Meeting
AU welcomes Nigeria ahead of AfCFTA kick-off
The African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Albert Muchanga, said in Addis Ababa on Friday that instruments signifying Nigeria’s entry into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will be received at the commission’s headquarters shortly ahead of next year’s kick-off of trading. Speaking during the AfCFTA Business Forum 2020 to discuss the status of preparations to launch the continental trading, Muchanga said the launch of trading will facilitate the growth of African enterprise and enhance the capacity of industries producing goods to a wider population. Nigeria, which signed the AfCFTA agreement in 2019, officially ratified the agreement on 12 November. The instruments of ratification are expected to be received at the AU on Saturday, 5 December, the deadline for the...
Nigerian governors to meet with President Buhari to address security challenges
Governors of the thirty six states under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF have resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to address the security challenges with continued cases of armed banditry, terrorism and kidnapping across the country. The governors are meeting with President Buhari especially to discuss last week’s gruesome beheading of about 43 Farmers in Zarbamari near Maiduguri, Borno State by Boko Haram Insurgents while they were working in their farmland without any form of resistance. The decision was part of the resolutions reached at the end of the 22nd NGF teleconference meeting. In a Communique signed by the NGF Chairman and Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said, ” Members of the forum resolved to meet with Mr. President as soon as possible to ad...
Post-EndSARS: Stop scaring police off their beats – minister
The Federal Government on Friday called on Nigerians to empathise with and appreciate personnel of the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies instead of victimising them. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who made the call while meeting with Title Editors of Nigerian newspapers in Lagos, also urged the public to resist the temptation to tag all officers with the same brush. “Today, many of them are even afraid to wear their uniforms and the result has not been pleasant, in terms of security of life and property. “I want to remind all of us of the saying that a society that makes war against its police had better learnt to make friends with its criminals,” he said. The minister recalled that six soldiers and 37 policemen were killed across the country d...
FEC approves N117 billion for rehabilitation of major roads in Nigeria
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved N117.6 billion for the rehabilitation of some major roads across Nigeria. Wednesday’s FEC meeting was chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari. The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this while briefing journalists at the end of the meeting. “The Ministry of Works and Housing presented three memoranda, two relating to roads and one relating to a banking application. “The first set of roads is for a total sum of N18,923,846,198.47, and it is with respect to roads and bridges as follows; rehabilitation of 26 km road linking Kano, Jigawa and the Katsina States, N8.767 billion, Omo-Umulokpa road in Anambra and the Enugu States, N1.712 billion, rehabilitation of Oye-Oranta road in Anambra, N2.504 billion, Okpoko bri...
United Nations, Ethiopia reach aid pact for war-hit Tigray
Ethiopia and the United Nations reached an agreement on Wednesday to channel desperately needed humanitarian aid to a northern region where a month of war has killed, wounded and uprooted large numbers of people. The pact, announced by U.N. officials, will allow aid workers access to government-controlled areas of Tigray, where federal troops have been battling the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and captured the regional capital. The war is believed to have killed thousands, sent 45,000 refugees into Sudan, displaced many more within Tigray, and worsened suffering in a region where 600,000 people were already dependent on food aid even before the flare-up from Nov. 4. Aid agencies had sounded the alarm about a growing humanitarian crisis and been pressing for access, after hundred...
South Africa becomes new head of UN Security Council
South Africa on Tuesday assumed the rotating monthly presidency of the United Nations Security Council. During the month, South Africa will focus on strengthening the cooperation between African Union (AU) and United Nations, and emphasising the importance of a proactive approach to the maintenance of international peace and security, particularly in the form of drawing greater attention to “preventative diplomacy mechanisms,” Jerry Matjila, permanent representative of South Africa to the UN and president of the Security Council for the month of December, told journalists during a hybrid press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York. This is South Africa’s second presidency during its two-year (2019-2020) elected term on the council. December will also be the country’s final month on t...
INEC expresses readiness for saturday bye-elections in 11 states
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has expressed readiness for the conduct of bye-elections across 11 States this Saturday. INEC disclosed this in a statement issued Tuesday night in Abuja after a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, from the affected states. National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr. Festus Okoye, in the statement said the Resident Electoral Commissioners briefed the Commission on the level of preparations in their States and the Commission is satisfied that preparations are going on very well. “All the States have received all the non-sensitive materials, trained their staff, and received all the funds for the bye-elections. Most of the States have also had their sensitive materials deli...
FCTA spent N29 billion on coronavirus during lockdown – minister
The Senate has been told that the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA spent a total sum of N28.5billion on some activities within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT during the outbreak of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, especially during the lockdown. Speaking yesterday in Abuja when he presented the revised 2020 budget before the Senator Abubakar Kyari, All Progressives Congress, APC, Borno North led Senate Committee on FCT, Minister of the FCT, Mallam Mohammed Musa Bello explained to the Committee that the fund was spent on provision of security services, provision of palliatives for indigent residents, as well as assisting neighbouring States who were distressed. According to him, the FCT health facility supported residents from States where the level of government assista...
Central bank chief to engage governors on pension funds utilization for infrastructure
Bloomberg Mr Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank Governor, will tomorrow Wednesday, 2nd December 2020, meet with Governors of the 36 states, under the aegis of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, to discuss how to access Pension Funds for Infrastructure Development in the country. Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Head, Media and Public Affairs of NGF, made this known in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday. According to Bello-Barkindo, the forum will be the 22nd NGF Teleconference meeting which would also seek to evolve a new national security order that will ensure safety of lives and property nationwide. “As part of the effort, beginning at the subnational level, the Forum will be receiving zonal updates on SARS and Internal security at its Wednesday meeting. “Similarly, the Forum will also ...
OPU: Security situation in Nigeria coloured with nepotism
The Oodua Progressive Union, OPU, Sunday, lamented that the security situation in Nigeria is being coloured with nepotism, sectionalism, and lack of competence. The group, in a communiqué at the end of the meeting, said: “OPU is disturbed with the news coming from home, regarding the killing of a first-class Yoruba monarch, the Olufon of Ifon, Oba Adegoke Adeusi in Ondo State. “We also condemn, in totality, the dastardly acts of Fulani herdsmen who yearly burn down Chief Olu Falae’s farm. In the same vein, we commend Amotekun in the rescue of the wife of the Chief of staff to the governor of Ondo State. “After careful observation of the 1999 Constitution, we realised that the document was unfit and unproductive, making it the source of nearly all our problems. “As a group that is poised fo...
NUC mandates UI to appoint acting vice-chancellor
Following the crisis that trailed the selection of a new Vice-Chancellor for the University of Ibadan, UI, that led to the process becoming inconclusive. the National Universities Commission, NUC, has directed the Governing Council of the university to appoint an Acting Vice-Chancellor to take over from the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Professor Idowu Olayinka, on Monday, November 30. The directive became expedient, following the deadlock in the appointment of a new VC to replace Olayinka, whose term expires on Monday. The Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar Rasheed, in a letter dated 27th November 2020 and addressed to the Pro-Chancellor of the University, said the appointment of an acting vice-chancellor was to avoid a vacuum in the administration of the university. The letter, s...
Nigerian government seeks new Eurobond
The federal government yesterday disclosed that it would approach the Eurobond market next year in its effort to shore up the economy, amidst cocktails of measures being put in place to douse the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. On the same day, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while speaking at the 55th Annual Bankers Dinner organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, predicted a two per cent growth in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021. Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, who disclosed the Eurobond plan while speaking on Bloomberg TV, explained that the decision would depend on the prevailing interest rates. She, however, did not specify the amount to be accessed from the Eurobond. The Eurobond option is ...
