Author: Adejuyigbe Francis

The biggest danger to the success of this year’s general elections are politicians and the electorate, the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has said. Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the public sensitisation on peaceful co-existence and the need to have hitch-free elections, Prof Jega observed that the so-called political class as active partisans and candidates, contestants in elections, are the category of stakeholders with perhaps the least noticeable improvements in the ways they engaged with the electoral process since 1999. He explained that their mindset is to…

The Federal Government has approved the use of Hijab for female Muslim students. This was contained in a circular dated February 1, 2023, signed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo. The circular was sent to all Principals of all the 112 Federal Unity Colleges and Federal Science and Technical Colleges of the country. According to the circular “This is to bring to your notice that the Ministry has approved the use of corporate/cape size hijab as part of school uniform by female Muslim students in all the Federal Unity Colleges and Federal Science and Technical…

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has met with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, over, among other things, the naira note redesign and withdrawal limit. Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the Commission is encouraged by the continuing willingness of the apex bank to support its determination to deliver credible elections on 25th February 2023 and 11th March 2023 The INEC boss noted that election in the country is a huge and complex undertaking and requires the engagement of critical services. “However, there are equally critical areas such as transportation and human support services that have to be…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State says a total of 6,708,451 voters collected the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) out of the 7,637,402 voters that registered in the state. Mrs Adenike Tadese, INEC’s Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Lagos State, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos that the figure represented 87.8 per cent. According to Tadese, 928,951, which were not collected as of the Feb. 5 deadline, represented over 12 per cent. Tadese said that during the first batch, INEC had received a total of 6, 570,291 PVCs out of which…

Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello has attributed the relocation of the multi-million naira Teacher Professional Development Institute in Mararaban Dandaudu, Shiroro local government area of the state to insecurity. The Institute, to be known as Legacy Centre will be built at the premises of the Government Girls Secondary School (formerly WTC), Minna, the state capital. Bello made this disclosure at the combined graduation ceremony of 513 students of 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic sessions of the Niger State Teacher Professional Development Institute in Minna. He lamented that despite huge investments in the education sector and putting in place state-of-the-art…

The World Health Organization Senior Emergency Officer, Adelheid Marschang, has said about 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, were likely to be exposed in both countries following the earthquake and its aftershocks that reduced thousands of buildings to rubble. Marschang said Turkey had a strong capacity to respond to the crisis bit most of the supplies are likely to be passed across Syria which was already battling long time humanitarian crisis including civil war and cholera outbreak, UK Guardian stated. She said, “This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region. All over Syria, the…

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday accused some opposition parties of legally restricting President Muhammadu Buhari from giving relief to Nigerians suffering agonies of cash crunch resulting from the naira redesign. Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, made the remark at the 23rd edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration scorecard series (2015-2023) on Tuesday. A programme that was put in place to showcase the achievements of the Buhari administration. In his opening remarks, the Minister said the Federal Government was mindful of the inconveniences being endured by Nigerians because of the redesigning of the naira notes and…

Real Madrid Castilla coach, Raul Gonzalez, has rejected an offer to manage Premier League club, Leeds United. Former manager, Jesse Marsch, was on Monday sacked from his position in the club following the club’s recent struggles on the pitch. Gonzalez disclosed to continue his coaching development with the B team at Valdebebas, despite an offer from Leeds United. According to Diario AS, Leeds had sounded out Gonzalez as one of their candidates to replace Marsch.

The confirmed death toll in Turkey following a devastating earthquake which occured in the Syrian-Turkish border region has risen to 3,381. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, AFAD, stated that more than 20,000 people were injured. The authority added that over 5,700 buildings were reported to have collapsed. Weather conditions were also very bad in the region, said Orhan Tatar, head of the earthquake and risk reduction department. According to him, the bad weather included heavy snowfall, downpours and strong winds in the affected regions. Temperatures are around freezing point in some places. The powerful earthquake, measured at magnitude 7.7,…

The Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, on Monday, visited the Abeokuta branch of the Central Bank of Nigeria to explore possible collaboration to ease the distribution challenge in the amount of money residents of the state could withdraw for transactions made in commercial banks. To ensure that no commercial bank in the state stashed away the new naira notes, the governor disclosed that members of his executive council would be monitoring the cash distribution to banks. During a meeting with the management of the CBN led by the Branch Controller, Wahab Oseni, Abiodun expressed disappointment over the continuous rate…

Technology company, Google has said it is planning to release its own conversational Artificial Intelligence service called Bard. Google said Bard is now available to trusted testers ahead of making it more generally available to the public. The company released a search trends report last week, which showed that more people across the globe have an interest in AI. Google’s plan arrived as a reaction to popular OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has become an international trend since its launch in December 2022. Announcing the release of Bard during the company’s earnings call, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, said AI has become a…

The Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Lagos State Government on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a joint tax audit system. Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu noted that the plan is to address duplication of measures and enable the exchange of data that are relevant to the enforcement of extant tax laws. Sanwo-Olu said the signing of the MoU is necessary for the unity of both parties. “The MoU is in the best interest of the public, as it affirms the reason why we need to come together and strengthen the cordial working relationship between the two…