Ndiho Media

By Paul Ndiho

October 29th, 2012

The City of Oakland, CA and Bauchi City, Bauchi State, Nigeria, recently signed the Oakland-Bauchi Memorandum of Understanding establishing the commencement of a sister city relationship between the two cities.

Earlier this month, the City Council of Oakland, CA adopted a resolution establishing an official sister-city relationship between the City of Oakland and Bauchi City in Bauchi State – Nigeria. The partnership was formed to carry out bilateral exchanges and cooperation in wide range of pursuits and mutual interests.  Oakland City Councilwoman Desley Brooks spearheaded the initiative, and she says there are a number of opportunities that can develop as a result of this sister city relationship.

“We can take trade delegations there so that there is commerce that can be done, we can do cultural exchanges, we can do educational exchanges, student exchanges, artist exchanges and there’re a number of ways that we can foster the relationship. It depends on what the group wants to do and we can move in that direction. We’ve done things like that with another sister city in Ghana second city of Takoradi, we’ve sent containers of supplies over there, we’ve also had relationships with Accra, and I believe at one point we sent a fire truck out there.”

Engineer Marcel Uzegbu, a former Oakland City employee helped to negotiate the deal. He says Oakland city has a significant Nigerian population and that it was important to acknowledge them. He hopes that the partnership will help to bridge the divide between the two cities.

“The city of Oakland has been there for many years.  And if you look at the public works for instance, they’ve developed so many standards, they have different ways of doing work in the city that benefits all the citizens. So those are some of the things that I was doing for the city of Oakland. So I thought by having a sister city relationship, some people from Oakland can come to Bauchi and show them how some of these things are done.”

Mallam Isa Yuguda, Governor of Bauchi State, Nigeria, noted that the West African Nation a history of good diplomatic relations with the United States and that the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the two cities was vital. Bauchi City became the tenth Sister City of Oakland, California.

“My prayer is that many more cities in America would partner with other cities in Nigeria so that we can benefit from the experiences of cities in America in development. We are going to benefit greatly from this partnership in the areas of education, healthcare, tourism, commerce, and so on and so forth. This would go a long way in generating good relationship and partnership between the city of Oakland, the people of Oakland and Bauchi State.”

Governor Yuguda says that  Bauchi is home of peace, a home of hospitality, a home of tourism, a home of various cultures and a home of disciplined people who are respectful of both Islam and Christianity.

The initiation to establish a sister city relationship with the city of Oakland was led by Engineer Noah N.A. Dallaji, who is the President and founder of African Children’s Talent Discovery Foundation back in September of 2010 .

Sister City relationships with cities around the world have been in existence for several decades. They are established to foster civic, cultural, education, and business exchange between the sister cities and the countries in general.

By Paul Ndiho

October 24, 2012

Kabeh Sumbo is a Liberian-based business woman who has turned her life around despite repeated hardships.  Today, she owns the Passama agriculture trading company that produces and exports palm oil individuals and businesses worldwide.  Sumbo, along with 149 other Liberian women, recently participated in a training program for women entrepreneurs. The program was funded by Goldman Sachs and implemented by c-h-f international development in Liberia.  Paul Ndiho recently talked with Kabeh Sumbo, about her remarkable journey.

By Paul Ndiho

October 24, 2012

Bordering on the vast Sahara desert, the Sahel stretches across the African continent. Eking out any kind of living here is tough, but a group of women in northwestern Burkina Faso are turning their corner of this harsh, arid region into a lush and productive garden.

In a place where people survive mainly on the staple, but nutritionally poor grain, millet, the vegetables these women produce are changing their families’ diets and lives.

“The nutritional situation of children before the setting up of the project was severe.  The children were falling sick regularly. But since we started to work here and the garden started producing vegetables, the children have been less sick and we have changed our diets.”

Poor nutrition is widespread as families rely primarily on grains.  Vitamin rich fruit and vegetables are expensive and many mothers are unaware of their importance to the family diet.

“We couldn’t afford vegetables before. Now we can eat them and sell the surplus and generally the situation has improved significantly.”

The women receive training on farming techniques and funding towards the construction of wells.  Through crop selection and rotation, the garden is productive year round– and it’s giving the women a more active role in their community.

“The benefits are huge for us and the community in general; it allows us to feed our families better. It also allows us to be a breadwinner for the family; we can help with our children’s school fees, their health and also assist friends and family.”

This project is part of a 1.7 million euro joint action between unicef and the European Union.  The four-year project is aiming to reach almost 15-hundred villages across the country. It’s not an emergency response, but an effort to improve nutrition security across the country, so that when nutrition crises occur, families, especially children are better equipped to handle the impact.

Some of the excess fruit and vegetables end up here, at the food market in Ouahigouye where vendors have been taught the nutritional value of their produce and share it with their customers.

“My name’s Sawadogo Detu and this is my stall. I sell yams, potatoes, vegetables and mangoes. I received training about the causes of under nutrition and how to prevent it, so when customers come to buy from me i explain the benefits of each item to their diet and how they should prepare them.”

By Paul Ndiho

October 22, 2012

Nollywood films are growing in popularity in Africa, because they often touch on issues that many people across the continent can identify with. It is estimated that over one-thousand movies are produced in Nollywood each year – most are in local languages – Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, while English accounts for more than 40 percent of the films produced. Recently here in Washington DC. Paul Ndiho, caught up with Vitalis Ndubuisi one of Nollywood’s actors. Ndubuisi says Nigeria’s nearly one-billion dollar film industry Africa’s biggest after India’s Bollywood and America’s Hollywood has rewarded him handsomely.

By Paul Ndiho

October 4, 2012

A Ugandan marketing guru turned environmentalist, Joseph Masembe, is creating quite a buzz in the East African nation. He has started a campaign dubbed ‘Uganda’s Little Hands Go Green— and he’s seeking to build an army of young patriots byhyping fruit tree planting using children.

Environmentalists say Uganda has lost nearly a third of its forests in the last two decades and could lose most of its tree cover in about 40 years unless measures are quickly taken to reverse the situation. Environmentalist, Joseph Masembe a marketing executive has jolted off a nationwide frenzy of fruit tree planting in the country using school children. He says his mission is to instill a sense of belief and responsibility in the children that growing and maintaining a healthy environment is beneficial to them.

“Uganda’s little hands go green is a very simple campaign. It’s an initiative that sets out to ensure that every child in Uganda plants and owns a fruit tree. Now, when people ask why fruit trees, and why children? What is unique to our approach is the co-understanding and belief that children have a proprietary interest in the future.”

Urbanization and rapid population growth are slowly, but steadily, impacting the environment and it appears that little is being done to avert a looming crisis. Uganda, like most tropical countries, is endowed with natural forests and beautiful scenery. Its green canopy keeps the country’s climate loveable and supports the agriculture that feeds the nation. But sadly, Ugandans continue to cut down the tress for charcoal, timber– and have cleared much of forests to pave way for agriculture. Masembe says this mentality needs to change because if any significant change is to be successfully made and cultivated into the country, it has to begin with the children.

“Basically what we are doing as Uganda’s little hands go green is to start this culture, where every child wakes up in the morning, and plants one fruit tree with the help of their parents. So if I come from a family of four kids at least I will expect four trees within our family.   Now what that does is slowly, by slowly, going to increase the green footprint within the country.  And the beauty of it all is that we’ll watch our children grow up and blossom as they watch their trees do the same.”

The program started in Kampala, and has now grown into a nationwide campaign that is striving to inspire children and their families to plant a family tree in their homesteads.  Masembe says that the tree planting exercise helps kids to motivate their parents to plant a special tree for family and stay engaged.

“We can get these kids together and get them to say, I’m john, I’m Michael, I’m Michelle, I can plant just one tree, I own an Avocado tree, I own an Orange tree, and I own a Mango tree. So if this kid, plants a tree when there four years old, by the time that they’re 10 years old, that mean that their trees will be 6 years older. They will never cut that tree; people never cut fruit trees they will always keep growing, growing, and growing.

The success of the tree planting campaign has resulted into another successful kid’s event that unifies hundreds of Ugandan kids under “My kid is a superstar” festival– is simply a fun-filled event for children.

“I started something called “my kid is a superstar” which recognizes that there is superstar in every child. This gives them the chance to blossom, play, have fun, and excel at every little thing that they do.”

The marketing guru turned environmentalist says he decided to focus on children because they are passionate about their trees and they’ve demonstrated that they can succeed where other government efforts have failed. Masembe says his dream is to have 50 percent of school going children plan a tree, as Uganda celebrates 50th year of Independence.