U.S .Commercial Service Extols Nigerian Business Community, Honors Partners

U.S .Commercial Service Extols Nigerian Business Community, Honors Partners

United States Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) of Commerce, Seward L. Jones expressed optimism about Nigeria’s economic prospects as the country moves out of recession. 

Hosting over 350 American and Nigerian firms at the U.S. Commercial Service’s annual Networking with the USA (NUSA) Appreciation Forum and International Partner Award Ceremony last week, Jones, who oversees the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, observed that the United States is confident that Nigeria’s economic outlook will remain positive, with further diversification from crude oil and increased fiscal transparency.

“We understand that the commodity super cycle and the precipitous drop in oil prices brought about a fiscal challenge for the Nigerian government, so we strongly support President Buhari’s drive to explore practical ways of fully diversifying the economy. Nigeria is the second largest destination in Africa for U.S. private direct investment, so we are ready and willing to support economic reform efforts.” Jones said.

In his remarks, U.S. Consul General, Mr. F. John Bray also affirmed the strong interest by U.S. firms in Nigeria. He noted that “President Trump’s Business Advisory Council for Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA) has made it clear that having success in the Nigerian market is foremost on their agendas.”

The NUSA forum is organized annually by the U.S. Commercial Service to honor Nigerian business owners who promote U.S. products and services and who have contributed significantly to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the U.S. Commercial Service in Nigeria - expansion of trade and investment between the United States and Nigeria.

Tales from 2017 Wole Soyinka Int’l Cultural Exchange

Tales from 2017 Wole Soyinka Int’l Cultural Exchange

By Prisca Sam-Duru

 


Events marking the 2017 edition of the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, WSICE Project, ended recently in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The weeklong  programme commenced with the arrival on July 12, of the 83 finalists in the annual WSICE Secondary School Essay competition, who were made to write an essay on the topic: ’Intolerance; The Burden of our Moral and National Conscience’. Graced by the Nobel Laureate himself, who welcomed the finalists from 17 states, the students were mentored on the importance of TOLERANCE in human relationships, especially in the area of nation building. The Essay writing competition took place on July 13, and at the end, head of the jury Dr. Razinat Mohammed (an English Language lecturer with the University of Maiduguri announced Hawkins-Ogelle Emmanuel of Jomeg College, Umuahia,   Abia State as coming tops; Nwanga Solomon of St. Charles Secondary 
School, Nigercem, Ebonyi came 2nd while Aboloko Erica of Breakthrough Academy, Ogun State took the 3rd position. The 1st place winner was given a scholarship worth N100000 while the 2nd and 3rd place winners received N75000 and N50000 respectively. As part of the WSICE 2017, there was a performance of one of   Soyinka’s classic drama, ‘Death and The King’s Horseman’ at the JF Ade Ajayi Hall (formerly UNILAG Auditorium)  as directed by Bisi Adigun, Founder/Artistic Director of Ireland-based Arambe Productions. The production featured popular performers such as Tunji Sotiminrin, Wale  Obadeyi, Bukky Ogunnote and Tunde Onikoyi among others. After the highly emotional result announcement and presentation of prizes and certificates, the students were taken on a tour of Prof. Soyinka’s country home, otherwise called the Ijegba Forest Residence in Idi Aba. They were received by the former head of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan and an associate of Soyinka, Dr. Tunde Awosanmi, who also mentored them on the essence of the chosen life and lifestyle of the Nobel Laureate. He enjoined them to emulate the good, focused and disciplined life of Soyinka, and imbibe the spirit of humanism that defined his life and career. Awosanmi presented each of the 83 students with CD recording of Mandeland, a collection of poems by renowned poets selected from around the world in tribute to the legendary political activist/prisoner and former South African president, Nelson Mandela, but which were voiced by Soyinka himself. From the Ijegba Forest, the students were then taken on a tour of the famous Olumo Rock in Abeokuta. The creative workshop for the targeted 1000 Ogun State had students learning how to make accessories and book covers with Ankara fabrics and also print making using oil paint and glass. They also had workshops on storytelling, dance and acting. The students were very excited and eager to learn and at the end of the day came up with very beautiful crafts and print drawings. The events came to a climatic end with the staging of the dance-drama ”Obi at’Orogbo’ by the youthful-members of Footprints of David as devised by Seun Awobajo at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta.  

In honour of Stella Amaeyo Adedavoh … Her sister gets ready for killer diseases

In honour of Stella Amaeyo Adedavoh
… Her sister gets ready for killer diseases

 By Prisca Sam-Duru

 Dr Ama Adadevoh is the Deputy Chairman of DRASA Trust, which is the Dr Ameyo Stella Adedavoh (DRASA) Health Trust set up in memory of her late sister who was one of the doctors that helped contain the Ebola outbreak in Lagos and Nigeria in 2014. Tell us more about DRASA Health Trust? DRASA Health Trust was founded following the death of my sister, Dr Stella Ameyo Adadevoh    and ever since then, it has been making concerted efforts towards ensuring that history does not repeat itself. Stella Amaeyo Adedavoh The Health Trust is working to improve and advance healthcare in Nigeria, particularly in the area of infectious diseases. It was set up to bridge the gap between funding and resources as well as in other areas of greatest need within Nigeria’s health sector. This informed the reason for organising the recent conference in Lagos. The conference was tagged ‘Public Health: It starts with Me’ and it held in partnership with Quramo Publishers and DRASA Health Trust. The Panel Discussion took place as part of activities lined up to commemorate the 3rd year since Ebola entered Nigeria and to remember my sister, Dr Ameyo Adedavoh for her efforts at helping to contain the disease. It was initiated as part of DRASA’s efforts aimed at keeping our environment safe from contagious diseases. What was the core objective of the conference? 



Dr Ama Adadevoh

The conference has actually become a platform to have a discussion about the very important topic of preparedness. And by that I mean, we are very concerned about how prepared we are in the case of any outbreak because we know that there would be another outbreak at some point in the future. It doesn’t have to be Ebola, it could be Lassa fever, meningitis, Zika, there are so many things out there and we want to do our part to make sure that collectively, we’re prepared for what might come next. So the idea of the conference was to bring together stakeholders to have a discussion on what are the concerns and what are the solutions to these concerns going further. This was why we brought in speakers in the caliber of the Hon Commissioner Health Lagos State, Dr Jide Idris; Executive Director, Partnerships Public Health Scientific Affairs Merck & Co. Inc, Dr Joan Benson; Founder/CEO Merit HealthCare Ltd, Dr Lolu Ojo; Professor of Pathology, University of Pennyslavania, Dr Glenn Gaulton etc, in addition to a team of health personnel from US and Liberia. My take home from that conference is that it’s going to be a collective effort; we can’t sit back and wait for the government to do everything. The private sector and other entities need to engage and support the government and collectively, we can ensure that we can be ready for any eventuality. Is there a particular measure that can be taken to prevent any outbreak of disease in the country? There’s no one thing that anyone can say. But general infection control practices, policies, education of the public are very important. Also, health care workers have to be trained and the facilities have to be equipped. There are many factors that we need to work on to ensure that we are safe. From the look of things, hand sanitizer and hand washing exercise have disappeared with the Ebola, why is this so? I agree with you. At the time we were battling Ebola, there was a lot of fear. Also, there was enough public education on the importance of hand washing. So because people were afraid, they listened to the advice. Obviously there’s no longer Ebola and people have gone back to their old ways and this goes back to what I said earlier that we need a lot more public education, people must be made to understand the importance of hand washing whether or not there is an outbreak of disease. One of the things DRASA is doing is that we have a hand washing campaign. And as of today, we’ve reached over ten thousand students working with the ministry of education; we got permission to talk to them about the importance of hand washing. We do a demonstration on the proper technique to wash your hands and we make it very interactive by asking volunteers to come on stage and demonstrate and the kids are really excited. We teach them a song relating to hand washing. It’s been great and it’s having great impact on them. We are hoping that even a quarter of those kids go back to their communities and share this information, it would make a difference. We plan to expand the campaign to other areas such as the food industry. There’s been so much emphasis on private partnership, how exactly should this happen? Well, as you can see from the key recommendations from the conference,    we are already contributing immensely towards actualizing a safer environment for everyone. And we are still very ready to do more with the government.