Nigeria News Forum

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday dismissed as misleading, speculations that talks between it and the Federal Government on new national minimum wage had collapsed. President of the NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said that the talks had not even started. He said that the government is foot dragging on the issue. He said that the tripartite structure that should consider the modalities for the implementation had not been inaugurated. He said, “The government is still dragging its feet on talks about the minimum wage; the tripartite structure has not been put in place.” He said that the speculation that talk on minimum wage had collapsed was misleading, adding that the talk had not even started. He said, “The point we are making is that we have only agreed on the structure, but the structure has not been formed. “We have agreed on the membership and the structure of the negotiating team which is going to be tripartite, so this is the point that we are now. “...

A 40-year-old housewife, Amudalat Afolabi, has told an Ilorin Area Court that her husband, Tajudeen, sent her packing because she refused to terminate a six-month-old pregnancy. Amudalat made this known when she testified in a divorce petition filed against her by Tajudeen in Ilorin on Thursday. “My husband sent me away from our matrimonial home because I refused to terminate the six- pregnancy I am carrying,” she said. Amadalat, 40, did not oppose the dissolution of the 20-year-old marriage, but described Tajudeen as “an irresponsible man”. She said that was tired of being enslaved by “a useless man”. Tajudeen, 50, a residence of Edun Area, Ilorin, had prayed the court to dissolve the marriage due to his wife’s alleged infidelity. He said they got married in 1996 and had five children, who were all living with him because their mother had left the matrimonial home. “I am fed up with her waywardness. She is not stable and always frame excuses for her actions. I pray...

Jose Mourinho admits Manchester United’s lack of confidence has contributed to their dismal three-match losing streak. Mourinho’s side slumped to an embarrassing 3-1 defeat at Watford on Sunday to cap a miserable week that also included losses against Manchester City and Feyenoord.   After winning the first three games of the Mourinho era, United are stuck in a rut and looked painfully short of inspiration in their first defeat against Watford for 30 years. It was a tepid display that recalled the worst moments of Louis van Gaal’s reign and Mourinho believes his players are suffering from a lack of belief that takes an extra toll whenever an important moment goes against them. “We started the season very well and had good results. I feel the first moment we had a defeat, a difficult situation, some of the boys are having a bit of difficulty coping with the negativity,” Mourinho said. Mourinho - The Special One “You see Ashley Young, his mentality the happiness and ...

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was handed a speedy reunion with Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola in Wednesday’s English League Cup fourth-round draw. Guardiola’s City won 2-1 when he reprised his rivalry with Mourinho earlier this month and they will meet again at Old Trafford in late October when a place in the League Cup quarter-finals will be at stake. Mourinho and Guardiola “I think it’s good for us,” United midfielder Ander Herrera, a scorer in their 3-1 win at third-tier Northampton Town, told MUTV. “We can show again what we want to do. We were very disappointed (to lose to City) because it was in front of our fans and now we have another chance to play against them. “I’m sure it will be different.” Holders and Premier League leaders City booked their place in the last 16 with a 2-1 win at Swansea City. Mourinho and Guardiola fought an intense rivalry during their time as managers of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively between 2010 and 2012...

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has said the agency is investigating a sum of $15,591,700, which Patience, wife of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, claimed belongs to her. Magu said this in Lagos on Tuesday while fielding questions from journalists after an interactive session with the commission’s external lawyers and civil society organisations. Patience Jonathan The EFCC chairman added that some banks in the country which allegedly helped in concealing stolen money in the country would soon face trial by the commission. “We are on it (Patience’s $15,591,700). You see, we work for the long-term. We must complete our preliminary investigations before we come out. We will not spare anybody. We cannot protect anyone form answering to the people. EFCC Boss- Magu “Determination is key. I believe we will go a long way. Our tomorrow is better than our today.” Magu said banks and their officials who helped in stealing publi...

Former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has insisted that the Speaker, M r Yakubu Dogara , must resign to allow for independent investigation into alleged budget infractions. Dogara and Jibrin Jibrin told newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja that some members of the lower chamber were already plotting to impeach Dogara. Jibrin alleged that the speaker had on Monday begged members of the North-East caucus in the House for forgiveness over his role in the alleged padding of the 2016 budget. He, however, said that the request was rejected. Jibrin explained that Dogara’s request that the matter should be investigated internally is not tenable as the rule of the House stated otherwise. He said, “When a grievous allegation of this nature is raised, there is a laid down rule to investigate such issue and it should not be investigated internally. “The speaker should step down for proper investigation. Nobody is hunting him, but he shoul...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described the Peoples Democratic Party as a dying political party which needs to be taken to an intensive care unit. He said this on Saturday at his Abeokuta Presidential Hilltop residence in an interview with journalists, after emerging from a closed-door meeting with a factional national chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff. Sheriff and Obasanjo Obasanjo said Sheriff called him on Friday that he was coming to visit him, and he had to oblige him. The former president explained that the factional chairman briefed him about the crisis rocking the party. Obasanjo, who was a former chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, said the PDP had lost its soul, and said he wished Sheriff would not be an undertaker that would bury it. “The PDP of today, if you can talk of a party again as PDP, its soul has been taken out of it and those who allowed that to happen are unperturbed about the fate of the party and indeed the fate of t...

The Department of State Services has said some members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect were making plans to join the army. It, however, added that two members of the sect, who were specialists in the making of Improvised Explosive Devise, were arrested before their desire to join the army was fulfilled. The spokesperson for the DSS, Mr. Tony Opuiyo, who stated this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, said the suspects were arrested in Kano. He said, “In response to the regrouping of Boko Haram elements in Kano State, the DSS in concert with the military, carried out coordinated operations in the state which led to the apprehension of two high profile members of the sect. “They are Ibrahim Abubakar and Idris Audu (a.k.a. AYA). Audu is an IED specialist who was being groomed to penetrate security agencies in the country.  “Audu had already perfected plans to seek for recruitment into the next recruitment scheme of the Nigeria Army, before his arrest.”  He attribute...

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has denied an online report quoting him as saying that he had warned President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.  The report, which was credited to him through his former Chief Press Secretary, Alex Nwokedi, in an on-line publication,  Post Nigeria,  dated September 3, 2016, claiming that Obasanjo had warned President Muhammadu Buhari against seeking re-election in 2019. President Buhari and Obasanjo  But Obasanjo has described the report as “completely false and destructive by those behind it.”  The former President, in a statement issued by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, in Abeokuta on Sunday, said there has been no communication between him and Nwokedi in the last three years, and wondered why any news would be attributed to him, as published by the on-line publication.  The statement read in part, “My belief is that democracy allows for anybody including President Buhari for that...

The Nigerian Army has explained why the men of the Army Headquarters Garrison, Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, took over the premises of a company belonging to Mr. Robert Azibaola, a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday. Buratai  The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, told one of our correspondents in a text message that the land in question belonged to the Army.  Usman said the Army decided to take over the property because the service did not want any further encroachment on the property. He stressed that the Nigerian Army would not tolerate any encroachment on its land.  “The said property is on Nigerian Army’s land and the Army will not allow anybody to encroach on its land.  “Consequently, the property has to be sealed to prevent further encroachment,” he stated.  Soldiers had taken over the premises of Kakarta Civil Engineering Limited, owned by the former President’s cousin, located along the Kubw...

Mark Zuckerberg’s two-day visit to Nigeria has done a lot for the country; it is a pity no government official or agency has tried to tap into the gains of that visit. He arrived at a time there was much talk about economic recession, concerns about companies folding up or retrenching staff, or international investors leaving the country in droves, out of frustration with the uncertainties in the system. Zuckerberg’s arrival raised our hopes: co-founder of Facebook and the 5th richest man in the world, sneaked into Nigeria to meet with developers and entrepreneurs and to discuss investments in Nigeria’s growing start-up ecosystem. And for two days, he went round the city of Lagos, visiting start-ups and interacting with young entrepreneurs. Mark Zuckerberg The way Nigeria is often painted abroad, and in those travel advisories that foreign ministries issue, you would think Nigeria is such an unsafe place where kidnappers are permanently on the prowl. Zuckerberg helped to show t...

South Africa’s murder rate increased by 4.9 percent in the last year, official statistics showed Friday, with the police minister admitting the country was struggling with “a prevalent culture of violence”. A total of 18,673 people were killed in the 12 months to March — 51 people every day — up from 17,805 in the previous year. Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said the sharp increase was largely down to domestic violence and alcohol abuse. South African President Jacob Zuma . “What it says about us South Africans is that we are violent, we have a prevalent culture of violence,” he told journalists. “It’s not about what the government can do, it’s about what we can (all) do. It’s a huge societal issue that we have to deal with.” Officials said most murders occurred indoors, in urban areas and involved people known to each other. The latest figures reveal that South Africa’s murder rate has risen by nearly 20 percent in four years. The high crime rate is seen as hamperin...

A socio-political organisation, Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism, on Thursday in Abuja called on the Federal Government to shun any form of negotiation with the Boko Haram sect. The organisation also commended the military for wiping out the Boko Haram sect from the North-East. “Any attempt to negotiate with terror groups in the country will rather serve as open invitation from other miscreants to hold the nation’s peace to ransom in anticipation of financial and other selfish aggrandisement as suggested for Boko Haram”, CATE said. The Secretary-General of CATE, Daniel Obaje, made the demand when he led a protest march to the Ministries of Defence and Information and the Nigerian Army Headquarters. He advised the government not to allow any group or sect to hold the nation to ransom through unreasonable demands.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday commended the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of social networking website, Facebook, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg for sharing his wealth of knowledge with Nigerian youths, and inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs. He gave the commendation while receiving the internet entrepreneur in the State House, Abuja. Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said that the various meetings held with Nigerian youths since his arrival were most timely as the country was already exploring opportunities to spur development through entrepreneurship. Buhari and Zuckberg He said: “Nigeria has always been identified as a country with great potentials for growth, especially with our youthful population, but now we are moving beyond the potentials to reality. “I am impressed by your simplicity in sharing your knowledge and wealth with those with less income,’’ the President said. Buhari noted that the s...