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.

ON Sunday, December 15th 2013 at about 6.00 am, I arrived at the newly reconstructed General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja on my way home to begin my annual vacation. At the entrance to the departure hall, a couple of ladies smartly decked out in the charismatic uniform of the Nigerian Army, all smiles, approached me with army rosettes, offering to pin one on my shirt front. Usually, for this favour, you pay a token sum of money to support the army. The most charming military chicks around are picked for this event, which is a cherished tradition worldwide.

The Nigerian Vision 2020 falls within the 21st century and it is envisioned that by year 2020, Nigeria will be one of the 20 largest economies in the world, able to consolidate its leadership role in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena. Nigeria’s tax system has to be well positioned to meet the aspirations of Vision 2020 and with sustained reforms in critical areas it will get there. Other considerations have been identified as being aligned to the attainment of Nigeria’s Vision 2020:

WORRIED by the alarming rate at which politicians and individuals rush to foreign countries for medical attention, which has led to the depletion of the country’s foreign reserve, the Federal Government, yesterday, said that only public servants, whose medical cases are approved by the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, would be allowed to seek treatment abroad.