LAGS, Unicef Charge Media To Debunk Misconceptions, Myths On Vaccines Through Quality News Reportage...To Begin Immunization October 19th

By Yomi Durojaye 

The Lagos State Government will on Saturday 19th of October, 2024 commence the vaccination of over 18 million Lagosians under its Non-Polio Supplemental Immunisation campaign.

The immunisation exercise which is in partnership with UNICEF is billed to hold in all the State’s 57 LGAs/ LCDAs.

In line with this therefore, the media have been charged to champion messages around the benefits of the exercise that will focus on Measles, Yellow Fever, Polio, Routine Immunization, Tetanus Diphtheria and the Human papillomavirus, HPV Vaccination.

The charge came to the fore at a media orientation programme on the NPSIA/Yellow Fever Campaign organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund, and UNICEF.

In his welcome address, Supervising Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Abimbola Bowale reiterated the state government’s unwavering commitment to protecting citizens’ health through effective immunization strategies. “Immunization is the first line of defense in strengthening health outcomes for families and communities,” Bowale stated.

Highlighting the media’s essential role, the Permanent Secretary stressed that journalists must intensify efforts in disseminating accurate information to ensure that every child receives life-saving immunizations, with no one left behind.

“Informing the public about the benefits of these supplemental immunizations and the safety protocols in place can significantly boost participation and trust in these health initiatives,” he added.

In his paper presentations, Immunization Programme Coordinator in the State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Adetola Akinpelu explained that the NPSIA would target vaccines including Measles, Yellow Fever, and HPV, aiming for at least 95% coverage for the measles vaccine and 80% for yellow fever to achieve herd immunity.

“These activities are not merely operational tasks; they are life-saving interventions that contribute to the health and well-being of our future generations,” Akinpelu noted.

UNICEF Social and Behavioural Change Specialist, Aderonke Akinola-Akinwole said the Fund intends to employ the help of journalists to combat myths through credible and easy-to-understand content, which will promote and increase vaccine trust and acceptance.

On the safety of health workers during the exercise, Akinola-Akinwole noted that measures are in place in collaboration with the Lagos State Government to deploy qualified personnel, potent vaccines, and other equipment to ensure the success of the exercise.

”UNICEF is committed to the shared goal of a healthier Lagos State and Nigeria, that is free from preventable diseases. We are already engaging with critical stakeholders such as Religious Leaders, Traditional Rulers, and Pressure Groups, among others to better capture our target audience”.

The event concluded with a commitment to ongoing collaboration between health officials and the media to foster a brighter, healthier future for all through effective communication tools such as jingles and concise messages in indigenous Languages, using Social Influencers and Freelancers, Testimonies, Data, and Statistics Interpretation among others.

COVID-19: Community Media Pledges Support For Government Efforts To Combat Pandemic

AgegePulse Magazine

L-R: Patron, Association of Practitioners of Community Media in Nigeria (APCOM), Hon.Kehinde Bamigbetan; President, Mr. Dayo Akintobi; Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Lagos State, Mr. Gbenga Omotosho; Vice President, Mr. Leke Adeseri; and General Secretary, Mr Lekan Lawal, during a courtesy visit of the association to the commissioner at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Lagos

Members of the Association of Practitioners of Community Media in Nigeria (APCOM) have offered to support the efforts of Government at all levels to contain the corona virus pandemic.

The association made the pledge during a courtesy visit to the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotosho, in his Alausa Secretariat office recently.

Led by their patron and immediate past Information Commissioner of the State, Hon. Kehinde Bamigbetan, and the association's president, Mr. Dayo Akintobi, members lauded the State Government's efforts to date in combating the spread of the disease.

The APCOM patron, himself a community newspaper publisher, informed the Commissioner that the association is well placed to disseminate timely updates about the pandemic to the populace. According to him; "The media outlets of the association's members are the voices and conscience of their communities; they are always relied upon for fast and authentic information.”

In his contribution, the association's President, Akintobi, said the body exists to ensure the information needs of communities across the country are served comprehensively, diligently, professionally, and truthfully.

He then pledged APCOM's support for the Lagos State Government’s initiatives to keep the public informed about Covid-19, and also called on all other arms of government to capitalize on APCOM’s widespread reach into communities across the country.

Responding, Mr. Omotoso expressed his profound appreciation to the leadership of APCOM for arranging the visit and for offering to partner with the State Government at this trying time.

"I believe in grassroots journalism such as you practice,” the Commissioner told his visitors. “Community media portrays society in its true colour.” He assured the association’s members that their pledge to support the government will be reciprocated.

Breaking: AgegePulse Receives Award of Excellence For Corporate Support, Quality Reportage

...Rotary Club of Agege, Elephant Club of Ogba, others Honoured By Agege LGEA

In recognition of AgegePulse's Corporate Social Responsibility, exemplary leadership conduct, uncommon services to humanity, contribution to the development of Basic Education in Lagos State, effective partnership for quality community reportage, the Local Government Education Authority, Agege has honoured AgegePulse magazine with an award of excellence.

The Agege LGEA under the imperial leadership of Hon. Olalekan Majiyagbe honoured AgegePulse Magazine alongside Rotary Club of Agege, Lagos Television LTV8, Lagos Schools Online, AgegeTV online. Elephant Club of Ogba amongst others.

Receiving the award today in Lagos, the editorial team of AgegePulse Magazine described it as a reward for hard work, professionalism and pace setting of quality community news reportage in Agege, Lagos.

The team promised to continue its drive to bring Agege to respectable prominence from its slum views through timely, accurate and positive reporting of events and activities of the sons and daughters of the ancient Lagos community.

Ikeja Electric Commences Installation Of 85,000 Pre-Paid Meters

… Collaborates with Community Media to Reach the Communities

In what seem to be a family meeting, the Corporate Communication team of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company (IE) led by Mr Felix Ofule with Mr Fidelix, Mr Ayeni and others had a maiden edition of media parley with Association of Practitioners of Community Media in Nigeria (APCOM) on Wednesday. The event which took place at the upper room of Yellow Chilies Restaurant and bar had members of the pen industry drawn from nooks and crannies of network coverage of IE.



The head of corporate communications of the energy company Mr Felix Ofulue hinted on the need for the collaboration which in his words, ought to have been held earlier before now but for some logistics. He however noted that it is better late than never while reiterating that having understood the roles of the community media especially for a peculiar outfit such as IE, it is paramount to nurture a forum such as this for mutual benefits.

The aim of the meeting was to partner the community media in disseminating information to their various communities with the understanding of some of the usual challenges faced with customers and ways of achieving possible solutions to them. The issue of pre-paid meter was top on the list as it affects even the men of the pen world. Mr. Ofulue informed the gathering that IE is highly desirous to meter each of its customers; however the prevailing economy has not made it possible for IE to achieve that while noting that prior to the current phase of pre-paid installations of 85,000 meters ongoing IE had invested about thirty million US Dollars on metering her customers before it was halted. He said that the current phase is done through a method of identifying highly revenue zones which will in turn enhance her revenue generation for further investments, while assuring that in the next six months the issue on metering will be drastically reduced in addition with the proposed Meter Asset Providers (MAP) currently been fine tuned for implementation by the federal government. He reiterated the benefits accruing to the company which he said was enormous.




While answering question on why the estimated bills have persisted despite the public outcry, Mr Ofulue hinted that though it is agreeable that the estimated bill system does not reflect the true consumption of customers which can only be solved by metering every customer however IE has reduced the basis of estimation on actual consumption per transformers by installing meters to all the transformers thereby determining the actual consumption within the community using such transformers, he counselled further consumers to help IE in monitoring the consumption within or community and using the appropriate whistle-blower to report such while noting that it is very impossible for IE to carryout consumption assessment on all her customers, hence since the ripple effect of consumption of one customer is borne by all, it is therefore imperative for every consumer to be watchful and report such to IE authorized agent for appropriate investigation and subsequent actions.



Head Corporate Communication Ikeja Electric Driving home his point


On outstanding or inherited bills he enlightened the men of the press that by explaining that the energy sector is broken into different units which include the generation companies (GENCOs) transmission companies (TCNs) Distribution Companies (DISCOs) which IE represents, hence for any consumption the DISCOs earn about 24-25% the GENCOs earn about 50% and so on; therefore it is very difficult for any debt irrespective of who consumed it to be written off by any DISCO, he advised that in the case of rental of an apartment the prospective tenant should demand for the position of energy bill before accepting such, where it is observed that there are outstanding the tenant should demand from the landlord/landlady on how to offset such, on the other it is expedient for landlord/landlady to notify IE of any tenant failing to pay his or her energy bill for disconnection and further actions before such tenants moves.

Mr. Ayeni Akinola added that even in the case of outright purchase of a property, it is important to verify the status of such property before purchase as the bill will always surface at the time of reconnection of the new property which was termed by publisher of The Alimosho Mail as “ancestral bill”. In his (Mr. Felix) word, no bill can be written off by any DISCO once it is issued as it will mean owing the other parties.

Furthermore he used the opportunity to mention of the exclusive customer pilot program which is currently text run with Ikeja GRA, which has seen IE investing more within the axis which has also improved their supply with the effect of paying more. He boasted that power has improved tremendously except for areas with difficulties like lack of payment, threat to life of IE personnel etc.

He reiterated that IE does not tolerate any assault on its staff for any reason as it will plunge such area into darkness without any apology and for the areas with low payment; it will be unwise as a business to continue supplying such area with energy thereby forcing the company to plunge resources from other areas into such areas. While responding on question on ceeding part of their network jurisdiction to private GENCOs (Embedded Power) as the case with Isheri Whitesand and Obadore, he vehemently rejected the possibility of such without proper agreement on the modus operandi.

On why installation of transformer bought by communities sometime become almost impossible to connect to the grid and the possibility of a community retrieving materials bought for the purpose of power supply; he opined that there are due processes, standards and specifications for the purchase of any electrical product; that if any of such is not met it becomes very difficult to effect such connection while stressing that it is impossible for any community to retrieve any appliance from any Disco as there would have been an agreement signed before such is connected.

Ofulue further assured that the engagement will be frequent while reiterating the need to partner community media and used the medium to inform the forum of their whistle blower handle which he said is an independent partner from the personnel of IE and urge members to always report issues to the appropriate quarters of decision makers and not to marketers who he said are not part of the decision maker. Issues should be reported to the undertaken offices through the commercial manager or to the business unit office before escalating to Alausa. While on the social media platforms he said that efforts are often made by escalating issues to the appropriate quarters once it is received, however unlike the telecommunication industry the energy sector requires physical inspection/assessment of issues hence it is difficult to get feedback immediately as in the case of telecos.

The president of APCOM Mr Dayo Akintobi on behalf of the association thanked IE for such recognition and pledged support of the association to IE, in what seem to be the case of Oliver Twist, he further highlighted the challenges of community media and the need for a partnership such as this be backed with supports such as quarterly advert placements.

Nnamdi Kanu Allegedly Disappeared With IPOB's £14M, $22M

The international media arm of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Radio Biafra, has resumed operations.

But instead of the fiery rhetoric with which it was associated with, the radio announced the sack of Nnamdi Kanu, as director and leader of IPOB.

According to Okorafor, one “Mazi Ezenwachukwu Sampson Okwudili is Kanu’s replacement.”

She reeled out reasons why Kanu was removed to include: “Personalisation of the Biafran struggle and derailing from the core objectives of IPOB as a grassroots movement.

“Kanu’s actions and his decisions to incite members of IPOB towards violence leading to the death of many innocent young people in Onitsha, Aba and Umuahia is totally unacceptable and grossly irresponsible.

“Kanu privately collected £14 million and another $22 million to purchase landed properties abroad in his name and that of his father, Igwe Israel Kanu, in a clear case of ‘monkey dey work baboon dey chop’.

“Kanu turned our collective struggle into a money-making enterprise for himself and his father. Thus the monies contributed by enterprising and hard-working Igbo youths across the world are being collected and converted by one man and his father while pretending to be sacrificing for the cause.

Dailypost

Presidency releases Full list of Buhari’s appointees

The presidency has released the full list of all the appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The release was in response to the recent media report that 81 of the 100 appointments made by Buhari were from the North, while the other regions shared the remaining 19 appointments.

Earlier, Buhari’s media assistant, Femi Adesina had said the claim, initially made by a newspaper, was either an ignorant effort or a mischievous attempt to mislead the public and portray the Buhari administration in bad light.

Below is an updated table of President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments, disproving the allegations of lopsidedness.

AGEGE LG BOSS, EGUNJOBI ENACTS BYE-LAWS TO PROTECT PUBLIC PROPERTY

Agege Pulse Magazine

As members of Agege communities continue to perpetrate actions that are defaces and causes serious damages to public properties domicile in the Local Government, the council’s Chairman, Hon. Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi has resolved to enact bye-law tailored to serve as deterrent to the perpetrators.

Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Rotimi Sulyman, he said the bye-laws, if enacted, would protect public property in the area from abuse by residents and business operators.

   
Egunjobi said; “Nigeria is today suffering huge infrastructure deficit not only due to government’s failure to make provision at all but also the attitude of the generality of the public,” he said.

“Agege is a miniature Nigeria. And here residents and business operators abuse public infrastructure in unimaginable ways.

“They block access road, deface public property and dump waste in carnal and drainages indiscriminately.

“Artisans also use roadsides for workshops. Their activities and that of traders caused road damage. Some trade on the road and sidewalks.

“All these are clear antithesis to urban renewal drive being vigorously pursued by Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode, and we cannot continue to lose taxpayers’ money like this,” the chairman said.

Egunjobi stressed that the bylaw would serves as measure of criminalising abuse of public property in the area.

According to him, the law would not only benefit the council but the general public as well, saying “it touches critical issues that facilitate the improvement of public service delivery.”