AKWATIN LABARAI

A former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Farida Waziri, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a man of destiny who must be supported by all Nigerians irrespective of their religious, ethnic and political affiliations. Mrs. Waziri, who is the founder and principal partner of Brookfield Chambers, a firm of legal practitioners based in Abuja, stated this on Saturday in Uga-Mbagwa, Oshongo Local Government Area of Benue State while fielding questions from journalists after the commissioning of her community’s worship centre. “My response to your question will be that, I believe in President Buhari because he is believable and he has remained constant like the morning star since I know him and beyond that. I’m sure that he is a man of destiny, a resolute, sincere and committed leader who says what he means and does what he preaches. “In the history of Nigeria, he is today the only leader who has contested the presidential election for four consecut

The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, has said that the Senate adjourned plenary to July 21, after just returning from another break, to give the Senate Ad-Hoc Committees on Legislative Agenda and Review of the Senate’s Finances time to conclude their work and submit their reports. Mr. Saraki had inaugurated the two committees on Thursday after the adjournment. In a statement on Friday, Mr. Saraki said the two committees were given one week to submit their reports. The Senate President assured that the senate will reconvene at any time before the adjourned date to consider any matter of urgent national importance or to attend to any national assignment requiring its attention. “The Senate’s Ad-hoc Committee on Financial review is the first time the Senate is setting up a body to review its own salaries, allowances, and the overhead cost of running the Senate with a view to realigning them to reflect the present economic situation in the country,” the statement said. The N

APC/NASS Crises: Observation On The Major Players Watching the APC caucus of distinguished Senators and Honorable Members of House of Representatives was a shame to behold on Thursday June 26, 2015. It was a shame that the ruling party couldn't put their act in order. More painful is that the incompetence of the ruling party is having effect on the Nigeria State. Here are some observations... 1. SP Saraki and Speaker Dogara Are Naïve, Arrogantly and Ignorant The positions of Senate and House Leaders and their deputies, and the Chief Whips and their deputies are not appointive offices. It has never been heard in any parliament that the presiding officer determines who occupies these principal offices. For the record, the Majority leader is supposed to be a core party loyalist. He is the primary link between his party and members of the party in the parliament, the majority leader schedules business on the floor by calling bills from the calendar and keeps members of his party a

Nigeria’s economy may grind to a halt in coming weeks unless the Central Bank (CBN) moves to relax rules that have curbed Foreign Currency (FX) trading and liquidity in Africa’s largest economy. Banks have been unable to open letters of credit for their clients, resulting in an increasing backlog of unmet dollar demand by Nigerian firms, even as supply of dollars into the interbank market falls. “Manufacturers are unable to fund FX for raw materials and banks are scrambling for dollars overseas as credit lines dry up. Things are at a standstill,” Stephen Onasanya, Group Managing Director and CEO of First Bank Plc, Nigeria’s largest lender by assets, said at a Bloomberg conference at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday in Lagos. “The CBN cannot support the naira at these levels,” Onasanya said. Nigeria’s Central Bank recently banned importers from using the interbank foreign-exchange market for some goods and enforced trading restrictions to stabilise the naira that weak

Manufacturers of goods and services in the country spend as much as N3.5 trn annually to generate alternative power for their production operations due to the collapse of public electricity supply, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said on Thursday. The president of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said providing alternative power for their operations has made the cost of production in Nigeria the highest in the whole world. Mr. Wabba was speaking at the business luncheon for Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of public and private companies hosted by the Ikeja branch of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in Lagos. “If the country must survive, as we desire, government must confront this sector with all seriousness,” he said. “The entire system must be overhauled and rejuvenated in the interest of the economy and the people. “It is scandalous that in a country of over 160 million people, less than 3, 000 megawatts (MW) of electricity is supplied to the public.” The country, t