James Bigila's Blog

The Central Bank of Nigeria has extended the deadline for Bank Verification Number (BVN) registration, which is ongoing across the country, the News Agency of Nigeria is reporting.

The bank had earlier fixed Tuesday, June 30, as deadline for the exercise, warning that defaulters may not be able to access to their accounts from July 1.

As the deadline approached, millions of customers spent hours…

The battle for the control of the National Assembly may be long drawn as the leadership of the All Progressives Congress on Monday insisted on removing the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, of the minority Peoples Democratic Party.

One of our correspondents learnt on Monday that the ruling APC was still miffed that Ekweremadu emerged as the deputy senate president and had vowed never to…

The National Economic Council, chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday accused a former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of spending $2.1bn from the Excess Crude Account without authorisation.

“We looked at the numbers for the Excess Crude Account. The last time the former Minister of Finance and…

The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, on Monday described as baseless a claim by the former All Progressives Congress Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, that their elections on June 9 were sponsored by oil barons.

Saraki and Dogara stated this in separate statements by their aides in Abuja on Monday.

Akande, in…

Abuja –  The Deputy Leader of the Senate, Sen. Bala Ibn-Na’Allah says only a letter from the President of the country can be read on the floor of the Senate or the House of Representatives.

Na’Allah told newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday that it was the reason the purported letter written by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress to the National Assembly was not read.

According to him, it is…

A Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, said on Monday that it was morally wrong for the Peoples Democratic Party to say that President Muhammadu Buhari was too slow in just one month into his four-year administration.

He said the PDP antic was to rush President Buhari into the ‘landmines’ it had set for the administration after its painful defeat at the March 28…

ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, AT THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL, HELD AT THE COUNCIL CHAMBER OF THE PRESIDENTIAL VILLA, ABUJA, ON MONDAY 29TH JUNE 2015.

Protocol

I am delighted to be here with you at this occasion on the inauguration of the National Economic Council (NEC) for this Administration. The National Economic Council was…

ABUJA— A panel of four governors was, yesterday, constituted to probe the affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, following revelations that the corporation withheld N3.8 trillion of the N8.1 trillion generated from oil receipts.

The committee comprising governors of Gombe, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Kaduna states is also to unravel circumstances of the disappearance of another…

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday charged state governors to seek efficient ways to settle unpaid workers’ salaries in their states.

Many of the state governments have been hit by cash crunch and are owing huge workers’ salaries, among other indebtedness.

Inaugurating the National Economic Council (NEC) headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Buhari also asked…

President Muhammadu Buhari may not appoint ministers “in the next two months”, The Nation learnt at the weekend.

Three factors may account for the delay. They are:

•the President’s plan to clear the “rot” inherited from the Goodluck Jonathan administration;

•the crisis in the National Assembly over the choice of principal officers; and

•the need to reduce ministries and parastatals.

But the…

President Muhammadu Buhari  on Sunday vowed to expose the gross fraud perpetrated under former President Goodluck Jonathan administration to the whole world to see.

Buhari, who was responding to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appraisal of his administration, said Jonathan and his aides will be exposed when the loots they stole are recovered, and returned to the national treasury soon.

The…

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief Security Officer, Abdulrahman Mani, has revoked the order by the Aide-De-Camp to the President, Lt.-Col. Lawal Abubakar, removing operatives of the Department of State Services from giving Buhari close body protection.

Mani, in a memo countermanding the ADC’s order, said the DSS operatives should disregard the directive by Abubakar. He said the order was a…

The crisis between President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President Bukola Saraki is taking its toll on executive-legislature relations as both men are not on speaking terms, TheCable understands. Buhari, who preferred Ahmad Lawan as senate president, is still livid with Saraki for cutting a deal with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and outsmarting the All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in…

Bisi Akande, pioneer chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the rebellion in the senate is being viewed in the south-west as a northern conspiracy against the Yoruba. He also alleged that individuals who feel threatened by the resolve of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption influenced the emergence of Bukola Saraki as senate president. “While other position seekers are…

The Presidency, through the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, has instructed the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Prof. Mobolaji Aluko, to refund overpayment of salaries running into millions of naira. The Registrar of the university, David Suowari, was also directed to refund the sum of N130, 692.71 per month in excess of his due salary. The…

The Ahmed Joda transition committee has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately terminate all dubious appointments made by former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last nine months, and review all contracts awarded by the administration in the last 18 months.

The committee said this is to help the new government sidestep ineptitude and waste, and scale up its revenue base.

The…