Majority
Akwa Ibom wins CIRDDOC 2020 best budget transparency award
In a move that gives credence and endorsement of the commitment of the Udom Emmanuel led administration in ensuring openness, transparency and accountability in budgeting and governance, the Akwa Ibom State Government has been ranked one of the best performing states in the 2020 sub-National Budget Transparency Survey. The survey which was conducted by the Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC) to ascertain the level of budget performance by states of the federation revealed that Akwa Ibom and four other states topped the budget performance index for the year, 2020. The Nigerian States Budget Transparency Survey Report also revealed that Akwa Ibom and some other Nigerian States have significantly improved budget transparency and participation, and has improved the ro...
NLC to declare nationwide strike over Kaduna government’s plan to sack workers
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has resolved to declare an industrial action nationwide if the Kaduna State government goes ahead with its plans to sack civil servants. The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, disclosed this in an exclusive interview with newsmen on Monday. Last week, Governor Nasir El-Rufai announced the plan to disengage civil servants in the state, citing fiscal reasons. El-Rufai said a significant amount of the statutory federal allocations to the state is being spent on the wages of public servants. According to the governor, the decision was one of the necessary moves to salvage the state’s finances. “Therefore, the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service. It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of th...
Mexico president backs extension of supreme court head’s term, sparks backlash
Mexico’s Senate on Thursday voted to extend the term of the president of the Supreme Court for an extra two years, a move criticized by opposition lawmakers who called it a bid by the ruling party to strengthen its hold on the country’s institutions. Arturo Zaldivar, who has been publicly supportive of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was appointed in January 2019 with a term slated to end on Dec. 31, 2022. If the modification to extend his term passes in the lower house of Congress, he would hold his position until Nov. 30, 2024. Lawmakers approved the proposal by a wide majority, the Senate said in a statement. Both houses of Congress are controlled by the ruling party MORENA and its allies. The Federal Judiciary Board, whose president is Zaldivar, said it was not involved with the...
Kaduna monarch: Nigerian politicians are greedy opportunists
The emir of Birnin Gwari, Malam Zubairu Jibril Mai Gwari II, has lashed out on Nigerian politicians whom he described as greedy opportunists. The monarch made the comment in Kaduna during the North-West Conference on the State of the Nation and contemporary challenges in Nigeria organised by Arewa Research and Development Project ARDP and Savanah Center. He said some politicians have capitalised on illiteracy and poverty among the people to attain power. “I have said it on so many occasions and so it’s easy for me now to repeat what I have said before. Why do we have failure in politicians running state, local and federal governments? I traced the problem to who we consider as politicians in our localities. “If you go to every part of the country those who call themselves politicians, stak...
Amaju Pinnick faults Ayiri Emami’s position on emergence of new Warri monarch
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr. Amaju Pinnick, yesterday faulted the position of the Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom, Chief Ayiri Emami, on the emergence of new Olu of Warri, who succeeded the late monarch, Ogiame Ikenwoli. Some kingmakers had a few days ago selected Prince Tsola Emiko as the Olu of Warri-designate, a development that did not go down well with the rival group led by Emami, who insisted that picking him was a breach of the rules. The announcement made by the Iyatsere of Warri Kingdom and acting Chairman of Olu’s Advisory Council, Chief Johnson Atserunleghe, at a traditional ceremony in Ode Itsekiri, had since divided the kingdom into factions. Pinnick insisted that the 1979 edict which purportedly states that whoever must be the king must either be full...
Gunmen abduct APC caretaker committee chairman in Rivers
The Rivers Chapter of the APC has announced the abduction of Hiasine Wiye, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC in Khana Local Government area of the State. He was kidnapped in his residence on on Sunday evening, according to the party in a statement issued in Port Harcourt by its Spokesman, Ogbonna Nwuke. He expressed dismay at the abduction of a grassroots member of the party. The party said the abduction of Wiye without any trace confirmed the claim that even ordinary citizens resident in Rivers State are not safe. “The Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State was snatched on Sunday from his home by unknown persons. “We have been briefed that he was taken into captivity at a time when well meaning people were celebrating the resurrection ...
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan launch new Nile dam talks in DRC
A new round of African Union-mediated talks between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan has begun aimed at resolving a years-long dispute over a massive dam built by Addis Ababa on the Blue Nile, a main tributary of the Nile river. The three-day talks that kicked off on Saturday are taking place in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the current chair of the AU. Foreign and irrigation ministers of the three nations were attending the talks over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), along with AU experts, according to Ethiopia’s Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele. A Sudanese diplomat was quoted as saying by The Associated Press news agency that the experts from the three countries and the AU met on Saturday, ahead of ministers who would meet on Sunday and Monday. He s...
Nigerian government begs resident doctors to shelve planned strike
The Federal Government has appealed to Resident Doctors to shelve their threat of embarking on a nationwide strike in the country. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, made the appeal at a conciliatory meeting with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Wednesday in Abuja. Newsmen recall that NARD had threatened to shut public health care facilities beginning from April 1, over unpaid salaries and other welfare packages. Ngige said that majority of the welfare issues under contention were almost resolved even before the letter of compliant and notification of a planned strike action was delivered at the ministry ”We are here because we have started solving your issues. We put up proposals with given timelines on how to deal with them. “We will look at thos...
Speaker Gbajabiamila: Nigerians deserve a Police Force they can trust
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said a trusted Police Force working within the limits of the law is what Nigerians deserve. He assured Nigerians that the 9th House under his leadership would bequeath such a Police Force to them, and is working assiduously to achieve the goal. Gbajabiamila, who spoke at the National Assembly on Thursday during the opening of a public hearing on two bills by the House Committee on Police Affairs, said the House would meet these expectations as one of the key items on its Legislative Agenda. The bills are: “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Police Service Commission Act and Enact the Police Service Commission Bill, 2020, to strengthen the Commission to be more Functional in its Operations and for Related Matters,” and: “...
National Assembly members agreed not to be hostile to Prudent Buhari’s government – Senate spokesman
The current 9th National Assembly members all agreed that they will not have an acrimonious relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, unlike the 8th Assembly under Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara. Spokesman of the senate, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, who represents Osun Central disclosed this in an interview published in newsmen on Wednesday while responding to claims that the current national assembly is a rubber-stamp that is always quick to do the bidding of the executive. He said “I don’t know the basis for your question, but what I do know is that at the inception, there was an agreement among the lawmakers that we do not want an acrimonious relationship between the Executive and the Legislature”. “All of us witnessed how such a relationship worked against the interest of...
Manchester United linked with Nick Pope with club concerned Dean Henderson is ‘too inexperienced’
Manchester United are being linked with Burnley stopper Nick Pope this summer, with the club concerned that Dean Henderson is not ready to be the club’s number one. Following Henderson’s return from two seasons on-loan at Sheffield United in the summer, there has been constant debate over who should be the Red Devils starting goalkeeper, particularly with David De Gea having been inconsistent in the last 18 months or so. The majority of this campaign has seen the Spaniard remain as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first-choice, with the younger Englishman largely having been deployed in domestic cup competitions. With De Gea granted leave to return to Spain for the birth of his first child last week, the 24-year-old has been handed the chance to impress with a run of games, although after a strong p...
Why Wilfried Zaha is no longer taking the knee
Wilfried Zaha became the first Premier League player not to kneel before kick-off on Saturday since top-flight footballers started using the gesture to protest racial injustice last summer. The Crystal Palace winger instead chose to “stand tall” ahead of the match with West Brom, something he had said in February he was going to do but hadn’t started a game since then due to injury. Zaha released a statement ahead of kick-off outlining his intention to do so and his reasons for it. What he said “My decision to stand at kick-off has been public knowledge for a couple of weeks now,” the Ivorian international said. “There is no right or wrong decision, but for me personally I feel kneeling has just become a part of the pre-match routine and at the moment it doesn’t matter whether we kneel or ...
