In explaining his choice to run for governor of Bayelsa State a second time, Timipre Sylva, who served as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources under former President Muhammadu Buhari, cited his extensive background in government. Sylva, who met with President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, praised Tinubu for having the political will to remove the subsidy on the first day of assuming office, a feat he said had never been accomplished before. Shortly after the visit he spoke with State House Correspondents about the changes he hoped to implement during his second term as…
Author: Ifeanyi N.
Former Minister of Economy Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine has been chosen Prime Minister of the Niger Republic by the country’s military junta. Niger’s military only recently seized power, less than two weeks after the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown. This was broadcast on Monday night by the plotter of the coup. Currently based in Chad as an economist for the African Development Bank, Nigerien media indicates that Lamine Zeine served as Minister of Economy and Finance under deposed president Mamadou Tandja. The deadline for the coup plotters to reinstate Bazoum, set by the Economic Community of West…
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of Kwara State has expressed concern about the increasing number of non-native residents in the state. The group claimed that the foreign nationals beg, sell vegetables, and operate a commercial motorcycle company. Ilorin and other big city dwellers in Kwara State have been keeping a wary eye on the massive influx of foreign immigrants into their state. We’ve seen some very odd people scrounging for food, growing vegetables for sale, begging, and riding commercial motorbikes (Okada). According to a statement released by the PDP’s spokesman in Ilorin, Prince Tunji Moronfoye, “Okada riders in Ilorin are…
The federal government has apparently dropped its contempt of court lawsuit against labor unions for planning a statewide strike. This information was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday and is detailed in a letter sent to the NLC’s lead lawyer at Falana & Falana’s Chambers. Mrs. B.E. Jeddy-Agba, Solicitor General of the Federation, signed the letter dated August 7 addressed to Falana’s Chambers. The protest was initiated after the National Industrial Court (NICN) issued summonses on contempt of court to the heads of organized labor on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice. You may recall…
Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate, has appointed three senators from Oyo State to lead several standing committees in the tenth Senate. Sharafadeen Alli, Yunus Akintunde, and Abdulfatai Buhari are the three senators. According to Infostride News, both Alli and Akintunde are first-time senators, whereas Buhari is a veteran of three terms in the chamber. In the 25 February 2023 election, the triumvirate won on the platform of the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC). Oyo South is represented by Alli, while Oyo Central by Akintunde and Oyo North by Buhari. On Monday night, the Senate President announced the new chairs…
Hajiya Hajara Yakubu Wanka, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Deputy National Women Leader, has resigned to become a commissioner in Bauchi State. Wanka cited the opportunity given to her by Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, to serve as commissioner as the reason for her resignation in a letter to the Acting National Chairman of the party, Ambassador Iliya Damagun, copies of which were made available to journalists in Bauchi. She wrote a letter thanking Governor Mohammed for appointing her to his cabinet and the national leadership of the opposition PDP for the extraordinary opportunity to serve as Deputy…
Italy has requested that the deadline for reinstating Niger’s deposed president be extended by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reportedly delivered the recommendation in a Monday interview, as reported by NAN. Diplomacy is the only option. In an interview with La Stampa, Tajani expressed his expectation that ECOWAS would extend its deadline, which had previously expired at midnight. Due to the rumored threat of military intervention from the West African regional bloc, Niger shut down its airspace on Sunday and hasn’t reopened it yet. Reports of the threat surfaced after the coup…
Delta’s nominated minister, Mr. Festus Keyamo, promised on Monday that he would not let down President Bola Tinubu. Ex-Minister of State for Employment, Labour, and Productivity Keyamo expressed gratitude to the Senate for its “magnanimous consideration,” promising not to let the Senate down. He disclosed this information during a post-screening meeting with reporters in Abuja. I want to thank Mr. President for his entire compassion in providing me this rare opportunity to serve this nation,” Keyamo remarked in response to the Senate’s generous review of his nomination. My gratitude to him is inexhaustible. I want it to be perfectly clear…
Monday saw the handover of 32 brand new patrol vans and 160 motorbikes to the state’s security services, courtesy of the Kwara State Government. This aid is timely, as the government is increasing its partnerships in an effort to increase safety and better the lives of people who live in the countryside. Kwara State Road Traffic Management Authority (KWARTMA) also received a boost to their capabilities thanks to a gift of three police vehicles from Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. He made these remarks at the presentation in Ilorin’s Government House: “Today is another day in our efforts to boost security across…
The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Ekiti State has distanced itself from calls by some members of the party for the suspension of Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, the party’s national leader and its presidential candidate in the 2023 general election. Fatomilola Oladosun, the party’s candidate for governor in the 2022 election, and Motunde Fajuyi, Ade Ayeni, and Samuel Olofin, the party’s candidates for senator in the 2023 election, made this announcement in a press statement on Monday. Prince Ade-Ajayi, the party’s South West zonal financial secretary, also put his name on the document. According to the parties involved, the call…
According to the New York Post, former President Donald Trump has stated that there is “no way” he will have a fair trial in the federal case against him for the 2020 election fraud case. He has also requested that the case be transferred to a new venue and presided over by a different judge. It’s “NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL, OR EVEN CLOSE TO A FAIR TRIAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. He called for a government takeover of the “filthy and crime-ridden embarrassment” that is Washington, DC, and blamed the…
The screening of ministerial nominee Festus Keyamo has caused controversy in the Senate. As a result of the chaos, Senate Majority Leader Bamidele Opeyemi moved to enter executive session. The chaos may have been avoided if the nominee had been given a chance to address the Chamber and explain his qualifications for the position of Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Abia Central’s Labour Party Senator Darlington Nwokocha spoke up after he finished speaking to bring up a point of order. He informed the Senate that the Ministerial nominee had broken the law while serving as Minister of…
The Action Alliance (AA) has publicly distanced itself from the lawsuit that factional Party Chairman Kenneth Udeze filed against INEC and three of its main officers. Udeze has filed a form 48 with the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, against INEC and its chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, at the request of the party’s national chairman, Adekunle Rufai Omo-Aje. According to Udeze, he is a plaintiff in the case with INEC directors Mr. Aminu Idris (in charge of political party monitoring and liaison) and Dr. Tanimu Mohammed (in charge of litigation and prosecution). The case is docketed as…
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general election, has filed a new case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against PDP national leader and Illinois circuit court judge Bola Tinubu. Remember that the Illinois county court had ruled against Atiku’s request for Tinubu’s Chicago State University transcript. Atiku had taken Chicago State University (respondent) to court, asking for an injunction requiring the university to hand over any and all Tinubu-related academic records it possessed. However, Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communications Phrank Shaibu claims that the…
On Monday, the Senate approved 45 of President Bola Tinubu’s 48 ministry candidates. However, it put the brakes on the nominations of Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State; Sani Abubakar Danladi, the former deputy governor of Taraba State; and Stella Okotete, the former executive director of business development at the Nigeria Import and Export Bank from Delta State. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, presided over the screening conducted by the Committee of the Whole on the Senate Chamber’s main floor before confirming the appointments of others. President Tinubu nominated them in two separate batches as ministers and wrote…
Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, hosted Anyim Pius Anyim, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at his residence in Abuja on Sunday. According to the Daily Trust, Anyim, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, met with Ganduje, but the outcome of the meeting is unknown. Remember that Anyim met with President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock in early July, which many regarded as a conspiracy to defect to the ruling APC. After meeting with Tinubu, the former Senate President told reporters, “It was a great honour to pay courtesy…
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s planned military action in Niger has been met with warning from the Muslim human rights advocacy organisation Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC). The statement was released on Saturday by MURIC Kano State chapter chairman Hassan Indabawa. on response to Tinubu’s request that the Senate enact an ECOWAS resolution on Niger, MURIC has issued the following statement. The group emphasised that a military solution to the problem in Niger is off the table. MURIC claims that the use of military force in Niger and Northern Nigeria will only serve to further entrench the countries’ entrenched cultural problems. Since…
Shehu Sani, a former senator, has asked President Bola Tinubu not to use Niger Republic’s energy supply as a weapon while dealing with the country’s current leadership crisis. According to Sani, the President needs to be wary of becoming the new pupil of French neo-Colonialism in the ECOWAS sub-region. The social critic tweeted on Sunday that Nigeria shouldn’t act as the West African “vigilante” against imperialism. He advocated for Nigeria to grab the opportunity for a more autonomous West Africa. He urged President Tinubu not to use Niger Republic’s power grid as a weapon. Nigeria shouldn’t act as West Africa’s…
Reno Omokri, a social critic, has claimed that despite Nigerians’ passionate and consistent prayers against war, the country is not a pushover and should not be afraid to deploy its military-industrial complex to advance the cause of democracy and the rule of law in Niger Republic. Omokri claims that Nigeria, like Russia and the Ukraine and the United States and Cuba, has a stake in the outcome in the Niger Republic. A social critic tweeted that Nigeria’s defence expenditure is bigger than the rest of the ECOWAS states put together, which is false. He also suggested that reestablishing law and…
On Sunday, official media said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had seen the country’s major weapons factories, including those responsible for manufacturing artillery systems and launch vehicles for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, and had vowed to increase the pace at which his military modernises its arsenal and prepares for war. The United States and South Korea have scheduled joint military drills for later this month to deal with the growing North Korean threat, and Kim’s inspections, which began on Wednesday and ran through Saturday, coincided with those preparations. The tempo of North Korea’s missile testing and the joint U.S.-South…