Preference
President Buhari approves 22 3-bedroom bungalows to 1994 Super Eagles squad
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the allocation of 22 3-bedroom houses to the Super Eagles Squad that won the African Cup of Nations in Tunis, Tunisia, in 1994, in fulfilment of an earlier promise by the Federal Government. This was sequel to a memo by Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, leading to the President approving the allocations in their states of preference. A release on Thursday by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, noted that six players and three technical crews had already received their houses. The benefitting players are: Peter Rufai, Alloy Agu, Ike Shorounmu, Uche Okechukwu, Samson Siasia, Efan Ekoku, Sunday Oliseh, Benedict Iroha, Isaac Semitoje, Mutiu Adepoju, Emmanuel Amunike, Victor Ikpeba, Austin Eguavoen and Wilfred Agbonavbare (Deceased)....
UNESCO exhibit in Venice focuses on rebuilding Mosul sites
The United Nations’ cultural agency has opened an exhibit detailing plans to restore multicultural landmarks in the Iraqi city of Mosul, underlining the role of architecture in helping heal wounds. The exhibit, “Revive the Spirit of Mosul,” will be featured on the sidelines of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, which opened Saturday after a one-year pandemic delay under the title: “How will we live together?” The Venice Biennale’s central question resonates in particular in Iraq, which is experiencing turbulent change, and the old city of Mosul, where 80% of the city’s monuments were destroyed by extremists during the city’s 36-month occupation by the Islamic State group. Iraq is one of three countries participating for the first time at the Biennale, with an exhibit by Rashad...
Femi Falana raises alarm over planned commercialisation of coronavirus vaccines
Naijaloaded The Alliance for Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond, a coalition of labour and civil society groups being led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has urged Nigerians to resist any attempt by health workers to commercialise Covid vaccines expected in the country anytime soon. ASCAB Deputy Chairman, Sina Odugbemi, stated this on Tuesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme monitored by newsmen. Odugbemi said, “When it (vaccine) comes in, people may want to trade with it and there may be preference for the high and mighty. We should anticipate these things and put in place machinery to ensure that we scale the hurdle because the Nigerian factor will come into play when the vaccines come in. “There will be special preference. In fact, health offi...
Newcastle desperate to secure Chelsea’s Fikayo Tomori
Newcastle United are interested in securing Chelsea centre-back Fikayo Tomori. The youngster has not played as much as he expected in the first half of this campaign. Tomori is sidelined given the preference of manager Frank Lampard of playing Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma in central defense. According to FourFourTwo, the 23-year-old is attracting interest from the Magpies, along with Leeds United and Burnley. Any move would be a loan for the second half of the season. Tomori did not even play in the FA Cup third round game against Morecambe for Chelsea, further indicating a move could be imminent. Blues boss Lampard told football.london: “The situation with Fikayo is open at the moment. There is a possibility he could be going on loan to get games somewhere else. “So that would have to be t...
NNPC seeks $1 billion funding to revive PHC refinery
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is currently shopping for $1 billion to revamp Nigeria’s biggest refinery located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. To realise its plans, the nation’s oil company is already in high-level discussion to raise the money via a prepayment deal with trading firms. If the financing is successful, the long overdue rehabilitation of the refinery should reduce Nigeria’s hefty fuel import bill. It would also mark Nigeria’s second oil-backed financing since the COVID-19 pandemic that has added to the difficulty of finding investors as fuel demand is sapped by lockdowns and renewable energy is gaining ground over fossil fuels. The money would be repaid over seven years through deliveries of Nigerian crude and products from the refinery once the refurbis...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...