Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson The rising tide of internal displacement is currently a very big source of trouble for the United Nations. In a seeming frantic bid to find a lasting solution to the scourge, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has given an eight-man panel of distinguished members only one year to come up with a realistic plan to prevent displacement and mitigate its effects. Just last year alone, the number of people internally displaced by conflict around the world reached a record high of more than 41 million.  In the same year, the United Nations said 17 million other people were forced…

By Udeme Nana That question is common place in the first month of the year. Nevertheless, that question was definitely not what Ufot Asanga, an economics graduate who chose to become a “foot soldier” to a top politician bargained for last week. The young man was in a desperate situation. His wife, whom he married two years ago was in the labour room and his hospital bill was a bit too high- too much for him to settle with his savings and he reckoned that since he had a “boss” whom he had served diligently with all his might these past 10 years…

The US Senate has adopted ground rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after nearly 13 hours of rancorous debate on the first day. Democratic prosecutors sparred with Mr. Trump’s lawyers over the process, while Republicans rejected their demands for more witnesses. The trial will resume on Wednesday with arguments by the prosecution, to be followed by the defence and questions. Mr. Trump is the third US president to undergo an impeachment trial. He is charged with abuse of power and obstructing the congressional inquiry. He denies wrongdoing and accuses Democrats of trying to unseat him for political reasons. “I’d…

By Akanimo Sampson Total, a French oil major, has been awarded Europe’s largest concession contract for Electric Vehicles (EV) charging by the ‘Metropolitan Region Amsterdam Electric’ (MRA-Electric). Under the contract deal, Total will install and operate up to 20,000 new public charging points in the Netherlands, in the three provinces of North-Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht*. Total is, however, a major energy player that produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. The company which is also operating in the Niger Delta, the oil and gas basin of Nigeria is boasting that its100,000 employees are committed to better energy that…

The recent launching of Amotekun, a security outfit, by the six governors of the South-West Region has received knocks and barbs from some people in the country. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami, had described the security outfit as ‘illegal,’ a word that has triggered massive rallies in support of the outfit and criticsms against the declaration mostly from people of the Yoruba extraction. The latest knock came from Saleh Hassan, the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah, who ranted “Despite the education of the Yoruba people they still remain the most primitive in terms of politics. They…

By: Israel Umoh The trade dispute between Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Akwa Ibom Council and the state government is far from being over as this may snowball into industrial action owing to the inability of both parties to resolve some thorny issues, an investigation by Straightnews has shown. Governor Udom Emmanuel had directed the setting up of a committee on the implementation of the new minimum wage and the immediate past Head of Civil Service inaugurated a 16-member committee on May 16, 2019. When the committee members met on January 16, 2020, the meeting ended in a deadlock as labour…

By Akanimo Sampson Extreme or moderate working poverty is expected to edge up this 2020 through 2021 in developing countries like Nigeria, thus, increasing the obstacles to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1 on eradicating poverty everywhere by 2030. Currently working poverty, which is defined as earning less than $3.20 per day in purchasing power parity terms, affects more than 630 million workers, or one in five of the global working population. A new International Labour Organisation (ILO) report tends to be showing that other significant inequalities – defined by gender, age and geographic location – remain stubborn features of current…

Intense gunfire between two rival jihadist groups in northeast Nigeria has left several fighters dead, two sources with close knowledge of the incident told AFP on Monday. Fighters in pickup trucks from a Boko Haram faction loyal to Abubakar Shekau stormed a camp belonging to rival IS-aligned Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), resulting in a fierce gunbattle that caused several fatalities, the sources said. The Boko Haram jihadists attacked the camp in Sunnawa village in Abadam district near the border with Niger to reclaim their women seized by ISWAP fighters in an earlier raid on their camp across the…

Less than one week after the swearing-in of Hope Uzodinma as the Imo governor, nine lawmakers of the Imo state House of Assembly, have defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC. On March 7, 2019 governorship/House of Assembly held nationwide, APC did not win any seat into the state House of Assembly despite the fact that Rochas Okorocha was APC governor. In the defection drama, Okey Onyekanma, the Deputy Speaker of the House, resigned his position. The defection started around 3:30 p.m. when the Speaker of the House, read the letters of the defectors at the floor of the House.…

“It is appalling that Boko Haram followed up the killing of Rev. Andimi on Monday with an attack on his village — in Chibok Local Government Borno State. Targeting civilians is a crime under international law,” Amnesty International has declared. The Amnesty was reacting to the killing of Rev Lawan Andimi, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Michika local government area of Adamawa State by his abductors. This is as the Adamawa State CAN Chairman, Bishop Dami Mamza, who is the Catholic Bishop of Yola Diocese, described the murder of the clergyman as gruesome and unfortunate. Amnesty…