Irked by the worsening insecurity in Nigeria, the People’s Redemption Party (PRP), a party with a radical leaning under the leadership of the legendary Malam Aminu Kano in the aborted Second Republic, has taken on the Northern governors, challenging them to urgently find a lasting solution to the deteriorating state of the country. PRP National Chairman, Falalu Bello, says his party wants the governors to critically address key factors compounding the deteriorating state of Nigeria, more particularly the North. ‘’Such includes a holistic and a well-informed position on education, in tune with the recent Presidential directive on free and compulsory…
Author: Akanimo Sampson
With Europe and Asia alone needing an extra 1.6 million barrels of crude oil daily, the global refining runs is projected to rise by over three million b/d in this third quarter of 2019. Already, the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) monthly report has indicated so. But, with production cuts in place, where will this crude come from? Some of the additional demand is likely to be met out of stocks. Refineries will mostly need to rely on increases in crude production/imports. However, the previous week saw the latest reports from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Energy Information…
A new research by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has warned that rising indebtedness may be a global phenomenon, but the debt levels of developing countries are amplifying their economic vulnerability. Many developing countries have experienced growing – and in some cases premature – connectivity to international financial markets following the debt relief afforded by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. ‘’There have been rising levels of developing country debt – the demand for which moves in step with international forces that have little to do with management of the…
In Cross River State, the African Action Congress (AAC), a budding opposition party, appears to be bent on literally making the absentee Governor Ben Ayade dance naked in the market square. Piqued by the festering communal crises in the state under the very nose of Governor Ayade, AAC which is fast emerging as the tormentor-in-chief of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration, is wondering what the governor has been doing with his beefy N7.00 billion security vote. The rage of the party is coming on the heels of a gory report of how a mother, Aliza, was forced to watch…
The killing rings in Nigeria, a seeming failed African giant, appeared to be celebrating the new security measures being put in place by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to contain the worsening security situation with more heartless killings. Agency report says at least 13 civilians were killed in an air raid as the military repulsed a jihadist assault in Borno State, residents and a security source said on Sunday. Multiple inhabitants of Gajiganna village, 50km from state capital Maiduguri, told AFP a military jet on Tuesday targeted jihadists from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) after they attacked a nearby military…
The international community is currently under intense heat from some agencies of the United Nations to consider the protection of the human rights of migrants and refugees a core element of its engagement. This is coming after more than 50 migrants and refugees lost their lives in an airstrike on the Tajoura Detention Centre in the east of Tripoli, the Libyan capital on July 3. Last week, the Director-General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Antonio Vitorino and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, were busy appealing to the European Union and African Union to prevent such a tragedy…
To address issues relating to the nexus between migration, trade and development, two agencies of the United Nations are currently strengthening their cooperation. The agencies are the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Heads of the two bodies on July 10 at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to increase joint programming. Their joint work will support countries to ensure effective, efficient and responsible migration governance, border management, entrepreneurship, as well as the safe, orderly and regular migration and mobility of people. IOM Director-General, António…
Former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio has landed in a seeming petty constituency equipment looting in spite of his intimidating status as a financial giant after dominating the affairs of Akwa Ibom State as governor for eight years (2007-2015). Like the worrisome allegation of his looting the treasury of the state, the latest messy looting of some sensitive equipment in his constituency could have been avoided in a bid to salvage his dented integrity. With the confirmation of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) that the former governor and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is…
In spite of the Thursday blunt denial by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that there was no plan to increase the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol in the country, industry insiders say whosoever will eventually replace Ibe Kachikwu as the new Minister of Petroleum Resources will steer the controversial issue. NNPC advised motorists and other petroleum products consumers to disregard trending rumour of a planned hike in the pump price of petrol, claiming that the statement of the corporation’s new Group Managing Director, Mele Kolo Kyari, at the National Assembly on Wednesday did not…
For the first time, a team of neuroscientists from Columbia University have controlled a visual behavior of a mouse by activating a few neurons in its visual cortex, an amazing post by Rael-Science has said. In their study, published in Cell, the researchers demonstrated that specific groups of neurons, known as neuronal ensembles, have a causal role in behavior. The researchers used new optical and analytical tools to identify cortical ensembles in mice while they performed a visual task. They also used high-resolution optogenetics to simultaneously target selected neurons with single-cell precision, taking control of the mice’s behavior. While the precise activation of…
The United Nations is currently making speedy efforts to re-energise world leaders and the global community in a bid to get the world back on track and kick-start a decade of delivery for people and planet. To this end, the global body will be hosting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate Action Summits as well as other crucial meetings during the high-level week of the 74th Session of the General Assembly in September. The latest UN’s report on the SDGs has warned that the impacts of climate change and increasing inequality across and within countries are undermining progress on the…
Contrary to the official refrain in Nigeria that the rampaging terrorist group, Boko Haram has been defeated, the humanitarian crisis in the North-East axis of the country is certainly far from being over, going by the latest updates from aid agencies that are active in the region. According to them, the crisis has continued to uproot the lives of tens of thousands of civilians as hostilities between the security forces and the non-state armed groups enter their 10th year, and even endangering the lives of a large chunk of the population as the rainy season gets progressively worse this year. Civilians…
In a seeming frantic bid to address the environmental challenges facing communities of origin in West Africa, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) organised a workshop on 3-4 July 3-4 in Rabat, Morocco, that brought together 45 experts, policymakers and academics from North and Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe to discuss opportunities for integrating environmental dimensions into reintegration activities. In West Africa, environmental challenges are widely believed to drive migration from rural areas, where livelihoods are largely dependent on natural resources (agriculture, mining and fishery). Simultaneously, these challenges impact the sustainability of reintegration for returned migrants, limiting their livelihood options and…
More than three months after the Cyclone Idai that ripped into central Mozambique, causing massive flooding and leaving behind a path of destruction, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says over 1.8 million people are still in need of humanitarian assistance. OCHA which mobilises and coordinates humanitarian assistance to people in need worldwide said more than 600 people died in the cyclone and that an unknown number are still missing. Six weeks after Idai hit, Mozambique was hit by Cyclone Kenneth, impacting more than 370,000 people in the North. This was the first time in…
A seeming nerve-breaking report by Transparency International which shows that the Police, lthe Legislature and the Judiciary are among the most corrupt institutions in Nigeria has rattled the federal lawmakers, forcing them to rise in self-defence. Chairman of the Senate ad hoc Commitee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, says the report of the global whistle-blowing body was based on perception, claiming that it did not represent the reality on the ground because no scientific investigation was carried out by the body before arriving at its conclusion. According to the Senate spokesman, ‘’the Transparency International report was merely…
The Cross River State wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has bombed the state House of Assembly as the absentee Governor Ben Ayade flew out of Nigeria again in search of investors to boost his administration’s ambitious industrialisation programme. Concerned citizens of the state are however, worried that their governor lives more on air than in Calabar, the state capital. This time, Governor Ayade jetted out leaving behind a renewed communal war between Obudu Local Government Area, his home local government area, and Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State. It has been a protracted communal inferno that is…
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has cautioned petroleum products marketers against selling Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol above N145 per litre. The state oil corporation says there is no plan to increase the pump price of petrol in the country. The state oil corporation advised motorists and other petroleum products consumers to disregard trending rumour of a planned hike in the pump price of petrol. But on Wednesday, the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, had at the National Assembly, Abuja, said that Nigeria was the only country in West Africa with the cheapest pump price…
Aiteo Eastern E&P Co has unveiled a continental ambition that will see it serving the needs of communities across Africa, helping the continent to reassert her energy independence and building a high-quality asset base, while increasing market share, revenue and shareholder value. The Niger Delta basin, Nigeria’s main oil and gas region, is a core area for Aiteo, where it is expecting to contribute high-margin production. With tens of billions of barrels of oil reserves remaining untapped, there is enough capacity there alone to support the country’s oil industry for decades to come. On its website Aiteo said, ‘’we have…
Going by one of the latest posts of the Rael-Science, diabetes can be effectively prevented. But, it’s all up to you. Fatty liver has been thoroughly investigated as a known and frequently occurring disease. But, little is known about excess weight-induced fat accumulation in the pancreas and its effects on the onset of type 2 diabetes. A research team led by Professor Annette Schürmann and Professor Tim J. Schulz of the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) has now found that overweight mice prone to diabetes have a high accumulation of fat cells in the pancreas. Mice resistant to diabetes…
Governors of Eastern Nigeria, the hotspot of Biafra agitation by Igbo youths, have advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to worry about the divisive Ruga settlements programme for his nomadic Fulani kinsmen, but should instead concentrate his administration on rebuilding the fractured Nigeria. The governors who are insisting that they have not earmarked any land in the region for the Ruga settlements programme and the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) strongly urged President Buhari, ‘’rebuild our nation whose patriotism we ignored in the time past to enable us love one another.’’ The Buhari administration had before now announced the suspension of…
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State is currently on a borrowing spree, picking up loans from every willing financial institution as his administration’s seeming bizarre bid to take over local government funds failed to sail through. Disturbingly, the state House of Assembly is complicit in the unrestrained borrowing of the Ayade administration. Already, the governor has approached the House, seeking approval to obtain N5.00 billion loan facility from First Bank of Nigeria at 18 per cent interest rate payable within 24 months. The seeming desperate loan bid is coming as the 18 Heads of Local Government Administration (HOLGA) in…
Another heartwarming Rael-Science post tends to indicate that researchers have recorded a major world first on the AIDS pandemic. In a major collaborative effort, researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) have for the first time eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA – the virus responsible for AIDS – from the genomes of living animals. Rael-Science says the study which has been reported in the journal Nature Communications, marks a critical step toward the development of a possible cure for human HIV infection. “Our study shows that treatment to suppress HIV…
Ethiopia will send 50,000 people to work in the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced Monday, as the Gulf country looks to expand its influence in the Horn of Africa. “Ethiopia is planning short-term measures to reduce unemployment in Ethiopia and to cope with the increasing job demands of our people,” Abiy told parliament in the capital Addis Ababa. “One of these short-term programmes is sending our skilled labour to foreign countries,” said Abiy, who has sought to open his country to foreign investment since assuming office last year. Samih Toukan, Samih Abdel Rahman and Hussam Khoury,…
A Rael-Science post says a lab-made human embryo has revealed a truly magical step in human development. Biology has always taught that several weeks after conception, our bodies underwent a big step in development – we grew a top end and a bottom end. But how exactly our cells figure this out has been a pretty big mystery. Now, by arranging a bundle of stem cells to act pretty much like an actual human embryo, researchers have gained a much better idea of the biochemistry behind how this process occurs in the developing human body. The diverse team of scientists…
A damning report by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a London-based organisation that tracks attacks on sea vessels, that Nigerian waters are still risky for vessels, has helped in jerking the obviously jolted Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch into action. With 30 incidents so far recorded this year, the Gulf of Guinea is widely regarded as the world’s most pirate-infested sea. Last year, the Bureau reported 72 attacks on vessels at sea between Ivory Coast and Cameroon, up from 28 in 2014. Max Williams of Africa Risk Compliance (ARC), a security consultancy, has been quoted as saying that piracy remains…
The alleged plan by the Government of Nigeria to reintroduce the controversial land-grabbing Ruga settlements for Fulani herdsmen is stoking fresh tensions in parts of the shaky country. Already, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council has started sounding their war drum, warning the Coalition of Northern Youths in the process not to misconstrue their peaceful approach to issues of Nigeria as weakness. The warning by the obviously aggrieved Igbo youths is coming as a report by The Punch has it that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, are calling on Nigerians to defend the sanctity of their ancestral lands against…
The persisting rift between the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) cum former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole and his successor, Godwin Obaseki, is currently taking a turn for the worse. Some aggrieved citizens are pressing the incumbent governor who is locked in a re-election battle with his hitherto political godfather (Oshiomhole) to bring him to account for his stewardship as the governor of the state for eight years. While the Edo Government under the watch of Governor Obaseki has already promised to probe contracts for the construction of structures and supply of equipment to Benin…
Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Chairmen of local government councils in the state are locked in a tug-of-war over the control of the funds flowing to the councils from the Federal Government. The governor is busy arm-twisting the council chairmen in a seeming desperate bid to have his way. On Thursday, he met with the Heads of Local Government Administration (HOLGAs) before jetting out to Abuja to perfect his strategy of wrestling them to the ground this week. He is billed to meet with them again this Tuesday to compel them to do his bidding despite the…
A Rainbow coalition of ethnic nationalities in Nigeria has risen against the continued funding of the private business of the Fulani people by the Federal Government under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari. In unison, the protesting ethnic nationalities want the Buhari administration to embrace and preach ranching to Fulani herdsmen instead of funding their private business. For the Afenifere, a pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, the controversial Ruga settlement programme initiated by the administration of President Buhari, himself a Fulani, has an ethnic agenda, stressing that ranching is the way to end worrisome killing by Fulani herdsmen. Their Igbo counterpart,…
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is currently not on the same page with the Northern Governors’ Forum on the fire-stoking Ruga settlements plan by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for his nomadic Fulani herdsmen. While the Northern governors are urging all stakeholders in their region to remain calm and be democratic in expressing their views about the suspended Ruga settlement project, ACF, the umbrella body for the area is calling on Nigerians not to heat up the polity on the Ruga issue, insisting that herdsmen in the country should be encouraged. ACF has expressed strong support for the Coalition…
