ABUJA—The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs says it has awarded contracts for the construction of 360 units of three and two bedroom houses in the nine states that make up the Niger Delta. The houses are to be completed within three months. The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Ufot Ekaette, disclosed this when members […]

THE dispatch the National Assembly used in applying the Doctrine of Necessity to the declaration of the acting President was impressive and finally gave Nigerians hope that things could be done if the politicians have an interest to protect.

The House of Representatives, yesterday, threw out a bill to amend Section 144 of the constitution that sought to strip the Executive Council of the Federation, FEC, of power to declare a president fit or otherwise and confer it on the National Assembly just as the Senate deferred till next week a vote on the proposed constitutional change that would compel the President and Governors to handover to their deputies when on vacation.

I SPRINTED into a shop in Algiers. The weather was very cold. Although it was not raining, people were getting wet. Even in the streets, here and there, you found pools of water. I was fully kitted wearing layers of shirts, a sweater and two trousers. Surprisingly, there were youths with just T-shirts and jackets, some with their trousers not around their waists but their buttocks. This clearly was the American gangster influence.

IN the past couple of columns, I have dwelled on the President’s continued absence and the courage that was so magnificently displayed by Prof. Dora Akunyili, the Minister of Information. I have also said that even though I regard the President as a basically decent man, I despise those of his loyalists who aggressively resisted moves to make Dr Goodluck Jonathan Acting President and think that a medical team should be sent to Saudi Arabia to find out whether Yar’Adua is likely to recover enough to return to his desk at some point in the near future.