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NYSC Partners Cereals Research Institute On Modern Agric Training

Published

4 years ago

May 24, 2021

Joel Ajayi

The National Youth Service Corps has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Badeggi, Niger State, on the training of Corps Members and Staff on modern farming methods.

In a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by the Scheme Director, Press and Public Relations Adenike Adeyemi (Mrs) said that the formalization of partnership by the two agencies comes as NYSC is revamping its agricultural programme in line with the Federal Government’s policy on diversification of the economy.

NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, said at the NCRI that the Scheme was tapping the potentials of Corps Members for the promotion of agriculture with a view to contributing to the nation’s drive towards self-sufficiency in food production.

He remarked that the partnership would add value to the existing initiatives of the Scheme aimed at empowering Corps Members for self-employment, adding that opportunities were already being provided for them to acquire skills in various vocational areas through the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme, which was introduced in 2012.

“NYSC is a proactive agency that encourages Corps Members to be self-reliant instead of seeking for salaried jobs”, he said.

The Director-General said Corps Members were being encouraged to avail themselves of various empowerment opportunities, including the Federal Government’s Seventy-Five Billion Naira Youth Investment Fund and the National Young Farmers’ Scheme.

He said a proposal had been made for the establishment of a National Youth Service Trust Fund, adding that if actualized, the fund would, among other things, help in making the skill and entrepreneurship programme of the Scheme more functional while also serving as a source of business financing for Corps entrepreneurs.

In his remark, the Executive Director, National Cereals Research Institute, Dr Aliyu Umar, said the institute’s mandate included conduct of research into genetic improvement and improved production system of rice, soyabean, sugarcane, acha and castor; improving processing methods of the mandate crops products as well as design and fabrication of agricultural implements and equipment.

He stated that the institute had trained a lot of women and youths on improved agricultural practices, including the production of high yielding, weed and pest resistant crops.

“We are ready to partner with NYSC, and l wish to assure that we will not let you down.

“This MoU will enhance the efficient usage of limited human and material resources that will improve productivity”, he said.

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ELECTING A POPE: THE BURDEN OF MAKING CHOICES

Published

3 days ago

May 11, 2025

The Gleamer

By Olubunmi Mayaki

“Habemus papam!” which in the English Language means, “We have a Pope.” was pronounced by Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a French Catholic prelate, His Eminence, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti from the iconic loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican City on Thursday 8 May 2025 after white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Those Latin words proclaimed to a tensed global audience the result of the election of a new Supreme Pontiff after the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) on 21 April 2025 at the age of 88 years.

The Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Robert Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) emerged as primus inter pares (first among equals) from the cardinals after undergoing detailed election rituals, which have been the process of selecting the head of the 2000-year-old Catholic Church for centuries.

A papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected, was held consisting of one hundred and thirty-three (133) College of Cardinals, drawn from different parts of the world converged at St. Peter’s Basilica for a public mass before heading to the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes to elect the 267th Pope. During the mass, part of the choir renditions reminded voters to remember their last day when they would stand before God in judgment to render their stewardship on earth, which is to prevent them from rigging the voting process. At the behest of the senior cardinal deacon, voting formalities were read to the electors, which included- oath-taking- “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one whom I believe should be elected according to God”. Other processes are banning phones, jamming calls, forbidding speaking or contacting any of the candidates, voting rounds, spiritual pauses etc.

Looking at the voting process, one should be curious about how an election to pick a leader for a religious body could be so systematic and attract such global attention. It is a sharp contrast to elections where political leaders are chosen. Even in the so-called advanced democracies, we have seen electoral flaws and a dearth of political leaders. States are finding it difficult to pick genuine statesmen, giving rise to hegemonic leaders. These political imperia ums are emerging and stoking crises in their domain. Fallouts of elections are no longer favourable due to unpopular candidates forced on citizens.

Africa, as a case study, shows that no matter the rules put in place by the continent’s leaders, our election processes have been fraught with rigging, corruption and waste. In most cases, the leaders who set the rules are the violators of the same process. Governments conspire with electoral bodies to truncate election processes at will. Such political brigandage has destroyed the progress of the continent.

Closing this view, I hope that African leaders will take a cue from the Catholic Church’s election process to reinvigorate and rejig the continent’s faltering political process for the good of its people. Better still; political scholars from the continent can study the Catholic model. The common features of elections in most parts of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, are riddled with vote rigging, violence, human rights abuse, repression, barbarism, crises, untold hardship, and sometimes, outright war. This is the bane of Africa’s development.

The burden of making good political choices should ordinarily rest on citizens. However, politicians have hijacked this process for selfish reasons. It has given birth to bad leaders. If we fail to get it right, what we see is what we get. That is the story of the world politics!

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