Author: Vardiafrica

The Senate will hold an emergency plenary session on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. In a notice sent by the Clerk of the Senate, Emmanuel Odo, the lawmakers were directed to convene at the National Assembly complex on the instruction of Senate President Godswill Akpabio. “I am directed by His Excellency, the President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, GCON, to inform all Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that an Emergency Sitting of the Senate has been scheduled to hold as follows: Date: Tuesday, 10th February, 2026. Time:12:00 Noon. Venue: Senate Chamber,” the notice read. Odo…

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened a mass action and boycott of elections if the real-time transmission of election results is not included in the Electoral Act 2022 amendment. In a statement issued on Sunday, Joe Ajaero, NLC president, said the Electoral Act must provide “an unambiguous mandate” for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit and collate results from polling units in real-time. BACKGROUND On February 4, the senate rejected the proposal for mandatory real-time transmission of election results during the consideration of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026. However, the senate retained the existing provision for electronic transfer of…

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host Nigeria’s president in the country’s first state visit to the UK in 37 years, Buckingham Palace has announced. Bola Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu have accepted an invitation to be guests of the King at Windsor Castle from 18 to 19 March. State visits are considered a form of soft-power diplomacy, using the pomp of royal hospitality to strengthen relations with important international partners. The last Nigerian state visit to the UK took place in 1989, when military ruler Gen Ibrahim Babangida travelled to meet the late Queen Elizabeth II for…

Determined to speed up the oil and gas industry contracting processes, weed out firms lacking technical capacity to perform and reduce Nigeria’s cost of production, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has issued the “NCEC Application Guidance Notes”, with effect from December 2025.The document which is available on the Board’s website – ncdmb.gov.ng, and on the NCEC application portal, forms part of concerted efforts to operationalize the Presidential Directives (PDs) on Local Content Requirements, which mandates NCDMB to take further steps to eliminate intermediaries in the contracting process lacking demonstrable capacity. Emphasising that one of the key requirements for…

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has outlined a practical framework for positioning Nigeria’s energy sector to access the African Continental Free Trade Area, following a strategic webinar focused on meeting rules-of-origin requirements for continental trade. The Board held a pre-conference webinar on Wednesday ahead of the Nigeria Local Content AfCFTA Energy Summit scheduled for Monday, February 9, 2026. The engagement was attended by stakeholders from the oil and gas, power and renewable energy sectors, and they addressed how Nigerian products and services can qualify for preferential market access across 54 African countries with a combined gross domestic product of $3.4tn and a population of about 1.4 billion people. Entitled…

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has said the people of Rivers State do not a governor to mobilize support for President Bola Tinubu, come 2027. The Minister disclosed this on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, the capital city of Rivers State, while commissioning Rivers State Renewed Hope Ambassadors headquarters, housing Majority FM 89.5, situation room, office facilities, as well as buses for the office. Wike, who commended the Coordinator of Rivers State Renewed Hope Ambassadors, Desmond Akawor for his mobilization drive, said Rivers State would work massively for the reelection of the President. He said: “Desmond Akawor, you have…

Vice President Kashim Shettima has visited Kwara state to assess the aftermath of the tragic terrorist attack that claimed over 100 lives in Woro and Nuku communities of Kaiama Local government area of Kwara State. Aisha Abubakar-Yahaya reports that the Vice President’s visit reiterates the federal government’s commitment to tackling security challenges. Vice President Kashim Shettima who was received at the Babatunde Idiagbon International Airport in Ilorin by the Kwara state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq assured the people of the State of President Bola Tinubu’s resolve towards ensuring that those responsible for the terrorist attack at Woro are tracked down and…

The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, has introduced the Happy Woman App Platform as part of the nationwide scale-up of the Nigeria for Women Programme (NFWP), aimed at digitally connecting 25 million women to finance, skills development, markets, essential services, and government interventions. The platform was unveiled during the Presidential launch of the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up Project in Abuja and is designed as a secure digital interface to support women’s economic inclusion across all states of the federation. It forms a core component of the expanded programme, which builds on a pilot phase implemented…

The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Adewale Adeniyi, has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has approved the provision of safe corridors and safe passage to ease the movement of loaded trucks awaiting clearance to the Republic of Niger, as part of efforts to unlock transit bottlenecks and strengthen cross-border trade. CGC Adeniyi made this known on Friday, 6 February 2026, during a high-level bilateral meeting between the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Niger Republic Customs Administration, led by its Director-General, Muhammadu Yaqouba, at the Customs House, Maitama, Abuja. He explained that the initiative aims to…

The Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani held a thoughtful and far-reaching meeting with His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. He said our engagement focused on issues of strategic importance to Kaduna State, particularly security, infrastructure, and the broader development priorities essential to achieving lasting stability and shared prosperity for our people. Sani briefed Mr President on the safe return of worshippers abducted from churches in Kurmin Wali community, Kajuru Local Government Area, on January 18, 2026. He provided a detailed account of the painstaking, intelligence-driven operations carried out through close and effective collaboration…