Amosun visits Buhari in London Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, on Friday visited President Muhammadu Buhari in London. The President had on Thursday, January 19, 2017, left the country for London, United Kingdom, for what the Presidency described as “a short leave. ” A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the President would undergo “routine medical check-ups” during the vacation. He is expected to resume work on February 6, 2017. However, an online report had recently claimed that the President was sick and had died in a London hospital where he was receiving medical attention. But the Presidency last Saturday said there was no truth in the report, stating that the President was alive. This has led to several calls being made by Nigerians that the President should address the citizens from the UK to be assured of his fitness. The Nigeria Labour Congress h
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Boko Haram: It’s Tough Handling IDPs, says Osinbajo Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Friday, said it was tough handling Internally Displaced Persons in the North East. Notwithstanding the challenges, he said the present administration was committed to making lives meaningful for them. According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the acting President spoke while receiving the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Ms. Ertharin Cousin, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. The statement quoted him as saying, “We are working on how people can get back to their normal lives. The Federal Government is also working on how to help the children, especially regarding education and housing. “So many people are in need, it is a tough challenge, but we are committed.” Osinbajo said the Federal Government would continue to secure communities in th
Trump Considers Seeking Bill Clinton’s Advice Donald Trump has said he would consider seeking advice from Bill Clinton, just days after besting the former president’s wife, Hillary, in the upset US presidential election. Trump received a call from Bill Clinton after the vote in which the former president “couldn’t have been more gracious,” the 70-year-old Republican billionaire said in excerpts of an interview released Friday by CBS. The comments echo Trump’s remarks after a meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, when he said he looked “forward to dealing with the president in the future,” including receiving Obama’s counsel. When asked whether he would seek the advice of Bill Clinton, Trump said “I would certainly think about that. “He’s a very talented guy, I mean, this is a very talented family,” Trump said. He also spoke of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s call acknowledging defeat followi
This is not the time to build walls, Iranian president tells Trump Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticised his US counterpart Donald Trump on Saturday, saying now was “not the time to build walls between nations”. “They have forgotten that the Berlin Wall collapsed many years ago. Even if there are walls between nations, they must be removed,” Rouhani said at a tourism convention in Tehran. His remarks came after Trump ordered construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border and imposed tough new controls on travellers from seven Muslim countries, among them Iran. Rouhani did not comment directly on the visa ban, but said Iran had “opened its doors” to foreign tourists since the signing of a nuclear agreement with world powers in 2015. With more than a million Iranians living in the United States, many families are deeply concerned about the implications of Trump’s visa ban, wh
Of Buhari’s Trip, Acting President And Other Matters Since President Muhammadu Buhari travelled to London, United Kingdom penultimate Thursday, a lot has happened. As of the time he was leaving the country, the Vice-President (sorry, Acting President), Yemi Osinbajo was in Davos, Switzerland where he was leading Nigeria’s delegation to this year’s World Economic Forum. He cut short the trip and arrived the country a few hours after Buhari left. Some of us rushed to the Villa early on Friday to be sure that we did not miss any action as Osinbajo would be resuming in his office as the Acting President. But that did not happen. The Professor of Law proceeded to Ibadan, Oyo State capital from his Akinola Aguda House residence for an event that took almost the whole day. Because of a new rule that stopped some of us from driving beyond the Pilot Gate, I was trekking the about 300metres distance back to the gate in th
Pope Francis will no longer grace Vatican euro coins The Vatican will stop minting euro coins bearing Pope Francis’ image beginning in March, religious news agency I.media reported Friday, saying the coins will now carry the Vatican’s coat of arms and European Union stars. The EU’s official journal on January 24 published pictures of the Vatican’s new coins (eight pieces ranging from one cent to two euros), and they show that Pope Francis’ image has been replaced. The image on the tails side of the Vatican coin is the same as on all of the other eurozone coins. Pope Francis, who is known as “the pope of the poor,” has railed against the negative power of money. Yet, because of their rarity, the coins that have born his image since 2014 have become collector’s items. They are legal tender everywhere in the eurozone but people who find them through sales generally resell them on the collectors’ market. The existing agreement between the EU’s monetary union and Italy
US judgment twisted Senator Buruji Kashamu, from Ogun East, said it was most unfortunate that ”some mischievous elements” are seeking to twist a suit he filed in the United States of America to stop his abduction and “forcibly transportation” to face trial for drug offences in the country. He said that two British courts had adjudicated upon the case and found that it was a case of mistaken identity. Reports on Thursday said the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling that he could be repatriated to the United States for trial on the offence for which he was indicted in a heroin case alongside convicted money launderer turned “Orange Is the New Black” writer Piper Kerman in 1998. Kashamu had sued the Department of Justice in 2015 to convince the appellate court to stop U.S. law enforcement from carrying out what he alleged was an imminent plan by U.S Drug Enforcement Administration to team up w
Buhari’s health: President should address Nigerians, says NLC The Presidency on Thursday insisted that despite the rumour doing the rounds on President Muhammadu Buhari’s state of health, the President is not ill. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who said this in an interview with CNBC Africa, which was monitored in Abuja, said Buhari could not be compelled to speak from the United Kingdom. The Nigeria Labour Congress, however, said the President should speak to Nigerians from the UK. Adesina insisted that Buhari was only in London, UK, for vacation and was not in any hospital. He said, “The President is in London on vacation. He is not in any hospital and he is not ill. “When he was travelling last week, the statement we put out was that he was going on vacation and during the vacation, he would do routine check-up and nothing has changed from what we pushed out
Customs hands over seized helicopters to NAF at Lagos airport The Murtala Muhammed International Airport Command of the Nigerian Customs Service on Friday handed over two seized civil model Bell helicopters imported into the country by unknown persons to the Nigerian Air Force. The NCS said the helicopters were handed over to NAF for failure by the yet-to-be-identified importers to produce end user certificate from the office of the National Security Adviser. The NCS said this was in contravention of Section 36 ( 2) of the Customs and Excise Management Act and that the seizure was effected on November 7, 2016 in line with section 46 of CEMA. Customs Area Controller, Frank Allanah, told journalists that the value of the two helicopters and other accessories was over N9.7bn. He said, “The helicopters were flown in as a consignment with Airway Bill Number 17232444403 into the country through the Murtala Muham
Hydrogen Has Been Turned To Metal, And It's About To Change The World Metallic hydrogen is one of the holy grails of modern science. It would essentially be a magic material, creating everything from impossibly fast computers to hovering cars ( themselves powered by hydrogen ) to batteries that never need charging. It was also supposed to be impossible, as it would require pressures you can’t even find at the center of the Earth. But, now, amazingly, two Harvard scientists have reportedly pulled it off. It literally took dropping liquid hydrogen to almost absolute zero and crushing it between two diamonds at thousands of times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere, but… here we are. They’ve created metallic hydrogen. The next step is to ease the pressure and see if the theory that once made metal, hydrogen stays that way at “room temperature” holds. If it does, then, not to oversell it or anything, but basically the entire course of human history has been irrevo
Ex-president Jammeh stole $11.4m from The Gambia’s coffers’ Former Gambian President, Yahya Jammeh AFP PHOTO / SEYLLOU Yahya Jammeh, the authoritarian former ruler of The Gambia who went into exile at the weekend, stole millions of dollars in his final weeks in power, plundering the state coffers and shipping out luxury vehicles by cargo plane, a special adviser to the new president, Mai Ahmad Fatty, has claimed. Jammeh, who took power in the former British colony in 1994, initially accepted his defeat at an election in December but then reversed his decision and clung to power until forced out by a regional military force and international pressure. President Adama Barrow, the opposition politician who conclusively won the polls and was sworn in last week in neighbouring Senegal, is expected to return shortly. Barrow took refuge in Senegal because of concerns for his safety when it became clear Jammeh was unwilling to give up power. At a press conference in Seneg
Yahya Jammeh Gambia President has agreed to step down The Gambia’s new President Adama Barrow on Friday said that the outgoing preident Yahya Jammeh “has agreed to step down”. Jammeh, who ruled the West African country for 22 years, refused to step down after losing the Presidential election on December 1. Barrow said Jammeh would also leave the country. The president confirmed the development on his Twitter handle @adama_barrow
NUPENG, PENGASSAN oppose plan to hike price of fuel PHOTO: GOOGLE.COM/SEARCH *No truth in the report, says NNPC, NPMC Petroleum workers yesterday kicked against the plan by government to increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol. The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) otherwise known as NUPENGASSAN, made this known yesterday in their position papers to the Chairman, Ad-Hoc House of Representatives Committee on the Review of Pump Price of Premium Motor Spirit. NUPENGASSAN maintained: “This is not the right time to review the pricing template of PMS due to certain reasons.” NUPENGASSAN further said: “The recession is biting hard on all Nigerians. Any attempt to further review the template will further impoverish ordinary Nigerians,
U.S. governors want say on Trump's infrastructure plan CHICAGO - U.S. governors are flagging hundreds of "shovel-ready" projects they regard as high-priority for President Donald Trump's plan to fix the nation's infrastructure.Scott Pattison, executive director of the bipartisan National Governor's Association, said on Monday his group, at the request of the White House, has assembled a list of 300 projects costing billions of dollars from 43 states and territories, with more expected to come."The good part from a bipartisan standpoint is there seems to be full consensus that we have a lot of infrastructure problems in the U.S., a lot of maintenance issues, also things that need building," he said in an interview.In his inaugural address Friday, the Republican president said the nation's infrastructure "has fallen into disrepair and decay.""We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunn
Jonathan’s govt better than Buhari’s administration One of the three factional leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Kano State, Hussaini Mairiga, in this interview with TED ODOGWU , urges the party’s national leaders to resolve the lingering crisis in the state. You were recently quoted to have described President Muhammadu Buhari as a failure. Why did you say that? Yes, because all Nigerians felt that as soon as Buhari came to power, they would feel some relief after the hardship from the immediate-past administration of Goodluck Jonathan. But from all indications, Jonathan’s Government is better than our government. Meanwhile, the prices of all goods and services in Nigeria have gone up, particularly essential commodities. Each time one buys a product from the market and goes back the second day; one will notice that the price has drastically increased. . It’s indeed failure to him and us, the APC members and followers of the party. The painful aspect is tha
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Port Harcourt refinery Italy oil firm, ENI to repair Port Harcourt refinery Plans are underway by the Italy-owned international oil company, ENI, to refurbish the Port Harcourt refinery. In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the oil firm and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Rome, Italy, yesterday, the company would also build the phase two of the Okpai Power Plant. A statement by the Director, Press, Ministry of Petroleum, Idang Alibi, quoted the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who is in Rome, as urging international oil Companies (IoCs) to invest in building refineries in Nigeria. Speaking at a presentation to top executives of ENI in Rome, Italy, Kachikwu enjoined the group to move beyond just the business of crude exploration to firmly supporting the vision of enhancing local production of petroleum products in Nigeria by building refineries in the country. The minister stated that the major plan of t
Jonathan visits Obasanjo in Ogun Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his Ibogun-Olaogun country home at Coker/Ibogun Local Council Development Area, Ogun State. It was gathered that Jonathan arrived the village where Obasanjo was born around noon and both former presidents held a closed-door meeting which lasted for about one hour. After the meeting, Obasanjo took him on a tour of the village before coming back to his compound. When approached by journalists for information about the visit, Jonathan declined to comment. Obasanjo on his part, however, called on Nigerians to always work in the interest of the country as God did not make a mistake by bringing all the tribes together in one country called Nigeria. He said, “I want to say that we have it, Nigeria is a good country and we must never be tired of lifting the country up to the height that God has created i
