I spent the holidays in Cotonou and the road trip from Lagos to Cotonou was very interesting. The road from Lagos to Seme border is one of the roughest roads on earth. There were massive potholes and the driver has to be skilled in the techniques of driving through sand. On the other side of the border I had a shock, the express way from Seme all the way to the Togolese border is smoot, wide and did not have a single pothole. I wondered which was the richer country, Nigeria and Benin? Okay I agree, the quality of roads…
Author: Newsdesk
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a northern group, Arewa Consensus Assembly on Thursday, canvassed for the micro-zoning of the presidency to the South-Western part of the country in the interest of justice and equity. The group said that the agitation by some people that the presidency should be retained in the North will further divide the country, adding that the focus should be more on equitable distribution of power. Addressing a press conference after their meeting in Kaduna on Thursday, the chairman of the group, Daniel Shawulu said the real interest of the North is about the vast majority…
The Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG has reacted to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB’s ban on the consumption of ‘Fulani cows’ (beef) in South-East, by calling for a total boycott of all businesses operated by the Igbo all over the North. A statement by the spokesperson of the CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman on Thursday, noted that IPOB’s order issued in a statement on Monday by one Emma Powerful, “amounts to a grave provocation and serious threat to northern commercial interests in the South East and by extension to the physical wellbeing of Northerners living as minorities among Igbo communities.…
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC have agreed to strengthen the existing partnership and synergy between the two agencies in various areas of operations, especially with regard to the fight against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking. The commitment was the highpoint of a courtesy visit by the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Ahmed Audi to the Chairman of NDLEA, Buba Marwa at the anti-drug agency’s national headquarters in Abuja on Thursday. The NSCDC boss said he was on the visit to tap from the knowledge and experience of Marwa…
President Muhammadu Buhari has received a Special Envoy from Col. Assimi Goita, the Transitional President of Mali. Mr Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesman in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said President Buhari promised that Nigeria would do her level best for the sister country, within the requirements of ECOWAS. The team led by Mali’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Col. Abdoulaye Maiga briefed President Buhari on conclusions from the National Conference on State-Rebuilding, held in Bamako between December 27 and 30, 2021. Responding to the comprehensive briefing, the president said nobody could love Mali more than Malians themselves,…
The African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) has approved a $1 million grant to facilitate Botswana’s transition to clean energy. A statement by Olufemi Terry of the Bank’s Communication and External Relations Department on Thursday, said “The technical assistance project supports the Government of Botswana in closing critical gaps in policy, regulatory and legal frameworks, which were identified at the Africa Energy Market Place (AEMP 2019). “These include the introduction of least-cost planning, reduction of adverse environmental impacts and support for increased private sector participation in renewable energy (RE) generation investments. “Some of the notable outputs from…
A 31-year old Nigerian died in Gauteng, Johannesburg after swallowing substances suspected to be crack cocaine, in a desperate bid to evade Police arrest on Wednesday. According to South African Police, the Nigerian was seated in a red VW Polo sloon car giving something that looked like drugs to another man who stood outside the vehicle. When Police officers approached the vehicle, the man outside the car took to his heels while the one in the vehicle drove off in an attempt to escape. The Police said when he was finally apprehended and searched, drugs were found him, which he…
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, said it secured a total of 2,220 convictions across its commands in 2021. The figure, which emerged from a review of the commission’s performance in the out-gone year, shows that the Lagos command recorded the highest convictions of 481, closely followed by the Ibadan Command with 324 convictions, while the Port Harcourt Zonal command had 230 convictions. A statement by the spokesperson of the agency, Wilson Uwujaren on Thursday said “the conviction secured by the commission in 2021 is the highest by the EFCC Since inception. “Before 2021, the highest record by the…
America’s President Joe Biden has called on citizens to save the U.S from becoming a country where political violence is the “norm.” He made the plea while speaking from Statuary Hall in the Capitol — the scene of violent assaults by a Trump mob trying to stop certification of Biden’s 2020 election win a year ago. Biden will mark the anniversary Thursday of the January 6 storming of Congress by Donald Trump’s supporters. The president will warn of a dark future unless Americans defend democratic elections. “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm?”…
By Abujah Racheal A professor of virology, Oyewale Tomori says it is too early to predict when the COVID-19 pandemic will end since there are opportunities for virus transmission and the possible emergence of new variants. Tomori, also former vice-chancellor of the Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun, said this in an interview in Abuja on Thursday. He said with the abandonment of non-pharmaceutical interventions, the virus would continue to be transmitted leading to the possible emergence of variants that could turn out innocuous but unpleasant. Denmark’s senior epidemiologist, Tyra Grove Krause, is confident that the Covid-19 Omicron variant is bringing about…