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l2DAIIYTRUsr Friday, November 23,2012
Why rice . ",'.: FG l1as not ban-n~d . "
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From Ralt1ra
MinistefofStat~ for Agriculture Alhaji lJukar Tijanni y~t~rday e.xplainw why thl' fl'deral government has not ballllW importation of nel' into the country for now, ~Nig~rialls have grown to like ric~. If Mr. President bans ric~ within a very short time without conSidering whether the quality rice we produce ha\'e rl'ached every nook and cran ny, we will suffer Nigerians instl'ad of alleviating th~ suffering-, hl' statro The lIlinist~r was fielding questions from Journalists while in Sokoto fora Illcdingofthe Fcd~ral Ministry of Agricultufe, some states and stakeholders invoh'w in dry ~ason rice paddy production. According tohlm. that was why President Good luck Jonathan look the
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is not yel but 30 ~rc~nt irvitS 011 impon«i rlee 5Otha! it would discourage those
who are just making mon~out of Nigerians
through massive Importation for gains ami profit.r-.trpresident has also mandated us that by 201 S, we should be self sufficient in the production of rict', that means between now and 1015, that is wh~n th~ ban will come mto forc~ but so far it is a gradual approach.w h~ said I-I~ said th~yare looking at ~t t«hnologies and how rice production is being done eITec1ively and effidently profitably, adding that th~ produc~ coming Nigeria must be of international standard which call compete with any global riCl'.
mor~ than six or seven
crumcn! would not 10 63ck any teacher who is found
producing quality rice.
Earlier in a ~y note add~s during the to be incom~lenl of performstmholders meeting oil dry ~ason padd)', inghislhcr duties.Hesaidthlsln rice production, the minister satd il was organized in the quest towards attamment of rice production 5Umc i~nc}' by 2015. lljjani SOlid th~y conduct~d studies which showw that 10 states ha\'~ advantag~ of rice production during th~ dry ~ason. Th~}' includ~ Sokoto. Kebbi Zamfara. Kogi. Kano Katsina, ligay,,, Bauchi and Gombe states. He said th~ accel~rat~d ric~ paddy production will involv~ 230,000 hectares across thl' 10 states an'd that fooeral government appro\'w support of5O percent for it.
Owerri while Ilaggingoffthe No Teacher No School programme. Okorochas said his adminlStrntion has illready establishw a monitonng department that wouW go round schools In the Slate to monitor teachers. He said the monitoring department is alsoexpectedlochKkth~dr$ ing cod~, attendance to school amongothl'rs.Hl'saidthesitua. tion where teachers uS(' illness as excuse for not attending classes would no longer be tolerated.
FG donates 12,000 tons of grains to Jigawa From Abdullahi Anako, Dulse
• Heads of government of member countries, at the 8th session of the 0 ·8 summit in Islamabad, Pakistan, yesterday.
'Why maternal mortality rate is high in Nigeria' From Isa Sa'idu, Kaduna MlIlister of State for Health. Muhammad Ali Pat~. has identifiell cost uf h('3lthcar~ as olle of th~ factors hindering Nigeria's progress in curbmg t h~ menace of mater· nal mortaHty. Chief Medical Director of the Ahmadu StUo UI1I\'elSlty Tnching Ilospital (ABUTH). Sltika. Zaria, Dr. lawai Khalid, who spoke to our correspondent. said the ministersaid this in a paper he pre· Sl'nteJ at an ~\'('nt tomark ABU at 50 According to him, Dr. Patein th~ pap~r said d~splle r~cenl progress in popula· tion h~alth, there is stillth~ urgent neW to accel~rat~ progr~ss in improv~m~nt of th~ country's health outcome.
KWhile under·th'e child lIlortality rate has been reducing at an annualizw rale of 4.8 p~r cent in rl'cent rurs. we net'd to achi~v~at least 9 percent annual reduction in order to achieve the target of under·five l1lortahtyrat~. Unfortunatel y, Nigeria still accounts for a di sproportiollat~ share of thl' ....'orld·s burd~n of child and lIlaternal morbidit)' and mortahty. Mo~ broadly. it is ~stilllatl'd that approximately, on~ million WOIlll'n and children dil' l'very rear in Nig~ ria from largely pr~ventabl~ causes. Disca~5 like polio. malaria, musles. bacterial ml'ninghis. malnutrition, among others, account for most of the childhood deaths in Nigeria.Mthe minister said.
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The Fweral GO\'emm~nt yC$. terday donated 12,000 m~trk Ions of assortt'd grains to !lgawa Stat~ as part of measufCS to an~· viate t.he suffering of flood \i( tiIllS.1l1~ North·West Regional Director, AgricuJtura! Transfor· malionAg~nJil, DrN)'a1ll Yusuf 1..l'O. who reprl'scnted the l\llnis· t~ror Agriculture. Dr.Akinwumi Adesina, s;ud th~ gcst ure LS aUll~J at preventmg food o;:rni~ in t.h~ areas aft'«tw by the Ooucl. In his remarks, the, Jigawa Slate Commissioner of Agricultu~, Alhaji Rabiu lsa Taura, who rep, rescntroGovemor Suil' Lamido, said the stale governml'llt has approved N222 million fOf dry Sl'ason farnling.
Ebonyi govt to sponsor 350 to Jerusalem · The Ebonyi State gO\'~rnment said )'est~rday that it would sponsor 350 pilgrims for this ),ear's holy pilgrimage to /erusall'm. Chairman of th~ state's Christian Pilgrims Wdfarl' Board. ~v. I;r Vincent Odom, said this in an interview with newsm~n in Abakaliki. ~Th~ 350 int~ndillg pilgrims ha\'(' been mwically sc~enw and certified fit. and their docum~nts processed to l'mbark on th~ spiritual exercise,~ h~ said. Odom said the intendmg pilgrims cut ao;:ross the arllled forces. police.
paramilitary forcts, market organisations and th~ state (hartl'r of the Chri~lian Association ofNig~ria (CAN). According to him, CAN's slot is sp~ad alllong th~ various blocks that make up th~ association and that only Ihe nominated indiViduals y,'('re alloww to purchase th~ forms. IIe saId th~ state has compl~tt'd arrangem~nts for the transportation of the pi1gruns. -Eben); has not recorded any d~ath. iIl·health or disappearance of its pilgrims in the holy land since the inaugunhon of th~ prcscnt board in2009,M h~ said. (NAN)
Building collapse: Ogun to establish laboratories Fro m Kehinde Akinyemi, Abeokuta As part of efforts to chl'o;:k build· o;:ol1ap~e III Ogun State, the newly created Ministry of I'h)'skal Planning said yesl~r· .1;1\ that laboratnrics woulll he IIlg
establishl'd to test construc tion mllt~rlaJs.
Ogun Statl' Commissionl'r of PhYSical Planning, Adebayo ran, who said this at a ne ws con· ferencl' in Aheokuta, said th~r~ is a need to tackle cases ofbuilJ IIlg coliarse in the ,:"ul1ll)
MTh~ Illinistrywill establish a laboratory for testing of matui· also It will include testing of soil. concr~ le mixing among others,M h~ said. The commissioner added that th~ nl'W ministry will also embark Uti Illa\si\'e verification
of building documents, includ· Ing fed~ra', sta t~ agencies and religious hous('$ He said the nell' ministry is poised tu confront th~ chal· lenges of phy\ical de\'elopm~nt across the ~tat~ I'~ri further \taled Ih~t
embargo has b~en placw on construction of filling statIons in th~$tate.adding, MThos~ with g~nllin~ papers y, ill b~ reconsid ered, but w~ hav~ dir~cted that emhargo should be placl'd (In th~ construction of filling sta· tion~ for now M