The Presidency has assured that Nigeria will do all it can to ensure Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister, emerged as the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, gave the assurance during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, on Sunday. Shehu stated that no stone will be left unturned by the government as Okonjo-Iweala moves to make history as first African to hold the position of DG of the trade organisation. “President Buhari has been talking to all world leaders, at some point, Ngozi had a…
Author: meridianspy
The Lagos State Judicial Panel Of Inquiry set up to address the issue of police brutality has suspended sitting for one week after youths representatives pulled out of meeting in protest against freezing of accounts of some ENDSARS protesters by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Sahara Reporters reports the CBN had obtained a court order to freeze the bank account of Bolatito Rachael Oduala alongside 19 others over their role during the #ENDSARS protest. Oduala, who is also on the Lagos panel as a youth representative, withdrew from the panel sitting today in protest of the move by the CBN. Her…
No government is short of opposition. In a democracy, the residence of an animated opposition signals the buoyancy of the system. Where there is democracy, there is opposition. In fact, opposition is the mitochondria of a republican system – it keeps the government on the mill working according to purpose. Why is the Buhari administration after the only opposition platform of all citizens? Really, the principal task of the administration from its conception was dismantling instruments and institutions of check. The Buhari executive thwacked the judiciary and effectively broke its back when agents of the state attacked judges in their…
The judicial panel established by the Lagos State Government to investigate police brutality is currently playing closed-circuit TV footage from the October 20 Lekki shooting. The Cable reports the panel is saddled with the responsibility of investigating cases of brutality and human rights violations committed by operatives of the disbanded special anti-robbery squad (SARS), among other cases of abuses. At its sitting in Lekki on Friday, the panel obtained footage of the incident from the Lekki Concession Company (LCC). Doris Okuwobi, the chairperson of the panel, granted approval for the footage to be played after hearing from counsels.
Ahead of the declaration of the final result of United State presidential elections, US Secret Service has beefed up protection for Joe Biden, democrat party candidate, who is in pole position to winning the elections. This is as Donald Trump, incumbent US president and Republican candidate, continues to trail behind Biden with 214 to 264 electoral college votes respectively as at the time of this report. It should be noted that required college votes to be declared winner is pegged at 270. Washington Post reports the Secret Service has detailed more agents to Delaware, Biden’s hometown, to increase the amount…
The new data from the World Poverty Clock has revealed that over 105 million Nigerians now extremely poor in the country. Records in September 2020 had showed a total of 40.1 per cent of Nigerians lived in extreme poverty but has drastically changed in less than two months. According to Sahara Reporters, the new data seen on Thursday reflects the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on living conditions in the country. Nigeria has a total population of 205,323,520 people — of that number, 105,097,856 representing 51 per cent of the county, the data records. 51% of Nigerians now live below…
Leaders of the Southern and Middle Belt parts of the country under the auspices of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) on Wednesday, warned they would no longer allow the Northern part of the country to dictate to them, or allow them keep playing any supremacist role over others, Ripples Nigeria reports. This was the focus of a communiqué issued by the forum after an emergency meeting the forum held in Abuja. The communique was signed by Chief EK Clark (PANDEF Leader), AVM Idongesit Nkanga, Chief Broderick Bozimo, Mr. Solomon Asemota (SAN), Senator Bassey Henshaw, Prof GG Darah…
A Nigerian woman named Esther Agbaje has been elected into the Minnesota House of Representatives in Tuesday’s U.S. general elections. Agbaje polled 17,396 votes or 74.7 percent of the total ballots cast to defeat her closest rival, Alan Shilepsky of the Republican Party who polled 4,128 votes, representing 17.7 percent of the total. With this, the 35-year-old Nigerian will be representing District 59B in the 134-member House on the platform of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the U.S. She is a graduate of political science from George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and holds a Masters in Public Administration from the…
The International Criminal Court (ICC) says it has opened a preliminary inquiry into the demonstrations against harassment and brutality by the police, The Cable reports. According to BBC, the ICC said it had received information on alleged crimes during the protests, which were organised under the #EndSARS campaign. In October, many Nigerians took to the streets to call for an end to police brutality. In response to the protests, Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), announced the dissolution of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) — a unit that had been accused of extrajudicial killings. The ICC said the inquiry will begin…
The Lagos State Government has urged residents to continue to adhere strictly to COVID-19 protocols to prevent a resurgence of the virus in the state. Tunbosun Ogunbanwo, Director, Public Affairs of the Ministry of Health, said this in a statement on Tuesday, warning that the government may impose a new lockdown and return other measures if there was a recurrence of high cases of Coronavirus in the state. “The Lagos State Government has once again stressed the need for residents to strictly adhere to precautionary measures against COVID-19 infection transmission to prevent a recurrence of the situation that led to…
The #EndSARS protests which lasted for about two weeks until the crisis in Lagos on October 20, 2020, now known as the Black Tuesday in Nigeria’s contemporary history, may have abated, with the disappearance from Nigerian streets of the horde of protesters, looters, hijackers, and miscreants who together lent a new dimension to the protests. But essentially what we are now witnessing is best described as the “silence of the graveyard.” It is at best “a temporary reprieve”. The embers of the youth revolution that resulted in death, arson, wanton destruction and expansive alienation, are still smouldering. The extent to…
Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, says previous administration is responsible for the persistent strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Nigerian Universities have been closed for eight months after ASUU declared an indefinite strike in March this year. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President who announced the strike at a press conference, said the strike is over the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement. However, at a Town Hall meeting in Bauchi state on Monday, Adamu said that the insolvable problem that had resulted in incessant strikes by ASUU was that a past administration sat down with ASUU…