Author: Obayomi Abiola Benjamin

Nigeria and the Brazilian Government have signed a $1.2 billion Memorandum of Understanding to boost agricultural modernisation in the country. The credit facility provided by the Development Bank of Brazil would help support the Federal government’s drive to provide agricultural mechanisation and agro-processing centres across the country. The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammdu Buhari on Agriculture, Dr. Andrew Kwasari, who addressed newsmen in Abuja, explained that the loan was a bilateral agreement between Nigeria and the Brazilian Government, and would be guaranteed by the Islamic Development Bank and Islamic Corporation of Insurance for Export Credit. The facility to be…

It is important to state clearly that there is this thin line of difference between authority and leadership. Listen to Podcast: Exercising Authority in Leadership Leadership in a very simple dictionary term talks about the power or ability to lead other people. There is this very apt definition of leadership that is all-encompassing that Peter gave us which I would love to share with us here because it summarizes what leadership is all about. 1 Peter 5:2, it says: “Tend (nurture, guard, guide, and fold) the flock of God that is [your responsibility], not by coercion or constraint, but…

Effective leadership does not fall on anybody like ripe pawpaw. It is not something that you go into your backyard and pluck off a tree. If you are going to ever produce any meaningful result within the sphere of your leadership assignment, it is important that you understand the principles that guides effective leadership. One thing you should know about principles is this: they are laws or fact of nature that explains how something works or why something happens. That means if you adequately and judiciously follow a principle, it would definitely hand you a specific outcome. Take for example…

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has run out of steam in the fight against corruption. According to him, this has resulted in the judiciary being manipulated by powerful people in the country. The playwright spoke on Wednesday during a television programme, Kakaaki, on AIT, which was monitored by our correspondent. Soyinka said the system had become corrupted so badly that court cases were being stretched out through technicalities. “There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam, and so…

Now that we are officially in a recession, there is an urgent need to start thinking about the options we have in reinjecting life into our economy. I heard the government is planning on selling off some national assets. It is also thinking about “confiscating” unclaimed monies in banks and in the stock market. This idea is enough to make one cringe in horror. For, when we finish selling our property today, what shall we sell tomorrow? Why not look towards cocoa? Next to oil, it is Nigeria’s top money earner. We can start by backtracking to where we missed…

Let us begin our meditation from Ephesians 6:10-18. The Bible says: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” There is a very strong tendency at times to want to trust or rely on oneself or in other persons, rather than relying on God. God has made us to absolutely depend on Him and not ourselves. There is a reason why the Scripture says to trust in the Lord in Proverbs 3:5-6. It says: “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways…

I want to share something with us this evening by the help of the Holy Spirit which I believe will concretize our knowledge of discipleship going forward in the New Year and even beyond. The title of this evening’s discourse is: Following Christ Deliberately: The First Step to Discipleship, and we are going to read a Bible passages that will form the basis for this discussion. Listen to Podcast: Following Christ Deliberately “And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. 19 Then a certain scribe came and said…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has expressed cautious optimism about oil demand growth, adding that it had begun the process to diversify its portfolio beyond oil assets to hedge future crisis and align with global energy transition. The oil firm noted that the country’s huge unharnessed gas resources as well as condensate could provide additional revenue that will address shortfall in the 2021 budget. The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, made this known on Wednesday while speaking at a virtual event, the Gulf Intelligence “Global” UAE Energy Forum 2021. Despite optimism about oil demand, Kyari said he does…

The Federal Government has appealed to Nigerians not to be hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it gets to Nigeria. Dr Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), made the appeal at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) briefing on COVID-19 on Thursday in Abuja. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria intends to get 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to cover one fifth of its population through the global COVAX scheme. The initial vaccines would come as part of Nigeria’s plan to inoculate 40 per cent of the population in 2021 and…

As sneaky COVID-19 variants enter the fray aback the second wave of the dangerous viral outbreak, only knowledge-based intervention templates powered by science-driven policies and self-responsible footing by citizens offer safety. Louis Achi writes Writing in The Atlantic, 72 hours ago, Zeynep Tufekci noted that, “There is much we don’t know about the new COVID-19 variant – but everything we know so far suggests a huge danger.” Tufekci is Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina and studies the interaction between digital technology, artificial intelligence, and society. Indisputably, a new variant (or variants) of the coronavirus is spreading across…