From Ene Asuquo, Calabar

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has convened the 46th National Council on Agricultural and Food Security (NCAFS) meeting to exchange ideas aimed at advancing agricultural development in the country, setting key topics for consideration and discussion.

The meeting, themed “Resilience to Climate Change Towards Sustainable Food Security,” held at the Calabar International Convention Center, attracted participants from across the states to engage in meaningful dialogue, enhance the issues discussed, and provide practical recommendations to help the Council make informed decisions for the agricultural sector’s economic impact. During his opening remarks, Permanent Secretary Temitope Fashedemi highlighted that the agricultural sector remains essential for the nation’s economic recovery, stabilization and growth.He stated, “At this gathering, we must objectively explore the best ways to maintain food security, generate employment, and create wealth. This involves assessing the effectiveness of ongoing initiatives and refining strategies for a significant economic impact.”He stressed the importance of sustaining the commodity value chain, enhancing sector linkages, promoting import substitution initiatives, and fostering value-added processing and export-oriented activities.Fashedemi underlined the need for ongoing collaboration on agribusiness initiatives by providing incentives to researchers, farmers, and processors to boost agricultural output and meet national needs, thereby encouraging greater investment in agriculture and creating jobs.Earlier, Cross River State Commissioner for Agriculture and Irrigation Development, Johnson Ebokpo, emphasized the importance of addressing the pressing global challenge of climate change and forming a collective commitment to develop resilience against its effects.He remarked, “Food security is central to the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and underpins the policies of state governments, particularly the people’s first agenda of our visionary Governor of Cross River State, Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu.”As discussions continue on this theme, Ebokpo urged participants to engage in constructive dialogue, share best practices, and work together towards sustainable solutions for food production amid climate change challenges.The event also featured goodwill messages from various stakeholders, including Actionaid, the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, among others.

By Laide Akinboade, Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Minister Nyesom Wike on Tuesday said some of the beggars on the streets of Abuja were not actually beggars, emphasizing that during the night, they caused havoc in communities.Wike revealed this while responding to questions from journalists when he went to inspect Saburi, Dedei ongoing road construction in Abuja.

He said the rate of scavengers stealing and vandalising government properties have reduced because his administration arrested some and prosecuted them. According to Wike, “When you say governance, provision of infrastructure and other things are all inclusive about governance, providing security is also governance, making sure that people have quality education is also governance, being transparent is also part of good governance, so governance is inclusive of basic good infrastructure, being transparent, education all these we are doing as part of good governance.”Yes of course you can see that we have reduced the level of damage, some of these scavengers have been arrested and prosecuted, we have a task force now that goes around in the night, comprising of all the security agencies who are already cleaning the roads by making sure that some of all these people who say that they are beggars, some of them are not actually beggars and at the end of the day they cause lot of havoc”.On the ongoing construction of Saburi, he said the contractors have already assured that the road would be ready by December 2024, “The contractor insists that this road will be completed in December except for the new bridge which was not initially in the plan of work .Because during the last rainy season that particular spot was flooded and so we had to turn it into a bridge and they have said that to complete that bridge will take them 2 months.”But for the roads there is insisting that it will be completed by this December.As I speak to you, one of the reasons why I came to this point is to see this particular road Deidei to life camp which is almost being awarded to the same company.”He again appealed to Nigerians to be patient with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration so that at the end, everyone will smile.

From Nicholas Dekera, Kaduna

The new substantive Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the National Eye Centre Kaduna Dr. Amina Hassan-Wali has vowed to end the ongoing legal battles with the State Government and some land encroachers.Speaking at a reception ceremony organized in her honor, Dr.

Hassan-Wali said after taking briefing from the former Acting Chief Medical Director, she has resolved to reach out to the state Government and others to resolve the matters amicably so as to foster harmony. Hassan-Wali maintained that “just like the former Acting Chief Medical Director maintained, I will also uphold justice, I will be fair and humble in discharging my duties. I am not tribalistic or a religious bigot, only your actions are important to me. National Eye Centre was established to be the apex eye hospital in Nigeria and we can’t take the lead if we are not productive at work, we must be selfless in our service delivery because we are here because of the patients.”Earlier, the immediate past Acting Chief Medical Director, Dr. Amina Abdulrahaman while commending the founding fathers of the National Eye Centre revealed that despite the high level of inflation, the hospital didn’t increase the cost of medications since last year at the various service points in order to alleviate the hardship people are going through.Dr. Abdulrahman who narrated how they disconnected all air conditioners in the hospital offices including the Chief Medical Director’s office to reduce electricity bills and cut cost of running the hospital pointed that the hospital has to take up a loan from the hospital cooperative to renovate hospital quarters for staff and allocate empty lands within the hospital for staff to farm on and boost food security.According to her, the hospital has to source funds internally to run the hospital stressing that poor funding, inflation, wastages of water and electricity are still Challenging.