Category: General News

By Flowerbudnews

The Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation says the ongoing state’s Coldbox Store project and Integrated Greenhouses are addressing critical agricultural challenges such as seasonality, post-harvest losses and ineffective post-harvest management.

The state’s Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Dr Patrick Ubru, said on Thursday in Enugu that the Coldbox Store project and Integrated Greenhouses programmes were technological-innovations initiated by Gov. Peter Mbah to provide solutions to agricultural challenges.

The commissioner said that the impact of this technological-driven agriculture was evident in the pilot Enugu Refrigerated Aggregation Center at Aguobu Iwollo, “which I commissioned nine months ago on behalf of His Excellency, Gov. Peter Mbah.”

He said that the facility had now been integrated with two additional greenhouse clusters in the agrarian regions of Eke and Ezeagu axis of the state, forming a network for high-quality organic habanero and bale pepper production.

According to him, this supply chain is enabled by the Coldbox Store— a walk-in, off-grid and solar-powered refrigerated container.

He said, “Additionally, open-field fruity vegetable smallholder farmers, along with livestock farmers and meat sellers, are being incorporated into the project’s cold-supply chain.

“These integrations, facilitated by the state Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Industrialization, enhance the Coldbox Store’s capacity utilization and significantly expand its impact on smallholder cooperative farmers and fresh food distributors in the Udi-Ezeagu agrarian region.

“Witnessing a bountiful harvest during the dry season is every farmer’s dream, and fulfilling this dream remains at the heart of our mission.

“His Excellency, Gov. Peter Mbah, is deeply committed to enabling smart agro-infrastructure – including greenhouses, earth ponds, and a network of solar-powered cold-chain solutions — that empower farmers to address challenges of climate change, seasonality, post-harvest losses, and limited access to high-value markets.”

Ubru noted that the “vision is geared toward strengthening high-quality food production” to meet the demands of a growing population while positioning the state to achieve the standards required for high-value markets and fresh food exports through air freight.

He added, “Our collective goal is to scale this initiative to ensure that every local government in the state benefits from greenhouse farming.

“Through cross-sector partnerships, we aim to expand its reach to more communities while integrating additional value chains, such as fisheries, into greenhouse and cold-chain technology solutions.

“Our mission is to drive a zero-waste, circular and sustainable agricultural transformation across Enugu State’s agrarian zones, starting with the Owo riverine area, to create lasting prosperity for all our rural farmers’ cooperatives.”

By Sunnex Egbu

Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, the immediate past governor of Kaduna state has described former presidential aide and former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, as political mercenaries.

El-Rufai made the claim on X, while responding to a post by Daniel Bwala, a presidential media aide.

Bwala had chided El-Rufai for criticising the Tinubu-led government, reminding the former governor that he was one of those who campaigned for the president in 2023.

El-Rufai wrote: “I was cabinet minister 22 years ago, and was clear to Asiwaju that I was not interested in any position in his future government.

“The pathetic manner all of you latter-day converts to the Tinubu government make an issue of something that I never wanted in the first place is perhaps a reflection of the level of your moral flexibility.

“If I had remained in the Tinubu government, I will say or do the same on the tragedy within a party I was a founder, and the government that emerged from it – first in private sessions with those concerned, and then go public if no remedial actions are taken.

“Go and check my public service record from 1998. I am only responding to you because I still think you are a decent person who may need a job, and not in the class of Wendell Simlin and that Kaduna pretender that our voters retired in 2019.

“These clowns are political mercenaries that receive humongous monthly stipends from the security vote to be the first to jump on X and other platforms to defend everything the Asiwaju government does or fails to do, no matter how indefensible it may be.

“Enjoy your special adviser position, my brother, but remember that allegiance to God and country comes first in human scale of accountability, before any person or authority.”

Recall that an American woman had accused Omokri of impersonation and identity theft.

Omokri had used the now infamous moniker, Wendell Simlin, in his attempt to link the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, to the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Since then, political opponents like El-Rufai haver been using the name when referring to Omokri.

By Majeed Ishola

The Tinubu Media Volunteers has applauded the President Bola Tinubu administration for using the attendance at the World Economic Forum at Davos Switzerland to showcase Nigeria’s preparedness for foreign direct investments.

We note that this positive exposure of the business opportunities in the country to the gathering of world leaders was encapsulated in the revelation by the Minister of Finance Mr. Wale Edun to the Bloomberg media that the implementation of critical reforms has stabilized the Nigerian economy.

In a statement issued by the Tinubu Media Volunteers and signed by Chukwudi Enekwechi and Shedrach Sunday, Chairman and Secretary of the group respectively quoted the minister as saying that there had been a reclamation of 5% of the country’s GDP, which had been previously lost to “inefficiencies in the federal government and fiscal authorities.”

The minister acknowledged that the removal of wasteful subsidies and the implementation of market-driven pricing mechanisms for petroleum products and foreign exchange had enabled an influx of foreign direct investments to Nigeria The result is that Nigeria’s economy is now on an upward swing and yielding positive outcomes.

“In specific terms, we recall that Shell and Total Energies had announced $5 billion and $3 billion investments in the country, respectively, following the economic reforms.

“It is, therefore, heart-warming that President Tinubu, represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima, had used his participation at the World Economic Forum to rally the world on the vast business opportunities that exist in Nigeria.

We also note that the bold economic reforms rolled out by the Tinubu administration, though painful, have started repositioning the economy, and it is gratifying that these policies are resonating well with the international community.

We therefore consider Nigeria’s outing at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland as worthwhile as the Tinubu administration used it maximally to re-launch Nigeria’s economic and growth potential to the world.