Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson The departure of the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, who died of COVID-19, is changing the dynamics of policy making and implementation in the Presidency. Excerpts from Nigeria Politics & Security, a weekly intelligence report on Nigeria by Menas Associates indicate that the numerous economy advisers and ministers in Abuja are working under a new order following the exit of President Buhari’s gatekeeper. Menas Associates is, however, a political risk consultancy that provides actionable intelligence for its clients. It has also been helping multinational companies operate in the Middle-East, Africa and other emerging…

By Akanimo Sampson The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas major, Shell, has denied responsibility for the dead fishes floating and littering the coastline of the Niger Delta. The oil major Nigeria’s main oil and gas region as the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). The massive dead fishes floating near the Atlantic coastline in the vastly polluted oil and gas region sparked off a worrisome row. The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had said it found no oil spills linking the dead fishes floating near the coastline in Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. But, Furoebi Akene, an…

Nigeria’s new COVID-19 cases have soared to 245 with 93 deaths in the country. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control stated this in its Twitter handle, bringing the total number of cases to 2,802 in the country. NCDC tweets on Monday “245 new cases of #COVID19; 76-Lagos 37-Katsina 32-Jigawa 23-Kano 19-FCT 18-Borno 10-Edo 9-Bauchi 6-Adamawa 5-Oyo 5-Ogun 1-Ekiti 1-Osun 1-Benue 1-Niger 1-Zamfara. According to it, “2802 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria Discharged: 417 Deaths: 93.″ Meanwhile, 4,000 Nigerians from across the world need evacuation in the face of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffery…

By Akanimo Sampson The war of attrition between Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, does not appear to be in a hurry to end. The two prominent Ikwerre political leaders have been locked in a bitter politics since the electioneering campaigns of 2015, and in the process kicking dust and fueling unease in the state, the oil and gas capital of Nigeria. At a time political watchers were expecting a ceasefire following Wike’s defeat of Amaechi again in the power contest for the soul of Rivers in 2019, the COVID-19 crisis appears to provide the…

Emir of Rano’s burial Monday, May 4. Rano is one of the Emirates carved out of Kano Emirate. The Emir is said to have died of coronavirus. See how people gathered and how they are rushing to touch the corpse of the late Emir.

In yet another grim picture, 82.9 million Nigerians are currently living in poverty in the country. The people are living on less than one United States dollar per day, statistics have shown. The 2019 Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, represents 40.09 per cent of the total population. The bureau predicted that this rising trend was likely to continue despite the fact that Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer but the sector bedeviled by accusations of corruption. Absolute poverty, according to the report, is measured by the number of people, who…

The cry for hunger among people in Nigeria and in Akwa Ibom has risen to high Heavens as COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the land. Before the pandemic, the poverty curve was sharpened but the pandemic has worsened the matter, particularly as the vulnerable people and jobless are daily crying for foods. The Akwa Ibom Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Uwemedimo Nwoko on Monday admitted this in his radio interview, “There is hunger in the land.” This is despite the distribution of palliatives by governments, groups, Non-Governmental Organisations and individuals to the various persons and unemployed and vulnerable persons in…

By: Alkali Dan Tsoho Time there was when the slogan One North, One People helped to make every person of the Northern Nigeria region to be his or her brother’s keeper irrespective of ethno-linguistic or religious inclination. The then Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) or Jamiyar Mutanen Arewa largely driven by graduates of the Katsina Teacher’s College propagated the principles of assimilation. Little wonder why the Deputy Leader was Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa whose family background was animist/pagan while most of the leaders of NPC were Hausa/Fulani with a prince of the caliphate, Sir Ahmadu Bello as the overall Leader. Earlier…

A total of 250 persons in Akwa Ibom have been convicted by the mobile court set up to enforce the restriction of movement order during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown by the state government. The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, who had on April 15, 2020 extended the lockdown for the prevention of coronavirus pandemic to April 30 to curtail the spread of the disease set up mobile courts and appointed magistrates for the three Senatorial Districts in the state. But Hon. Godwin Abraham, the state Chief Judge inaugurated the courts across the three senatorial districts in the state to…

Shocked after samples taken from a goat and pawpaw in Tanzania tested positive, John Magufuli, the country’s president on Sunday ordered a probe on its coronavirus testing kits. Speaking at an event in Chato in the northwest of Tanzania, Magufuli said the COVID-19 testing kits imported from abroad had “technical errors.” The president said he had instructed Tanzanian security forces to check the quality of the kits, randomly obtained from several non-human samples, including pawpaw, goat, and sheep, but assigned human names and ages. These samples, according to him, were then submitted to Tanzania’s laboratory to test for the coronavirus, with the…