NIGERIAN NOTCH

Valentine Ozigbo, a Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist, has stressed the importance of emulating Christ Jesus by living selflessly, as Christians worldwide mark Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten period, on Wednesday, February 17, 2021.   Ash Wednesday is a day Christians consider holy and observe it with prayer and fasting. Roman Catholics, Anglican, Methodists, and some other orthodox denominations mark their foreheads with ashes to symbolise both death and repentance. It is the first activity leading up to Easter.  Mr Ozigbo made these remarks to journalists as he left St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Awka, where he observed the Ash Wednesday evening mass. He urged Christians all over the world to emulate the virtues of obedience, righteous living, and sacrifice, which the Lord Jesus Christ exemplified during his time on earth.  According to Ozigbo, who is the immediate past President and Group CEO of Transcorp Plc, Lent's sacrificial period presents a moment

Valentine Ozigbo, the immediate past president and group CEO of Transcorp Plc, has congratulated the renowned Nigerian economist, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on her appointment as director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Dr Okonjo-Iweala has served as Nigeria's finance minister and foreign affairs minister from 2003 till 2006. Most recently, she was the country's finance minister and co-ordinating minister of the economy which she served from 2011 till 2015. Her rich resume includes a 25-year stint at the World Bank, where she rose to the number two position of managing director. She was appointed as the director-general of the WTO on Monday, February 15, 2021, after representatives of its 164 member countries held a vote. In a statement issued on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Mr Ozigbo lauded Dr Okonjo-Iweala as "an icon of excellence, a trailblazer, and a world-shaper." "The world is going through a peculiar time in which the capacities of economies are

By Dr Uche Diala  Each time appointments are made, most of us quickly scroll down the list looking for names of our tribesmen or names that sound like our tribal names. No other considerations. Only extreme selfishness. Next we start posting, tweeting, retweeting and reposting ignorant propositions and lamentations. We conveniently forget that there are over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria speaking over 500 languages. So for our individual tribe, there are at least another 249 tribes and ethnic groups in Nigeria. What if all those other tribesmen reason and act like we do each time we see a list of appointments or infrastructures? Are we not selfishly marginazilizing all those other tribes and ethnic groups, simply because we are called 'majority tribe'. When we look at appointments made and or projects even from a geopolitical zones perspective, we also quickly forget that there are 6 zones in total in Nigeria and each of those zones has as much right to those appointments and de

Imo State government yesterday, graphically painted a picture of how the former governor of the state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha attempted to dupe the people of their university after N20 billion of public funds had been invested in the institution by the state government. In a world Press conference in Owerri, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy Hon  Declan Emelumba said the current government moved to recover Eastern Palm University, Ogboko from Okorocha when it became obvious that the former governor wanted to fraudulently appropriate the institution to himself. Displaying documents including approval from the National Universities Commission to authenticate the state ownership of the university, Chief Emelumba asked Okorocha to apologize to  Imo people for attempting to steal their commonwealth. According to him,”this is one of the most elaborate  and devious scam to dupe an entire state of their patrimony using the instrumentality of state power” He said that “from th

President Muhammadu Buhari has warmly felicitated with former Minister of Finance and Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her election as Director General of the World Trade Organisation, bringing joy and more honour to the country.  As the Harvard-educated and renowned economist takes up another onerous task of service to the world and  humanity, the President believes her track record of integrity, diligence and  passion for development will continue to yield positive results and rewards to mankind. President Buhari affirms that Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who over the years set major records of economic reforms in Nigeria as Minister of Finance, and later Minister of Foreign Affairs, will excel in her new position and validate the global mandate of repositioning and strengthening the multilateral institution for the greater good of all. The President joins family, friends and colleagues in wishing Dr Okonjo-Iweala well in her new endeavour.

  Says the Special Operation targeted at reclaiming public space from criminals The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has today, Monday, 15th February, 2021 flagged-off a reinvigorated special security action plan, code named ‘Operation Puff Adder II ’ to reinforce the ongoing fight against banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes in the country. The new special operation, which will be intelligence-led and community-driven, will be executed in sustained collaboration with the Armed Forces, the Intelligence Community and other sister security agencies. It is aimed at re-dominating and reclaiming the public space from criminals that are bent on threatening the internal security order across the country and bringing them to book.   The IGP, during the flag-off of the Special Operation at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, noted that Operation Puff Adder II is an initiative of the Force conceived from a deliberate and critical evaluation of the pattern a