Curator

http://ift.tt/2rAsFyU Minster of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola. Apparently worried by the lack of valuation standard in the real estate sector, the federal authorities have urged the estate surveyors to develop transparent, simple and comprehensive estate valuation data. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who gave the charge while inaugurating the members of Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON) led by its Chairman, Olayinka Sonaike expressed concern over the rising costs of acquiring lands and other landed property. Fashola who observed that the current values of landed property does not reflect the prevailing social and economic downturn and realities in the country, tasked the board to come out with stringent regulatory measures to ensure that the prices are in tune with economic realities. He said that the negative impact of the rising costs can easily be seen in the increasing costs of doing b...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Emmanuel Macron became France’s youngest ever president on Sunday, promising at his inauguration to restore the country’s lost confidence and relaunch the flagging European Union. Macron, a 39-year-old centrist, took the reins of power from Socialist Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace a week after his resounding victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in an election that was watched worldwide. After a private meeting with his former mentor Hollande and his first speech as president, Macron headed up the rainy Champs Elysees in an army vehicle, waving to small crowds of wellwishers who gathered along the famed avenue. Macron said his first priority would be “to give back to the French people the confidence that for too long has been flagging”. “I will convince our compatriots that France’s power is not in decline, but that we are at the dawn of an extraordinary renaissance because we have all the qualities which will make… the great powers of the 2...

http://ift.tt/2rhdxX1 The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, has stressed the need for Public Private Partnership (PPP) in driving Information Communication Technology (ICT) and development of smart cities in Nigeria. He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of Transform Africa Summit 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda, that unless the huge infrastructure deficit in Nigeria was addressed, achieving the Smart Africa Initiative would be difficult. A smart city is an urban development vision to integrate in ICT and Internet of Things (IoT), technology in a secure fashion to manage a city’s assets. The minister, who said that Nigeria was engaged in the process of building smart cities, called for private sector investment in the sector to address the infrastructure challenge and achieve the goal. He said there was need for collaboration between private and public sectors to develop ICT in Nigeria. He ad...

http://ift.tt/2qHCkX1 Abiola Ajimobi Ahead of increasing political activities in Oyo State and the jostling for relevance by various stakeholders, many questions are begging for answers on who occupies the Agodi Government House in 2019. Incumbent governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is on the home stretch of his two terms of eight years and there is need to determine his successor and the zone where the person comes from. Top of the issues agitating the minds of stakeholders is whether the state’s political leaders would respect the gentleman’s agreement of zoning in selecting the next governor or make it an all comers contest? Besides, would the people of Oke Ogun from Oyo North, which is yet to produce a governor in the state since the dawn of democracy, speak in one voice to overcome the hurdles that have been preventing it from realizing the long-held ambition? This must have informed the renewed agitation by leaders of Oke Ogun that...

http://ift.tt/2rhbpOQ The UN-Habitat Governing Council takes place every two years to approve the agency’s overall work plan and budget, as well as to pass resolutions on specific issues. Ultimately, it was the New Urban Agenda’s inability to resolve basic questions about the future of UN-Habitat that turned this year’s governing council into something of a placeholder. After last year’s adoption of a 20-year global strategy on urbanization, the first gathering of United Nations member states may have adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding next steps to coordinate implementation of the accord, known as the New Urban Agenda. The 26th Governing Council meeting of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–Habitat) held last week at the headquarters of the agency for human settlements and sustainable urban development, the 58 countries that oversee the organization backed down on any significant decisions until the completion of a major evaluation of th...

http://ift.tt/2rh5ERh ECOWAS Headquarters<br /> • Troops arrest fleeing suspected B’Haram member The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament has urged member-states to implement the Counter Terrorism Strategy (CTS). The organisation said the CTS, aimed at helping ECOWAS member and observer states understand terrorist activities in the region and track the CTS implementation efforts through the presentation of actionable data, would assist states to counter violent extremism in the West African region. Meanwhile, troops of Forward Operation Base, Fika, Yobe State yesterday arrested a fleeing suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Bala Ibrahim, age 30, while on a routine patrol. The troops also arrested four suspected kidnappers at Mundu village following a tip off from residents of the area. The suspects are Yahaya Auta, age 25, Salisu Lawal, age 20, Umar Mohammed, 18 years and Samaila Abubakar.A statement by the Director, Army Public Relations,...

http://ift.tt/2rcYFb5 Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha • Assembly Insists On de-recognising 110 Autonomous Communities  As the 27 members of Imo House of Assembly insist that the state governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha should de-recognise some autonomous communities and merge them, the indigenes of Osuama autonomous community in Isiala Mbano Local Council of Imo State, at the weekend, presented their newly elected monarch, Eze Edmond Umunnakwe Agim, as the Eze Udo IV to Geofrank Ijezie, chairman, Transition Committee of the Local Council. The former monarch of the community had passed on. The Guardian gathered that Osuama autonomous community was created decades ago, and that it did not fall into the category of the 110 communities the House of Assembly, a fortnight ago, urged Okorocha, to de-recognise due to heavy cost of running them. At the occasion, which held at Umuelimai Council headquarters amid pump and pageantry, many members of the community and the Palace Sec...

http://ift.tt/2pXqWSj Sir: The problem with the Rivers State government’s strategy on amnesty for cultist and kidnappers is that they are gunning for perfection in the fight against cultism and criminality. You cannot have a perfect society. Criminality is part of the society, and there is no society that is free from crime. The aim of any government should be to reduce crime. The best way the government of Rivers State can reduce the level of criminality in the state is to show that they can fight criminality by displaying their panoply of smoking guns, indeed, not words. Talk less and wield the big stick. The absence of the will to fight criminality breeds more crime in Rivers State especially with the level of self-entitlement by youths that have risen to a barbarous plateau. Youths, most of whom lack competence for anything but subordinate all responsibilities to government. Nigerians are only one step better than the xenophobic people in South Africa. Only because they h...

http://ift.tt/2ptqlbv Samuel Ortom No fewer than 21,000 members of the Fulani community resident in Benue State under the aegis of Miyette Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) have petitioned Governor Samuel Ortom over the alleged appointment of a non-Fulani man, Shehu Tambaya as his Special Assistant on Fulani Matters. The group in its petition signed by its national coordinator, Garus Gololo and copied Secretary to the State Government (SSG), the state All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman, the state Attorney General and the Chief of Staff to the governor, averred that majority of them were registered members of the APC and wondered why they should be neglected in such appointment in favour of an alien. Gololo said, while the association recognizes the exclusive rights of the governor to appoint whoever he wishes to any office, he however, appealed and insisted that such a sensitive position that concerns a group of people and the government must be properl...

http://ift.tt/2pVbLwU The network providers continually charge its subscribers for calls they do not make, for services they have not asked for and so on. These practices are carried out with the full knowledge of the NCC but not a whimper comes from the regulatory body. Last year there was an almighty battle between the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and MTN over whether MTN met its obligations of ensuring that every user of MTN was captured biometrically. The NCC imposed huge fine of several billions of naira for the failure of MTN. I am not a fan of MTN but there was no doubt that the fine was excessive and deliberately too punitive. One had the impression that what we were seeing was the expression of a fight somewhere else. The question is, if NCC can impose these massive fines – who then can impose a fine on NCC for dereliction of duty? The network providers continually charge its subscribers for calls they do not make, for services they have not asked for and so o...

http://ift.tt/2oFtOSJ Taxaide, an innovative tax management firm in this move with ANTEA, an international organisation of independent firms, would ensure increased promotion of highly qualified auditing, consulting, tax and legal management services in the country. Taxaide Professional Services (Taxaide) has become the first Nigerian member of Alliance of Independent Tax, Audit, and Legal and Consulting firms (ANTEA). Taxaide, an innovative tax management firm in this move with ANTEA, an international organisation of independent firms, would ensure increased promotion of highly qualified auditing, consulting, tax and legal management services in the country. Besides, with membership from over 200 cities, ANTEA is highly ranked in the International Accounting Bulletin (IAB).Also, Taxaide’s membership, is an indication of its position as a strong emerging leader in innovative tax management and technology service in Nigeria. The Managing Director of Taxaide, Bidemi Daniel Ol...

http://ift.tt/2pWk2Qg Niger Delta region is as enigmatic as its people – a conglomeration of diverse ethnicities, loosely bound by poorly defined common interests. As a region, it almost exclusively bears all of Nigeria’s hydrocarbon deposits. The Niger Delta region is as enigmatic as its people – a conglomeration of diverse ethnicities, loosely bound by poorly defined common interests. As a region, it almost exclusively bears all of Nigeria’s hydrocarbon deposits – the mainstay of the nation’s economy. Yet, it is home to some of the poorest adults and most malnourished children. It is endowed with other abundant natural resources – internal water bodies, massive coastline and tropical forests. Yet, these resources remain largely untapped with consequential high unemployment rate and youth restiveness. Once renowned for their rich hospitality, the people are now perceived more as militants and criminal elements to be hounded and denigrated. There is a wide gap between the aspirati...