NIGERIAN NEWS BLOGGERS

ECOWAS Health Ministers meet over Corona spread Ministers from the Economic Community of West African States have been holding a meeting in the Malian capital, Bamako, to discuss the potential spread of the coronavirus in the region.  The ministers from the 15 ECOWAS members states also expressed appreciation and support for China over the steps taken to combat the COVID-19 virus.  Chinese Ambassador to Mali Zhu Liying who addressed the meeting, pledged China’s support for the African continent in case of an outbreak.

Appointment of Perm Sec will now be based on Examinations  - Sanwo-Olu  ... Says Lagos Must Revive The Culture Of Performance In Civil Service, as he rewards Innovative Civil Servant With Double Promotion What can be called a fundamental change has been instituted in the Lagos State Civil Service. Henceforth, elevation of any person to the position of Permanent Secretary will now be based on examination and rigorous interviews, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu declared on Wednesday. Besides, the Governor said the regular promotion of civil servants from one level to another would be based “strongly” on performance - a move disrupting the grade level model being used by the Civil Service. Sanwo-Olu introduced the new rules at the launch of knowledge-sharing platform tagged: “A Disruptive S.H.i.F.T” at Adeyemi Bero Auditorium in the Secretariat, Alausa. The event, organised by the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, was created with an objective to harnes...

4 Army Officers jailed 10 years for torturing corporal to death A General Court Martial in Abuja on Friday sentenced Majors Akeem Oseni, Ogbemudia Osawe, Captain S. Amosu and Second Lieutenant Nuhu Dogary to 10 years in prison for torturing L/Corporal Benjamin Collins to death. The officers were said to have moved Collins from a guardroom at Mogadishu Barracks, Abuja, where he was being held to a bush near Ihejirika quarters along Abuja-Nyanya expressway where he was said to have been assaulted while in handcuffs and leg chains. Collins, who hailed from Rivers State, died after the assault which took place on February 23, 2017 and his corpse was deposited at Asokoro general hospital mortuary. After the incident, the convicts were said to have reported to their superiors that Collins had escaped from custody. He was said to have been detained for over two years for allegedly travelling to Lagos to see his sick aunt without official permission. The officers w...

NYSC Allowance Finally Increased... The monthly allowance for corps members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has been increased to N33,000. The increase was confirmed byBrigadier-General Shuaibu Ibrahim, director-general of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) during a working visit to the NYSC secretariat in Bauchi. The corp members had been eagerly expecting the increase in their monthly allowance since President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage bill for Nigerian workers into law in April 2019. Ibrahim noted that the increase is in line with the new minimum wage approved by the federal government. The increase was also confirmed in a statement released on the official Facebook page of NYSC where the boss said provisions for the new allowance have been made in the 2020 budget and “payment would commence as soon as funds are released by the appropriate authorities”. Earlier, the NYSC DG had told the corp members that their monthly allowanc...

ECOWAS Parliamentarians seeks direct election into Parliament Members of the ECOWAS Parliament have called for direct elections into the Community Parliament, as the fourth legislature of the parliament winds up. The members made the call in Banjul, The Gambia, at the end of the last Extraordinary Session of the fourth legislature, which will end its four year legislative mandate on 3 February 2020. Members of the ECOWAS Parliament are representatives from various National Assemblies or Parliaments of ECOWAS member states. The National Assemblies of the Member States are empowered to elect members from among themselves as members of the Community Parliament. Calling for direct elections into the community parliament, Hon. Afenyo-Markin Alexander Kwamena, a member of the Ghanaian Parliament and member of the fourth legislature of the ECOWAS Parliament, argued that the current mode of determining membership of Parliament, divides the attention of members between their legisl...

Parliament must respect Member State Resources_ Wase tells Plenary Banjul: The Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian house of Representatives Hon. Idris Wase,  who doubles as the first Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament bemoan irrelevant expenses incurred by Parliament and called for respect of countries resources by curtailing these expenses. Hon. Wase had insisted that the ongoing Extraordinary Session of the Parliament be brought to an abrupt end on Wednesday, saying that the evaluation of the activities of the outgoing 4th Legislature, which according to him, formed the basis for the Extraordinary Session, had already been concluded. Kicking against the motion, the Speaker of the  ECOWAS Parliament, Moustapha Cissé-Lo has asked Members Of Parliament who wish to go home from the The Gambia, venue of the ongoing Extraordinary Session, to do so after most members of parliament learnt their voices to Wase's motion which resulted to a pandemonium. This re...

ECOWAS Parliamentarians rejects two term limits proposal for Heads of State Banjul Opening of the Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament experienced a moment of rowdiness as the Speaker, Hon. Moustapha Cissé-Lo read his Speech.  All was calm and quiet during the speech, until the Speaker raised his concerns over calls on ECOWAS Commission to by a pronouncement impose a two term limit on member Countries for heads of State.  According to the Speaker, every country has a sovereign right to choose how its government is run and there should be no interferences from the ECOWAS Commission.  "There are some countries where the mandate is not limited. I can mention Cameroon for instance. Let's leave these countries to alter their constitutions based on their times. All constitutions can be reviewed and adapted to soothe the realities of their times; that is why I say Ecowas cannot make any pronouncements to limit mandates to not more than two terms. T...