Year
Governor Abiodun: Agro-allied airport underway in Ogun
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has disclosed plans by his administration to have an agro-allied based airport to aid the development of the state as a destination of choice for agriculture in Nigeria. Abiodun, who spoke during the inauguration of Agbeloba Aquaculture Hub in Owiwi, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state, said the agricultural sector remains the sure way out of poverty and unemployment ravaging the country. The project is being promoted by a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. While also expressing optimism that his administration believes that the state and the country as a whole can actually grow what it eats, the governor commended Obasanjo for continuously and tirelessly walking his talk on agriculture. He said, “We are looking at having an ag...
House of Reps member petitions army over ‘unlawful dismissal’ of soldiers from Ebonyi
The member representing Ezza South/Ikwo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Chinedu Ogah, has petitioned the Nigerian Army over the ‘unjust’ dismissal of soldiers from Ebonyi state . Ogah said that the soldiers were sacked unjustly from the military and that a petition has been submitted against their dismissal , expressing confidence that they would be reinstated very soon. The federal Lawmaker disclosed this while addressing thousands of members of his constituency who paid him Christmas visit at his Amagu country home, Ikwo in Ikwo local government area of Ebonyi state Ogah however, used the occasion to intimate them on his activities for the one year he has been in office as their representative in the National Assembly, saying that he had submitted petition agai...
Nigerian government borrows over N2 trillion from bond investors in 2020
Leveraging on excess liquidity that persisted in the banking system and the near zero yields on treasury bills (TBs), the Federal Government, through the Debt Management Office (DMO), raised N2.1 trillion from investors in its monthly bond issuance programme in 2020. This represents 33 percent, year-on-year, (y/y) increase when compared with the N1.58 trillion raised by the DMO in 2019. The N2.1 trillion raised in 2020 also represents 31 percent more than the N1.6 trillion funding target for the DMO under the Revised 2020 Budget. Meanwhile, the monthly bond auctions conducted by the DMO in 2020 recorded 275 percent oversubscription, reflecting scramble for the high yielding FGN bonds by investors. Newsmen report on monthly bond auction results show that the DMO offered N1.825 trillion wort...
Leicester edge up to second despite draw vs Crystal Palace
A much-changed Leicester moved up to second in the Premier League thanks to Harvey Barnes’ late equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace on Monday. Wilfried Zaha’s stunning near post volley put the Eagles in front against the run of play after Kelechi Iheanacho had a first-half penalty saved for Leicester. With little over 48 hours rest between the Foxes’ 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Saturday and the trip to Selhurst Park, Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers made seven changes with Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans among those left on the bench. Both were introduced midway through the second-half and Leicester’s pressure was rewarded with an equaliser when Barnes fired in a low shot from the edge of the box for his eighth goal of the season. Despite the upheaval of missing many of their st...
Jordan detects two coronavirus variant cases – minister
Jordan on Sunday confirmed two cases of a particularly infectious coronavirus variant in a man and his wife who had arrived from Britain. Health Minister Nazir Obeidat said the Jordanian couple travelled to the kingdom on December 19 and were found to be infected with the new strain of the virus after being tested and isolated. The couple were still in quarantine and being monitored by medical experts according to virus protocols, Obeidat said, adding they were both in “excellent health” condition. The new strain of the virus emerged earlier this month in Britain and has already reached several European countries, as well as Japan and Canada. The new strain, which experts fear is more contagious, prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain. Jordan was among the...
CBN: Naira to fall further in January
Barely five days to the end of the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that a survey carried out by its Statistics Department revealed that the naira is expected to depreciate further in January 2021. The report, titled, ‘December 2020 Business Expectations Survey Report’ added that there might also be a steady rise in interest rate from December till the next six months. The naira witnessed a sharp fall in recent weeks, reaching its lowest on November 30, 2020, when it exchanged for N500/$1. Since then, the dollar has been hovering between N460 and N470. As of Friday, however, one dollar exchanged for 465 in the parallel market. Also, the Nigerian economy had on November 21 slid into its second recession in five years when the economy shrank again in the third quarter. Th...
Andy Murray receives Australian Open wild card
Former world number one Andy Murray has been handed a wild card for February’s delayed Australian Open, pushed back three weeks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Murray, 33, is a five-time runner-up in Melbourne but feared his last match at the tournament in 2019 would mark the end of his career due to chronic hip pain. The injury pushed him to the brink of retirement but the three-time Grand Slam champion is battling to extend his career having undergone two hip surgeries. The Scot’s ranking of 122 is too low to qualify directly for the Australian Open main draw, which starts on February 8, and he has also accepted a wild card to the Delray Beach event early next month. Murray played just seven tour-level matches this year as he returned to action in August following a lingering pe...
Nigerian singer BigLo dies of kidney failure
Popular Nigerian singer Lotanna Udueze, more popularly known as BigLo, has passed on. According to close friends, the singer who was down with a kidney ailment died on Christmas day. Biglo’s kidney ailment was diagnosed in 2018 and last year, he began undergoing dialysis at a nursing home in California, U.S three times a week. He also tried raising funds for treatment. His UK based cousin, Zuby Udezue tried to raise £50,000; about N23 million at that time. Biglo who was popular especially in the early 2000s with fellow musicians, 2shotz and StylPlus, shot into limelight with the hit ‘Delicious’ which featured 2shotz. Although the track earned him a HipHop World Award for Best Rap Collabo, the chubby rapper however, went underground after the buzz died down. Some of his colleagues have take...
Senate: Power ministry smuggles N7 billion into its account without appropriation
The Senate has raised the alarm on how the Ministry of Power smuggled over N7 billion smuggled into the Ministry’s budget without an appropriation from the National Assembly. The Senate has observed that there was no evidence that such money was budgeted for in respect of the Hydropower Transmission Project in either the 2014 or 2015 fiscal year. Senator Matthew Urhoghide, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo South led Senate Committee on Public Accounts is raising the alarm of how the Ministry spent such amount of money without getting approval from the National Assembly in line with the law. The Committee is relying on the query raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the 2015 report and brought before it for probe and subsequent presentation to the Senate at Plena...
World Bank: Pandemic to push over 115 million people into extreme poverty
A report by the World Bank has noted that over the past 12 months, the Covid-19 pandemic has harmed the poor and vulnerable the most, and it is threatening to push millions more into poverty. This year, the World Bank said, after decades of steady progress in reducing the number of people living on less than $1.90/day, COVID-19 will usher in the first reversal in the fight against extreme poverty in a generation. The report said the latest analysis warns that COVID-19 has pushed an additional 88 million people into extreme poverty this year – and that figure is just a baseline. “In a worst-case scenario, the figure could be as high as 115 million. The World Bank Group forecasts that the largest share of the ‘new poor will be in South Asia, with Sub-Saharan Africa close behind. ddAccording ...
India arrests 75 in Kashmir after local elections
The Indian government has arrested at least 75 Kashmiri political leaders and activists to forestall political unrest after an alliance of Kashmir’s regional political parties won local elections, leaders and a police official said on Saturday. The District Development Council elections, concluded early this week, were the first local polls since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the special status of the Muslim-majority region last year. New Delhi then cracked down on the opposition and rounded up hundreds of people to preempt protests and violence. The latest detentions, which include separatist leaders and members of the banned Jamat-e-Islami group, were for preventive custody, said a senior police official, who asked not to be identified. But Imran Nabi Dar, spokesman f...
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 ...