My first visit to the Headquarters of the World Food Prize Foundation in the Des Moines, Iowa State was in July 2017. It was a mission full of spectacular experiences with amazing outcomes whose memory remains refreshing to date. We were warmly welcomed by the Foundation’s President, Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn with an affable smile, warm reception, and resonating voice. The voice was so expressive that I knew, I heard it before but couldn’t recall where and when. I quickly remembered he was the keynote speaker of the annual International Conference of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers…
Author: Editor
For the past two weeks, the gregarious Muhammed Gudaji Kazaure, a lawmaker representing Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa and Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State in the House of Representatives and one of the most vibrant members of the House, has been trending. He came out with some papers and a story that sounded like a tale by moonlight. In an interview with BBC Hausa two weeks ago, the lawmaker disclosed that he was the secretary of a Presidential Committee on the Reconciliation and Recovery of All Stamp Duties. He also alleged that critical institutions such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),…
By Lukman Abdulraman In 2020, in a report obtained from the ministry of finance and economic development, Kano state, it was recorded the state government awarded over ‘One Billion’ Naira to 224 contracting companies to execute different projects in the state. However this investigation will focus on 6 selected contracting companies, who received the total amount of N314, 686,571.821 million. This reporter commissioned Nasara Professional and Consultancy Services, a Financial Consulting firm to conduct a corporate search on the status of the 224 companies that were awarded various contracts by Kano state government. After a series of the company’s status…
I wish I know the real story of the naira redesign narrative. Recall that the CBN had on December 6 announced a new policy limiting over-the-counter cash withdrawals by individuals and corporate entities and asking Nigerians to accept a new reality – that future life would be spent in a cashless society. Then on Wednesday, the amounts were raised following concerns that Nigeria is a cash society and tens of millions of Nigerians are without bank accounts and have no alternative mode of payment for personal needs and petty businesses. The Central Bank has one of the best research departments…
By Otunba Femi Davies As the 2023 Nigerian presidential election draws closer, the importance of digital news media to the democratic process cannot be overstated. In today’s digital world, news media plays an integral role in informing citizens on the issues that are at stake in the election, as well as the various candidates and their respective platforms. Given Nigeria’s rapidly developing digital infrastructure, digital news media has the potential to be an increasingly important tool for citizens to engage in the electoral process. Through digital news media, citizens can learn about the candidates, the issues at stake, and the…
The establishment of International Space Station (ISS) took 12 years with major support from the five nations in addition eleven other nations who made different level of contributions. US President Reagan was the brain behind ISS who then conceived the idea of a relatively permanent space station in 1984 and directed NASA to build it. At that time, many thought of the idea as braggadocio of American leadership after its outstanding success of sending people to moon under the Apollo 11 project fifteen years earlier. The International Space Station became a reality and from November 2000 to date, the station…
By Matt Ford By handing the World Cup to Qatar to instrumentalize for geopolitical gain, FIFA sold football out. But Lionel Messi and Argentina showed that the beautiful game will always win, writes DW’s Matt Ford. Even in the crowning moment of Lionel Messi’s greatest personal triumph, Gianni Infantino and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani couldn’t resist making it about them. While the Emir of Qatar wrapped the Argentine captain in a black and gold bight, the narcissistic FIFA president clung onto the coveted trophy for as long as possible, desperate to be in the photographs and footage of…
By Megan Molteni The explosive trajectory of monkeypox to nearly 90 countries since the current outbreak was detected in the United Kingdom in mid-May has caught many governments off-guard, and created confusion about how monkeypox spreads from person to person. In some ways, the virus is acting differently than it has in the past. For decades, researchers in West and Central Africa, where the virus is endemic, have observed that outbreaks there tend to be self-limiting. A single case or small cluster would pop up occasionally, caused by hunting and handling infected animals or being bitten by one, but those…
The persistent rivalry between the Nigeria Police and the men of the Department of State Service (DSS) is a matter well known to many Nigerians. The inter agency competition has a long history and it repeats itself across the political space. The battle is about who become CSO or Chief Detail or whatever from the two services. Osun is therefore not unusual. Something is however puzzling and suspicious in the recent incident. Constitutionally, a governor is entitled to have security personnel, both the police and DSS, attached to him because he is a public figure and must be protected at…
The high-yielding material benefits accruing to insurgents and kidnappers from their dreaded activities in Nigeria in the last decade acan no longer be seen as stand-alone issues. They have so much infected other people in different activity areas that almost everyone has since developed the tendency to take advantage of every and any opportunity to profiteer. No wonder, one popular cleric once concluded that based on the huge ransom which its practitioners are accumulating, kidnapping could be regarded as a lucrative commercial activity. On their part, expert oil thieves have been allegedly busy devising new methods to ward-off government’s arrangements…