NIGERIAN NOTCH

By PRINCE MACDONALD ENWERE. Today the world marks the feast of St.  Valentine. It is a day set aside to commemorate the  memory of a Priest who worked against the decision of the Roman Empire to outlaw married soldiers in the military formation of the Roman Empire. This made Emperor Claudius to order his imprisonment and execution on 14th February in the year 269 AD. After his execution, in 498 AD Pope Gelasuis declared 14th February a sanction church holiday in honor of St Valentine who was martyred for the protection of the sanctity of holy matrimony.  St Valentine was a dispenser of love and an epitome of Justice, equity, selflessness and sacrifice. He sacrificed his freedom, time and personality solemnizing and guarding the institution of marriage from attack and ultimate destruction. As a Priest whose lifestyle symbolizes more than filiation  and conjugation, his life was embedded in charity, chastity, kindness, forgiveness, gratitude and selflessness. Today as ...

...Restates that Special Attention Should Be Paid on Primary Production_ Engr Chris Azubogu, the Anambra State Governorship aspirant under the platform of People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 6 election, has called for the inculcation of mentorship in the youth development process.* Engr Azubogu told journalists on Friday at Stanel World Awka after attending a mentorship programme tagged 'Access More With Stanel V2.0,' that “we must not let our mentoring processes die especially as it concerns the development of our youths. We should rather innovate our mentoring processes and expand them to cover both businesses and the entire leadership enthronement processes for the benefit of our society.”_ Azubogu, who is a member of House of Representatives representing Nnewi North/Nnewi South/Ekwusigo Federal Constituency, also stated that “primary production will not only create more jobs for our young people but will also feed our markets and attract capital imports into...

~ Ubah Speaks At "Access More With Stanel" ~ Calls For Favourable Policies That Enable Youths Develop Their Various Potentials. The Distinguished Senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, yesterday called on both the federal and state governments to start paying deliberate attention towards putting in place favourable government policies that will enable our youths harness their various  potentials. The Senator made this statement at the mentoring event put together by Chief Stanley Uzochukwu and tagged  'ACCESS MORE WITH STANEL' The Distinguished Senator, who recalled how a single government policy on deregulation adversely affected his multi billion Naira business few days  after he had invested 200 million dollars into a business venture, however said it was all to the glory of God and his personal resilience that he was able to manage the turbulence and still standing today with his company, Capi...

Valentine Ozigbo, a Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist, has called for a more pragmatic approach to encouraging and entrepreneurship among Nigerian youths, through education and awareness. Mr Ozigbo made this assertion at the Stanel Dome, Awka, on Friday, February 12, 2021, when he attended the first day of the "Access More with Stanel" event hosted by Stanley Uzochukwu, the Chairman/CEO of Stanel Group.  In a chat with journalists at the event, Ozigbo extolled Uzochukwu, for the youth-centred initiative, describing the Stanel chairman as "a young man who has not only done well for himself but is going ahead to create avenues for other young people to succeed".  Ozigbo, who is the immediate past President and Group CEO of Transcorp Plc, said Southeastern youths need exposure to platforms that "educate, inspire, and empower them to create economic growth for the region".  "Business mentorship is one of those things that make Igbos stand out,...

Former Governor of Imo, Chief, Sir Godson Ikedi Ohakim, has asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu, to withdraw the multiple criminal charges filed against him by the Nigeria police force. The former governor made the request via a petition, titled ” Re: Unlawful and Malicious Prosecution, Harassment, Intimidation, Defamation and False Information against Dr. Ikedi Ohakim at the behest of Ms Chinyere Amuchienwa -Igwegbe. Chief Ohakim in the petition called for a comprehensive investigation of all the issues that gave rise to the multiple charges against him. He specifically drew the attention of IGP, Mohammed Adamu, to the two charges filed against him at the High Court, of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Abuja division of the Federal High Court as well. The charges marked FCT/HC/CR/993/2020 and FHC/ABJ/CS/287/2020 bordered on alleged false information and alleged publishing nude pictures of the nominal complainant, Ms Chinyere Amuchienwa-Igwegbe. Ohakim...

The minister of state for education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has revalidated his membership of the ruling party, APC. This is in line with the directives of the ruling party ahead of the 2023 General elections.  He was received by the Transition Chairman of Ehime Mbano  LGA, Barr. Chidi Okechukwu, , former TC Chairman Ehime Mbano, Hon UD Ejelonu and other LGA officials of the party. Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba yesterday, participated in the registration and Revalidation Exercise of the All Progressives Congress, APC at his ward, Ihitte Nsu at Umuezeala Nsu, Ehime Mbano LGA, Imo State. This has indeed raised the hopes of his supporters and many Nigerians by harkening to the call by his party to do the biometric registration. This has indeed shown leadership by example. After his registration and revalidation, he used the opportunity to call on well meaning Nigerians, to come out enmasse and join the APC, because of the giant strides of President Muhammad Buhari, who is graduall...

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of a Public Private Partnership styled Infrastructure company named Infra-Co with an initial seed capital of N1 Trillion.  It is envisaged that, over time, the entity will grow to N15 Trillion in assets and capital.  Infra-Co will be one of the premier infrastructure finance entities in Africa and will be wholly dedicated to Nigeria’s infrastructure development. The entity has been developed with concept designs from the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria.  The President had asked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, to chair a Steering Committee tasked with setting up the company.  The initial seed capital for the entity will come from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, and the Africa Finance Corporation.  The board of Infra-Co will be chaired by the Central Bank Governor and include the Managing Director of the Nigerian Sovereign In...

By Kingsley Moghalu News of exploratory discussions for a breakaway third party from the US Republican Party should not be surprising. I foresaw the likely eventual breakup of the US Republican Party after it became "the party of Trump", i.e. a personality cult, in recent years. If this happens, it will support my thesis that there is nothing inevitable about the PDP and APC in Nigeria. I've always told those skeptical about the possibilities outside of these two Nigerian political platforms, who cite "the two party structure in America", that they are comparing apples and oranges. The two parties in America are ideological. What's the difference between APC and PDP? Many politicians wake up inside PDP and go the bed in the APC, and vice versa. That's very different from a 200 year old, largely ideological democracy. Even then, political parties in America mutated and evolved over decades. Even on issues such as slavery, the Republican party of Abraham L...

  By Oge Onyeanusi, Onitsha The newly appointed caretaker Chairman of Ogbaru Relief Market, Chief Ndubuisi Ochiogu has ordered immediate stoppage of construction of new shops in some parts of the market. Ochiogu who gave the order shortly on assumption of office, lamented that most of the shops were being erected on top of drainages, thereby creating a serious environmental problem in the market. He xepressed concern that his successor allowed the shops to be constructed without the approval of the State Commissioner for Commerce, Markets and Wealth Creation, Chief Uchenna Okafor (Wiper). He also decried the volume of garbages produced on daily basis by some market women selling vegetables at the nearby shoe market which they thereafter emptied into the drainages surrounding the market premises and warned the vegetable sellers to stop dumping the garbages into the drainages. He constituted a sanitation committee for the market and charged them to move into action with immediate eff...

By Iju Tony Nwabunike Last week, on the invitation of the Minister of Transportation, I participated with other notable maritime stakeholders, in a meeting on the implementation of newly launched Nigeria Port Process Manual (NPPM). Whereas the NPPM was conceptualised to promote transparency, accountability, predictability and eradicate corruption in the port system, this is not the first time we are having laudable concepts on paper on how best to harvest benefits from our ports. My about three decades of operation and full time presence in our maritime environment confirms that we have ideas, know the good things to do to become great but allow narrow minded interests and in some cases, corruption to reign over our good intentions. This has had its toll on the safety of crew, cargoes and vessels transiting within and around our maritime domain thereby entrenching a controversial identity of a viable maritime country with unsafe waters on us. Crew members of some foreign flagged waters...

The former governor of Imo state, Chief Godson Ikedi Ohakim, has harped on the need for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction going forward. He made this assertion today at the country home  of Chief Mbazulike Amaechi ,  the former  first republican minister of Aviation and Transport in Nigeria. Chief Ikedi Ohakim who was on a courtesy visit with the newly elected president of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Prof George Obiozor and Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, to Chief Mbazulike Amaechi,  was emphatic of the need for an Igbo man to be president come 2023. He said that there is nothing wrong with an Igbo man becoming president and that Ohaneze Ndigbo is supporting the quest of an Igbo man to be president. He said” Because being president is not president of Ndigbo but president of Nigeria, from Igbo extraction.”  He averred that all hands must be on deck in order to achieve the survival of Ndigbo in the Nigerian nation of today. He called on Ndigbo to support Prof George Obiozor...

The President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Prof. George Obiozor, has lead the new leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo under his watch, to visit Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, an Igbo elder statesman, and the first republican Minister of Transportion in Nigeria at his country home in Ukpo, Nnewi South LGA of Anambra state. Prof Obiozor in his opening remarks said, his administration would be for the overall interest of Ndigbo. He said that he would do everything humanly possible to stop any form of marginalization and discrimination against Ndigbo in Nigeria. Prof Obiozor opined that he would not use his position to alienate Ndigbo from the rest of Nigeria; but to negotiate for the inclusion of, Igbo man's Interest, in one and indivisible Nigeria. Continuing, Prof Obiozor said, “ Ndigbo have been neglected for too long in Nigeria, and in every sphere of life. The new Ohaneze leadership will break that ice of marginalization. Igbos are not evil; we are not destroyers; we are builders in t...

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says Nigeria will stick with AstraZeneca vaccine based on its epidemiological and equity assessment done by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, made the disclosure at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday in Abuja. “As earlier communicated, Nigeria is no longer expecting the 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BIONtech vaccine through the COVAX facility but has been allocated about 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “This was based on epidemiological and equity assessment done by WHO. “These vaccine will be arriving in batches, starting by late February, “ Shuaib said. He noted that Nigeria was considered one of the countries ready to receive the Pfizer vaccine but, because the distribution intended to achieve public health value, it was not practical to provide every capable country with the vaccine due to its limited quantity. “This necessitated...

Valentine’s day is around the corner and Nigeria’s telecommunications giant, Globacom has laid up an exciting offer for its subscribers to enjoy the season of love. This special valentine promotion will offer Glo customers up to 36GB of free data to share with their loved ones. The offer, which was announced yesterday in Lagos, stated, “This offer is available to subscribers who purchase two smartphones from any of the GloWorld outlets spread across the country. Customers will in turn receive free data on their Glo SIM ranging from 3GB to 36GB, which can be used over the next six months.” The network further explained that the data bonus to be offered will be determined by the price of the particular smartphones purchased. Models of handsets that are available for purchase include iPhones, Samsung, Nokia, Infinix, Tecno, Vivo, Imose and Itel. The promotion will commence on February 8 and end on February 22, 2021. “We expect that our customers will be engaged in a lot of online activiti...

The minister of State for Education Hon Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, has commended the organizers of African Code Challenge Competition for their in built reward mechanism for every task and activity with regards to Robotics and artificial intelligence. The minister was however delighted that the resolve to expand robotics programmes in all the 104 Federal Unity Colleges is yeilding the desired results. He stated that, with the training of traninees for the 104 FUCs in preparation for the fourth coming national competition on robotics and artificial intelligence, the sky is the starting point to what the children will be able to achieve going forward. He however noted that the award ceremony is a affirmation of hard work and team spirit, because the African Code Challenge Competition is aimed at providing support and inspiration for inter disciplinary teams of 8-16 years old students who are knowledgeable in coding,  from the scratch,which inspires innovative and critical thinking in stud...

.......As Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba task Principals to remind steadfast in restructuring the educational sector. The minister of State for Education, Hon Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has harped on the need for principals of Federal Unity Schools in the country to remind steadfast, in restructuring the educational system, especially during these trying times in the country. The minister made the appeal during the 2020 annual general meeting of principals of Federal unity colleges today at Chida Hotels, at  Jabi in Abuja. The theme of this year's meeting, "Restructuring our Educational system," the minister said is apt, going by the fact that it has become imperative at ensuring that quality education is delivered to maximize student performance, towards achieving conformity to the social needs of the country. He went on to state that, the present system which his ministry is envisioning for learning in the country, is to ensure that education is modified by reforming learning, cur...

 _Pledges To Purchase Primary Election Form for Him_ The umbrella body of all support groups affiliated to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the National Coalition of PDP Support Groups has thrown its weight behind the governorship bid of Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist, Valentine Ozigbo.  This high-powered endorsement, which was announced on Wednesday, February 4, 2021, at a press conference held at Parktonian Hotel, Awka, comes weeks after Ozigbo's governorship bid was endorsed by the Association of Past President Generals of Anambra State (APPAS). The delegation, which its Chairman, Chief Basil Nwolisa led, revealed that the coalition arrived at the decision after consulting widely and carrying out due diligence on all the aspirants interested in contesting the November 6 gubernatorial election on the platform of the PDP.  Chief Nwolisa said Anambra State needs a corporate and management expert, hence, their choice of Valentine Ozigbo who is a proven corp...

Chief Ndubisi Nwobu is the chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Anambra State. In this interview, he speaks on the coming governorship election in the state, and the chances of his party; among other salient issues. As Anambra governorship election draws closer, what is the level of preparation of your party towards taking over the state? We have a lot of plans, which will be unfolded as days go by. As we speak, in December, 2020, we did comprehensive evaluation of party structure and party leadership to examine how committed and prepared the party leadership are for PDP takeover of the state. Soon, we are starting mobilization and sensitization tour of all the local government areas of the state. Thereafter, we will be going into training programme for party leaders and operatives. After that, we go into another stage of contact and mobilization, reaching out to prominent citizens of the state, and telling them why PDP is best suited to come back to power in the state. After that,...