ABUJA—THE forthcoming National Conference is not a forum to promote the presidential ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan or parochial political agenda of any naional group but a timely call on Nigerians to set another milestone for a brighter future and national renewal.

ONE of the most urgent bills before the National Assembly is one seeking amendments to the 2004 Passport Act. It has gone through the second reading at the House of Representatives and it is a matter of time for the amendments to become law.

About N100 billion invested by the Federal Government to revive the Nigerian textile industry seems to have gone down the drain, as the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mines and Agriculture, yesterday, disclosed that the Cotton Textile Garment Intervention Fund has failed.

ABIA State governor, Chief Theodore Orji has said that his administration expended N400 million on the rehabilitation of dilapidated Ohafia-Arochukwu Federal Road before the Federal Government waded in to award the contract and took over the job

Federal Government’s plan to sell 31 marginal fields to indigenous operators may be threatened by the delay in the takeoff of the process. This has thrown up a number of questions and uncertainties, especially with regard to the ability of the sales to lead to meaningful improvement in the fortunes of the marginal fields segment of the Nigerian petroleum sector.

WITH less than four months to the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, the major political parties are making frantic efforts to outwit one another ahead of the polls. The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and the Labour Party, LP, are presently the frontline political parties that will slug it out at the polls.

No fewer than 53 players on Monday took part in the first screening programme of the Flying Eagles ahead of preparations for the 2015 African Youth Championship (AYC) qualifiers

AMONG the different ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo are without a doubt, one of the most remarkable. So remarkable, indeed, that some have even traced their ancestry to biblical Israel, as the far-flung descendants of Jacob, the Jewish patriarch. Gad, Jacob’s seventh son, is said to have had three sons who settled in South-eastern Nigeria.

A new report by the United States has described Nigeria as a country where corruption, official impunity, and gross human rights violations occur at will.

Available evidence has indicated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was advised to stay action on the implementation of the removal of subsidy on kerosene to avert labour and masses unrest.

There are indications that power generation in Nigeria may exceed 4,000 megawatts by June, sequel to the six-month ultimatum given by President Goodluck Jonathan to the Ministry of Power to ensure efficient generation, transmission and distribution of electricity across the country.

The Department of State Service, DSS, yesterday, paraded seven members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect who allegedly assassinated Sheikh Auwal Adam Albani at Gwagwaje area of Zaria in Kaduna State over a month ago.

Ilegal oil refineries in Nigeria thrive on illegal oil bunkering, stolen crude oil, and vandalism of oil pipelines and other installations. Without a doubt, these illegal oil operations are reprehensible and should not be condoned for a number of reasons.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, met briefly with members of the state House of Assembly and expressed worry over the dwindling monthly federal allocation to various states as well as what he called Federal government’s uncoordinated fiscal policies.

Scores of parents yesterday stormed the office of Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State to protest the killing of students of Federal Government College, Bunu Yadi in Yobe State and others who have been killed in the northern region by the Boko Haram.