THE House of Representatives, yesterday, passed for the second reading, a bill seeking to amend the altered 1999 Constitution to accommodate the demand by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to move the date of the 2011 General election from January to March 2011 The Reps also condemned a comment by Senator Ayo Arise in which he admonished the Senate “not to behave so unruly like the House of Representatives”

FORMER Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba, presidential aspirant, Professor Pat Utomi and National Coordinator of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms, CODER, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, yesterday, joined other Nigerians in commending the Senate for rejecting a proposal for the amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act sent to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan.

So, for any new provision to be included, the National Assembly has to go through the process of another amendment as it is currently doing. Since a legal process of amendment has taken place, you cannot breach that process by adopting the 1999 Constitution.

The Code of Conduct Bureau has called on public servants who are yet to declare their assets to do so immediately to avoid the risk of facing the full weight of the laws of the land.

President Goodluck Jonathan has named the President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsajafor, head of the Federal Government’s delegation to lsrael and Rome for 2010 Holy pilgrimage.

The Senate has resolved to vote next Tuesday on the second amendment to the 1999 constitution which will allow the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to hold 2011 election in April.

STATE Security Service, SSS, yesterday, arraigned Charles Okah, younger brother to the embattled ex-leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, Mr. Henry Okah, his son, and five other accused persons before a Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja over their alleged involvement in the October 1 twin-bomb blasts.

THE Zonal office of the National Examinations Council, NECO in Enugu was yesterday vandalized by officials of Enugu State Housing Development Corporation acting on the orders of the Managing Director, Mr. Ikeje Asogwa.

Two, and more importantly, he is the host governor of New Nigerian. He was the Governor of Kaduna State and New Nigerian is situated in Kaduna and then he is also the host of the Northern Governors’ Forum. Anytime Northern States’ Governors are meeting, they meet in Kaduna.

TO put the record straight, it was Clifford Akhimiemona Ordia, a senatorial aspirant who emerged as the authentic senatorial candidate that was robbed to pacify Senator Ugbesia, obviously because he (Ugbesia) earlier lost out in his governorship bid.

Elder statesman and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain, Amb Yahaya Kwande, yesterday took a swipe at the Senate President, Senator David Mark, saying he had no political clout to deliver the Middle Belt votes to incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in next year’s presidential election.

Jigawa government has set aside N624 million for the electrification of 28 towns and villages in the state.
Commissioner for Rural Infrastructure and Community Development, Alhaji Abdulkadir Jinjiri, said in Dutse, yestertday, that contract for the electrification of the town had been awarded and that 17 contractors would be involved in the execution of the projects, which were captured in the 2010 budget.

First Lady of Lagos State, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, yesterday, disclosed that Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, has commenced the construction of retiree villa for retired civil servants in the state.

LOCKING up seven young ladies and an equal number of men in a house for three months, plying them with inexhaustible amount of food, cigarettes, beer and hot drinks is like experimenting with human beings in a zoo. It is bound to bring out the worst in them. Endless quarrels, fights, drinking binges, drunkenness and open flirtation are bound to occur. This precisely is what the Big Brother Africa programme is about.

MANY critics of both economic and political development in the past fifty years of the country‘s independence from Britain have concentrated on the inability of the ruling classes to promote necessary options for a prosperous country.