The number of Nigeria’s Supreme Court justices is about to drop to 10, widely coming short of the court’s statutory full complement of 21 justices. The number, currently 11, will drop to 10 as another justice of the court retires on 27 October. Within the space of three years, the number of judges on the court’s bench plummeted from 20 to 14 in June 2022, when then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, abruptly resigned. Since then, the number has further spiralled down to 10, as Musa Dattijo Muhammad, who joined the bench of the Supreme Court over a…

Nigeria is turning to a fleet of tiny river-going tankers to boost its oil production because one of its key oil pipelines has been broken for months. Africa’s top producer, racing to lift output before OPEC decides new oil-production quotas, has started using the tiny vessels to get a new grade of oil, Nembe Creek, up the Niger river delta and onto an ocean-going ship that’s stationed off the nation’s coast. The same oil previously went by the Nembe Creek trunk pipeline to the Bonny terminal, which is operated by Shell Plc. That conduit, operated by Aiteo Group and previously…

Federal Government has admitted that it is facing enormous challenges and revenue deficit amid a growing population. This is as it lamented that it was struggling to pay salaries because “there is no money”. Speaking in Abuja, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, urged non-governmental organisations to help the government to cover the spaces it could not. Bagudu, represented by the ministry’s Director of International Cooperation, Sampson Ebimaro, lamented that Nigeria’s population is fast increasing, adding that unemployment is surging amid high inflation rate. “Government faces enormous challenges especially now; the government is facing a revenue deficit. There…

President Bola Tinubu has approved the release of four months of the withheld salaries of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Nigeria’s public universities have seen repeated disruptions in academic calendars over the years, with striking lecturers protesting funding deficits, poor conditions of service, and decay in infrastructure. ASUU embarked on its 16th strike in 23 years in 2022. The strike lasted for eight months. In September 2022, the National Industrial Court (NIC) stopped the union from continuing with the strike, pending the determination of a suit. The federal government insisted that the lecturers would not be…