If you haven’t had a good laugh, you have not been with him. And anyone who knows him knows I’m not joking. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has the rare gift of humour. Not the run-of-the-mill kind that forces a courteous half-smile. It’s the kind that extracts the prey while putting the cat completely at ease; it just cracks your rib. It works in good times and in bad. And just as he has done in the last nearly over two decades of being clergyman and public intellectual, Kukah deployed this gift again in a conversation about…
Author: TheStories
The Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that no fewer than 100 households were affected by flood in Makurdi, the state capital, following recent rainfalls. Dr Emmanuel Shior, the Executive Secretary of the Agency disclosed this in an interview on Monday in Makurdi. He said that the agency had over time, advised people residing on floodplains to relocate in order to avert disaster. Flood had become a yearly routine in Makurdi in the last decade, destroying property worth millions and loss of lives in some cases. The affects areas were among the worst hit in the 2017 flood…
A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, refused to grant the extradition application filed by the Federal Government for permission to extradite the suspended DCP Abba Kyari to the United States (US). Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment, described the extradition request as “an abuse of court process,” on the grounds that Kyari was already standing a criminal trial before another court. The federal government, through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), had filed the extradition suit, praying the court to grant the plea for Kyari to face a criminal charge leveled against him by the U.S.…
…To face civil prosecution The Nigerian Army (NA) says it has dismissed the two soldiers, Lance Corporal John Gabriel and Lance Corporal Adamu Gideon from service over their alleged involvement in the killing of Sheikh Goni Gashua Aisami in Yobe state. A statement by the Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwavhukwu on Saturday, said the dismissal followed their indictment by a Board of Inquiry. According to the statement, the Board also found the two soldiers guilty and awarded reduction of rank from Lance Corporal to Private and Dismissed Regiments. “The soldiers were dismissed after facing trial at the…
Moderna on Friday filed patent infringement lawsuits against Pfizer and BioNTech “for infringing patents central to (its) mRNA technology platform,” the company said in a news release Friday. “Moderna believes that Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty infringes patents Moderna filed between 2010 and 2016 covering Moderna’s foundational mRNA technology. This groundbreaking technology was critical to the development of Moderna’s own mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax. Pfizer and BioNTech copied this technology, without Moderna’s permission, to make Comirnaty,” the news release said. CNN has reached out to Pfizer for comment. By CNN
Wishing General IBB a happy 81st birthday I was the keynote speaker at General Ibrahim Babangida’s Legacy Dialogue yesterday speaking on the theme of Africa’s democratic journey. I made two preliminary points. The first is that soldiers are soldiers and civilians are simply bloody civilians and the two blocs are sharply divided, or so we often think. The military ruled Nigeria for almost 30 years and impacted strongly on the country’s culture and institutions. Their rule impacted negatively on society by generalising authoritarian values, which are in essence anti-social and destructive of politics. Politics in this sense is understood as…
By Lizzy Carr, Bauchi Leading science writers and researchers have called on African countries to integrate triad of approaches to improve public understanding of science as a key factor for the continent’s development. The call was made at a webinar with a theme, “Beyond S/He Said: Basics of Reporting in the Context of Scientific Research” held recently. The panelists and participants at the webiner emphasised the need for journalists and media organisations to enhance the nexus between scientists and the general public to tackle policy implementation lapses at critical moments such as response to epidemics and other public health emergencies.…
The Bank of Industry (BoI) on Tuesday signed an agreement worth €100 million with the French Development Agency (AfD) for the expansion of green finance in Nigeria to tackle climate change. Managing Director, BoI, Mr Olukayode Pitan, said at the signing ceremony in Lagos that the transaction was approved by AFD under its Transforming Financial Systems for Climate (TFSC) Programme with the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Pitan said TFSC was a $650 million programme developed in 17 countries for 100 per cent climate investments projects. According to him, the 10-year facility is priced at 2.47 per cent per annum with…
A journalist was shot dead Monday afternoon in southern Mexico, authorities said, shortly after posting online about the disappearance eight years ago of 43 students from a nearby area. Fredid Roman, who published his work on various social media pages and contributed to a local newspaper, was found dead in his car in the city of Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, the local prosecutor’s office said Monday evening. The Disappearance of the 43 Students The case of the 43 students from Guerrero, who went missing in 2014 after commandeering a bus to head to a protest, is considered one…
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday that several member countries of the Atlantic Alliance, not just the United States, want the war between Russia and Ukraine to continue. “There are those who wanted to sabotage the grain deal. But it is not the United States. The contribution (of Washington) has been the removal of restrictions on export of Russian fertilizers, unblocking of ports, (removal of restrictions) on banking operations,” he stressed. The head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry also explained, during an interview with the Haber Global channel, that 33 ships have already left Ukraine thanks to the protection agreement…