General
Government to Open Ogun River Bridge Soon
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Ogun River Bridge will soon be opened to traffic very soon as the work on the road is close to completion, the Commissioner for Public Works and Transports in Oyo State, Professor Dahud Kehinde Sangodoyin, assured during an inspection of the 34.8 Km Oyo-Fasola-Iseyin Road constructions which started in 2021.
While commending Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for his relentless effort to improve the state’s agriculture and economy through the construction of good roads, Professor Sangodoyin implored the citizens to protect whatever facility the government has provided so that there will not be any need for unnecessary repair.
Meanwhile, the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) has disclosed that the state has achieved 58.7 per cent in the practice of Exclusive Breastfeeding by Women of Child Bearing Age.
The Project Coordinator of ANRiN Oyo Project Implementation Unit, Dr Khadijah Alarape, confirmed this on Thursday at a stakeholders’ meeting of the State Committee on Food and Nutrition organised by ANRiN Project at the Owu Crown Hotel, Ibadan.
The ANRIN PC, who was elated with the recent data from MICS 2022 Survey, said the increase shows Pregnant and Lactating women are now aware of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for the general well-being of their children.
She lauded Mr Makinde for his support in increasing the maternity leave for pregnant women from 3 months to six months and also ANRiN for implementing 7 Basic Package of Nutritional Services across the 33 LGAs in the state.
This, according to her, has really helped the status of exclusive breastfeeding in the state in the last two years.
“The state governor should be thanked for his help in granting 6-months maternity leave for our mothers. This has really helped.
“This can be confirmed from available statistics on Nutrition indices that the state is doing well as far as exclusive breastfeeding is concerned. Although we need to work more on the rate of stunting in the state,” she stated.
While calling for more collaboration of the SCFN members, Dr Alarape said every Line Ministries on Nutrition must have a budgetary allocation for nutrition activities in their various MDAs.
She reiterated ANRiN’s effort at providing cost-effective Nutritional Services to Pregnant and Lactating Women, adolescent-girls as well as children under five across the state.
She also said two non-state actors, Solina Health Ltd and Save the Children, are currently working in communities across the state, giving Pregnant and Lactating Mothers as well as Children Under Five Basic Package of Nutritional Services.
In his welcome address, the Director of Development Partners at the Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mr Moruf Oyetunji, said the meeting is a statutory meeting which is held quarterly to review nutritional intervention and address malnutrition in the state.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development has expressed its readiness to support 150,000 young Nigerians with N110 billion.
The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, disclosed this on Thursday in Kano at the launch of the five nationwide enlightenment campaigns on government policies, national values and identities, security awareness and disaster preparedness.
He said over 600,000 students have so far benefited from the N59 million disbursed under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme.
The director general, who was represented by Mr Williams Dogo, Director, Legal Services of the agency, said that NELFUND was available to all qualified Nigerians in public tertiary institutions, noting that the sensitisation programme, with the theme Nationwide Sensitisation on Five Thematic Areas, was designed to deepen citizens’ knowledge of government initiatives.
The NOA boss explained that the campaign would highlight the presidential directive on flood mitigation, which provided for the release of N3 billion to each state in 2024 for drainage clearance and relocation of vulnerable communities.
He said that 700 schools had been renovated nationwide as an intervention to improve learning facilities in rural areas, stating that more than 15,000 new security personnel had been deployed nationwide to address diverse security challenges.
“It is our intention to carry out security awareness campaigns reaching no fewer than three million Nigerians in each state through media engagements, advocacy visits to traditional and religious leaders, rallies at markets and motor parks, as well as town hall meetings,” he said.
On national values, he said that reorientation campaign would focus on patriotism, unity and campaigns against extreme graduation practices that contradict cultural norms, adding that the campaign would also familiarise Nigerians with the current national anthem, which was changed by President Bola Tinubu.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigerians will have to cough out more money to obtain their international passports because the Nigeria Immigration Service has increased the fees.
In a statement signed on Thursday by the Public Relations Officer of the agency, ACI AS Akinlabi, it was disclosed that the new fees would take effect from Monday, September 1, 2025.
It was disclosed that the 32-page passport with a validity of five years will now to for N100,000 and the 64-page 10-year passport is now N200,000.
The immigration explained that the upward review of the prices was “to uphold the quality and integrity of the Nigerian passport.”
“The review which only affect passport application fees made in Nigeria,” it stressed, adding that, “Nigerian passport application fees made by Nigerians in the Diaspora remain unchanged at $150 for 32-page with 5-year validity and $230 for 64-page with 10-year validity.”
“The service reiterates its commitment to balancing quality service delivery with the need to ensure Passport services are accessible to all Nigerians,” the statement concluded.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday returned to Nigeria after travelling to Japan and Brazil for official functions.
He landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in the early hours of today almost two weeks after he left the country through same route.
He was received by senior government officials, including the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Nuhu Ribadu; the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Uba Sani; the Governor of Imo State, Mr Hope Uzodinma; and the Deputy Senate President, Mr Barau Jibrin; among others.
Before heading to Japan for the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Yokohama from August 20 to 22, the President, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, he had a stopover in Dubai.
Mr Tinubu precisely travelled out of Nigeria on Thursday, August 14, 2024, for the two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil.
After leaving Japan, he zoomed to Brazil to woo investors and held talks with the Brazilian leader, Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
He was able to convince the country’s petroleum firm, Petrobras, to return to Nigeria after it left a few years ago. He also helped to enable a direct flight from Brazil to Nigeria.
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