Author: Chief Editor

•Asks finance minister to withhold funds The House of Representatives yesterday asked the federal government to halt the take-off of the 774,000 special works programme scheduled to commence January 5 2021. The House also asked the Ministry of Finance not to release the funds meant for the programme until some issues that affect the integrity of the programme are sorted out. It further condemned the removal of the Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mr. Mohammed Argungu, directing that he should be reinstated immediately. The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance, titled, ‘Urgent…

•Minister gives two-week deadline for compliance •Subscribers protest suspension of new registration Following the earlier directive issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the suspension of new SIM card registration by network operators, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami, on Monday, issued a fresh directive that makes it compulsory for all SIM cards to be linked to National Identity Number (NIN). The minister, who gave the fresh directive on Monday in Abuja when he convened an urgent meeting of key stakeholders in the communications industry, gave telecoms operators two weeks to link subscribers’ registered SIM…

•Says ex-CBN boss was appointed to spite Jonathan Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, yesterday gave reasons why he dethroned Alhaji Lamido Sanusi as the Emir of Kano. The governor said he took the decision to save the system and the traditional institution from abuse. Ganduje spoke at the presentation of a book on former President Goodluck Jonathan, authored by a journalist, Mr. Bonaventure Melah. According to him, Sanusi was not the best man for the throne at the time he was appointed in June 2014, saying that the deposed emir was appointed to spite former President Goodluck Jonathan. Jonathan…

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, has tested positive for COVID-19. His colleague at the Supreme Court, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, said yesterday in Abuja at the unveiling of the national headquarters of the Muslim Lawyers’ Association that the CJN is receiving treatment in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. But the Director of Information, Supreme Court of Nigeria, Dr. Festus Akande, disputed Justice Saulawa’s claim, saying there is no medical report to show that the CJN is positive for COVID-19. Justice Muhammad was absent from Monday’s new legal year ceremony of the Supreme Court where he was scheduled to…

A coalition of South-West politicians loyal to National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, under the aegis of South-West Agenda for 2023 (SWAG4 2023), yesterday, visited the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji and Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, to seek royal blessings and support for the 2023 presidency. The visit was ahead of Tuesday’s launch of SWAG4 2023 at Mauve 21, Ibadan. Those in attendance during the visit were the Chairman, Planning Committee of the group, Senator Dayo Adeyeye; Senator Adesoji Akanbi, representing Oyo South Senatorial District; former House of Representatives member, Otunba…

Following sustained agitation and militancy in the Niger Delta region, which remained unabated even after the judicial murder of writer and environmental activist, Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 and after the inception of the current democratic dispensation five years later, President Olusegun Obasanjo, on June 5, 2000 inaugurated the first board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Obasanjo appointed his senior special adviser on communication, Mr. Onyema Ugochukwu as the commission’s first executive chairman. Only last week, 19 years after Ugochukwu, President Muhammadu Buhari was forced to appoint a sole administrator to head the commission on an interim basis.…

A meeting between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities was cancelled by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, on Monday. This was the second time in two weeks that the scheduled meeting was postponed by the government. The spokesman, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Charles Akpan, did not give reasons for the development. It was, however, gathered that ASUU was still consulting with its organs on the latest offer by the government. Details later… [Punch]

BY REUBEN ABATI “What is going on?” “Where?” “Where else? Nigeria of course.” “What has happened again?” “What has not happened? The other week, we were all lamenting that 43 farmers were slaughtered in Zabarmari, in Borno State, and now the whole world is being told that hundreds of school boys have been kidnapped from their school – a Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State.” “And you are surprised?” “What do you mean I am surprised? I am not surprised. I am shocked and angry.” “But when Northern Governors, traditional rulers and the Sultan of Sokoto warned that…

Introduction I love writing. And playing with words. Creatively. Literarily. I am not good with poetry, I prefer essays. Alliteration occasionally helps to drive home a message. It has beauty e.g., “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”, “black bug bit a big black bear”. So, I searched for a befitting headline on how President-elect, Joe Biden, defeated President Donald Trump in a most humiliating manner. So humbling that, to date, Trump has refused to wake up from his deep slumber of defeat. He still builds castles in the air. He maintains his false illusion of grandeur. He drags…

•Inaugurates committee on pricing The federal government yesterday foreclosed a reversal of the deregulation policy that introduced a market reflective pricing regime for determining the pump price of petrol. Against the background of the protest by organised labour over recent increases in the price of petrol and electricity tariff, the government said it would no longer fix the pump price of petrol, which will now be determined by various variables, including the global price of crude oil. Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, said at the inauguration of the 23-man Technical Committee on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) pricing…