NIPSS inducts 43 participants of PSLC course 49

… Tgnews MD, CEOs/ Directors of corporate and public organizations, Academics, individuals are set to be policy pacesetters

By Tom Garba

The prestigious National Institute of Policy and Strategy studies (NIPSS), Kuru Jos which was established in 1979 with the sole aim of serving as the Centre for policy, Advocacy, Advice and Training for Nigeria, West Africa and Africa in the context of a dynamic and changing world.

The institution on Friday inducted forty three participants cutting across the public and private sectors, and individuals who were asked to be policy managers and pacesetters.

The Chief Executive officer (CEO) and Managing Director of the General news (Tgnews), Tom Garba, a renowned online Media form in the North East and others captains of industries, Directors of corporate organizations were inducted to earn the Policy Strategy and Leadership Course (PSLC) certificates.

During the opening ceremony the Director General of NIPSS, Prof Ayo Omotayo who was represented by the institution’s Director of Studies,Prof Funmi O J Paramalam told participants that the cardinal objective of the leadership course is expand their horizon and understanding to policy matters.

According to her the four weeks course is also to stretch their understanding of leadership issues in governance and in public sectors, improved their overall performance and enhance their productivity on service delivery to largest society.

While emphasizing the course is gender balanced with 63% of male participants while 47% females participants in attendance, Prof Paramalam opined that NIPSS amongst other things; Conducts courses for top-level policymakers and executors drawn from different sectors of the country, with a view to expanding their outlook and perspectives and stretching their conceptual capacity and qualities of discernment and analyses, thereby helping to improve their overall performance in their different fields.

Paramalam reiterated that participants will get wealth of experience on the issues of policy formation, analysis and implementation with a cross fertilization of ideas that will sharpen the country’s policy implementation and monitoring.

She however called on participants to take every part of the course serious as there is going to be serious accessment topical issues and the institution will also give much attention on the character and conduct of every participants.

The coordinator, directing staff of the institution, Air vice Martial A. I Adamu, mni formally welcome the PSLC set of 49 and enjoined to enjoy every embenience and the sirene environment.

The institution was well positioned to train very imminent Nigerians on the fast pace of change and national development in countries across the world, especially over the past three decades.

According to him the NIPSS has been driven by paradigm transitions towards “thinking globally and acting locally”. Successful national growth and development have therefore been accomplished under inherently deft, visionary and people-oriented national policies and strategies.

He said the essence is to further explain that the Nigerian State had foreseen the need for qualitative input into the national policy making process by 1979, hence The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS)) was established by Decree number 20 of 1979, now Cap N-51 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The Institute was conceived as a high-level institution with the primary objectives of serving as the nation’s foremost policy think-tank to develop a crop of top-class technocrats of high intellectual capacity, who will conceptualize and anchor the implementation of innovative and dynamic policy initiatives and strategies, critical for national development.

Over the years NIPSS serves as a high-level Centre for reflection, research and dialogue where, academics of excellence, seasoned policy initiators and executors and other citizens of mature experience and wisdom drawn from all walks of life, meet to reflect and exchange ideas on the great issues of society, particularly as they relate to Nigeria and Africa within the context of a constantly changing world.

Our Correspondent report that the institute organizes and carries out on an interdisciplinary basis, indebt research into the social, economic, political, security, scientific, cultural, and other problems facing Nigeria, with a view to contributing to the search for their solutions.

“NIPSS Conducts seminars, workshops, and other action-oriented programs for leaders and potential leaders in the public service, the private sector, political organizations, professional bodies, and other groups, with a view to promoting, defining, and enhancing the appreciation for long-range national plans and objectives. And publishes books, journals, monographs, and other materials in the interest of the nation, as a contribution to knowledge and for a better national and international understanding.” He report
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The vision of the institution to an Apex Centre for policy, research and reflection for a better Nigeria and human society was world renowned schorlars like Mr Osime Samuel who took course 49 on briefing on report writing and presentation skills, writing policy papers and policy briefs modules .

While Public policy analysis, Policy Implementation , resource imperativeness modules was well taken by Prof Amaya Adakai and Prof Fatai Aremu took participants on Policy Implementation strategies, public policy: tracking monitoring and evaluation.

On Legal and institutional framework for policy formulation and implementation, erudite Lawyer and a Professor of high reputate Prof C Dakas took the modules to the interest of all participants.

Dr Musa Umar,mni exposed the modules of fundamentals of public policy and policy proces and public policy decision making.

Taiwo Oyekan Partners Lagos Fire Service To Sensitize Residents, Traders On Fire Prevention And Safety Tips

As Part of his Oversight functions and Community Intervention Initiatives,
The Deputy Leader of Lagos Island Local Government Legislative Arm, Hon. Taiwo Oyekan has taken a step further to organise Sensitization Exercise on Preventive measures for fire outbreak and Practical useful safety tips for Locals across the Island.

According to Hon. Oyekan, the exercise became necessary following persistent Fire Incidents on Lagos Island Local Government Area, Particularly in Market Places and Homes.

“Specifically, this is to forestall future occurrence”, he stated in an electronic message,

The Community Development Crusader urged Residents and Traders to shun practices that could cause fire outbreak.

The officers of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service was led by the Chief Fire Officer/Head, Monitoring and Enforcement, Mr. Olukotun Afeez.

While addressing the Traders, he outlined causative factors of Fire and safety tips while his Men demonstrated how to curtail it in Homes and Markets.

Mr. Olukotun charged the Residents and Traders to acquire Fire Extinguishers and/or Smoke Detectors and install in their Homes and Business Premises.

The Fire Service Men and Team TAIWO OYEKAN visited Idumota, Docemo, Mandilas, Ereko/Martins, Balogun Markets and adjoining Communities.

The LSFRS and Team TAIWO OYEKAN jointly distributed Enlightenment Flyers to Traders, Constituents and Passerbys.

The Chief Fire Officer/Head of Monitoring and Enforcement urged Lagosians to call Fire and Emergency Service Providers on 767 or 112; Provide detailed information about the location of inferno.

Hon. Oyekan however reiterated his commitment to qualitative representation and Community Development.

© PTO Media & Strategy Centre

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Today, however, Nigeria is home to the largest single-train refinery in the world, with the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude per day

Nigeria: The Changing Governance Story

By Temitope Ajayi

Sahara Weekly Reports That Tracking many stories of remarkable progress currently taking place in Nigeria can be a challenging task. This is so because these important stories are lost to some who daily indulge in the cacophony of adverse reports. These negative news often dominates the headlines.

With a 24-hour news cycle that tends to focus mainly on distasteful narratives, several Nigerians have been made to accept the view that nothing good is happening in their country.

Those who rely on the mainstream media and social media as the only sources of news and information they consume are the worst hit by the cycle of misinformation that portrays our country as descending rapidly to the edge of the precipice. However, the reality is different: the country is making progress in leaps and bounds.

Late Swedish physician and Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute, Hans Rosling, his son, Ola Rosling, and daughter-in-law, Anna Rosling, extensively dwell on this subject in “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think,” a book published in 2018. In the book, the authors demonstrate that most people are made to hold the wrong notion about the state of the world because the media project data, analyse trends and select stories to make people assume that things are getting worse around them. The authors assert that a majority of people view the world as poorer, less healthy, and a more dangerous place to live in than it actually is. In other words, many people believe they are living in a worse period in the history of mankind because of misinformation.

The same situation the Roslings describe in their book is at play in Nigeria, where individuals, interest groups, activists, analysts, self-serving politicians, and opposition elements constantly project and amplify negative stories.

It is as if we are in a race with those who can say the most horrible things about our country. Yet, we have an abundance of good stories to tell the world. We seem so numb to the good news that we are dismissive of breakthroughs and innovative trends. For instance, we downplay the significance of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and its possibilities to reflate the economy.

Many people forgot so soon that we had been importing petroleum products for over three decades because the state-owned refineries are moribund. Our national economy bled, and the country was in a fiscal cul-de-sac for those years as a result of subsidy payments on petroleum products.

Today, however, Nigeria is home to the largest single-train refinery in the world, with the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude per day. Cynics do not see this as a breakthrough.

Nigerians who are 60 years old and below started seeing modern rail infrastructure in 2016 when the All Progressives Congress-led administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the standard gauge rail system, beginning with the Abuja-Kaduna route, later Lagos-Ibadan and then the Warri-Itakpe.

The national rail modernisation project is progressing with Kano-Katsina-Maradi and Kano-Kaduna standard gauge rail projects at different stages of completion. The contractor working on the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge recently announced the completion of the Port Harcourt-Aba section. While the Federal Government is rallying stakeholders to promote economic integration across the country, the Lagos State Government recently launched two metro rail lines -Blue and Red Rail lines – as part of the state’s elaborate master plan to build a modern and efficient megacity. Like Lagos State, there are visible signs of remarkable, quantifiable progress in several other states, including Kaduna, Kano, Akwa-Ibom, Rivers, Kebbi, Borno, Gombe, Oyo, Ekiti and Ogun, among others.

A few weeks ago, the President Bola Tinubu-led administration embarked on the construction of the 700 kilometres Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway that will connect nine coastal states in another bold move to bolster economic growth further and open up the country to productive economic activities.

While it may be very easy for critics and other armchair analysts to ignore these developments and their significance to remaking Nigeria, there is no gainsaying that these projects and many more that are ongoing or about to be instituted across critical sectors are the core of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. Indeed, it is hard to process why the so-called critics and cynics can not see the Lagos-Calabar Highway project as a clear demonstration of the President’s commitment to harnessing the potential of our renascent Blue Economy.

Despite what is bandied by the most vociferous critics