Tag Archives: Ministry

EU Seeks Partnership With Niger Delta Ministry

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A team of experts from the European Union (EU) has urged the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to step up collaborative efforts with the EU towards providing potable water for people in the region.

The EU team made the call during a courtesy visit to Pastor Usani Uguru Usani, the Minister, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, in Abuja.

The Leader of the EU team, Mr Alobert Achten, said that the initiative, under the aegis of the Niger Delta Support Programme (NDSP), had been on for sometime but needed to be sustained.

The NDSP has four components comprising employment opportunities and social services, public finance management, water and sanitation and micro-projects.

The objective is to mitigate the conflicts in the region by addressing the main causes of unrest and violence.

The water and sanitation component of this programme is mainly to enhance access to safe, adequate and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene services.

This component is already active in five states — Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Rivers — and we are taking two local government areas per state.’’

The EU Representative, however, complained that the programme received little cooperation from some states.

He said that N2.4 billion from the EU was about to be lost because states were unable to pay their counterpart fund, adding that the deadline is the end of this month.

All the contracts risk being cancelled and beneficiary communities will feel betrayed.”

He urged the minister to intervene in the interest of the Niger Delta region.

Responding, Usani appreciated the EU for showing interest in developing the Niger Delta.

Credit: Guardian

Doctors Blame Health Sector Crises On Judiciary, Ministry, Others

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Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, yesterday blamed industrial disharmony and other crises in the nation’s health sector on judiciary, health ministry, hospitals’ managements, and health workers in the country. The doctors specifically identified interpretations of health-related laws by judges in the country, alleged weaknesses of past and present governments to tackle issues headlong and deliberate attempts by non-doctors to hijack their roles in hospitals as fundamental reasons crises in the sector have worsened and lingered. The group repeatedly affirmed its leadership of the nation’s health sector, including all hospitals, and vowed never to concede it to any health worker other than doctors. The NMA urged Nigerians to prevail on the federal and other tiers of government to ensure all employees work according to their rules of engagement and discipline. The group however warned that the sector could witness “disaster and collapse” if the alleged trends were not addressed. A statement signed by president and General-Secretary of the group, Kayode Obembe and Adewunmi Alayaki respectively, called on the National Assembly to urgently hold a joint session to probe alleged anomalies in the sector. It also seeks the implementation of report of the Yayale Ahmed-led Presidential Committee on Harmony in the sector.

The association lamented that non-medical practitioners and doctors, who once worked in health facilities to save patients, now live like rats in hospitals. Condemning judicial pronouncement which favoured non-doctors, the association said: “The Nigerian Medical Association is highly appalled by the state of affairs in the healthcare delivery system which has been reinforced by the recent ruling of National Industrial Court. An ill-informed ruling as a result of a poor understanding of the meaning of medicine, its ramifications and appendages, the role and rights of practitioners of medicine and their relationship with allied healthcare professionals for the purpose of maintaining members of the public in a state of health.” Consequent upon hatred caused by crises in the sector, the doctors argued that “deep-rooted enmity of a lifetime and for future generations has been created among a group of people who work and live together as a team because of these interpretations that pacified only the crying baby without asking for the reason for the lamentation.” The group said it was furious over alleged attempts by non-doctors to usurp their functions through various tactics including being “aided by the acquiescence or collusion of some persons entrusted with power and authority to perform certain roles in the system, to foist a state of frozen conflict on the healthcare delivery system of Nigeria to the detriment of the public.”

It added that health workers have used a combination of “contrived” misapplication of government policy and establishment circulars and misused legislations to cause unimaginable divisions, segmentation, indiscipline and other vices in the healthcare system with attendant but avoidable injuries and deaths to unsuspecting members of the public.

Credit: NationalMirror

2016 Budget Fraud: Reps Block Ministry’s Controversial N1 Billion Allocation

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The budget defence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, on Thursday, ended in a stalemate over controversial allocations to the ministry.

There are proposals of N1.07 billion for “optic fibre and satellite space segment” and N50 million for “global communication network computer” in the ministry’s budget. The budget was presented by the minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Thursday.

Both budget subheads are meant for a global communication project to connect Nigeria’s 119 diplomatic missions to the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

However, the chairman of the House Committee, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, insisted that appropriations had been made “many times” for the project in the previous budgets.

Mrs. Ukeje disclosed that a total of N9billion had been appropriated for the project in the past.

She questioned the non-completion of the project over the years and the need for over N1 billion naira for the project in the 2016 budget.

Interestingly, officials of the ministry, including the minister, the permanent secretary, director of finance and administration, spoke different times without responding to Mrs. Ukeje’s probe.

Credit: PremiumTimes

Dambazau Probes Own Ministry From 1999

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The Minister of Interior, Lt. General Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau (Rtd) has inaugurated an 11-member Ad-Hoc Committee to examine the operationalization of Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into by the ministry since 1999.

The Press Secretary to the Minister, Osaigbovo Ehisienmen disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

He quoted Dambazau as saying the move was in furtherance to his determination at promoting the ‘Change’ agenda of the current administration with a view to promoting good governance that is transparent and accountable in the conduct of government business.

“He noted further that the committee is to monitor and review all existing PPP agreements and/or MoUs entered into by the Ministry and her parastatals to ensure parties comply with the terms of agreement, government directives and policies as well as extant laws,” Ehisienmen said.

The Committee, given six weeks to complete its assignment, has Mrs. Morayo Alimi (Director, Planning, Research and Statistics) as its chairperson and Mr. Bola Odugbesan, Esq, (Legal Adviser in the Ministry) as secretary.

Credit: dailytrust

Police Storm Ministry To Arrest Perm Sec, Others Over Alleged N1.9b Fraud

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THERE was a mild drama at the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja Wednesday as a Special Police Squad from the Office of the Inspector General of Police stormed the ministry in search of the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Linus Awute.

Also on the list of the police were the Chief Executive Officer/National Coordinator of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Prof. Abdulsalam Nasidi; Director, Emergency Health Response, John Akintunde Kehinde; and Head of Nigerian Ebola Mission to Sierra Leone and Liberia, Dr. Joshua Obasanya.

The individuals, according to the Police were wanted in respect of an investigation in respect of a petition over alleged mismanagement of the N1.9 billion fund approved for Ebola intervention by the outgone government.

However, Prof. Nasidi told The Guardian on phone Wednesday that he was in Washington and was not aware that the police wanted him.

Reminded that the police claimed to have written him inviting him to present himself for questioning, he noted: “I have not received that correspondence. Maybe because I am in Washington.”

Awute and other officials wanted by the police could not be reached for comments.

Read More: ngrguardiannews