Session
Helen Paul: I was told to create scandals if I wanted to be popular
Nigerian comedienne and actress, Helen Paul, has stated that she was once told to indulge herself in scandals so that she would get a huge fanbase on social media. The entertainer disclosed this in a recent Instagram live session with Doyin Hassan, Movie Director and actor. Helen stated that during the early days of her career, she had met a talent manager and subsequently indicated her interest to work with him. The 38-year-old actress said the talent manager, however, refused her request, saying that she would have to indulge herself in one or two scandals to garner more popularity before the pair could work together. She narrated: “I once told someone that I really loved his work and that I would like to work with him. I had seen him manage two female artistes successfully. However, his...
WHO seeks G7 support to meet vaccination targets
The Director-General, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus has solicited the support of G7 health ministers to meet vaccination targets by the end of the year. In his remarks at the G7 Health Ministers’ meeting in Oxford, Ghebreyesus appealed to the ministers to provide leadership for strengthening WHO on sustainable financing. “First, we seek your support for reaching our vaccination targets for September and the end of the year; sharing doses with COVAX now is essential for achieving those targets. “We need 250 million doses by September and we need 100 million doses just in June and July. “As G7 nations, you are in a unique position to pool doses and make this happen; second, we seek your leadership for strengthening WHO, including through sustainable and predictable f...
Senate committee gets 14 days to process President Buhari’s N2.343 trillion loan request
The Nigerian Senate has given its Committee on Foreign and Local Debts 14 days within which to process President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a fresh ₦2.343 trillion ($6.183 billion) for approval. Senate President Ahmad Lawan gave the directive at the commencement of Tuesday’s plenary session shortly after the Senate Majority leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, drew the attention of the Senate to the pending request. The Senator Clifford Ordia-led Committee on Foreign and Local debt had approved a total of $28 billion so far. The current request will take the total loan approved to $35.683 billion. Buhari had urged the Senate to approve N2.3 trillion ($6.183 billion) external borrowing. He said the loan was to finance the 2021 budget deficit of N5.6 trillion. The President indicated that the loan ...
FRSC: 90% of trucks in Nigeria over 30 years
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) says 90 per cent of trucks in the country are over 30 years. The FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, disclosed this in an interactive session between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the FRSC and Haulage operators on Monday in Lagos. Oyeyemi called for an improvement on the maintenance and standardisation schemes for vehicles as most of them lacked safety measures like lighting, reflectors and other parts. He stressed the need for an intervention from the Federal Government to ensure truckers had fleet renewal as vehicles that had been on the road for 30-years should be scrapped. Oyeyemi pointed out that “due to the age of the trucks, they frequently breakdown on the road prolonging the days goods spend on the road before getting to its destinat...
Liberian VP visits Prof. Osinbajo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, had the pleasure today to welcome Dr Jewel Howard-Taylor, the Vice President of Liberia. She led a delegation to attend the 1st Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS parliament yesterday here in Abuja and spoke at the opening ceremony. She took the opportunity to pay a courtesy visit to the Vice President in his office this afternoon. It was an opportunity for the two Vice Presidents to catch-up having had previous meetings both here in Abuja and in Liberia including in 2018 when Prof. Osinbajo visited Liberia to speak at the launch of the International Sheroes Foundation. Of course, Nigeria and Liberia enjoy a very good and warm diplomatic relationship dating back to even before independence. The two leaders exchanged pleasantries and reaffirmed both countries’...
Zinedine Zidane ready to walk away from Real Madrid
Zinedine Zidane will almost certainly leave Real Madrid at the end of this season, regardless of whether the team wins LaLiga. They face Granada tonight and if they pick up a win they will still be just two points behind Atletico Madrid with two games to go. But the 48-year-old coach, who has won two league titles and three Champions League crowns in less than four seasons, has all but made up his mind to walk away after the final game of the campaign at home to Villarreal on May 23. Zidane will be an immediate target for Juventus and for the France national side if they make a change after the Euros this summer. Madrid president Florentino Perez will be under pressure to promote Raul to replace him. He currently has the club’s youth team on the verge of promotion but Perez could also turn...
Federal pensioners pull out of pensions union
The crisis among pensioners on Sunday got messier as Federal Civil Service Pensioners (FCSP) finally opted out of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) over alleged denial of the branch’s rights and privileges. Members of FCSP also premised their decision on “illegal and unconstitutional” appointment of a caretaker committee by the NUP at its April National Delegates Conference held in Abuja. FCSP announced it was pulling out from NUP in a communique issued at the end of the emergency NEC meeting of the union which was held at Labour House by its national chairman, Omezi Sunday. Sunday explained that opting out became necessary over the lingering trade dispute between the FCSP and the NUP. According to him, the protracted impasse is occasioned by the blatant refusal of the NUP to give a co...
DELSU matriculates 9,461 new intakes for 2020/2021 session
File Photo Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, on Saturday, matriculated 9,461 students who were offered provisional admission to various departments of the institution. No fewer than 37, 176 candidates reportedly applied for admission to the institution put of which 9,461 were offered admission. Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Andy Egwunyenga, who disclosed this on Saturday during the matriculation ceremony for the 2020/2021 academic session at Abraka hinted that 1, 291 candidates were offered admission to the various postgraduate programmes and 382 to the Intensive and Part Time Programmes of the university. Addressing the fresh students, Prof. Egwunyenga warned that any student involved in cultism, examination malpractices and other social vices would be expelled. He descr...
Kwara partners with TIIDELab to train youths on software development
The Kwara State Government has set up a plan to empower youths in the state with tech skills to meet 21st century market demands. The government, in partnership with TIIDELab, is organising a tech training session for young people ahead of a fellowship programme that will feature the best hands picked from the qualifying session, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Youths Engagement Kaothara Adeyi. ‘The pre-fellowship session is a prelude to a six-month software engineering fellowship programme,’ the statement said. ‘The fellowship will take participants through the nitty-gritty of software engineering alongside several other software skills required to transfer their technical knowledge into solution-driven products.’ It said the participants in the...
Senate passes amended AMCON bill, empowers agency to seize debtors’ assets
The Senate Wednesday passed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Amendment bill after considering the report of its Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions. The amendment bill passed by the upper chamber empowers the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria to, among others, take possession, manage or sell all properties traced to debtors, whether or not such assets or property is used as security/collateral for obtaining the loan in particular. It also empowers the corporation to access the Special Tribunal established by the BOFIA, 2020 for dealing with financial related matters. Presenting the report, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) said the Committee engaged with stakeholders such as AMCON, Federal Ministry of Finance, ...
Delta governor: We inherited N100 billion unpaid pension under compulsory pension scheme
Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta on Sunday said his administration inherited about N100 billion unpaid pensions under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). Okowa disclosed this at the third session of the 8th Synod of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Ughelli Diocese. The session was held at Bishop Agori-Iwe Memorial Church, Ughelli. Okowa said that the financial burden forced 18 state governments out of 26 that enlisted on the scheme to withdraw, leaving only eight state governments, including Delta, in the Programme. The governor explained that the major challenge which forced the states to withdraw and others not to enrol in the scheme, was the huge backlog running into billions of naira. He said that his administration was up-to-date with payment of pensioners in the old scheme. ...
Naira stable at parallel, official market
Nigeria’s naira remained stable against the U.S. dollar at the unofficial market on Friday, data posted on abokiFX .com, a website that collates parallel market rates in Lagos showed. The data posted showed that the naira closed at N485.00 at the black market, the same rate it exchanged hands with the greenback in the previous session on Thursday. Similarly, the local unit remained stable at the official market. Data posted on the FMDQ Security Exchange window where forex is officially traded showed that the domestic unit again closed at N410.00 at the trading session of the NAFEX window on Friday. Friday’s performance came to be as forex supply slumped significantly. The naira experienced an intraday high of N394.00 and a low of N436.40 before closing at N410.00 on Friday, the same rate i...
