Ethiopia’s government urged Tigrayan rebels to join a unilateral ceasefire in their conflict on Thursday as aid agencies struggled to reach hundreds of thousands of people facing famine. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the former rulers of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, said on Monday it was back in control of the regional capital Mekelle after nearly eight months of fighting. The government declared a unilateral ceasefire but the TPLF dismissed it as a joke. Hostilities persisted on Thursday and pressure built internationally for all sides to pull back. “Operations are under way … and the number of prisoners of war is increasing by the minute,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters by satellite phone, with light artillery fire crackling in the background. “We are closing in on...
Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has cautioned those who hold political appointments in his government against all forms of complacency or dereliction of duty because of their vested interest in the 2023 general election in the country. In a veiled reference to why he dissolved the state executive council and numerous senior political appointees, Okowa stressed that they should rather be preoccupied by the desire to redouble their efforts in contributing to the administration to enable it deliver on his electoral promises and finish strongly. The governor gave the charge yesterday at the Government House in Asaba while swearing in the new Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chief Patrick Ukah, as well as eight special advisers whose appointments were announced last week. He ca...
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu said if Twitter had an office in Nigeria, resolving the current Twitter ban initiated by the Buhari government would have been easier. The governor made the suggestion in an interview with Arise TV on Monday. Mr Sanwo-Olu noted that he cannot categorically say if the federal government’s action against Twitter is wrong or right because he does not have the same prognosis as the President and Commander in Chief. “I cannot sit down here with all of the responsibilities that I have and fly (sic) the commander in chief of the armed forces. Even had (sic) a prognosis and security information that I do not have. I cannot begin to say that was it done is right or wrong” he asserted. He alluded that the government had only suspended Twitter operations in Nig...
Governments are putting women and girls at greater risk of the health and socio-economic impacts posed by the coronavirus pandemic, two global studies released Wednesday show. They called on leaders to prioritise gender equity in their response to the health crisis. Two studies, one from a global research partnership led by the Global Health 50/50 Project in London and another by the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, were released Wednesday to coincide with World Health Day that highlight major failings by national governments to consider sex or gender in their COVID-19 policies. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, several studies have pointed to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women. Many women have shouldered a heftier burden taking on more unpa...
Understanding the strength of small businesses
The number of small businesses keeps growing in the formal and informal sectors of the Nigerian economy, due to the role of small businesses as the live-wire of any economy and the backbone of major developed economies the world over. Though Nigeria rely majorly on oil and revenues derived from it, from context observation the economy is largely supported by small businesses covering almost all spheres of activities within the country, ranging from Nano, kiosk, and Micro businesses most importantly. A visible reference usually includes the vulcanizers, corner shop owners, single retail marketers, repairers, painters, business center operators, restaurants, market women, and men in the various open markets, among others. and the formal operations such as the law firms, accounting firms, con...