Author: Vardiafrica

The Minister of Works Dave Umahi says the Lagos-Calabar coastal road construction will take eight years and cost N4bn per kilometre. Umahi spoke on Thursday while fielding questions about the project on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. “We are looking at eight years in the life tenure of Mr President [Bola Tinubu],” he said. The minister said each kilometre of the coastal road would cost N4b but said the government’s prudence made that possible. “You know, there are other projects not awarded by me that are also going for about N4 billion per kilometre,” the former lawmaker expla “So, I will…

Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) has confirmed the death of actor, Junior Pope Odonwodo and has banned the shooting of movies in riverine areas. Also, the Guild also suspended filmmaker, Adanma Luke, whose film shooting outing led to the incident that drown Junior Pope and others as a result of boat capsized around Cable Point at the waterside of River Niger in Asaba, Delta State. There were initial claims that Junior Pope was revived, the AGN later confirmed that the actor was dead, this led to the suspension of shoots involving riverine areas and boat rides. The AGN President, Emeka…

Meta said Thursday that it was developing new tools to protect teenage users from “sextortion” scams on its Instagram platform, which has been accused of damaging the mental health of youngsters. The US firm said in a statement it was testing an AI-driven “nudity protection” tool that would automatically detect and blur images with nudity sent to minors on the app’s messaging system. “This way, the recipient is not exposed to unwanted intimate content and has the choice to see the image or not,” Capucine Tuffier, in charge of child protection at Meta France, said. The firm said it would…

Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote says Nigerians should expect a drop in inflation given the reduction of diesel pump prices. He stated this on Wednesday during a chat with journalists after he paid Eid-el-Fitr homage to President Bola Tinubu at his Lagos residence. “I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively…

Tahir Mamman, minister of education, says members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) may receive half of their withheld salaries if President Bola Tinubu so approves. The nation’s public universities have witnessed recurring disruptions in academic calendars, as members of staff take turns to protest funding deficits, poor conditions of service, and decay in infrastructure. Last year, the president waived the “no work, no pay” policy imposed on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, after lecturers embarked on an eight-month strike.  The waiver amounted to the federal government paying four months…

World Athletics announced on Wednesday it will become the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympics, beginning at this year’s Games in Paris Gold medal winners in each of the 48 athletics events in Paris will receive $50,000 (46,000 euros). While athletes are often paid by sponsors and the Olympic tradition of amateur competition has long since been consigned to history, the decision by track and field’s international body to pay prize money represents a major shift for the Games. World Athletics President Sebastian Coe told reporters the decision reflected the efforts of track and field athletes…

The Super Falcons have qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Nigeria beat South Africa 1-0 on aggregate to reach the Summer Olympics. Rasheedat Ajibade scored from the spot in the first leg of the qualifiers in Abuja on Friday. That goal was enough for the Super Falcons to pick one of Africa’s tickets for the women’s football event of the Paris Olympics as the second leg tie ended goaless in South Africa. The last time Nigeria’s Super Falcons reached the Olympics was 16 years ago.

The Chairman of Nigerian indigenous carrier Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has raised the alarm that foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-UK route are allegedly conspiring to send Air Peace out of international operations by crashing airfares on the route. There is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route, alleged a visibly displeased Onyema on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday. “If they take out Air Peace prematurely, this country will pay dearly for it, 10 times over, billions will be lost, there will be another heavy strain on the naira,” he…

The Kano State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Haruna Dederi, who confirmed the development, said Ganduje would be arraigned alongside his wife and six others. The accused individuals, as listed in the writ of summon, include Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Hafsat Umar, Abubakar Bawuro, Umar Abdullahi Umar, Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Ltd, Safari Textiles Ltd, and Lesage General Enterprises. The Kano State Government, which initiated the criminal suit against the eight respondents, has declared its readiness to present 15 witnesses to testify before Justice Usman Na’aba of State High Court number four. “It is very true. We have filed the…

UK leader Rishi Sunak and Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame reiterated Tuesday that they expect Britain to soon start sending undocumented migrants to the African country, despite fresh questions over the controversial scheme Prime Minister Sunak hosted Kagame at his official residence in London just as a British newspaper reported that properties in Kigali earmarked for the deported migrants had instead been sold to local buyers. A government spokesperson said Sunak updated President Kagame “on the next stages of the legislation in parliament”, which is at the centre of a standoff. “Both leaders looked forward to flights departing to Rwanda in…