Human Angle

250 Senior Citizens in Oyo Benefit from Renewed Hope Initiative

By Web News 283

By Oluseyi Olarinde

‎Two hundred and fifty elders from across Oyo state have benefited from the Renewed Hope Initiative, RHI, Social Investment Programme for the elders.
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‎The elders who had their vitals checked by medical experts received 200,000 naira each at the elderly support scheme programme.
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‎A Medical Practitioner, who is also the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Dr Akintunde Ayeni while advising the elders explained that old age is mostly associated with some challenges such as loneliness, poverty and ill health, hence the need to live healthly by cultivating some health habits such as eating balanced diet especially intake of fruits and vegetables.
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‎Dr Ayeni called on the elders to study themselves to know their health challenges and devise means of tackling such by consulting the medical practitioner regularly.
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‎In a remark , the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, Mrs Toyin Balogun appreciated the elders for their immense contribution to the development of the society and the country.
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‎In an address,The wife of the President, senator Oluremi Tinubu represented by the wife of the Deputy Governor of Oyo state, Mrs Ajibola Lawal, said that RHI had targeted 250 vulnerable elders in all the states of the federation totalling 9,500 vulnerable elders who are 65 years and above in the country.


‎‎Senator Tinubu said the programme with the theme “finding joy in old age” was aimed at putting smiles on the faces of the elders.
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‎Mr Chris Dike one of the beneficiaries who could not hide his joy appreciated the gesture from senator Oluremi Tinubu.

Edited by Titilayo Kupoliyi

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Agriculture

NIHORT Holds Training on Home Gardening

By Web News 279

By Rotimi Famakin

In line with the Federal Government’s Renew Hope Agenda, a day sensitization training on home gardening for neighbouring communities of the National Horticultural Research Institute, NIHORT has been inaugurated at the institute.

The training which drew fifty residents from NIHORT’s neighbouring communities focused on vegetable farming.

 Declaring the workshop opened, the Executive Director, NIHORT, Professor Lawal Atanda said the training became imperative following the intention of the Federal Government to ensure that food sufficiency is achieved in Nigeria.

“The main message is what the president has been saying that he is committed to making all Nigerians to be food sufficient in food and nutritional intake which is passed from our ministry, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and food security through agencies under the ministry of which NIHORT is one of them”.

That is why we are working in tandem with that. That is why we said all Nigerians should know how to cultivate what they are going to eat, and it is in that regard, we are training our neighbours. 

“We have been doing that across geopolitical zones. We now look inward this time around. This is the best time we can do irrigation farming and with this, people will have enabled knowledge and strategies and input to go into it because, after this training, we are going to give them some seed to start their own farming”.

Professor Atanda who urged the participants to make good use of the training said the program will benefit Nigerians saying food would be made sufficient as other neighbours of the selected beneficiaries would disseminate the knowledge to them.

“We are picking one person from each of the quarters that formed the neighbourhood of NIHORT and you should know we have a large neighbourhood. So when they get back home, they will train many people. We have quality seeds developed by our Indigenous scientists here, they will be able to share it among themselves and this will have a ripple effect.”

In her reaction, the director of research at NIHORT, who is also the coordinator of the home gardening training, Dr Olutola Oyedele said the beneficiaries were selected based on interaction with the leadership of NIHORT host communities.

“It is part of the institute’s responsibilities to the neighbours. The programme is going to be on a rolling basis in the sense that we will be taking them in batches since they are our neighbours. So, for the first batch, we are taking fifty. The next set of batches would come next year. This is December, now. We are rounding off. Fifty for a start. So it’s on a rolling basis, 50 per batch.”

“It is a continuous programme and it is one person per household, so to select that, we went into that through the various landlord associations around us, about 18 of them. So they sent us the list of interested participants. So out of that list, we are drawing them in batches. We are training them in vegetable production”.

She said fifty beneficiaries were selected to participate in the training adding that the project would be sustained with another set of fifty beneficiaries already selected for participation next year.

Some of the residents appreciated NIHORT for the gesture describing it as timely.

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Environment

Minister Seeks Senate Committee’s Support Towards Achieving Its Mandate

By Web News 382

By Osamudiamen ldemudia

The Federal Government will work with the National Assembly to come up with a roadmap that would assist the environment sector achieve its mandate.

The Minister of Environment, Mr Balarabe Lawal disclosed this during a working visit by the Senate Committee on Environment led by the Chairman, Senator Yunus Akintunde and other members of the committee to the Ministry in Mabushi, Abuja.

Mr Lawal solicited the support and cooperation of the members of the committee in the area of funding, stressing that the National Assembly is very key for the ministry to deliver optimally on its mandate.

He promised to operate an open-door policy to the members of the National Assembly and all relevant stakeholders on issues relating to the environment sector.

The minister assured the Senate Committee on Environment of the ministry’s cooperation, while emphasising that it will soon unveil what it intends to do in order to achieve the “Renewed Hope” agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In his remark, the Minister of State for Environment, Dr. Iziaq Salako stated that of the eight point Renewed Hope Agenda of the Mr. President, five of them are Ministry of Environment-related issues.

Earlier, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Yunus Akintunde had reassured the ministry of the committee’s support.

“This working visit is to familiarize the committee with the ministry and its agencies with a view to evolving a synergy and effective formulation, processing, implementation and monitoring of government programmes and projects to excellently deliver on the “Renewed Hope” of the current administration in which we are integral stakeholders”, Senator Akintunde said.

As part of its legislative oversight functions, the senator stressed that: “the committee will want to know your level of preparation, constraints, policy direction, programmes and projects in the 2024 Appropriation Bill (2024 Budget), and the processes and actions your ministry and agencies have undertaken so far in these regards”.

Senator Yunus tasked the ministry and its agencies to carry the committees along on the consultation, conferment, involvement and collaboration with the National Assembly on programmes/projects choice, formulation and location in the execution of critical intervention constituency projects in the various senatorial districts across the country.

The Senate Committee Chairman further disclosed that the legislative chamber will continue to collaborate with the ministry for effective management of the environment to ensure a safe and healthy ecosystem.

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