World
Rivers governor: Labour can’t reverse APC’s anti-people policies
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said that the labour movement in Nigeria is dead, adding that it cannot reverse the anti-people policies of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government. Wike who wrote on Twitter lamented the silence of labour in the face of insecurity and hike in fuel price and electricity tariff in the country. According to him, labour which used to be alive under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan died since the inception of the present government. He said, “Labour movement in the country is dead because it has lost its force of engagement with government and hardly can achieve anything good for the generality of the workforce and Nigerians. “The leadership of labour has left substance to pursue shadows and hardly can speak in...
US state bans transgender athletes from women’s sports
Mississippi became the first US state on Thursday to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls or women’s sports teams, a move denounced as discriminatory by LGBTQ groups and likely to face legal challenges. Governor Tate Reeves said the “Mississippi Fairness Act” would “ensure young girls are not forced to compete against biological males.” The bill requires public schools in the conservative southern state to designate sports teams based on biological sex as for “Males,” “Females” or “Coed.” “Athletic teams or sports designated for ‘females,’ ‘women,’ or ‘girls,’ shall not be open to students of the male sex,” it states. Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a group which defends LGBTQ rights, described the bill as “discriminatory anti-transgender legislation” and said it would be challeng...
Brazil hospitals pushed to limit as coronavirus death toll soars
Hospitals in Brazil’s main cities are reaching capacity, health officials have warned, as the country recorded the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll over the past week, triggering tighter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state. Intensive care wards for treating COVID-19 patients have reached critical occupancy levels over 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to biomedical center Fiocruz. In Porto Alegre, the largest city in southern Brazil, there are no free intensive care units (ICUs), and occupancy has also hit 100% in two other state capitals, Fiocruz reported. The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported a record 2,286 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, as new infections rose by 79,876. With more than 270,000 deaths, Brazil’s pandemic death toll over the past y...
Senator Okorocha meets VP Osinbajo over feud with Governor Uzodinma
Rochas Foundation The former Governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, Wednesday took the feud between him and Governor Hope Uzodinma to the Presidency. Senator Okorocha after meeting behind closed doors with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo told State House correspondents that he would not want an escalation of the conflict arising from the government’s sealing of some of his property in Owerri, the Imo State capital, insisting that he wants peace to reign in the state. The proponent of ‘Iberiberism’ doctrine also said that becoming governor was a sacrifice for him. According to him, “The whole thing to me sounds like a movie, a joke, a dream that does not reflect any practical reality, but I am a father, I’m a leader of that state an...
Lagos speaker: I’ll assist LASU to become world class institution
The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, says he will work toward ensuring that Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, becomes a world class institution through appropriate legislation. Obasa made the promise while receiving the institution’s Alumni Association led by its Vice President, Norrison Quakers, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on Wednesday in Lagos. He said this is to ensure that the institution catches up with the top tertiary institutions across the world. The speaker said the House had always ensured that requests involving LASU were prioritised in the budget to enable the institution to meet the accreditation requirements of the Nigeria University Commission (NUC). He said that currently, there was hardly any institution in the country that LASU could not...
NIOB, PSN, 28 others seek more roles for Nigerian professionals
Pool Photo Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) as well as 28 other bodies under the umbrella of the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN) have called for more patronage of indigenous professionals. Speaking during the Board Meeting of the Association, president of APBN, Surveyor Akin Oyegbola said it has been proven that Nigerian professionals can hold their own anywhere in the world. The NIOB which is the professional body for Builders in Nigeria as part of its roles act as body which the Government or other official or unofficial authorities or organisations in Nigeria can seek advice, assistance or the expression of views on any subjects of concern or interest, to the Building profession in Nigeria. Oyegbola also said the APBN wi...
Thai prosecutor indicts 18 over anti-government protests
A Thai prosecutor on Monday indicted 18 activists for their roles in anti-government rallies last year by a protest movement that has brought unprecedented challenges to the royal palace and military-dominated establishment. The youth-led movement sprang up last year calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader, and reform of the powerful Thai monarchy, breaking a longstanding taboo under the country’s lese majeste law. Those indicted included three prominent leaders charged with sedition and lese majeste during rallies in September, where tens of thousands escalated calls for monarchy reforms. The other 15 protesters face trial for sedition and breaching a ban on public assembly. “There is sufficient evidence that the accused have committed wrongd...
NGA chief: Nigeria’s gas reserve can sustain West African market
Nigeria has abundant gas resources which, if harnessed, will meet the energy demand of over 350 million people and the industrial needs in the West African sub-region. According to the newly inaugurated president of the Nigeria Gas Association (NGA), Ed Ubong, “Nigeria, which ranks as the 9th largest gas reserve in the world and clearly the largest in West Africa, needs to develop this resource base and connect the existing local supply and demand with physical and virtual pipeline infrastructure, while also exploring closer integration of roads, seaports and rail infrastructure.” Speaking, at the just concluded NGA’s 12th International Conference and Industry Awards in Lagos last week, Ubong who is also the managing director, Shell Nigeria Gas Limited, however, advocated an improved inves...
‘Fulani warlord’ Iskilu Wakili arrested in Oyo
A joint team of Ibarapa security operatives, including Oodua Peoples Congress, Vigilante, and other groups have arrested the alleged notorious Fulani warlord terrorising Oyo communities, Iskilu Wakili. Newsmen gathered that Wakili was arrested after several attempts resulting in a gun battle. There had been reports that Wakili and his gang were involved in the killings and kidnapping of several people in Ibarapa, Oke Ogun, Oyo State. Wakili was nabbed barely seven days after his second-in-command, Isiaka Muhammadu, was arrested alongside four others. The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, confirmed Wakili’s arrest in a statement made available to newsmen by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi, on Sunday. Adams said the Fulani warlord was arrested around 7 am on Sunday ...
Lobbyist says Myanmar junta wants to improve relations with the West, spurn China
An Israeli-Canadian lobbyist hired by Myanmar’s junta said on Saturday that the generals are keen to leave politics after their coup and seek to improve relations with the United States and distance themselves from China. Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence official who has previously represented Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Sudan’s military rulers, said Myanmar’s generals also want to repatriate Rohingya Muslims who fled to neighboring Bangladesh. The United Nations says more than 50 demonstrators have been killed since the Feb. 1 coup when the military overthrew and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won polls in November by a landslide. On Friday, a U.N. special envoy urged the Security Council to take action against t...
2,700 Akwa Ibom women benefit from federal government’s special grant
The minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has advised Nigerian women not to regard the N20, 000 special grant given to the rural woman by the federal government as the fabled national cake. She has rather charged the beneficiaries to judiciously use the grant to improve their living standard by utilizing it as seed capital do boost their trades and businesses for greater income. Speaking through Bashir Nura Alkali, the permanent secretary of the ministry, at the flag off of the Grant for Rural Women Project and the symbolic disbursement of the grant to 2700 women of Akwa Ibom state, in Uyo, on Thursday, Farouq explained that the Grant for Rural Women Programme was introduced in 2020 to sustain the social inclusion agenda of Presid...
President Buhari charges security agencies improve Nigeria’s ranking on global security index
Worried by the rising level of insecurity in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday charged the nation’s security agencies to up the ante in their drive towards protection of lives and property. He also directed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to improve surveillance and control around the nation’s borders so that criminal elements won’t find Nigeria as a safe haven to hide and perpetrate their criminality. The President, in a speech at the virtual Commissioning of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Technology Building, instructed all security agencies to raise their performance in protecting lives and property, with a mandate that the country’s Global Security Index must be improved. He said “It is imperative that our ranking in the Global Security Index improves and...
