Reports of South Africa overtaking Nigeria in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rating hardly came as a surprise. Though it indicated that both countries have recorded drops in GDP in the last one year, Nigeria’s case was a huge crash compared to South Africa’s.

ON 24 July 2014, for the first time ever, Nigeria interrupted the transmission of the wild polio virus, leading to its removal by the World Health Organisation (WHO) from the list of countries where the disease is endemic.

President Muhammadu Buhari seized the opportunity of the visit of the Director General of the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Irina Bukova to Abuja last week, to draw attention to the urgent need to save Lake Chad from imminent extinction.

Minister for Sports, Mr Solomon Dalung, created panic among football buffs in Nigeria when the Rio Olympic-bound U-23 soccer team on a training tour in Atlanta, USA, could not be airlifted to Rio until a few hours to their opening game against Japan. Team handler, Coach Samson Siasia, drew the Minister’s ire when he cried out over the cash-strapped team’s ordeal in camp.

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Audu Ogbeh, stirred controversy when he told Nigerians that the Federal Government would import grass from Brazil for ranches and grazing reserves in Nigeria.

Findings from banks have indicated that the real sector is yet to find a compensatory ground after the recent hike in Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark the World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7), the nation’s slow progress in the practice of exclusive breastfeeding came into sharp focus.

Ongoing combined military and police action against pipeline vandals in the creeks of Arepo, Ogun State and parts of Ikorodu in Lagos State is another demonstration of the Federal Government’s determination to crack down on criminals wherever they congregate.

The protracted political battle over the 2015 governorship election in Taraba State appears to have bred a lingering politics of bitterness which has become a threat to the welfare of the most vulnerable in society, the Internally-Displaced Persons (IDP’s) in the state.

The directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the Pilgrims Travel Allowance (PTA) to be sold to intending pilgrims at N197 to $1 has, understandably drawn sharp criticisms, coming at a time that factories cannot get enough foreign exchange to import crucial inputs and parents are finding it difficult to pay the school bills of their children studying abroad due to the scarcity and high cost of foreign exchange.