Welcome to Gee's Blog

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, seems to have acquired imperial powers with the recent recommendations made by the House Ad-hoc Committee on Rules and Business led by Hon Aminu Shagari. The new rules give Dogara a somewhat overwhelming powers to deal with any of his perceived enemies or erring member. CELESTINE OKAFOR looks at the implications of the new powers of the Speaker as well as the controversy surrounding the composition of the new House Committees, wondering if Dogara is not stirring the hornets nest. House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, seems to be courting trouble in recent times. The House Speaker has incurred the wrath of many of his colleagues across party lines with the October 8 adoption of a new House rules which has legally given the speaker sweeping powers to deal with Reps members who appear to have stepped on his toes or rather stepped out of line. The new rules however came in the aftermath of the stiff op...

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his government and Nigeria can not afford to pay forty two ministers and that not all the minister nominees that have been screened will have portfolios. Moreso he went on to say that he will reduce the numbers of ministries. Buahri in an interview with Channels TV and Nigerian Television Authority in New Delhi in India said that he is working with a team of people introduced to him by others that he trust and must work with them. Buhari while reacting to question on the the divide in the National Assembly over Rotimi Amaechi’s confirmation as minister said he did not walk into the presidency alone hence he can not work alone and that some of those having problems at the National Assembly he has never meet them. ‘This is team work I said I know people but there are people that I accept from other people in our team that I trust without even knowing them. ‘May be those that are having problem in the National Assembly I doubt if I have me...

The Cross River Government has suspended indefinitely, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Anne Odey, for “flouting civil service rules”, amid a controversy over ban of morning and afternoon prayer sessions in schools. Jude Ngaji, the State Security Adviser to Gov, Ben Ayade, disclosed this on Friday in Calabar while speaking to journalists. Mrs. Odey in a statement had directed all private and public primary and secondary schools in the state to stop morning and afternoon devotion forthwith. According to her, the directives came from the Commissioner of Police, Henry Fadairo, in view of the security challenges facing the nation. On Wednesday, the state Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Archbishop Joseph Ukpo, in a statement, called on the state government to immediately withdraw such directive. The CAN leader said that such directive negated freedom of worship. “This directive to suspend morning devotion will negatively affect the moral upbrin...

According to a four-count charge against him, he was said to have accepted about N70million bribe among others allegations. Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe  will reportedly be arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on November 9, over alleged false declaration of assets and bribery. According to a four-count charge against him, which is currently pending before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), he was said to have accepted about N70million bribe among others allegations. Count one reads:  “That you, Godsday Peter Orubebe, while being a Minister of Federal Republic of Nigeria in charge of Niger Delta Affairs, on or about June 29th 2011 did make a false declaration in your asset declaration form by failing to declare plot 2722 Kyamu District Abuja on assumption of office on 26th September 2007 and on leaving office (at the end of your tenure), on June 29, 2011 and you thereby committed an offence under section 15 of Code o...

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele has stated that there was no intention by the federal government to further devalue the naira. Addressing State House correspondents, Mr Emefiele said that the apex bank was rather concentrating on how to improve and deepen the foreign exchange market by improving supply of foreign exchange into the market. He added that the CBN is also concentrating on how to reduce the import of items that could be produced locally. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has also said that devaluation of the naira is not an appropriate option in the current economic realities in the country as it is not healthy for the Nigerian economy. The Vice President, while receiving the Italian Ambassador in Nigeria, Mr. Fulvio Rustico and the Canadian High Commissioner in Nigeria Mr Perry John Calderwood in his office on Thursday shared similar views as the CBN Governor. In his reckoning, FDI is more forward looking than portfolio inves...

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed a communique issued by the Peoples Democratic Party’s national caucus on the political developments in the nation, saying it is a rehash of the party’s “infantile whining” which will not save it from going down unless it rebrands most urgently. ”It is time for the PDP to take a long, hard look at itself in the mirror and change everything that is ugly about the party, instead of wasting its energy and time on irrelevancies,” the party said in a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed. It said the PDP cannot continue to do things in its “trademark old, crooked ways and expect a different result”. ”The PDP just doesn’t get it, despite being the architect of its own fall from power. The days of winning elections with the aid of slush funds, brigandage, deceit and rigging are gone forever, hence the PDP must return to the drawing board to fashion out decent and empirical ways of repack...

Lagosians in the Victoria Island axis today, October 30, witnessed an accident involving an articulated truck carrying a container during the mega city’s rush hour. The container fell of from the truck around the popular Bonny Camp area which caused heavy traffic in the area. Men of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) were however on hand to manage the situation. The incident is coming one month after the Lagos state government reiterated its determination to ensure strict enforcement of the Lagos state Road Traffic Law 2012, which restricts trailers and other long vehicles from plying the metropolis between the hours of  6am to 9pm . The state government had vowed to go tough on any trailer and long vehicle that contravenes the law as such vehicle will be impounded and made to pay the stipulated fine accordingly. Recall that on Wednesday, September 2, a heavy duty container skidded off the Ojuelegba bridge in Lagos and landed on tw...