Day: April 11, 2023

Dr Atule Ahmadu-Afolabi, a female aspirant on Wednesday joined the November Kogi governorship race on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).

Ahmadu-Afolabi a medical doctor, told newsmen shortly after picking her nomination forms at the party secretariat in Abuja, that her focus was to harness the economic potential of the state.

“My main focus is to ensure that Kogi is economically viable through selfless services and Labour Party as we know, is a social democratic party.

“The party carry’s along professionals, women farmers and everybody, to ensure that there is food for us to eat.

” In Kogi state right now, if you are driving around the state you could see hunger physically on faces of people and that has to change, that is why I am here to change the narrative for good.

“You all know that It is evidently clear in Kogi state that salaries are being paid in percentile and that is absolutely inhuman, you don’t expect people to come to work for 30 days without salary being paid? It is undemocratic,” she said.

Ahmadu-Afolabi said that as a mother, her target was to ensure that no Kogi resident went to sleep on empty stomach.

She also promised to turn around the healthcare service in the state for the better, pledging to establish and equip hospitals to ameliorate the plight of kogi residents.

She also promised to reinvigorate the civil service in the state toward effective and efficient service delivery, saying that the LP would change the narrative of suffering in the state specially in the civil service by ensuring prompt salary payment.

Ahmadu-Afolabi promised to work with youths ,empower them and create employment opportunities for them.

She promised to involve traditional rulers in community affairs and make them accountable for their youths to reduce the crime rate in the state and make youths would productive.

Ahmadu-Afolabi called on all stakeholders to support her quest to be governor of Kogi for the good of the state.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Republic of Angola, based on its experience, has sought to help sister countries to overcome the conflicts that affect them, through dialogue and search for peace, said on Tuesday in Luanda the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço.

The Angolan Head of State said so at the opening ceremony of the 9th Expanded Consultative Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which heads of diplomatic and consular missions participate.

President Loiurenço, advocated that with peace and stability, the countries in latent conflicts will start dedicating all the available energies and resources to the exclusive service of the economic and social development of the population.

“The Great Lakes region, which covers a considerable number of countries, is very rich in mineral, water, forest and arable land resources, the development of which has been postponed for decades due to the almost permanent instability that reigns there,” the Angolan President said in a reference to the political and military situation in some African countries.

According to João Lourenço, the populations of those countries are not benefiting from the great existing potential, whether from the economic, social or commercial point of view.

He also said that although several groups are operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a window of opportunity has opened today for the cantonment, disarming and reintegration of the elements of the armed group M23.

Regarding the ceasefire in force for about a month in the east of the DRC, President Lourenço said that “everything should be done for the implementation, in fact, of the necessary steps, with the urgency that the case requires in order not to lose the window of opportunity that has opened up.

He recalled that Angola was the victim of the invasion and occupation of part of its territory by the army of the former Apartheid regime in South Africa.

JoãoLourenço stressed that, Angolans fought on the ground and won the successive battles that culminated in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, but that definitive peace for Angola, the Independence of Namibia, the release of Nelson Mandela and the fall of the Apartheid regime might not have been achieved, “if we had not negotiated and signed the New York Accords.

“That is why, the Angolan diplomacy defends the negotiated and peaceful resolution of conflicts, whatever their size and scope and on any continent,” he said.

Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East

João Lourenço acknowledged that the world is following with great concern the eruption of war between Russia and Ukraine and the annexation of territories of an independent country, “a situation that Angola condemns”.

In this sense, the Angolan Head of State called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, in order to create the environment for the beginning of negotiations, with a view to establishing a lasting peace and avoiding the escalation of a war that has already caused the biggest humanitarian, food and energy crisis that the world has known since the end of World War II in 1945.

In his speech, joão Lourenço said the war between Russia and Ukraine represents the greatest threat to world peace and security, due to the direct and indirect involvement of the major international powers.

He also said that, a world without rules is extremely dangerous for everyone, even for those who consider themselves the strongest and most invincible.

He stressed that all recent events in the international arena highlight the urgent need to restructure the United Nations Security Council, ensuring the presence, as permanent members, of regions of the planet that are currently excluded, such as Africa and Latin and South America, whose voice cannot be neglected because it may be determinant in the decision making on key issues such as peace and security, food security, environmental defence, public health and others that have to do with the survival of all at global level.

“Safe and lasting solutions have not yet been found to situations of dangerous and protracted conflicts such as the Korean peninsula and the Israeli-Palestinian one, whose Security Council resolutions are being disregarded and ignored,” he said

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Association of Pension Desk Practitioners of

Nigeria (ASSOPEP) on Tuesday denied an allegation by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) that it was parading itself as a pension consultant.

Mr Nelson Bassey, Head of Administration, ASSOPE, said this in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos.

He said that the association had never claimed to be an affiliate or representative of PENCOM, Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) or Pension Fund Custodian (PFC) at any time.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that PenCom had on Friday dissociated itself from the activities of ASSOPEP on pension issues.

The commission, in a statement signed by its Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Abdulqadir Dahiru, warned the public to be mindful of the activities of the association.

Bassey said: “Our attention has been drawn to a disclaimer by PenCom published on Friday, April 7.

“We, hereby, wish to state categorically that we have never collected money from anyone with a promise to assist him or

her to recover their fund in the pension system,’ he said.

According to him, the association is rather engaged in the training and retraining of pension desk practitioners and other employees to have adequate knowledge of pension, retirement planning and entrepreneurship.

Bassey said that the association in the course of its training, listened to challenges contributors were face with, which include unremitted contribution by employers to PFAs.

He stated that some contributors also complained of their inability to access their pension after retirement, due to issues of documentation and thus, the association advised accordingly.

“We, also at every point in time, during our training interactions reiterate that there is no alternative to the PRA 2004 and 2014 as amended.

“We have also noted that most members of the public, especially the informal sector, lack adequate knowledge of pension and retirement planning.

“Our association has encouraged them to enrol in the contributory pension scheme through our regular advocacy.

“ASSOPEP has never claimed to be consulting with or for any PFA and PenCom.

“Our association’s activities and public advocacy has received favourable media publicity such as ASSOPEP Pension Conference held few years ago.

“ASSOPEP past conferences was attended by state’s Pension Board Directors, state’s Head of Service, Directors of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Pension Desk Practitioners and a host of others, without any adverse report on our activities,” Bassey added.

According to him, the association has not sent any letter to Pencom or any PFA, requesting for payment of any pension contributor, neither has any contributor paid them to do so.

Bassey noted that the association did not claim of resolving pension issues and assisting retirees in securing their retirement benefits.

He explained that the association’s core mandate was to upskill or train employees in pension matters and equip them with adequate pension knowledge.

He said that this would help them not to commit mistakes that would delay the payment of their pension.

“This is based on interaction with such employees and discovering that most causes of the delay in their pension payment is based on ignorance,” he said.

Source: News Agency of Nigeria

Angolan Head of State João Lourenço recommended Tuesday in Luanda the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mirex) for a major organisation in order to continue achieving greater successes in diplomacy.

João Lourenço was speaking at the opening of the IX Consultative Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, going until April 13, the institution in charge of executing the State’s foreign policy.

In his speech, President João Lourenço also spoke of the ongoing training of diplomats and officials of this ministerial department, which is at the center of concerns.

“We need to take full advantage of the Venâncio de Moura Diplomatic Academy, in the rotation of ambassadors in charge of the diplomatic mission and the rest of the diplomatic staff”, he said.

He said that between two missions abroad, while waiting for others, the ambassadors should work in the Ministry, be busy in different directions or give lectures at the Diplomatic Academy, in order to convey their experience.

On the other hand, he recommended the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance to be more concerned with taking care of Angola’s assets abroad.

He referred, above all, to the existing real estate assets, such as chancellery buildings, residences for employees and land for construction, whose works sometimes take years to start.

“All this heritage must be better managed, conserved and monetised”, he stressed.

The last Council took place in 2019, under the motto “Reform and training, a forward-looking vision

Source: Angola Press News Agency