Author: straightnewsng.com

As the security situation in the country keeps on deteriorating, some radio callers in Akwa Ibom State want people blaming President Muhammadu Buhari for inaction in some situations to leave him alone and face the problem headlong. Speaking in a privately-owned radio station, Passion FM, Uyo on Wednesday, the callers said that even Mr. President as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces does not protect himself, but people are protecting him. A caller said every state has Governor, each local government area has a chairman and each village has a village head or a person in an acting capacity. “The…

By Akanimo Sampson Around 10 million migrants are currently on the move in Central Asia, to the thousands of construction sites in the Russian Federation, oilfields of Kazakhstan, and farther afield to Turkey and the Middle East. The vast majority are vulnerable to traffickers, who make huge profits buying and selling people in the construction, agriculture and entertainment industries. In Uzbekistan, where 600,000 new workers enter the labour force every year, a rapid trend towards online recruitment of aspirant migrants has been observed, a highly lucrative for traffickers, who can find easy pickings without ever doing face-to-face recruitment. IOM’s Country Manager for Uzbekistan,…

By Akanimo Sampson The governments of Tanzania and Ethiopia are currently working together to facilitate the release and return of irregular migrants from their countries. The cooperation has made the return of 463 Ethiopian migrants possible this February. For Tamrat and Debebe, two young men who were among the returnees, the costs of dangerous, sometimes lethal passages some irregular migrants make in Africa can be measured in many ways: in currencies, even in lives and also in their hardships in years. While the two countries are working together, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) with the European Union (EU) is…

By Akanimo Sampson Nigeria suffered a major oil revenue loss of about N270 billion which approximates to $750 million to oil theft and pipeline vandals in 2019, going by the disclosure of the country’s national oil corporation. The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, in a statement by the acting spokesman for the national oil corporation, Samson Makoji, in Abuja on Tuesday claimed that the country lost about $750 million to oil theft. Kyari, however, brought this to public knowledge when members of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 13 of the National Institute for…

By: Israel Umoh His first name- Adams- resonates in the labour and political circles. But in the ecumenical circle, Eric meaning a brave ruler, autocrat, ever-powerful is being esteemed by the Muslim-turned Christian. Yet, Eric of Germanic origin appears like a talisman that elicits courage and obstinacy in him to dare the highs and the lows in the society to being loved by some and hated by others. What a name! Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, is a firebrand trade unionist and a daring politician. When he worked with the Arewa Textiles Company, he contested and…

By Akanimo Sampson Access to Libyan markets has practically disappeared for Chadians in Bourkou region, resulting in a scarcity of food and other essentials like fuel, and inflated prices leaving many local people struggling to meet their daily needs. This was once a booming northern border town, supporting thousands of Chadians and Libyans who came to trade, barter or sell their wares. But with the closing of Chad’s border with Libya last March, the boom has turned to a bust. And all the while, vulnerable migrants stranded in Libya, including survivors of human trafficking in urgent need of assistance, continue to…

By Akanimo Sampson Some aggrieved players of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s party, have started firing at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, pressing for the removal of Adams Oshiomhole, as their national chairman. Oshiomhole, a former Governor of Edo State and an ex-labour leader does not seem to be finding politics easy as the APC big boss. Protesters on Monday stormed the party’s secretariat, demanding his sack in a bid to save the party from continued failure. They said his continued stay in office will bring misfortune to the party, adding…

By Akanimo Sampson Djibouti has exceeded the global average of 28 per cent on the infusion of young members of parliament into the National Assembly. 2018 elections in the country brought an infusion of young legislators into the National Assembly with 32 per cent of the new House under 45 years of age. To help the young parliamentarians, as well as encourage more young people to enter politics, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) last January organised a two-day workshop in partnership with the National Assembly. The workshop was designed to develop the leadership and communications skills of the young national lawmakers…

With effect from April 1, electricity consumers in the country will have to pay through their noses following a directive by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for electricity distribution companies to increase their tariffs billing by 50 percent. The directive is in flagrant disregard to the order by the House of Representatives which on January 14, 2020 ordered NERC to suspend the purported tariffs’ increase. Ikeja Electric (IE) Plc, which made this disclosure in its memo to the commission, noted that the directive is “in order to meet the tariff shortfall funding target from 2020 by the Federal Government…

By Akanimo Sampson Last year, 11,500 people on average, boarded vessels each month from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, making it the busiest maritime migration route on earth. Data collected by the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) shows that over 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in 2019. More than 110,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe during the same period. This is the second year in a row that the so-called Eastern Route has reported more crossings than the Mediterranean. In 2018, roughly 150,000 people made the journey. Nearly 90 per…