Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential aspirant, Dr. Bukola Saraki,has pledged to focus on the diversification of the economy from the current monolithic oil dependency status, with a view to opening up other areas for greater economic activities that would engage the teaming youths population in the country if elected president next year

The House of Representatives yesterday attributed the dismal performance of budgets in Nigeria since 1999 and the attendant underdevelopment of the country to bureaucratic bottlenecks in the executive arm of government.

AHEAD the 2011 general elections, retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Sampson Uwaifo, has admonished the Federal Government and the National Assembly to amend the relevant sections of the constitution, so as to shift the handing over date to October 1, and ensure that all election matters are concluded in court before a proper hand over is effected.

Following last weekend’s interdiction of an aircraft ferrying explosives from Yemen to the United States in Europe, Federal Government yesterday issued a directive instructing full scale screening of all cargoes leaving the country for the U.S. via Europe.

The health status of frontline elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, threw Edo State into confusion, yesterday, following reports that he had passed on. But Vanguard, can confirm that the Elder statesman was still in coma at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH.

Yobe state Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, has said only God makes a leader and gives power to people, adding that his assumption into office as the Governor of the state was by providence and sheer fate.

ANYONE who has an idea of the types of weapons that were imported illegally through Apapa Wharf in Lagos last week, would be alarmed by the quantity as well as the sophistication of the collection. The security agencies investigating the intercepted weapons would also be concerned about the brazenness of the importers which raises questions.

MEDIA Practitioners and other stakeholders in the country will today converge in Lagos to discuss fresh measures and strategies for the improved welfare and professionalism in the Nigerian media.

THE next verse that we will examine is the clincher”. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was 430 years after cannot dis-annull, that it should make the promise of none effect”(Galatians 3:17). What is clearer than this really?

THE leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the South East zone, yesterday, waded into the crisis rocking the party in Enugu State over the dissolution of the executive led by Chief Vita Abba by setting up a five-man peace committee, headed by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

A GROUP, under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Anambra North Senatorial Zone, has raised alarm over what it described as the continued absence of their representative, Senator Alphonsus Igbeke, from the Senate chambers, alleging that their findings showed that the senator had not been attending senate sessions for some time

South South Governors met in Calabar, Cross River State, in a meeting that started Sunday night and spilled into Monday morning, to review the legal instrument for an Economic Commission, that would drive economic cooperation and integration in the region.

The first civilian Governor of Ekiti State, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, rarely grants interviews as he commits much of his time to his law practice.

THE news had hardly made the rounds when it was denied. Vice President, Namadi Sambo, had last week announced to an audience in far away Oxford that President Goodluck Jonathan had of his own volition elected to drop the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, all because he was sick of the tiring protocol associated with the title whenever he was introduced in public.

The House of Representatives Wednesday passed the 5th alteration to the Constitution, extending the existing timeline demanded by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free and fair polls next year.