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TUESDAY JULY 19, 2016 • T H I S D AY
NEWSXTRA
Bill Gates: World Must Work Together to Ensure Africa’s Youths Devt Bill Gates has announced that Africa’s future is rested in the hands of its youth, therefore, every effort must be made to ensure they thrive. Delivering the 2016 Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, Gates said he was optimistic about the future of the continent “because of its young people.” Pointing out that Africa was demographically the world’s youngest continent, in the next 35 years, it is estimated that two billion babies will be born in Africa and by 2050, 40 per cent of the world’s children will live in Africa, adding that he believes Africa’s youth “can be the source of a special dynamism. “Economists talk about the demographic dividend. When you have more people of working age, and fewer dependents for them to take care of, you can generate phenomenal economic growth. Rapid economic growth in East Asia in the 1970s and 1980s was partly driven by the large number of young people moving into their work force
“But for me, the most important thing about young people is the way their minds work. Young people are better than old people at driving innovation, because they are not locked in by the limits of the past. The real returns will come if we can multiply this talent for innovation by the whole of Africa’s growing youth population,” he said. Gates used the platform of the 14th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture-the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s flagship programme to honour its founder, Nelson Mandela, and to raise topical issues affecting South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world-to lay out his vision of how to create a better world. The theme of his speech was ‘Living Together’. The Microsoft founder said he had admired Mandela, whom he had met on many occasions. He said “One topic that Mandela came back to over and over again was the power of youth. “He knew what he was talking about, because he started his career as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League when he was young.
Later on, he understood that highlighting the oppression of young people was a powerful way to explain why things must change. There is a universal appeal to the conviction that youth deserve a chance. I agree with Mandela about young people, and that is one reason I am optimistic about the future of this continent. “But to exploit Africa’s potential, its young people need to be given every opportunity to thrive. “We are the human beings who must take action, and we have to decide now, because this unique moment won’t last forever. We must clear away the obstacles that are standing in young people’s way so they can seize all of their potential.”
Gates added: “If young people are sick and malnourished, their bodies and their brains will never fully develop. If they are not educated well, their minds will lie dormant. If they do not have access to economic opportunities, they will not be able to achieve their goals. “But if we invest in the right things – if we make sure the basic needs of Africa’s young people are taken care of – then they will have the physical, cognitive, and emotional resources they need to change the future. Life on this continent will improve faster than it ever has. And the inequities that have kept people apart will be erased by broad-based progress that is the very meaning of the words:
“living together.” The co-founder of software giant, Microsoft, said issues that needed to be tackled to ensure Africa’s youth thrived were: Health and nutrition, education. productivity and economic opportunity; and governance He said health and nutrition were a top priority because “when people aren’t healthy, they can’t turn their attention to other priorities. But when health improves, life improves by every measure”. Next was education without which children cannot develop the knowledge and skills to become “productive contributors to society,” Gates said. Then, Africa’s youth needed to have the “economic opportunities to channel their
energy and their ideas into progress.” But Gates said good governance was vital to ensure that this happens – and he urged governments to play their part. “All of these things – advances in health, in education, in agricultural productivity, in energy – won’t happen on their own. They can only happen in the context of governments that function well enough to enable them,” he said. Gates concluded his lecture by insisting he believed that Africa could achieve the future it aspired to. He said Africa’s young “believe in themselves, and they believe in their countries and the future of the continent.
Nigeria to Undergo Fresh EITI Validation on Natural Resource Accountability Chineme Okafor in Abuja Nigeria is expected to undergo a new round of validation by the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to verify her adherence to accountable and transparent management of natural resources earnings from mining companies, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has disclosed. NEITI disclosed this yesterday in Abuja when it said that a team of independent validators from the EITI international secretariat in Oslo, Norway, was due to come into the country to undertake this exercise just months after Nigeria escaped losing her compliance status with the EITI. NEITI in a statement from its Director of Communication, Orji Ogbonnanya Orji, stated that the team would carry out a validation process on the country’s implementation and adherence to the principles of the global extractive industries transparency initiative in the governance of its extractive sector. It explained that the process was a quality assurance mechanism which the global EITI board uses to hold implementing countries to the same global standard. According to NEITI, the mechanism provides an independent and impartial platform for evaluation and verification of progress made among implementing countries. NEITI said the validation will also assess Nigeria’s government commitment to EITI process, and how EITI implementation is leading to reforms that bring about positive changes in the
management of revenues accruing from her extractive industries. “The validation also seeks to ensure that EITI process actually leads to prudent management; improved governance; transparency and accountability in the extractive industry, with a view to ensuring that revenues from the sector translate to improved quality of lives; national development and poverty reduction in member countries. “Member countries under validation may either be rated as making ‘no progress’; ‘inadequate progress’; ‘meaningful progress’; ‘satisfactory progress’ or ‘beyond progress’, depending on their level of progress in the EITI implementation,” said NEITI in the statement. It noted that the validation process will review NEITI activities; reports and remediation process and impacts. It said as part of measures to put the country in good standing, that it has published two recent reports in the oil and gas as well as solid minerals for the period 2013. It added that it has commenced the 2014 reports and procurement process to kick-start the 2015 reports in the sector. “The validation exercise commenced on July 1, 2016 when EITI international secretariat began desk review of publicly available documents on EITI implementation in Nigeria. The EITI team is expected to arrive in Nigeria on July 25, 2016 as part of the ongoing validation exercise and NEITI as the implementing agency is providing the platform for Nigeria’s validation,” it stated.
THIS IS THE REPORT SIR
Minister of Transportation Chibuike Amaechi (left), receiving the report of the Ministerial Committee on Nigeria Maritime and Safety Agency (NIMASA) from the committee Chairman and Director-General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, in Abuja...yesterday
Army Releases 249 Boko Haram Suspects, Gives Them N3000 Each in Maiduguri Troops intercept suicide bomber in Sabon Gari Jidari Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Nigerian Army has on Sunday released a total of 249 suspected Boko Haram terrorists and accomplices cleared by the Joint Interrogation set up by the Chief of Army Staff in Maiduguri. The Director of Army Public Relations (DAPR), Col. Sani Usman, in a statement yesterday, said those cleared and released include 169 males, 46 women and 34 children. Usman gave a further breakdown, which showed that 203 of the released suspects were from 18 local government areas of Borno State, while 44 were from other states including two each from Adamawa and Jigawa, one each from Lagos and Oyo, while about 38 are Yobe State indigenes. He however, noted that two of them were from the Republic of Cameroun. The army spokesman said the released persons were
handed over to the Borno State Government through the Commissioner for Local Government by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 7 Division, Brigadier General Victor Ezugwu. “The two foreigners were however handed over to the Borno State Command of the Nigerian Immigration Service,” he stated. According to Usman, the commissioner advised the released detainees to remain law abiding and go about their lawful businesses. The commissioner, he stated, also commended the effort of the military in the fight against terrorism and insurgency and respect for human rights as manifested in the painstaking efforts that led to their clearance and subsequent release. “Each of them was given a token of N3,000 each,” he said. In another development, Usman said the troops of 101 Battalion, 7 Division Garrison
on foot patrol along with some elements of Civilian JTF, on Sunday intercepted a suspected male suicide bomber at Sabon Gari Jidari. He said the suspect carrying primed Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) concealed in a blue stabiliser casing gave his name as Yusuf Tasiu. “He was dispossessed of the explosives while the Nigeria Police Explosive Ordnance Devices expert safely detonated it. The suicide bomber is currently being interrogated,” he revealed. In a related development, Usman said Vigilante group at Njidari village, South-east of Damboa, conducted clearance operations against suspected Boko Haram terrorists hideout close to Ngwalimeri village, east of Bale in Borno State. He said the vigilante destroyed the camp and recovered an AK-47 rifle with registration number 565203224 with locally fabricated five rounds of 7.62mm
(Special) ammunitions and a pair of military uniform. He also said the leader of the vigilante handed over same to the Headquarters of 25 Task Force Brigade in Damboa. In the same vein, Usman said the troops of Forward Operation Base, 33 Brigade deployed in Burra, Bauchi State along with some local vigilantes, on Sunday conducted patrol along Unguwar Kanawa-Rugar AbdulsalamiDiwa Village-Dutsen Zaki with the aim of clearing cattle rustlers, armed bandits and kidnappers operating in the general area. The DAPR said troops came in contact with some armed bandits at Jejin Dutsen Zaki (Dutsen Zaki Forest) where there was exchange of gun fire that led to the death of two kidnappers and rescue of two kidnap victims. He said the team also recovered five AK-47 rifles, 23 rounds of 7.62mm ammunitions and four Bajaj brand of motorcycles, as well as food items and clothing.