Author: Chronicle Editor

Today, we find ourselves caught again and writhing in an agonizing web of a dearth of infrastructures in the two Edo Senatorial Districts that has reduced Esan land to an economic backwater. On what do we blame this if you ask me? It is none other than the prodigal years of failed and visionless leadership by a cast of neophyte actors since Nigeria returned to civil democratic rule in 1999. The resultant effect of this is a total breakdown of the family structure, personal responsibility, and social order throughout Esan land. More so this is compounded by a welfare ethos…

China has revealed its new senior leadership committee, breaking with tradition by not including a clear successor to President Xi Jinping. The omission cements Mr Xi’s grip on China for the next five years, a day after his name and his teachings were written into the constitution. But it raises questions over whether Mr Xi, 64, intends to rule beyond 2022. Five new appointments were made to the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, China’s most powerful body. Why does the Politburo Standing Committee matter? The committee is the top body of China’s all-powerful Communist Party. Its role is to discuss and…

The campaign organisation of Tony Nwoye, the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Anambra has lamented the destruction of campaign billboards and posters. In a statement issued on 25 October, the campaign organisation claimed the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, was behind the destruction. “The increasing spate at which the APGA led government and her agencies is meting unprovoked hostilities on the Tony Nwoye Campaign train is condemnable,” the statement said. READ: Nigeria’s GDP declines in Q3, Q4 – NBS Accusing the governor of been the mastermind. “It is bad enough that Governor Obiano and his team have imposed…

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it is making plans with the Nigeria Prisons Service to ensure prisoners can vote in the forthcoming 2019 general elections. INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a dialogue session tagged Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room Dialogue. The dialogue session involved over 70 civil society organisations in Nigeria. This development is coming three years after a Federal High Court in Benin, Edo State, ruled that prisoners in Nigeria have the right to vote in all elections conducted in the country. Mr. Yakubu said the commission was considering creating polling…

Goodluck Jonathan, immediate past Nigerian President, on Wednesday, failed to appear before an Abuja Federal High Court as defence witness in the ongoing trial of former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa Metuh. The Justice Okon Abang-led court had ordered the former President to appear. Metuh is currently facing charges for allegedly receiving the sum of N400m from former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) in the build up to the 2015 presidential election. Justice Abang had confirmed that he signed a subpoena compelling Jonathan to appear in court. The judge said he received…

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday received another 257 Nigerian voluntary returnees flown back from Libya. The returnees arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, in a chartered Airbus A330-200 flight with Registration number 5A- LAT at 9.15pm. They had been stranded in the course of their failed attempt to cross over to Europe through the volatile North African country. The returnees were assisted back to Nigeria by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) while the Italian Government provided the aircraft. Read Also Nigeria’s GDP declines in Q3, Q4 – NBS They were handed over to the…

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the Gross Domestic Product in real terms declined in the third and fourth quarters of 2016. The NBS made this known in its “Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report on Expenditure and Income Approach for the third and fourth quarter of 2016 released in Abuja. According to the report, the decline followed the negative growth trend from the first half of 2016. READ: PDP holds national convention in December It explained that the household consumption and government consumption expenditures led to the decrease in GDP in both the third and fourth quarter of the…

The People Democratic Party (PDP) National Executive Committee has approved December 9 for the party’s national elective convention. The PDP National Caretaker Committee Publicity Secretary, Dayo Adeyeye, disclosed this on Tuesday at the end of the party’s 76th NEC meeting in Abuja. He said that the proposed budget for the convention that would hold at the Eagles Square was also submitted for NEC consideration. Adeyeye added that the NEC also granted waivers to new members in Anambra and Oyo States who recently decamped from other political parties to the PDP. READ: Aregbesola unveils world class N1.3bn school in Ilesa “As…

The man who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound flight in 2009 with explosives hidden in his underwear is alleging his constitutional rights are being violated in a federal prison. In a lawsuit filed last week in a Colorado federal court, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, also known as the “Underwear Bomber,” claims he’s being indefinitely housed in solitary confinement at the supermax prison, is being denied contact with family members, and is not being permitted to practice Islam. He also alleges he was forced to eat non-halal food and that when he went on a hunger strike to protest his mistreatment,…

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun on Tuesday unveiled the newly built world class Ilesa Government High School which cost N1.3 billion. The new school, he said, was in furtherance of his government’s effort to ensure sound basic education in the state. Aregbesola, who is an indigene of the town, said at the opening today that the 3,000 capacity school, has 72 classrooms, which could accommodate 49 students each. He said other facilities in the school included 18 toilets for girls and boys, bookshop, art and science library, 1,000 capacity examination hall, Principals’ and general offices, among others. The monarch of…