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Tag: Kaduna

  • 12,000 Rice Farmers to Benefit from WOFAN, Mastercard Foundation’s RiceAdvice App in Abuja, Kaduna

    12,000 Rice Farmers to Benefit from WOFAN, Mastercard Foundation’s RiceAdvice App in Abuja, Kaduna

     

    No fewer than 12,000 rice farmers in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Kaduna are to benefit from an innovative application – Rice Advice App which has been introduced to 200 extension workers in Abuja and Kaduna.

     

    The Rice Advice App is the initiative of the Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), a non-profit organization focused on women farmers in the country in partnership with Mastercard Foundation.

     

    Speaking in Abuja on recently, at a training on the Rice Advice app, the President of WOFAN, Hajia Salamatu Garba stated that the extension workers have been trained on the use of the App to advise farmers to enhance their performance and annual yield.

     

    “With this app, they can measure the exact sizes of the farm and advise the farmers on the correct fertilizer application. The app is also useful for predictive analysis because it will be able to proffer information such as expected yields from farms and how farmers can leverage this to maximize profits,” Garba explained.

     

    Also speaking at the event, the Program Lead, Agriculture for Mastercard Foundation in Nigeria, Lois Sankey said the training is aimed at building the savvy of the extension workers on the integration of technology and agriculture which is a testament to the Young Africa Works (YAW) strategy of The Foundation.

     

     “Since the extension workers provide services to the farmers, it is important that their capacity to train the farmers in understanding the principles under the Rice Advice is consistently built. This is particularly important as we go into the dry season farming, so constant training is necessary to increase the extension workers’ capacity” Sankey said.

     

    The WOFAN President noted that the extension workers were part of a total of 200 that are working with WOFAN in the four Northern states of Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa and FCT adding that they were the third batch to be trained.

     

    “We are working in the four states with the Mastercard Foundation. This project encompasses 45,000 farmers who will go back to their various farmers better equipped and more knowledgeable on twenty-first-century strategies of farming. Through this project, we are anticipating a new generation of farmers who will leverage technology to achieve great things”, she noted.

      

  • Kaduna Needs ₦140bn For Ranching, Says El-Rufai

    Kaduna Needs ₦140bn For Ranching, Says El-Rufai

     

    Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has said that the state needs ₦140 billion for 14 ranches to fully settle herders and their families in the state.

     

    He stated this on Tuesday while addressing journalists at the All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Abuja, arguing that the measure is the most sustainable means to boost livestock production.

     

    “It is not a matter of populist legislation or saying that tomorrow this or that;  it is not the solution. We have taken a position as northern states governors and we are implementing that,” he said.

     

    “We cannot do it overnight. We need billions of naira. This is just one ranch that is costing N10 billion. I have 14 grazing reserves in Kaduna State and I would like to convince them into ranching. Do I have 14 times N10 billion? I don’t have.”

     

    “In my state for instance, we are developing a huge ranch at Damao to centralise the herders and that is the solution (on the) long term. But can it be done overnight? No. This project that we are doing will cost us about ₦10 billion. The CBN is supporting us with about ₦7.5 billion and [it] will take about two years to do.”

     

    While El-Rufai maintained that ranching remains the recipe for the recurring farmer-herder conflict in the country, he described the anti-grazing law enacted by some of his colleagues as unrealistic.

     

    According to him, although ranching is the ideal solution to the problem, it cannot be done overnight. He urged those pushing for the immediate ban on open grazing to exercise patience as time and resources are required to have ranches across the country.

     

    “We will be settling about 1,500 Fulani herders’ families and [I] hope they will see that there are alternative ways of producing livestock instead of running up and down with cattle and going to people’s farms and causing all kinds of problems,” Governor El-Rufai added.

     

    El-Rufai is among the latest high-profile personalities to have voiced concerns over the ban on open-grazing by governors – mostly those from the southern region.

     

    The governors had met earlier in the year and banned the open grazing of livestock, giving a September 1 deadline for members to enact the anti-open grazing law.

     

    While a good number of the states have enacted the law and others still in the process, the move has caused ripples across the nation. It has also been criticised by several government officials.

     

    One of such persons who has faulted the Southern Governors’ Forum’s move is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) who said the development is unconstitutional.

     

    “For example, it is as good as saying, perhaps, maybe, the northern governors coming together to say they prohibit spare parts trading in the north,” he said.

     

    “Does it hold water? Does it hold water for a northern governor to come and state expressly that he now prohibits spare parts trading in the north?”

     

    According to him, the governors should first amend the Constitution to prohibit open grazing before going ahead with their decision.

     

    “If you are talking of constitutionally guaranteed rights, the better approach to it is to, perhaps, go back to ensure the Constitution is amended,” he added.

     

    Despite Malami’s stance, the governors maintain that there is no going back on the ban, insisting it will be enforced to the fullest extent in the region.

     

    “Mr Malami is advised to approach the court to challenge the legality of the laws of the respective states banning open grazing and the decision of the Southern Governors’ Forum taken in the interest of their people. We shall be most willing to meet him in court,” the Chairman of the forum and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, said.

     

    “The decision to ban open grazing stays. It will be enforced with vigour.”

  • NLC Suspends Strike In Kaduna

    NLC Suspends Strike In Kaduna

     

    The Nigeria Labour Congress has suspended its five-day warning strike in Kaduna State to pave way for negotiations as requested by the Federal Government.

     

    The President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, announced the suspension of the strike on Wednesday in Kaduna.

     

    He said, “As you are aware, we have been in Kaduna State for the past four days for our declared protest and industrial action against the sack of workers without following due process as provided by the Labour law.

     

    “This action was successful and we tried to maintain procedures of industrial action.

     

    “This afternoon an official letter was communicated to the NLC national headquarters signed by the Minister of Labour.

     

    “We will honour the meeting as scheduled for tomorrow at 11:a.m. The labour leaders in Kaduna will also be present because they have the substance of the issues in the state.”

     

    Wabba said “the NLC suspended the strike immediately” to give dialogue a chance.

     

    Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had said that the Federal Government would intervene to bring the labour crisis rocking Kaduna State to a peaceful end.

     

    Mohammed said that the Federal Government was disturbed about the sudden turn of events in Kaduna State, stressing that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, is already working to broker a truce between the opposing sides.

     

    He said, “The Federal Government is not folding its arms and already, the Minister of Labour and Employment has waded in and he is in touch with both the government of Kaduna State and the Labour.

     

    “In addition, the security apparatus all over the country have also taken pre-emptive measures to ensure that hoodlums don’t take advantage of this situation.

     

    “At the end of the day, all the parties have to come back to the drawing table to agree and hammer out concessions and agreements”.

     

    The Chairman, Kaduna chapter of NLC, Ayuba Suleiman, had asked workers to ground all activities for five days as directed by its national leadership to serve as a warning, following the sacking of no fewer than 4,000 state workers in April.

     

    Suleiman and the NLC Secretary, Christiana Bawa, in a statement, asked their colleagues to begin the warning strike from Sunday at 12am.

  • NUPENG Threatens Nationwide Strike over Kaduna, Labour Dispute

    NUPENG Threatens Nationwide Strike over Kaduna, Labour Dispute

     

    The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) said on Tuesday that it might declare a nationwide industrial action following the ongoing face-off between the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Kaduna State Government.

     

    NUPENG, in a statement jointly signed by its National President, Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, told its members to be on red alert over the attack on NLC peaceful protest in Kaduna State.

     

    NUPENG warned that if any harm was inflicted on any of the members of the organised labour, the leadership of the union would not hesitate to call on all its members throughout the nation for a total shut down of all services in the upstream, mid-stream and downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.

     

    It said, “In the light of the above, we are therefore putting all NUPENG members nationwide on red alert and may at very short notice of five hours call for a nationwide industrial action if situation arises.

     

    “Our solidarity remains constant for the union makes us strong.”

     

    The union said its national leadership was deeply saddened with the violent turn of NLC peaceful protests by the ‘dictatorial and despotic regime of Governor Nasir el-Rufai in Kaduna State’.

     

    It added, “The leadership of the union is therefore calling on the Federal Government to immediately call on Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, to order before his arrogance and power drunk ego further push the situation into horrendous calamity as he has been doing in all issues relating to human lives and wellbeing.

     

     “Consequently, the union reiterates that no labour leader or worker as the case may be, be harmed, harassed, maimed, humiliated or victimised during this five-day peaceful protests in the state.”

     

    The union said it was raising the alarm following the very reliable report of the clandestine move of el-Rufai to hurt and put the lives of NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, and other labour leaders in danger “in his usual blind egotistical style of running government in the state.”

     

    The NLC is currently protesting against the mass sacking of workers by the Kaduna State Government, a move that was vehemently opposed by the state governor.