Month: May 2021

Billionaire Couple, Bill and Melinda Gates’ 27 year-old Marriage Crashes

ADEOLA YUSUF

  How the couple with three ‘grown up’ children and over 124bn (£89bn) net worth, split in the pandemic   Bill and Melinda Gates have announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage, saying “we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple”. “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the pair tweeted. They first met in the 1980s when Melinda joined Bill’s Microsoft firm. The billionaire couple have three children and…

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Lagos Raises Alarm on COVID-19 3rd Wave, To Quarantine Foreign Visitors

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Lagos, Nigeria’s COVID-19 epicentre, threatens tougher restrictions, protocol enforcement for ariline passengers from Brazil, Turkey, India   The government of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, has raised the alarm over the possible third wave of COVID-19 in Lagos as it slammed fresh 14-day quarantine on foreigner-visitor into the country through the airport in the state. This measure arose from importation of new strains from inbound travelers, especially from countries like India, Brazil, Argentina, Iraq, Qatar, Peru and Uruguay. These nations are all being currently ravaged by a vicious third or fourth wave.…

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10 Nigerian Banks Rake-In N31.28trn Deposits from Customers In 3 Months

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Despite the tough economy, Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in the country continue to record success in their bid to attract customer deposits, Q1’ 2021 results so far released by the lenders show. An analysis of 10 DMBs’ Q1’ 2021 unaudited financial statements, for instance, shows that they grew their total customer deposits by 25.1 per cent to N31.28 trillion in the first three months of this year from the N25 trillion that they reported in the corresponding period of 2020. The banks are Access Bank, Zenith Bank, United Bank for…

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2023 Presidency: Obasanjo backs AfDB Akinwunmi Adesina over Tinubu – Report

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Nigeria’s Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is in support of a move to draft the current President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, into the 2023 presidential race, a report by Vanguard showed on Sunday, quoting competent source close to the former President to have confirmed the news last night. The move comes as the former Head of State reportedly failed to convince Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and former Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State to work together in order to advance political interest of the Peoples…

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Nigerian Power Consumers read riot act to NERC, Discos on fresh tariff hike

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Groups of consumers mobilise against hike they describe as Illegal, unjustifiable, insist Nigerians even deserve electricity supply on credits, not tariff hike, to ameliorate their plights   Electricity consumers in Nigeria on Sunday “outrightly rejected” plans by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to review electricity tariffs for the 11 power Distribution Companies (DisCos), expected to lead to hike in the unit cost of power. The read riot act to NERC and DisCos to think of the consequence of such actions before embarking on it. Rising under two groups…

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How Hoodlums Set INEC Office Ablaze, Burnt 345 Ballot Boxes, 135 Cubicles

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Without any election going on, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Local Government Office in Essien Udim Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, Southsouth Nigeria, was on Sunday set on fire. This ugly news was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr. Festus Okoye. The statement said the security guard at the INEC office escaped unhurt, adding that the building and properties were destroyed. INEC, however, revealed that an investigation by the police into the incident has commenced. The statement…

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Union Kicks Against `One-Man-Show’ in Nigeria’s Aviation Governance

ADEOLA YUSUF

  The National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), has identified what it called a “one-man-show’’ as the bane of the aviation sector in the country. Comrade Ben Nnabue, the National President of NUATE, made the remark in his May Day address, on Saturday in Lagos. Nnabue said the union had persistently pointed out “the folly of one-man-show in the governance of the sector’’, adding that there had never been governing boards for agencies under aviation. According to him, with the minister being the chairman of all the so-called Interim Boards, the affairs of…

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Saudi to Nigerian Pilgrims: No Completion of COVID-19 vaccine dose, No Hajj

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Here is why hundreds of thousands of intending pilgrims from Africa may miss 2021 Hajj   The Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health has decided to require all external pilgrims from Nigeria and other nations  wishing to perform Hajj this year to obtain two doses of WHO-approved vaccine for COVID-19. The Hujjaj will be required to receive the second dose of the vaccine before arriving in the Kingdom one week before Hajj failure of which will make those who couldn’t achieve this to miss the Hajj. The Hujjaj will also…

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Nigeria 1st in Africa, 11th largest global source of Int’l Students to U.S

ADEOLA YUSUF

  American Government Priorities Appointment for country’s Student Visa Applicants Nigeria sends more students to American colleges and universities than any other country in Africa and is the eleventh largest source worldwide of international students to the United States. The U.S government, which revealed this in a statement sent to Platforms Africa, maintained that in academic year 2019-2020, a record-breaking number of nearly 14,000 Nigerians pursued graduate and undergraduate degrees in the United States. “Over the last 21 years, the EducationUSA Advising Centers in Nigeria have directly contributed to an…

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‘Reasons Nigeria’s petrol ‘consumption’ skyrocketed to 72.72m litres daily’

ADEOLA YUSUF

  Real reasons Nigeria’s petrol consumption skyrocketed to 72.72m liters daily – Marketers   Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has given real reasons petrol consumption skyrocketed to 72.72m liters daily in the country. MOMAN in a statement made available to Platforms Africa, maintained that the consumption skyrocketed from 57.44 million litres sold a month earlier, exposing the thriving activities of smugglers in the nation’s petroleum industry. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is yet to make any official data of petrol consumption available in the country. An official…

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