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Amid the recent surge in security threats in the Southwest, the Oodua Youth Coalition has urged the Generalissimo of Yoruba land, Gani Adams, to fulfil the responsibilities of his office and safeguard the region.
Describing the recent attacks in the region as alarming, the coalition emphasized the urgency of addressing the killings of Yoruba monarchs and the abduction of schoolchildren by gunmen.
In an open letter addressed to Gani Adams, the President of the coalition, Tayo Oluyi, highlighted that Yorubaland has historically been defended by its people.
Consequently, the Aare Ona Kakanfo must exemplify the wisdom of their ancestors by taking a proactive stance and leading from the forefront in the face of current challenges.
The letter urged Gani to emulate the legacy of past Yoruba warriors and leaders and lead efforts to coordinate security-interest groups in safeguarding the region.
“I am writing with deep concern regarding the escalating insecurity in Yoruba land. Recent events in the Southwestern states indicate a disturbing trend of invasion by individuals whose sole purpose is to disrupt the peace of our people.
“The untimely demise of two Yoruba monarchs, Oba Olatunde Olusola of Imojo and Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin, the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, at the hands of gunmen within Ekiti borders, as well as the abduction of pupils from Apostolic Faith Nursery and Primary School in Emure-Ekiti, and the alarming explosion in Ibadan linked to foreign miners, are distressing occurrences that demand urgent attention and decisive action.
“Throughout history, the Yoruba people have upheld the tradition of securing their territory, with warriors rising to confront transgressors threatening the peace.
“Recognising that security is a collective responsibility, I implore you, as the Generalissimo of Yoruba land, to rise to the occasion and find ways to complement the government’s efforts in securing our homeland.
“Aare, the time has come to emulate the legacy of Kurumi, Ojo Iberu, Aare Latoosa, and MKO Abiola, who made significant contributions to fortifying the unity and security of our people.
“It is crucial to lead from the front, coordinating security-interest groups across the zones to quell the activities of marauders endangering our peace.
“I sincerely hope you heed this call and fulfil the responsibilities of your esteemed office as the Generalissimo of the Yoruba race,” the letter stated.
The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has assured Nigerians that the hard times being faced is temporary and will soon be over.
She gave the assurance during a meeting with wives of 36 State Governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.
Mrs Tinubu said times like this calls for sober reflection, saying that all hands must be on deck to ensure that the country overcome its challenges.
She said: “Times like this calls for sober reflection, hence, all hands must be on deck. Moreover, the hardship situation is temporary, it will soon fade away.
“The mission of the RHI is driven by my office to complement the Renewed Hope Agenda of the administration of President Tinubu.”
She said Women Agricultural Support Programme (WASP), under her Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) will empower 20 farmers each, from five states in the South East Zone.
“These farmers will get N500,000 each and a total draft of N10m will be given to five RHI states’ coordinators as the case may be.
“The National Agricultural Land Development Authority in partnership with the RHI will support an additional 80 female farmers from each state with the provision of training and capacity building and agricultural inputs.
“We will buy-off all produce from the farms after harvest,’’ she said.
The First Lady said she would soon launch “Young Farmers Club’’ in public schools across the nation to encourage farming among young population.
She said schools with the best farms would be identified, and prizes would be given to them, ranging from school renovations, equipping of school science laboratories, provision of ICT equipment and upgrading of school libraries.
..misses Super Eagles trip to Bouake
Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen could miss the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) semi-final against South Africa after failing to travel with the rest of the squad from Abidjan to Bouake.
Nigeria face rivals South Africa in the first semi-final of the competition on Wednesday in Bouake for a place in Sunday’s final.
In a statement released by the Super Eagles media team, Osimhen will be monitored in Abijdan while the rest of the squad head to Bouake where they will take on South Africa.
“We will fly from Abidjan to Bouaké today via a 10pm Air Cote d’Ivoire flight,” an official statement from the team on Monday night says.
“Victor Osimhen will not join us on this trip as a result of an abdominal discomfort.
“Team medics confirmed that he has been placed under close watch with a member of the medical team staying behind in Abidjan with him.
“If cleared by tomorrow morning, he will join the rest of the squad before 5pm.”
Osimhen has started in all of Super Eagles’ five matches in Cote d’Ivoire, scoring one goal and chalking up one assist.
Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) has attributed the increased prices of drugs in the country to the high cost of diesel and forex.
This is even as the association has voiced grave concern over the detrimental implications of the current economic climate on the country’s import and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
NAIP chairman, Kenneth Onuegbu, in an interview with LEADERSHIP, hinted that if the government did not move to address these two pressing problems – the high price of fuel and the lack of foreign exchange – Nigerian pharmaceutical companies may find it more difficult to supply essential drugs at affordable rates.
Outlining the key challenges faced by the pharmaceutical sector, Onuegbu said, “We have insecurity issues, and how to get the medication from the point of production to the final consumer is another challenge that we have not been able to solve. To access forex is a big challenge. The process can take a year to get the CBN-subsidised rate, hence, we resort to the black market. We buy dollars at the rate of N1,300.00 which automatically affects production.
“If we don’t do something about it, there is going to be a scarcity of essential medicines. We must call for the domestication of medications to reduce the production cost.”
He further pointed out that the environment is over-regulated.
“Our regulations ought to have a Nigeria face; we cannot be promoting local production when you are making it difficult for them to start.
“Government needs to tackle insecurity, epileptic power supply, forex and a host of others if they really want pharmaceutical companies to survive in this country,” he said.
Also, the president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Prof. Cyril Usifoh, told LEADERSHIP that it was extremely crucial that Nigeria produce its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) used in the production of drugs, to cut down the cost of drugs.
According to him, without APIs, drugs cannot be produced.
Usifoh claimed that all pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria import APIs to produce their drugs locally.
The PSN president expressed concern over the high cost of medicines as it affects the common man, while calling on the government to provide an enabling environment for local production of drugs.
He said, “When you provide an enabling environment, assuming we get the issue of energy right, that will reduce the cost of production drastically. Also, if we have our petrochemicals such as APIs, we will even sell drugs to other West African countries, thereby increasing our internal foreign exchange earnings.
“So, I think telling us to look inward will help us. By the time there is increased local production,that will also help. I think NAFDAC is working judiciously on that, that is why they will always tell you that if you import drugs, after three or five years, you should be able to get the infrastructure to make sure that we produce in the country and when you do so, that will affect foreign exchange and employment.”
However, Usifoh hinted that the federal government was working closely with pharmaceutical companies towards increasing local production.
“They dialogue with pharmaceutical companies so that we meet some of these and bring the cost of drugs down. When there is medical security, we can guarantee what is happening, not like what happened during the COVID era; if it happens now, it’s going to be disastrous.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has disclosed that it will be partnering with the private sector to boost local production of drugs to 60 per cent.
The special adviser to the president on Health, Dr Salma Ibrahim Anas, who disclosed this at a conference, in Lagos, averred that the Tinubu-led administration is focusing on medical industrialisation.
There was heavy traffic gridlock in some parts of Lagos on Monday as motorists formed long queues outside the forecourts of filling stations on what appeared may herald a fresh scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit.
One of our correspondents observed along the Ikorodu Road axis how motorists endured an unusually heavy gridlock due to a long queue of motorists waiting to buy petrol at filling stations. Also, the Total Filling station at the Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way had queues which led to heavy tariff around the Ikeja axis.
Our correspondent also noticed that many of the filling stations along the Ikeja axis, through Obafemi Awolowo Road in Ikeja were shut.
Meanwhile, some motorists had begun to hike the prices of their fares due to the development.
A commercial transport operator plying the Unilag-Jibowu axis in Yaba one of told our correspondents that he was forced to hike his fees after waiting for hours to buy fuel.
The commercial transport operator, who refused to disclose his name said, “Do you know how long it took me to buy fuel today? Anybody who doesn’t want to enter should stay out.”
Our correspondent also observed that all the filling stations along Ogunnusi Road inbound Berger did not also sell petrol to customers.
It is not immediately clear why fuel queues have resurfaced in Lagos.
Meanwhile, our correspondents gathered that the queues were noticeable in major filling stations considered to be selling at lower rates.
It was gathered that a number of filling stations owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway did not dispense fuel too.
The National Vice Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, said he was aware of the queues in some filling stations in Lagos.
However, Fashola said the queues might be due to panic-buying on the part of customers.
“I am not in Lagos as we speak. But I heard about it too that there are queues in Lagos. It may just be panic buying. I am not sure there is fuel scarcity. People are just panicking. However, I will find out what the problem is,” Fashola said.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has banned alcoholic beverages produced in sachets less than 200ml.
The agency said the five-year window given to the manufacturers of the products to stop producing the drinks in sachets and pet bottles which began in 2018 elapsed on January 31, 2024.
She said enforcement of the ban commenced on February 1, 2024.
The director-general of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, while addressing the media over the development in Abuja on Monday, February 5, said the ban was not a sudden development but a result of a multilateral Committee that agreed that the ban would be in phases whereby production would be reduced by 50 percent by 2020 while outright ban would be on January 31, 2024.
Given that decision, the DG said NAFDAC did not issue renewal licenses exceeding January 2024 to any manufacturer of the products.
According to her, the agency took the route of wiping out the drinks in such sachets because of the negative effects on underage children.
She said because the drinks come in pocket-friendly sizes, accessible and affordable, children easily fell for the packages only to face the consequences in the future.
She said: “This decision was based on the recommendation of a high-powered committee of the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC on one hand, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), and the Industry represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), in December 2018.
“As a commitment to the decision reached at the end of this Committee meeting, producers of alcohol in sachets and small volume agreed to reduce the production by 5 percent with effect from 31st January 2022 while ensuring the product is completely phased out in the country by 31st January 2024”.
According to her, the future of the country supersedes other considerations in the enforcement of the policy.
Noting that saving Nigerian children and protecting the health of the larger society is paramount, Adeyeye said: “The people who are mostly at risk of the negative effect of consumption of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged and commercial vehicle drivers and riders.
“The World Health Organization has established that children who drink alcohol are more likely to: use drugs, get bad grades, suffer injury or death, engage in risky sexual activity, make bad decisions and have health problems.
“The World Health Organization also stated that harmful consumption of alcohol is linked to more than 200 health conditions including infectious diseases (tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS) and non-communicable conditions (liver cirrhosis and different types of cancer).
“It is also associated with social problems such as alcohol addiction and gender-based violence.
“To curb the menace of abuse of alcohol, the World Health Organization recommended some actions and strategies to Policy-Makers that have shown to be effective and cost-effective, which include: regulating the marketing of alcoholic beverages (in particular to younger people) and regulating and restricting the availability of alcohol.”
She said in the course of enforcing the ban it was discovered that some manufacturers were still in production of the banned products and still had stacks of both finished products and packaging materials of the products in their possession.
She noted: “This situation is of course not acceptable, and the Agency views this as flagrant disobedience to the laws of Nigeria. NAFDAC views this matter seriously and will engage all statutory means, which may include prosecution, to deal with the matter”.
She warned that there is no going back on the decision, saying, “I want to use this medium to ask all holders of alcohol in sachets, PET and Glass bottles, empty sachets, PET bottles, empty Glass bottles, and other packaging materials of these banned products to immediately report to the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC for hand-over of same to NAFDAC for destruction, to prevent sterner measures including prosecution.
“NAFDAC is resolutely committed to the strict implementation of the regulations and regulatory measures towards safeguarding the health of Nigerians, particularly the vulnerable youth, against the dangers of reckless consumption of alcohol.”
…Condemns killings of Ekiti monarchs
The Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, on Monday, condemned the killings of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State, saying the organization will do everything that is possible to secure the South West.
The Yoruba socio-cultural organization also urged the Federal Government to fish out the killers of the two monarchs and bring them to book.
OPC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Oguntimehin, in reaction to the gruesome murder of three Ekiti monarchs- Onimojo of Imojo- Ekiti, Oba Olatunde Olusola, the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, Oba David Ogunsola and the Olukoro of Koro Ekiti in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, Oba Olusegun Cole, whose wife has been in the captive for the past five days.
Condemning the acts, Oguntimehin said it is sad that the monarchs died in such a situation, adding that the OPC will not fold its arms and leave unknown gunmen to spill blood of innocent people in such a dastardly act.
The statement reads: “We have indicated our resolve to assist the government of the south west region in addressing the surge of killings in Yoruba land.
“OPC will not allow the South West to be used as an abattoir where innocent people will be slaughtered and gunmen would live like king in our region.It is unacceptable.We will resist any attempt by gunmen to turn Yoruba land into a den of killers.
“It is unfortunate now that reports of killings and kidnappings are spreading across the southwest. We appeal to the federal and the state governments to co opt the OPC in their attempt to solving the security challenges in the country.
“We are ready to salvage the region from marauders and killers that have infiltrated our region. Those behind the killings of the three traditional rulers would not go unpunished.”
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar has blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) economic policies for the prevailing pain and despair among Nigerians.
The former Vice President in a post on his X handle, formerly Twitter berated President Bola Tinubu, saying his “poor response to nation’s challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper economic crisis.”
Atiku said President Tinubu’s economic performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerians at home and abroad, adding, “Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, that ….His economic policies, drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair. The private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multinational Companies, confused and weary of the economy, leave Nigeria in droves.
“The intense cost of living pressures has created more misery for the poor in towns and villages. There is hunger in the land as basic commodities, including bread, are becoming out of reach for average Nigerians.
But in a swift reaction, the presidency on Sunday night said Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had certainly found a new hobby to keep himself busy, having failed to achieve his lifelong ambition of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Mr Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, in a statement, said the former vice president “is increasingly carving for himself the role of opposition-in-chief to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government.”
He said: “Atiku’s latest diatribe was another uncharitable commentary on the state of the economy and the efforts of the President Bola Tinubu administration in remoulding it for sustained prosperity.
“Nigerians can easily see through the hypocrisy of Alhaji Atiku, who in accusing President Tinubu of poor response to the nation’s challenges and causing pains and despair, didn’t offer any better policy options in his run for the Presidency different from the economic reform agenda being pursued by President Tinubu. “His claim that the government’s policies have created intense cost of living pressures are also not grounded on facts as recent comparative cost of living indices show that Nigerians still enjoy the lowest cost of living in Africa.
“Instead of mouthing platitudes every time in a bid to earn cheap political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President.political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President.
“Atiku should be honest enough to admit that President Tinubu inherited a weak economy, which to all intents and purposes and to ensure the survival of our country needs a complete overhaul.”
“While President Tinubu and his able team are working very hard to make our country better, ensure our economy is stronger and more competitive, Atiku Abubakar and his cohorts may continue to belly ache.
“However, they cannot stop the serious work of nation-building already set in motion by President Tinubu.”
The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS has urged the Senegalese authorities to urgently schedule a new date for the country’s presidential elections that was earlier postponed.
The ECOWAS Commission made the appeal in a statement issued on its website on Sunday.
Recall that the Senegalese President Macky Sall had on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.
Sall, in an address to the nation, said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date, because lawmakers were investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned.
The ECOWAS Commission said it has taken note of the decision of the Senegalese authorities to postpone the presidential elections, but “expresses concern over the circumstances that led to the postponement of the elections.”
The bloc therefore appealed to the authorities in Senegal to expedite the various processes to set a new date for the elections.
“The Commission further urges the entire political class to prioritise dialogue and collaboration for a transparent, inclusive and credible election,” ECOWAS said.
ECOWAS encouraged President Sall to continue to defend and protect Senegal’s long-standing democratic tradition, assuring that it would continue to monitor the situation in the West African nation.
$2bn balance will be cleared soon
Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the country will soon be free of its $7 billion foreign exchange (FX) backlog, as $2.3 billion has already been paid to foreign airlines and other sectors.
Cardoso spoke during an interview on Arise TV monitored by TheCable on Monday.
On September 26, 2023, the CBN governor, had said the apex bank was working on settling the $7 billion FX backlog liabilities.
The apex bank, which began clearing the debt in November 2023, recently released $500 million to various sectors to address the backlog of verified FX transactions.
On January 30, 2024, the CBN said it had concluded the payment of all verified FX claims by airlines with an additional disbursement of $64.44 million to the concerned foreign aviation firms.
‘WE INHERITED $7 BILLION FX BACKLOG’
Providing updates on the backlog liabilities, Cardoso said his leadership inherited the $7 billion debt, noting the central bank discovered that $2.4 billion of the sum was invalid following an enquiry into the transactions.
He assured Nigerians that the FX backlog issue would soon come to an end as only about $2.2 billion currently remains unpaid.
“When we came into the leadership of the Central Bank a few months ago, the issue of foreign exchange backlog was something that we met — obviously for something that had been accumulated over a period of time. It is very important as a sovereign nation to be able to keep your integrity intact, and as a bank, to be able to show that we consider obligations as obligations that must be met,” Cardoso said.
“Now, approximately $7 billion was what we were told, and we looked at these and commenced the process of starting to pay.
“We were settling some which we believed were valid and due for payment, and obviously this isn’t something we could just do in one shot or take a bit of time,” he said.
“Now, as we went along, we now had reasons to believe that we needed to take a harder look at these obligations. So we contracted Deloitte Management Consultants, to do a forensic of all these obligations and to actually tell us what was valid and what was not.
“We were committed to ensuring that we would pay all valid transactions and the result that came out of this was startling.
“We discovered that of the $7 billion, roughly about $2.4 billion had issues and had no business being there, and the infractions on that range from so many things, for example, not having valid important documents, and in some cases, even entities that did not exist, and in some cases, beneficiaries, account parties who had asked for exchange and got more than they asked for and some who didn’t even ask for any, got.
“Well, we’re not paying, if you don’t qualify. They are not valid.
“We have settled about $2.3 billion and that applies to the airlines and a whole load of different entities spread throughout the economy.”
Cardoso said what remains is about $2.2 billion “and I am confident that we will shortly be addressing those and be able to move on and make progress”.
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The Presidency has revealed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saved Nigeria from economic recession in 2023.
The disclosure was made by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in response to Atiku Abukabar, the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, in the February 2023 election.
Atiku, a former Vice President, had criticised Tinubu’s economic reforms for creating pain and despair for Nigerians.
However, in reaction to Atiku, Onanuga said Tinubu’s recent economy on fuel subsidy removal and Naira floating are steps in the right direction.
He explained that the 2023 budget, with 97 per cent of revenue, was spent on debt servicing, foreclosing economic growth, and job creation.
“The national budget Tinubu met in 2023 showed that 97 per cent of revenue was to be spent on debt servicing, with little reserved for capital, thereby foreclosing growth and jobs.
“Confronted with this grim economic reality, President Tinubu faced a difficult choice of balancing reforms’ political and economic costs against the risks of economic recession. His government chose the former to keep the economy afloat and set it back on the path of growth and prosperity”, he said.
Residents of Minna, the Niger State capital, on Monday, protested high cost of living in the country, blocking major roads within the metropolis.
The protesters, including women and youths, were heard chanting protest songs, while security agents including policemen looked on.
The protesters said the rising cost of food items and poor government effort to arresting the situation forced them to block major roads so that government will hear their cry.
The Deputy Governor of Niger State, Yakubu Garba, while addressing the protesters, said the government is aware of the pain and hardship families are faced with at this time.
Media
Roads blocked as residents in Minna, the Niger State capital protest high cost of living.#ChannelsTVNews pic.twitter.com/bsNFxvlpZy
— Channels Television (@channelstv) February 5, 2024
More than 500 personnel of the National Hospital, Abuja (NHA), left its services in search of greener pastures in the last two years, its Chief Medical Director, Mahmud Raji, has disclosed.
According to the CMD, most of them went abroad in search of better working conditions.
“The way they leave is a very hurtful thing for all hospital administrators.
“The most pitiful and worrisome aspect of it is the amount of money the Nigerian government has invested into each of these individuals as a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist or whoever it is that leaves.
He said that the brain drain syndrome was an almost everyday activity as he treats two or three files of young people wishing to leave.
“Sometimes, not only young people; some people have actually gone through the ranks with lots of experience that they could teach other people. So, Nigeria is losing so much, painfully.
“Here, we have lost a number of quite senior doctors, especially the middle cadre doctors, and the very young ones.
“Nurses have also left from the middle cadre and the younger ones. Some of our medical engineers are hotcakes outside and have left.
“I must tell you, Nigeria trains people so much, Nigerian graduates and staff are well sought after, all over,” he added.
On reasons for their departure, he said that remuneration and job satisfaction had always topped the list.
“For instance, if a doctor or a nurse comes here, he or she needs to see an environment that is quite serene, quite beautiful, even to rest in a very comfortable area during their one hour break.
“At least you are able to have something to eat, replenish your energy before you go back to the next phase of work, but usually, in our hospitals in Nigeria, we don’t have such.
“In terms of the remuneration, it may not be as good as what you would expect elsewhere. Even though I must say the purchasing power in Nigeria is far better than the purchasing power elsewhere and our money is still able to buy something.
“We should also look at the unsolved problem of inter-professional rivalry that also eats into people’s psyche. People should be comfortable with the next person they’re working with, be it a nurse, a physiotherapist or whoever.”
Raji also said that the necessary equipment needed to work were not there and when these equipment are either non-existent or obsolete, the healthcare practitioners feel that more should have been done.
He, however, said that past governments had tried by taking very decisive stance on matters of health.
The current government has also put in a lot to rejig the health sector, he added.
“From what we can all see, the current administration has actually rekindled that hope in us that in the next couple of months, at couple of years, we will be able to see a change or a shift in this mindset among Nigerian health professionals eager to leave the country.
“Hopefully, we should even be able to attract them to come back while we retain the ones that are here.”
He, however, said that NHA had employed various strategies to try to retain the healthcare personnel working in it.
“I may not be able to change their remuneration since this is within the purview of government, we try to pacify them because remuneration is usually the first thing people complain about.
“Secondly, in terms of welfare, at least we have tried as much as possible to relieve some of them.
“We have established cooperatives to assist staff, either financially or in whichever way they can be supported to get mortgages for their homes and other things.
“On our own, we sometimes get these mortgage organisations to come and assist our staff. We have been able to get some buses to relieve the stress that the staff get in conveying themselves from work back home and from home to work.
“We are trying to also make the environment where they work a bit more serene and accommodating for them. This would require a lot of funding, but at least with the little that we are able to get, we are able to do bit by bit.”
In terms of training, he said that since training out of the country may be expensive, the hospital arranges local trainings and, when it is able to, it supports them to go for trainings within the country and sometimes out of the country as the funds allow.
The CMD said the hospital was also trying to fix the equipment that were not working efficiently or not working at all.
“Through budgetary and intervention pathways, we are also trying to get in some more new equipment that will make them happy while doing their jobs.
“When you go to our laboratories now, you will see that they are not as they used to be.
“We have so many automated machines; with these machines, all you need to do is just to put in samples and then the thing runs by itself, unlike earlier on where a person will have to run this, after this, you do that. So, now, they have it a bit easier.
“They also feel like, yes, we are working where we would wish to have flown to, to work. So we are upgrading our laboratories or rather, to a very large extent, we are comfortable to call them automated laboratories.
“That’s what we are trying to do, at least in our own little ways, to make life better and the good thing is, some of them do appreciate it.
“But, however much you try, some people are already fixated on leaving,” he said.
On the issue of inter-professional rivalry in the healthcare profession, he said that even though it exists in other institutions, at NHA, there has been some sort of a very harmonious relationship.
He added that hardly were there local strikes at NHA in the last couple of years because of that harmonious relationship.
“But the staff are not in isolation as they also mingle with other people outside.
“So, once in a while you would hear such complaints, but then some of these issues are actually realistic that you find in other centres and it can really be quite bad.
“It sometimes affects the function of some of such organisations but we are lucky here that we are able to, at least, control it.”
To put an end to it or at least control it, he said that several attempts were made to resolve the problem, but sometimes when solutions were about coming, some other bodies may lobby to stop it.
He recalled that a couple of years ago, a certain committee was set up by the Federal Government to look into it and the committee made some recommendations.
“I am not sure those recommendations have been fully implemented, but things might probably have changed now such that it’s time to probably have a new committee set up to look into this.
“I assure you that with the current administration and the mandate given by the president to resolve the issues in healthcare and the ministers we have running the ministry, people have the confidence that they have the roadmap to solving this problem.
“We have to look at it holistically such that you don’t just see doctors as a group, solve their problem, but while solving their problem you will have problem of nurses.
“So also, when you call the nurses and solve their problem, you cause a problem for the radiologist or the pharmacist and things like that.
“From the feelers we’re having from our interactions with those of our leaders in the ministry now, they’re likely going to look at it in that holistic manner, where it should be a win-win for all facets of healthcare.”
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has released a report showing that no fewer than 36 oil blocks are under concession to international oil companies operating in Nigeria and their indigenous counterparts in the country.
Eight blocks are located in deepwater, five blocks are continental shelf, fifteen blocks are on land, five blocks are located in swamp and another three blocks are located in partially swamp terrains.
The blocks are classified into Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL), and Oil Mining Licence (OML).
The national oil company’s financial statements outlined the blocks on concession to include OPLs 244, 242, 214, 223, 251 and 325. For the Oil Mining Licences, they include OMLs 154, 139, 119, 60-63, 111, 148, 65, 26, 28 and 30.