Author: Chronicle Editor

A Rwandan preacher could be hauled before the country’s media regulator after calling women the source of all evil in a radio sermon. Seventh Day Adventist preacher Nicolas Niyibikora told listeners “women are out of God’s favour” during the broadcast on Amazing Grace radio in January, warning “there is nothing good you can find in women”. “If you’ve read the Bible, who brought the sin into the world?” he asked listeners, adding: “It was not a man.” Somewhat unsurprisingly, the sermon has angered rights groups, with Pro-Femme Twese Hamwe holding a press conference warning such words “can bring hatred and…

The US government has shut down after Congress failed to pass a key budgetary measure on time. Lawmakers had hoped to approve a new spending bill before federal funding expired at midnight (05:00 GMT). But Republican Senator Rand Paul ended hopes for a quick vote when he demanded a debate in the chamber on his amendment to maintain spending caps. They say, "It's a binary choice, young man. Take it or leave it." Well, I'll leave it.— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) February 9, 2018 In January, a similar failure to pass a bill led to a three-day government shutdown. Late…

A new report by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has revealed how “most allegations of corruption in federal universities such as unfair allocation of grades; contract inflation, truncation of staff’s salary on the pay roll; employment of unqualified staff; Senator Dino Melaye’s certificate scandal saga; examination malpractices; sexual harassment; issuance of results for expelled student to graduate; and sales of university certificates for undeserving persons have neither been thoroughly investigated nor punished.” The report titled “Stealing the future”: How federal universities in Nigeria have been stripped apart by corruption says, “impunity for corruption in the university system has negatively…

Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, the former Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) and hundreds of his supporters have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Masari, a nephew to Governor Aminu Masari, served as campaign Director-General of the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Musa Nashuni in the 2015 election. Masari and hundreds of his supporters were received by Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari at the Government House Katsina on Thursday. Gov. Masari said that he would remain a father to people of the state irrespective of their political affiliation or religious differences.…

President Muhammadu Buhari has dismissed the impression created in some quarters that he just sits in his air-conditioned office and home enjoying himself. Buhari who described the rumour has ‘dishonest’ stressed that he was fully aware of things going on in, speaking in respect of alleged herdsmen attacks across the country. Speaking to Catholic bishops in Nigeria when they paid a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he stressed that he was aware of the problems in the oil rich country. “The impression created that I was sitting in an air-conditioned office and home, enjoying myself while these things…

Nigerian author Ayobami Adebayo’s debut novel Stay with Me has been long-listed for a British literary award, the Wellcome Book Prize. Adebayo, 30, is the only African on the long-list of 12 for the £30,000 ($42,000) award. The New York Times described Stay with Me as a “stunning debut novel”, while its publishers say it is “the heart-breaking tale of what wanting a child can do to a person, a marriage and a family; a powerful and vivid story of what it means to love not wisely but too well”. According to New York Times, the two narrators of Ayobami…

Philippe Coutinho scored his first Barcelona goal as the Spanish side beat Valencia to reach a record fifth successive Copa del Rey final. Coutinho, making his fifth appearance since a £142m move from Liverpool, came on in the second half and acrobatically steered home from Luis Suarez’s cross. That put Barca, cup winners in the past three years, 2-0 up on aggregate in the semi-final second leg in Valencia, before Ivan Rakitic added another. Barca will face Sevilla in the final. Valencia – who are third in La Liga, 18 points behind leaders Barca – had two key chances but…

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria on Thursday denied that government proposals to share out land to end a wave of violence over grazing rights amounted to “colonization” of fertile areas by his own ethnic group. Clashes between semi-nomadic herders, mostly of the Fulani ethnic group, and settled farmers in central states have killed around 100 people in recent weeks. Buhari’s critics accuse him of favouring the herders because he is Fulani. Thousands of herders have moved southwards in the last few years to flee spreading desertification in the north, putting pressure on dwindling fertile land. A government proposal to provide…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has stated that it will import two cargoes of gasoline per day for the rest of February in order to eradicate fuel queues in the shortage-hit nation. The Nigerian state oil company noted that each cargo will include 50 million litres, roughly 35,000 tonnes, to “increase supply and replenish strategic reserves”, NNPC said in a statement. The company added it had 324 million litres of petrol on land and 432 million litres in marine storage, which it said was enough for 22 days of supply. NNPC has worked fervently to increase fuel supply since…

Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, (APC/Kaduna North), declared on Thursday that Governor Ahmed El-Rufai has not been fair to Kaduna State, and vowed to “do everything possible” to vote him out in 2019. “The battle line has been drawn; we must vote out El-Rufai in 2019 general elections,” the senator said in Kaduna, at a ceremony to formally unveil a forum tagged: “APC Aspirants Forum”. Hunkuyi, who said that he might contest the Kaduna governorship seat in 2019 ”, stated that the forum was to “check and neutralise the power of incumbency”. He accused El-Rufai of not being fair to the majority…