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...