Politics

West Africa bloc ECOWAS on Thursday described Mali’s recent expulsion of its representative as ‘extreme,’ and said it would continue pushing for a transition to civilian rule in the Sahel state.

Mali’s military rulers on Monday stated that ECOWAS representative Hamidou Boly was ‘persona non grata’ and gave him 72 hours to leave the country.

Foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop told local television that Boly had engaged with groups that ‘undertake activities hostile to the transition’.

The expulsion came at a time of growing pressure on Mali’s junta to stage elections — from both the 15-nation ECOWAS and the United Nations.…

Popular Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of lacking the solutions to the numerous challenges confronting Nigeria.

Soyinka maintained Nigeria was fast disintegrating because the current government lacked the solution to the challenges facing the country.

He made this assertions at a news conference at Freedom Park, Lagos State, yesterday.

The Nobel Laureate cautioned Nigerians against looking up to the government for solutions facing the country.

Read Also: Soyinka Says Nigeria Disintegrating, Calls For National Conference

According to Soyinka: ‘The problem here is that the government does not have a holistic grasp of …

Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday reiterated the need for government at all levels to reduce the cost of governance in the public sector and entrench transparency and accountability at all levels.

According to him, there was need to review the Procurement Act of 2017, saying there may be need for the amendment proposal to be submitted to the National Assembly on it.

Osinbajo who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, made these assertions in Abuja during the formal inauguration of the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement.

Africa Daily News, New …

President Joe Biden will address Americans Thursday just ahead of his departure to Europe, the White House said, amid reports he will announce progress in the search for a deal in Congress on his social spending plans.

Biden was due to make remarks from the White House at 11:30 am (1530 GMT), right before he leaves to board Air Force One for Rome.

Biden had been hoping to get Democrats to end weeks of intense wrangling and conclude a deal on major social spending legislation before he left. According to The Washington Post, Biden may instead announce a revised package …

Ahead of the November 6 governorship election in Anambra, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has deployed 20,000 personnel to provide security for the poll.

Africa Daily News, New York those deployed include personnel in the NSCDC Arms Squad Unit, Counter-Terrorism Unit, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosives Unit.

NSCDC Commandant-General, Dr Ahmed Audi, said this on Thursday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at a three-day Train-the-Trainers Capacity Building and Electoral Workshop, ahead of the Anambra poll.

Audi said the special forces would be drafted to key areas in the state where they would be saddled …

The Appeal Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State will on Friday determine the fate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as to whether or not it will go ahead with the conduct of its National Convention this weekend.

A panel of three justices, headed by the Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani, reserved the ruling on Thursday after hearing arguments in the application filed by the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche Secondus to suspend the conduct of the convention.

The convention, slated for October 30 and 31 in Abuja, had been fixed by the PDP’s National Working Committee as …

The ECOWAS Court of Justice has dismissed a suit filed by five Nigerian politicians who sought the court order to abolish excessive nomination and expression of interest fees being charged by political parties in Nigeria.

In a judgment read by the court’s President, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, the court said the clause in Article 13 of the African Charter, relied on by the politicians, provides that “ every citizen shall have the right to participate freely in the government of his country, either directly or through freely chosen representatives in accordance with the provisions of the law,” has “put national …

Due to a lack of local refining capacity, the Federal Government of Nigeria would spend roughly ₦1.35 trillion subsidising imported petrol between October this year and June 2022, when the finance minister said that the wasteful and opaque subsidy regime will come to an end.

According to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mele Kyari, the Federal Government spends as much as ₦140 to ₦150 billion to subsidise Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), monthly, a development opposed by the World Bank and other international lenders who have advised the government to channel such funds into …

The Nigerian Presidency has decried the impact of insurgency and banditry on school attendance in the country disclosing that no fewer than 12 million children have been forced out of school.

Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari made this assertion on Tuesday at the fourth International Conference on Safe Schools Declaration in Abuja.

Gambari, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the event lamented the increasing trend of school kidnaping noting that although the abducted students are eventually released, the trauma lingers.

‘It is disheartening to note that even when the abducted students are released, the trauma of the …