The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is reportedly plotting to scuttle the Students Loan scheme launched by the President to help indigent students finance their tertiary education as well as skill acquisition trainings. In an exclusive insight obtained by Podium Reporters from an ASUU insider, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, ASUU is very uncomfortable that despite its opposition to the student loan scheme from the beginning, the federal government was still determined to implement the programme. ASUU leadership both at national level and at some zonal chapters have not hidden their opposition to the Tinubu…
Author: Michael Chibuzo
By Podium Reporters Zimbabwe is a country that is now commonly associated with hyperinflation due to its long years of economic struggles arising from an unprecedented galloping inflation. It all started in the early 2000s when then President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe launched the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), which redistributed agricultural lands formerly owned by white minority farmers that settled in Zimbabwe during the British colonial era to black Zimbabwean peasants and the working class. Zimbabwe’s land redistribution programme elicited a strong response from the West, including the United States and the United Kingdom who strongly opposed Zimbabwe’s…
The federal government has described the call by the PDP Governors’ Forum for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thrown in the towel in the face of economic challenges facing Nigeria as a distraction. This reply is contained in a press statement by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris. According to the Minister, “the call (for Tinubu’s resignation) is nothing but an attempt at distraction by people who should instead be busy supporting the President’s efforts at bringing economic relief to the Nigerian people.” The minister further stated that the PDP and its Governors should not be seeking,…
Agriculture was one of the pillars of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s campaign in the 2023 presidential election. In fact, many opposition party supporters christened the Bola Tinubu campaign and their supporters as ‘Agbado’, a Yoruba word for maize in reference to President Tinubu’s famous Agbado Speech at the 2021 BAT Colloquium where he made reference to the crop. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in pages 26 to 29 of his Renewed Hope manifesto outlined initiatives his administration would implement in order to ensure food security, create jobs and enhance national security. They include: 1. Establishment of commodity boards. 2. Enhance food…
By Tunde Rahman Those who know Mr. Olayemi Cardoso will agree he got his current job as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria on a platter of solid professional background and strong personal attributes. His pedigree is rich as his character is unsullied. Cardoso had a remarkable private sector career where he shone brilliantly in banking, stockbroking, and consulting. Cardoso also came from a very solid family pedigree. Nigeria’s late Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, appointed his late father, Mr. Felix Bankole Cardoso, as the first Accountant-General of the Federation in 1963. The late elder Cardoso served with…
By Fredrick Nwabufo Think of that man whose blue skies are crimsoned by the ravages of cancer. He cannot afford to travel abroad to get the needed treatment and his access to life-saving medical care at home hangs by a hair’s breadth. Many of us might have had a vicarious experience with this cell-corrupting proxy of death. We either know a friend, a friend’s friend, or a relative that has been afflicted. We could as well have been victims. But access to efficient and effective diagnosis, management, treatment of cancer, and other non-communicable diseases, as well as communicable diseases is…
The crisis rocking the Labour Party has deepened following a shock suspension of its outspoken National Treasurer, Oluchi Oparah for asking the National Chairman of the party Julius Abure to account for N3.5 billion the party realised from sale of forms and fund raising during the 2023 general election season. Barely 48 hours after the press conference by the National Treasurer, the other members of the Labour Party national working committee led by Julius Abure slammed Opara a six-month suspension. The suspension was announced by the party’s National Working Committee on Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja. The Labour…
By Abiodun Ayantoye There is no denying the fact that many Nigerians are facing one of the most severe economic challenges one can imagine in peace time. Nigerians have had to contend with rising cost of living due to inflationary pressures with largely static incomes. This has left many households in an intense battle for survival. However, we did not get to this precarious point overnight. We basically sleep walked ourselves into trouble over a period spanning decades. The immediate trigger for the sudden spike in the cost of goods and services in the past couple of months across the…
By Temitope Ajayi There is a viral video where human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, made allusion to the sum of N135billion given to the 36 states in December 2023 at a memorial event in honour of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti. It is important to state here that Mr. Falana has a strong reputation for exaggerations and embellishments. What the Lagos lawyer rendered in that trending video was total misrepresentation of facts. He also did not tell his audience the real reason the said amount was released to the States under the World Bank-funded NG-CARES Programme. Contrary to the wrong impression…
The immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha has revealed that the signature of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari was forged by those who withdrew $6,230,000 from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on February 8, 2023 for a stated purpose to fund International Election Observers. Boss Mustapha, who was testifying on Tuesday, February 13, in the trial of former governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, also stated that his signature was equally forged, adding that he knew nothing about the money reported to have been withdrawn for the payment of foreign election observers. The ex-SGF said…