Issues that led Airlines Operators Association of Nigeria (AOAN) to threaten to shut down flight operations across the country have been resolved by the leadership of the House of Representatives. At a meeting that lasted over three hours at the National Assembly on Monday, the House leadership, led by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila secured the commitment of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to, in the interim, make available 6 million litres of JetA1 (aviation fuel) available to the aviation fuel marketers chosen by the AOAN. As part of the resolutions, it was agreed that as a long term solution, the…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
Over the last decade, global progress to reduce gas flaring, the wasteful industry practice of burning natural gas during oil production, a dominant feature in Nigeria, has stalled. A new report from the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) says globally, gas flaring resulted in nearly 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions in 2021, further underscoring the urgency to accelerate the de-carbonization of the world’s economies. Satellite data compiled and analyzed for GGFR’s 2022 Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report shows that 144 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas was flared at upstream oil and gas…
Christians in Delta Central Senatorial District, the senatorial bloc of former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, are bracing for a greater involvement in the 2023 politics. To this end, the Directorate of Politics and Governance (DPG) has carried out a training programme for what it described as “Church Officers in Politics” (COPs). The training that covered the eight local government areas that make up the senatorial district took place at Ibori Civic Center, Oghara, in Ethiope West Local Government Area. DPG is not just a group but an institution put in place by Christians denominations in Nigeria, with a view…
The world’s largest humanitarian organization, World Food Programme (WFP) says the war in Ukraine has dealt a fresh hammer blow to Syria’s ability to feed itself just as the country struggles to deal with levels of hunger that are up by half since 2019. WFP which is concern with saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change, said on the eve of the annual donor pledging conference held in Brussels on Sunday. With years of conflict, a severe economic…
Nigeria now has a new target of 1.772 million barrels per day (mbpd) for June 2022. Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised the country’s oil production quota from the 1.735 mbpd target approved in May 2022 to the new level. OPEC in a statement said it took the decision at its 28th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting despite Nigeria missing its approved target for April 2022 by 40,000bpd. The new target is 19,000 bpd higher than the approved quota for May 2022. OPEC also adjusted upward the monthly overall production by 432,000bpd for the month of June 2022…
Rector of Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, Professor Emmanuel Achuenu, has been described as a renowned academician who has brought his wealth of knowledge to bear on the development of the institution. Former head of the Department of Fine and Applied Art, Awele Adingwupu, made the description in a chat with newsmen at Ogwashi-Uku. Adingwupu said the institution had been peaceful since the inception of Professor Achuenu in office, saying that the rector was an apostle of peace, adding that the rector had the interest of the institution, staff and students at heart. The former head of department equally lauded the deputy rector,…
Worried by the broadening division in Akwa Ibom State as the recruitment process in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) generates more heat, an advocacy group is busy persuading the aggrieved persons to consider the overall interest of the state more than their political aspirations. The group, 2023 Inspire Develop Empower (IDE) Advocacy Campaign Organizationhas is pleading with the peoples of Akwa Ibom to unite against forces working against true democracy in the state. The group says it is working for the realisation of the governorship aspiration of a frontline PDP governorship aspirant, Ide Owodiong Idemeko The call was prompted by last…
Ijaw Diaspora Council is advocating a review of Nigeria’s laws to allow political participation of Nigerian citizens resident abroad in general elections. President of the Ijaw group, Prof Mony Gold, made the call at a virtual town hall meeting put together by Global Nigeria Diaspora Forum for presidential aspirants ahead of the 2023 elections. Gold said it was regrettable that Nigerian citizens in Diaspora make economic contributions by their remittances that boost the nation’s economy but were denied political participation by voting. He noted that the leadership of Nigerians in diaspora is organising a series of 12 town hall meetings…
Former Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina State says Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has demonstrated in the course of his nationwide consultation that he has the capacity to lead Nigeria and resolve the issues of insecurity, poverty, hunger, illiteracy and unemployment. Wike is seeking the 2023 presidential ticket of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to enable him flush out President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) in next year’s polls. But, his kinsman, Chibuike Amaechi, the country’s Transportation Minister, is battling for that of APC to enable him continue with the laudable legacies of the Buhari administration. How all…
Concerned global humanitarian organizations have started to say that it is more urgent to tackle the root causes of food crises rather than just responding after they occur. This is coming as the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent life-saving food assistance and livelihood support continues to grow at an alarming rate. However, acute food insecurity is when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger. It draws on internationally-accepted measures of extreme hunger, such as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the Cadre Harmonisé. It is…
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), an agency of the United Nations has reported that world food commodity prices decreased in April after a large jump the previous month, led by modest declines in the prices of vegetable oils and cereals. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 158.5 points in April 2022, down 0.8 percent from the all-time high reached in March. The Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities, remained 29.8 percent higher than in April 2021. The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index decreased by 5.7 percent in April, shedding almost…
The World Food Forum’s (WFF) first-ever cohort of the Young Scientists Group launched on Friday is calling for applications to the second edition of the WFF Transformative Research Challenge. The Young Scientists Group is a joint initiative of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and WFF. The initiative was presented at a side event this week at the multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), titled “Youth-led solutions for a better food future.” The side event highlighted the essential role of young scientists in identifying and scaling up innovative solutions to achieve the SDGs and…
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, and his Anambra State counterpart, Peter Obi, are not likely the messiahs Nigeria requires in a post-President Muhammadu Buhari era. Neither the crowd of serving governors like Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State nor Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, among numerous others are. General Overseer of The Christ’s Redeemed Evangelical Mission, (CREM) in Ughelli, Delta State, Revd Dr Mereh Wariri, is saying that God wants to use a woman to lift the country out of the economic woes, insecurity and social degradation…
Cultural Survival, an international civic group that is advocating for Indigenous Peoples’ rights and supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures and political resilience, since 1972 says the global biodiversity framework ‘’must’’ incorporate and operationalise human and indigenous rights. From last March 14 to 29, the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) resumed meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, convening a wide array of governments, intergovernmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, Indigenous Peoples and organizations, women, and youth, among others. The event included concurrent meetings of the Open-ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (WG2020-3); Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24), and Subsidiary…
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, has told Financing for Development Forum that the global economy is under severe stress and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in “need of urgent rescue”. “Financing for developing is an essential part of the solution’’, Amina Mohammed said on behalf of the UN chief, adding that so far, the global response has fallen far short. For this reason, the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance was established to ensure high-level political leadership; get ahead of the food security, energy, and financing challenges; and implement a coordinated global response,…
The explosive growth of extractive operations around the world often plays out on indigenous people’s lands without their consent, thus causing irreparable harm to their livelihoods, cultures, languages and lives. Speakers told the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues so as it opened its 2022 session amid calls to respect their free, prior and informed consent on the existential decisions uprooting their communities. Gathered in the UN General Assembly Hall for the first time in three years, indigenous representatives were welcomed in a traditional ceremony led by Katsenhaienton Lazare of the Bear Clan, Mohawk of the Haudenosaunee, who acknowledged nature in…
Experts say at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) e-Commerce Week said efforts to address antitrust and privacy concerns should go hand in hand. This is because competition and data protection issues are increasingly intersecting in a data-driven world. A small number of companies such as Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple and Microsoft dominate global digital markets. Their business models heavily rely on massive data collection, storage and processing to achieve market power. This can undermine “competition on the merits” and potentially shut out smaller rivals, as the dominant platforms use the granular data they collect – such…
Author of the book, World Wide Waste, Gerry McGovern, has warned that the rapidly growing digital ecosystem is exacting a heavy toll on the planet. He made the warning during a session of UNCTAD’s e-Commerce Week 2022 on April 26. He said digital technologies are fuelling the climate crisis, pointing out that only drastic behaviour change will make them work for people and the planet. While digitalization comes with many economic benefits, its effect on the environment is often overlooked. “We are killing the planet through the use of technology’’, McGovern said. He cited the 120 trillion spam emails sent…
Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) has said that the high cost of elections in Nigeria will linger for the foreseeable future. The reaction of this civic group is coming as Nigerians continue to decry the high cost of elections in the absence of a mechanism to checkmate this issue and bring offenders to book. This is against the backdrop the cost of expression of interest and nomination forms for various elective positions ahead of the 2023 elections announced by President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC). The development is still stirring reactions in various quarters. In particular, the whopping…
Defiant Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, has again taken on former President Goodluck Jonathan, leaving him with a bloody nose this time. Amaechi who carried himself as a loose cannon in the build-up to the 2015 presidential poll, says he has no regrets in working with President Muhammadu Buhari to throw Jonathan out of the Presidential Villa. Amaechi is battling for the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2023 presidential ticket, and he has been saying that many Nigerian politicians do not understand the concept of loyalty. According to him, “loyalty is not when you are not chosen, you become disloyal, loyalty means…
Political risk consultancy, Menas Associates says the $537 million the US is willing to build on its new consulate is a vote of confidence in Nigeria’s future. The US announced that it will spend $537 million to build a new consulate in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos in what many see Washington’s vote of confidence in the future of Africa’s most populous country despite the growing turmoil. In its Nigeria Focus, a monthly intelligence report on Nigeria, Menas quoted an embassy statement in Abuja as saying ‘’when completed, it will be the largest US consulate in the world, demonstrating the…
As demand for reliable energy grows, an American oil and gas major that also operates in the Niger Delta, Chevron, says it will be boosting permian oil production. The carbon intensity of its Permian operations is approximately two-thirds lower than the global industry average. Chevron plans to boost its production in the Permian Basin by greater than 15% this year as economic and geopolitical events underscore the importance of meeting society’s expectations for energy security and cost efficiency as well as carbon reduction. ‘’And as we help advance US strategic objectives, we expect to reach one million barrels of oil…
A civic group, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) says Nigeria needs to revisit the bill seeking to increase the number of women in the federal and state legislatures in a bid to catch up with the global trend of improving the participation of women in governance and politics. This, according to it, has led to serious advocacy and demands for special measures to be taken to increase women’s representation in elective offices. Recent constitutional amendment efforts to increase the number of women in the federal and state legislatures failed to pass, leading to public outcry. The story of Nigeria’s…
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a United Nations agency, says forests can help the world recover from the impact of the multiple crises the world is facing including, COVID-19, conflicts, climate crisis and biodiversity loss. It however, argues that will only be ‘’if we step up action to unlock their potential. In a key report just launched, the State of the World’s Forests Report 2022, FAO sets out three pathways for doing that: halting deforestation; restoring degraded land and expanding agroforestry and sustainably using forests and building green value chains. “The balanced, simultaneous pursuit of these pathways can help address the…
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant and Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, is felicitating with Muslims on their successful completion of the Ramadan fast and the celebration of Eid-el-Fitri just as the Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Abubakar Audi, is promising continuous welfare of the operatives of the agency. Every May 1 is a day set aside to celebrate workers as part of International Workers’ Day celebration across the world. It is in this spirit that Audi acknowledges and celebrates the amazing qualities, efforts, and resilience of all NSCDC personnel nationwide for giving…
The crisis rocking the Rivers State wing of All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2015 is currently bracing for a worse turn ahead of the governorship polls in 2023. While 13 aspirants are currently backing the choice of Tonye Cole, an architect, as the party’s preferred aspirant for the 2023 gubernatorial race, former representative of Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe has expressed gratitude to Rivers people for their kind financial contributions to enable him purchase the ‘Expression of Intent and Nomination form’ for the gubernatorial ticket on the platform of APC in Rivers. Abe stated this while appearing…
Going by the United Nations global fight for gender equality and opportunity, when it comes to mathematics, girls are currently performing as strongly as boys in the classroom. The global body however says there are plenty of barriers holding them back. The finding, from the UN agency UNESCO, followed analysis of primary and secondary education in 120 countries. Although boys perform better than girls in the subject in the early years, this gender gap disappears in secondary school – even in the world’s poorest countries – researchers found. Some countries even saw girls do better than boys in maths, including…
The American oil and gas super major, ExxonMobil, is currently projected to shore up its estimate of the recoverable resource to nearly 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels. This is because it has made three new discoveries offshore Guyana, and is increasing its estimate of the recoverable resource for the Stabroek Block to 11 billion oil-equivalent barrels. ExxonMobil is one of the largest publicly traded international energy and petrochemical companies, creates solutions that improve quality of life and meet society’s evolving needs. The corporation’s primary businesses – Upstream, Product Solutions and Low Carbon Solutions – provide products that enable modern life, including…
Surprisingly, Nigeria is not the only country the seeming urgly karma of the Buhari administration is dealing harshly with the citizenry. The United Nations is even warning that more than one disaster is looming if action is not taken on risk reduction. Human activity and behaviour is contributing to an increasing number of disasters across the world, putting millions of lives in danger, together with a wide range of social and economic gains over recent decades, a new UN report warns. The Global Assessment Report (GAR2022), released by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) ahead of this month’s…
This coming May 12, an extraordinary rendition suit filed on behalf of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, by his special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, is expected to be heard. When the matter was called up last April 27 at Umuahia, the Abia State capital for hearing, it emerged that the respondents, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President and the Attorney General of the Federation did not file the address on point of law as was directed by the Court last March 25. For this reason, Amos Enoch, leading other lawyers from the office of the Attorney…
