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ECOWAS Parliament Proposes Legislation On Waste Management

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By Gloria Ikibah 
 
Members of the Parliament of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are proposing legislations for member states to establish waste management plant.
 
Chairman, Committee on Agriculture and Co-Chairman, Joint Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources/Energy, Mining/Infrastructure of the Parliament, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, disclosed this on Wednesday at the ongoing delocalized meeting in Winneba, Ghana, with the theme ‘Plastic Waste Management: Challenges and Prospects in Implementing Community Policies.’ 
 
The committee had undertaken a field tour of a plastic waste landfill and treatment site in Accra, Accra Compost Recycling Plant, a subsidiary of JOSPONG Group of Companies, as part of its efforts to find lasting solutions to the menace of environmental pollution occasioned by poor waste management.
 
Senator Ndume said there was the need for a harmonized legislation or policy in the Sub-region to replicate such plants across ECOWAS sub-region.
 
He acknowledged that members of the committee have learnt from the initiative and the imperative of partnership between governments and private sector players. 
 
Managing Director, Compost Recycling Plant, Michael Tuwor, earlier informed the committee that the company enjoys the support and partnership of the Ghanaian government, which has increased the company’s capacity to collect and manage waste effectively. 
 
With over 200 workers, Tuwor noted that about 2,000 tons of waste were processed daily into pebbles, organic manure or packaged for both local and foreign plastic industries, for plastic wares or production of sport wears. 
 
He further revealed that over $20 million revenue was generated annually in addition to $8 million support from the government annually.
 
The MD specifically noted that without government support, it would have been practically impossible for the company to survive due to high cost of production and other factors.
 
Also, Vice Chairman, Committee on Energy and Mining and member of Sierra Leone delegation, Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina, said he was inspired by the activities of the plant and vowed to sponsor a bill in his country towards finding lasting solution to the issue.
 
He said: “What I have realized recently was the implications of urbanization – the movement of youths from rural to urban centres. So, how can we make a reverse if we cannot give them the opportunity back home?
 
“We have just toured the plant and have seen the process of turning waste to wealth. I am inspired and I urge this company to replicate the plant in other West African countries. It will help us in the parliament to make uniform, generic legislation or policy on how to effectively manage waste in the Sub-region.
 
“Noting that government cannot take 100 per cent cost of a recycling process, Lamina joined in endorsing a public, private partnership that Ghana adopted, stressing that it will go a long way in the overall development of the Sub-region”.
Speaking on the delay by African countries to effectively manage waste, he said: “You know that even the Western countries did not get where they are in one day. It is good news for us. We have seen this technology and we can build on it and grow it so that we can take our people out of decadence and rot.”
 
Chairman, Committee on Infrastructure, Hon. Mamadou Sako, also proposed the support of the private sector on waste management. 
 
According to him, the visit to the plant was necessary to overcome the challenges of environmental pollution, even as emphasized the need for requisite infrastructure.
 
While congratulating the management of Accra Compost Recycling Plant, Hon. Sako admitted that a lot has been learnt on how to generate income from waste while keeping the environment safe to humans.
 
Members of the joint committee said there were prepared to engage their respective countries on the need to partner the private sector in taming the tide.
 
They also called on waste management agencies from across ECOWAS to enforce its laws as a way to control citizens’ negative attitude towards waste disposal.
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Trouble looming for Obaseki as Gov Okpebholo orders probe of his admin

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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State has ordered the setting up of a committee to probe the immediate-past administration of Godwin Obaseki for its failure to inaugurate 14 Edo Assembly lawmakers-elect into the 7th Assembly.

Okpebholo disclosed this while giving his inaugural speech as the new governor of the state.

Governor Okpebholo also ordered the State Chief Judge to immediately investigate the initial delay of former Governor Obaseki to inaugurate duly-cleared judges by the National Judicial Council (NJC) last year

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Naira may depreciate to N1,993 against dollar – Report

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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Nigeria’s naira has been projected to depreciate further to N1,993 per dollar in the coming days.

This is according to BMI, a Fitch Solutions subsidiary report title, ‘Weak Naira and Structural Challenges to Constrain Nigeria’s Medical Devices Market Growth’.

The report said the forecasted depreciation will be predicated on the 95 percent dependence on imports for pharmaceuticals in Nigeria.

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According to the report, the development would erode both the health system and patient purchasing power.

“We expect that the naira will end 2028 at N1,993/$ from N306/$ in 2018.

“As the naira weakens, the cost of importing medical devices will continually increase, eroding both the health system and patient purchasing power, especially to invest in essential medical technologies given the underfunding of the public health sector,” the report stated.

This comes as Naira fell to N1681.42 and N1735 at the official and parallel foreign exchange markets on Monday.

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This comes as FMDQ FX transaction turnover dropped significantly from $1.4 billion on Friday to $471.5 million on Monday.

Last Thursday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, said the country’s external reserves rose to $40 billion.

Despite Central Bank of Nigeria’s interventions and external reserves rise in the last months, the naira has continued to experience fluctuations in the FX market.

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Finally, Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over church child abuse scandal

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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, shown on November 21, 2023, resigned on Tuesday. The most senior official in the Church of England was accused of failing to reprimand a prolific child abuser. Yui Mok/WPA Pool/Getty Images
CNN

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior leader in the Church of England, has resigned over his handling of a child abuse case, according to his official account.

Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury,” Welby said in a statement on Tuesday.

Pressure had been mounting on Welby in recent days, following an independent review into “sickening abuse” committed by John Smyth, a deceased British lawyer considered the worst serial abuser linked to the Church of England.

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The incriminating report, commissioned by the church and released November 7, tracked a “worrying pattern of deference” to Smyth, concluding that “a serious crime was covered up.”

In Welby’s resignation statement, he said the review “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.”

“When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow,” Welby added. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.”

In his statement, the archbishop said the “exact timings” of when he officially leaves office were yet to be decided and would be established “once a review of necessary obligations has been completed.” It leaves open the possibility that the archbishop will remain in position over the Christmas period, while the process of finding his successor is expected to take many months. Welby, 68, will turn 70 on January 6, 2026, the retirement age for bishops in the Church of England, which meant he only had a little over a year left in post.

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While it is custom for Archbishops of Canterbury to be elevated to the House of Lords, Britain’s upper parliamentary chamber, after they leave office, the circumstances of Welby’s resignation will likely bring opposition against such a move.

Welby, a former oil executive, took up his post in March 2013 and was chosen as a skilled manager alongside his ability to hold different groups in the church together and focus on evangelization. However, disagreements over same-sex relationships have fractured church unity and have tested his authority.

On abuse, he described himself as “ashamed” of the church, although insisted he sought to improve the church’s response including dramatically boosting personnel numbers for its national safeguarding personnel. Nevertheless, problems persisted, and last year the chair of the church’s safeguarding office resigned.

A resignation by the Archbishop of Canterbury is extremely rare in the church’s history, and a resignation over the handling of abuse is without precedent. Welby’s decision to stand down underlines how the scourge of sexual abuse has damaged the credibility of the church, with accountability demanded of its leaders.

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Summer camps
Smyth perpetrated “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks” on as many as 130 boys and young men, with abuse spanning from the 1970s up until his death, in 2018 – according to the Makin Review.

He was accused of abusing his own family members, as well as attendees of evangelical Christian summer camps he helped run for students from Britain’s prestigious private colleges in the 1970s and 1980s.

From 1984 to 2001, when Smyth relocated to Zimbabwe and then South Africa, church officers “knew of the abuse and failed to take the steps necessary to prevent further abuse occurring,” the report added. Welby worked at the summer camps that Smyth helped run. The pair exchanged Christmas cards and Welby donated small sums of money to his “missions” in Zimbabwe.

In 2017, Channel 4 News reported on Smyth’s abuse. After the publication of the independent review earlier this month, Welby told the network he “did not” ensure the allegations were pursued as “energetically” and “remorselessly” as they should have been, when he rose to the highest rank in the church, in 2013. He was first ordained as a priest in 1993.

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The church’s review found that there was a “missed opportunity” in 2012 and 2013 by the highest levels of the church to “properly” report him to law enforcement.

The review said that “it is not possible to establish whether Justin Welby knew of the severity of the abuses in the UK prior to 2013,” adding: “It is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.”

The Bishop of Newcastle was the most high-ranking church official to call for Welby’s resignation. On Monday, Helen-Ann Hartley told the BBC that it would be untenable for members of the clergy to “have a moral voice… when we cannot get our own house in order.”

Throughout his tenure, Welby has demanded accountability from those accused of mishandling abuse, including his predecessor, George Carey, and the former Bishop of Lincoln. Until now, there’s been no historical precedent for an Archbishop of Canterbury resigning over child abuse.

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