Month: October 2023

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Fidelity Bank Plc on Monday donated three security vans worth millions of naira to traders in Lagos to boost security in line with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The vans were donated to the traders under the umbrella of Auto Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers Association (ASPAMDA), Association of Progressive Traders (APT) and Balogun Business Association (BBA).

Speaking at the official handover ceremony in Lagos, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, the bank’s Managing Director, said that the donation was in fulfillment of its promise to the traders three months ago.

Okonkwo said that the bank during an engagement with the traders three months ago realised that their major challenge centred around security.

He noted that the bank decided to facilitate security arrangements by presenting the three security patrol vans to them.

“We went over to ASPAMDA, BBA to see how we could serve them better and in that process a lot of issues came up which included issues about security in that area as well as infrastructure.

“We realised that security was a challenge when we made that visit and that also included the fact that the market does not have security patrol vehicles.

“We did made a promise that we will support them with that and that is why today we are presenting these vehicles to facilitate their security arrangements in the various markets”, Okonkwo said.

He also said that the bank had opened a portal for children and wards of their customers in the market that were unemployed to apply for jobs in the bank.

“As an institution, we do not take deposits and give loans alone, we realised from interaction that most of these customers have wards, children who have gone through university and are not still employed.

“So, we used the opportunity to create a portal for eligible candidates to apply and those that pass the recruitment exercise will be employed by the bank,” Okonkwo added.

Also speaking, Mrs Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, the bank’s Executive Director, Lagos and South West, said that the gesture was a way of rewarding the traders for their loyalty over the years.

Onyeali-Ikpe said that the bank would continue to deliver to all its customers and stakeholders.

Responding on behalf of the traders, Chief Daniel Oforkansi, ASPAMDA President, commended the bank for its kind gesture of giving back to the immediate community.

“We are happy and it is a big challenge to other competitors in the financial industry as Fidelity Bank has done exceptionally well.

“What they exhibited today shows that they are ready to promote our businesses”, Oforkansi said. (NAN)

 

Edo (FLOWERBUDNEWS) APC Chieftain, Tony Kabaka mobilises people, including kids at his house to prevent Obaseki from demolishing his hotel building.

Tony Adun also known as Tony Kabaka, few days ago dared the state governor, Godwin Obaseki to demolish his Hotel within 7 days.

Tony Kabaka who is well known for being a member of the Oshiomole backed faction of Edo APC, EPM has been against Obaseki for a while.

This was after Obaseki issued Tony Kabaka a 7 day notice by Edo state Ministry of Urban Planning to remove his hotel which is located at Ugbor village, Benin City, Edo state for illegally occupying government land.

Tony Kabaka has been relentless in his anger and disdain towards Obaseki for using and discarding them afterwards, taking away their sources of income and in all, making life harder for them.

In a recent video making rounds, he was seen with children begging Governor, Obaseki not to demolish his hotel unless he wants him dead.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Rochas Foundation has kicked off a new initiative that seeks to get 10 million indigent kids off the street into schools.

This was disclosed on Wednesday, October 22, by the director-general of the foundation, Uchechi Rochas, while briefing journalists in Abuja.

According to her, the initiative called Rochas Education Aid and Development Initiative (READ) would kick off in 2020.

She also stated that N1billion have been budgeted to fund the project through other non-governmental organisations.

“Recent statistics show that there are about 10 million out of school children in Nigeria, an alarming situation that calls for urgent action to get illiteracy to its barest minimum.

“This is why Rochas Foundation is leading efforts to get these children not only into school but with the needed aids and support,” Rochas said.
She said the foundation would be, spearheading concerted efforts with the support of the relevant stakeholders as well as interested civil society and non-governmental organisations to achieve its aim.

She revealed that the Rochas Foundation also intends to give grants to 1,000 indigenous foundations that are making an evident impact in the education sector.

More than 20,000 children from the poorest of the poor have benefitted from the free education scheme of the foundation.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS)  The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire made the observation
when a team of UN Women led by Ms Asa Regner, UN Women Deputy
Executive Director paid her a courtesy call recently in Abuja.
The Presidential Aide pointed out that the 35% affirmative action women
were clamouring for comes with a saleable explanations and lobbying the
men especially the leadership of the National Assembly whom she
described as women friendly.

She said ‘if a woman is empowered the immediate and extended family are
automatically empowered educationally, health wise, socially and
economically’; adding that when a woman is empowered she will make
sure the children are well catered for by supporting their education and
health issues.
She urged the men to support the cause of Nigerian women, stating that,
any positive effort is highly appreciated adding that ‘working together with
our husbands and developing partners to achieve goals 1-6 is a job we
must pursue’. She reiterated that, achieving these goals gives easy access
to achieving the rest.

Earlier, the leader of the team, Asa Regner said that, the purpose of the
visit was to know the priority areas Nigeria is taken in achieving the SDGs.

She pointed out that, the world is looking up to Nigeria to inspire and give
hope to African women and other women worldwide.

She also informed the SSA of the plan to celebrate the Beijing Agenda in
2020, hence regional participation is important, she emphasized. She
pledged to support the cause of Nigerian women empowerment.

(FLOWERBUDNEWS) Along with Benin, Niger, which shares a 1,500-kilometre (900-mile) border with Nigeria, has been badly hit by the closure of Nigeria’s border.

A long line of lorries from Niger and elsewhere in West Africa is stranded at Dan Issa. Some are full, some laden with goods. The drivers and their assistants sleep on the ground or in the cabins of their vehicles.

All along the 30 kilometre road between the border and the city of Maradi, customs officials and police officers sip tea or coffee and chat.

Groups of young people at a loose end and motorbike taxi drivers short of customers play cards under the shade of the trees.

Three and a half million people live in and around Maradi. Concern and indignation are growing among the people there, most of whom survive on agriculture and trade.

That makes them highly dependent on their southern neighbour Nigeria, the biggest economy in west Africa with its oil riches and 190 million people.

“Maradi is suffocating,” said Ali, a kabou-kabou driver, the local motorbike taxi. “The city is usually bustling with people — now it’s almost dead.”

“We are very angry,” said Ahmadou Amadou, who imports motorbikes for a living. “The business sector is wasting away.” If the border closure continues, then they will be ruined, he added.

“Nothing crosses into Nigeria and nothing comes out. It’s hermetically sealed,” said Amadou Idi, sitting in a makeshift shelter to keep out of the rain, and reflecting on the downturn in his luck.

“We twiddle our thumbs and pray.”

Idi’s job is a transiting agent — to get goods across the border to Nigeria at the Dan Issa frontier post in southeastern Niger.

But he has been out of work since Nigeria dramatically closed its borders with its neighbours on August 20, declaring it wanted to put an end to chronic smuggling.

Some locals remember the last time this happened, back in the 1980s — and it lasted two years. And it was the same president, Muhammadu Buhari, who was responsible.

Buhari closed the borders shortly after he came to power. From April 1984 to February 1986 he kept them closed in response to the falling price of oil, a drop in exports and the smuggling of contraband.

In fact the border was only reopened after Buhari was toppled in a coup.

Amadou Oumarou, another Maradi resident, said his government should sit down at the table with Nigeria and negotiate a solution.

Falling prices are hitting locally made products due to a lack of buyers in Nigeria, while the price of products imported from Nigeria is soaring, he said.

Some traders are selling their rice cut-price just to get rid of their stock, said Chaibou Tchombiano, general secretary of Niger’s union representing traders, importers and exporters.

“We used to sell a 100-kilo (220-pound) sack of cowpeas for 18,500 CFA francs ($30, 27 euros). The price has fallen to 17,000, even 16,000 francs, since the border was closed,” said cereal trader Haruna Moussa.

The impact of the closure is having a ripple effect reaching as far as the capital Niamey, 650 km away.

“A tonne of imported cement (produced by the Nigerian corporation Dangote), which used to sell for 95,000 CFA francs has gone up to 120,000 francs, and cigarettes have risen from 25 to 100 francs each,” said Mamanane Nouri, head of a consumers’ group.

Ironically, one effect of the border closure seems to have been a rise in smuggling, which is taking place under the nose of customs officials.

A steady stream of motorcycles and vans took rice, beans and other products over to Nigeria, cutting trails across fields, an AFP reporter saw.

They came back laden with petrol, sugar cane and sweet potatoes, as well as parts for cars and motorbikes.

As one local, carrying two goats on the back of his bike, put it: “If we just sat there, waiting for the border to open, we’d die of hunger.”

“Here, young people start trading from the age of 12,” said local radio journalist Mansour Sani. “If the border stays closed for a long time, it will be a time bomb.”

(flowerbudnews)

1)Keith L. Moore
Professor Emeritus, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Toronto.

He was amazed by the accuracy of the statements made in the Quran in the 7th century. Statements about embryology. Before anyone knew anything about it. These statements in the Quran could not be based on scientific knowledge of the time so it must have come from God.

2) E. Marshall Johnson
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, and Director of the Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

He also talked about embryology in the Quran. He said that Prophet Muhammad must have got this info from some source and that he has no issues that it came from God.

3)T.V.N. Persaud
Professor of Anatomy, and Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

He said for a man to make such profound statements about science in the seventh century is amazing. He said it could not be mere chance.

4)Joe Leigh Simpson
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.

He said he sees no conflict between genetics and Islam. He said Islam could guide science. He said the knowledge in the Quran is from God.

5)Gerald C. Goeringer
Professor and Co-ordinator of Medical Embryology in the Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

He said the Koran described human development and commingling of the gametes through organogenesis. He said nothing in history has seen such a feat besides current day science.

6) Alfred Kroner
Professor of the Department of Geosciences, University of Mainz, Germany.

He talked about the origin of the universe and how it would be impossible for a man like Prophet Muhammad to know about this from his own mind. He said science today proves what the prophet said 1400 years ago.

7)Yushidi Kusan
Director of the Tokyo Observatory, Tokyo, Japan.

He talks about astronomy and using telescopes. He said that the Quran has true facts about astronomy.

8)Professor Armstrong
Professor Armstrong works for NASA and is also Professor of Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

He was amazed by what the Quran says about astronomy and how the ancient writing of the Quran agrees with modern science today.

9)William Hay
Professor of Oceanography, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

He was very interested how this information in the Quran could have this science in it and that it must be from God.

10) Durja Rao
Professor of Marine Geology teaching at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He said that the Quran could not be simple human knowledge and must be from a Supernatural Force.

11) Professor Siaveda
Professor of Marine Geology, Japan.

He said the Quran is almost unbelievable and a very remarkable book.

12) Tejatat Tejasen
Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and is the former Dean of the faculty of Medicine, University of Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

He said all the facts of science in the Quran can be scientifically proven today.

13) Dr. Maurice Bucaille
Born in 1920, former chief of the Surgical Clinic, University of Paris, has for a long time deeply interested in the correspondences between the teachings of the Holy Scriptures and modern secular knowledge.

He said it is impossible to explain how a book produced at the time of prophet Muhammad could contain ideas that have only been discovered today. How could a man know these facts without the slightest of error.