Buhari never promised N5,000 stipend to unemployed graduates— Presidency

ABUJA–The presidency has said that president Muhammadu Buhari never at any point during his 2015 presidential campaign made a promise of paying N5, 000 monthly stipend to the unemployed graduates in the country.

It however stated that there was a provision of half a trillion Naira in the 2016 budget which was mapped out to execute six social safety net programmes.

According to the presidency, one of the programmes was a conditional cash transfer where the federal government would pay N5,000 monthly to the vulnerable and extremely poor Nigerians.

Giving clarification to the matter which had become controversial following president Buhari’s reversal of the promise, the media aide to the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande who spoke to State House Correspondents in Abuja on Monday, stated that the payment of N5, 000 to the less privileged contained in the budget would be implemented.

NCC confirms receipt of N50bn payment from MTN

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, yesterday confirmed receipt of N50 billion by the Federal Government towards settlement of the N1.04 trillion fines slammed on MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd by the Commission, and its withdrawal of Suit No FHC/1923/2015 – MTN Vs. NCC & HAGF.

According to Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs of the Commission, the official information to the Commission to that effect, was received from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, yesterday.

“The amount is an unconditional good faith payment, on the basis that this sum would be applied towards eventual settlement agreement for payment of the fine imposed by the Commission, where the ongoing negotiations between the Federal Government and the company reaches a final resolution.

LASG backs Deeper Life multi-million naira flyover

Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church

The Lagos State Government has lauded a proposed multi-million naira flyover to be constructed by the Deeper Christian Life Ministry in the Gbagada area of the state.

The bridge is to decongest traffic in the area ahead of the inauguration of the church’s newly constructed cathedral.

The campaign and advocacy unit of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority on Thursday held a sensitisation programme for residents of the Gbagada area to prepare their minds for the construction work.

The sensitisation, which took place on the premises of the cathedral, adjacent the flyover site, was to inform the residents of plans by the agency to reduce traffic during the construction of the flyover.

Gianni Infantino emerges new FIFA president

PHOTO: New FIFA President, Gianni Infantino

Switzerland Gianni Infantino, on Friday, was elected the new President of the 112-year-old world soccer governing body, FIFA, for the remainder of the current term of office (until 2019).

Infantino was elected by the Extraordinary FIFA Congress held in Zurich, Switzerland, according to Fifa.com.

He was elected as the 9th FIFA President after the second ballot with 115 of 207 total votes.

In line with the FIFA Statutes, the mandate of the new FIFA President started after the conclusion of the Congress.

At the beginning of the proceedings, it was confirmed to the Congress that 207 of the 209 FIFA member associations were entitled to vote.

FG confirms MTN’s N50bn payment, says negotiations continue

The Federal Government on Thursday confirmed that MTN Nigeria had made a payment of N50bn towards resolving its protracted dispute with the Nigeria Communications Commission over a fine of N1.04tn.

The Special Assistant to the Minister of Communications, Mr. Victor Oluwadamidare, made the confirmation in a statement made available to our correspondent.

Oluwadamidare described the N50bn as part payment, adding that the withdrawal of the case against the NCC and the payment had opened the door for further negotiations with MTN as requested by the company.

He said, “They have withdrawn the court case instituted against the Federal Government and the NCC and requested for further negotiations. This, the government, is willing to grant. You cannot stop listening to people.

Why we can now declare the end of ‘Christian America’

An Indian worker wears an American flag before it is hoisted up a flag pole in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 23, 2015. (Tsering Topgyal/AP)

Political elections are as much about those doing the electing as it is about those eventually elected. If each vote represents what a voter believes and hopes for, then the person elected is really a magnification of the desires voters happen to have.

This is why national elections are so fascinating. Every four years, Americans collectively paint and present to the world a picture that communicates their aspirations and fears. It is a picture that enables us to see the character of a nation.

When I first moved from Canada to the United States 30 years ago, I was told repeatedly that America is a Christian nation. It isn’t simply that America has many self-professing Christians living within its borders. The identity of America as a whole, its history and its destiny, are somehow tied to Christianity.

Saudi Arabia to U.S. Oilmen: Cut Costs or Exit the Business

The world’s most powerful oilman brought a harsh message to Houston for executives hoping for a rescue from low prices: high-cost producers -- many of them sitting in the room -- need to either “lower costs, borrow cash or liquidate."

For the thousands of executives attending the IHS CERAWeek conference, the message from Saudi Arabia oil minister Ali al-Naimi means deeper spending cuts, laying off more roughnecks and idling drilling rigs.

"It sounds harsh, and unfortunately it is, but it is the most efficient way to rebalance markets," Naimi told the audience in Houston on Tuesday.

As many as 74 North American producers face significant difficulties in sustaining debt, according to credit rating firm Moody’s Investors Service. Shale explorers from Texas to North Dakota will be “decimated” in coming months amid a wave of restructurings and bankruptcies, said Mark Papa, the former EOG Resources Inc. chief executive officer who helped create the shale industry more than a decade ago. The survivors will be more conservative, Papa, who is now a partner at private-equity firm Riverstone Holdings LLC, said during a panel discussion on Tuesday.

Nigeria spends $2bn importing agric products annually - Amaechi

PHOTO: Rotimi Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has said the the country spends a total of $2 billion annually to import agricultural products into the country.

Amaechi disclosed this to journalists during an inspection tour from Rigasa rail station in Kaduna to Idu Station in Abuja last Friday.
Even as the world’s 7th largest population in the world at a base line of 170million, the Minister said agriculture is an exceptionally important element of Nigeria’s economy.

Amaechi went to say that the large import of food products include wheat, rice, flour, fish, tomato paste, eggs, textile and sugar.

The Minister however, stressed the need to diversify the mono-cultural tendencies of the Nigerian economy by developing other sectors of the economy especially agriculture.

Nigeria suffers as drop in oil prices empties coffers

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari listens at a meeting during the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit in Tehran, Iran, in November. (MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Simon Dawson) (Simon Dawson / Bloomberg)
When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May vowing to mend the economy, fight terrorism and end corruption, Kola Karim was upbeat. Oil prices had sunk, but Buhari's arrival made him believe his company still had a chance to prosper in Africa's biggest crude producer.

Shoreline Group, the third-biggest Nigerian oil and gas producer, decided to forge ahead with a $500 million Eurobond to expand drilling operations. Then prices fell below $50 per barrel last year. The bond sale was suspended.

One hope was to rely on income from Shoreline's construction and power-generation businesses. Except that the central bank's refusal to devalue the currency meant Nigeria was starved of foreign exchange, crimping business operations. Now, with prices hovering around $30 a barrel, Shoreline plans to cut 35 percent of its nearly 2,000 staff.

"It's a double whammy," Chief Executive Officer Karim, 47, said in his Lagos office, where two enormous bronze reliefs by artist Bruce Onobrakpeya leaned against the wall. "Getting dollars to bring in raw materials is very tough. If Nigeria was earning enough from its oil revenue, we wouldn't have that."

The sad spectacle of Obama’s upcoming trip to Cuba

President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The White House announcement that President Obama will be making a trip to Cuba next month was muted by the fact that Donald Trump was shouting down Pope Francis. Trump’s lack of judgment and grace was once again on blaring display, which meant the president’s humiliating capitulation to Cuba didn’t get the attention it deserves.

If President Obama had called a meeting after his re-election and asked his advisers what he could do to strengthen the Castro regime during his last four years in office, I don’t think the administration would have done anything different. It is a sad realization, but it’s something of a fitting piece to the end of the Obama presidency that the president is giving a helping hand to one of the last and most brutal communist regimes in the world. And in Cuba, what is good for the regime is bad for the people. There is no argument to be made that Obama’s gifts to the Castro regime have produced any dividends that have benefited the Cuban people – or, for that matter, Americans. Isn’t American foreign policy supposed to protect American interests first and foremost? How is it that strengthening the Castro regime is good for Americans?

This ship is bigger than an aircraft carrier and has as much power as 900 cars

(CMA CGM)

The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship to ever enter a US port.

The largest container ship to ever call at a United States port, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, just pulled into Long Beach, CA for its second visit to the US.

It's big: longer than an American aircraft carrier and more than 20 stories tall, the ship is capable of carrying 18,000 twenty-foot containers.

How TSA is curbing corruption —Adeosun, Finance Minister

PHOTO: Kemi Adeosun

Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, lists the gains of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). Adeosun spoke during a TSA workshop for states Accountants-General in Abuja. Excerpts from her address:

The global economic challenges which are affecting our nation demand optimum efficiency in the management of public funds. The objective requires an overhaul of the financial management approaches adopted to meet financial obligations on time and ensure that cost effective financial support is provided to public institutions

In practice, TSA is an essential reform for any government wishing to pursue fiscal sustainability and prudent management of its resources. It increases accountability and transparency, improves the processing of payments and collections and reduces borrowing costs.

Scientists are floored by what’s happening in the Arctic right now

Temperature anomalies for January, 2016. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

New data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that January of 2016 was, for the globe, a truly extraordinary month. Coming off the hottest year ever recorded (2015), January saw the greatest departure from average of any month on record, according to data provided by NASA.

[January was the ninth straight month of record breaking global warmth]

But as you can see in the NASA figure above, the record breaking heat wasn’t uniformly distributed — it was particularly pronounced at the top of the world, showing temperature anomalies above 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 1951 to 1980 average in this region.

Power generation drops by 488.7MW

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola

After attaining a peak of 5,074.7 megawatts on February 2, 2016, power generation in the country has lost 488.7MW within six days, dropping to 4,586MW on February 8.

Similarly, energy generation fell by 774.04MW in the same period to 4,300.66MW, resulting in a reduction in the amount of energy sent out to electricity consumers, which was put at 4,212.32MW.

Figures from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing showed that the country’s peak power demand was still 12,800MW.

Officials at the ministry told our correspondent on Sunday that issues around gas pipeline rupturing by vandals as well as oil theft had often led to a plunge in electricity generation.

MTN pays 2012 promo winner N1.85m on CPC’s order

ABUJA—WITHIn a week of the order slammed on MTN Nigeria Communications Limited by the Consumer Protection Council, CPC, to pay the 2012 promo winner, Mr. Omeje Chukwuma Fidelis the balance of N1,850,000 denied him, the telecoms giant has complied.

CPC in a statement it availed Vanguard in Abuja said that MTN raised a United Bank of Africa’s draft in the said sum in favour of the complainant dated February 11, 2016 barely 24 hours after the telecoms company received the council’s order.

Budget proposal: Fashola votes 62% for road projects, 15% for housing

Babatunde Raji Fashola

FACED with the enormous need to provide infrastructure across the country, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola has voted 62 percent of the mega Ministry to road projects.  

Fashola whose total budget for the year is put at N433billion, came up with a three-year frame work to utilize the proposed budget out of which N268bn representing 62 percent was allotted to Works, N99bn, an equivalent of 23 percent to Power and N66bn, representing 15 percent to Housing.

The Minister made this disclosure while defending the Ministry’s budget for 2016 before the Committee on Works at the House of Representatives and Senate last week.

Breaking down the budget, the Minister noted that government is willing to complete the over 200 uncompleted road projects across the country rather than embark on new ones, adding that the completion of the projects will be beneficial to the masses and the nation’s economy. He said that some of these projects were left uncompleted because government owed the contractors and if the money is paid, some of them are willing to return to sites.

Here's how much the president of the United States gets paid

(REUTERS/Larry Downing)
President Barack Obama.

Doctors and C-Suite executives are known for pulling in a pretty penny.

The mean annual pay for anesthesiologists is $246,320, and chief executives earn an average of $180,700 a year.

But what do America's top earners have on the president of the United States?

Not much.

The president is paid $400,000 a year, on a monthly basis. Plus, he receives an extra expense allowance of $50,000 a year.

That number has evolved over time.

The first president, George Washington, earned $25,000 a year when he came into office in 1789. That may not sound like much, but to put Washington's compensation into perspective, $25,000 in 1913 (the oldest year the inflation calculator accounts for) is equivalent to about $600,000 today. Imagine the value in 1789!

Shell pursues transition plan after sealing $53 billion BG deal

The logo of Shell is pictured at the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> on Monday sealed the $53 billion (36 billion pounds) acquisition of British rival BG Group to form the world's top liquefied natural gas company, even as slumping oil prices cast a shadow on the upcoming years of transition.

The success or otherwise of the complex merger will define the legacy of Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden, seeking to transform Shell into a more specialized group focused on the rapidly growing LNG market and deepwater oil production.

"We will now be able to shape a simpler, leaner, more competitive company, focusing on our core expertise in deep water and LNG," van Beurden said in a statement. In 2014, Shell acquired Repsol's <REP.MC> LNG business.

Subsidy removal: FG saves N18.3bn in six weeks

Between January 1 and February 12 this year, an interval of about six weeks, the Federal Government made over N18.3bn as savings from the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit and House Hold Kerosene.

The government officially stopped subsidy on PMS, popularly known as petrol, on January 1, 2016, while on January 23 this year, it also ended the subsidy regime on kerosene, according to the pricing templates for both commodities obtained from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.

The PPPRA is the agency of the Federal Government that fixes and regulates the prices of the white products, PMS and HHK, as well as other refined petroleum products across the country.

It unveiled its revised PMS template on January 1, 2016 while that of HHK was posted on January 23, a development that showed that the Federal Government now makes extra cash daily from every litre of petrol and kerosene sold across the country.

Netherlands to support Nigeria on Ogoni clean-up

PHOTO: Ravaged Ogoniland

The Government of Netherlands on Monday expressed its readiness to support Nigeria in the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Report for the clean-up of Ogoniland in Rivers State.

The Netherlands Ambassador to Nigeria, John Groffen, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that his government was willing to support the implementation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s top priorities.

“We are closely following the implementation of the top priorities of President Buhari in increasing security, enhancing the economy and fighting corruption.

FG sacks 26 Director-generals, MDs of agencies, departments

President Muhamadu Buhari has sacked 26 Director Generals and managing directors of agencies and departments of government.

A statement signed by Mr. Babachir David Lawal, Secretary to the Government of the Federation said “The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari has approved that the most senior officers in the parastatals, agencies and councils should oversee the activities of the organizations pending the appointment of substantive CEOs. President Muhammadu Buhari attending to some files in his office as he resumed duties at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

Turkish media say Saudi Arabia, Turkey may strike in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu arrives at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's foreign minister says his country and Saudi Arabia may launch ground operations against the Islamic State group in Syria, Turkish media reported Saturday.

After taking part at a security conference in Munich, Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saudi Arabia was "ready to send both jets and troops" to Turkey's Incirlik air base, Saturday's edition of the Yeni Safak pro-government newspaper quoted him as saying.

"Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch an operation (against IS) from the land," he added, the paper said.

Cavusoglu did not specify the number of troops or jets, or the timing of a possible Saudi deployment, but said exploratory visits have been made.

The base is used by the U.S.-led coalition in the campaign against the Islamic State group.

MTN’S Coat of many troubles

For South African-based telecoms giant, MTN, one of Nigeria’s leading telecommunications network providers, reports of numerous allegations against them have become the norm.

Today, the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) directed the mobile telecommunications operator, MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, to pay N1.85m to one of the winners of its Ultimate Wonder Promo for lack of due diligence after being paid N150,000 instead of N2million, The Punch reported. The CPC, on the strength of various observations, directed MTN to pay within 14 days of receipt of the order despite MTN’s claim that the complainant deceitfully presented himself when winners in the N2m category were called forward on the day of the prize presentation.

Last year, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) found MTN guilty of violating the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) registration regulations, by failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers and subsequently fined MTN with a record fee of $5.2 billion.

US Has World’s Most Powerful Military, Followed by Russia

Research firm Global Fire Power recently ranked military strength by nation. The United States finished first, followed by Russia, China, India, the United Kingdom, France, South Korean, Germany, Japan and Turkey. A total of 126 nations were ranked as part of its Power Index.

24/7 Wall St. has done two related studies.

The first is on the most military spending by nation and is titled Companies Spending the Most on War. The primary findings, based on expenditures by nation in 2014:

1. United States

> Military expenditure: $609.9 billion
> Pct. change military expenditure, 2005-2014: -0.4%
> Expenditure as pct. of GDP: 3.5%
> Military expenditure per capita: $1,891

While U.S.’ military expenditure in 2014 was relatively flat from 2005, it is still by far the largest military spending in the world and several times greater than second-place China. U.S. military spending has fluctuated over the years, but the country has outspent every other nation in the world since at least 2005. Last year, military spending equalled 3.5% of U.S. GDP, the 22nd highest share among countries reviewed. Dr. Perlo-Freeman suggested that the nation’s exceptionally high spending reflects its role as the dominant global superpower and the perception that there are “potentially military threats everywhere.” The U.S. has an estimated 7,100 nuclear warheads, trailing only Russia. The country is also home to several top arms companies, including United Technologies, Raytheon, and Boeing. Still, largely as a result of fiscal austerity and the scaling back of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, U.S. military spending as a percent of total government spending fell from 10.4% in 2013 to 9.5% in 2014.

Forex scarcity: Banks in multi-million-dollar racketeering

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

Commercial banks in the country are raking in millions of dollars from a foreign exchange racketeering which has been fuelled by the acute shortage of hard currency in the economy, investigation by theSaturday PUNCH has revealed.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has been rationing forex to prospective importers in the past 16 months, after the global fall in the prices of crude oil, the nation’s main forex earner.

The situation has exacerbated over time and tens of thousands of applications for forex by intending importers have been kept on hold by the CBN for months.

Sources close to the forex racketeering said the dollar shortage had led to a situation where prospective importers apply to the CBN through their banks for forex for months without getting it.

The continued acute scarcity, it was learnt, had been capitalised upon by the commercial banks who are now selling several millions of dollars obtained from the CBN on their clients’ names at huge premiums above the N199 to $1 official rate approved by the central bank.

NCC to sanction telecom operators who defraud Nigerians through drop calls

Kano – Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commissions (NCC), on Friday, said the Commission would sanction telecommunication operators who defrauded Nigerians through dropped-calls.

Danbatta said this during a meeting with newsmen from the North West, North Central and FCT in Kano, where he presented the commission’s eight-point agenda.

According to him, dropped-call rate is the fraction of the telephone calls which due to technical reasons, are cut off before the speaking parties finish their conversation.

This, he said, were being used by some telecom providers to deduct money from phone users as the fraction was usually measured as a percentage of all calls.

Oil rockets from 12-year low on renewed talk of OPEC cut

A pump jack stands idle in Dewitt County, Texas January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Anna Driver

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global oil prices surged as much as 12 percent on Friday after a report once again suggested OPEC might finally agree to cut production to reduce the world glut, while a bounce in stock markets fed appetite for risk.

Despite the strong daily gain, oil prices were poised to end the week down as much as 5 percent.

The United Arab Emirates' energy minister said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was willing to cooperate on an output cut, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday after crude futures settled in U.S. trade.

Many traders were skeptical at first about the report, noting that Venezuela and Russia had tried in vain earlier in the week to stir Saudi Arabia and other major producers into agreeing to output cuts.

Poll: Trump Stretches Lead to 27 Points; Sanders 7 Points Behind Clinton

(Getty Images)

The latest national poll by Morning Consult shows that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's lead has spiked by 6 points over second-place Ted Cruz, whose support remains flat.

The survey, released Friday, conducted Wednesday and Thursday, after Trump's win in the New Hampshire primary, also shows that a decline in the percentage of voters who support someone other than the six remaining GOP candidates or who haven't made up their minds.

Card readers, the innovation, cannot supersede voters register, S/Court adduces reasons for Wike’s return

Abuja – The Supreme Court on Friday gave reasons while Nyesom Wike was affirmed as the validly elected governor of Rivers.

Justice Mohammad Mahmud, who presided, held that the Governorship Electoral Petition Tribunal that handled the case swayed INEC guideline on the use of card readers for the election.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) also held that the tribunal also denied Wike fair hearing.

Church members arrested during service for noise pollution

Ogba Magistrate’s Court

The police in Lagos have arrested six persons for allegedly disturbing the peace of residents of Olaomibiyi Street, Ogba, during a church service.

The members – Ngozichukwu Onyebuchi (44), Clement Eromosele (26), Chukwudi Akwegbu (26), Chibuzor Chukwu (18), Godspower Enudi (21) and Okorie Livonus (36) – were arraigned in a Lagos Magistrate’s Court sitting in Ogba.

They were accused of converting a residential apartment to a church.

Nigeria still the most corrupt nation, Ranked By Perception

• Nigeria is still perceived to be the most corrupt among 60 countries evaluated.

People demonstrate against a rise in electricity prices in Lagos, Nigeria. (AFP/Getty Images)

This report is according to US News on 10 Most Corrupt Countries, Ranked By Perception.

Read further the details:

Corruption lingers at the core of many of the world's underdeveloped nations.

Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, is perceived to be the most corrupt among 60 countries evaluated, according to data from the 2016 Best Countries rankings. The rankings are a characterization of 60 countries based on a survey of more than 16,000 people from four regions.

In the survey, respondents answered how closely they related each of the 60 countries to the term "corrupt." Respondents were given no further specifications of the term, so interpretation of the word "corrupt" was left to survey respondents.

'This is set to get worse': Saudi Arabia says it has made a 'final' decision to send troops into Syria

(Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Saudi Arabia has made a "final" decision to send ground troops into Syria to fight ISIS, the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition force in Yemen told reporters on Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri said that Riyadh was "ready" to join the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition in Syria, according to Saudi news agency Al Arabiya. He noted, however, that the coalition — which has largely targeted the militants with airstrikes — has not given its final approval on the Saudis' decision to send ground troops.

ISIS also goes by the names the Islamic State and Daesh.

"We are representing Saudi's [decision] only" in sending troops, Assiri said.

Assiri signaled for the first time last week that Saudi Arabia would be ready to send ground troops into Syria if its coalition allies — including the US, Turkey, and the UK — asked them to.

"The kingdom is ready to participate in any ground operations that the coalition (against ISIS) may agree to carry out in Syria," Assiri told Al Arabiya TV news last Thursday. The Guardian later reported that the Saudis may be prepared to deploy thousands of ground troops into Syria.

CPC orders MTN to pay promo winner N1.85m

The Consumer Protection Council has directed mobile telecommunications operator, MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, to pay N1.85m to one of the winners of its Ultimate Wonder Promo for lack of due diligence.

The order, according to a statement by the spokesperson of the CPC, Abiodun Obimuyiwa, came on the heels of a complaint brought by Mr. Fidelis Chukwuma Omeje against the telecommunications company that he had been underpaid after he was declared winner of N2m in the promotion, which was held in 2012.

According to Omeje, he participated in the promo and was called through the MTN line 180 on October 10, 2012 that he had won N2m and that two days later, he got a text message informing him of the presentation ceremony fixed for October 19, 2012 in Abuja.

The complainant asserted that during the said ceremony, he was presented with a dummy cheque of N2m with his name on it, interviewed and paraded before the media and the world as the winner of the said amount.

FG assures Japan of judicious use of 1.3bn Yen electricity supply facilities

PHOTO: Udo Udoma

The Federal Government has assured the Japanese government of the judicious use of the 1.3 billion yen worth of facilities meant to boost electricity supply in the country.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo-Udoma, gave the assurance on Thursday in Abuja, at the Signing Ceremony of the Grant Aid for the Emergency Improvement of Electricity Supply Facilities in Abuja.

Udo-Udoma said that the government would always collaborate with the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Nigeria Office.

Savings from fuel subsidy removal rises to N647m daily

Nigeria, as at yesterday, is currently saving N647.2 million daily from the suspension of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol.

Particularly, at the current price of N86.50 per litre in petrol stations across the country, the country is making an extra N16.18 per litre. A motorist refueling his car at a black market

The Federal Government had stated that this extra savings is kept in an escrow account to serve as a cushion in case of eventuality, such as if the price of crude oil rebounds, leading to an increase in the selling price of PMS.

The saving is partly due to the continuous decline in the price of crude oil in the international market, which dragged the open market price of petrol to N70.32 per litre.

Newly Released Documents Prove That Hillary Sent And Received Classified Emails on Private Server

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pauses while speaking during a campaign event at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)


With lawyerly parsing, Hillary Clinton has long denied that she sent or received classified emails on her unsecured server while secretary of state, but new emails released by Judicial Watch today tell a different story.

Seventy pages of State Department records reveal that Clinton and her top aides, Deputy Chiefs of Staff Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, "received and sent classified information on their non-state.gov email accounts." Judicial Watch obtained the documents in response to a court order from their May 2015 lawsuit after State failed to respond to a March 18 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Slovakian PM: Europe needs to get the migration crisis under control this year or the EU will collapse

AP Photo/Petros KaradjiasDemonstrators burn a European Union flag during a rally supporting the no vote for the upcoming referendum outside European Union office in Athens, Thursday, July 2, 2015.

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico wrote on Tuesday that if the European Union did not get the migration crisis under control this year, the 28-nation bloc would collapse.

The staunchly anti-immigration prime minister wrote in business daily Hospodarske Noviny that "whether someone likes it or not," Europe needed to get the immigration crisis under control in the next 11 months, Reuters reports.

"To overlook growing tension, nervousness and fear among people or the fact that EU does not have a real solution to the migration crisis while the migration wave continues ... could have catastrophic consequences," Fico wrote.

"Whether someone likes it or not, 2016 will be the year when the EU will either get the migration crisis under control or collapse."

We will make NIPOST economic hub of the nation’s economy – Minister

The Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu, says he is prepared to upgrade NIPOST facilities across the country to serve Nigerians better in line with the Change Agenda of President Mohammadu Buhari.

Shittu made the promise when he paid a two – day working visit to NIPOST facilities in Lagos State during the week.

He described the present situation as unacceptable, adding that the ministry needed to do something urgently to bring up the facilities to an economic state to yield good dividends for the economy.

U.S. Election: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders win New Hampshire primary

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders thrusts his fist in the air as he arrives with his wife Jane at his 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary night victory rally in Concord, New Hampshire February 9, 2016.REUTERS/SHANNON STAPLETON


Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders secured a decisive victory over Hillary Clinton as did Republican Donald Trump over Ted Cruz in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, as the race to become their respective parties’ nomination reached its second state.

Trump is set to receive double the number of votes for the next Republican candidate while Sanders defeated Clinton by a substantial margin, the BBC reported. After 80 percent of votes had been counted, Sanders had a 20 percentage point lead over Clinton. The final results and margins between the candidates are yet to be announced.

In the Republican vote, Ohio governor John Kasich placed second with Cruz, former Florida Governor and brother of former U.S. President George W. Bush, Jeb, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio battling for third.

Trump hits out at Angela Merkel, warns of 'end of Europe'

Donald Trump at his 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary night rally, February 9, 2016. The Republican presidential contender has hit out at Angela Merkel's immigration policy.REUTERS/JIM BOURG


What does Donald Trump have in common with the Eurocrats of Brussels?

It’s not a question often posed, but both the rambunctious Republican front-runner and some of Europe’s top officials and politicians think failure to tackle the refugee crisis could spell the end of Europe as we know it.

Trump on Wednesday hit out at Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for allowing thousands of refugees into her country. "I think Angela Merkel made a tragic mistake with the migrants," he told French conservative weekly Valeurs Actuelles .

Oil firms flared N163bn gas in 2015

PHOTO: Gas flare

NIGERIA lost $831 million, about N162.6 billion, as oil and gas firms in the country flared 271.38 billion Standard Cubic Feet, SCF, gas in 2015. The amount of gas flared, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for December 2015, represented 9.5 per cent of total gas production of 2.858 trillion SCF recorded in 2015.
Particularly, the report put total domestic gas supply at 380.45 billion SCF, with 254.44 billion SCF for domestic gas to power, and 126.01 billion SCF for industries.

In addition, total gas export was put at 1.242 trillion SCF, broken down into 21.62 billion SCF for the West African Gas Pipeline, while Escravos Gas to Liquid, EGTL; Natural Gas Liquid/Liquefied Petroleum Gas, NGL/LPG; and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, recorded 62.43 billion SCF, 87.63 billion SCF and 1.07 trillion SCF respectively.

CcHUB growth capital to invest N1bn on scale up tech start-ups

As an intervention strategy to bail out technology start-ups in Nigeria, CcHUB Growth Capital at the weekend disclosed that it would invest N1 billion to support next generation infrastructure technology entrepreneurs in Nigeria over the next 2 years.

CcHUB is Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space designed to be a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures take place.

The seed fund is an investment company set up by CcHub in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, Venture Garden Group and the Omidyar Network.

The seed fund which is specifically targeted at technologies that connect citizens together, and technologies that are geared towards making public services smarter is expected to boost technological infrastructure in the country by investing in technological entrepreneurs.

Nigeria can generate N5trn annually from solid minerals — Metal exporters

PHOTO: Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals.

Exporters under the aegis of Association of Metal Exporters of Nigeria, AMEN have called on the Federal Government to intervene in the solid minerals sector and tap the abundant benefits as the sector has opportunity of generating N5 trillion annually.

The President of AMEN, Mr. Seun Olatunji said that Nigeria can generate at least N5 trillion annually from mining and exporting of its vast solid mineral deposits, with several multiplier effects on job creation , state development and social infrastructure that could make the solid minerals sector as the main catalyst for the national development.

Will Germany Give Up on Integration?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel 

SOFIA, Bulgaria — The millions of people storming the borders of the European Union today are right to believe that migration is the best revolution. It is a revolution of the individual, not the masses. The European Union is more attractive than any 20th-century utopia, for the simple reason that it exists. But as it looks today, the migrants’ revolution could easily inspire a counterrevolution in Europe.

The myriad acts of solidarity toward refugees fleeing war and persecution that we saw months ago are today overshadowed by their inverse: a raging anxiety that these same foreigners will compromise Europe’s welfare model and historic culture. Cellphone images of foreign-looking men attacking and abusing German women during New Year’s in Cologne crystallized the fear that liberal governments are too weak and confused to defend Europe, and that the situation with migration is spiraling out of control.

Even before Cologne, a majority of Germans had started to doubt that their country could integrate those hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Afghans and others who have arrived in the last year. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who until recently was the symbol of the European Union’s self-confidence and resilience, is now portrayed as a Gorbachev-like figure, noble but naïve, somebody whose “Wir shaffen es” — “We can do it” — policy has put Europe at risk.

Saudis — Stop the Oil Flood – or Else

Why has this not been done? Because too many American and British politicians are on the Saudi payroll, and too much of Britain’s and America’s arms producers are dependent on Saudi business. The Saudis’ heads have swelled with arrogance while their dim-witted oil policies threaten the global economy.

One night in his tent in Tripoli, Libya, Col. Muammar Khadafi told me, “the Saudis are a very rich family hiding behind high walls, terrified their neighbors will come and steal their wealth.”

He was right. The covetous neighbor most feared by the Saudis are Iran, followed by Egypt, Turkey and, more distantly, Israel. Iraq also used to be on the list until it was destroyed by the United States in 2003.

One must keep Saudi Arabia’s fear factor in mind to understand the oil wars that are now shaking the world’s economy to its foundations.

We can’t identify true owners of oil blocks, assets — NEITI

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Monday, lamented that the true owners of some oil blocks and other oil and gas assets in Nigeria cannot be identified from the records of the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, as it accused owners of some of the assets of suppressing certain information and manipulating their records in the CAC, making it impossible to link them with the assets.

Acting Executive Secretary of NEITI, Mr. Ogbonnaya Orji, disclosed this in Abuja during a meeting with delegates from the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, led by the incoming Chair, Mr. Fredrik Reinfeldt and Civil Society organizations.

According to Orji, the issue of beneficial ownership as contained in EITI’s standards, requires the identity of the true owners of oil blocks, adding that records of the companies in the CAC are shrouded in secrecy and do not provide correct information about the true owners.

World's largest concentrated solar plant switches on in the Sahara

• World's largest concentrated solar power plant opens

• Project could power one million homes by 2018

A new concentrated solar plant in Morocco will be the world's largest when completed. It could produce enough energy to power over one million homes by 2018 -- lowering carbon emissions by an estimated 760,000 tons per year. 

(CNN)Morocco has switched on what will be the world's largest concentrated solar power plant.

The new site near the city of Ouarzazate -- famous as a filming location for Hollywood blockbusters like "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Gladiator" -- could produce enough energy to power over one million homes by 2018 and reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 760,000 tons per year, according to the Climate Investment Funds(CIF) finance group.

As His Majesty Mohammed VI of Morocco pressed a button on 4 February 2016, the first phase of the three-part project was set in motion.

What President Buhari said in his interview with The Telegraph

• Full Telegraph interview with President Muhammadu Buhari

• What the President actually said.

"Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but then again some Nigerians have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in different prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking. I don’t think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home. Their services are required to rebuild the country. If their countrymen misbehaved, the best thing for them is to stay at home and encourage the credibility of the nation."

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

The Nigerian media landscape was awash with the news which circulated in the social media that President Muhammadu Buhari called Nigerians criminals during an interview with UK newspaper, The Telegraph. Senator representing Bayelsa East, Ben Murray Bruce, on Sunday, led the pack of Nigerians who condemned the statements. He stated his opposition with the hashtag #IAmANigerianNotACriminal, which trended on twitter to counter the view of the president while highlighting the successes of Nigerians around the world.

Senegal Fears Extremism Amid Imam Arrests, Regional Attacks

KAOLACK, Senegal — Dozens of armed security forces descended on the Quranic school at night, arresting an imam suspected of having links to Islamic extremists in Nigeria.

As the forces encircled the home of Imam Alioune Badara Ndao, 300 boys from his boarding school ran into the dirt courtyard, panicked at the sudden appearance of the gendarmes in this peanut-industry town.

More arrests were carried out in the weeks that followed, including of three other imams accused of supporting Boko Haram, stoking fears that extremism could be sprouting in this predominantly Muslim, moderate nation that prides itself on its tolerance and co-existence with the Christian minority population.

NLC shuts down electricity distribution companies nationwide over tariff hike.

The organised labour on Monday paralysed activities in nearly all offices of the Electricity Distribution Companies nationwide, following its protest over increased in electricity tariff.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that protesters, led by labour leaders in states, picketed the companies in compliance to the directive of the labour unions
NAN reports that the protest was led nationwide by leaders and members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and civil society groups.

At the head office of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) in Imo, the protesters, as early as 7a.m., padlocked the gate to the company preventing entry into the premises.