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The Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, speaks about President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and other issues in this interview with ’NONYE BEN-NWANKWO and GBENRO ADEOYE What is your view on the state of the country? The state of the country now is a bit volatile. Don’t forget that a very strong political party was voted out of power last year, so naturally, the tension is still there. But my attitude to it is that the tension can be tackled by the government. There is nothing happening in Nigeria that has not happened elsewhere. In fact, we have had worse situations. In South Africa, Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and when he came out of prison, he could have prolonged the disunity and the tension but he was smart enough to know that the only thing that could bring about progress in a nation is an atmosphere of peace. So that is what I recommend but unfortunately, some people in Nigeria feel that the tension should continue and that we should fight to the finish. But ...

The Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, speaks about President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and other issues in this interview with ’NONYE BEN-NWANKWO and GBENRO ADEOYE What is your view on the state of the country? The state of the country now is a bit volatile. Don’t forget that a very strong political party was voted out of power last year, so naturally, the tension is still there. But my attitude to it is that the tension can be tackled by the government. There is nothing happening in Nigeria that has not happened elsewhere. In fact, we have had worse situations. In South Africa, Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and when he came out of prison, he could have prolonged the disunity and the tension but he was smart enough to know that the only thing that could bring about progress in a nation is an atmosphere of peace. So that is what I recommend but unfortunately, some people in Nigeria feel that the tension should continue and that we should fight to the finish. But ...

The House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau(retd), and the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr. Peter Ekpendu, over an alleged assault on a female member of the House. Security aides attached to the convoy of Mr. Ekpendu allegedly descended on Mrs. Onyemachi Mrukpor and slapped her for overtaking the convoy of the CG. A motion on the incident, which was moved by the Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor, was unanimously endorsed by members at Thursday’s session presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara. “The member was battered under the watch of the CG of prisons. Her offence was that she overtook the convoy of the CG within the premises of the National Assembly. “The CG of prisons is invited to explain why he should not be committed to prison in violation of Section 16 of the Legislative Houses, Powers and Privileges Act.” The law stipulates a penalty of N400,000 fine or a prison term of si...

It is alleged that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has replaced Dr Ibe Kachikwu as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Reports say his replacement, Maikanti Baru was the Group Executive Director of the corporation before his appointment. Kachikwu may have been removed from the post to pave way for him to face the state duties, especially in the face of lingering fuel crisis.

The Federal Government has said that reports of Nigeria’s currency deal with China were speculative and unfounded. The minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, clarified that contrary to widespread belief, Nigeria had no currency swap deal with China during the last visit by President Buhari to the country. Onyeama made the remarks at a briefing with State House Correspondents after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC)’s meeting. The minister explained that China was under pressure to internationalize its currency based on the strength of its economy. The minister said “It’s not really a swap. What it takes is that as the Chinese economy goes strong, there is some pressure on them from the trading partners, international financial institutions. They agreed that the money should be internationalized. So, they started that for a while. They were protecting it also. They did not allow it to be fully exchangeable. But now, their economy is fully strong, they are looking f...

The Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, says the federal government plans to begin payment of staff salaries by the 25th of every month as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Mr. Idris, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, said “this is going to be given a test, I believe, by this month”. The AGF also said the government was working on a new arrangement, which, if approved, would ensure payment of the salaries before the monthly meeting of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC. According to him, salaries are usually paid after the FAAC meeting, where revenue accruing to the federation’s account is shared among the federal, state and local governments. “There is a standing instruction of Mr President to pay salary on or before 24 or 25 of every month and we will try as much as possible to comply and to abide by that. “We are taking a step further to make a provision whereby we can acco...

Last October, Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil and gas company, Oando Plc, made history for the wrong reason when it announced a loss of N184 billion in the 2014 financial year. The loss was the biggest ever recorded by any Nigerian company. While its shareholders bore the brunt of the bleak financial year, the company’s group chief executive, Wale Tinubu and his deputy, Omamofe Boyo, might be doing just fine as they had for years incorporated and operated a cluster of shell companies in notorious offshore jurisdictions. Mr. Tinubu seems to be making so good a return from his shell companies that in 2008 he agreed to pay a front as much as $20,000 monthly to manage all of his offshore transactions. Details of the offshore assets of the two top bosses at Oando Plc were among the revelations contained in the leaked massive internal data belonging to Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The revelations are products of an investigation, spanning over a year by the International C...