The new members of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly have unanimously elected Mr Ibrahim Balarabe (APC – Umaisha/Ugya) and Mr. Godiya Akwashiki (PDP-Nassarawa Eggon West) as speaker and deputy speaker of the state’s 5th assembly respectively.

The Federal Government, yesterday, re-opened the Maiduguri International Airport for commercial activities, 18 months after it was closed following persistent Boko Haram attacks in the city.

The Bishop of Niger West Diocese, Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev, Johnson Ekwe, has called on Nigerians to support and pray for the newly elected political leaders in the country, especially, President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice Prof Yemi Osinbajo, if they want them to fulfil in all their election promises.

Lagos the acclaimed ‘Centre of Excellence’, was yesterday crippled by flood resulting from a heavy downpour which began in the early hours of Tuesday and lasted till mid-evening. The heavy flooding which was prevalent in virtually all parts of Lagos, exposed the lack of drainage channels and the dilapidated state of roads in the metropolis.

The high expectations of Public health advocates in African countries and other low and middle-income countries were dashed yesterday as the G7 failed to make tangible commitment on financial assistance towards improvement of their health systems. On the 2nd day of the G7 Summit which held in Schloss Elmau, Germany, the Group of Seven had discussed on the health agenda – Ebola, Antimicrobial resistance, and Neglected Tropical Diseases, NTDs, without coming up with new and sustainable sources of funding urgently needed in these areas.

Barely two years after scores of people were consumed by a conflagration from a pipeline explosion, tragedy was averted Monday night at Ijedodo in the Ojo area of Lagos, when another pipeline explosion rocked the area. Eyewitness accounts said no casualty was recorded in the explosion which occurred at a creek in the neighbourhood. VM leant that the incident which occurred around 11pm, escalated because emergency operators could not access the area due to its swampy nature.

Tears laced with curses flowed freely as sympathizers thronged the Bayeku/Oke-Ira Jetty in Ikorodu, an outskirt of Lagos. The tears were precipitated by the gruesome killing of a commercial boat operator in the area. The victim who was simply identified as “Oyibo or Yellow” was shot at close range by persons suspected to be armed robbers who had robbed a bank and were escaping with their loot through the waterways.

Creativity is not just handy work. You do not have to know how to use a scissors to be creative. For me, it is learning. You should always open yourself to learn more. I chose that line because I know there is no stopping for that line. If I can’t do sewing, I can design and if I can’t design then I can cut. So it is wide. It’s not streamlined into one place. It is something that is vast. Am looking at the world as a global place and impacting it.

Chairman of Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, PenOp, Mr. Misbahu Yola has said that creation of the Pension Protection Fund, PPF and Minimum Pension Guarantee, MPG, is a welcome development for all stakeholders. Yola who spoke at a stakeholder conference on the Pension Reform Act 2014 in Abuja said that the creation of the PPF and MPG would give more security to low level contributors.

Nigerian insurers remain inadequately prepared to capitalise on the underwriting of emerging risks, such as the on-going campaign of terror by Boko Haram, A.M Best has said. The rating agency in its report titled, “Nigeria’s Insurance Sector Faces Economic Challenges, but New Government Improves Prospects,” said that the situation reflects the absence of data and other capabilities to support the understanding and quantification of potential loss exposures to the sudden and severe catastrophic nature of these events.

One hopes that the Bureau of Public Enterprises/Ministry of Finance Incorporated would be able to tell the public what dividends have been earned from the Federal Government’s 49per cent stake in Geregu Power Plc. We would see from the above example that the reports and accounts of a company can provide useful information to the company’s shareholders and to others. The idea that the reports and accounts are meant solely for the purposes of the AGM is mistaken.

Shareholders of Skye Bank Plc have unanimously endorsed the acquisition of Mainstreet Bank Limited at the court ordered extra ordinary general meeting held immediately after the bank’s 9th Annual General Meeting held in Lagos. During the consideration of the bank’s proposed scheme of external restructuring which deals with the acquisition and how to consolidate the operations of both banks, the Chairman of the bank, Mr. Tunde Ayeni, disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), had given its clearance to the scheme.

Experts have proved that in Nigeria, and indeed across the world, Small and Medium scale Enterprises, SMEs, are the lifeblood of any economy. What is even a more obvious fact is that the world today is a global village powered by Information and Communications Technologies, ICTs. In this era of web 2.0, ICT is no longer just an independent phenomenon in itself; it permeates every aspect of human life.

Girls run the world. Even before singer Beyonce’s hit song, this phrase already enjoyed worldwide attention. Across Nigeria, it is synonymous with another popular phrase: “What a man can do, a woman can do better.” As great these might seem for the advancement of the fairer sex, the figures in education, economic empowerment and even access to Information and Communication Technology prove that it would take a lot more effort for women to truly run the world.

With the participation of more women in the Nigerian Information Technology ecosystem, the game is changing, closing the existing gender gap. Although recent report by the Broadband Commission Working Group on Broadband and Gender report has indicated that women account for fewer than 20% of ICT specialists in developing economies, the participation of more women in the 2015 Nigerian Computer Society international conference to elect new leadership will be a game changer.