From Magnus Eze and Patrick Ochife, Abuja
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Khadija Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to sustainable peace across the country through solid infrastructure.
The minister stated this while unveiling the Infrastructure for Peace Programme of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) in Abuja.
She noted that IPCR has been at the forefront of the promotion of peace in society as well as building the capacities of people and institutions in the area of conflict prevention, resolution and management across the country.
“At this critical time of our history, with incidents and recurrent violent conflicts in several parts of the country and the world, the imperatives to reinforce and strengthen structures of peace in our communities are of topmost priority and require the much-needed urgency of action,” the minister said.
Director-General of IPCR, Prof. Oshita Oshita, explained that the Infrastructure for Peace Programme was the mechanism for cooperation among all stakeholders in peace-building by promoting cooperative problem-solving to conflict.
He noted that institutionalising the response mechanisms to conflict would help transform those conflicts or network of interdependent systems resources, valuables and skills held by government, civil society and community institutions that promote dialogue and consultation, prevent conflict and enable peaceful mediation when violence erupts in the country.
TRCN: Quackery, bane of teaching profession, says expert
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Josiah Ajiboye, has identified quackery and sudden gate-crashing of the teaching profession by people that lack interest and passion for the job as a major challenge of the council.
He was, however, optimistic that the reinvigorated effort of the new management of the council would, in no distant time, achieve appreciable results towards the eradication of quackery and unprofessionalism and restore the lost dignity and pride of the teaching profession.
Ajiboye said plans were underway to begin a massive rural and urban advocacy to enlighten the people on the dangers of patronising or hiring teachers who were not duly recognised and registered with the council.
“We would engage the services of various media platforms in this exercise. They would educate and inform Nigerians on the activities of the council as well as its determination to drive the education plan of the Federal Government, particularly as it concerns the quality of teachers for basic and secondary education.
“Thereafter, clampdown on unregistered teachers will begin at the close of the window. Good enough, the ministers of education, Malam Adamu Adamu and Prof. Anthony Anwukah, have thrown their support behind us and we are committed to making them proud,” he said.
He encouraged teachers whose biodata was not among the 1.5 million recently announced registered teachers in the database of the TRCN to take advantage of the stress-free registration process to get the recognition and certification of the council and embarrassment from the TRCH enforcement team.
Agriculture: Govt launches N10bn agric initiative for women
From Magnus Eze, Abuja
It its bid to empower women to unlock food potential, the Federal Government has launched a N10 billion Women in Agriculture Environment Impact Fund (WAEIF) in Abuja.
Inaugurating the policy, President Muhammadu Buhari said the challenges of environmental impact has contributed largely to food scarcity in Nigeria, which is worsened by the “lack of effective participation of women in agriculture created by massive internally displaced agricultural women, insurgency, gas flaring, oil spillage, desert encroachment, flood and other environmental hazards.”
Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, commended the Women Association for National Agriculture and Environment Protection for its effort in fundraising, noting that it would positively impact on the on-going process of economic diversification, with agriculture as the best alternative key sector.
Acknowledging the role of the private sector in solving limited food production and delivery of quality standards, the President said government has facilitated and provided supportive infrastructure, systems control processes and oversight, including developing the Staple Crops Processing Zones.
EDUCATION: VCs, rectors
remain head of board – JAMB
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has maintained that the reversal to the old system of appointing a serving head of a tertiary institution as the chairman of the governing board of JAMB remains the ultimate way of achieving best results.
The board reiterated that JAMB was a creation of the committee of Vice Chancellors, hence the need for their recognition as active stakeholders, to avoid acrimony between them and the examinations body.
JAMB had, in a statement some months back, encouraged heads of tertiary institutions to always show interest and participate fully in the supervision of the matriculation examinations, particularly in centres within their jurisdiction, to ensure the sanctity of the system.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, had in the course of his meeting with Vice Chancellors, under the umbrella of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian universities (AVCNU), in Abuja, maintained that the task of JAMB was coordination and not substitution of traditional responsibilities of the Senates/Academic Boards of tertiary institutions.
He further informed the VCs that JAMB has abolished the use of scratch cards for its services and substituted it with other online payment platforms such as Web, ATM issued cards (Visa, Verve and Mastercard) and Quickteller mobile application.
COMMUNICATIONS: Nigeria to get multilingual
call centres nationwide
From Walter Ukaegbu, Abuja
The Federal Government has launched multilingual call centres, a technology-enabled channel for Nigerian citizens to access the services of ministries departments and agencies (MDAs) with ease.
At the launch of the pilot project in Abuja, Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, said the project would be delivered through collaboration between Galaxy Backbone and Interra Networks to provide telephony, call routing, call recording via cutting-edge technology.
According to the minister, the core network and backend equipment is hosted within the government data centre, which can be easily linked by all MDAs on the fibre network deployed by Galaxy Backbone.
Shittu stated that agents were outsourced and located within the centre of the private-sector collaborators in Abuja, Lagos and Enugu, all connected to the central infrastructure, adding that there would be second-level mini help desk facilities within the MDAs to respond to specific requests from citizens.
He said the robust platform presents citizens and interested stakeholders with the avenue to obtain information on or provide feedback to government.
It would also provide access to services via telephony (multilingual agents): Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, English and Pidgin.