President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of Infraco Plc, a world-class infrastructure development vehicle wholly focused on Nigeria with a capital structure of N15 trillion. The president revealed this on Saturday in a broadcast to mark this year’s Democracy Day. He expressed optimism that the company, when fully functional, would address the nation’s infrastructural deficits and subsequently transform the economy. He also disclosed that his administration had succeeded in accelerating infrastructure development through sensible and transparent borrowing, improved capital inflow, improving and increasing revenue through capturing more tax bases and prudent management of investment proceeds in the Sovereign Wealth…
Author: Editor
I join you all today to commemorate and celebrate our Democracy Day. It is a celebration of freedom and a victory for one people, one country and one Nigeria. As with all democracies we will always be going through improvement processes in our desire to reach the goal of a mature democracy, a strong, evolved and integrated nation state to be reckoned with globally. In the last two years we have witnessed and overcome a good number of testy challenges that would have destroyed other nations especially relating to our collective security. The indefatigable CAN DO Spirit of the Nigerian…
The Zamfara government has given approval to communities in the state to defend themselves against kidnapping, banditry and other criminal attacks. The State Governor, Bello Muhammad gave the approval at a special prayer session to mark his two years in office. The governor noted that the insecurity in the state had defied all the different methods employed to tackle it, saying that together with other northern governors they had now agreed to engage the services of locals to complement security operatives in the fight against banditry and other criminal activities in the zone. He said the state would collaborate with…
The 75th session of the UN General Assembly on Friday elected Ghana, Gabon, Albania, Brazil and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to serve as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for the 2022-2023 term. According to the final tally, Ghana received 185 votes, Gabon 183, UAE 179, Albania 175 and Brazil 181 votes. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) garnered three votes while Peru and Iran each collected one. The Security Council is a body of 15 members, five of which are permanent and have veto power: the United States, France, Russia and China. The newly elected five will join…
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (FHC), Justice John Tsoho, has issued a new practice direction on exemption of payment of default fees for filing of processes. The development, according to a statement by Catherine Oby-Nwandu, Chief Information Officer of FHC, on Friday night, followed the resumption of work after the two-month strike by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) was called off on on Wednesday. JUSUN had, on April 6, shut down all courts nationwide to demand for financial autonomy for the judiciary at the state level. Although the industrial action was called off on Wednesday, June 9, the…
President Muhammadu Buhari says the contentious issue of restructuring, true federalism or devolution of powers remains a constitutional matter, with which only the National Assembly can handle. He, however, reiterated his position on devolving more power to the people. The president stated this when he received members of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) led by Co-Chairmen, Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III and President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Dr Samson Ayokunle, at the State House, Abuja, on Friday. “On the contentious issue of restructuring or true federalism or devolution of powers, like you all know, this is…
The Zamfara police command have confirmed Thursday’s gunmen attack on Kadawa village of Zurmi local government area of the state and the killing of over 90 people. The spokesperson, SP Shehu Mohammed made the confirmation on in Gusau on Friday. “Yes, l can confirm to you that an attack took place at Kadawa village of Zurmi local government where bandits took advantage of the night to strike on unsuspecting people and killed them in cold blood. “On getting the news of the attack, the Commissioner of Police, CP Hussain Rabiu, ordered combined units of security personnel to mobilize to the…
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has expressed concern over what it described as “shrinking civic space, lingering social injustice and dwindling democratic values,” in Nigeria, even as the centre felicitates with all citizens on Democracy Day 2021, when the country marks 22 years of democratic rule. A statement by the executive director of CISLAC, who is also the head of Transparency International in Nigeria, Auwal Rafsanjani made available to ASHENEWS on Friday, said, “we are seriously perturbed by recent unwary development threatening citizens’ fundamental rights and freedom as well as civic space at all levels.” Read CISLAC’s statement…
After over 20 years of failed attempts, the senate is to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Constitution Amendment Bill and other key bills before it this month. The Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, made the announcement at a news conference to mark the two-year anniversary of the Ninth Senate in Abuja on Thursday. He said that the bills would be passed into law before members of the upper legislative embark on their annual recess later next month. In a speech entitled: “Beholding the Silver Lining in Nigeria”, an elated Lawan disclosed that the senate was close to passing…
The federal government says its directive that Over the Top (OTT) and social media platforms operating in the country must register and obtain license to operate is in conformity with global trend. The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said this on Friday when he featured on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) programme “Good Morning Nigeria’’. The federal government recently suspended operations of Twitter and directed that all OTT and social media platforms operating in the country must register with Corporate Affairs Commission. The federal government said they must also apply for licensing with the National Broadcasting Commission ( NBC).…