Show workings
Nigeria activates emergency strategy to control flooding
Good morning, Big Brains. This morning, all I’m thinking about is getting a life-changing credit alert so I can retire and live my mysterious writer life. A closed mouth is a closed destiny so if there’s a billionaire on TBD’s subscriber list, show workings! (winks in delulu)
- Margaret
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Reading time ~3 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigeria activates states’ emergency centres to control flooding
Kenya's President William Ruto cuts governance costs, scraps First Lady's budget
FG opens student loan programme to state-owned universities
The Big Deal
Nigeria activates states’ emergency centres to control flooding
Like that annoying ex that keeps coming back, the rainy season is going to be lasting a little bit longer this year. On Friday, we reported that the Lagos state government blamed last Wednesday’s flood on Mother Nature. The folks at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on the other hand, aren't playing the blame games, they are showing workings.
The agency has activated its Zonal, Territorial and Operation offices to work with the States’ Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) to control the flooding situation across the country and carry out rescue operations.
NEMA has also assigned search and rescue officers to each state to carry out rescue operations with SEMAs in recently flooded areas and communities.
If you’re wondering why NEMA is going so hard on its emergency strategy, the Director of the agency Zubaida Umar said, “The rescue efforts by NEMA are in addition to the ongoing sensitization and awareness activities being carried out to alert the public of the predicted flood for necessary actions to be taken to avert negative impacts.” She also said that we’re going to experience heavier rainfalls in the coming days.
NEMA is currently operating in Lagos, Ibadan, Ekiti, Abuja, Minna, Jos, Enugu, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Edo, Uyo, Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Yola, and Gombe. You can call them for rescue help at 0800CALLNEMA (080022556362).
Why is this a big deal?
The last time we had flood warnings as intense as these was 2022, and there were horrible consequences. In what BBC described as “the worst flooding the West African nation has seen in a decade”, over 600 lives were lost. 1.3 million people were displaced, and more than 200,000 homes were destroyed. The government also revealed the economy suffered a $7 billion loss.
Kenya is currently going through a similar phase. The heavy rains have caused nearly 300 deaths and prompted the government to tell people in flood-risk zones to leave their homes. They're also demolishing homes of those who refuse.
NEMA taking these steps is important for Nigeria not to have a repeat of what happened in 2022 and what is currently happening in Kenya.
President William Ruto cuts Kenya’s governance costs, scraps First Lady's budget.
President Ruto of Kenya recently pulled a move that might make African mothers ask other presidents the ever relevant “Does he have two heads?” question.
The Kenyan president started off by making a very unconventional attendance as a speaker on a three-hour-long X/Twitter space with over 134,000 listeners. During the Space, he confirmed the withdrawal of the controversial Finance Bill, and explained that the bill was initially drafted to create jobs and protect local industries.
Speaking on managing the economy which is pretty much in shambles, Ruto revealed some of his plans. He made it clear that budget allocations for the offices of the First and Second Ladies will be removed and confidential budgets in various government offices, including his, will be eliminated as well. Ruto also announced that government renovations budgets will be cut by 50%, and all public servants aged 60 and above will be required to retire, with no extensions permitted.
All together, these slashes took $1.3 billion off the original budget. We can’t wait to see some Ruto-inspired actions in Nigeria where ₦1.5 billion was budgeted to purchase cars for the office of the First Lady.
FG opens student loan programme to state-owned universities
The federal government just made more room for the kids to get schooled through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) which was originally limited to only federal universities.
NELFUND just announced that students from 36 state-owned universities and colleges can now apply for student loans through its website. According to NELFUND, students at these institutions can start applying immediately.
The management of these schools has already submitted their students’ information to NELFUND's Student Verification System (SVS). NELFUND has also made room for more state-owned universities to join the program by submitting their students' data to SVS so that their students can also benefit from the loan program.
We found the list so you wouldn’t have to…
1. Adamawa State University, Mubi
2. Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri
3. Borno State University
4. Mohammed Lawan College of Agriculture, Borno State
5. Edo State University, Uzairue
6. Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti
7. Gombe State University
8. Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe University, Imo State
9. Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Umuagwo
10. Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria
11. Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano
12. Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina
13. Katsina State Institute of Technology and Management
14. Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero
15. Confluence University of Science and Technology, Kogi State
16. Lagos State University of Education
17. Lagos State University
18. Nasarawa State University, Keffi
19. Tai Solarin University of Education, Ogun State
20. University of Medical Sciences, Ondo
21. Osun State University
22. University of Ilesa, Osun State
23. Government Technical College, ARA Osun State
24. Government Technical College, GBONGAN Osun State
25. Government Technical College, IJEBU-JESA Osun State
26. Government Technical College, ILE-IFE Osun State
27. Government Technical College, INISA Osun State
28. Government Technical College, IWO Osun State
29. Government Technical College, OSU Osun State
30. Government Technical College, OTAN AYEGBAJU Osun State
31. Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun
32. Government Technical College, ILE-IFE
33. Osun State College of Technology
34. Taraba State University, Jalingo
35. Umar Suleiman College of Education, Gashua, Yobe State
36. Zamfara State University, Talata Mafara
This Week’s Big Question
“If black people could have superpowers, what would you want yours to be?
Naomi’s response -”I want whatever the Kardashians have because you can’t tell me that being rich and famous for no apparent reason is not a superpower”
You can also share your response here and if it’s as interesting as Naomi’s response, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
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