Buhari seeks passage of 6 bills by Senate – TheNigerialawyer

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, transmitted a letter to
the Senate, seeking consideration and passage of six Aviation
Bills.

The President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan read the letter
during plenary.

The President, in the letter said: “Dear Distinguished Senate
President; Transmission of Six Aviation Sector Bills to the
National Assembly for consideration and passage into law.

“Pursuant to Section 58 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, I formally request that the
following six bills be considered for passage by the Senate.”

The bills include: Civil Aviation Bill 2019, Federal Airport
Authority of Nigeria Bill 2019, Nigerian College of Air space
Management Agency Establishment Bill 2019.

Others are: Nigerian College of Aviation Technology
Establishment Bill 2019, Nigerian Meteorological Agency
Establishment Bill 2019 and Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau
Establishment Bill 2019.

“While I trust that these bills will be expeditiously and
favourably considered by the Senate, please, accept Mr Senate
President the assurances of my highest consideration.”

In his remark, Lawan urged the Clerk to the Senate, Nelson Ayewo
to ensure that the bills were gazetted and distributed to all the
Senators for consideration.(NAN)

The purpose of the event with theme: Timely
Recognition Averts Deformity, sub-theme: Raise Awareness to Prevent
Noma, is to scale up awareness of the disease towards preventing
the disease in the country.

In his keynote address, the Minister of Health, Dr E.
Osagie Ehanire, said that Noma disease can be reduced and even
prevented, first by promoting national awareness of the disease and
improving nutrition including promoting exclusive breastfeeding in
the first six months of a child’s life.

He added that education on prenatal care, personal
hygiene, timely immunization against common childhood diseases,
improving environmental sanitation and poverty reduction are very
key while stressing that detecting Noma early and treating it can
halt and largely reverse the devastating impacts of the
disease.

While reiterating on the need to ensure that
immunization programmes reach all segments of the population, the
Minister charged participants drawn from over ten countries from
the African region to do their best to develop best practices in
preventing, controlling and managing Noma disease.

On the part of Nigeria, Ehanire disclosed that Nigeria
has established the National NOMA Control program in collaboration
with the WHO which aims to boost awareness of NOMA, its prevention
and care.

He also informed that the Health Ministry has embarked
on a number of national trainings, step down trainings and
sensitization activities in high burden States such as: Kebbi,
Sokoto, Jigawa and Akwa Ibom, in collaboration with the National
Orientation Agency and Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, to
increase surveillance, case finding and prompt disease
reporting.

 Ehanire further announced that the Federal
Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health
Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders has developed the
National NOMA policy document and the triennial NOMA control action
plan [2019-2021] which was approved in the National council on
Health in August 2019.

 Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry, Mr. Abdulaziz M. Abdullahi, charged participants to
commit to finding workable ways to control and possibly kick out
the gory disease in the sub region, ensuring that the Ministry
would consider the outcome of the meeting for implementation with
relevant partners.

Also speaking, the WHO, officer-in-charge Nigeria, Dr.
Clement Peter, said ‘’NOMA has disappeared in the developed world
but 140,000 still suffer from Noma every year due to poverty and
malnutrition in the African Region. He however reiterated the
commitment of WHO to partner with Nigerian Government to ensure
that Noma is a disease of the past.