Category: Politics

The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is just be nice to everyone and always smile. Refreshingly, what was expected of her was the same thing that was expected of Lara Stone: to take a beautiful picture.

We woke reasonably late following the feast and free flowing wine the night before. After gathering ourselves and our packs, we headed down to our homestay family’s small dining room for breakfast, where we enjoyed scrambled eggs, toast, mekitsi (fried dough), local jam and peppermint tea.

 We were making our way to the Rila Mountains, where we were visiting the Rila Monastery.

We wandered the site with busloads of other tourists, yet strangely the place did not seem crowded. I’m not sure if it was the sheer size of the place, or whether the masses congregated in one area and didn’t venture far from the main church, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourists in the monastery.

Headed over Lions Bridge and made our way to the Sofia Synagogue, then sheltered in the Central Market Hall until the recurrent (but short-lived) mid-afternoon rain passed.

Feeling refreshed after an espresso, we walked a short distance to the small but welcoming Banya Bashi Mosque, then descended into the ancient Serdica complex.

We were exhausted after a long day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. I had low expectations about Sofia as a city, but after the walking tour I absolutely loved the place. This was an easy city to navigate, and it was a beautiful city despite its ugly, staunch and stolid communist-built surrounds. Sofia has a very average facade as you enter the city, but once you lose yourself in the old town area, everything changes.

If You Have It, You Can Make Anything Look Good

Clothes can transform your mood and confidence. Fashion moves so quickly that, unless you have a strong point of view, you can lose integrity. I like to be real. I don’t like things to be staged or fussy. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. You have to stay true to your heritage, that’s what your brand is about.

The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is just be nice to everyone and always smile. Refreshingly, what was expected of her was the same thing that was expected of Lara Stone: to take a beautiful picture.

We woke reasonably late following the feast and free flowing wine the night before. After gathering ourselves and our packs, we headed down to our homestay family’s small dining room for breakfast, where we enjoyed scrambled eggs, toast, mekitsi (fried dough), local jam and peppermint tea.

 We were making our way to the Rila Mountains, where we were visiting the Rila Monastery.

We wandered the site with busloads of other tourists, yet strangely the place did not seem crowded. I’m not sure if it was the sheer size of the place, or whether the masses congregated in one area and didn’t venture far from the main church, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourists in the monastery.

Headed over Lions Bridge and made our way to the Sofia Synagogue, then sheltered in the Central Market Hall until the recurrent (but short-lived) mid-afternoon rain passed.

Feeling refreshed after an espresso, we walked a short distance to the small but welcoming Banya Bashi Mosque, then descended into the ancient Serdica complex.

We were exhausted after a long day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. I had low expectations about Sofia as a city, but after the walking tour I absolutely loved the place. This was an easy city to navigate, and it was a beautiful city despite its ugly, staunch and stolid communist-built surrounds. Sofia has a very average facade as you enter the city, but once you lose yourself in the old town area, everything changes.

If You Have It, You Can Make Anything Look Good

Clothes can transform your mood and confidence. Fashion moves so quickly that, unless you have a strong point of view, you can lose integrity. I like to be real. I don’t like things to be staged or fussy. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. You have to stay true to your heritage, that’s what your brand is about.

The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is just be nice to everyone and always smile. Refreshingly, what was expected of her was the same thing that was expected of Lara Stone: to take a beautiful picture.

We woke reasonably late following the feast and free flowing wine the night before. After gathering ourselves and our packs, we headed down to our homestay family’s small dining room for breakfast, where we enjoyed scrambled eggs, toast, mekitsi (fried dough), local jam and peppermint tea.

 We were making our way to the Rila Mountains, where we were visiting the Rila Monastery.

We wandered the site with busloads of other tourists, yet strangely the place did not seem crowded. I’m not sure if it was the sheer size of the place, or whether the masses congregated in one area and didn’t venture far from the main church, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourists in the monastery.

Headed over Lions Bridge and made our way to the Sofia Synagogue, then sheltered in the Central Market Hall until the recurrent (but short-lived) mid-afternoon rain passed.

Feeling refreshed after an espresso, we walked a short distance to the small but welcoming Banya Bashi Mosque, then descended into the ancient Serdica complex.

We were exhausted after a long day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. I had low expectations about Sofia as a city, but after the walking tour I absolutely loved the place. This was an easy city to navigate, and it was a beautiful city despite its ugly, staunch and stolid communist-built surrounds. Sofia has a very average facade as you enter the city, but once you lose yourself in the old town area, everything changes.

If You Have It, You Can Make Anything Look Good

Clothes can transform your mood and confidence. Fashion moves so quickly that, unless you have a strong point of view, you can lose integrity. I like to be real. I don’t like things to be staged or fussy. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. You have to stay true to your heritage, that’s what your brand is about.

The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is just be nice to everyone and always smile. Refreshingly, what was expected of her was the same thing that was expected of Lara Stone: to take a beautiful picture.

We woke reasonably late following the feast and free flowing wine the night before. After gathering ourselves and our packs, we headed down to our homestay family’s small dining room for breakfast, where we enjoyed scrambled eggs, toast, mekitsi (fried dough), local jam and peppermint tea.

 We were making our way to the Rila Mountains, where we were visiting the Rila Monastery.

We wandered the site with busloads of other tourists, yet strangely the place did not seem crowded. I’m not sure if it was the sheer size of the place, or whether the masses congregated in one area and didn’t venture far from the main church, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourists in the monastery.

Headed over Lions Bridge and made our way to the Sofia Synagogue, then sheltered in the Central Market Hall until the recurrent (but short-lived) mid-afternoon rain passed.

Feeling refreshed after an espresso, we walked a short distance to the small but welcoming Banya Bashi Mosque, then descended into the ancient Serdica complex.

We were exhausted after a long day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel and crashed. I had low expectations about Sofia as a city, but after the walking tour I absolutely loved the place. This was an easy city to navigate, and it was a beautiful city despite its ugly, staunch and stolid communist-built surrounds. Sofia has a very average facade as you enter the city, but once you lose yourself in the old town area, everything changes.

If You Have It, You Can Make Anything Look Good

Clothes can transform your mood and confidence. Fashion moves so quickly that, unless you have a strong point of view, you can lose integrity. I like to be real. I don’t like things to be staged or fussy. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. You have to stay true to your heritage, that’s what your brand is about.

Chairman of the national assembly and President of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan has called on stakeholders in the agricultural sector to design policy frameworks and mechanisms that will provide job opportunities for Nigerian youths or be ready to face a second wave of protest that will see political leaders across party lines as major targets.

Ahmad Lawan made the call on Monday in his opening remarks when the Honourable Minister of Agriculture appeared before a joint committee on Agricultural and Rural Development for 2020 budget performance and 2021 budget defense.

He said without prejudice to any other sector of the Nigerian economy, the agriculture sector is enough to turn around the fortunes of Nigeria.

“This sector can do something that oil has not been able to do. But why hasn’t it been able to do so? We need to be very practical and radical.

“I believe that the way we are going, will not take us to the El-dorado but there is every potential, every possibility and there are so many experts here and that other countries have made it through the sector. Every time we talk about diversification of the Nigerian economy, the first sector they mention is the agricultural sector.

“So it means this sector needs to be given all the support that is possible. Oil cannot give jobs to the youths that we have, only few people and mostly white collar jobs but we know that this sector can give everybody a job.

“And it has all the potentials to create the wealth that we need to have a fairly meaningful life for everyone. So we need to apply ourselves fully to operating this sector.

“And of course, like we all know, government alone cannot make it happen. It is not possible. Government can come up with the necessary and desired policies but those that will make it happen are the private sector, he said.

While he called on private sectors to also invest in the sector as government alone cannot fund the sector 100%, he said we need to come up with better strategy of engaging everybody and stakeholder.

“I would like to at this point advise that whatever programme we have in this sector, we need to bring everybody to the table to avoid possible duplication of resources and working at cross purposes.

“There are a lot of efforts everywhere but maybe they are done in disparate and uncoordinated manner. Do we need to bring everybody to the table. I believe that we need to not only look at what we did in 2020 but approach the 2021 in a ver practical way.

Recently, we had some of our youths protesting genuinely. They were seeking the attention of leaders and they got the attention of leaders. So our budget especially for 2021 should be mindful of what we do to provide employment opportunities for these youths.

“They protested because they could do so, there are so many other people who may not be youthful but are also in the same need and they didn’t protest. Let’s meet them where they are. We font have to wait until they also start to grumble or protest.

“We should be proactive, we should reach them and most of them are in the rural areas and give them what we can and what they need to some extent within the purview of our resources and keep them there to lead a productive life and that is the only way that we can make a difference in the lives of the people.

“And for us, elected people, we are going to be accountable. If we escape this one, the other one is inescapable and I am sure people will know what I am saying”, he warned.

A former governor of Abia State, who is representing Abia Central in the Senate, Senator Theodore Orji, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to dialogue with the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra, to avoid further trouble in the country.

Orji stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday as part of activities to mark his 70th birthday celebration.

The Senator said dialogue with the dissident voices, including the IPOB, remains one of the best ways to achieve peace in the South-East geopolitical zone.

He noted that the Igbo, which has been crying of marginalisation over the years, deserved a listening ear rather than the use of force.

He said, “If there are dissident voices, the president should call them and discuss with them.

“He should find out the cause of their agitation and work out ways to address their grievances.

READ ALSO: Flood Destroys 900 Houses In Zamfara

” He should see how he can bring them in and fully integrate them into the system.

“That is what will solve the problem of the country. Call the dissident voices to a conference.

“There is nothing bad in discussing with the IPOB. If you don’t discuss with them, they will continue to give you trouble.

“We can’t be happy when other regions have six states and we have five. It shows that we are marginalised and cheated. That is what is causing the agitation in the region.

“Some groups are agitating that the zone should be a country on its own. Others are demanding restructuring because it is glaring that the South-East is being marginalised.

By Doris Igwe

It was a dramatic scene in the budget defence session of the House of Representatives, as members of the Committee on Electoral Matters disagreed with their chairman on the modalility she employed in engaging the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmud Yakubu concerning the performance of his commissions 2020 budget.

The committee thereafter asked out all National Commissioners of INEC on the entourage of their Chairman, Prof. Yakubu, as it opted to meet with only the Chairman in a closed door session.

Chairperson of the committee, Rep. Aishatu Jibril Dukku had after making her opening remarks called on Yakubu to present the Commission’s 2020 budget performance, as well as make presentation of the 2021 estimates, but was immediately challenged by one of her colleagues, Hon. Solomon Bob from Rivers State, to the effect that “the committee did not carry out any oversight on the commission in the year, but here are we, being called upon to superintendent over another budget”.

Repeated attempts by Dukku to explain that 2020 was ruptured by the lockdown occasioned by outbreak of the Covid-19 could not stop Bob, who insisted that he must be allowed to land. “Honourable colleague, I rule you out of order”, a visibly angry Dukku told the man and hit the gavel, urging Yakubu to commence his presentation.

As a result, the committee was forced to move into a closed door session, after the INEC Chairman ended his appraisal of the Commission’s 2020 budget performance, following a suggestion to that effect on the 2020 budget by Hon. Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, (PDP, Abia), which was immediately supported by Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf, (PDP, kogi).

“The executive session is very important because 2020 is where the issues are. The budget has been implemented, so that we don’t have to be asking the Chairman (Yakubu) subjective questions on the issue raised”, Yusuf said.

One of the National Commissioners who were asked to stay outside, Mr. Festus Okoye, however told journalists that there was nothing strange about the committee opting to meet with only Yakubu behind closed doors.

“They have their own rules, they set their own rules so we have to comply. They can invite only the chairman for a meeting, so there is nothing strange in what is happening now”, he said.

The INEC boss earlier informed the panel that the Commission had to revert to its special fund, created under section three of the Electoral Act, in order to meet its mandates, due to drastic reduction of its budget after the review.

According to him, its initial budget of N40 billion was reduced to N36 billion, when the Commission was already in the middle of implementation, and so had to draw N5.2 billion from the INEC Fund in order to deliver on its mandate.

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By DDoris Igwe

The House of Representatives Commitee on Pensions has expressed displeasure with with the Executive secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, (PTAD), Dr. Chioma Ejikeme over her non-appearance before it for budget defence.

Consequently, the Committee declined to consider PTAD’s 2020 budget performance and 2021 budget proposal as it sent back officials who showed up for their 2021 budget defence and ordered them to reappear within 72 hours with their boss.

The Committee, led by Rep. Alhassan Kabir Rurum (APC, kano), took the resolution via a motion after the Director of Parastatals Pensions Department who represented the Executive Secretary had announced that he was representing his boss who was “unavoidably absent”.

A member of the committee, Rep. Chudu Mumah had moved the motion, calling the attention of the Chairman, Hon. Kabiru Hassan and other members to the absence of the Executive Secretary.

He said that there were serious issues to defend in the last year’s budget which only the Executive Secretary could satisfactorily answer to.

In his opinion, it would be counterproductive to delegate responsibility to the director who he said will not have all the answers.

He then proposed a 72-hour ultimatum to compel the appearance of Ejikeme.

“We can’t find the head of the agency. What can we tell Nigerians? It is the head of institutions that are liable. I don’t think we should entertain this. Nigerians don’t even know that there is anything called PTAD. Mr. Chairman, I am moving a motion that they should go back to wherever they came from,” the lawmaker said.

With the motion seconded, the Committee Chairman ruled that the officials should go back, fetch their boss and reappear on Tuesday next week.

Recall that the President, Muhammad Buhari on October 8, disclosed before a joint session of the National Assembly that “all heads of government Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), must personally appear before the Legislature to defend their budget proposals.

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