The United Nations (UN) has warned that “the collective future of Nigeria is under threat” given rising insecurity and spate of attacks by bandits on schools. The warning comes against the backdrop of recent coordinated killings and kidnappings of schoolchildren across Kaduna, Kebbi, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara states, leading to the forced closure of schools in those states. The organisation lamented in the last academic year, an estimated 1.3 million children were impacted by attacks or abductions in schools in Nigeria. It urged President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to tackle the security challenges ravaging the country to preserve its posterity. United…

Telecommunication services have been shut down in Katsina State. At least 13 Local Government Areas are affected by the development which may not be unconnected with the ongoing security operations against bandits in the Northwest. The affected LGAs are Sabuwa, Faskari, Dandume, Batsari, Danmusa, Kankara, Jibia, Safana, Dutsin-Ma and Kurfi that are on the fringes of the Ruggu forest where most of the bandits are hiding. The other three include Funtua, Bakori and Malumfashi. This comes a few days after National Communications Commission (NCC) denied plan to shut down telecom sites in Katsina. Recall that the NCC had refuted a…

The start of the school term has been pushed back to an unusually late date in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) without explanation, after schools in nearby states were targeted by kidnappers seeking ransoms. More than 1,100 pupils have been abducted from their schools across northwest Nigeria since December, including in Kaduna and Niger states, which border the FCT to the north and west. Several parents in the FCT told Reuters their children had turned up at their schools this week expecting lessons to start only to be told the new term would not commence until Sept. 19. A document…

Lagos State House of Assembly has passed the state’s Value Added Tax (VAT) bill with Speaker Mudashiru Obasa directing the Acting Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, to transmit a clean copy to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for assent. The House also passed the bill that prohibits open cattle grazing in the state. The two bills were passed after unanimous votes by the lawmakers at the sitting where they were read the third time. Immediately after their passage, Obasa commended his colleagues for their passion to see that the state continues to grow. “I thank you all for this historic exercise,”…