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IITA To Train 10,000 Farmers On Cassava Production In Enugu

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in partnership with Cydro Royal Multi Venture will train 10,000 cassava farmers in Enugu State on cassava production.

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) Scaling Assistant, IITA, Mrs Josephine Fasakin disclosed this on Wednesday in Enugu during the training of 200 graduate farmers in the state on best agricultural practices in cassava production.

Fasakin said that ACAI is an initiative of the IITA aimed at helping cassava farmers to record high yields and more return on investment.
She said the project was borne out of the sad realisation that Nigeria was not achieving its optimum potential in cassava production.

“The ACAI initiative is aimed at making farmers to see agriculture as a business rather than a pastime venture.
This initiative will help them to increase yield and make more money,” Fasakin said.
Also, the President, Cedro Royal Multi Venture, Mr Fakunle Aremu, said that the IITA developed an extension tool known as ‘AKILIMO’ under the ACAI.

Aremu said that the tool was aimed at exposing cassava farmers to best agronomic practices including choosing the right fertilizer types and obtaining the recommended fertilizer rate.
He said that other benefits of the AKILIMO tool are, learning how to apply fertilizer at the right time and in the right way, as well as doing a cost benefit analysis.

Aremu said that the graduate farmers would in turn train other cassava farmers across the state in order to achieve the 10,000 benchmark.

Also, the President, Enugu State Graduate Farmers, Mr Patrick Mbah, said that the training would boost cassava production in the state. (NAN)

#orientdailynews

Bulk Of Education Budget Spent On Public Universities’ 10,500 Professors – FG

• Education sector can’t progress when ASUU goes on six-month strike, says Nwajiuba

• Nigerian lecturers least paid globally, FG not serious about knowledge economy – ASUU

Friday Olokor and Grace Edema

The Federal Government on Wednesday lambasted the Academic Staff Union Universities for refusing to call off its six-month strike.

The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, in an interview with The PUNCH in Abuja, said the bulk of education budget was being spent on 10,500 professors in Nigeria’s public universities.

Faulting ASUU’s request for more funds, the minister said the union should realise that no sector in the country was getting enough money.

He also said the union’s penchant for strike was driving public school students abroad and to private universities.

Following their disagreement with the Federal Government over non-implementation of 2009 agreements and opposition to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which government insisted all workers must adopt, the lecturers on March 23 began an indefinite strike.

On Friday, the Federal Government directed all educational institutions to resume on Monday next week as the spread of COVID-19, which necessitated the shutting down of the schools had reduced.

But on Monday, the President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, told The PUNCH that no member of the union would resume because they could not work on an empty stomach.

In the interview with The PUNCH, the minister of state for education said ASUU could not blame government for not running universities well, saying the institutions were run by the union members.

According to him, the bulk of the money that is being budgeted for education is paid to the 10,500 professors, out of the 71,000 lecturers in Nigeria.

He said, “Actually, there have been a lot of people asking me as minister what I think is the real intention of ASUU. If you look at it critically, what ASUU is achieving by this (strike) is driving students to private universities and out of the country.

“There is nothing that is now an issue. Even if you say universities are not well run, it is ASUU members that run them. If you say there is no enough money given to education, there is no enough money given to anything in Nigeria.

“The bulk of the money that is in education is paid to these professors. There are 71,000 lecturers in Nigeria alone, with 10,500 of them as professors. There are some countries that don’t have up to 2000 (professors).”

“So, it is not enough to simply say we should bring more money; from where? The 2020 budget, underperformed as low as 62 per cent. We didn’t even collect revenue, there were no companies functioning to pay taxes.”

Although the minister said the bulk of education budget was being spent on university professors, he did not specify the amount being spent on the payment of the academics.

However, in 2018, the Federal Government budgeted N605.8bn for education, while in 2019, N620.5bn was allocated for the sector. In 2020, N671.1bn was earmarked for education.

Berating the union further, Nwajiuba said ASUU should cooperate with government and other Nigerians to fix the economy.

According to him, Nigeria is not inventing anything. He added that everybody depended on revenue from 1.5 million barrels of crude oil produced by the country.

He stated, “Not that Nigeria is inventing anything. Everybody is waiting for these 1.5 million barrels of crude oil. They sell them and they become the source of revenue for everybody; the source of dollars and the source of buying new cars.

“A country like Saudi Arabia with less than 25 million people will sell 12 million barrels of oil. Nigeria will sell 10 per cent of that with three times the population. So, it’s a management issue. People should agree to cut their coat according to their cloth. What we are trying to do in the education sector is to manage it.

“I’m not saying things can’t be better, but all of us have to work towards improving that and the way to improve is not by being on strike for six months and chopping (sic) the rest of the money for other people.”

The President of ASUU, in his response to the minister, wondered if government did not want lecturers to be paid.

Ogunyemi was reacting to the minister’s statement that the bulk of education budget was being used to pay professors.

He asked, “ Is he saying that lecturers should not be paid. If he thinks education is expensive, he should try ignorance.

“I don’t know what that means. You think because you are paying lecturers, that’s where your bulk of money is going. How much are they paying those in the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) and the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation)? I don’t think it is something we should argue about.

“The truth is that everywhere you have seen innovation, invention and development, they invested in education and still investing in education. If any government official thinks that because they are investing in education, they should make life difficult for university lecturers, then they are preparing the ground for the collapse of the country.”

He stated, “You see what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We didn’t have molecular laboratories. We didn’t have facilities that could empower Nigerian scientists to make meaningful intervention.

“In some cases, we had to use the contributions of our members to start producing hand sanitisers. Some of our branches actually used their own resources to develop sanitisers and dispensers.

“I wouldn’t understand the context which he said they were paying lecturers too much, when Nigerian lectures are actually the least paid in the whole world.”

“All over the world, the in-thing now is knowledge economy. How do you achieve knowledge economy when you don’t make facilities available to empower those that are making sacrifices to ensure that Nigeria could be counted among the leading nations in the world.”

He also berated the minister for condemning the union’s strike. He asked, “What of government’s penchant for not honouring agreements? These other places they are talking about, people will talk of Ghana and Benin Republic as abroad, are those places abroad? Members of the ruling class have made it impossible for us to achieve steady development in the education sector because they don’t have commitment.”

Ogunyemi also denied allegations that the lecturers were spending money meant for others.

A fly sat atop Mike Pence’s head for two minutes during the V.P. debate.

President Trump’s handling of the country was the elephant in the room during Wednesday’s vice-presidential debate, but it was a fly, taking a brief break from flying, that couldn’t be ignored by viewers watching the event from home.

Vice President Mike Pence, his hair perfectly coiffed, never reacted to the fly’s appearance on the right side of his head. It stood out against his bright white hair, standing still for the most part but moving around slightly before, well, flying away.

A local TV news reporter from California clocked the fly’s screen time on Mr. Pence’s head at 2 minutes, 3 seconds.

While Mr. Pence spent most of the 90-minute debate avoiding direct questions posed by the moderator, Susan Page of USA Today, the fly brought up a slew of questions of its own.

Who will play the fly on “Saturday Night Live”? (Pete Davidson seems a good choice.) Is the fly liable to catch the coronavirus that has infected so many top Trump administration officials? Was the fly breaking debate protocols by not wearing a mask?

On social media, the fly became the biggest star of what came across as “a normal debate,” as CNN’s Jake Tapper put it.

#Nairaland

'Hold Makinde Responsible For Violence In Ondo Election' - APC Media Group

A Media group in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Communication and Strategy Frontier (CSF), has accused Governor Seyi Makinde of being desperate to emerge a regional champion through the Ondo State governorship election.

Makinde is the chairman, Campaign Committee for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN). He was appointed by the national leadership of the party.

The group in a statement in Ibadan on Tuesday said Makinde has abandoned governance in his state, as he has relocated to Ondo State.

The statement was signed by its Director-General Mr. Wale Olanrewaju and Director of Organisation Alhaji Olawale Sadare.

Oyo APC-CSF faulted the PDP and Governor Makinde over their alleged desperate moves to truncate the desire of the people of Ondo State to have a peaceful and hitch-free election on Saturday, saying he (Makinde) lacks all it takes to lead the PDP to any electoral victory.

The statement said: “Both as the controversial governorship candidate of the Oyo PDP in 2019 and the governor of Oyo State since May 29, 2019, Makinde has never convinced political pundits and stakeholders that he has any outstanding credential to win elections for himself or any other person, as he is lacking in capacity to either sell party manifesto or convince voters to his side. Also, Governor Makinde lacks evidence of good governance which he can tell Ondo people that his party candidate will replicate if elected.”

#thenationonline

Lagos Gas Explosion: LASEMA Gives Updates, 8 Confirmed Dead

Initial disaster assessment is as follows:
Casualties still being assessed, 8 fatalities identified so far
25 houses (mostly bungalows)
16 lock up shops
1 Primary School
Updates will follow as firefighters and rescue workers continue to operate at the incident scene.


#nairaland

FG Okays $3.02bn For Reconstruction Of Port Harcourt-maiduguri Rail Line

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt- Maiduguri Eastern Narrow Gauge .

The cost of the project was put at $ 3 . 02 bn.
The decision was taken at the weekly meeting of the council presided over by the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd . ).
Minister of Transportation , Rotimi Amaechi , disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting at the Presidential Villa , Abuja .

Amaechi also told reporters that the council approved the construction of a deep seaport at Bonny and a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt, both in Rivers State at the cost of $ 703 . 1 m .

He, however , said the two projects would be at no cost to the Federal Government , saying they will be funded through Public - Private Partnership arrangement.

He said the industrial park would gulp $ 241 . 2 m while the Bonny Deep Seaport will gulp $ 461 . 9 m .

The minister explained , “The Federal Executive Council has approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Port Harcourt- Maiduguri eastern narrow gauge railway , with new branch lines and trans -shipment facilities .

“ The council also approved the construction of a new deep seaport in Bonny , under PPP and the construction of a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt.

“ The railway line will be at the cost of $ 3 , 020 , 279 , 549 . The industrial park , which is under PPP, at no cost to Federal Government , will cost $ 241 , 154 , 389 . 31 . The Bonny deep seaport will cost $ 461 , 924 , 369 , at no cost to the Federal Government .

“The Port Harcourt to Maiduguri narrow gauge railway will have new branch lines : from Port Harcourt to Bonny and from Port Harcourt to Owerri are new lines .

“ There is another connecting narrow gauge to standard gauge at Kafanchan. There is a branch line from Gombe or before Maiduguri to Damaturu and Gashau . ”

Still on PPP, the Minister of Interior , Rauf Aregbesola , said the council approved the establishment of the Nigeria Correctional Service Shoe , Garment , and Leather Processing Factories in Aba , Abia State as well as Janguza, Kano State.

“ The benefit , beside the employment of Nigerians, is the opportunity for training of the inmates of our correctional facilities in Janguza, Kano State and Aba in Abia State.

“ The contract for full business skills compliance certificate is given to Messrs LG Investment Limited , a Nigerian company which is partnering with a Chinese company , Full Technology Incorporated from Beijing , China, ” he said .

#punchng