Excuse
Hamza Al-Mustapha: Nigeria has no excuse for inadequate power supply
Hamza Al-Mustapha, ex-chief security officer to Sani Abacha, former head of state, says Nigeria doesn’t have any excuse for inadequate power supply. Al-Mustapha said this during an interview with newsmen on Sunday, noting that Nigeria has abundant resources that should reflect in its power supply. He said electricity supply is still very expensive in the country, adding that the country has what it takes to have a stable and cheap power supply. “Up till this moment, electricity supply in Nigeria is still very very expensive compared to other countries in spite of the fact that we have all it takes to have one of the most stable and cheap power supply in the world,” Al Mustapha said. “We have the resources in abundance, we have coal and gas, we have solar energy in abundance because we are ...
Iran says nuclear talks policy won’t change after presidential vote
Iran’s policy in talks with world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear accord will remain unchanged after a June 18 presidential election because the issue is decided by its highest leadership, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. A host of barriers to the revival of the nuclear deal remain firmly in place ahead of talks due to resume this week, suggesting a return to compliance with the accord is still a way off, diplomats, Iranian officials and analysts said. “We have shown that we adhere to our international obligations under all circumstances, and this was a national decision,” cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei told a weekly news conference. Rabiei said Iran’s nuclear policy, set by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is not linked to internal developments and that the new government wou...
Exam malpractices: Lagos fines 27 schools N13.5 million
The Lagos State Government has fined a total of 27 private schools N13.5 million as part of punishments for being involved in examination malpractices during the 2020 Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) which was conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Each of the affected schools is to pay N500,000. This decision was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the Office of the Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) of the state’s ministry of education. The statement, which was signed by the spokesman for the OEQA, Emmanuel Olaniran, noted that the decision followed a report by the regional examination body which indicted the concerned private secondary schools. According to Mr Olaniran, WAEC officials, who monitored the conduct of the examination across the stat...
WBO gives Anthony Joshua 48-hour deadline to secure Tyson Fury mega-fight
Anthony Joshua has been told by the WBO that he has 48 hours to prove that his fight against Tyson Fury can go ahead before he is obliged to face Oleksandr Usyk. An imminent announcement over a much-anticipated clash between the two British heavyweights had been expected this week, with a date of August 14 in Saudi Arabia believed to be in the diary. But those plans were thrown into chaos on Monday after an arbitrary judge ruled that Fury must take on Deontay Wilder in a trilogy bout before September 15 due to a clause in their contract. And despite initial hopes that Wilder would accept a lucrative walk-away pay-off the Bronze Bomber appears determined to beat Fury at the third time of asking, much to the huge disappointment of British boxing fans. This means that Joshua’s likely next opp...
Nigerian journalist: Why I returned missing $3,000 to owner
Mr Abdulkadir Shehu, a journalist with Progress FM, a private radio station in Gombe, said he returned the $3,000 dollars he found along the road to its owner, because it would be wrong for him to claim it. Shehu told newsmen in Gombe on Monday, that as at the time he returned the money, he had less than N2000 on him. “I was really in dire need of money at the time because I had received a call from Kano that my son was sick and needed to be tested for kidney and liver diseases at the hospital. “They couldn’t go ahead with the test because there was no money. “My son is still under medical supervision, but I will try to get the N35,000 for the test on Tuesday,’’ he said. Shehu stressed that poverty should not be an excuse for anyone to do what is wrong, adding that a person’s honesty is be...
Segun Adeniyi: Devolution of power alone can’t solve Nigeria’s problems
Nigerian Monitor The chairman of THISDAY editorial board, Olusegun Adeniyi, says devolution of power is not the only solution to Nigeria’s problems. Adeniyi said for it to be effective, devolution of power must come with accountability at all levels especially at the local government where administration “has been castrated”. He was speaking at ‘The Platform’, an annual programme organised by Covenant Christian Centre, which was held in Lagos on Saturday. The seasoned journalist added that from past experience, closer government does not necessarily translate to better governance. “Today, there is hardly anybody in our country who is not angry about the situation in which we find ourselves. But nobody is accepting responsibility because the other person or the other ethnic group is to blam...
Paris Saint-Germain wait for Neymar to sign contract extension
Paris Saint-Germain were revelling in the joy of knocking holders Bayern Munich out of the Champions League in midweek when Neymar offered more cause for celebration. In an interview with Brazilian broadcaster TNT Sports following PSG’s away-goals victory in the quarter-finals, Neymar dropped a clear hint that he would be staying at PSG beyond the end of his current contract. “For me there is no debate, it is obvious that I feel very comfortable here and at home at Paris Saint-Germain. I feel happier than I did before,” the world’s most expensive player said. His current contract, signed following his arrival from Barcelona for 222 million euros ($264m) in 2017, runs out at the end of next season, at the same time as Kylian Mbappe’s deal. It has been reported in France since the Bayern gam...
Nigerian senate wants travel passport documents renewable abroad via post
The Senate is making moves to make it easier for Nigerians in diaspora to renew their passport documents. It specifically wants to make it possible for Nigerians to be able to renew the documents abroad via post. The lawmakers also want more centres where passports can be renewed abroad as well as the removal of ‘middlemen’ in the process. These are some of the resolutions the lawmakers took on Wednesday after they deliberated a motion on the “urgent need to remove the difficulty faced by Nigerians outside of the shores of Nigeria in renewing their Passport” sponsored by Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South). The move by the Senate comes at a time when Nigerians both within and outside Nigeria have decried difficulty in the process of obtaining a new travel passport as well as renewing one. A...
Zamfara schoolgirls kidnap: President Buhari has failed Nigeria – Wole Soyinka
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Saturday said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigeria after terrorists abducted hundreds of school girls in Zamfara State. Soyinka spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Ogun award lecture and public presentation of ‘Chronicles of the happiest people on earth,’ the latest book authored by him. According to Soyinka, it is important for all to know that these were abnormal times, but that it seemed to him as times of shirking of responsibilities in key areas. “We cannot permit ourselves to accept the child hostage taking as a way of life, we just can not continue in this fashion, some thing drastic and meaningful has to take place and it has to be collective,” he said. Soyinka emphasised that ...
Wole Soyinka to Nigerians: Don’t accept child hostage taking as a way of life
Following the Friday abduction of over 300 school children in Jangebe in Zamfara State, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Saturday warned Nigerians against accepting kidnapping of school children in parts of the north as a way of life. Soyinka who lamented that the government and security agencies have failed Nigerians, said he did not know what else to recommend as panacea to the nation’s “abnormal times.” The octogenarian playwright spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, at the ANA Ogun award lecture and public presentation of ‘Chronicles of the happiest people on earth,’ the latest book authored by him. The event was put together by the Association of Nigerian Authors, Ogun State chapter in collaboration with Abeokuta Club. The 524 page book was launched by foremost indigenous ...
Sheikh Gumi: Fulani herdsmen were pushed into criminality
Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has maintained his position that some Fulani herdsmen were forced into criminality because they were victims of cattle rustling. Sheikh Gumi restated his position during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday. Sheikh Gumi said: “When I listened to them, I found out that it is a simple case of criminality which turned into banditry, which turned into ethnic war, and some genocide too behind the scene; people don’t know.” The cleric said that while “there is no excuse for any crime; nothing can justify crime, and they are committing crime,” the bandits were forced into criminality. “I think it is a population that is pushed by circumstances into criminality,” he said. “And this is what we should look, let’s remove the pressure, let’s...
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Rumble in Edo as governor runs government without cabinet
Precisely 129 days into his second tenure as governor of Edo State after his election on September 20, 2020 and inauguration on November 12, 2020, Godwin Obaseki, has not formed his cabinet. This has generated some flaks from different quarters, including the opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), constitutional lawyers, political analysts, public commentators, residents among others. While others feel that Obaseki has not committed any crime or breached any law, others believe that he is running a one-man administration and must go ahead to form his cabinet. They argued that going by Section 192 of the 1999 Constitution, the governor is obliged to form a cabinet, saying this is a circumvention, which the state House of Assembly should take action on. Obaseki had said that his ...