Author: straightnewsng.com

By Akanimo Sampson The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) this Sunday, the International Day of Parliamentarism, is celebrating its 130th anniversary. What began in 1889 as a small group of parliamentarians, dedicated to promoting peace through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue, has since grown into a global organisation of national parliaments. By the end of 2019, IPU membership will inch closer to being universal – consisting of 180 national parliaments, 12 supranational parliamentary bodies, and increasing numbers of parliamentarians who attend its meetings. “Democracy, human rights, multilateralism and the rule of law are being increasingly threatened in our world today. It is therefore urgent…

Atiku Abubakar, the 2019 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Presidential candidate, has filed a N2.5 billion libel suit against the Special Assistant on Social Media to President Muhammadu Buhari. Atiku sued Lauretta Onochie for her alleged libelous tweet via her Twitter handle on May 7, 2019, which implied that Abubakar was on the watch list of security operatives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and had traveled to shop for terrorists in the Middle East. The claimant through his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) filed the suit at High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, on June 26. “To say…

Against disturbing rape saga, the embattled Senior pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Biodun Fatoyinbo, who is walking a tight-rope of integrity has cancelled the church’s upcoming week-long programme as protests seeking his dismissal gather momentum. Busola Dakolo, celebrity photographer and wife of Nigerian singer, Timi Dakolo had on Friday accused the pastor of raping her at 16 in Ilorin in a now-viral video interview. Dakolo detailed the events that led to the alleged rape, which she revealed happened twice in one week. The allegations caused an uproar on social media with some Nigerians calling on Fatoyinbo to…

As backlash on the establishment of proposed Ruga settlements in the country continues, two popular Nigerian critics have bared their fangs and opposed the project meant for Fulani herdsmen. Femi Fani-Kayode, a one-time Minister of Aviation, wrote “Ours is not a nation but a conquered, occupied and subjugated vassal state which was crafted and forged for the benefit and advantage of the Fulani, their stooges and their cows”-@realFFK A GOVERNMENT OF THE FULANI, BY THE FULANI AND FOR THE FULANI.” Fani-kayode in his twitter handle on Friday noted “Cows were made for men, men were not made for cows. Cow…

The Economic Commission of West African States, ECOWAS, at its 55th Ordinary Session in Abuja, bestowed excellence awards with cash gifts on three persons. One of the beneficiaries was Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, who died after taking great risk to prevent Ebola virus from spreading in Lagos city, after attending to a Liberian patient, Patrick Sawyer in her First Consultant Hospital, Ikoyi. Adadevoh placed the man in quarantine despite pressures from the Liberian government. And she paid for it, contacting the virus and dying in August 2014 at the age of 57. She was posthumously awarded a $10,000 prize. Kofi Annan,…

The Netherlands have booked a place in the semi-finals of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France after a 2-0 victory over Italy on Saturday. This was as holders USA zoomed into semi-finals on Friday night of the Women’s World up after trouncing the hosts France 2-1 while England beat Norway 3-0 to reach semi-fianls too. In the Netherlands-Italy match, Vivianne Miedema and Stefanie van der Gragt found the net with headers during the second half in Valenciennes, and the Netherlands will next face either Germany or Sweden, who meet later today in Rennes. The match holds on Wednesday. A…

By Akanimo Sampson The titanic race for the Creek Haven, the Bayelsa State Government House in Yenagoa, the state capital, is on the front burner of the swampy state criss-crossed by a network of oil pipelines. All the contending political forces, some of them marginal, do not appear to be leaving anything to chance. The governorship race promises to be a bi-polar war between the dominant Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the invading All Progressives Congress (APC). Apart from these two parties, no other one in the state has any significance to cause a miraculous upset in the battle for…

By Akanimo Sampson The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas super major, Shell, is currently working out another Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) for the development of their host communities in the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s vastly polluted oil and gas region. Shell’s General Manager in charge of External Relations, Igo Weli, who made this known in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, however, pointed out that the existing GMoU has expired. In 2006, Shell introduced a new way of working with communities called the GMoU which has continued to be used successfully by other oil companies. A GMoU is an agreement between…

A former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the new move to create Ruga settlements in some parts of the country is nothing but an attempt to ‘Fulanise’ the country. Jonathan Asake, who was a member of the seventh House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015, said this during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday. He said the term ‘Ruga’ was a Fulani word and it was thus hypocritical of anyone to say when it is implemented across the nation, it would not be exclusive to Fulani. Asake, who is from southern Kaduna, said…

By Akanimo Sampson With barely 11 years to the expiration of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, CSR-in-Action, a conglomerate of three sustainability driven businesses, consulting, training and advocacy says Nigeria is still lagging behind in achieving the goals. Unfortunately for Nigeria, according to the experts’ group, “There are still some challenges that the country faces in the implementation of the SDGs – which translates as the reasons why we are behind in the sustainability journey. “Some of which include limited economic diversification and continued vulnerability to external economic shocks, limited financial resources for investments in SDG-related activities, huge infrastructural…