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Thursday, 16 December 2021 06:06

Senate approves Buhari's fresh $5.8bn borrowing request

The Senate on Wednesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari's request for $5.8 billion in borrowing from international lenders. The money from the World Bank, China Export and Import Bank, German Consortium and Islamic Development Bank among other lenders, is for power projects, water and sanitation, malaria eradication programmes and agriculture projects. The borrowing is part of the 2021 budget to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp drop in oil prices, which has dented Nigeria's spending plans because oil sales make up 90% of its foreign exchange earnings. The request was approved by the lower house on…

Thursday, 16 December 2021 06:05

#EndSARS: FG approves salary increase for police personnel

Federal government has approved new allowances for the Police that would see the take home pay of police personnel increase by at least 20 percent, an official has said. Police affairs minister, Maigari Dingyadi, told journalists that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved “peculiar allowance” for the police to take off from January 2022. The allowance will increase police personnel take home pay by 20 per cent of their present earning, Dingyadi said. He said the salary increase was part of efforts of the Buhari administration to meet the demands of the #EndSARS protesters. The FEC meeting presided by…

Thursday, 16 December 2021 06:03

FG warns Obasanjo, others against criticizing Buhari unjustly over insecurity

Federal Government has warned former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, not to set Nigeria on fire with his “dirty politicking.” It also boasted that Nigeria is safer than it was in 2015 before the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Government, through its Minister of Information reiterated that President Muhammadu Buhari has done better than his predecessors in tackling insecurity and insurgency in the Northeast, amidst difficult economic and social conditions. On Monday, Obasanjo, at a retreat on inclusive security in Abuja, organised by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa, said: “President Buhari has done…

Thursday, 16 December 2021 06:02

Insecurity: Police prevent Kano youths from accessing protest venue

Kano youths on Wednesday marched to the office of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) to protest against insecurity in the north. The protest was staged by youths and members of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) in Kano. Heavily armed security personnel made up of police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) barricaded the gate of the NUJ. Several security vehicles with personnel dressed in anti-riot outfits took over the outskirts and the road leading to the NUJ as the protesters assembled at a distance. Commenting on the rising insecurity in the country, Jamilu Charanchi, Northwest coordinator,…

Thursday, 16 December 2021 06:01

FCT launches first district concessioned in Land Swap Programme

Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Bello, says the Land Swap Programme will save the Federal Government nearly N1 trillion. Federal Executive Council (FEC) on June 16 approved the resumption of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) land swap initiative, started by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. FEC, rising from a meeting in Abuja, approved the resuscitation of the programme aimed at ensuring massive infrastructural development in the FCT. Bello made the disclosure while performing the ceremonial site hand-over of the Gwagwa District Development to Messrs Gwagwa Concession Ltd. This was contained in a statement issued by…

Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:08

Nigeria’s debt rose 18 percent within one year to N38trn - DMO

Nigeria's total public debt rose to 38 trillion naira ($92.75 billion) as of September, up 18% from a year earlier, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said on Tuesday. Africa's largest economy has been racking up debt to fund infrastructure projects and boost a fragile economy now recovering from recession following the impact of an oil price crash triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Total public debt stood at 32.22 trillion naira in the third quarter of 2020. A $4 billion eurobond sale in September - to enable the government fund its budget, support the currency and boost forex reserves - accounted…

Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:07

Buhari seeks senate confirmation for new minister, 3 nominees for National Population Commission

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Muazu Sambo as a minister. He wrote to the Senate seeking confirmation of the ministerial nominee from Taraba State. The president’s letter was read out by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the start of plenary on Tuesday. Sambo may be replacing either of the ministers of Agriculture, Sabo Nanono, and Power, Saleh Mamman, who were sacked by the president in September. The ministers were sacked about two years and some days after they were inaugurated by the president in 2019 alongside 41 of their colleagues. No reason was given for the termination of their appointments.…

Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:06

UK removes Nigeria, 10 others from Covid travel red list

The British government will remove all 11 countries from its Covid-19 travel red list from Wednesday (today) because there is now community transmission of Omicron in Britain, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament. The new Omicron variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong. The British government added 11 African countries to its red list from late November, meaning that only UK citizens or residents arriving from those nations were allowed in and then had to quarantine in a hotel. "Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across…

Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:03

Omicron spreading at unprecedented rate, WHO warns

The new coronavirus variant Omicron is spreading across the globe at an unprecedented rate, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. Cases of the heavily mutated variant have been confirmed in 77 countries. But at a press conference, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was probably in many others that had yet to detect it. Tedros said he was concerned that not enough was being done to tackle the variant. "Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril. Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once…

Wednesday, 15 December 2021 06:00

In separate meetings, 4 Northern govs brief Buhari on insecurity

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met behind closed doors with three Northern governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The separate meetings centred on the spate of insecurity in their states. The governors who met with Buhari were Aminu Masari (Katsina), Abdulahi Sule (Nasarawa) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba). The governors requested the President’s assistance to end activities of bandits and terrorists in their states. Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, had on Monday night visited the President on the same issue. Speaking to State House Correspondents after the meeting, Masari said Northern states must collaborate to tackle the security challenges in the…

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Tuesday, 14 December 2021 05:41

UAE instructs airlines not to bring Nigerians into country

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has issued a travel restriction on passengers from Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This directive, the UAE said, is due to the surge in the countries’ Covid-19 cases from passengers of the two countries. But TheCable understands that this development might not be unconnected with the recent diplomatic row between Nigeria and UAE. Air Peace had requested for a slot of three weekly flights from Nigeria to Sharjah Airport in UAE, but only one was granted by the country’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA). The UAE’s GCAA blamed the airline for pulling out…

Tuesday, 14 December 2021 05:41

FG eyes diplomacy to resolve Omicron travel restrictions

Nigeria is taking diplomatic steps to try to reverse travel bans placed on it by some countries that have added the West African state to their Covid-19 "red lists", Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said on Monday. Sirika on Sunday said he had recommended that Argentina, Britain, Canada and Saudi Arabia be placed on a Covid-19 "red list," which would entail a ban on flights, in retaliation for similar restrictions imposed on Nigeria by those countries. Britain was the first country to announce such a move, which Nigeria has described as unjust and unfair. Several others have restricted the movement of…

Tuesday, 14 December 2021 05:35

‘My blood has been extracted 21 times’, Nnamdi Kanu alleges in suit against DSS

Detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has filed a fundamental human rights enforcement suit against the Department of State Service (DSS) at the Federal High Court, Abuja, over alleged gross violation of his constitutional rights. Speaking at the Federal High Court complex after filing the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1585, Kanu’s counsel, Maxwell Opara, alleged that a doctor engaged by the DSS has extracted his blood over 21 times. While lamenting that Kanu has neither been allowed to practice his religion nor change his cloth, despite a subsisting court order, Opara submitted that his client was undergoing…

Monday, 13 December 2021 06:10

FG’s threat to ban UK’s airlines from Nigeria won’t make us relax travel restrictions on Nigerians - UK govt

The British High Commission on Sunday said the United Kingdom would not reverse its travel ban on Nigeria because of a threat of retaliation by the Federal Government. Spokesman for the British High Commission, Dean Hurlock, said this in response to an inquiry by The PUNCH on Sunday over a statement by Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that the UK, Canada and Saudi Arabia would be put on Nigeria’s travel ban on Tuesday. Hurlock stated that Britain had made it clear that travel abroad would be different this year, adding that the UK was sticking to its “standard background lines.”…

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