Hon. Olufemi Felix Kafaru of Sagamu LGA

Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria - Application date extended.

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:02:00 +0000

Qualification for Participation in YouWiN!

All applicants for the Business Plan Competition will be required to satisfy all of the following criteria to be eligible for consideration:

The applicant is a proven citizen of Nigeria, no older than 40 years (proof of identity international passport/voters card)

The applicant is proposing a business venture within the national borders of Nigeria, and with the intention of employing Nigerian citizens.

The proposed venture does not entail the production and distribution of weapons, alcoholic beverages, tobacco or/and gambling, or any activities that is in contradiction with the Nigerian constitution

Applicants have prepared an innovative business concept summary

The promoter should be willing to make an equity contribution in kind, but does not need to have long experience in managing a business

The applicant must choose to participate in one award pool. There are 6 regional pools on the basis of geo political zone as identified by market in which the applicant wishes to do business.
Application deadline extended until the 25th of November

HOW TO APPLY

FG Commends Ogun on Road Projects - News

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:09:00 +0000

The Federal Ministry of Works has lauded Ogun State government for its massive investments in road construction and its intervention on failed portions of the federal roads in its domains.

Members of the Presidential Audit Team, led by the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos, Engr. Ejike Egbemena, stated this during a courtesy visit to the governor in Abeokuta. The team commended the state government for its palliative work at Sango-Ota, which has since eased the traffic gridlock on the Ogun State end of the Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway and its reconstruction of the completely dilapidated portion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at Mowe, opposite the Redeemed Christian Church of God Camp.

The team stated that the effort of the state government on these two federal roads had ameliorated the untold hardship being experienced by commuters.

Members of the Presidential Audit Team were, at the request of the state government, on assessment tour of the federal roads in Ogun State, with a view to encouraging co-operation on the rehabilitation of the roads.

“We are impressed with what we have seen,” remarked the head of the delegation, “and we are happy to inform the governor that the Federal Government has awarded the contract for the construction of Lagos/Ota highway, which is to start in 2 weeks’ time. We are scrapping and putting up a new road with emphasis on drainages in order to ensure durability of the road.”

The team also said palliative work had been approved for the Ikorodu/Sagamu road and urged the state government to partner with the Federal Government to ensure that funds invested on the roads were protected.

In his reaction, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, said “the people are not interested in which road is federal and which one belongs to the state. Road is one of the most important social amenities. The Abeokuta/Ibadan road is not good. A lot of lives are lost on the road on a daily basis. The Ikorodu/Sagamu road is a big shame; petrol tankers had to embark on strike because of the terrible state of the road. This does not augur well for the economic well-being of the country.”

The governor reiterated the need for Nigerians to develop the culture of maintenance. “Once you do not maintain a road, it collapses. If you go abroad, roads stand for up to 30 or 40 years but here they collapse within three years.”

The governor also urged the Federal Government to always award construction contracts to firms that “have the competence, capacity and capital” to carry out such a project.

“You don’t do try and error with roads that are of strategic importance to the national economy; they must be awarded to companies that are tested and have track records,” he said.

The governor commended the Federal Government for the visit and requested for prompt reimbursement of funds expended by Ogun State on federal roads.

In a chat with newsmen shortly after the parley, Engr. Ejike Egbemena commended the quality of work done even on roads where the state government used direct labour approach and called for partnership between the states and federal government to ensure that commercial activities that lead to encroachment of the right of way and result in blockage of drainages were curtailed.

He re-emphasised the commitment of the Federal Government to provide a good road network in Nigeria.

The governor, in company of the Secretary to the state government, Barr. Adeoluwa Taiwo and a host of commissioners, had earlier hosted the team to a ‘break-your-fast’ dinner.

It will be recalled that a few weeks ago in the print and electronic media, many Nigerians expressed profound gratitude to the new administration in Ogun State for its interventions on the two major federal highways in its territory -Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway and Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.

Profile of Shagamu Local Government, Sagamu

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:14:00 +0000

Sagamu Local Government was under former Political Administration network of Remo division of the defunct Western Region of Nigeria. The Geographical entity called Remo Zone became divisible on the 23rd September, 1991 when the Federal Military Government of Nigeria created more Local Governments. This led to the creation of the Local Government form the then Remo Local Government Area namely; Ikennc and Sagamu Local Governments. Long before this, Sagamu Township stands at the apex of Political, Cultural and Economic activities and for a very long time to come, Sagamu will remain as a very important settlement in rendering of higher Order service to other newly created Local Government.

The present Sagamu Local Government includes the Territory of the Older divisions of Offin, Makun and Ode-Lcmo Local Councils. The Local Government by the virtue of its geographical location lies within the tropics. It bounded in the East by Ikenne Local Government, in the North by Remo North Local Government, in the West and South Obafemi Owode Local Government in Ogun State, and Ikorodu Local Government in Lagos State.

The Local Government is peopled by all tribes in Nigeria though Remo dialect of Yoruba Language is the main Local Language. The Sabo Area of Offin, Sagamu, can be mistaken for any typical Northern Town for language, culture and setting. The main occupation of the people is farming while few engage in, Industrialization and Civil Service job.

Sagamu Local Government produced the best farmer of the year 1993 at both state and national levels. Similarly, in 2005, the Local Government was adjudged the best farmer in the state and overall best Local Government 2005. Also, best in the South-West zone in 2009. However, the Local Government has the largest Kolanut Market in Nigeria. This is an indicator of the fact that majority of the people are Kola-nut Farmers.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
Sagamu Local Government in its Geographical and Political Administrative Extension Spans a Total Area of 68.3 Square Kilometres. The climatic pattern of the Local Government is a subset of the humid tropical region, characterized by relative high temperature, apparent absence of cold session, Low Pressure and High relative Humidity.

POPULATION
As at 2006 Population Census, Sagamu Local Government Area has a total Population figure of about 253,421 people.

ADMINISTRATION
The Political Administrative seat of the Local Government is located in Sagamu Township. By all standard, Sagamu Local Government is an Urban Settlement given the available evidence of physical, Human Economic Development Com Social Infrastructure forming part of the familiar landscaping of the Local Government.

For Administrative convenience, Sagamu Local Government is divided into (15) Fifteen Political Wards, namely.
Ward 1 Oko, Epe & Itunla 1 Ward 2 - ,Oko, Epe Itunla II
Ward 3 - AiyegbamijIjoku Ward 4 - Sabo 1
Ward 5 - Sabo II Ward 6 - ItunsokunjOyebajo
Ward 7 - Ijagba Ward 8 - Latawa
Ward 9 - Ode-lemo Ward 10 - OgijojIkosi
Ward 11 - Surulere Ward 12 - Isote
Ward 13 - Simawa Ward 14 - Agbowa
Ward 15 - Ibidojitun Alara

MARKETS
The following are the available markets within the Local Government Area. They are:
• Sabo-Offin Market
• Falawo Market
• Awolowo Market
• Oja-Oba Market
• Sonariwo market and Gateway International Market, Sagamu, built by the State Government. However, the Local Government forms the main Market for the Kolanut business within the Southern part of the country.

MOTOR PARKS
The Motor Parks includes:
• Isale Oko Motor Park
• Awolowo Motor Park
• Oja-Oba Motor Park
• Sabo Motor Park
• Ijokun Motor Park Kara Trailer Park

ROAD NETWORK
Sagamu Town, the headquarters of Sagamu Local Government Area. Its Urban nature has facilitated and encourages the establishment of both small and medium-scale industries in the Area. The following are some of the available Local and major industries operating in the Local Government Area.

Among the Local industries are:

- Black Smithing
- Block moulding
- Traditional (Cloth Weaving (Aso-Oke)
- Pure-water making
- Dyeing
- Mat making
- Gold smithing
- Bread Bakery
- Soap making

The major Industrial Establishments include:
- - West African Portland Cement PIc Portland electrical repairs
- - Nulec Industries Limited
- - CPI Moore Limited
- - Temitope biscuit and Conventional Limited
- - WESTCOM PLC., Ode-Iemo
- - Pefac Associates Limited
- - Olusola Paper Industries Limited
- - Balufon Animal Feed Limited
- - Monarch Steel, Ogijo
- - Phoenix Steel, Ogijo
- - Mayor Steel, Ogijo

NATURAL MINERAL RESOURCES
Sagamu Local Government is blessed with numerous and abundant natural/ mineral resources that could earn foreign exchange to the country, if properly and adequately tapped and enhanced. Among these are lime stone and Gypsum.

AGRICULTURE
The people of Sagamu Local Government Area are predominantly farmers hence the Local Government is endowed with Agricultural Resources distributed all over the Area. Some of the major cash crops/food crops in the Local Government Area are Kolanut, Cassava, Melon, Maize and Water yam.

EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Sagamu Local Government could boast of 53 Public Primary Schools and Secondary Schools. Similarly, there are also Private Primary and Secondary Schools located across the Local Government Area. The Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital is located in the Local Government Area.

HEALTH INSTITUTION
Presently, the Local Government could boast of 23 Health Institutions that spread all over the Local Government Area as well as one (1) General Hospital situated at Ode-Iemo in Sagamu Local Government Area.

SECURITY
Among the Security available in the Local Government Area include Divisional Police Offices at Sagamu and Ogijo and the State Security Service (SSS) with Headquarters in Sagamu. There is also a vibrant Vigilante Groups that compliment the activities of the Law Enforcement Agencies in the Area.

TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS
The Institution of Obaship and Traditional Rulers occupy a prominent position in the Local Government Area. Currently, the Local Government has Twenty-five Traditional Rulers with Akarigbo as Paramount Ruler of Remo Kingdom.

His Royal Majesty - Oba (Dr.) Michael Adeniyi Sonariwo (CON)
Akarigbo & Paramount Ruler of Remo Kingdom

Defence

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Objectives

The party’s objective on defense shall be consistent with the provisions of the constitution. Specifically, our objectives are to:

Create a highly trained, highly mobile and highly motivated military corps.
Create and maintain Armed Forces capable of discharging their constitutional role at all times and in all circumstances.
Use the Armed Forces to support our foreign policy objectives.

FOREIGN POLICY
Objectives
In conformity with the provision of the constitution of our party shall:
1. Pursue friendly and reciprocal relations on a bilateral and multilateral basis across the world, especially within the West Africa sub-region and within Africa as a whole.
2. Observe conventions and obligations of regional and international organizations of which Nigeria is a member.
3. Maintain and strengthen Nigeria’s membership of regional and international organizations to facilitate the attainment of Nigeria’s national interest.
4. Resist all forms of discrimination, domination and aggression against Nigeria and against any other state.

The Civil Service

Objectives

Development of a patriotic and efficient civil service characterised by the initiative, quality and commitment of its personnel, and by the speed and proficiency with which it discharges its responsibilities.
Development of measure to eliminate corruption, inertia and unnecessary red tape.

The Judiciary and the Administration of Justice

Objectives

The objective of our party in the administration of justice are:

To facilitate the complete independence of the judiciary from intimidation and external influence.
To strengthen the processes of administration of justice.
To uphold the principles of separation of powers as enshrined in the constitution.
To defend the principles of social justice, equity, equality and human rights.
To insulate the judiciary from all form of parochial interests and to ensure that the national interests and objectives are always upheld.

Policy Guideline on Social Development

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:20:00 +0000

Social development is a dynamic process that ensures a good quality of life within the community. The term social development is used here to embrace three major components: social welfare, community development and recreation.

Social development programmes are designed to offset, for individual as well as for the community at large, the unintended harsh effects of social change. Economic development efforts often result unintended effects such as migration, heavy urbanization and unemployment.

These in turn create problems such as family disintegration, emotional stress, delinquency and other social ills. Therefore social development programme are necessary to combat these stressors, which, if unchecked, could overwhelm the individual, and destabilize society itself.

Our party recognizes that these problems are especially pronounced where there is rapid economic and social change. Our Society Development Programme is designed, therefore, in direct response to current and anticipated problems arising from the rapid economic and social changes in our country.

Objectives

The Social Development Policy of our party for Nigeria has the following objectives:

To provide facilities and services that will assist the citizens in overcoming the harsh effects of rapid economic and social changes
To develop the body and character of the Nigerian youth by means of sports and recreation
To create facilities for the individual to enable him relate happily with the community.

To achieve these goals, the government of our party will pursue the following programmes of social development:

Social Welfare

Full and gainful employment
Marriage guidance and counseling bureaus
Family reconciliation services
Adoption and foster-care service
Homes for motherless and abandoned babies
Day-care centres
Old people’s homes
Rehabilitation and resettlement centres for the destitute and refugees
Social security arrangements for all employed and self-employed persons.

Community Development

The Integrated Rural Development Programme of our party is a broad programme of community development, essentially for the non-urban areas but with important ramification for the entire country. A significant feature of the programme is the organization of rural communities into cooperatives. As a further strategy for the economic and social integration of the individual into the society in an effective way, our government will foster the developments of GUILDS uniting the practitioners of particular trades within each cooperative unit. For example, encouragement will be given for the setting up and development of a Guilds of Blacksmiths, Guild sof Palm- oil or Groundnut-oil Producers, or a Guild of Dyers, etc. Such guilds will also be actively encouraged in the urban areas.

Another strategy for integrating the individual into society is the establishment of:

a National Patriotic Youth movement,
a more relevant National Youth Service Scheme (as an integral part of the programme of Education)
Boys and Girls Clubs
Women’s Club

Voluntary organizations such as the Girls’ Guide, the Boys’ Scout Movement, and others which will be given recognition and support.

Our government will provide free technical advice and encouragement in the execution of community-based self-help schemes. The Adult Education sub-program is itself a useful instrument in community development. It will therefore be vigorously pursued not only as a means of improving the mind of the individual but also as an opportunity for making him participate more meaningfully in the development of his community.

Sports

We recognize the role of sports in the physical and mental development of the individual and in projecting the image of a nation on the international stage. The party is very much aware that in recent years, sporting success on the international scene has boosted the morale of Nigerians and given us greater confidence than before.

The party believes that, for a sports-loving nation like Nigeria, outstanding achievements at the world level will create fresh inspiration and impetus that will have a salutary effect on our endeavors in this fields. We are therefore determined to make appropriate investments in the field of sports.

Objectives

To ensure the maximum success in the field of sports, our government will take the following steps.
Broaden participation in sports in order to increase the pool of talents from which young athletes are recruited. The policy of free education up to secondary school level is expected to facilitate efforts to broaden the base for the recruitment of top-grade sportsmen and sportswomen.
Require educational institutions, particularly at the higher level, to permit appropriate flexibility of their academic curriculum and schedules to encourage sportsmen and sportswomen to combine sports with academic pursuits without undue disadvantage. It is noted that the policy of free education at primary and secondary school levels and bursary and scholarship for indigent students at the tertiary institutions will remove the financial hardship that would otherwise befall the sportsman-student if he should lose time during important competitions.
Ensure the effective involvement of a much broader section of the population, by requiring that agencies of the Sports Commission be established at the Local Government level for the propagation of sports in every school and in every Boys and Girls club. Our Government will also provide adequate facilities for training, coaching and competition.
Establishment of a Welfare Association to support competitive athletes. The services of the Association will be available to all sportsmen and sportswomen who have consistently won honors in national and international sport.
Create a system of merit awards for sportsmen and sportswomen who win national and
international titles.

Policy Guideline on Economic Planning

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:18:00 +0000

Objectives

The key to attaining the Planning Objectives of our Party is to secure national consensus through public education and “buy-in”. We shall establish a sound technical and professional team to formulate and monitor the National Economic Plan and carry out detailed analysis and real-time monitoring.
Our party shall adopt the following as the main objectives of economic planning:

Integrated rural development with special emphasis on agricultural development
Formulation of measures to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor and between rural and urban areas
Attainment of full employment and raising the standard of living of every Nigerian
Rapid industrialization and technological advancement
Free trade

Mining and Petro-Chemical Industry

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Objectives

The party’s objective in this sector shall be:

To ensure responsible and efficient exploitation of our mineral resources
To ensure that government maintains exclusive rights over mining activities in the country;
To attain self-sufficiency in minerals and refined petroleum products
To contain environmental degradation arising from mining operations.

Iron and Steel Development

Iron and steel development are the foundation of an industrial revolution in Nigeria. Therefore the government of our party will undertake the following measure:

Objectives

To ensure the completion and take-off of Ajaokuta Steel Complex because of its primary desirability to various industrial concerns, especially on railway systems.
Ensure that a viable iron and steel industry is established and maintained as a pre -requisite for industrial and technological take-off.

Niger Delta

The situation in Niger Delta is a sore on the nation’s conscience, which calls for special attention. The deteriorating condition and the declining standard of living of our people there is a source of embarrassment to the nation and a cause for serious concern. Our party shall tackle the Niger Delta question once and for all by constructively engaging the people in the Delta with a view to finding amicable and lasting solution to the problem. This engagement will cover, among others, the following:

Environment
Infrastructure
Political and economic participation
Derivation
Relationship with oil companies

Housing and Urban Development

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:13:00 +0000

There is a huge deficit in the availability of housing to Nigerians, especially in the middle and low-income groups. Where it is available, the quality is extremely low, compared to what is obtainable in other developing countries. Modern financial arrangements, especially mortgage, to support the expansion of quality and affordable housing are at a very rudimentary stage. In addition the standards of planning and sanitation, especially in our cities, are quite low with unplanned structures and squalor taking over our cities and turning them, potentially, into slums.
To address these twin problems, the private and public sectors have important roles to play – the former, in the modernization and expansion of the housing sector in general, the latter, in strengthening regulations and institutions, to improve the existing urban development standards and ensure strict compliance with them.

Objectives

The party’s objectives in housing and urban development are:

To rapidly increase the quantity and improve the quality of the housing stock. especially for middle and low income groups.
To provide a central and active role for the private sector, especially mortgage institutions, in the provision of housing for all.
To rapidly improve the quality of the environment
To substantially upgrade and improve the mechanism for the disposal of human and industrial wastes,
To protect people, plants, animals, water and the atmosphere from pollution and abuse of any kind.
To institutionalize an appropriate response towards the environmental and waste disposal policies of the advanced countries.

Small-Scale Business

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:11:00 +0000

For several reasons, the Integrated Rural Development Programme and the full employment programme of our party need to be accompanied by dynamic development of small-scale businesses, particularly in commerce and industries.

Objectives

The major objectives of our party on small-scale business are:

To generate income and create wealth and prosperity across the land through support for small-scale businesses
To assist and promote the growth of small enterprises so that they can widen the range and efficiency of their activities and meet the growing and changing needs of the economy
To remove all obstacles which have hindered the operation of small scale farmers, traders, distributors and industrialist.

Transportation

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:07:00 +0000

Railways, waterway and road transportation are key and germane to economic growth and development. This is even more so in a country with estimated population of 130 million, growth at an annual average of 3%. The movement of people, goods and services in Nigeria will continue to be a challenge, which cannot be met efficiently and cost effectively by road transportation alone. The continuous neglect of railways and waterways by successive governments is bad policy, which has led to crisis in our transportation system, with planes routinely falling from the skies and absolute chaos reigning on our roads. This situation is unwise and unsustainable if Nigeria truly aspires to sustainable economic growth and development.

Objectives

The objective of our party in the transport sector is to create a safe, efficient, cost effective and integrated transport system through:

Modernization and expansion of railways and waterways and placing them at the centre of movement of people, goods and services.
Regular maintenance and expansion of roads.
Efficient and properly regulated aviation sector to dominate regional and continental routes.

Electricity

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:06:00 +0000

Objectives

The party’s objectives shall be to:

Ensure that within FOUR years of coming to power at the centre, the nation attains 80% stability in electricity supply across the country
Generate, transmit and distribute 800 watts per capital in the medium term
Lawfully acquire any other form of energy for electricity and for other civilian use through internationally acceptable standards and safeguards
To encourage state government and private sector participation in the generation and distribution of energy

Health

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:04:00 +0000

Good health is basic to human existence. To be wealthy, the nation also needs to be healthy. Since the health sector in general in Nigeria is in complete shambles, primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare must receive appropriate attention and must be developed fully to meet our nation’s needs. In doing so, however, it makes sense to place greater emphasis on preventive and primary healthcare, for the time being.

Objectives

The major objectives of our party’s policy on Health are:

To tackle and control of all those factors in our environment and in our daily life which adversely affect our physical and mental health;
To provide the personnel and institutions that will assist society in ensuring continued good health care delivery for every citizens;
To ensure that the good effects of all these services are accessible to all, irrespective of their domicile or economic status.

Primary Health Care Components

Free Immunization for children 0-5 years against the six killer diseases of childhood.
Free Immunization for women of child-bearing age against the deadly disease of tetanus.
Free supply of micronutrient supplements to children 0-5 years and pregnant women
Free mass immunization against the deadly disease of yellow fever and cerebrospinal meningitis during epidemic.
Free treatment of cases of HIV/AIDS, T.B. and Leprosy.
Provision of health information, education and materials for effective prevention, control and management of communicable diseases.

Secondary Health Care Components

Free Registration
Free consultation
Free minor investigation
PCV (Packed Cell Volume)
MP (Malaria Parasite)
Urinalysis
Free Medication with essential drugs
Free minor surgeries
I & D (Incision and Drainage)
Suturing of minor lacerations
Closed Reduction and POP Immobilization of simple fractures

Free care of pregnant women:

Pre–natal care
Free Normal Deliveries – including forcep and vacuum extractions
Free suturing of Episiotomies
Free medication with essential drugs during labour, delivery and puerperium
Free post natal care for breast feeding mothers
Routine post-natal care examination and medication

We shall promote and adequately fund systematic research into all forms of traditional medicine and shall encourage the establishment of traditional health institutions in all the state to complement the national effort in health care delivery through conventional medicine practice.

Education

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:03:00 +0000

There are compelling political, economic and social reasons for free education for all citizens at all levels, once we can afford.

Our party believes that education is the key to national unity an economic development. Disparities in education and economic opportunities constitute the primary cause of gross inequality in the distribution of national wealth. Such disparities have promoted social disequilibrium and exacerbated ethnic and tribal tension and discord. The party is determined to reverse this.

We also believe that education is indispensable for the development of an enlightened citizenry that will be easy to govern but impossible to enslave. Without a well- educated population, development efforts will like pouring water into a basket.

Finally, we also believe that education is a fundamental right of every citizen. If the State expects full service and complete loyalty from every citizen, then the state is duty-bound to educate every citizen to the limit of his ability, so that he can also serve state to the limit of his competence.

For these reasons, the party considers it absolutely desirable that education should be provided FREE for every Nigerian citizen once our Governments can afford it. Our national interest dictates that education shall be our topmost priority since the success of every other programme depends on it.

Objectives

The Education programme of the government of our party has the following objectives:

To make every citizen literate and able to communicate in major world languages as well as in their mother tongue
To train citizens in science, engineering, finance, management and information and communication technology who will lead the nation’s drive for prosperity and economic development and who will have a deep understanding of and solution to the nation’s problems.
To substantially raise the income of Nigerians and create a middle class for the development of the economy.
To train citizens to learn, to inquire and to develop increased foresight and accuracy and a readiness to try new methods and techniques
To train the various levels of manpower needed to transform the nation.

Job Creation

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:55:00 +0000

It is impossible to sustain a safe and secure society unless poverty and want are conquered or reduced to the barest minimum and a higher level or prosperity ensured across the board. Our party intends to achieve this through the massive creation of jobs.

Objectives

Our objective in this regard is to create full and gainful employment for those willing and able to work, by creating 500,000 new entrepreneurs every year who will be able to employ an average of four persons each.

Agriculture and Integrated Rural Development

Agricultural production has experienced a sharp decline in the last few decades. Not only are we now net importers of some agricultural products that used to be major foreign exchange earners, we also import a significant amount of food that should be produced locally.
Some of the reasons for the decline in agricultural production are:

The rural areas have been neglected by successive administrations, leading to a drift of population away from the farm into the cities, as the villages become more and more unattractive.
The remaining people available for farming are either too old, too few or too young to be adequately productive, and their major implements are still the hoe and the cutlass.
Because of the absence of even the most basic amenities, enterprising and virile young men are not encouraged to settle in the rural areas and engage in modern agriculture.
The need to improve agriculture is therefore inseparably linked with the need to develop rural areas and improve the quality of life of the rural folk, so that rural communities can become more attractive to live and do business in.

Objectives

The objectives of the Integrated Rural Development Programme are as follows:

To provide critical infrastructure and social services in the rural areas
To increase rapidly the output of food and export crops and aggressively find export markets for them
To improve the quality of life and of the habitat in the rural areas and reverse the tide of rural-urban migration.

Security of Life and Property

noreply@blogger.com (.) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:46:00 +0000

Living in Nigeria today is akin to living on a war front, where citizens need all their natural instincts to merely walk or drive on the street. Life itself has become something of a Russian roulette, it can best be described in the words of the famous English Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes: chaotic, nasty, brutish and short. Hired killers, armed robbers, ethnic militias, petty criminals and other social miscreants are perpetually on the prowl, making life, progressively, a living hell. High profile assassinations, daredevil robberies, ethnic and political pogrom as well as jungle justice in the home and in the streets have become such a recurrent feature of daily life that one may be justified to insist that the State in Nigeria is on vacation somewhere in outer space. The situation is so bad that in our country today, no citizen, no matter how high or low is secure and safe. Yet the first and most important responsibility of the state, even in medieval times, is to go to whatever extent necessary to not only make citizens secure and safe, but actually make them feel secure and safe.

To be sure, the current situation has not always been the case. A succession of bad policies and bad governance over the past few decades can be held responsible for this. Bad policies and bad governance, by their nature, generate social discontent that in turn breeds lawlessness, criminality and the rule of the strong. From the highest level of authority to the lowest in the streets this culture of impunity and insecurity has not only settled in, but is also, frighteningly, taking roots. No wonder it is said that when a fish starts getting rotten, it starts from the head.

Objectives

The most important priority of the Action Congress is to protect the life of every Nigerian and to make them safe inside their homes and on the streets, at home and abroad, to enable them move from one point to another at any hour of the day or night without the fear for their safety or their lives.

Good Governance: Enthroning a government of discipline, leadership by example and people centred policies.
Policing: Transforming the police into a true and proper instrument for the maintenance of law and order through continuous training, discipline, motivation, proper compensation and retooling, specifically, we shall:

raise entry requirement to a minimum or ordinary National Diploma or equivalent.
modernize methods of policing to give priority to crime prevention, investigation and collection of evidence
adequately equip the police with modern communication, transportation and weaponry to meet the challenges of highly sophisticated crimes
improve the welfare of officers and men with better pay sufficient and suitable accommodation
provide adequate training opportunities at home and abroad and set mandatory training and training standards and targets for officers and men

Rehabilitation: Decongesting the prisons and making true and proper corrective institutions with well equipped and functioning workshop, learning centres and improved sanitary conditions.