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Rivers governor: Why I shun building more state universities

Governor Nyesom Wike on Monday said he was apathetic to establishment of more Rivers State owned universities because of the enormous challenge of adequately funding such institutions to effectively meet set development objects. Wike at the flag off of Emohua Campus of the Rivers State University (RSU) in Emohua Local Government Area said he was rather concerned about committing more funds to state’s existing varsities so they can offer needed holistic grooming for requisite man power for the country. However, a dissenting voice, Enefaa Georgewill of Rivers State Civil Society Organisation (RIVSCO) accused Wike of “expressing hypocrisy” in his disposition on ground that RSU multi campuses the state has embarked on under Wike amounted to building more varsities in disguise. Wike had stated,...

SERAP urges President Buhari to tell Nigerians spending plan for James Ibori loot, others

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently direct Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to disclose spending details of the $700 million looted funds reportedly recovered by the Federal Government in the past four years, including the list and location of projects completed with the money, as well as details of the contractors that executed the projects.” SERAP also urged him to “direct Mrs Ahmed to disclose how the government plans to spend the returned £4.2m Ibori loot, including details of planned capital expenditure, and whether there is any plan to ensure that the money and any future returned Ibori loot would be spent to achieve justice and effective remedies for victims of corruption in...

VP Osinbajo to represent Nigeria at Ugandan presidential inauguration

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will represent Nigeria at the sixth inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja. Osinbajo will be joining several other heads of state and government at the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for May 12, at Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala, Uganda. Nigeria and Uganda share historical antecedents and enjoy good diplomatic relationships, including working together as member-states of the Commonwealth, the African Union, and the United Nations among others. Both countries have signed Bilateral Agreements on Technical Aid Corps, Trade, and on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. The vic...

Prince Charles pays tribute to ‘my dear papa’ Philip for devoted service

Britain’s Prince Charles paid a personal tribute on Saturday to his “dear papa” Prince Philip, saying the royal family missed him emormously and that the 99-year-old would have been amazed at the touching reaction across the world to his death. Philip, the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth who had been at her side throughout her record-breaking 69-year reign, died at Windsor Castle on Friday. “As you can imagine, my family and I miss my father enormously,” Charles, the couple’s eldest son and heir to the throne, said outside his Highgrove House home in west England. “My dear papa was a very special person who I think above all else would have been amazed by the reaction and the touching things that have been said about him and from that point of view we are, my family, deeply grateful f...

Russia issues arrest warrant for Alexei Navalny ally

Russia has issued an arrest warrant for Leonid Volkov, a close ally of poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, according to a media report. Mr Volkov had been organising protests from his base in Lithuania to demand the release of the opposition leader, who was detained last month as he entered Russia. A protest was planned for this Sunday, with Mr Volkov urging people to gather near their homes and light candles in heart shapes to flood social media. “You will raise your phone flashlights – and someone, maybe, will bring candles – and form a heart shape with them.. You will take a picture of it from above, from one of the apartments, and post it on Instagram,” he wrote in a Facebook post promoting the demonstration. His actions have angered Russian authorities, who have been granted an ar...

Senator Lawan urges South Africa to secure business interests of Nigerians

President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan has urged the South African authorities to reciprocate Nigerian Government’s gesture by ensuring that business interests of Nigerians in South Africa are secured. Mr Ezrel Tabiowo, his Special Assistant on press, in a statement said lawan made the call in Abuja on Thursday when he received a delegation led by High Commissioner of South Africa to Nigeria, Mr Thamsanga Mseleku. Other members on the delegation include: Mr Bobby Moroe, Minister Plenipotentiary; and Ms Boipelo Lefatshe, First Secretary, Political. According lawan efforts by both countries to secure the business interests of their nationals would create better chances of employment for their citizens and guarantee stronger economic prospects for Nigeria and South Africa. “For quite some time n...

#EndSARS: HURIWA charges President Buhari to set up assets recovery panel

Foremost rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has condemned what it called the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari over protests against operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, a unit of the Nigeria Police Force, in the past two weeks. The group in a statement issued by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, on Thursday, claimed that “certain ethno-religious extremists have been paid by some government officials to stoke the embers of ethno–religious division to graphically paint the #EndSARS movements with ethnic and religious colourations.” The statement noted that youths of the country are angry “because the elders who have had access to public offices and those wielding political powers have continuously feasted on the comm...

British lawmakers write Commonwealth over killings in Nigeria

Thirteen members of the House of Lords, United Kingdom, have expressed concern over the killings by Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East and Fulani herdsmen in the Middle Belt region. The upper house of parliament members said the failure of the Federal Government to protect Nigerians was a breach of the Commonwealth Charter. They requested the Commonwealth to raise the killings with its Ministerial Action Group. This was contained in a letter to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, dated September 14, co-signed by Baroness Cox, Baroness Kennedy, Jim Shannon, Fiona Bruce, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams and 14 others. They cited a report by the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, which accused unnamed ...

Diezani Alison-Madueke: ‘Yahoo’ boys have become role models

A former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, says societal values have disintegrated to the extent that online fraudsters otherwise known as ‘Yahoo boys’ have become role models in Nigerian society. The post Diezani Alison-Madueke: ‘Yahoo’ boys have become role models appeared first on TODAY. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.