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(FLOWERBUDNEWS) The Nigeria Deaf Sports Federation (NDSF) has appealed to the new Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, to support the federation to enable it participate in the maiden Africa Deaf Athletics Championships.

The federation’s Secretary, Lukman Agbabiaka, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja that the championships would hold from Sept. 16 to Sept. 22 in Nairobi, Kenya

He said that the federation had about 20 athletes, adding that the number could be reduced depending on the approval and available funds.

“We hope that the ministry will give us the necessary support because they are our first refuge whenever we need help before we can think of anybody.

“We also need support from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), philanthropists and rich Nigerians that love sports.

“We are determined to participate in the championships but this can only be possible if we will receive the necessary support.

“They are working hard to make the country proud by winning a medal each,’’ he said.

Agbabiaka added: “The Federation participated in the Deaflymics in the past and they won medals for the country. In 2019, in Taipei, Taiwan, we won two silver.

“In 2013 in Sofia, Bulgaria, we won one bronze. Whenever we represent the country in any competition we always come back home with a medal,” he said.

He added that the federation would also participate in the West Africa deaf Football Tournament on Sept. 24 to Oct. 4 in Sierra Leone.

The secretary said the Nigerian team known as “Deaf Eagles’’ was currently ranked number one in West Africa and two in Africa. (NAN)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for urgent action to combat patient harm, which causes millions of preventable deaths annually.

The WHO, also called on countries to increase their investments and efforts toward reducing patient harm.

Information gathered from WHO official website reveals that millions of patients are harmed each year due to unsafe health care worldwide.

As part of this campaign, the organisation said it will host the first-ever World Patient Safety Day Sept. 17.

The UN agency said that the situation results in 2.6 million, mostly avoidable deaths, annually in low-and middle-income countries alone.

According to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, no one should be harmed while receiving health care.

“ Globally, at least five patients die every minute because of unsafe care.

“We need a patient safety culture that promotes partnership with patients, encourages reporting and learning from errors, and creates a blame-free environment where health workers are empowered and trained to reduce errors,” he said.

WHO says that four out of every ten patients are harmed during primary and ambulatory health care, adding that the most detrimental errors are related to diagnosis, prescription and the use of medicines.

“Medication errors alone cost an estimated 42 billion U.S. dollars annually.
“Unsafe surgical care procedures cause complications in up to 25 per cent of patients resulting in one million deaths during or immediately after surgery annually.

“Patient harm in health care is unacceptable and WHO is calling for urgent action by countries and partners around the world to reduce patient harm in health care.

“Patient safety and quality of care are essential for delivering effective health services and achieving universal health coverage,’’ it stated.

It added that investment in improving patient safety can lead to significant financial savings.

“The cost of prevention is much lower than the cost of treatment due to harm.

“As an example, in the United States alone, focused safety improvements led to an estimated 28 billion U.S. dollars in savings in Medicare hospitals between 2010 and 2015.

“Greater patient involvement is the key to safer care; engaging patients can reduce the burden of harm by up to 15 per cent, saving billions of dollars each year,’’ it stated.

WHO says that, on the very first World Patient Safety Day, it is prioritising patient safety as a global health priority.

It is urging patients, healthcare workers, policy makers and health care industry to speak up for patient safety.

Sept. 17 was established as World Patient Safety Day by the 72nd World Health Assembly in May 2019.

Prof. Dennis Balogu, Dean Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology, Ibrahim Badamasi University Lapai has applauded the Vice- Chancellor, Prof Muhammad Maiturare for channeling N60 million from TETFund for the purchase of cashew processing equipment for the university.

Balogu, a professor of Agriculture in the Department of Food Science and Technology disclosed this in an interview with us, on Thursday in Lapai.

He said the gesture was well appreciated by the faculty and the Department of Food Science in particular.

“This money is tied to the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies and they are using it in the training of our students for Food Science and Technology who want to produce juice from cashew and other derivatives” he said.

Balogu said that during the maiden convocation in 2013 a lot of cashew juice was produced and was used to entertain all the people that came for the occasion.

“It has helped the students to learn a lot entrepreneurially as they can produce cashew flavored bread, cashew cookies that people attested to as very good.

“We are still trying to find out different ways in which we can use cashew products for variety of food for its numerous health benefits.

“Its numerous high levels of Iron, Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, Phosphorus, Manganese, Monounsaturated fatty acids that promote healthy levels of good cholesterol cannot be over emphasized,” he said.

He further explained that aside nutrition, the cashew nutshell is also very useful for bio fuels and paint making, among others.

The Don explained that cashew shell has numerous uses in chemical and pharmaceutical products.

While appreciating TETFund for the funds, Balogu expressed gratitude to the vice chancellor for devoting such amount of money to advance food science and technology.

“This will enhance the training we give to our students, because one of our mission is that we produce self- reliant students from IBB university in the department of food science and technology.

“So that these students will not go out and start looking for jobs. but be assertive in the labour industry and be job creators themselves rather than job seekers,” he said.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie receives yet another award, the Kassel Citizens’ ” Prism of Reason” Award for “her vision of humanistic diversity”. According to the organizers, this prize is awarded to persons or institutions whose work serves the ideals of the Enlightenment by overcoming ideological barriers and promoting reason and tolerance towards dissenters.

The award ceremony which takes place today, Sunday the 15th of September at the State Theater of Kassel in Germany – a day that happens to be Adichie’s birthday – is being given to her not only for her undeniable literary prowess, but also for her equality and justice advocacy.

The “Prism of Reason” award was founded in 1990 by citizens of the city of Kassel and the region. So far, the prize has been awarded 28 times.

The first prize-winner (in 1991) was the then German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher; he was honoured for his services to the opening of the Iron Curtain. Other awardees include Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei; Indian scientist and documenta 13 participant Vandana Shiva; Somali-born Dutch-American activist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Israeli diplomat, peace activist and publicist Avi Primor; and Peruvian farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya.

This year, in the 29th year of the award, the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Kassel Citizens’ Prize have selected Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as the 2019 winner of the “Prism of Reason”. This makes her the first Nigerian to receive this remarkable prize.

A statement made by the Kassel Board president Bernd Leifeld said “Combative but not fanatical, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie…points out ways to overcome outdated patterns which are deeply anchored in education and society”. He added that “Kassel citizens honour her with their Prize “The Prism of Reason 2019” because she believes in the social, political and economic equality of all people”.
The prize consists of a certificate, a sculpture designed by the Kassel art professor and documenta artist Karl Oskar Blase with a prism (symbolising the analytical glass of the Enlightenment). The prize and the award ceremony are financed exclusively by membership fees and donations from citizens of the city and region of Kassel.

It’s proving to be quite the birthday weekend for Adichie already. First with the announcement on Friday the 13th of September that HBO Max, a division of WarnerMedia Entertainment, is creating a straight-to-series order for the television adaptation of Adichie’s most recent novel “Americanah”. The 10-episode series will star Academy Award®? winner Lupita Nyong’o, with the pilot being written by screenwriter and actor Danai Gurira (who starred in the movie “Black Panther”)- and will be co-produced by Lupita Nyong’o and Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B.

Adichie has also been trending non-stop on social media since Friday when a Twitter group of fans of the writer (@Chimamanda_Army) went viral to announce a competition to celebrate her birthday. Tagged #10ThingsAboutChimamanda, participants are encouraged to list 10 things about Adichie to stand the chance of winning fan-donated prizes, such as 10 collections of Chimamanda’s books, 10 pairs of movie tickets to watch a film of their choice at any Filmhouse cinema location; and 10 Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8 Tablets.

According to the fans, the competition kicked off fully at 12am midnight Nigerian time/GMT (the start of her birthday, Sunday September 15th) and will run until 5pm Nigerian time/GMT of the same day. For those who want to join in, more details on the competition can be found on the fan page on Twitter: @Chimamanda_Army.

The National Assembly has warned all the revenue generating federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) engaging in diversion of revenues to desist from the act, saying such practice would not be tolerated henceforth.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Solomon Adeola, gave the warning after a meeting with the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Finance.

Adeola, in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by his Media Adviser, Chief Kayode Odunaro, said that the era of diversion of revenues generated by MDAs was over.

According to him, the National Assembly will ensure that the Federal Government generates enough revenue to implement people-oriented policies and programmes.

“It has been observed that year in year out, the Federal Government has not been able to meet its targets on independent revenue sources.

“Findings indicate that the major culprit in this shortcoming is the inadequacies of MDAs, coupled with their penchant for diversion of revenue on recurrent expenditure under frivolous excuses,” he said.

Adeola said that the National Assembly would not tolerate unauthorised expenditure by the ministry of finance or agencies of government not backed by law or relevant acts of the National Assembly guiding such expenditure.

He said that every expenditure must henceforth be in compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act and other applicable laws in Nigeria.

“Reports show that over the years, the Federal Government has not been able to surpass 30 per cent of its revenue targets.

“This has resulted in low level of budget implementation for critical capital projects.

“We need to reverse this trend. Indeed, we intend to introduce quarterly review of targets so that needed revenue can come to the federal purse” he stated.

The senator noted that the flagrant use of financial regulations issued by the ministry of finance and MDAs to direct spending would no longer be tolerated.

This, he said, was at variance with the laws enacted by the National Assembly and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

NAN

Gov. David Umahi of Ebonyi has approved the appointment of 180 additional aides to serve as Executive Assistants (EA) as Executive Assistant and Senior technical Assistant (STA).

Mr Clement Nweke, Principal Secretary to the governor  in a statement in Abakaliki, directed the appointees, which include two former members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, EBSHA, and ex-deputy speaker, Mrs Dorothy Obasi, to report for their documentation on Monday.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the appointed executive assistants include: Mr Chidiebere Egwu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) South East Zonal Youth Leader and Mr Igberi Nweme, former Charmian of Ikwo Local Government Area among others.

The appointees into the STA position include: retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Kelvin Opoke and Stephen Orogwu, former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Others are: Mr Maxwell Umahi, state Vice Chairman of PDP, Mrs Dorathy Obasi, former Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr Oliver Nwachukwu, former member of the state House of assembly among others.

The new appointees into the technical assistant position include: Chief John-Williams Nwode- former LGA Development Centre Coordinator, Nnannna Nwangele and Nkem Madu, prominent Youth leaders in the state among others.

Umahi had on Aug. 6, Gov. Umahi said that he will no longer appoint more aides, with the members of the state Executive Council increasing from 70 to 83. (