By Tunde Olusunle Minders of Ahmed Usman Ododo the governor of the confluence state of Kogi flung him into the public square of opprobrium and derision last May. Ododo by the way was the Auditor-General in-charge of local government under Bello. The orchestra of sycophants he inherited from his benefactor and predecessor, Yahaya Bello, eager to ingratiate themselves to him articulated a “First 100 Days In Office” programme for him. These included Ododo having to name his specific achievements within his preliminary months on the saddle. Ododo’s meeting with Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, (NSA); a civic reception organised…
Author: National Update
By Ilyasu Awada In March, the US Justice Department, in a suit joined by 16 state district attorneys general, announced a historic anti-trust lawsuit against Apple, alleging the tech company “relies on exclusionary anti-competitive conduct” to unlawfully maintain its smartphone market dominance. The move has not spooked the markets because at the heart of the markets is consumer protection, which can only be engendered by competitiveness. However, the case has been different in Nigeria until recently. Though there is the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), 2018 whose core function is to regulate competition and protection of consumers in…
BY PROFESSOR MIKE OZEKHOME, SAN, CON, OFR INTRODUCTION Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on 18th July, 2024, in the presence of NLC president, Joe Ajaero and TUC president, Festus Osifo, approved a minimum wage of 70 thousand Naira for every Nigerian worker. He also promised to review it every 3 years. This is coming after years of struggle by Nigerian workers, with threats of strike, warning strikes and actual strikes. The increase comes at a time Nigerians are asphyxiating under severe hardship amid excruciatingly high cost of living driven by spiraling inflation and dire economic challenges in an inclement environment…
Media reports blaming the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) for the delay in the execution of $2.8billion Ajaokuta – Kaduna – Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline Project has been debunked by one of the contractors, Brentex CPP Limited (BCL). The company rather affirmed that it has received substantial support from NNPCL in delivering its segment of the AKK Gas Pipeline Project. Brentex issued the clarification following its appearance at a Senate Committee on Local Content hearing on Tuesday. The Senate through the committee had expressed displeasure at the delay in the execution of $2.8billion Ajaokuta – Kaduna – Kano (AKK)…
***Says $1trillion economy is achieveable by 2030 The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is committed to implementing policies that will bring about sustainable growth in the financial markets while ensuring overall economic stability, the Governor of the Bank, Olayemi Cardoso has affirmed The planned stability he said, will make it possible for Nigeria to achieve $1trillion economy by 2030. Cardoso stated this on Friday in Abuja while making presentation on first half-year review of the Bank’s activities in 2024 before the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions. He reeled the CBN’s mandate and provided an in-depth analysis…
The ousted Chief Whip of the senate Ali Ndume has indicated that having reviewed the conversation that prompted his ouster and the believe that his action did not warrant his removal as the Chief Whip of the Senate, he has no regrets on his position. Ndume was removed as the senate chief whip after he criticised President Bola Tinubu government’s handling of the nation amidst the stack reality of the hunger and starvation ravaging the country. After about two days of his sack, the lawmaker indicate that he has rejected the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Tourism, insisting that…
The Nigerian Senate has introduced a Bill seeking the establishment of a federal agency for the conduct of local government elections in Nigeria This is coming following the landmark judgment full autonomy to local government areas as pronounced by the Supreme Court on Thursday last week The Bill, sponsored by Sani Musa, the Lawmaker representing Niger East was read for the first time during plenary. The Supreme Court had ordered the federal Government to forthwith pay allocations due to Local Government from the federation account directly to the LG councils, a landmark judgement that grants LGs financial autonomy. The Apex…
By Maryam Alabira, Dutse A Non Governmental Organization (NGO), the Local Right group (LRG) in collaboration with Baba Azimi Foundation (BAF) has built primary School for the children of the poor in Rokoto Sale and Rokoto Ado, rural communities of Jigawa State with difficult terrain. The N4 Million School project that involved construction and renovation was handed over to the community of Rokoto Sale in Kaugama Local Government Area of the State on Thursday. In Rokoto Sale community over 300 out of school children who could not go to school because of none availability were discovered by the NGO. The…
***rolls out welfare packages In a move to avert the nationwide planned protest scheduled for August in Niger state, the Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago has rolled out welfare packages and palliatives to some segments of the state, starting with the approval of N20,000 wage allowance to state and local government civil servants in the State. The Governor also ordered the immediate release of 50,000 metric tonnes of assorted grains to be sold at a subsidized rate to the people of the state for cushioning the current economic hardship in the state. The Governor who announced this in Minna on Thursday…
By Tunde Olusunle Several years after he retired from his illustrious career as a professional footballer, Peter Osaze Odemwingie was in the news a few weeks back. Very thankfully, his rebound was not a worrying piece of news. It has become customary for the medical plight of many of our former sportsmen to jump into our faces from the pages of tabloids. Often times, such unsavoury appearances, come with alms-solicitation bowls, foregrounding the dire situations of the subjects at those points in time. Odemwingie’s narrative, however, is a very heartening piece of news. He belongs to a new breed of…