We were sworn in on August 28, 2015. Because of the paucity of funds, we have not been authorized to carry out any new project. What we are doing now is completing ongoing projects and staff management. We have already completed and commissioned some inherited projects. We have commissioned a concrete jetty at Salvation City, we commissioned a palace at Otu Jeremi and an area office of the Commission at Orerokpe, and there are other projects lining up for commissioning.

The programme is progressing and we believe we have gone far and all things being equal we will get to a successful conclusion. Already, Boroh has said in an interview with the Vanguard newspaper that 5,000 beneficiaries will be exited from the programme at the end of this month followed by another batch in December next year. Does this indicate that the government is actually committed to the execution of the programme?

SHE came to Nigeria about 45 years ago when many of today’s Niger Delta militants were yet unborn or still toddlers. Former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, was about three years at the time and since militancy manifested in the region, she has been actively involved in the process of resolving the conflict, interfacing with both government and militants.

Primate Elijah Babatunde Ayodele is Head and Spiritual Leader of Inri Spiritual and Evangelical Church, Oke-Afa, Isolo, Lagos. Sunday Vanguard was with him recently during which his past prophecies were reviewed. He said God is angry with Nigeria, explaining that it is the reason things were not going on well with the country. He, however, in fulfilment of his promise to, as directed by the Lord, gather prophets across Nigeria to pray for the country as President Muhammadu Buhari alone could not do it, said he and some other prophets had started praying for Nigeria.

H ON Evance Ivwurie, the lawmaker representing Ethiope Constituency, Delta State, knew that that the mission he chose to prosecute was a deadly one, yet he decided to forge ahead.

There was no fear of witch-hunt. In fact, it was a problem if you could not reason and you could not speak, and you could not defend your point of view. That was a problem. So, some of us, because of that kind of background, had problems much later on in our career, but it was a fantastic civil service. For instance, I got whispers about the possibility of my becoming permanent secretary when I was attending a board meeting of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), because you never knew things like that would happen, but somehow, somebody heard of it and called me out of the meeting to inform me. Just to give you the idea that at that time, the golden days of the civil service where merit was everything, lobbying and corruption were absent. You dared not buy a car that was out of sync with your economic possibilities. It was not done. They would ask you.

A community leader at Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, Apostle (Dr) Clement Tonfawei, popularly known as the Nabodi 1 of the Universe, has said that if given the chance, the locals could rally round government to trail the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA. Apostle Tonfawei, who was among the Niger Delta stakeholders who met with a Federal Government team led by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu and National Security Adviser, NSA, May 25, in Abuja, said the militants were human beings living in the various communities in the region and the basic thing required to track them was intelligence.

The Director-General of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Paul Angya, has alerted the federal government of massive importation of substandard goods into the country. This, he said, has forced the SON to shutdown the Electronic Provisional Clearance Certificate (ePCC) platform after the 90 days expiration elapsed this year.

“My Specialist program explored human health from not just a physical and biological perspective, but from an emotional, psychological, societal and legal perspective. It was a very well rounded education, albeit incredibly demanding. It really helped turn me into the person I am today! It was there I saw my passion for mental health! I began working for the University of Toronto Students’ Union as Associate President, and was thrown into the world of advocacy, policy and justice.”

We have a lot of new things happening at SON. What we have been doing is to try to communicate the benefits of standardisation which translates to quality for Nigerians. We have devised innovative ways of communicating to people to buy the culture of standardisation. The major mandates of SON has not changed- elaboration of standards and quality assurance, the regular inspections of factories and production lines of products; audit of companies and advising industries to improve on their products.

Alhaji Musiliu Adeola Smith joined the police as an Assistant Police Superintendent (ASP) in Enugu in 1972. He rose to the position of Inspector General of Police (IGP) in May 1999 and retired in 2002. Today, he is a business with interests in the construction industry, Smith, in this interview, speaks on how he got into the police, his aspirations as well as his success story.

It’s in two ways, when we say economic crunch. I think for now Nigerians have their priority. It’s supposed to be an advantage to us if money was in circulation, for the little in circulation every Nigerian now knows that they have to use it wisely. You have to use your money on made in Nigeria goods, because if you still want to depend on imported goods definitely you will spend more because of the exchange rate, you spend more because of the scarcity of Forex. You spend more because of the banned items we don’t need in Nigeria.

Former member of the House of Representatives, Nze Chidi Duru in this interview gives his view on the issues at play in the struggle for control of the First Guarantee Pensions Limited. Excerpts:

Dame Edith Okowa is the wife of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State. Simple, unassuming and caring, she readily confesses to having a passion for the less privileged, which explains why she has been into charity works for decades.

Outside the budget, I do not see anything the legislators have done during the year under review. They have used their time to settle internal quarrels, to fight for who will be chairman of one committee or the other, and using most part of the year mending rifts between them and even up till moment, the rifts remain unresolved. It does not augur well for this country that a parliament that has already done one year out of the four years has nothing to show for the period more than trying to patch up differences. They need to do better. Nigerians are looking at them to reflect the change that this new government wants. I am sorry to say that we are not seeing that in the legislature.