By Adeyanju Esther

Children’s Day is celebrated worldwide to honor and promote the well-being and rights of children. The date and traditions vary by country, but the essence remains the same: recognising the importance of children and advocating for their rights.

In Nigeria, the Ayela Charity Foundation, established in 2018 by co-founder Bukola Ayela, has made significant strides in supporting children from orphanages. Ayela emphasised that merely gifting children is insufficient to bring them happiness; instead, providing them with experiences and opportunities to have fun can profoundly change their perspective on life.

Ayele stated this on Saturday, while speaking to the media at the foundation’s Children’s Day event held to celebrate orphans and vulnerable children which was held in Ikeja, Lagos.

This year, the foundation organised a Children’s Day event with the theme “Dream Big, Reach Big.” The program aims to support and empower children by providing them with digital skills and other forms of education. Ayela highlighted that their outreach primarily focuses on orphanages with little to no support, ensuring these children feel included and valued among their peers.

The event saw collaboration with Palmpay, a financial services company. Enakeno Umuteme, Head of Marketing and Communication at Palmpay, expressed their core mission of financial inclusion and their pleasure in supporting Children’s Day celebrations.

He noted, “Not everyone is as fortunate as others, and children are the future.”

The impact of the event was evident in the testimonies from the children. Blossom Atunde, one of the children from the orphanage, shared that she had a fun and enlightening experience. She found the career talks and quizzes particularly inspiring, Another child, Israel Adegbite, also expressed his enjoyment of the activities and his happiness in competing with other children. He expressed his gratitude, saying, “Thank you very much. God bless you,” to the sponsors of the event.

Overall, the Ayela Charity Foundation’s efforts on Children’s Day highlight the importance of creating enriching experiences for children, especially those from underserved backgrounds, to help them dream big and reach their full potential.

Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, on Monday, disclosed that the ministry injected an estimated value of N309 billion into the economy within the last one year.

Kyari gave the hint while making his presentation during the ongoing Ministerial Sectoral Update, a platform President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabinet members are using to present their scorecard to Nigerians.

Kyari, who was accompanied by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi said in order to boost food security in the country, the government launched dry season farming with cultivation of 118,657 hectares of wheat in 15 states.

He said in addition, the Federal Government equally supported 107,429 wheat farmers, stressing that efforts culminated into injecting “an estimated N309 billion into the economy.”

The Minister equally hinted that the government, within the period, released 42,000mt of assorted food commodities to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, from the Federal Government of Nigeria Strategic Food Reserve, adding that “58,500 metric tons of milled rice was equally released to damped escalating prices.”

On measures put in place by the government in response to persistent food inflation, Kyari disclosed that the government distributed 60,432mt of improved seeds, as well as 887,255mt of seedlings, as well as received 2.15 million bags of fertilizers from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for distribution to farmers free of charge.

Other measures introduced by the current administration included “improvement of farmland security with provision of additional resources to Agro Rangers and other security agencies.”

On how the government had curtailed pest and diseases, the Minister said an initiative was put in place to tackle ginger blight by disbursing financial support to affected ginger farmers, among others.

In the area of agricultural research activities, Kyari said 23 crop varieties were improved within the period.

He further revealed that the government “distributed 33,200nos of equipment to farmers across Nigeria; procurement/distribution of 14,056,467 doses of anthrax spore foot and mouth diseases vacancies in the North Central, North West, South West and South-South zones.”

Others are: establishment of health centres and veterinary hospitals; capacity building of livestock farmers, as well as facilitation of 14,926,469 vaccinations for animals.

On the government’s plan to strengthen mechanization, the Minister said 10,000 tractors would be rolled out, at least 2,000 per year, with implements and accessories.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Calabar Zone has opposed the proposed Student Education Loan of the Federal Government describing it as a ploy to enslave Nigerian Students and make them remain indebted to the country forever.

Addressing a press conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital on Monday, the Zonal Chairperson of ASUU, Dr Happiness Uduk, said it was disheartening that the people who attended schools on scholarship, enjoyed meal subsidies, bursary awards among others were the ones making some of these obnoxious policies adding that the union would not relent in opposing such policies.

Uduk in a statement jointly signed by the eight union Chairpersons reasoned that instead of giving loans for students’ education; FG could use the money for interventions in higher institutions.

She added that such a move would bring about a positive turnaround of events that would make the institutions self-reliant with highly subsidized tertiary education in the country.

Uduk said “It is disheartening that people who attended schools on scholarship, enjoyed meal subsidies, free laundry services and bursary awards are the same running our economy today. Their Children are on scholarships in the best foreign universities in the world but after siphoning our economy, they turn around to impose a strangulating Education Loan on taxpayers’ children so that they will be enslaved and remain indebted to the country forever.

“They do not mind the devastating effect of this scheme on the country such as depression, suicide, and colossal loss of intellectuals.

“To this end, we vehemently condemn the idea of Education Loans and state clearly that using the money for intervention in higher Institutions will bring about a positive turn-around of events that will make our institutions self-reliant with highly subsidized tertiary education in Nigeria.”

The ASUU chairperson called on the Federal Government to come to a renegotiation table and reconvene a committee to review the agreement reached by ASUU leadership and Prof. Nimi Brigs-led Government committee with the view of adjusting the document according to the current economic realities to have an acceptable salary structure for university lecturers.

She also condemned the indiscriminate proliferation of universities in Nigeria without adequate funding by both the Federal and state governments noting that the 2020 ASUU-FGN Memorandum of Action (MoA) which stressed the need to review the NUC Act to make it more potent in arresting the reckless and excessive establishment of universities be fully implemented.

“We urge the President Tinubu-led administration to refrain from further proliferation of universities and rather consolidate on the already existing ones. What we need are universities that are adequately equipped and empowered to address the challenges confronting Nigeria not glorified schools,” She said.

On the ongoing minimum wage negotiation, the ASUU Calabar Zone urged the FG to immediately deploy the instrumentality of collective bargaining to conclude the social dialogue saying that such would lessen the invasive decline in the socio-economic lives of Nigerians.

She further urged federal, state and local governments to take a critical look at all unworkable policies and programmes sponsored by international money lenders such as the World Bank and IMF to reclaim the country’s sovereignty and restore the confidence of Nigerians.

She, however, advised governments and her agencies to read the Act establishing universities and stop interfering and threatening the autonomy of the universities especially in terms of policy, academic planning and administration even as it advised that suspended members in Ebonyi State University be recalled in obedience to the declarations and orders of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

She added that outstanding salaries of academics in all institutions should be paid without further delay noting that failure to accede to their demands would make them embark on industrial action even as it regretted that it resorted to strike to press home its demands as that was the only language the government understands.