Crunch Times News

By Otobong Gabriel, Abuja

The Rotary Club of Abuja Asokoro Diamond, during the week distributes sanitary pads to not fewer than 100 girls in FCT and counselled them on menstrual cycle and how to curb unwanted pregnancy.

The President of the Rotary Club, Rtn. Adeleke Shola Ayanronke said the initiative was part of the activities to commemorate the 2023 International Day of the Girl Child, adding that it was also an opportunity to educate them on ways to deal with negative peer pressure, live and maintain a hygienic lifestyle that will keep them away from diseases. 

Ayanronke said to make this year's celebration more impactful, the Rotary Club also organized life transforming programs such as Debate & Spelling Bees, Skill Acquisition training, Gratitude Circle Game and others to help boost the confidence of the girl child in realizing their uniqueness and how amazing and powerful they can become if they acknowledge and activate the great potentials in them. 

Also speaking, the Community Services/Project Chair of the Rotary Club, Rtn. Adeleke Stephen Adedapo advised parents to prioritize their girl child, care for their needs and guide them where necessary. He said " It's not enough to provide for them materially, their emotional and psychological needs should also not be overlooked ".

In the same vein, the Assistant Governor of the Club, Rtn. Abosede Modupe (Major Donor)  lectured the students on how to  handle their case  whenever they are abused, they should speak out and not die in silence and as much as possible always keep away from abusive relationship.

By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel 

As part of its strategic moves to fulfil its campaign promises of ensuring open governance that is citizen-centred, the Abuja Municipal Area Council has partnered DEAN Initiative to promote open governance and implement citizen-centric policies.

The Consultant and Development Partner, AMAC, Abiodun Essiet said on Wednesday during a two-day workshop organised by the area council that in an Open Government Partnership, governments work with civil society to create action plans with concrete reforms. This model helps to ensure citizens play a role in shaping and promoting accountability in governance. 

Essiet added that the workshop which was tagged "AMAC Open Government Partnership Sensitization and Action II Development Workshop" centered around open procurement and continued citizen's participation in budgetary process and AMAC happen to be the only local government area in Nigeria to join the OGP global, indicating their commitment to promote accountability and transparency in government process.

Also speaking, Director of Admin, AMAC, Taiwo Atahiru Kakubu reiterated the council's commitment to achieving the OGP plan, saying AMAC have a very open procurement process for everybody to participate and encouraged women to also key in, adding that women are presently very few compared to men in the procurement processes. 

This flexibility is to ensure that what the citizens want is what government does, not to decide for the citizens. Whatever projects they prioritized or choose is what we implement for them, and encouraged people to always feel free to bring their inputs in terms of ideas and life-transforming projects so that we can work together to see how they can be actualized.

Also, the Lead Team, Dean Initiative, Semiye Michael said as a civil society organisation our responsibility is to continue to support government to ensure that they introduce good governance enablers that ensure that citizens benefit a lot better from the government. 

"We noticed that the concentration of governance has been on the national governments over the years, but their constitutional responsibility for the local government and when you engage the president and the ministers, they'll begin to tell you that, we should also ensure that we make citizens understand that there are roles local government should play in development.

He explained that it was important to ensure that we mainstream the commitment and the participation of the citizens encouraging budget. Most local governments in Nigeria do not involve citizens in budget creation. In most local governments, no citizens know what their budget looks like. So we try to use the first action plan with a mark to break that.

Blessing Bature, Abuja 

 

The Abuja Municipal Area Council Chairman, Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu has reminded FCT electorate that the candidature of Distinguished Senator Philip Aduda and Hon. Micah Jiba for the Senatorial and House of Representative offers them renewed hopes with a credible action plan that is calculated to mitigate plethora of needs and expectations of the entire territory.

Maikalangu, who spoke at a massive campaign rally organized by the wife of Distinguished Senator Philip Aduda, Mrs Hauwa Aduda, in Jiwa and Gwagwa of the nation’s capital, describing Aduda and Jiba as the most formidable candidates citizens can trust.

The Council Boss who further described the mammoth crowd who trekked from distant communities is a demonstration that the PDP and 5theeir candidatures remains the best choice that will turn the unending plight of the FCT indigenous people. as part of their solidarity and support for the PDP candidates. 

He emphasized that the victory of the PDP in the FCT is a victory to advance the hopes and aspirations of ordinary Nigerians.

Maikalangu further stressed that Nigerians should campaign assiduously to ensure that the PDP Presidential Candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and PDP Candidates emerge victorious on 25th February, 2023.

The Chairman who spoke to various women group across Jiwa ward re-enforced his innate position that women have a vital role to play in the forth-coming 2023 general election and encourage them to rally round and ensure landslide victory to all the PDP candidates, and promised to make them job creators rather than job seekers.

He said that he will work very hard to put an end to every frustration being suffered by women, during my first tenure in office especially infant mortality rate in the council and ensure a total girl-child education across the FCT. 

“so far, we have seen our representatives at the National Assembly projecting the real plight of the FCT indigenes” especially the issues of resettlement and compensation, reintegration, representation in the Federal Executive Council and the right of the original inhabitants of Abuja which has gotten reasonable attention at the National Assembly. so it is more dangerous to vote in a first timer at the National Assembly who will start from the scratch, therefor delaying the vast achievement made by our law makers at the National Assembly. I used this opportunity to commend them even though they are few representing us at the National Assembly but they are doing well”.

While speaking, the wife of Senator Philip Aduda, Mrs Hauwa Aduda urged women to use their voting power to enact a leadership that will respect women, children and human rights which she said PDP remains the main option in the FCT. 

Kingsley Madaki

By Blessing Bature, Abuja 

In furtherance to mitigate the menace of Sexual and gender based violence in Federal Capital Territory, a Non-Governmental Organisation, Abiodun Essiet Initiative for Girls (AEIG) yesterday took anti Sexual and Gender-Based Violence sensitisation campaign to students of Government Secondary School in Yangoji community, in Kwali Area Council in Abuja.

The AEIG Project Officer, Josephine Emeghoghena, who represented the Founder of the NGO, Abiodun Essiet, during the programme tagged: "SGBV awareness programme in high schools in Abuja said no fewer than 200 students were sensitised on the various forms of SGBV and how to effectively assist tackle SGBV cases emanating from the learning environment or their homes.

Explaining the awareness initiative, Emeghoghena, said the program aims at curbing school related sexual and gender-based violence and raising anti-GBV Ambassadors.

She the GSS Yangoji, is part of the 6 schools approved by the FCT Secondary Education Board (SEB) for the NGO to cover across the six area councils, as part of AEIG's empowerment project for the promotion of the rights FCT Original Inhabitants, which started in 2022, is being powered by the MacArthur Foundation, through Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED).

According to her, it is very necessary to sensitise students on SGBV to help them know their rights and the importance of speaking up against the menace. 

On her part, the school Principal, A. Rukayyat, commended the NGO for bringing the sensitisation campaign to the students within their learning environment, as it will empower them to help combat the menace.

Highlight of the event was the nomination and inauguration of five students, three girls and two boys as the NGO's Anti-GBV Ambassadors in the school.

 

Blessing Bature, Abuja 

Anti-gender-based violence experts have urged the Nigerians, traditional leaders and primary healthcare workers to focus more on victims and survivors rather than on perpetrators while dealing with sexual and gender based violence SGBV.

The Project Officer, Abiodun Essiet Initiative for girls, Josephine Emeghoghena, who represented the Executive director of the organization made the call at a one day capacity workshop, gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja, urging Nigerians to take the issues of SGBV seriously.

She said, "we are here to sensitize and create more awareness, train health care workers in the primary healthcare sector in FCT, on how to address gender and sexual based violence and to build their capacity on how to treat victims when it comes to report of SGBV.

"Today we're training those in Gwagwalada and Kuje and its expected that all Nigerians not just the health workers alone should take SGBV cases seriously and report such case to the appropriate authorities when it happened in our environment, they should not keep quiet, they should act fast because lives are involved."

 

"Also if there are issues of spousal battery, rape, the person's live is in danger and there's tendency that death may occur at the end we are to act fast as Nigerians and treat it as violence", she said.

Also, Dr Laz Eze, Public Health Physical and CEO, Talk health aja said the role of primary healthcare service delivery is not only to tack sexual and gender based violence but also prevention, care and of course mental support for sexual and gender based violence.

According to him, primary healthcare is the closest services to the people and is something that should be acceptable, affordable, available at all times because it has community components inter sectoral collaboration which means people of different sectors coming together to provide services to the victims that's why all those element, Health education and promotion, delivery of highest possible quality of health care services are things the participants at this workshop today needs to know, he said.

In the same vein, the chairman, health workers ward who double as the chairman of chairmen FCT chapter, Jelaz Tela said they provide oversight function for FCT primary healthcare and the association mobilized people to get primary healthcare, to also assist the clinics to meet up with the basic of primary healthcare.

"In respect to sexual and gender based violence, we sensitize the community first to be security conscious to know the time they go out and come in and how they leave in their wards. So we sensitize communities and encouraged them that when such thing happened, they should not keep quiet but they should report to the community leaders first, then we'll involved the party concern and address the issues.

By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel 

The Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC has said the planned return of suspended 'park and pay' policy by the Federal Capital Territory Administration would not be accepted.

The council described the act as unjustifiable which is aimed at denying AMAC to get its legitimate revenue to provide social amenities to the people.

In a statement Signed by the Senior Special Assistant on community development to the Chairman of AMAC, Yunusa Yusuf Ahmadu said the law didn't permit another body to collect or manage motorists activities especially on street and motor parks

It said the situation was disturbing when the FCT Transportation Secretariat made the announcement, recently, saying it is worrisome for the secretariat to be cooking up a kangaroo way to begin 'park and pay' which ideally the law does not permit them, they don't have the power to do that.

It therefore asked the Federal Capital Territory Administration to hands off the policy planned to take off by the end of first quarter of 2023.

The statement  explained that the plan if allowed to come back, it will affect revenue generation in the council.

"We want to warn clearly that we know the Minister as a law abiding citizen and nobody should cajole the minister to do the wrong thing, we want to tell Candido that we have records of how he never allowed the park and pay to see the light of the day when it was initially introduced by the FCDA.

"We want to say clearly as AMAC, we reject whatever action that will be introducing park and pay from the FCT Administration, it is not their duty, it is the duty of the local government, we have it in our laws, in our by laws, in our acts, whatsoever you want to define it, and it has been both in the court of law, and it is clear that it is our responsibility, so we are shocked that Candido is so inquisitive, because we know clearly that he was once the chairman of AMAC, while he was the chairman of AMAC he never allowed the park and pay to operated from the FCT Administration, why is he now so keen? Because he is the Mandate Secretary Transport, we look at it as deliberate act to sabotage the revenue of AMAC, and that we feel is very unfair and unacceptable.

"Candido should know clearly that, gone are those days when he was the chairman, he can not be Mandate Secretary and be the chairman of AMAC at the same time, it is not allowed, it is either he is Mandate Secretary. There are so many laws he should concentrate about, we have issues that in train station, people are dieing, neighboring communities are sacrificed for train stations and railway, let him go and attend to those issues, we know how people's bags are been snatched in train stations. I think he has enough job to do rather than concentrating on how to collect park and pay or cooperate parking or whatever he calls it, it is solely the responsibility of AMAC and we have all the manpower required to enforce it and ensure that we get it done."