Spider Clues

  President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the submission of the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to address climate change to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Nigeria’s INDC was approved by the president on November 26 and submitted to the UNFCCC on November 28, ahead of yesterday’s (Monday) opening in Paris of the UN Climate Change conference, widely known as COP 21. A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina said the federal government’s policy to address climate change, as espoused in the country’s INDC, committed to 20 per cent unconditional and 45 per cent conditional Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emission reduction post 2020. He said the action plan announced by the federal government represented a fair and meaningful contribution to address climate change and equally reaffirmed Buhari’s commitment to economic transformation which he said placed inclusive, green growth...

    150 world leaders have gathered in Paris in a bid to stave off the worst effects of climate change. The accompanying risks include worsening conflicts over resources, as events in Nigeria indicate. Clashes between nomadic herdsmen and farmers over land claim hundreds of lives in Nigeria's central region every year. In one such incident, gunmen killed at least five people and burnt several houses in Kadunung village in Nigeria's Plateau state, in September 2015, police said. The largely agrarian Christian communities in the state maintain the predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen are engaged in a prolonged battle to take over land from the areas of so-called indigenous people. Fulani leaders counter that their people face discrimination as "foreigners" in Plateau and are deprived of basic rights, including access to land, education and political office, even though they have lived in the area for generations. There is the worry that this problem is being exac...

    At the time when the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) imposed a hefty $5.2 billion (R74.57bn) fine against telecoms giant MTN, the country was open to foreign direct investments, Minister of Trade and Investment Okechukwu Enelamah said. Speaking on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac) to enhance ties between China and African countries, Enelamah said Nigeria was one of the most open economies on the continent. “We are more open to investment and it is going to get better. We are working on improving numerous aspects of our country, including the rule of law and national security,” Enelamah said. MTN was slapped with the fine after failing to cut 5.1 million subscribers with unregistered SIM cards by the NCC’s August deadline. The fine was reduced by 35 percent to $3.4bn according to an NCC statement released last week. However, in an embarrassing statement on Friday, the NCC made an about turn and said it had made a typo error, and ...

  In a Saturday statement, the Department of State Services (DSS) said those arrested had traveled from the restive northeast of the country to the capital, which is located in central Nigeria, and were planning to carry out attacks in Abuja during the year-end festivities. "Boko Haram ... has continued to establish and operate sleeper cells whose mandates are to conduct surveillance and carry out subsequent attacks," the DSS statement said. The suspects were carrying out surveillance to “map out soft targets for attacks,” it added. The statement also listed the names of 12 alleged Boko Haram members, including a Niger national, who had been arrested in Abuja and the neighboring towns between October 29 and December 1. At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made homeless since the beginning of the Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria in 2009. The militants have recently pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which is primarily oper...

Buhari has announced names of ministers alongside their portfolios. He also appointed himself as Minister to head the Petroleum Ministry. There are ministers for 24 ministries with Ministers of State to make up the remaining portfolios. 1. Lai Mohammed- Minister Of Information 2.  Rotimi Amaechi- Minister Of Transportation 3.  Babatunde Fashola- Minister Of Power, Work And Housing  4. Mustapha Baba Shehuri – Minister of Power, Works and Housing(State) 5.  Kemi Adeosun- Minister Of Finance 6.  Adamu Adamu- Minister Of Education 7. Prof Anthony Onwuka –  Minister of Education (State) 8.  Chris Ngige- Minister Of Labour And  Employment 9. Barr James Ocholi- Minister of Labour and Employment(State) 10.  Ogbonnaya Onu- Minister Of Science And Technology 11.  Issac Adewole- Minister Of Health 12.  Osagie Ehanire –  Minister of Health (State) 13. Audu Ogbeh – Agriculture and   Rural Development ...

The spate of buildings collapsing within the Lagos and the recent incident of a mudslide which claimed four lives in Magodo has caused the Lagos state government to take a second look on the issue of housing within the metropolis. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Owing to the latter event which occurred at Otun Araromi orise community, in the Magodo area of the state, the government has decided to review building plans and sites where structures are erected. The community incident has caused the government to look into demolishing certain structures which tends to pose a threat to the residents within the Isheri axis of Magodo. There were reports that the demolition was to kick-off on Tuesday, November 10, however, it turned out that the information was false. Naij.com went on a journey to thoroughly investigate the living conditions and the state of affairs at the Otun Araromi Orise community and it was gathered by our reporters that there is a lot at stake, ...

Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has confessed that he could have stayed for the second term in office but he “resisted the temptation”. Attahiru Jega speaks at the London School of Economics. The Cable reports that Jega, who left the commission on June 30, was speaking at the London School of Economics on Tuesday, November 10. The ex-chairman noted that if he wanted, he could have got a second term in office after the successful election, but decided to resist it in order to help the commission become a strong institution. In his speech, Jega spoke about the challenges of the elections and how they were faced. “I think the major challenge is the do-or-die mindset of our politicians; they think they have to win by hook or crook. They have to use money; if money doesn’t work, they have to use harassment and intimidation; if that doesn’t work, they can even kill. The commission was a step ahead of them in prepa...

President Muhammadu Buhari has retired 17 permanent secretaries and merged some ministries ahead of today’s swearing-in of 36 ministers-designate and inauguration of the new Federal Executive Council (FEC). Daily Trust learnt that the affected permanent secretaries include Aliyu Ismaila (Defence), Godknows Igali (Power), Abdulkadir Musa (Industry, Trade and Investment), Linus Awute (Health), Mrs. Fatima Bamidele (Niger Delta Affairs), John Obinna Chukwu (FCT), Ezekiel Oyemomi (Women Affairs), Anastasia Nwaobia (Finance), Tunji Olaopa (Communications Technology), George A. Ossi (Land, Housing and Urban Development), MacJohn Nwaobiala (Education), Muhammed Bashir (Transport), Abdullahi Yola (Justice),  and  Alhaji Baba Umar Farouk (Mines and Steel Development). The permanent secretaries were reportedly relieved of their appointment because they were said to be senior to the Acting Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Mrs Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita. Consequentl...

The committees not only shadow the 26 federal ministries in the Executive structure, they include 39 other absurd oversight functions some of which crudely overlap. There are among others, committees on: Aviation, Land Transport, Marine Transport, Public Procurement, Privatization, Appropriation, National Identity and Poverty Alleviation. Mr Buhari’s initial plan to constitute 37 special courts across the 36 component states and the Abuja capital territory to help facilitate his much needed war on corruption pretty much looks abandoned for now. It appeared only one judge, Danladi Umar, could pass the integrity test. Umar is now the sitting judge in the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), the only special court yet hearing corruption cases. At roughly twice the size of California, Nigeria is 10 percent of the United States (US) by area and about 50 percent by population. The US runs on 100 senators and 435 members of representatives, while Nigeria runs on 109 senators and 360 membe...

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will tomorrow hold a one-day seminar for various government agencies’ staff towards the attainment of the new United Nations set of target, known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The seminar, which draws ex participants of the KOICA’s Capacity Improvement and Advancement for Tomorrow (CIAT) trainings, will also involve meeting of the KOICA Alumni Association of Nigeria (KAAN) to brainstorm on areas of development for Nigeria. The event, scheduled to hold in Abuja, has the objective of sharing important technical skills and know-how, as well as to build capacities for sustainable socio-economic development. The agency, in a statement yesterday, explained that part of what the seminar will dwell on  include sharing Korean development experiences and proffer ways of replicating same in Nigeria. The statement added that tomorrow’s seminar and alumni gathering has the theme of “Moving towards the Sustainable Development Go...

Alhaji Halladu Jimeta, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa state and one of the major sponsors of Governor Umar Jibrilla Bindow’s campaign has decried the sorry state of things in the state. Speaking to The Guardian in Yola, Halladu, the Sarduana of Jimeta expressed worry that the people of the state were undergoing undue hardship in the state which was not what they bargained for when they supported and voted APC into power. According to him, the mantra of APC leadership in the country, which is positive change for development, had been abandoned for personal and selfish interest of some people in government He said: “ We worked for our party and we ensured that Bindow won the election bearing in mind that he has the capacity to restore the lost glory of the state, but unfortunately, we now discovered that our case in Adamawa now is like from frying pan into fire. Our search for good leadership has landed us in a bigger trouble. Only God and the na...

Hajiya Aisha Jummai Alhassan If Minister-designate Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, alias Mama Taraba, ultimately prevails in the Supreme Court, she will become Taraba State’s fifth governor in three years. Danbaba Danfulani Suntai was the governor until his plane accident in October 2012. Garba Umar UTC, who had been Suntai’s deputy for only two weeks, took over as the acting governor until the Supreme Court removed him last November and reinstated Suntai’s impeached deputy Abubakar Danladi, who consequentially became the acting governor. Darius Ishaku took over the governorship last May and, if his run of bad luck continues up to the Supreme Court, he may soon be back practising architecture in Kaduna.  The Election Petition Tribunal’s ruling in Abuja on Saturday which annulled Ishaku’s election and declared Mrs. Alhassan as the governor generated emotions ranging from extreme satisfaction to extreme anger, depending on one’s political interest. A cursory look at the Sunday...

Entrepreneurs have been urged to see the many problems in Nigeria as opportunities. The CEO of Supermart.ng, Raphael Afaedor gave the charge while speaking during a panel session at the recent 2015 SME conference organized by the Lagos Business School. He said what every entrepreneurs need is innovations that can solve societal problems and in return, the society rewards them financially. Using his business as a typical case study, Afaedor explained that before setting up Supermart ,  he had observed that a typical woman in Lagos has to go from one grocery store to another because she will likely not get everything she want in just one store.  He went further to say that the woman will still have to go to local market to shop for local ingredients, all in the midst of the unpredictable Lagos traffic. This according to him, makes shopping quite discouraging, tedious and time consuming. Afaedor added that it was in a bid to solve this problem that he left Jumia in 2014 to ...

Some agro-products displayed at the 1st Daily Trust Agric Conference and Exhibition in Abuja Yesterday by some women on Wednesday in Abuja. | Photo: Onyekachukwu Ob i Nigerian Network of Women Exporters of Services (NNWES) join the rest of the world in celebrating the United Nations at 70.  Barrister Nkiru Okpala , the network President in this interview opened up on the activities of NNWES and how they support women entrepreneurs. NNWES is celebrating UN@70, what was the motivation for it? First of all we had to go to the primary reason for which the United Nations was formed in 1945. There were some post 2nd World War issues, the world economies were going into depression, a lot of issues were rising in terms of security all over the world and powerful nations of the world had to come together and say since the League of Nations was not helping, probably we will form another one, maybe stronger.  This was the reason for which the UN was set up and from that day onwar...

Prof. Isidore Obot What is CRISA all about and what are your concerns? CRISA was founded in Jos, Plateau State when I returned to work at the University of Jos, and at that time, drugs use was becoming a problem, especially among young people in the Northern parts of the country.  My colleagues and I thought it wise to do something and the first thing was to come up with a centre that will focus on drugs abuse and that is how we came up with CRISA. CRISA is basically to encourage research, engage in prevention activities, creating awareness in the early stage within the Jos metropolis and also organizing these conferences on drugs that has grown to become major events in our calendar.  The informational biennial conference on drugs and society comes up after every two years. We have had one in Jos, Abuja and Lagos; and in 2016 we are going to Abuja again. People have attended these conferences from across the globe. CRISA has also been consistent in publishing an inter...