UNICEM Calabar Sack Human Resource Director As Protesters Call Off Action Posted: 08 Nov 2013 02:05 PM PST by crossriverwatch admin UNICEM The Human Resource Director, HRD of United Cement Company, UNICEM, Calabar, Mr. Peter Ogunkule has been sacked. CrossRiverWatch gathered that the two days shut down of the company by persistent protesters drawn from the Host Community Youth Forum and the Labor Union in the company may have forced the company to drop Mr. Ogunkule. The protesters who have been demanding the removal of Mr. Ogunkule for alleged victimization and highhandedness had blocked the premises of the company and halted production for two days insisting that they will not allow work to go on until the their demands are met. In his reaction to the development, the President of UNICEM Host Communities Youth Forum, Comrade Peter Effiong told CrossRiverWatch that the protesters are calling off their action and production can now begin in the company. He also described the removal of the HR Director as the beginning of good things to come. “We are grateful to God, the Staff Union and our elders for believing in our course up to the point of joining our solidarity match without looking back. The removal of Peter Ogunkule as the Human Resource Director brings us one step closer. Peter even as a stranger could have been endured only if he made good friends but be it as it may, glory to God. “That office we strongly trust will be better in the hands of a responsible Cross Riverian, at this juncture we want to urge the community leaders and other stakeholders based on credibility to in unison support the company get a clear headed person to fill the vacancy and not to allow any atom of aggrandizing politics meddle in. “Also, big kudos to the media for their straight reports and always being there when all hopes was lost.” Efforts to reach the Corporate Affairs Director of UNICEM, Mr. Ayi Ita Ayi were not successful as several calls to his mtn phone were not picked and a text message requesting confirmation of the sack of the company’s HR Manager was not replied. follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch Carnival: Copy Right Society Sues Cross River For 5 Billion Posted: 08 Nov 2013 07:04 AM PST by crossriverwatch admin Brazilians at the Carnival Calabar 2012 Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has filed a Five Billion Naira suit at the Federal High Court, against the Cross River State Carnival Commission, the Governor of Cross River State and the Attorney General of the state seeking among other things an injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents, privies or servants from the unauthorized copying, communication to the public, broadcast and infringement of the copyright in the musical works and sound recordings belonging to the members, affiliates, assignors and licensors of COSON. In the Suit No FHC/L/CS/1544/13 with a 41 paragraph Statement of Claim filed on behalf of COSON and obtained by CrossRiverWatch from Mr. Tony Okoroji, COSON is claiming that among the events organized in December every year by the Cross River Carnival Commission on behalf of the Cross River State government is the four day ‘Calabar Carnival’ widely known as Africa’s biggest street party during which over fifty trailer loads of massive loud speakers, without any license or authorization, communicate various musical works and sound recordings belonging to the members, affiliates, assignors and licensors of the Plaintiff, to millions of people lined up on several streets of Calabar and inside UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar, which musical works and sound recordings, without any license or authorization, are broadcast or caused to be broadcast by the Defendants to hundreds of millions of people in Lagos , all over Nigeria and around the world. In the Statement of Claim, COSON states that it has repeatedly, through several letters, reminders and telephone calls , requested the Defendants to obtain appropriate licenses and pay requisite royalties for the musical works and sound recordings belonging to the members, affiliates, assignors and licensors of COSON communicated to the public, broadcast or caused to be broadcast by the Defendants and reproduced during and consequent upon the massive entertainment events held in the name of Calabar Carnival and Calabar Festival organized by the agencies of the Cross River State government, to no avail. The statement further states that rather than obtain the required licenses and pay proper royalties for the intellectual property belonging to the Plaintiff’s members, affiliates, assignors and licensors, the Defendants have shown complete contempt for the lawful demand of the Plaintiff and that the Defendants have even begun massive advertising for another month long festival/carnival to be held from November 30, 2013 during which if unchecked the Defendants will continue with the unauthorized communication to the public, broadcasting, and copying and infringement of the copyright in the musical works and sound recordings of the members, affiliates, assignors and licensors of the Plaintiff. COSON also stated that apart from the significant amount of Nigerian copyright owners whose rights are infringed during the festival and carnival, a substantial amount of the royalties that ought to be due from the licensing of the musical works and sound recordings, belong to various foreign nationals represented by COSON and that as a result of the various Intellectual Property conventions entered into by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, failure to respect the intellectual property rights of the relevant foreign nationals may result in diplomatic and economic sanctions against Nigeria. Commenting on the development, COSON General Manager, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji said, ‘We have to do our job but this is unfortunate. I know how much we have tried to avoid this matter getting to this point. I know how hard we have tried to engage the officials of the Cross River State Government to find an amicable answer. I know the personal efforts made by our Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji who has several friends within the Cross River State government apparatus. The problem is that in this day and age, many supposedly educated Nigerians still do not take intellectual property matters seriously. They think that people’s intellectual property can be freely used anyhow and anywhere they want until the matter results into a big court action costing millions. I hope that others learn from this. This matter could easily have been resolved with the Cross River State Government. Unfortunately, you can take a horse to the river but you can’t force it to drink’ several attempts to speak to the Chairman of the Carnival Commission, Mr. Gabe Onah were not successful as his phone was not connecting and the Governor’s CPS was also not reachable. follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch BBA Housemates Storm Beverly Heels Nightclub Unveiling in Calabar Posted: 08 Nov 2013 06:15 AM PST by crossriverwatch admin BBA Bassey; Cameroun music diva, Mesula; BBA Bimp; Karen Igoh; Nkoyo King; and BBA Beverly Osu during the unveiling of Beverly Heels in Calabar Housemates of Africa’s popular reality TV show, Big Brother Africa, BBA last Friday stormed Calabar to grace the opening ceremony of Calabar’s one stop nightclub, Beverly Heels. Amongst the housemates who made their strong appearances at the event were Beverly Osu, Karen Igoh, Bimp and Bassey. With the former BBA housemates attracting the attention of craving entertainment fans, the event held the captivation of every eye to the extent that traffic became a big issue along Marian way, where the unveiling of the nightclub house took place. Performing the unveiling, the governor of Cross River, Senator Liyel Imoke, represented by the Commissioner for Local Government, Chief Peter Ojie commended the owners of the club for the initiative and their decision to situate the leisure house in Cross River describing it as important to the state’s tourism development drive. Also speaking the Commissioner for Information, Chief Akin Ricketts, described the Beverly Heels structure as sign post to the state tourism developmental stride. He said the club house was evident of the good things found in the state and more to come. According to Mr. Eyo Nsa and his wife, proprietors of the club, known in the entertainment industry as Nkoyo King, who also spoke with our correspondent, the name of the nightclub, Beverly Heels, was named after their little daughter, Beverly, and that they took particular interest in inviting BBA Beverly Osu and her fellow housemates because their daughter was fond of her. Those who performed at the event include Sean Tizzle, Chuddy K, T-Shan, Mesula; while Channel O Derenle Edun anchored the event. follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch Appraising Rural Empowerment in Cross River BY PAULINA MORPHY FOGG Posted: 08 Nov 2013 03:34 AM PST by crossriverwatch admin Paulina Morphy Fogg In cross river today many of my friends have talk about how the present administration has empowered rural communities in terms of projects but the only problem is the poor quality of the projects and the lack of monitoring and wastage in the system. But none of us are a talking about whether these projects are creating local jobs or not. At the core of the concept of empowerment is the idea of power. The possibility of empowerment depends on two things. First, empowerment requires that power can change. If power cannot change, if it is inherent in positions or people, then empowerment is not possible, nor is empowerment conceivable in any meaningful way. In other words, if power can change, then empowerment is possible. Second, the concept of empowerment depends upon the idea that power can expand. This second point reflects our common experiences of power rather than how we think about power. To clarify these points, we first discuss what we mean by power in Cross River State. To create change we must change individually to enable us to become partners in solving the complex issues facing us. In collaborations based on mutual respect, diverse perspectives, and a developing vision, people work towards creative and realistic solutions. We in Cross River State should see empowerment as a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. It is a process that fosters power in people for use in their own lives, their communities, and in their society by acting on issues that they define as important; so in our own case what do we classify as important? Cross River rural people and communities can’t do this without the state government providing the opportunities, resources and support that they need to become involved themselves. So what is empowerment in our state when the level of poverty and food insecurity is so much across the state. I would like to know seriously in which way rural empowerment has worked for us in Cross River State. What do we really understand about empowerment in Cross River State of Nigeria. From our own sense does empowerment mean the lack of social services, or the only work in town which is teaching, inadequate facilities or poor implementation of policies, or what does it mean to us? And what are the practical standard needed in building the relationship between community development and government empowerment? What are our basic concepts, values and aptitudes? Do we understand our localities? Do we help people find common cause with others or single community groups, advocates, champions and representatives, or do government agencies understand and work with communities and manage community development and help other workers contribute to it? These standards are needed because we need direct influence and involvement, which is the essence of participatory democracy. Community empowerment is therefore both about boosting the internal strengths of local communities and about the interface between communities and public authorities, services and governance. The improvement and management of neighborhoods and localities is necessarily a shared enterprise between local residents and the whole landscape of local public and private bodies. This approach, sometimes called co-production, is what reduces crime, reduces isolation and depression, improves educational attainment, improves health and all other factors. It is this approach which therefore offers genuine economies in public services, as well as greater democratic energy. In my own views empowerment should be much more than that. Empowerment should be a process that challenges our assumptions about the way things are and can be. It should challenge our basic assumptions about power, helping, achieving, and succeeding. To begin to demystify the concept of empowerment, we need to understand the concept broadly in order to be clear about how and why we narrow our focus of empowerment for specific programs and projects and to allow discussion of empowerment across Ministerial departments and community lines. Cross River State can use this construct in empowerment in many of its departments for example in community development, education, public relation Health, environment, economics, and social movement and organizations in the state etc. How empowerment is understood varies amongst these perspectives and understanding empowerment becomes a critical issue for us as we grapple with the task of empowering people in our rural communities and sharing our common values across the state. Paulina Morphy Fogg is a Cross River born UK based health service provider. follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch Nkoyo Toyo Invest N80million to Train 250 Youths in Modern Farming Posted: 08 Nov 2013 03:15 AM PST by crossriverwatch admin Ntufam John Okon, Cross River State PDP Chairman and Hon. Nkoyo Toyo during the program Beneficiaries Honorable Nkoyo Toyo, the member representing Calabar/Odukpani in the House of Representatives is investing the sum of 80 million naira to train two hundred and fifty youths in her constituency on modern farming skills. Hon Nkoyo Toyo who assembled the youths in the facility built for the purpose at the Akim Market Calabar said the training is for the youths to acquire modern farming skills in poultry, fishery, piggery, and grass cutter farming. “This is my constituency project to make sure youths of my constituency are self-employed. “Every year I receive constituency allowance on behalf of my constituency so it is my responsibility to ensure that I invest in the people; this training scheme is to ensure that the youths of my constituency and indeed all people of the state who care to be a part of it are trained in modern farming skills”. She said every year the value of the skills of the trainees would be improved upon through further training before they are allowed to stand on their own. “We are not just going to train them but we would ensure that we make funds available to them that is why we are collaborating with a lot of agencies including Medium Enterprise Development Agency, MEDA, the Central Bank of Nigeria Enterprise Development Center, EDC, so that the fund they need to succeed would be made available to them”. According to her, seeing the youths through their teething problems through training and fund acquisition would give them the needed advantage to succeed and employ other young people, which she said is the only panacea to the unemployment in the state. “We have acquired 100 hectares of land at Atan in which the trainees would practicalize the skills they acquire here. There is a hostel, an administrative block, other facilities that would make the trainees feel comfortable as they learn the needed farming skill”. She also revealed that she has acquired 154 plots of land at Ndon Owong to build a social housing scheme and for those ready to build houses in the place. “This land is given free but anyone who wants to get land there must be ready to build. Already we have started work there by getting the first things like electricity, road and school in place for those who are moving there”. Ntufam John Okon the PDP Chairman in the state said the most challenging issue the state is facing is youth unemployment that makes young people go into such vices like prostitution, armed robbery and kidnapping. “I have witnessed her scholarship program which is one of the biggest by an elected official in the state and now this one which would take the youths off the streets which is quite laudable”. He called on the trainees to be a serious with the knowledge acquisition adding that it will change their lives as they would no longer roam the streets in search of work. follow us on twitter @crossriverwatch
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 08:00:28 +0000
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