The Deputy President of the Senate and Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, CFR was in Enugu over the New Year holiday and took out time to speak on many raging political, developmental, and economic issues affecting the West African sub-region, the nation, South East and Enugu State. Our Correspondent was there.

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, has ordered the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to appear before him tomorrow to explain why he should not be committed to prison over his persistent refusal to respect court orders.

Lagos State House of Assembly has instructed its House Committee on Education, Science and Technology headed by Wahaab King to investigate the non- issuance of degree results by the Lagos State University, LASU, with a view to resolving it.

The immediate past Chief of Army Staff, COAS, General Azubuike Ihejirika, has accused some northern elders of insensitivity to the sacrifice being made by the country’s armed forces and disseminating misleading information on the fight against terrorism.

It was my intention to share with you this week, an experience I had with one of the African Coaches who did NOT vote Mikel Obi. According to him “……….Forgive me, it was an individual award. It was like asking a coach, between Mikel and Yaya, who would you sign for your team in 2013? The answer definitely will not be Mikel. On your argument that he won the Nations Cup with Nigeria, Mikel for me was not the best Nigerian player. I rate Vincent Enyeama, Emmanuel Emenike and Victor Moses above him in terms of contribution to Nigeria’s success. Europa? Which one is that?

Lagos State government said 1.1 million additional adults have been captured into the state’s tax net, increasing the number of tax payers to 4.2 million.

The performance of the manufacturing sector of the economy has defied the various fiscal incentives introduced by the Federal Government to boost the sector.
In spite of these incentives, the average contribution of the sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 4.0 percent in the last 10 years from 2003 to 2013, said Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN).
This is far below the target of 12 per cent set for the period by the association. Furthermore, capacity utilisation at an average of 46.6 per cent is also well below the 10-year target of 65 per cent.

The Oyo State Police Command is investigating the killing of the house guard of a prominent member of Accord Party in Ibadan.

Dr. Peter Aikpokpodion, winner of the Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (LEAP) fellowship in Summer 2006, is today the Team Leader of the Cocoa Value Chain Development Program administered through the Ministry of Agriculture.

“ECOBANK International Incorporated announced that its Group Executive Director for Finance and Risk, Mrs Laurence Do Rego, was no longer its employee”. PUNCH, Thursday, January 9, 2013, p 31 in a story titled “Ecobank’s suspended director quits”.

This week, we will closely examine the inference of the sum of $8.9bn (about N1.4tn) that NNPC confirmed it legitimately retained as fuel subsidy between January 2012 and July 2013!

In our Friday edition, we published the strategies adopted by the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue in the execution of its assignment. Today we publish the fourth installment.

Nigeria in 2012 recorded a trade surplus of 33 billion Euros with the European Union, EU, in overall trade volume of 44.4 billion Euros.

THE Federal Government is to intervene in the crisis that rocked Ugborodo community in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, over the multi-billion dollar, first Nigerian Gas City Project cited in the community. Parties in the crisis who were earlier summoned to Abuja were asked to return to Delta State to talk with the committee, with a view of finding a lasting solution to the crisis.

Just last week President Goodluck Jonathan signed into law a Bill criminalsing same-sex relationship in Nigeria. Since the signing of the law, which contains penalties of up to 14 years in prison, there have been so many criticisms both in Nigeria and outside the country.