Author: Vardiafrica

President Bola Tinubu has described Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election in the Osun State governorship election as an assurance that democracy will continue to flourish in Nigeria. Tinubu stated this in a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, following Adeleke’s victory in the August 15 election. The President said he had called Adeleke to congratulate him on his victory. He added that the result reflected the confidence the people of Osun had in the governor “I called Governor Ademola Adeleke earlier today to congratulate him on his election victory in Osun State. His…

The Federal Government has unveiled the National Agricultural Mechanisation Policy and the National Agricultural Mechanisation Investment Strategy, alongside plans to establish a mega tractor assembly plant capable of producing between 2,000 and 4,000 tractors annually. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, disclosed this on Wednesday at the High-Level National Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Mechanisation in Abuja. According to Kyari, the two policy instruments are designed to strengthen Nigeria’s agricultural productivity, reduce its mechanisation deficit and support the development of a more commercially driven agricultural sector. He said the government’s ambition was to move Nigeria “from agricultural…

ECOWAS, through the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) in partnership with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), organised, on 14th August 2026 in Lomé, Togo, the official handover ceremony for thirty (30) Land Cruiser 78 Series medical ambulances, equipped with biomedical equipment, for the benefit of ECOWAS member states. The ceremony was attended by H.E. Dr Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission, H.E. Ms Damtien Tchintchibidja, Vice-President of the ECOWAS Commission; Mr Jean-Marie Koffi Ewonoulé Tessi, Minister for Health, Public Hygiene, Universal Health Coverage and Insurance of the Togolese Republic; Dr Melchior Athanase Aïssi, Director-General of WAHO; Mr Kossi Edjam, representative of…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the incumbent governor and Accord Party candidate, Ademola Adeleke, winner of the 2026 Osun State governorship election. The declaration was made on Sunday morning by the INEC Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Professor Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, following the collation of results from the 30 local government areas of the state. Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat his closest challenger, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815 votes. Declaring the result, Professor Ogunwole said Adeleke had satisfied all legal requirements and was therefore returned…

United States President, Donald Trump, has stopped Temporary Protected Status, TPS, for nationals of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan living in the US. The development was disclosed in updated information on the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, website. According to the USCIS, the move is part of a wider rollback of the humanitarian immigration programme. The Service also stated that the development means eligible nationals from the four African countries who relied on TPS to remain and work legally in the US could lose those protections if they do not have another lawful immigration status. TPS is a…

Emmanuel Yusuf, managing director of the Nigerian content development fund (NCDF), says about 130 indigenous companies in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas industry have received more than $400 million in support from the fund. Yusuf spoke in Uyo on Thursday during the launch of the Nigerian content fund compliance certificate portal, organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for stakeholders. He said the portal would provide a digitised process to facilitate faster access to funds. Yusuf said the digitalised system would improve service efficiency and make its impact measurable, as operators and contractors would have easier access…

Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s planned October IPO, which could become Africa’s largest, is designed to let Nigerians share in the company’s growth, its CEO told Reuters, adding that a foreign listing is at least three years away. The refinery has submitted an application for a $5 billion IPO to Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters this month, although the final size is not decided. “We really want to drive participation,” CEO David Bird said in an interview. “The mandate of the IPO was to be the people’s IPO.” Bird said the company wanted at least three…

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has dragged President Bola Tinubu before the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking to disqualify him from contesting the 2027 presidential election over an alleged forged National Youth Service Corps certificate. Atiku personally appeared at the court registry on Friday to depose to an affidavit supporting the suit instituted against Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress and the Independent National Electoral Commission . The suit invokes Sections 137(1)(j), 139(1)(a)(i) and 285(14)(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as relevant provisions of the Electoral Act 2026. At the centre of the case is Section 137(1)(j), which…

Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on Wednesday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, officially unveiled its Nigerian Content Fund Compliance Certificate (NCFCC) and the upgraded Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) Payment Portal at a sensitisation and engagement forum attended by the top Management of the Board’s financial partners, the Bank of Industry (BoI) and Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank. The NCFCC, a vital operational requirement in the oil and gas sector, serves as official proof that an operating or service company has fulfilled an obligation set out in Section 104(2) of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD)…

The United States says its second round of talks with Nigeria under a joint working group focused on protecting Christian communities in the Middle Belt, strengthening judicial and security institutions to hold perpetrators of violence accountable, and expanding military-to-military cooperation. The meetings began on Wednesday and continued into Thursday in Washington. Nuhu Ribadu, national security adviser (NSA), led the Nigerian delegation, while Allison Hooker, under-secretary of state, headed the US team. A statement issued by the US State Department said Hooker and the Nigerian delegation reviewed progress on internally displaced persons’ (IDP) resettlement to their ancestral homes, counterterrorism prosecutions, and combatting the financing…