Author: Chief Editor

Nigeria’s most populous tertiary institution, National Open University of Nigeria with a population of over 500,000 active students has become a brand in providing quality education to the populace. By the unique global initiative, government is strategically bringing education to the doorsteps of the citizenry, thus, drastically reducing the hitherto wide gap between the educated and non-educated population. No doubt, the university’s newly approved postgraduate law programmes: Master of Law and Master of International Law and Diplomacy under the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and other faculties’ programmes are positive developments. It is expected that its counterpart, the Council…

Henry Boyo In the World Bank’s 2018 report, titled, “Nigerians Living abroad sent $22bn home in 2017”, the Bank noted that the top recipients of the Diaspora remittances in the world were India with $69bn, Chile ($64bn), Philippines $33bn, Mexico $31bn, Nigeria $22bn and Egypt $20bn. Notably, however, sub-Saharan Africa attracted the most expensive average remittance cost at about 9.4 per cent, compared with the global average of 7.1 per cent. The cost of remittances for Nigerian beneficiaries, clearly, exceeded 19 per cent as N305=$1 instead of N360=$1, is ultimately paid to recipients locally. Furthermore, in article titled, “Diaspora remittances…

Edward Onoja, running mate of Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi, in the November 16 gubernatorial election, has been sworn in as the deputy governor of the state. The swearing-in ceremony held at the Kogi government house on Monday. The ceremony is sequel to his confirmation by the Kogi state house of assembly. Bello had sent the name of Onoja, his former chief of staff, to the assembly following the removal of Simon Achuba, his former deputy. The impeachment panel set up to probe Achuba had said it could not prove the allegations against him, faulting his removal. [The…

President Muhammadu Buhari saturday in Abuja warned state governments and communities allegedly frustrating the execution of federal projects in their domains to desist or risk having such projects relocated. According to a statement by presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, such states and communities create unnecessary impediments over the allocation of lands or access to such lands for the execution of federal projects. “The idea of chasing away contractors on site or making undue demands from them by local communities or the deliberate actions of State governments to frustrate the allocation of lands for federal projects is an antithesis of the…

The Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) has said that following an intensive global research it conducted in collaboration with its international partners, spanning several months, it has been revealed that Nigeria lost at least $600 billion dollars to corrupt officials since 1960. The Chairman of HEDA, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, disclosed this weekend in Abuja during an anti-corruption training programme titled, “Experts’ Training and Advocacy on Tracing and Recovery of illicit Funds and Assets.” He said that the stolen funds were either kept abroad or invested in illicit assets, adding that the stolen funds are largely responsible for Nigeria’s poverty and…

Manchester United players are as upset with recent results as supporters and will do everything possible to make amends against Liverpool, according to Andreas Pereira. United head into Sunday’s Premier League match still reeling from the 1-0 loss to Newcastle United that left them languishing in mid-table. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men have taken six points from a possible 21 since beating Chelsea on the opening weekend and, with David de Gea likely to join Paul Pogba on the sidelines, are expected to encounter more misery at Old Trafford. But a battling win over Jurgen Klopp’s high-flying European champions could get…

Zinedine Zidane insists his meeting with Paul Pogba in Dubai was “pure chance” – but the Real Madrid boss will not disclose what they discussed. Manchester United star Pogba, who has been in Dubai as part of his recovery from an ankle problem, was photographed meeting Zidane during his trip to the region for the Dubai Artificial Intelligence in Sport (DAIS) Conference and Exhibition. United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insisted he had “no problem at all” with one of his most important players being pictured speaking with the head coach of a club who are among the favourites to try…

N’Golo Kante will miss Chelsea’s Premier League clash with Newcastle United, with Frank Lampard expressing frustration he did not come back from international duty with France earlier. Kante sustained a groin injury in the warm-up for France’s Euro 2020 qualifying clash with Iceland and did not return to Chelsea until after Les Bleus’ game with Turkey on Monday. France coach Didier Deschamps had joked ahead of the qualifiers that Lampard could consider playing striker Olivier Giroud more often, having revealed the Chelsea boss had spoken to him about not selecting Kante. However, while Lampard was able to see the funny…

Jurgen Klopp laughed off a question about advice he would have for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, insisting the embattled Manchester United manger does not need any despite their historically bad start to the new campaign. Klopp’s league-leading Liverpool visit Old Trafford on Sunday with United off to their worst ever Premier League start, having taken just nine points from eight games. United are 15 points behind Liverpool in 12th, with their woeful form leading to great scrutiny on club icon Solskjaer in his first full season in charge. Speaking at a media conference ahead of this weekend’s clash, Klopp was asked…

To reposition the Nigerian cocoa industry, stakeholders have emphasised the need to increase quality and quantity of beans in the country by deploying new techniques of fermentation, drying and sustainable farming through organic methodologies. They said increasing land area under cultivation and boosting yield with improved varieties would upscale yearly revenue to $1.1 billion from the present $0.55 billion by 2025. Speaking on ‘Nigeria Cocoa Economy’ in Lagos, the Director-General of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Segun Awolowo, lamented that cocoa production in the country still hovers around 245,000 metric tonnes. The low-level production, he explained, is a result of many…