Screams and Tears of joy rent the air Sunday night as Mercy Eke, beat 21 others with whom she entered the BBNaija House in June for the Reality Show, dubbed *Pepper Dem* to the coveted prize.
During the grand glamourous finale, she was announced winner by the anchor, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, beating four others, all men.
Mercy, 26, from Owerri North, Imo State, carted away prizes worth N60million, including N30million in cash and, an SUV vehicle worth N25m, from Innoson Motors.
She also gets a-one year supply of Pepsi cola and Indomie, and a trip to Dubai, and more.
Despite closing borders with Nigerian neighbors, the presidency is unfazed in the continuous execution of plans to extend rail lines from Kano, through Kazaure in Jigawa state, and Jibia, terminating in Maradi, Niger Republic-a distance of 806 kilometers, a distance more than from Calabar to Abuja via Lagos, which totals 770 kilometers.
Reports indicate that roads and rails in Nigeria are in deplorable condition. In fact, the Minister of Transport was once reported to have admitted that the rail lines being commissioned by the federal government are rails mostly completed by the previous administration. The rails within the country allegedly comes after the Niger project in order of priorities.
Nigeria currently has its borders closed, which is said to have placed tremendous pressures on Benin Republic in particular, with reports of a suffocating economy. Even with that, there has been reports of Rice importations through the Niger border using convoys of motorcycles. In fact, there has also been reports of Nigerian customs storming Car shops and warehouses impounding cars and seizing bags of Rice.
In the middle of these, President Muhammadu Buhari announced in his Independence day broadcast that the rail line to Niger Republic is being pursued uninterruptedly. “Negotiations are also advanced for the construction of other Railway lines, firstly from Kano to Maradi in Niger republic passing through Kazaure, Daura, Katsina, jibia to Maradi”, Buhari said in the broadcast.
These roads are already said to have been captured in the budget, and there are no indications that Niger will share the cost with Nigeria.
Maradi links to one of the most porous borders in the country, and is said to be a predominantly fulani city. niger was the first country visited by Buhari in 2015 after he was elected president. President of Niger then gave him a white horse and a golden sword.
Nigeria is reeling under a heavy debt burden. The presidency frequently borrows to fund budgets despite humongous amounts the government claims to have recovered in the anti corruption war. In fact, Nigerian debt profile increased to $25609.63 million from $25274.36 million in the first quarter of 2019.
The Abuja Unity Fountain, which has over time become the symbol of protests and human rights Activism in Nigeria, is currently being fenced with wire gauze. Suspicion, however, is being laid on the doorsteps of the All Progressives congress, APC led Federal Government. They are alleged to have ordered the fencing to prevent groups from using it, hence fueling the allegations that the government is covertly or overtly muzzling opposition.
The Fountain is said to have been built by the business Czar Ishyaku Rabiu, owner of IRS Airlines, who built it as a recreation center. But over time it has become the center for activism and protests against government by pro-democracy and other activists. It was popularized by the BringBackOurGirls group, led by Oby Ezekwesili, during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan at the peak of the Chibok Girls saga.
It was also meant to have been fully utilized the Revolution Now group.
But Oby ezekwesili herself has reacted to the Fencing. Writing on her twitter page, she said that the atempt to stifle opposition “will end in tears”.
“Let me offer free counsel to our @NGRPresident@MBuhari. Ask your contractors to roll back their construction equipment @Our Unity Fountain now. This act of stifling Citizens Voice will end in tears. But it won’t be citizen’s crying sir”.
In a very strongly worded statement he personally signed, former President Goodluck Jonathan has dubbed former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, a liar of the worst order.
Jonathan was reacting to the contents of a Memoir, *For The Records* ,written by Cameron wherein he alleged that Jonathan refused offers made by the British government, which he, Cameron, headed, to rescue some of the abducted Chibok Girls who, he claimed British Security personnel located in a bush. He alleged that Jonathan rejected the offer because he thought it was politics, and so, dismissed it as an internal affair.
Cameron:”As ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ campaign spread across the world, we embedded a team of military and intelligence experts in Nigeria, and sent spy planes and tornadoes with thermal images to search for the missing girls. And, amazingly, from the skies above a forest, three times the size of Wales, we managed to locate some of them.
“But, Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, seemed to be asleep at the wheel. When he eventually made a statement, it was to accuse the campaigners of politicising the tragedy. And absolutely, crucially, when we offered to rescue the girls we had located, he refused”
Cameron said he expected a better handling of the Chibok Girls issue by Jonathan.
But in a rebuttal entitled
“My Response To David Cameron’s Claims” an angry and shocked Jonathan said nothing could be further from the truth than Cameron’s claims. He revealed that contrary to such claims, which Jonathan said had also been denied by Cameron’s immediate successor, Theresa May, he was the one who wrote to Cameron, then American President, Barack Obama, and the Isreali Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, asking for help from them to rescue the girls. Accusing Cameron of deliberate mischief, Jonathan insisted that it was mischief that made Cameron not to even mention in his book the letter written to him for help. Then, Jonathan asked a pertinent question. ‘How could I refuse the help I asked for?’, citing instances where, under him, Nigeria corroborated with Britain, for such rescue operations.
Jonathan revealed that the reason Cameron hates him, and concocted such story against him is because he refused to endorse same sex marriage over which he was put under so much pressure by Cameron. He disclosed that he refused to succumb to such pressure because he swore to the oath of office with his hands on the Holy Bible. He also disclosed that both Obama and Cameron held a meeting with the opposition to condemn him for signing the bill prohibiting Same Sex Marriage.
Following, Jonathan’s Statement entitled:
My Response To David Cameron’s Claims
“I read the comments by former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in his new book, For the Record, in which he accused me and the Nigerian Government, which I headed, of corruption and rejecting the help of the British Government in rescuing the Chibok Girls, who were kidnapped on April 14, 2014.
It is quite sad that Mr. Cameron would say this because nothing of such ever occurred. As President of Nigeria, I not only wrote letters to then Prime Minister David Cameron, I also wrote to the then US President, Barrack Obama, and the then French President, François Hollande, as well as the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealing to them for help in rescuing the Chibok Girls.
How could I write to appeal for help and then reject the very thing I appealed for?
David Cameron
Also, history contradicts Mr. Cameron. On March 8, 2012, when the same Boko Haram linked terrorists abducted a British expatriate named Chris McManus, along with an Italian hostage Franco Lamolinara, in Sokoto, I, as Nigerian President, personally authorised a rescue effort by members of the British military Special Boat Service supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, to free the abducted men.
So, having set a precedent like that, why would I reject British help in rescuing the Chibok Girls, if it was offered?
I also authorised the secret deployment of troops from the United Kingdom, the United States and Israel as a result of the Chibok incident, so how Mr. Cameron could say this with a straight face beats me.
Moreover, on March 8, 2017, the British Government of former Prime Minister, Theresa May, in a widely circulated press statement, debunked this allegation and said there was no truth in it after Mr. Cameron had made similar statements to the Observer of the UK.
In his book, Mr. Cameron failed to mention that I wrote him requesting his help on Chibok. Why did he suppress that information? I remind him that copies of that letter exist at the State Houses in Nigeria and London. He never called me on the phone to offer any help. On the contrary, I am the one that reached out to him.
He accused me of appointing Generals based on political considerations. How could that be when I fired my service chiefs twice in five years, to show that I would not tolerate anything less than meaningful progress in the war on terror.
I was completely blind to ethnic or political considerations in my appointments. In civil and military matters, I appointed people that I had never even met prior to appointing them, based on their professional pedigree. Though I was from the South, most of my service chiefs came from the North.
I do, however, know that Mr. Cameron has long nursed deep grudges against me for reasons that have been published in various media.
On July 24, 2013, while celebrating the passage of the United Kingdom’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, 2013, Mr. Cameron said “I want to export gay marriage around the world”.
At that occasion, he boasted that he would send the team that successfully drafted and promoted the Bill, to nations, like Nigeria, saying inter alia:
“I’ve told the Bill team I’m now going to reassign them because, of course, all over the world people would have been watching this piece of legislation”.
As President of Nigeria at that time, I came under almost unbearable pressure from the Cameron administration to pass legislation supporting LGBTQ Same Sex marriage in Nigeria. My conscience could not stomach that, because as President of Nigeria, I swore on the Bible to advance Nigeria’s interests, and not the interest of the United Kingdom or any foreign power.
As such, on Monday, January 13, 2014, I signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill into law after the Bill had been passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Nigeria’s parliament, in line with the wishes of the Nigerian people. This happened shortly after a study of 39 nations around the world by the U.S. Pew Research Center came up with a finding which indicated that 98 percent of Nigerians were opposed to the idea of Gay Marriage.
Immediately after I took this patriotic action, my government came under almost unbearable pressure from Mr. Cameron, who reached me through envoys, and made subtle and not so subtle threats against me and my government.
In fact, meetings were held at the Obama White House and at the Portcullis House in Parliament UK, with the then Nigerian opposition to disparage me, after I had signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill into law.
On the issue of corruption, it suffices to say that Mr. Cameron is not as competent as Transparency International, which is globally acknowledged as the adjudicator of who is corrupt and who is not.
During my administration, in 2014, Nigeria made her best ever improvement on the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, moving from 144 the previous year, to 136, an 8 point improvement. As a nation, we have not made such improvements on the CPI before or after 2014.
In line with these facts, I would urge the public to take Mr. Cameron’s accusations with a grain of salt. I will not be the first person to accuse him of lying on account of this book, and with the reactions in the Uk so far, I definitely will not be the last.”
He signed off the statement as:
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation and President of Nigeria 2010-2015.
Nigeria is celebrating this year’s World Teachers Day in fear and tears. Why? Two of the noble trainers of the society were, on Thursday, October 3, 2019, kidnapped from a private Secondary School, Engravers College, a boarding school which is located in a remote area near Kakau Daji village in Chikun Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State. They also took away six female students of the school to an unknown destination.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Kaduna State Police Command, Yakubu Sabo, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP),who confirmed the incident, said the incident was possible because of the porous fence of the school, assuring that the force was on the trail of the kidnappers.
“The gunmen invaded the school through a porous fence in the early hours of Thursday (yesterday) morning, went straight to the female hostel and abducted six students. Two teachers residing inside the school were also kidnapped by the bandits and their whereabouts are yet unknown.
“Information from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Toll Gate in the early hours of today (yesterday) at about 0310 hours indicated that some armed men gained entry into Engravers College, a boarding secondary school in a remote area near Kakau Daji village in Chikun Local Government Area (LGA) and took away two staff of the college and six female students to an unknown destination.
“On receipt of the information, the command immediately mobilised a team of anti-kidnapping, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and conventional police (officers) to the area for (a) possible rescue of the victims and arrest of the perpetrators. The IGP Intelligent Respond team (IRT) has been contacted for technical support,” he said.
Arguably the noblest profession among its peers of discipline in life, the United Nations (UN), in 1994, declared that October 5 of every year would be World Teachers Day (WTD) or International Teachers Day to celebrate teachers worldwide.
In UN’s 19 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the fourth goal – education- recognises teachers as key players to the achievement of the Education 2030 agenda.
The 2019 WTD has the theme: “Young Teachers: The future of the Profession.” This is aimed at proffering ideas to attract and keep young persons in the profession because of the desertion of young people from the profession.
According to the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 69 million new teachers are needed to provide quality universal primary and secondary education by 2030, which is the deadline for the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Magazine’s findings reveal that thousands of Nigerian teachers continue to work without the needed support and training to impart knowledge to students in this digital age.
The country’s huge school deficit is one of the great challenges of the country’s education. The resultant over-population in classes of most government-owned schools have continued to over -stretch teachers beyond their natural limit, thereby making nonsense of their huge contributions.
Taiwo Badejo, a teacher in one of Lagos State’s Primary schools, lamented to the Magazine that aside every other thing, the Nigerian teachers still have to grapple with poor conditions of service, lack of basic teaching aids and tools, unappreciated and poor funding.
“ Do we (teachers) look as healthy as those in other professions? We are an abandoned lot whose reward, many still believe, is in heaven. Who would like his child to be a teacher? Nobody. We are condemned to produce the best with the poorest facilities, dilapidated buildings and classrooms, as the authorities find it difficult to pay us the peanut salaries,” he said, rather dejectedly.
Kenneth Okafor, an educationist, in a chat with the Magazine expressed displeasure that the noble teaching profession has become a dumping ground for non- trained people who are not able to get employment in their field of study. This accounts for the misnomers we get among those teachers, and the name of the teaching profession is soiled.
“ Teachers are real care-givers, parents of the children they teach. They are ready to defend them, as they also suffer the students’ fate like the recent kidnap of two teachers and six female students from a Kaduna school.
“ How many teachers have been abducted and, sometimes, killed in recent times? According to a UN 2018 data, 2,295 teachers have been killed since the insurgency in the North-east, a number which has continued to increase. This is not to say there are no bad eggs among them.
“These are the all comers that I described who have nothing to do as teachers. They can do anything to make money, like the recent case in one of the schools in the East where a female teacher faked her kidnap to extort about N500,000 from her relatives. Unfortunately, it backfired,” he added.
The new Economic team inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari is already running into critical waters as pundits are of the opinion that it once again throws up the Presidency’s disdain for the constitutional provisions. The inaugurations has further alienated the Vice presidency from mainstream governance.
Recall that Buhari, contrary to constitutional provisions, had inaugurated an economic team headed by himself. The team comprised Bismark Rewane, financial derivatives critic and Charles Soludo, a former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN governor. The team is being chaired by Doyin Salami. Salami sits on the CBN monitory policy team, and is a Director of Lagos Business School, and Vice Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan transition Committee in 2015. They are to report directly to the president. This had effectively dissolved the Economic Management, team, EMT, headed by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Ironically, all members of the team are avid critics of Buhari’s economic agenda-or lack thereof.
Buhari has advisers in every aspect of governance except in economy. Even with no economic know how, he allegedly he issues direct orders to the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, forcing him to make decisions the members of his new team has always been critical of. Therefore critics are not expecting the new group to work wonders since the presidency’s penchant to throwing money at issues-and going cap in hand to borrow when the treasury goes bust-will clash with the conservative economy of the eight man group. Rewane has once refereed to the CBN under Buhari as a “piggy Bank”.
More worrisome is the fact that none of Buhari’s cabinet members-including the CBN governor, Vice President, minister of Finance and her counterpart in budget and planning-are part of the team.
Opposition members generally believe that the economic team is geared to both silence the vocal economic critics and alienate the Vice presidency, a move aimed at crippling the alleged 2023 presidential ambition of Osinbajo. Sources say they are expected to report more to Aba Kyari, the Presidential Chief of staff, than to Buhari.
Buhari himself has said no one should approach him directly except the person passes through Aba Kyari. All former economic teams were handled by the Vice President, even under the chairmanship of the powerful Okonjo Iweala, former Minister of Finance.The Economic Team was then headed by the Vice President, Namadi Sambo.
On September 26, the Nigerian government got a respite on the $9.6BN fine slammed on the nation by a British court over breach of contract with P&ID, an Irish engineering firm.
The respite, the magazine learned was due to the powerful delegation from Nigeria, which included top diplomats and senior lawyers to United Kingdom.
By last weekend, the magazine learned that the federal government is upbeat about setting aside the judgment, which the Buhari government said, if implemented could impoverish hoards on Nigerians.
It has therefore, assembled qualified local and international finance and contract lawyers to represent Nigeria at the appeal.
“Most of our lawyers will be drawn from those that really understand the British jurisprudence. It’s a mix of Nigerian and British attorneys versed in contractual matters,” a Foreign Affairs Ministry official told the magazine on Saturday.
On Wednesday last week, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed disclosed in Abuja that the judgment was a scam and that everything will be done by the government to set it aside.
Mohammed explained that the September 10 judgment cannot stand in the face of glaring evidence that the owners of P&ID were only trying to cheat Nigeria.
The company without a physical address and no known investment anywhere in the world has set out to dupe Nigeria from day one, with the connivance of unpatriotic, corrupt and greedy Nigerians, the minister said.
Mohammed vowed that the Buhari administration, as part of its fight against graft will not allow this to happen, promising that all Nigerian collaborators will be fished out and tried.
The minister outlined the grounds in which the federal government plans to fortify its appeal.
“A contract of this magnitude cannot be valid until it has been vetted by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and taken to the Federal Executive Council for approval. None of these was done.
“The sham contract was also signed in contravention of the Bureau of Public Procurement Act and the Infrastructure Regulatory Commission Procurement Act.
“While the MoU for the project was signed in 2009 by P&ID Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian government (Ministry of Petroleum Resources), a ‘trick’ clause dubiously inserted in the MoU was curiously activated.
“The clause allowed British Virgin Island (BVI)-registered P&ID to replace the original contractual party, P&ID Nigeria Limited, to sign the contract on Jan. 11 2010. P&ID, incorporated in BVI, is a shell company that has no history of any business except the phantom GSPA in Nigeria.”
Apart from these, Mohammed said the government has discovered that two other companies, who are supposed to be part of the contract were not aware of its existence.
According to him, the gas for the project was expected to come from OML 67 operated by ExxonMobil and OML 123 operated by Addax but none of the two companies was aware of the agreement.
The agreement was not also in the 2010 budget, he said.
The minister said “For such a supposedly important project, there was no budgetary provision for the implementation of the GSPA in the budget of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in 2010.”
He added that P&ID was not known to Nigeria extant laws, while the firm has no tax payment record in the country.
He explained that two directors of the company mohammed Kuchazi and Adamu Usman were felons, convicts of money laundering charges.
The minister said suspicious transfers of funds were made to some civil servants to make sure that the contract sailed through, among those that allegedly received bribe, he stated is one Grace Taiga, the Legal Director in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources
“Taiga was supposed to ensure that the interest of the country was adequately protected.
Of course, the payment, transferred in three tranches, could only have been made in appreciation of the ‘good deed’ done to P&ID by Taiga.
Also, billions of Naira in suspicious cash transfers were made by P&ID,” Mohammed said.
It was learned that the President Buhari government has continued in its effort to reach out to its British and Irish counterparts to intervene in the matter.
Other European nations who have diplomatic relations with Nigeria, have also been consulted over the issue, The Source was told by competent sources from Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
A British industrial court had early September delivered a judgment which experts warn could lead to the expropriation of Nigerian assets abroad worth over N3 trillion.
No sooner after the judgment, P&ID said it was prepared to seize Nigerian assets abroad worth the fine.
Bu the federal government has said it disagreed with the judgment which it described as a scam.
Thus following the notice of appeal filed by the federal government, the British court gave a 60 day window within which the appeal should be files.
The court however, directed that the Nigerian government to pay $200million before the appeal could be heard.
Nigeria has agreed with the South African government on compulsory issuance of Visas by bot countries to Business men, Academics and frequent travelers, ending speculations on the major benefits of the trip of president Muhammadu Buhari to Johansbourg.
There has been outcry on the essence of President Buhari going to South Africa after the Xenophobic Attacks. Critics of the government insist that the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, ought to have come to Nigeria for diplomatic fence mending. However, Ramaphosa is said to have officially apologized for the attacks in South Africa.
Buhari’s visit coincides with the the bi-national commission of Nigeria and South Africa, when the two countries jaw-jaw on issues of mutual interests. Previously the presidents of both countries are not part of such discussions but, due to issues arriving from the Xenophobic attacks, the two presidents jointly presided over the commission for the first time.
According to Garba Shehu, the Presidential spokesperson, the decision was taken to encourage more people-to-people contacts among citizens of both countries and further strengthen socio-cultural, economic and political relations.
The full statement reads:
“NIGERIA, SOUTH AFRICA TO ISSUE 10-YEAR VISA TO BUSINESSMEN, ACADEMICS
Following the successful conclusion of the 9th Bi-National Commission of South Africa and Nigeria meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, which was elevated to the level of heads of state, both countries have agreed on issuing 10-year visas to businessmen, academics and frequent travelers.
The agreement was reached in a meeting co-chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, which was the first time both presidents will preside since the Bi-National Commission was elevated.
The decision was taken to encourage more people-to-people contacts among citizens of both countries and further strengthen socio-cultural, economic and political relations.
At the meeting held at the Union Buildings, Presidential Palace of South Africa, the two presidents agreed on early warning signals to nip violence in the bud before it escalates, while taking into consideration the need to share more intelligence and promote stronger partnership in security.
Both countries also agreed to re-establish the consular forum, which is a structured arrangement where both governments meet regularly, at least twice in a year, to discuss welfare of citizens.
Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, signed the minutes of the 9th session of Bi-National Commission.
Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)”.
Earlier, President Buhari had told Nigerians in South Africa to act like Romans when in Rome, and that they should use their expertise to come back home to help develop Nigeria-an admonition that met with mixed reactions among Nigerians on Social media.
The fifth Metropolitan/Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion has just been elected. He is the Most Rev. Henry Ndukuba, Archbishop of Jos Province and Bishop of Gombe Diocese.
Elected on Tuesday 24th September 2019 at the Cathedral Church of St Peter’s Asaba, Delta State duing the Episcopal Synod of the Church, Ndukuba is the first Archbishop of South-East extraction to be elected the Metropolitan/Primate of the Church of Nigeria and Bishop of Abuja Diocese. He succeeds The Most Rev’d Nicholas D Okoh whose term would expire by the end of March 2020.
The Constitution of the Church of Nigeria, allows for four nominations for the election of a Primate. This was strictly adhered to in Asaba. So, the election that produced ArchBishop Ndukuba was a contest between four Prelates, which included the former Archbishop of the Province of Ibadan and current Bishop of Ibadan, The Most Rev Joseph Akinfunwa, Bishop of Lokoja and former Archbishop of Lokoja Province, Most Rev Emmanuel Egbunu and the Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University and Bishop Theologian, The Rt. Rev Prof Dapo Asaju.
The eventual winner, according to inside sources, was at the verge of declining and withdrawing his nomination for fear of losing out, but the spirit of God prevailed.
Taking a retrospective appraisal of the ministry of Archbishop Ndukuba, one would no doubt notice that fate always guided him. His attainments were well beyond coincidence, because they were simply the ways of God.
One interesting fact about the new Primate is the uniqueness of the month of September and the number 9 in his life.
He was born in the 9th month, September 1959, ordained a Priest in September , 1989, consecrated a Bishop in September 1999, presented as Archbishop in September 2017 and elected as Primate of all Nigeria in September 2019.
Meanwhile, according to his biography released by the Anglican Cable Network Nigeria, The Most Rev’d Henry Chukwudum Ndukuba, who hails from Ogberuru, Orlu, in Imo State, was born in Anambra State in September, 1959. He was ordained into the Holy Orders of Priesthood in September, 1989.He was consecrated the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Gombe, with seven other Bishops on 21st September 1999. On 25 November 1999 the new Diocese was inaugurated as the 71st Diocese of the Church of Nigeria. In September 2017, the Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) holding at St Paul’s Cathedral Diobu Port Harcourt elected Ndukuba as Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Jos.
The Most Rev’d Ndukuba is currently the Bishop of Gombe Diocese, Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Jos, and Chairman of the Liturgy and Spirituality Committee of the Church of Nigeria. His election has been described as an act of God. The Episcopal Secretary of the Church of Nigeria and Bishop of Okigwe South, The Rt. Rev David Onuoha, who disclosed this said the Church was grateful to God that the Episcopal Synod in Asaba was able to elect another committed, devoted and dedicated Prelate as the leader of the Church of Nigeria in succession to the outgoing Primate, Most Rev Nicholas Okoh, who would be completing his mandatory ten-year tenure in March 2020, he added.
Onuoha pointed out that they were pleased with the giant strides the Church has made within the tenure of Most Rev Okoh, stressing their joy knew no bounds on the election of Archbishop Ndukuba, a man who has been part of the monumental achievements and success story of the Okoh administration both spiritually, structurally and otherwise. Bishop Onuoha disclosed that the new Primate- elect had had the totality of his ministry in the north, stressing that in the face of the security challenges in the area, Archdeacon Ndukuba never thought of being translated to the South, insisting that his call was with the faithful in the North.
The fiery gospel preacher enumerated the various roles of the Primate-elect in putting out the spiritual resource materials, like the Daily Devotion, Daily Fountain,The Dynamite, Bible study series amongst others for the spiritual development of the Church of Nigeria, describing the Archbishop as as one who by the special grace of God has the character, competence, courage and the commitment to take the Church of God to greater heights.
The Primate-Elect is also reported to be a sound Biblical Scholar, Teacher, Master liturgist, Pastor and an accomplished Evangelist. The Constitution of the Church allows every Primate of the Church a two five years tenure or 70 years in age, whichever comes first, to retire from his primacy.
Forty years ago 16 Dioceses of Nigeria, precisely on 24 February 1979, were joined to constitite the Church of Nigeria, a newly founded Province of the Anglican Communion, with Timothy O. Olufosoye, then Bishop of Ibadan, becoming its first Archbishop, Primate and Metropolitan. In1986 Most Rev Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye became the Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria.
Worthy of note, also, is that between 1980 and 1988, eight additional Dioceses were created. ArchBishop Adetiloye was succeeded by The Most Rev Peter Akinola in 2000 while the out-going Primate of All Nigeria, The Most Rev Nicholas D Okoh took over from him in 2010 .
The Primate-elect is married to Angela Eberechukwu Ndukuba, with whom he has children.
Okoroh is the Diocesan Communicator/Press Secretary , Diocese of Egbu
To be able to pay the minimum wage of N30,000 per month, thousands of workers would have to be laid off.
The Federal Government on Thursday made known this stand following its inability to pay the new minimum wage of N30,000 to all the workers. To do that, it would have to reduce the number of its workforce.
This disclosure was made by the Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, when members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Abuja.
Ngige said for the FG to meet the new minimum wage demands, it has to reduce its workforce to lighten the wages burden on it.
He stressed that the country needs additional N580 billion to meet the newly approved wage.
Ngige said workers on grade level 1 to 6 have started enjoying the new wage, but for other levels in the Civil Service to enjoy these largesse, it has to trim down the workforce.
He pleaded with his guests for understanding and accept the adjustment made from level 7 to 17.
The Minister revealed that the Federal Government had just three months to implement the new wage.
The Federal government and the NLC are currently in a battle as the former threatened to embark on a nationwide strike in October if the deliberation on the new minimum wage adjustment does not resume.
