Monday, 23 September 2019

PRESS RELEASE!!OGUNLEYE, DURODOLA AND IBANGA JOIN IPC’S GOVERNING BOARD, AS IT CLOCKS 20 YEARS

OGUNLEYE, DURODOLA AND IBANGA JOIN IPC’S GOVERNING BOARD, AS IT CLOCKS 20 YEARS Image result for press freedom

For immediate release: Monday September 23, 2019

The International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria, has announced the reconstitution of its Governing Board, as the organisation prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of its establishment in October, 1999.

The announcement was contained in a statement by the Executive Director and Secretary to the Board, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, at the end of the organisation’s board meeting and annual staff/management retreat in Lagos on September 20 and 21, 2019.

Mr. Arogundade said the three new members of the Board bring its total number to six. The three new members are:

Ms. Victoria Ibanga, a seasoned journalist, is a former Visiting Fellow of Freedom House in the United States and Alumna of Women’s Edition, PRB, USA. She is a former General Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, current National Treasurer of the body and the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Next Edition Online newspaper;
Mrs. Funke-Treasure Durodola, a multiple award winning international broadcast journalist, is a seasoned news anchor, producer and presenter, media trainer and Fellow of the Thomson Foundation, UK. She is author of ‘Pronunciation Guide for Second Language Speakers of the English Language’ and until her recent retirement, Assistant Director of Programmes at the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Lagos Operations;
Mr. Gbemiga Ogunleye, a lawyer, seasoned journalist and Editor. He is a former Editor and Deputy Editor-In-Chief of Punch Newspapers and a former Director of News and Current Affairs at Television Continental, TVC. He was the pioneer Head of Corporate Communications of Arik Air and a former Vice President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. Mr. Ogunleye is the current Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Nigeria’s leading journalism training institution.

According to Mr. Arogundade, both Mr. Edetaen Ojo and Mr. Wale Adeoye retain their positions on the Board as Chairman and member respectively, while Senator. Babafemi Ojudu, journalist, human rights activist and one of the founding Editors of The News Magazine and Special Assistant to the President on Political Affairs, voluntarily stepped down as a member on the account of his current political engagements.

Mr. Edetaen Ojo, a journalist and former Judicial Editor of The Guardian newspapers, is a renowned advocate for the right of access to information; He was honoured by the African Platform on Access to Information (APAI) with an award for freedom of information activism in 2011 while in 2017 he got the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism. He is the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda and Chair of the Board of the Media Foundation for West Africa of which IPC is national partner in Nigeria.

Mr. Wale Adeoye, an environmental rights activist, is an award winning journalist who has previously worked with The Punch and The Nation Newspapers. He is a four time winner of the Nigerian Merit Award (NMMA), first Nigerian to win the Steve Biko Scholarship instituted by Institute for Advanced Journalism (IAJ), South Africa and Alumni of the United Nations Institute for Research and Training, (UNITAR), Cologne Switzerland. A former CNN African Journalist of the year and winner of the Diamond Media Merit Award, he is the Executive Director of Journalists for Democratic Rights.

Mr. Lanre Arogundade, the founding Coordinator of IPC and newly designated Executive Director by the Board, has worked across the print, broadcast (Radio) and Online media including the National Concord, Vanguard newspapers, Panos Radio and Voice of America as a journalist. A media development specialist with passion for media professionalism and independence, he is also a media trainer, researcher, advocate for freedom of the press and author of ‘Media and Elections: The Professional Responsibilities of Journalists’.

“The scholarly, intellectual, professional and gender diversity of the new Board demonstrates the commitment and readiness of IPC to continue to deliver on its mandate as Nigeria’s leading media development and press freedom organisation”, Mr. Arogundade said.

“We are also sure that given their vast experience and commitment to media professionalism, the board members will add value to our work in the areas of capacity building, media monitoring, campaigns, advocacy, networking and partnerships to advance the course of media freedom, media independence, safety of journalists and enhance the role of the media in development and democratic governance”, he added

According to him, the board members would be publicly presented during the forthcoming public lecture and airing of a documentary as part of a series of activities to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of IPC, the details of which will be announced soon.

LIBERIA!IT'S ONE DOLLAR TO 200 LIBERIAN DOLLARS

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU. Image result for liberian breweries

The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria ,now hears that the state of the Liberian economy now was so very bad that one United States dollars exchanged for 200 Liberian Dollars .

An impeccable source who is a Liberian national but with very strong carpeted the George Weah regime for lacking the depth to bail out the nation from its quagmire .

He insisted that sub sectors of the economy like Iron and Steel ,Rubber plantations ,the maritime sector ,the insurance sector amongst others were virtually dead.

He however pointed out that the nation could still come out of the woods if Mr Alex Cummings ,the highly respected corporate titan and Former Coca-Cola Czar was allowed by the people to shine at the next presidential elections in 2023.

He attacked Former Leaders like Charles Taylor and Dr Amos Sawyer for leaving them in deplorable conditions and for heating up the polity respectively leading to the Overthrow of President Williams Tolbert in 1980.

He had great and kind words for the slain Liberian President:Williams Tolbert,as he affirmed that he was the best President his nation ever had on account of the prosperity the nation had enjoyed in his time.

His words:"i was a member of the True Whig Party ,by far a behemoth as at then ,Liberia had a one party state and so all were members of the party "

He lamented certain gory aspects of the 1980 military coup d'etat that took place at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia,Liberia,saying that then African Union President Williams Tolbert was stabbed in the head at close range by irate soldiers with his wife serially raped by soldiers in the process.

He added that till date ,the nation has yet to recover from this grave evil done to the Tolbert family ,with most of the Tolbert clan now living on self -imposed exile in the United States of America.

True Whig Party was the oldest survivng political party in Africa till the coup d'e tat in Liberia in 1980

source of pictures:Monrovia Breweries,Google

PAEDIA EXPRESS FORCED U.K'S HANDS ON YELLOW HAMMER REPORT

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU. Image result for market scene in london

The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria can now confirm authoritatively say that the pressure it brought up on the establishment in Whitehall over the planned pull out of the United Kingdom from the European Union [E.U]code named:Brexit by October 31st ,2019 finally pushed 10 Downing Streets ,London ,The United Kingdom to release The Yellow Hammer dossier which showed the stark reality of what could take place in the U.K. when they leave the European Union .In recent months ,this reporter had spoken to two major resource persons who were either British citizens or frequent traveler to the U.K. who both insisted that the planned pull out was a tragedy waiting to happen to the United kingdom .

This medium also raised posers on the U.K. 'S poor agricultural profile,closure of its manufacturing sector ,poverty in northern England ,possible devaluation of the pounds sterling and the near lockdown of the United kingdom as a result of the public protests over the Brexit affair.

As at press time,The Yellow Hammer report has showed that the U.K. will have to engage in belt tightening measures if they were to survive the effects of Brexit and if you think this is fake news then ask Mr Babatunji Ismaila Wusu ,one of the resource persons we spoke to on the matter on Facebook
Source of picture:Google
caption of shot:a market scene in London ,United KIngdom

LAGOS,RAINBOW SPOTTED ,RAINS EVERYWHERE!!!

PAEDIA WEATHER CENTER!!!LAGOS,RAINBOW SPOTTED ,RAINS EVERYWHERE

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU. Image result for RAINBOW

It's difficult to recall in the last two weeks when the gates of heavens did not open up to yield the rains.

So recurrent has being the level of precipitation that the constructed drainage canals have not being able to contain them.

The News office Desk of the E.N.M.Paedia Express Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria can report that the rains were conventional in distributing patterns as a source who puts a call to his wife in Ikeja from Ojodu Berger ,Lagos,Nigeria where a meeting was being held with this reporter in attendance showed that there was not a single rain at all at ikeja on the 21st of september,2019 ,similar scenario was painted of Sango Ota in Ogun State of Nigeria about the same period.

PICTURE CREDIT:GOOGLE

Banks worth $47 trillion adopt new UN-backed climate, sustainability principles

Gerardo Pesantez/World Bank

High rises and hotel buildings in Punta Pacifica, Panama City, Panama, which has one of the largest banking sectors in Central America.

22 September 2019

Economic Development

Banks collectively with more than $47 trillion in assets, or a third of the global industry, signed up on Sunday to new United Nations-backed responsible banking principles in a massive boost for climate action and the shift from “brown to green” models of economic growth.

In the Principles, launched one day ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, banks commit to strategically align their business with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and massively scale up their contribution to the achievement of both.

“The UN Principles for Responsible Banking are a guide for the global banking industry to respond to, drive and benefit from a sustainable development economy,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the launch event, adding that they also “create the accountability that can realize responsibility, and the ambition that can drive action.”

By signing up to the Principles, banks said they will among other goals, aim to “increase our positive impacts, while reducing the negative impacts, and managing risks to people and the environment from our products and services.”

“How you, as business leaders, respond can be a defining moment for our global goals. Only public-private cooperation can deliver sustainable development,” Mr. Guterres said.

He challenged the 130 Founding Signatories and over 45 of their CEOs gathered for the event to not only align their business goals with the SDGs, the UN’s blueprint for tackling poverty, protecting the environment and ensuring a fairer world for all, but also to support gender equality, to invest in climate action and to disinvest from fossil fuels and pollution in general.

“We will rely on you to scale up financing to businesses that stimulate green growth,” the Secretary-general said, adding: “Place your bets on the green economy, not the grey economy, because the grey economy will have no future.”

Picking up that thread, Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told the bankers: “When the financial system shifts its capital away from resource-hungry, brown investments to those that back nature as solution, everybody wins in the long-term.”

The Principles were developed by a core group of 30 Founding Banks through an innovative global partnership between banks and the UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).

While action on climate change is growing, it is still far short of what is needed to meet the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, biodiversity continues to decline at alarming rates and pollution claims millions of lives each year.

Against this background, UNEP says that more ambition, backed by a step change in investment from the private sector, is needed to tackle these challenges and ensure that humanity lives in a way that ensures an equitable share of resources within planetary boundaries.

The banking and private sectors can benefit from the investment they put into backing this transition. It is estimated that addressing the SDGs could unlock $12 trillion in business savings and revenue annually and create 380 million more jobs by 2030.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

NEWS TRACKER: PAST STORIES ON THIS ISSUE

End fossil fuel subsidies, and stop using taxpayers’ money to destroy the world: Guterres

28 May 2019

Climate Change

“We need to tax pollution, not people”, and “end subsidies for fossil fuels,” Secretary-General António Guterres told the World Summit of the R20 Coalition on Tuesday, a UN-supported environmental organization, founded by former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ahead of UN summit, leading scientists warn climate change ‘hitting harder and sooner’ than forecast

Geir Braathen

The largest glacier in the Swiss Alps, the Aletschgletscher, is melting rapidly and could disappear altogether by 2100.

22 September 2019

Climate Change

Top climate scientists issued a report on Sunday showing that over the last several years, sea-level rise, planetary warming, shrinking ice sheets and carbon pollution have accelerated; a sobering call to action for political leaders headed to New York for summit-level climate change talks tomorrow at the United Nations.

The landmark new report, which will be presented to the UN Climate Action Summit, underlines the glaring – and growing – gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and the actual reality.

Compiled by the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the report, United in Science, includes details on the state of the climate and presents trends in the emissions and atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases.

Among other findings, the report says that accelerating climate impacts from melting ice caps to sea-level rise and extreme weather were to blame for the record as the global average temperature increased by 1.1°C above pre-industrial (1850-1900) times and 0.2°C warmer than 2011-2015.

It highlights the urgency of fundamental socio-economic transformations and carbon-curbing actions in key sectors such as land use and energy to avert dangerous global temperature increase, with potentially irreversible impacts. It also examines tools to support both mitigation and adaptation.

The assessment from the world’s top climate experts and scientific organizations comes not just ahead of the UN summit, but also against the backdrop of last week’s global ‘climate strike,’ which saw millions of students across the world take to the streets to demand real action from politicians and big corporations to reverse the impacts of what UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called a “climate emergency.”

Swedish teen activist Greta Thundberg told hundreds of young people gathered at UN Headquarters on Saturday for the first-ever Youth Climate Summit that “young people are unstoppable” and echoed her young compatriots who vowed to keep up the pressure on governments to make serious policy course corrections towards green energy and planet-friendly agriculture to seriously tackle climate change .

Mr. Guterres told the young activists that he feared “there is a serious conflict between people and nature, between people and the planet.” Saying that there is no time to lose, with so many people around the world already suffering from the impacts of climate change, the UN chief has been bluntly telling world leaders “don’t come to the Summit with beautiful speeches … come with concrete plans,” including carbon neutrality plans for 2050, options to tackle fossil fuel subsidies, taxing carbon and a possible end to new coal power sources after next year.

Climate insights

The findings presented by the report’s experts spotlight the sense of urgency. Amid growing recognition that climate impacts are hitting harder and sooner than climate assessments indicated even a decade ago, there is now a real risk of crossing critical tipping points, according to the scientists.

For example, the report shows that the average global temperature for 2015–2019 is on track to be the warmest of any equivalent period on record. It is currently estimated to be 1.1°Celsius (± 0.1°C) above pre-industrial (1850–1900) times.

Widespread and long-lasting heatwaves, record-breaking fires and other devastating events such as tropical cyclones, floods and drought have had major impacts on socio-economic development and the environment. Moreover, as climate change intensifies, cities are particularly vulnerable to impacts such as heat stress and can play a key role in reducing emissions locally and globally.

Against this backdrop, meeting the targets set under the 2015 Paris Agreement requires immediate and all-inclusive action encompassing deep decarbonization complemented by ambitious policy measures, protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and biodiversity, and effort to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

“Strategies for mitigation and for upscaling adaptive risk management are necessary going forward. Neither is adequate in isolation given the pace of climate change and magnitude of its impacts,” says the report, which warns that to stop a global temperature increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the level of ambition needs to be tripled.

The scientists say that “only immediate and all-inclusive action encompassing: deep de-carbonization complemented by ambitious policy measures, protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and biodiversity, and efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, will enable us to meet the Paris Agreement.”

“The scientific data and findings presented in the report represent the very latest authoritative information on these topics. It highlights the urgent need for the development of concrete actions that halt the worst effects of climate change,” said the Science Advisory Group to the Climate Action Summit, co-chaired by WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas and Leena Srivastava, former Vice Chancellor of TERI School of Advanced Studies.

CLIMATE CHANGE

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At UN, youth activists press for bold action on climate emergency, vow to hold leaders accountable at the ballot box

21 September 2019

Climate Change

Students and young activists on Saturday threw down the gauntlet to world leaders heading to United Nations Headquarters next week for high-level climate talks, demanding that they “stop wasting time” and work harder to curb carbon emissions, “or we will vote you out.