Federal Government to Pay N20,000 Naira Palliative to the Poorest Nigerians

The Federal Government has commenced the disbursement of N5000 to over 1 million indigents across the country.

The disbursement came following the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari that the conditional cash transfers for the next two months be paid immediately to beneficiaries.

The disbursement was done on Wednesday in Kwali Central Area Council of FCT by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq.

The Minister disbursed N20,000 as payment for four months to over 190 beneficiaries at the payment point in Kwali.

The beneficiaries were handed their stipends after their payment cards were verified and scanned by government-approved mobile money operators.

Speaking during the disbursement, the minister said: “The exercise commenced about five years ago and it is geared towards supporting the poor and vulnerable households of our society.

“We give them monthly stipends of N5000 every month and now that we have these restrictions, Mr. President has directed that we give them two months advance payment and we are here today to carry out that directive of paying the two months advance payment.”

On the number of beneficiaries, Farouq said: “We have over a million people across the country. For the FCT and this particular area Council, we are giving about 5000 households in this area.”

How to collect federal government N Cash TransferOn how the beneficiaries were identified, she said: “It is a very long process and many people like religious leaders, community leaders, and different groups all came together to identify the poorest and vulnerable households in their community.”

On the claim that the beneficiaries were members of a particular political party, she said: “It is untrue and you can confirm from the beneficiaries of the process of selection.”

Also speaking, the National Programme Coordinator for the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Dr. Temitope Sinkaiye said the additional 1million beneficiaries would be added to the programme before the end of the year.

Explaining how the programme works and how it has impacted beneficiaries, Sinkaiye said: “The process of identification is a long process that involves community members themselves identifying those who are poor and vulnerable in their sight. So, the team moves from community to community and the community members determine what poverty means in their village and those who fall within their definition of poverty.

source: Financialwatchngr.com

President Muhammadu Buhari to Address the Nation

President Muhammadu Buhari will address the nation Monday, April 27, 2020 at 8pm.

This is according to a statement by Mr Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity.

In his communique, the media aide urged all television, radio and other electronic media stations to hook up to the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) respectively for the broadcast.

Channels TV

Lagos state Government Shortlisted Firms for the 4th Mainland Bridge

The Lagos State Government has shortlisted 10 firms that applied for the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge. The announcement was made in a statement by the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.

The firms include CCECC Nigeria Limited; CGGC-CGC Joint Venture; China Harbour Engineering Company Limited; China State Construction Engineering Corporation Nigeria Limited; IC ICTAS Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. and Ingenieros Consultores, S.A., through Makais Energy. Others are Julius Berger Nigeria Plc; Mota-Engil and CCCC Consortium; Mutual Commitment Company Limited and Power Con-struction Corporation of China.

“Following the issuance of request for qualification to the 32 shortlisted and eligible respondents to the expression of interest, we are pleased to announce that the Lagos State Government has received a total of 10 responses to the request for qualification (the applications) from the applicants. “The Lagos State Government will now proceed to evaluate the applications in line with the evaluation criteria set out in the request for qualification and thereafter announce the successful pre-qualified bidders, who shall be eligible for participation in the next stage of the selection/bidding process, being the request for proposals stage,” the statement said.

source: The New Telegraph

Professor Jacob K. Olupona; Making Nigeria Proud

Jacob K. Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions and Chair of the Committee on African studies at the Harvard Divinity School with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.  Jacob K. Olupona is a scholar of indigenous African religions who came to Harvard after serving as a professor at the University of California, Davis.

 

He is working on a study of the religious practices of the estimated one million Africans who have emigrated to the United States over the last 40 years, examining in particular several populations that remain relatively invisible in the American religious landscape: "reverse missionaries" who have come to the U.S. to establish churches, African Pentecostals in American congregations, American branches of independent African churches, and indigenous African religious communities in the U.S. His earlier research includes African spirituality and ritual practices, spirit possession, Pentecostalism, Yoruba festivals, animal symbolism, icons, phenomenology, and religious pluralism in Africa and the Americas.

 

In his forthcoming book Ile-Ife: The City of 201 Gods, he examines the modern urban mixing of ritual, royalty, gender, class, and power, and how the structure, content, and meaning of religious beliefs and practices permeate daily life.

 

He has authored or edited seven other books, including Kingship, Religion, and Rituals in a Nigerian Community: A Phenomenological Study of Ondo Yoruba Festivals, which has been used for ethnographic research among Yoruba-speaking communities.

Olupona has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the Ford Foundation, the Davis Humanities Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Getty Foundation. He has served on the editorial boards of three journals and as president of the African Association for the Study of Religion. In 2000, Olupona received an honorary doctorate in divinity from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  Jacob K. Olupona received his BA from the University of Nigeria and his MA and Ph.D. from Boston University.

COVID-19: Lagos makes mask wearing compulsory

The governor of Lagos State, the economic capital of Nigeria, has made the wearing of masks compulsory to fight against the coronavirus, his spokesman told AFP on Sunday.

“Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu proclaimed the wearing of masks compulsory in the state” of the 20 million inhabitants megalopolis, spokesman Gboyega Akosile told AFP.

Lagos, the neighbouring state of Ogun and the federal capital Abuja have been placed since the end of March under total containment in order to stop the spread of the virus which has officially caused to date 35 deaths for 1,182 confirmed cases in Nigeria, including 19 deaths for 689 cases in Lagos.A decision by President Muhammadu Buhari on the lifting or extension of this containment, which expires on Monday, is expected at any moment.

The governor of Lagos has threatened penalties and sanctions for anyone who violates the requirement to wear a mask while the virus is spreading among the population, according to his spokesman.

“We have made arrangements for the production of masks in large quantities for the people of Lagos State,” he said, stressing the opportunity for the private sector to contribute to the fight against Covid-19 while securing a lucrative business, according to the same source.

Africa as a whole remains even less affected than most other regions of the world, with 1,330 deaths for more than 29,000 confirmed cases, according to a report compiled by AFP.

The toll is particularly heavy in Algeria and Egypt, with respectively 419 deaths for more than 3,200 confirmed cases and 307 deaths for more than 4,300 cases.

South Africa, the continent’s leading industrial power, is the most affected country in sub-Saharan Africa, with 86 deaths out of more than 4,300 cases.

AFP

Yemi Alade Vows to sign Two Female Artistes

Yemi Alade has reaffirmed her decision to sign two new female artistes. 

The self-acclaimed Mama Africa said “I put out the word that I was going to do that and my email at the moment is full to be sincere, so I am going through every one of them because I want it to be personal because there is a lot of talent obviously and a lot of people have been sending their emails, and eventually Thank God for this time so I get more time to listen to what has been sent. 

source: The Nation

COVID 19: Angelique Kidjo Remixes Maria Makeba's song to Raise Awareness

The world-famous song Pata Pata, a South African dance hit from the 1960s, has been re-released with new lyrics to spread information about coronavirus to vulnerable communities.

Meaning “touch touch” in the Xhosa language, Pata Pata was written by Grammy-winning singer Miriam Makeba who named it after a dance move popular in Johannesburg at the time.The new version sung by Beninese artist Angelique Kidjo includes lyrics such as, “We need to keep our hands clean so ‘no-Pata Pata’... Don’t touch your face, keep distance please and ‘no-Pata Pata’”.

It will be played on more than 15 radio stations across African countries, said the UN children’s agency, Unicef,which organized the release.

“It sounds so simple and yet it’s still really difficult to get information out to people in the most remote areas or to people who aren’t online,” said Unicef

Nicknamed “Mama Africa”, Makeba helped popularise music from the continent worldwide.

She was a friend and mentor to Kidjo, a Unicef goodwill ambassador and one of the biggest African celebrities of the last decade.