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Follow @davidblawal High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos state has on Friday instructed officials of the Mushin Local Government not to continue with the proposed plans to demolish some parts of the popular Ladipo auto spare-part market, at Matori-Mushin. Justice  Iyabo    Akinkugbe said it will only be in the interest of justice that the local government officials put the demolition plan on hold pending the determination of the suit challenging the project. Some auto spare parts dealers, who own shops at the market, had headed for court claiming that the planned demolition would distort the peaceful nature of the environment. The traders represented by Nnamdi Chukwuka, Franco Offai, and eight others in the suit had through their counsel, Richard Nwankwo, filed a Motion on Notice brought pursuant to Order 38 Rules 2&8,  and Order 39 Rules 3(1), seeking “for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining the defendant, either by itself, agents official...

Follow @davidblawal The Security Council recalls its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Security Council reaffirms Member States' determination to continue to do all they can to resolve conflict and to deny terrorist groups the ability to put down roots and establish safe havens to address better the growing threat posed by terrorism. The Security Council stresses that terrorism can only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive approach involving the active participation and collaboration of all States and international, regional and sub-regional organizations to counter the terrorist threat. The Security Council affirms that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whosoever committed. The Security Council ...

Follow @davidblawal Oba Okunade Sijuade, Ooni of Ifeland Following late Tuesday night news that broke claiming that the Oba Okunade Sijuade, Ooni of Ife, is death,  the town’s traditional council have debunked such saying that the monarch is alive. The foremost Yoruba traditional ruler was said to breathe his last at  Saint Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London,  United Kingdom (UK) on Tuesday evening. But the Ife Royal Traditional Council said at a press conference on Wednesday that the monarch’s death was “a mere rumour.” The Lowa of Ifeland, Joseph Ijaodola, who spoke in Yoruba, said the report about the monarch’s death in a London Hospital was “untrue.” The Secretary, Royal Traditional Council of Ife, the Ladin of Ife,  High Chief Adetoye Odewole, confirmed that the monarch is hale and hearty, saying he  spoke to the chiefs on phone few hours earlier. “They did it in 1984, also in 2004 and now, these people are coming up with another rumo...

President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, has on Tuesday said that the 8th Senate would resume to better legislation following the break. Saraki said this on Tuesday through his social media platform adding that the senate under his presidency will be capable of producing watershed legislative interventions According to him: “As the Senate resumes today, it’s expected that the recess would, have in no small measure help us consolidate stability of National Assembly. “Now is time to move as one house in one direction to fulfill the promise we made to our constituencies that gave us our mandate. “It is time we remind ourselves of the solemn promise to deliver real change, which can’t be achieved in atmosphere distracted politics. “Elections are over; Nigerians didn’t put their lives on the line for politics but for responsible leadership that can deliver good governance. “Our mandate is not to come & play politics; our mandate is to be solution providers for th...

The 2015 Global Trafficking in Persons report presented on Monday by the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, has indicted the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) for recruiting child soldiers. The report shows that Nigeria has not achieved much in its efforts to combat human trafficking across its borders, accusing Nigeria of not showing full compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Excerpts below: Natalie and Dara, eager to earn money and go to school, left Nigeria with the help of men who arranged their travel and convinced them good jobs awaited them in Cote d’Ivoire. Once there, Natalie and Dara were instead forced to have sex with men every night to pay back a $2,600 “travel debt.” After two years of being subjected to sex trafficking, Natalie and Dara contacted a UN Police officer (who was in the area to investigate other suspected cases of human trafficking) and escaped. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime helped the girls retu...

Mr Omoyele Sowore, founder and publisher of Sahara Reporters on Monday commended President Muhammadu Buhari's visit to the United States of America (USA), saying 'Buhari's visit was significant in a lot of ways.' Sowore made this statement on Monday while responding to questions from Nigerians at home and abroad through #MondayTango by HEDA Resource Centre, a Non-governmental organisation and Non-Partisan human rights and development league. According to him @MBuhari 's visit to the United States, which is the first since inauguration, gave him (Buhari) an international platform to sell his agenda to the world. "However, I am not sure that President @MBuhari left with any of his long list of items he'd expected to get from the US. A major reason was that he did not come with a team of ministers that could follow up on some of the discussions he started. "For instance, a delegation that met with the US Attorney General without a Nigerian Minister of...

Follow @davidblawal Considering the decision of the newly announced head coach of the Nigerian national football team, the Super Eagles, some interesting facts are playing out on why Oliseh may be most comfortable to work with Jean Francois Losciuto from Belgium as his assistant. The assistant, Losciuto is a Belgian who has coached several African teams, who is based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Besides being an assistant to Sunday Oliseh while at Verviétois in Belgium, where the new former Super Eagles captain was head coach, he was the coach of Rwandan club, Rayon Sport FC which he left for ASFA Yennenga of Burkina Faso in 2014. The new Super Eagles assistant coach also holds a UEFA coaching license like his boss, Sunday Oliseh. Sunday Oliseh and the Belgian met in Liege, his hometown, where Oliseh started his international footballing career.

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has on Wednesday unveiled Super Eagles' ex-international and former national team captain, Sunday Oliseh, as the new head coach of the country's national team. The NFF reached the decision after it moved to pacify the Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Al Hassan Yakmut and solicited support for the unveiling of Sunday Oliseh as the new coach of the Super Eagles. The NSC had queried the procedure used in hiring the new Super Eagles’ coach and his Belgian assistant, Jean Francois Losciuto claiming it needs to follow the Procurement Act. Oliseh is taking over from Stephen Keshi, former Super Eagles defender. Keshi is one of only two people, along with Egypt's Mahmoud El-Gohary, to have won the Africa Cup of Nations as both a player and a coach.

Follow @davidblawal Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has said he usually has a level of satisfaction for establishing the Federal Public Complaints Commission (FPCC) during his regime as a military Head of State. The Chief of Owu on Tuesday said the satisfaction comes each time he hears over the radio, the less privileged people coming out to say how the commission had brought “justice and relief” to them over matters brought before it. Obasanjo spoke Abeokuta, Ogun State, when the Commissioner, Federal Public Complaints Commission in the state, Mrs. Oluyemisi Somorin-Dawodu, visited him at his home on the Presidential Hilltop Estate. The FPCC which has since mutated into the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) was established by Decree 31 of 1975 put in place by the then Supreme Military Council headed by Obasanjo. He noted that the commission was put in place to create an avenue where the defenseless, weak and ordinary people in the society could run to for justice. He sa...

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Following the relief of the former Service Chiefs from duty on Monday by President Muhammadu Buhari, many questions are begging for answers. Among these questions are: 1)Will there be a probe to establish how the multi-billion cash voted yearly for defence has been spent? 2)Buhari has said he would like to examine why the military, which earned accolades on many international assignments with United Nations (UN) became so weakened it could not crush the Boko Haram insurgency; 3)Will the various courts martial go on, considering the fact that soldiers and officers on trial complained that they were not well armed to fight? 4)Will the re-organisation permeate the rank and file?

Follow @davidblawal Full text of Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State at the 2015 Wole Soyinka Centre Annual Media Lecture, delivered on 13 July 2015. There is every danger that addresses a topic like this might yield another exercise in vain lamentation when what our country needs to do is take and give effect to rational decisions about the oil sector. For instance, the discourse around the resource curse has had a deep resonance for many Nigerians because it vividly sums up the paradox between the huge earnings from oil and the reality of poverty and underdevelopment for most Nigerians. Thus we have jobless growth, a fact that statistics touting high GDP growth rates tend to obscure but which is painfully real for many people. And we continue to suffer the consequences of our affliction with the Dutch disease. The easy money from oil has led to the neglect of other endowments, most especially agriculture. Yet talk we must when a problem persists in the embarrassi...

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the following appointments: 1. Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin - Chief of Defence Staff; 2. Major-General T.Y. Buratai - Chief of Army Staff 3. Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas - Chief of Naval Staff 4. Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar - Chief of Air Staff 5. Air Vice Marshal Morgan Monday Riku - Chief of Defence Intelligence 6. Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) - National Security Adviser The new Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Olonisakin (N/6901) hails from Ekiti State. Until his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff today, he was the Head of the Nigerian Army Training and Doctrine Command in Minna, Niger State. The new Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. Buratai hails from Borno State. Until his new appointment today, he was the Commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force which has its headquarters in Ndjamena. Maj-Gen. Buratai has previously served as Commander of the Nigerian Army's 2nd Brigade in Port Harcourt and...

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the following appointments: 1. Major-General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin – Chief of Defence Staff; 2. Major-General T.Y. Buratai – Chief of Army Staff 3. Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas – Chief of Naval Staff 4. Air Vice Marshal Sadique Abubakar – Chief of Air Staff 5. Air Vice Marshal Morgan Monday Riku – Chief of Defence Intelligence 6. Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd.) – National Security Adviser

The Economic Development in Africa Report 2015 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said that better leveraging of services trade in Africa could yield major employment and growth benefits. The report subtitled “Unlocking the Potential of Africa’s Services Trade for Growth and Development” argued that the ongoing negotiations towards a continental free trade agreement offer a unique opportunity to align national and regional policies on services trade to that end. Officially launched in Lagos Nigeria, the report also argues that building continent-wide policy coherence in financial services would boost economic productivity and help reduce poverty. “Africa must bridge the policy disconnect of services trade in order to unlock the sector’s potential for the continent’s growth and economic transformation. “Furthermore, the impact of a continent-wide free trade area will only be meaningful for Africa if services are opened up in parallel with trade in...

Follow @davidblawal When it comes to diet, it’s all relative. Food is just as important to one person as it is to another. Yet, what makes food important to each individual cannot be detached from individual cultures and a culinary tradition that seems disgusting to one society may be revered by another. For Nigerians, there may be the temptation to travel with the extra baggage of local foodstuffs, the likes of gari , groundnut or kuli-kuli, palm oil or groundnut oil, egusi (melon), kilishi , ogbono , etcetera . Meanwhile, immigration officers may not allow you to travel with them making it difficult altogether. It is worthy of mention here that an estimated one million Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans live, study, and work in the United States; while on the other hand, over 25,000 Americans live and work in Nigeria. Therefore, it is not an overstatement to call Nigeria a consistently pro-America nation. Unfortunately, these millions of Nigerians often face a problem that most Am...