Author: Vardiafrica

President Bola Tinubu has appointed Shamsedeen Babatunde Ogunjimi as the new Accountant General of the Federation after a rigorous selection process. His appointment, approved on Tuesday, takes effect from Friday, the same day the incumbent, Oluwatoyin Madehin, will retire. Ogunjimi, 57, was first named as Madehin’s successor last December. A selection committee later chose him through a competitive, rigorous, and merit-based process involving Directors of accounts in the Federal Civil Service. The committee conducted the process through three stages: a written assessment, an ICT proficiency test, and oral interviews. The selection process underscored President Tinubu’s commitment to promoting transparency, excellence,…

Google has unveiled Gemini Code Assist, a free version of their AI-coding assistant, for individuals. According to a statement shared with Technext, the development assistant powered by Gemini 2.0 is now available to Nigerian developers. Going forward, Nigerian developers can use natural language in a variety of languages in Gemini Code Assist to generate, explain and improve code. The AI coding assistant now also supports all programming languages in the public domain and is optimised for coding. “For example, a freelance website developer could quickly get code with a prompt like, “Build me a simple HTML form with fields for name, email, and message, and then add a…

President Donald Trump is ordering a pause on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine after his heated Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, a White House official told CNN Monday. The halt in aid, which came after Trump held a series of meetings with top national security officials at the White House, could have dire effect on Ukraine’s war-fighting abilities, officials and analysts said. It will remain in place until Trump determines Zelensky has made a commitment to seeking peace talks, one official said, essentially forcing Ukraine to a negotiating table by threatening further losses on the battlefield. “The…

The Federal Government will today, March 4, 2025, unveil a new payment platform to replace REMITA, which has been used for revenue collection. This was revealed in a memo from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, dated February 28, 2025, and obtained by The PUNCH on Monday. The new platform, named Treasury Management & Revenue Assurance System, is designed to streamline and manage federal revenue collections and payments across ministries, departments, and agencies, including those benefiting from donor funds, trust funds, social security funds, and special funds. “The system would go live on March 4, 2025, as…

Amid the leadership tussle that has assailed the Lagos State House of Assembly in the last seven weeks, a lawmaker, who represents Agege Constituency I, Mudashiru Obasa, has been re-elected as the Speaker of the 40-member Assembly. Obasa was re-elected on Monday after the resignation of Mojisola Meranda who stepped down as the Speaker of the Hous .https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fchannelsforum%2Fvideos%2F3512148472424482%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0#amp=1 His re-election followed the nomination by a former Majority Leader of the House, Noheem Adams, who represents Eti-Osa Constituency 1. Obasa subsequently took the oath of office as the new Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly seven weeks after his…

Mojisola Meranda has been reelected as the Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. Meranda, who just resigned on Monday afternoon as Speaker of the House, accepted the role of the deputy speaker pledging to serve the state in good faith. “This is a notice of resignation as Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly,” Meranda earlier read her resignation letter out at the plenary Monday afternoon. The House is expected to decide on the next Speaker and Mudashiru Obasa has been nomination Following the resignation, the House quickly reconstituted its leadership with new nominations. David Setonji was reinstated…

Mojisola Meranda, speaker of the Lagos state house of assembly, has resigned from her position just 49 days after assuming office. Meranda resigned after a meeting with Mudashiru Obasa, the embattled former speaker, Cornelius Ojelabi, chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos; and Lawal Pedro, the attorney-general of Lagos state. Announcing her decision, Meranda said she was stepping down to uphold the integrity of the legislature. She added that she remains committed to serving her constituency, Apapa 1, and described her brief tenure as historic, having being the first female speaker of the Lagos assembly. “I will never stray…

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has reduced the retail price of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, at its filling stations to N880 per litre in Abuja. NNPC dropped the price of the product from N965 per litre in Abuja. TheCable observed that the petrol price dropped by N85 per litre at NNPC retail outlet in Federal Housing, Kubwa. A pump attendant at Kubwa told TheCable that the petrol price was reduced on Monday afternoon. More so, at the NNPC retail branch at Irawo, Ransco bus stop, Ikorodu road, the price of the product stood at…

 Gabon’s military leader General Brice Oligui Nguema, who led a 2023 coup to end 55 years of Bongo dynasty rule, announced Monday that he would run for president in April. Oligui had pledged to hand power back to civilians in the oil-rich central African nation after an interim period following the ousting of president Ali Bongo Ondimba in August 2023. But a new electoral code approved by the transitional parliament at the end of January paved the way for members of the military and magistrates to stand for election. “After careful reflection and in response to your many appeals, I’ve…

The award was presented to Ogbuku by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, during the Sun 2024 Awards held at the Convention Centre, Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.  She observed that the event was designed to celebrate Nigeria’s finest. Speaking at the ceremony, the NDDC Chief Executive Officer expressed joy over the award and remarked that it showed that Nigerians and Niger Delta people appreciated the development efforts of the Commission. “The credit also goes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is committed to ensuring the rapid development of the Niger Delta region,” Ogbuku said.…