encourage more women’s participation in maritime to boost economic development. The President’s wife stated this on Tuesday in Lagos at an event to mark the 2019 Day of the Seafarer, with the theme, “On board with gender equality.”

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) chose the theme, which resonates with its theme for this year’s World Maritime Day, to highlight the contributions of women in the maritime industry and encourage more women to go into the profession of sea transportation.

Dr. Buhari said there was need to promote gender balancing in the seafaring career, adding that the President is aware of the economic benefits that come with encouraging the female gender in the maritime sector.

The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, spoke in a similar vein, saying the men should support women, especially in maritime, “towards reaching their potential and navigating work place challenges.”  This was just as President of the World Maritime University (WMU), Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, applauded Nigeria’s effort to encourage more female professionals in the maritime industry.

The First Lady, who was represented by the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, commended NIMASA’s efforts to promote and encourage women in the maritime sector. She noted that such was in line with the President’s aspirations for the sector.

According to her, “Under the current leadership of NIMASA, we have seen significant strides aimed at making women active players in the blue economy industry. Mr. President is desirous of seeing more women play active role in the maritime industry. This celebration focusing on women seafarers is, therefore, apt.”

She called on “all government agencies, especially those in the maritime sector, to ensure the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5, which is aimed at attaining gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”

The NIMASA DG, speaking further, called on men to provide the needed support for women to participate actively in the maritime sector. “We hope to sensitise the industry operators and players on the significance as well as economic importance of bridging gender inequality and the need for men to support women towards reaching their potential and navigating workplace challenges For us to have more women at sea and onshore, the men have a major role to play in terms of providing the needed support.”

He further added that the Agency will continue to pursue policies and programmes that will accelerate gender equality and empowerment of women in the maritime sector. “In addition to the 304 female cadets we have trained in seafaring since the inception of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), greater attention will now be given to the training of female seafarers in specialised courses and areas to enable them take up professional responsibilities in specialised vessels and offshore operations, and maritime sector generally,” Dakuku said.

On the New Cabotage Compliance Strategy (NCCS) that suspends waivers on Cabotage manning, Dakuku disclosed that placement of women on board vessels will be given high priority, with greater attention also given to providing an enabling environment for female seafarers. He disclosed that the Agency had already recorded success through the NCCS initiative with about 7,000 Nigerians employed by ship-owners between 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. He said the Agency was doing everything in its powers to resolve the issue of armed robbery and piracy at sea.

In his address, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Sabiu Zakari, said the Federal Government had initiated policy reviews aimed at promoting gender equality, empowering women in the maritime sector, and creating conducive work environment for them in line with the SDGs.

The WMU President, in his goodwill message to Nigeria on the occasion of the Day of Seafarers, said, “Nigeria is one of our long-standing partners that has provided funds for our fellowships and we want to encourage them to continue. Under the MoU with NIMASA, as well as the support provided by the Nigerian Ports Authority, today, we have 199 WMU alumni from Nigeria, of which 31 are women. About half of these Nigerian female graduates were funded by the government. The rest received funding from other sources and other WMU partners.”

The event was attended by many stakeholders, including Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers Council, Alhaji Hassan Bello; Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, who was represented by NPA’s Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Dr. Sokonte Davies; Rector, Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Commodore Duja Effedua; Director, Maritime Safety and Security, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Mr. Danjuma Dauda; and renowned maritime lawyer, Mr. Emeka Akabogu.

Prominent Nigerian women in maritime also graced the occasion. They included Director-General of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NSC), Mrs. Obiageli Obi, and Chairperson, Nigerian Shipownwers Forum, Mrs. Margret Orakwusi, all of who called for more support for the female gender in the maritime career.

In attendance also were members of the NIMASA Governing Board, led by the Chairman, Gen. Jonathan India Garba, and members of the Executive Management.

The Day of the Seafarer is celebrated all over the world on June 25 every year following the resolution adopted by the 2010 diplomatic conference in Manila, Philippines, in line with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW Convention).

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) adopted “On Board with Gender Equality” as the main campaign theme to celebrate the 2019 Day of the Seafarer, which echoes IMO’s theme for the 2019 World Maritime Day, and coincides with the disposition of NIMASA as a gender-sensitive organisation.

It is expected that throughout 2019 there should be a strong emphasis in the maritime space on the importance and value of women within the professional ranks, a campaign driven and targeted at empowering women in the maritime community with the hope of having a strong and far-reaching resonance.

 Taking more than 40 questions from the Nigerian community in New York Sunday night, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has reassured Nigerians in Diaspora about the determination of the Buhari administration to secure the country and prosper the people.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this while responding to questions during a townhall meeting with some members of the Nigerian community in New York.

The forum with Nigerians in the Diaspora was one of the activities lined up for the Vice President’s visit to the United States.

According to him, “there is really nothing serious to worry about because we are taking the necessary steps to address issues relating to herders/farmers clashes, kidnappings and others.”

While highlighting different aspects of the Federal Government’s agenda at the townhall meeting in midtown Manhattan, Prof. Osinbajo said the whole essence of the policies and programmes on social welfare, health care and others is to take majority of Nigerians out of poverty.

He said “the reason why we decided to have what we call the Social Investment Programmes is basically because it is one of the ways to address the problem of poverty in Nigeria.

“Nigeria has never systematically addressed the poverty problem in the way that India, which used to have the largest population of poor people, have done.

“As at 2010, Nigeria had a population of about 112.7 million people living in extreme poverty and there was nothing in place to address the problem, no social investment programme, no social security, no way of getting people out of poverty.

“So, the National Social Investment Programme was to address questions of how to get our people out of poverty and to address the major concerns of poverty.”

Continuing, Prof. Osinbajo said “some people are so poor that they cannot afford the basics of life, so the disbursement of N5,000 monthly stipends to such people under the Conditional Cash Transfer has gone a long way in helping them.”

“Dealing with the problem of poverty is so huge that we also came up with the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) where we give interest-free loans to petty traders under what we call the TraderMoni scheme.

“These are traders at the bottom of pyramid in our economic value chain, those whose inventory are sometimes not more than N5,000. They are given N10,000 and when they pay back, they get higher amounts up to N100,000.

“The same thing we are doing with the Homegrown School Feeding Programme where we give children in public schools a free meal every day, and we are feeding about 9.5 million children in 31 states. This initiative is key to addressing one of the issues associated with poverty, which is malnutrition. And we have found that as a result of this programme, school enrolment figures have gone up significantly.

“Also, part of the reasons why we are doing this is first the multiplier, because it is homegrown; the entire value chain is serviced locally, including the cooks who are picked from the locality of the school,” Prof. Osinbajo added.

On measuring the impact of the schemes, Prof. Osinbajo said an impact assessment report on the cash transfer and the microcredit schemes would be released before the end of September 2019.

According to the Vice President “we are trying to measure the impact and we have put together a team with the World Bank assisting us. We also have one or two organizations who are trying to do this measurement for us and I believe that in the next two months we should have at least the first report looking at some of the impact of the microcredit schemes and the conditional cash transfers.

“But a lot of these things are intuitive. I don’t think that there is any great difficulty in knowing that when people are enabled it makes things easier for them and people can see the results.”

On health care funding, the Vice President said the Federal Government was committed to addressing the challenge of inadequate funding through an innovative approach that takes care of the poor in the society.

According to him, “what we have done is to follow the provision of the Health Act which says that 1% of our Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) must go to health care and that is what we have done. For the first time, for the 2018 budget, we have set aside the 1 % of the CRF for health.

“Aside from that we also have the basic health care provision fund which we are running in all of the states. This is the Federal Government contribution which is matched by the states to deal with primary health care issues.

“The challenge is that you cannot deal with health care from government budget alone. This is the reason why the National Health Insurance is very important for us. An amendment has been effected to make contributory health insurance compulsory.

“For us, one of the problems to address is the large numbers of poor people. So, in determining what that premium will be, we decided that government will pay 35% of the premium so that those who cannot afford to pay are taken care of by government.” 

On pensions, Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari administration had through several interventions resolved some issues with pensioners in different organisations and sectors including the Nigerian Airways, military and paramilitary organisations, civil service and parastatals, amongst others.

He added that the bailout funds released to some states by the Buhari administration were, in many instances, meant to pay arrears of pensions and salaries. 

On leveraging human capital in the Diaspora to complement development efforts in Nigeria, the Vice President said the establishment of the Diaspora Commission by the Buhari administration was one of the ways to show government’s commitment to work with Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora.

He said “the reason why the Diaspora Commission was set up is to address all the various concerns that the Diasporan have and that we also have as government and in some cases as institutions.

“We believe very strongly that the Diaspora is an important partner in all the things that we are doing. You can talk about their remittances and all that. So, they are an important component in what we are doing, as you have heard in GDP, and their remittances.”

Prof. Osinbajo also urged them to work closely with the Diaspora Commission to identify ways of contributing to the development of the country.

Also present at the event was Hon. Justice Sylvanus Nsofor, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States; Prof. Tijjani Bade, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations and President of the UN General Assembly, amongst others.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
25 June, 2019

The Federal Government plans to hold a series of stakeholders meetings with the Nigerian communities in the Diaspora as part of efforts to address rising tensions between Nigerians and Nigerian embassies and missions in some countries.

The meetings are also to identify the challenges faced by the Diaspora Nigerians and find urgent solutions to them.

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, disclosed this in Abuja after she held a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Dabiri-Erewa, who spoke with State House correspondents, also said she used the visit to brief Buhari on the work of the commission so far since the confirmation of her appointment as NIDCOM CEO by the Senate in May.

Buhari had named Dabiri-Erewa as the head of the commission in November, 2018.

On the stakeholders’ meeting, she said it had become necessary following the action of a 32-year-old Nigerian, Jeffrey  Ewohime, who destroyed Nigerian High Commission vehicles in London last week.

(TPM)

The Federal Government at the weekend declared that the lives of Nigerians living abroad are very precious to Nigeria.

Accordingly, they should be taken care of by the host country just as Nigeria has been taking care of foreign nationals in Nigeria.

The Chairman/CEO of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, briefed State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Stressing that only Nigerians who commit crime abroad should be made to face the wrath of the law, she said that Nigeria and her innocent citizens should not be penalized.

She spoke specifically on attacks on Nigerians in Ghana and Togo.

She said “But right now we are dealing with the issue of attacking Nigerian traders in Ghana. We have the assurances of the President of Ghana through the High Commission here and ours in Ghana that Nigerian traders will be protected.

“So we are also going to be emphasizing that the life of one Nigerian means a lot to us anywhere in the world.” she said

She went on “Of course we have the issue of Ghana, the Professor whose appointment was terminated by his university because of the tape he released. Well, it turned out that he didn’t actually record, I mean that was a private meeting with Nigerians in Ghana, it was like a private discussion.

“And he also claimed that part of the tape was actually doctored. The matter is been looked into by the Nigeria High Commission in Ghana and I believed those matters will be resolved subsequently.” she stated

Speaking on the incident in Togo, she said “And the issues happening around neighbouring countries like Togo. In Togo, we have Nigerians attacked. One woman alleged that she was raped and she turned out to be his girlfriend.

“We have also seen the Togolese Ambassador and made it clear that the lives of Nigerians must be protected anywhere they are because we take care of others here and we deserve to be taken care of.

“If a Nigerian commits a crime, let him pay the penalty for it as a punishment, but you cannot penalise a nation and its citizens.

“So we will be working more on that as we appealed to Nigerians to be good ambassadors wherever they find themselves.” she said

She also disclosed that the government is already intervening in the incident in the United Kingdom (UK) where a Nigerian damaged some vehicles at the High Commission.

“But the key things happening across, you know the UK incident of the Nigerian who damaged some vehicles at the High Commission. We have made it clear that that incident is unacceptable.

“There is no reason why he should damage and be so violent. At the same time, we do admit that there are some challenges in some of our embassies while there have been large improvements in some of them.”

She said that a stakeholders meeting has been scheduled to hold in the UK over the matter.

“We will be having a stakeholders meeting in particular in the UK with the Nigerian community, the High Commission, the immigration, to look at whatever the challenges are so that they can be resolved because I know that there are some challenges that are resolvable.

“So, we will be engaging more with the diaspora. Subsequently, we are going to have hotlines for Nigerians in diaspora so that they can contact the commission and we can look into whatever challenges they are facing.” she added

Speaking further on the outcome of the meeting with the President, she said “Since the passage of the diaspora commission bill by Mr. President, this is my first time to thank him and also brief him on the activities of the commission so far, which in the last one week have been quite a lot.

Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria Rashid Bawa on Thursday urged Nigerians doing business in his home country to carry on their trade without fear of molestation from any quarter.

Bawa gave the advice at the High Commission in Abuja during a meeting with a delegation from the Nigerian Diaspora Commission led by the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the envoy’s advice is coming against the backdrop of an attack on Nigerian spare part dealers by their Ghanaian counterparts in the Suame Magazine Industrial Enclave in Kumasi.

This follows the closure of shops operated by Nigerians after indigenous Ghanaian spare parts dealers in the area protested against the continuous operation of foreigners in the retail trade.

About 50 shops belonging to Nigerian spare parts dealers were locked up by agitated Ghanaians, who said they would not sit down and watch while foreigners flout the laws governing retail marketing in their country.

The envoy said that President Nana Akufo-Addo had directed security agencies to be on top of the situation and had urged Nigerians to resume their trade without any fear.

The high commissioner, who described the attack on the Nigerian spare parts dealers as very unfortunate, said that the attacks occurred because some young Ghanaians took laws into their hands.

He, however, said some people suspected to have been involved in the incident had been arrested.

He further said that the matter had been brought under control and that security agencies working hard to ensure that the issue did not get worse.

The high commissioner explained that Ghana had been having security challenges in the past six months, citing alleged kidnapping.

“When a crime is committed between individuals, it is not between nations.

“So this should not be allowed to create anxiety between Nigeria and Ghana,” he said.

He appealed to the media not to destroy the relationship between both through provocative reportage of happenings.

Speaking earlier, Dabiri-Erewa had told the high commissioner that Ghanaians were living and working in Nigeria as well.

She, therefore, expressed the hope that the high commissioner would assure Nigerians in that country of the safety of their lives and property.

“We need assurance on the protection of Nigerians. We have Ghanians living in Nigeria and we treat them as brothers and sisters,’’ she said.

She told the envoy that the Nigerian government would be like to be informed of any Nigerian who committed crime in Ghane.

“We should know who they are; we should know, who those people are that are giving the country a bad name.

“Nigerians should not just be criminalised,’’ she said.

She also urged the media not to sensationalize the situation.

Dabiri-Erewa also led a delegation from the commission to another meeting with Lene Dimban, the Togolese Ambassador to Nigeria.

In the course of the meeting, she asked for assurances of the safety of Nigerians living in Togo.

Responding, the ambassador assured the delegation that Togolese authorities would ensure that the incident that happened in Ghana did not occur in Togo.

(NAN)

Six days after his election as Deputy Senate President of the 9th Senate, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege has pledged that the presiding officers, in the Senate would be servant leaders to their colleagues.

Omo-Agege, who spoke on Monday when the Senate Press Corps paid him a congratulatory visit at his residence in Abuja, said all that transpired in the 8th Senate was now history.

The lawmaker, who thanked his colleagues for voting across party lines for him to emerge as Nigeria’s deputy senate president, described all the senators in the upper chamber as ‘‘co-equals.”

‘‘My biggest thanks go to my colleagues, this election that just took place, tough as it was, had an electorate of about 109.

‘‘All of us are co-equals elected to represent our various senatorial districts and they had to make judgment as to who should become the first-among-equal and the second-among-equal.

‘‘We are servant leaders; we are not anything different from our colleagues. The only difference between them and I and the Senate President is that, somebody has to preside when we sit.

‘‘I thank them, especially the 67 of them in my own case who felt, notwithstanding certain issues that were raised, that they should give me the opportunity to serve in this capacity,” he said.

He said when he accepted his nomination as a candidate for the position of deputy senate president; he did so ‘‘with humility, gratitude to all his colleagues and malice toward none.

”This is 9th Senate and all that transpired in the 8th Senate is now history, now we have to look forward.

‘‘I will be fair to everybody now as a presiding officer. I will no longer be partisan.

‘‘Everybody will be carried along because I had 68 votes and we are only 62 APC Senators.
‘‘But I was elected by 68 of my colleagues, so the support cuts across party lines.”

He urged all the legislators in the red chamber to cooperate toward ensuring the growth and progress of the country.

‘‘As we move forward, we are first and foremost Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Before, we were Senators of either APC, PDP or YPP extraction.”

Omo-Agege assured the people that bills and motions emanating from the upper House would no longer be on partisan basis.

‘‘Every bill, every motion, indeed, every activity that will come before the 9th Senate will be viewed in the best interest of the nation, not necessarily partisan consideration.”

“We will only be interested in bills that will positively impact on the lives of the Nigerian people.

‘‘This is what they expect of us and this is what they should get.”

He said the 9th Senate would provide the enabling environment for President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the Next Level Agenda which the party campaigned on.

‘‘I don’t think anyone will feel offended if we fight to create enabling environment for the content of the Next Level Agenda.“

He said that the agenda brought “Mr President and a lot of us in government for those issues to be implemented.”

Omo-Agege, who thanked the press corps for the visit, also lauded Buhari and his party for their support.

‘‘My thanks, especially go to Mr President and the executive arm for the confidence and the support they provided for me in a run-up to the elections.

‘‘My thanks also go to the National Chairman of our party, Adams Oshiomhole, and the members of the National Working Committee, for deeming fit me to be supported for this position,” he said.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Senate Press Corps, Ezrel Tabiowo, congratulated Mr Omo-Agege on his election.

He urged the 9th Senate to come up with legislation that would bring about the desired change Nigerians yearned for.

‘‘We have no doubt that the present team will work toward ensuring a better Nigeria,” he said. (NAN)

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that his government will aggressively tackle banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity.

He was speaking at the 35th convocation ceremony of Bayero University Kano, Buhari, represented by the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Professor Adamu Abubakar Rasheed, said:

“In this second term 2019/2023, by the grace of God, we shall consolidate on the gains we’ve recorded in tackling security and we intend to rise to the occasion by aggressively confronting other emerging challenges such as rural armed banditry, herdsmen menace, kidnapping and other manifestation of insecurity in our peace loving country.”

The president Nigeria and Nigerians “have no business with poverty or being poor. Our situation is a function of long years of unpatriotic and dysfunctional leadership in almost all helms and across most spheres of government in our beloved country”.

He said his government had already put machinery in motion to achieve an unprecedented growth in the GDP from 2.3 to 2.9 percent before the end of the year.