Author: Chief Editor

• APC insists on going ahead with states congresses amid protests • PDP Northern governors in marathon meeting to decide Ayu, Shema’s fate for national chairman • Consensus arrangement suffers setback as stakeholders shun meeting, to reconvene today • I have no plan to return to APC, says Obaseki  • Save Nigerians your lamentations, PDP tells APC Barring last minutes changes, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will go ahead with the conduct of its states congresses on Saturday amid crises in states and uproar from scores of aggrieved chieftains of the party. The event, already endorsed by the Malam…

African nations have rejected the proposal to impose vaccine passport protocol on air travel, describing the move as discriminatory. They said making the document mandatory for flying defeats the intent of the Chicago Convention that stresses friendship and establishment of international air transport based on justice. Led by their Nigerian counterpart, Hadi Sirika, the African Ministers of Aviation, yesterday, at the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) High Level Conference on COVID-19 in Montreal, Canada, sought alternative safety measures. Amid growing acceptance of the protocol, the Federal Government recently refuted plans to begin its enforcement from December 1, 2021. Europe already…

• State govt restates commitment to payment of retirees gratuity • Youth parliament speaker seeks support for COVID-19 vaccination Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, yesterday, met President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja and sought provision of funds for those interested in setting up ranches in the state. Addressing newsmen after their meeting, Obaseki said while most states in the South had enacted laws on the anti-opening grazing ban as agreed, Edo was yet to do so, because the government wanted to ensure that it could enforce the law. Specifically, Obaseki said he told President Buhari that Edo people…

•Directs SGF to convene quarterly meetings to review govt’s priority areas •Okonjo-Iweala: Cost of Nigeria’s trade too high to attract investments With just 19 months and two weeks to finishing his two terms of eight years tenure, President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, directed ministers and permanent secretaries to redouble their efforts and work in synergy towards total delivery of his administration’s set target to improve the livelihood of all Nigerians. The president, who gave the charge at Abuja, during his closing remarks at the end of a two-day Mid-term Ministerial performance review retreat, also instructed the ministers to, “ramp up implementation”…

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has presented a budget proposal of N233billion for the 2022 fiscal year to the state House of Assembly. The budget proposal is made up of capital expenditure of N146billion and recurrent spending of N87.6billion. Making the presentation before the lawmakers yesterday in Kaduna, he said, like the previous budgets, priorities are on education, healthcare and infrastructural development. According to him, the budget draft reflects the political values and governance principles that had consistently guided the six previous budgets by his government since 2015. El-Rufai noted that the 2022 estimates are slightly smaller than the 2021…

Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, (SAN) has submitted that urban centres are responsible for most of the global energy consumption and by extension a huge portion of greenhouse emissions in the world, leading to disruptions of the natural environment. Speaking on this year’s “World Habitat Day and World Cities Day”, themed: ‘’Accelerating Urban Action for a Carbon-free World” and ‘Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience’’, Fashola disclosed that today, 55 per cent of the world’s population lives in cities and towns. He explained that the figure continues to grow every day, noting that urbanisation presents some of the…

The Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) last week threatened that the federal government may proclaim a State of Emergency in Anambra state. The state suddenly changed from its peaceful nature as the November 6 governorship election approaches to violence by unknown gunmen. A prominent figure, Dr. Chike Akunyili, sadly lost his life in the imbroglio, amongst others. In total, about 10 persons had lost their lives to unknown gunmen lately. However, many believe the violence is politically motivated with a plot to manipulate the forthcoming governorship election in the state. Malami, who is also in…

The Senate, yesterday, bowed to outrage and outright rejection of the 2021 Amended Electoral Act by Nigerians earlier in July as they upturned their position against electronic transmission of election results. In a majority decision, they have now given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) full powers, like voting, under the bill, shall now be in accordance with the procedure determined by INEC. The Senators had earlier denied the Commission the power to transmit results of elections electronically but rather empowered the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Assembly to determine the use of electronic transmission for elections; though…

• Aspirants fail to buy forms • Northern leaders meet today to finalise zoning arrangements • PDP fixes N5m for chairmanship form, deputy national chairman, national sec N3m • APC crisis: Adamu, Dogara, others to parley Tinubu, Akande to reconcile warring groups • 2023: Attempts to divide Tinubu, Osinbajo will fail, says Ojudu The intrigues, game of wits and power-play that have characterised the process of deciding, which zone gets particular positions between North and South, no doubts is posing serious threat to the October 30 National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The sale of nomination forms for…

• AfDB faults FG’s $35.5b debt toll, economic devt model • We are making progress on infrastructure devt, says Buhari • Naira weakens to N565/$ • CBN does not trust market mechanism, says Yusuf • Economists seek caution on devaluation, worry about inflation In apparent contradiction of its earlier stance on floating the naira, the Federal Government, yesterday, prevailed on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to allow the currency to reflect market realities. According to Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the exchange rate is artificially low, and this is deterring investors from bringing foreign exchange into the country, adding that…