Business ~ rus
SUNDAY CHAMPION, February B, 2009
Transcorp, Norwegian embassy stages 1st music concert in Abuja,
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N an effort geared towards achieving accelerated food security in Nigeria, the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA) collabora ting with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan in accessing aid from the United States Aid for International Development (USAID) to assist members of the association boost their output this year. Making the disclosure was the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association's National President, Chief Moses Ayinmodu, who told our reporter that the group struck the deal with the US based-organization as a way to making a positive and significant contribution to President Umaru Musa Yar'adua's $even Point Agenda, which includes Food Security for Nigerians. The Cassava formers also disclosed that it was at the moment, disbursing a N200 million loan it secured for its members across the country from the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural Development Bank in Kaduna. I The group stated that "Nigeria Cassava Growers is presently Association with collatiorating International Institute for Tropica,1 Agriculture (IITA),
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By ONYINYECHI NWANGWU, Abuja RANSCORP Hilton, In collaboration with the Norwegian embassy, Wednesday, staged its first classical music concert for the year. The concert which took place at the Lagos Meeting Hall of the Tran scorp Hotel Apuja was aimed at promoting claS Sical musIc In Nigeria as well as showcasing young Nigerians who have thrived in the area of classical music. Other collaborators in lI;e concert included the Strauss School of Music and Dance, the Abuja Metropolitan MUSIC Society (Amemuso) and Philharmonics Company in Lagos. The concert featured performances by Mr. Henning Braaten, a Norwegian pianist" who played music by Norwegian composers which include Joseph Haydn, Edvard Greig and Geirr Tveitt; Sergei Prokofiev as well as Nigerian composer Ogunboye.
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frequently used pianists who in 1967 won 1st price in "Princess Astlld Competition" for young Norwegian pianists at Sondheim. Norway. The pianist who once had performed in Lagos is also expected to carry out a master training programme while in the co untry.
Cassava gro rs, IITA secure 122m US aid to boost produdion
Ibadan, in accessing aid from the USAID By MALACHY UZENDU, for cassava growers in various parts of the Head E~itorial. Abuja '. • country. ! "Under the prog\<lmme, 5,000 cassqva The implications ofthis ,programme are clear; Anyinmodu stated. - growers are being selected in each of the The NCGA boss noted that prior to ten states specially selected for this purpose. the introduction of.· the USAID assisted "Each participating farmer will be given Programme, his group has been distributing planting materials of improved and high yfe)ding varieties of cassava and qssisted to improved varieties of cassava to farmers in Sokoto, Kano, Kat,ina, Taraba, FCT, Kogi, , plant one hectare successfully. "The .programme is expected to commence Plateau, Ebonyi, 'Kwara" Enugu, Zamfara, at the beginning of the coming rainy season; Anambra, Niger, Kebbi and Nasarawa States. ' He explained that the cassava stock the group stated. , The main aim of the programme according distributed in these states were from RTEP to the ,group, is to make improved and high cassava multiplication farm in t-/asarawa State, yielding varieties of cassava readily availab)e with the financial assistance of Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), to the ordinary farming families resident in Abuja. ' the rural areas. Additional assistance promised by the "In the first year, the high yielding varieties Federal Ministry of .Agriculture _an'd Water of cassava will be multiplied on 50,000 hectare offarmers'farmland.lt is expected that by next Resources are still being awaited. Lamenting that · one of the factors year, there will be. enough planting materials constituting a bottle-neck in cassava farmers' of these high yielding varieties throughout thecou~try'._____ . _••. _ __ __ [" -- a!!e~Ell0 i~~r!tase thelr_ pr.9d!!~.\ip_n /las.!?~~fl. the Inadequacy agricultural credit facility "Presently, the average cassava farmer in tne countrY is obtaining only about 12-15 tons. and the difficulty in accessing the limited per hectare. Whereas smaller countries .like resourced, NCGA said it was making efforts to 'Thailand ,are obtaining over 4.0-50 tons per assist its members to access agricultural credit from various sources. , '. hectare. . "A part from the paltry .arnounts of loans "This programme being sponsored by U5AID aims at making Nigeria a country obtained with . great difficulties from the where !he average cassava farmer will 'Ile , Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and Rural producing 40-50 tons of cassava per hectare. Development Bank In «aduna, some credit
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It is worthy of note that Braaten has given concerts throughout Norway as well as most other European (our-tries; he has done several extensive tours of the Far East, With concerts
in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. He has also performed both as recitalist and as soloist with symphony orchestras. Mr. Geir Henning Braaten's play of Paul Ogunboye (Ekitisonic) music has the element of Africa 'which was very obvious especially the "call and response" pattern. faCilities have been obtained for the cassava Also featured at the concert was Andrew farmers", NCGA said. . Egbuchien who rend ered song by Christopha Chief Ayinmodu, further tald our reporter Willibald Gluck in Tenor which held the that the facility comprise of N60 million audience spell-bound. He also rendered a song composed by Ernesto interest free loan from UNDP for cassava De Curtis (Torna a Surriento) in Alto which also farmers in Osun State, 'N100 million loan kept the audience clapping for minu!"'s. from the Flour Millers ASSociation of Nigeria, Egbuchien (JNR) has made his debut as a (FMAN) 1,000 cassav.a falmers in various parts soloist in 1999 as a Mezzo-soprano/Alto and of the COllntry and N160 million loan from UBA Bank for cassava farmers in Osun State Handel'S Judas Maccabeus as he was born into the family of talented singers. He has added with guaranty fromOsun State Government. Efforts;He .. lso being made to secure micrll>- Tenor to his voice in 2002 after 'taking lesion from Dele Nelson-Cole as a dramatic Tenor, credit facility for tassava growers so as to He who was a graduate of Musical Society increase their output. According to him, last year, NCGA signed a of Nigetia (MUSON) is also the C.E.O of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Philharmonics Company; an outfit aimed at promoting classi cal music in Nigeria and the Nigerian Agricultural Co-operative and remains a singer as he plans taking his career to Rural Development Bank in Kaduna for the the International World. provision of N200 million loan to members The Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. of the Association in the various States of the Tore NedrelJ, disclosed that ,the concert was country. or~anized in order to promote classical music in The group further _announced the Nigeria and Africa. . of Innovative farmers' introduction He noted the fact that Nigerians will come -market - information -- Glabal~- System - of -to -appre'6ate- classical niu sit moreif .tnere is a Telecommunication, (GSM) in collaboration detailed awareness. wilh se,;vice providers iii the country. The attendance was unprecedented, a Chief Ayirimodu said that "one of the combination of lovers of classical . music and problems faCing Nigeria Cassava Growers new converts. AS.sociatio.n is the difficulty in marketing members' cassava and cassava products, mainly as a result of poor Market Information System (MIS) in,the country." '
Gaza Strip is no Warsaw Ghetto Continued from p age 36 violence that invites a far more deadly response. Such a view, which has long characterised . of the Gaza ·Strlp, the 'Gaza-Egypt border has. remained closed. or open depending . Hamas's wor!dview, limitS if not closes ' the on the wishes of the Egyptian ' government horizons of political ' action by ,Palestinians, _ something Israeli offiFials regularly point making irharder,to come up with more creative out. and millions of protesters against H.osni · strategies to.- resist and even transcend the occupation. ;' Mubarak. the Egyptian president. across the , Ultimately, it creates a self..fulfilling prophecy, . Arab world affirm. Egypt'allowed the crossing. to remain ,open as the inertia of r"peless violence produces ever for several days when Hamas blew up part of. more intense ["Sponses. the wall in January 2008. It has since kept· it Polltldde, not genocide largely sealed despite the dire humanitarian After visiting Gaza in 2003, Oona King, a situation, putting its relationship with Israel Jewish British politician, compared Gaza and _and more importantly, with the US - ahead of . Warsaw, explaining that they are "the same in the welfare of Gaza's 1.5 million residents. , nature put not extent~ • Howeyer, it is impossible ' to separate the Indeed, the collusion of Israel's neighbour, .Egypt, and its biggest patron, the US, in extent of Nazi policies in and surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto from the nature of the ghetto, ghettoizing Gaza creates a triangular network of responsibility that has '1 0 parallel with the since each determined and reinforced the other. Nazi control over Warsaw, a(ld Poland more _ The Warsaw ,Ghetto was essentially a holding pen for livestock head~ for slaughter. . ' broadly, " The second and Jl10re important reason for '!." ' The Gaza ghetto IS a .concentratlon ,?mp -.as developing a more accurate ristorical model (ardlnal Renato. Martino, the. Va.tl9'n s Justice for Gaza is that comparing Gaza and the and peace .~lJ1lster, termed It - Intended .to Warsaw Ghetto diminishe~ Palestinian agency. force Palestinians to accept.a rumP . state With If Gaza is today's Warsaw, then Palestinians a few trappings of sovereignty, bisected by h;\vp nn hoop Thprp ic; nn c;olution. no npw huge JeWish settlement blocs, severed from
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an~hing but a miniscule percentage of refugees to their homeland. This intolerable situation was labeled by the late' Israeli sociologist BaTuch Kimmerling , as politldde. lts goal is clearly to make the creation of a viable Palestinian state all bufimpossible to achieve. But Gaza in· 2009 is not Warsaw in 1943. It is worth remembering that the Jewish uprising did little if anything to stop the Holocaust, The Gaza ghetto has its own historical roots and therefore the possibilitY of a different trajectory and, hopefully, a more positive denouement than pid Warsaw. Only with a ciear arid objective understanding of the roots, nature and purposl> of the Gaza ghetto, and of the ongoing occupation of the West Bank arid Gaza more broadly, can a different ~nd more positive ending to the Palestinian - and Israeli - narratives be written.
·Mark LeVine is a professor of Middle East . history at the University of CJ:J/ifornla, Irvine, and Is the author of Heavy Metollslam: Rock, Reslstonce, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam and the soon to be published An ' __ ...... rII.'",
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Property worth Nl billion' saved from fire disaster
By WILLIAM ATTAH, Gombe ROPERTY worth about one billion naira were saved from destruction in Gombe state from various fire disasters last· year by the Gombe State Fire Service. Director of the State Fire Service, Mr. Adamu Arikule, also noted that property worth' about N350million were however destroyed during the period under review. He said 27 houses were also lost while 224 lives were saved by officers and men of the State Fire Service during fire fighting operations. According to · him. the Fire Service received over 290 distress calls Just as the Service was able to put out most of them. He attributed the causes of fire incidents in the state to carelessness and negligence on the part of the public particularly women and children. Mr. Adamu Ankule then expressed gratitude to Governor Mohammed Danjuma Goje for providing them with two new fire fighting vehicles which has now increased their fleet of fire fighting vehicles in the state. He then appealed to governments, organizations, companies, wealthy individuals and the public to ensure tbe provisiofl of fire fighting facilities, particularly fire extinguishers to their offices and houses to curb the risinQ
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