The most recent data provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed that the 2024 Henley Passport Index positions the Nigerian passport at 95th globally.

This ranking is determined by the count of destinations that Nigerian passport holders can visit without the requirement of obtaining a prior visa.

The index assesses the visa-free access of 199 distinct passports to a total of 227 travel destinations. A passport is assigned a score of 1 if no visa is required to enter a particular destination.

According to the report, individuals holding Nigerian passports are obligated to obtain visas for 181 destinations.

Notably, the Nigerian passport is positioned lower than its West African counterparts, with Ghana, Benin, and Togo securing ranks of 76th, 79th, and 83rd, respectively.

In comparison, South Africa holds the 53rd spot globally, allowing its passport holders to travel to 108 destinations without the need for a visa.

Japan, previously ranked second, has now secured the top spot on the list, with its passport holders enjoying visa-free access to 194 countries.

Singapore, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are joining Japan in possessing the world’s most powerful passports.

[NaijaNews]

The Sultan of Sokoto and President General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, has directed Muslim Ummah to watch for the new Moon of Rajab 1445 AH starting on Friday.

The Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Religious Affairs, Sultanate Council Sokoto, Prof Sambo Janaidu announced in a statement on Thursday.

The statement reads, “This is to inform the Muslim Ummah that Friday, Jan. 12, equivalent to the 29th day of Jumada-Assani 1445 AH, shall be the day to search for the new moon of Rajab 1445 AH.

“Muslims are requested to commence the search on Friday and report its sighting to the nearest District or Village Head for communication to the Sultan,” it said.

The Sultan extended his prayers, seeking Allah’s assistance for all Muslims in fulfilling their religious duties.

DAILY POST reports that Rajab, the seventh month in the Islamic calendar, is considered one of the four sacred months in Islam during which battles are prohibited.

[DailyPost]

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has explained why it made the National Identification Number (NIN) mandatory for registration for national service.

The Scheme said the NIN would be used to mobilise corps members for the 2024 service.

It insisted that prospective corps members without the number would not be mobilized for national service.

The organization said it took the decision during the meeting of NYSC management led by the Director-General, Brigadier General Yusha’u Ahmed with the management of the National Identification Management Commission, led by its director-general, Abisoye Coker-Odusote in Abuja.

In a statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Eddy Megwa the NYSC said: “Starting from the 2024 Mobilisation Exercise, all the eligible Prospective Corps Members are expected to register for Mobilisation with their National Identification Numbers (NIN).

“This was part of the deliberations during the meeting of NYSC Management led by the Director General, Brigadier General YD Ahmed with the Management of National Identification Management Commission, led by its Director General, Engr Abisoye Coker-Odusote in Abuja today. 

“The NYSC Director General, Brigadier General YD Ahmed said the collaboration with NIMC on Corps Mobilisation would strengthen the online registration process for the Scheme.

“He added that the NYSC Integrated system that was introduced in 2014 has tremendously assisted the Scheme in its mobilization process, but there is a need for improvement.”

Coker-Odusote promised the readiness of the commission for the collaboration between both agencies.

She lauded the NYSC mobilization protocols and the Scheme’s efforts towards molding corps members for leadership responsibilities for over fifty years of its operations.

The NIMC boss said the synergy will simplify the entire mobilization process and also address multiple issues.

She added that the commission has partnered with several government agencies while promising to present the best services to the nation.

[TheNation]

As the days to the kickoff match for the 2023 TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations draw closer, there are quite some fascinating facts to know about the continent’s highly revered football tournament.

The tournament which will start on January 13, 2024, with the opening match between the host country, Cote d’Ivoire, and Group A opponent, Guinea-Bissau, will end on February 11, 2024.

In this piece, PUNCH Online highlights some facts about the AFCON as shared by CAFOnline.com:

* The first AFCON tournament took place in Sudan in 1957. Only three countries, hosts Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia, took part in that first tournament. There was no qualifying competition.

* South Africa was also invited to the first Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 1957 but their invitation was later withdrawn as a result of the country’s apartheid laws.

* Egypt defeated hosts Sudan in the first game played at the AFCON winning 2-1 on 10th January 1957.

* Raafat Attia scored the first goal at an AFCON tournament when he opened the scoring for Egypt in their 2-1 semi-final win over hosts Sudan in 1957.

* Egypt defeated Ethiopia 4-0 in the final to win the first AFCON tournament in 1957.

* Egypt won the first two AFCON tournaments in 1957 and 1959 while they were runners-up in 1962, losing to hosts Ethiopia in the final.

* Cote d’Ivoire is hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for a second time with the first hosted in 1984.

* When Cote d’Ivoire hosted the AFCON in 1984, eight nations participated. Five of those countries – Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, and Nigeria will be joining the hosts again. Missing out are Malawi and Togo.

* Egypt has won the most AFCON Titles (seven), followed by Cameroon (five), Ghana (four), Nigeria (three), and the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Ivory Coast (two each).

* Egypt and Ghana have both reached nine AFCON finals while Egypt has won seven, Ghana has four wins and Cameroon has played in seven finals winning five.

* Cote d’Ivoire has appeared in four AFCON finals in 1992, 2006, 2012, and 2015, and in 480 minutes of play in the AFCON finals, they have failed to produce a single goal. They won on penalties after extra time in 1992 and 2015 and lost on penalties after extra time in 2006 and 2012 with all four games ending 0-0.

* Cameroonian striker, Samuel Eto’o, is the leading overall Cup of Nations scorer, notching 18 goals in six tournaments between 2000 and 2010.

* Egypt goalkeeper, Essam el Hadary, became the oldest player at 44 years and 21 days to feature in the tournament when he faced Cameroon in the 2017 final in Libreville as Egypt lost.

* The only time the opening game of the AFCON ended 0-0 was when South Africa played out a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde in 2013.

* The last host nation to reach the AFCON finals was Egypt who won the title on home soil in 2006.

* Egypt has reached the AFCON final in five of the last six tournaments that the country participated in, winning in 2006, 2008, and 2010 while they were runners-up in 2017 and the 2021 edition. They only failed to do so in 2019 as hosts.

* Four players – Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Ghanaian duo Asamoah Gyan, as well as Andre Ayew, and Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya, have scored in six AFCON tournaments. No player has scored in more editions of the competition than them.

* The 2023 AFCON will be the 34th edition of the tournament since the first one held in 1957.

* The AFCON has been expanded from a 16-team tournament which it has been since 1996 to a 24-team event in 2019.

* This is the third edition to have 24 teams participating.

* 16 players have scored 17 hat-tricks at the Africa Cup of Nations but none since Soufiane Alloudi scored three goals in Morocco’s 5-1 triumph over Namibia in the 2008 group stages.

* Egypt has had five different players scoring six AFCON hat-tricks. No country has managed as many players to have scored a hat-trick at the tournament.

* The first hat-trick at the AFCON was scored by Ad-Diba who scored all four of Egypt’s goals in their 4-0 triumph in the 1957 final victory over Ethiopia.

* Egypt’s Hassan El-Shazly is the only player to have scored multiple hat-tricks at the Africa Cup of Nations, doing so in 1963 and 1970.

* Egypt is the only team to have two players score a hat-trick in the same game. Hassan El-Shazly and Mohammed Hussein netted all their goals in a 6-3 win over Nigeria in a 1963 group-stage encounter. 

* Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan and Cameroon’s Rigobert Song hold the record for the most number of AFCON participations with each player having featured in eight final tournaments in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 – a record that could be tied by Ghana’s Andre Ayew at the next edition.

* South Africa finished 1st (1996), 2nd (1998) and 3rd (2000) in the first three AFCON tournaments that they participated in.

* Ghana’s Charles Gyamfi (1963–1965, 1982) and Egypt’s Hassan Shehata (Egypt 2006–2008-2010) are the only coaches to have won the title three times. Shehata is the only coach to have won the title in three successive tournaments.

* Two persons – Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary (1959 as player, 1998 as coach) and Stephen Keshi of Nigeria (1994 as player, 2013 as coach) have won the AFCON as a player and coach.

* French man Herve Renard is the only coach to have won the AFCON with two different countries; Zambia in 2012 and Cote d’Ivoire in 2015.

* Senegal coach Aliou Cisse holds the unwanted record of losing in the final as both a player (2002) and coach (2019). He also now has won the tournament as a coach lifting the title with Senegal at the 2021 edition.

* In 2004, Frenchman Roger Lemmere became the first coach to win the AFCON and the UEFA European Championship when he led Tunisia to the title. In 2000, he led France to the European Championships.

* 44 different African nations have participated in the AFCON, with Comoros and Gambia being the debutants at the last edition in Cameroon.

* Egypt (1957), Ghana (1963), and South Africa (1996) are the only teams to have won the tournament in their debut appearances.

* Starting in 2008, Ghana has reached the AFCON semi-finals in six of the last eight tournaments and has been beaten finalists twice in that time, losing to Egypt in 2010 and Cote d’Ivoire in 2017.

* Tunisia has qualified for their 16th successive AFCON tournament, a run started in 1994. No team has ever managed 16 successive qualifications.

* Egypt has played more games at the AFCON than any other team (107), they have won more matches than any other team (60). Ghana has played 102 games and won 54. Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria will join the centenary club as they have currently played 99 and 97 games respectively at the finals.

* Ndaye Mulamba scored nine goals for DR Congo at the 1974 AFCON. No player has managed more in a single tournament.

* The name of the continental trophy has changed three times in history. The first trophy was the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, followed by the African Unity trophy and then the Africa Cup of Nations.

* Twelve former African champions will be making their way to Cote d’Ivoire for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.

* The top 15 ranked African teams have all qualified for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.

* Five Southern African teams have qualified for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the most the COSAFA region has had at a single final.

* Each winner of the last 25 editions of the tournament from 1974 has qualified for the current edition of the finals. The last winner to miss out is the 1972 champions Congo.

* Every finalist from the 1984 edition has reached the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. The last team to reach the final who have not qualified are 1982 runners-up Libya.

[Punch]

President Bola Tinubu is currently meeting with Governor Simi Fubara of Rivers State at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The governor arrived at the Presidential Villa about 5:35 p.m. and proceeded straight to the president’s office.

Unlike the last time he came to the State House with a delegation of his loyalists during the peace meeting with his estranged political godfather and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, and the President, the governor came alone today.

Although the agenda of his visit was not made public at the time of filing this report, it may not be unconnected with the political crisis between the governor and the FCT Minister over the control of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, structure in Rivers State.

Vanguard News

The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party , Mr Peter Obi says President Bola Tinubu must ensure that those culpable in the alleged scandal involving the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu are brought to book.

Obi said in a write-up in his X-handle platform on Thursday that the government should go beyond the suspension of the minister, which he described as a welcomed development, and carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter.

According to him, the government must give the problem of public sector corruption the severe urgency it deserves.

Obi expressed disappointment that a ministry created in good faith to attend to the plight of the suffering masses was being turned into a conduit pipe to steal from the poor as seen in the current and previous ministers of the ministry.

“I like to add my voice with most Nigerians concerned about accountability in government and judicious use of public funds, to welcome the suspension of Edu, and subsequent directives for her investigation.

“The investigation must be comprehensive so that all those culpable are brought to book,” Obi, a former two-term Anambra governor said.

Cautioning against taking the issue lightly, Obi added that the suspension of the minister should not be a window-dressing action but should be a peg to get at all those who are deserving of blame, punished just like the minister.

“By a sad coincidence, the alleged fraudulent diversion of N585 million of public money by Edu broke almost at the same moment that the minister who held the same portfolio in the last administration is being investigated for a whopping N37 billion misappropriation.

“The ministry may have been created by the system as a conduit pipe to siphon public funds while using the poor as a face.

“Equally worrisome and disgusting is the fact that the missing funds are meant for poverty alleviation in a time of severe suffering among the people.

“Unfortunately, the ruling elites can shamelessly convert, divert, or misappropriate such huge sums meant for the poor and cannot be trusted to address the severe poverty ravaging the people.

“It is not only immoral but also insensitive for those entrusted with funds for public welfare to steal from the poor,” the Labour Party leader said.

Obi called on the Tinubu administration to use these cases to initiate a thorough system-wide and systematic investigation of all reported cases of fraud and corruption among high government officials in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Tinubu on Monday, suspended Edu, following controversies about financial transactions she authorised in her ministry.

The suspension according to a statement by presidential spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale was with immediate effect.

The scandal included the approval of payment of hundreds of millions of naira into private accounts of civil servants.

Edu had come under criticism from Nigerians for ordering the transfer of N585.2 million into the private bank account of a civil servant, who is the accountant in charge of grants for Vulnerable Nigerians.

The minister had issued a memo to the Accountant General of the Federation in December 2023, ordering the said amount to be paid into the civil servant’s private bank account.(NAN)

The President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has asked President Bola Tinubu to focus on creating a true federal constitution and restructuring of Nigeria.

Iwuanyanwu made this appeal in an interview with Arise Television on Wednesday.

According to him, the peace committee he set up by Ndigbo was intended to clear up the misunderstandings and curb the alleged unfair treatments that other Nigerian tribes show towards Igbo people.

On the need for a federal constitution, Iwuanyanwu said, “That particular government before independence, they had a constitution, a true federal constitution. A constitution that could actually apply and bring, without a lot of strain, to a people who have diverse background like Nigeria. We had a true federal constitution in 1960,1963, and that worked for us.

“Later on, they changed to military constitution which is not right. Now, that is why we in Igbo land, we are saying, please, let us have a true federal constitution. What we are operating today is a unitary government. It doesn’t work with a people who have diverse backgrounds.

“I believe that the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu should take steps to see if we can actualise this restructuring of Nigeria. Without a proper restructuring, Nigeria will continue to have problem, there is no way this country can survive. Today, everybody is talking about presidency. In a restructured Nigeria, the presidency will not attract so much attention as it does today,” he said.

Speaking on alleged animosity displayed towards Igbos, Iwuanyanwu said since the recent Presidential elections, there had been unfair treatments towards Igbos.

He said, “Suddenly after the elections, Igbo buildings were being demolished in various places with excuses. I have investigated the demolitions in Lagos with example, and it is very clear to me that some of them didn’t follow the process of law of any civilised society.”

On the peace committee that has been set up to clear the prejudice between the Ndigbo and the rest of Nigerians, he said, “We’re going to produce our own story about the events in Nigeria from 1966. We’re going to produce a book which we are going to keep in Nigeria for posterity, to know the position of Igbos.

“Because today, a young Northerner, for example, will think Igbos hate Northerners by killing two great leaders from the North, it’s not true. But when we put our story, this community will put up a story, it will be clear position is.”

According to Iwuanyanwu, the committee is also set to contact the heads of other ethnic groups to find out their misgivings and fallouts with Ndigbo, so that peace can be brokered between the Igbos and the ethnic groups in Nigeria if there were any problems.

Eleven newly appointed Supreme Court justices will be sworn in next week, completing the full quota of 21 justices provided for in the Constitution.

The new apex court judges, whose appointment was initiated by President Bola Tinubu and confirmed by the Senate in December 2023, hail from diverse geopolitical zones.

They Include:

North Central:

– Hon. Justice Jummai Hannatu Sankey, OFR
– Hon. Justice Stephen Jonah Adah
– Hon. Justice Mohammed Baba Idris

North East:

– Hon. Justice Haruna Simon Tsammani

North West:

– Hon. Justice Jamilu Yammama Tukur
– Hon. Justice Abubakar Sadiq Umar

South East:

– Hon. Justice Chidiebere Nwaoma Uwa
– Hon. Justice Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme
– Hon. Justice Obande Festus Ogbuinya

South South:

– Hon. Justice Moore Aseimo A. Adumein

South West:

– Hon. Justice Habeeb Adewale O. Abiru

The swearing-in ceremony slated for next week will see the Supreme Court bench attain its full complement as stipulated in the constitution.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, on Thursday, charged the newly appointed Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and directors of the aviation agencies to optimally carry out their duties in the best possible way as outlined in the ministry’s key performance indicators.

He also told the CEOs and directors to resign if their goal in office is to make money and not serve the Nigerian people.

Keyamo stated this during the official induction ceremony for the newly appointed aviation heads of agencies in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He said some of the key performance indicators of the ministry include ensuring strict compliance with safety regulations, supporting the growth of local airlines/operators, developing human capacity within the aviation industry and generating revenue for the Federal Government, amongst others

He reminded them of the financial policy of the government and advised them to strictly adhere to it and carefully scrutinise documents most especially ones that relate to finances.

Mid December, the Federal Government dismissed all directors of civil aviation agencies in the country following the sacking of the chief executive officers of the same organisations. The government also appointed new CEOs to head the agencies.

The affected agencies include the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigeria Metrological Agency (NiMET), Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigeria Safety and Investigation Bureau (NSIB).

The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Umo Eno of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the validly elected governor of Akwa Ibom State after dismissing the appeals of the three parties challenging the outcome of the election held on March 18 2023.

This comes after the apex court panel led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji dismissed the appeals of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Young Progressives Party (YPP) and the Action Alliance (AC) based on the non-qualification of the governor over allegations of certificate forgery, which the governor denied.

The Court of Appeal had upheld the judgment dismissing the suit challenging the primary that produced Umo Eno as the PDP candidate for the state.

Okon had prayed the court to disqualify Eno on grounds that he allegedly forged a West African Examination Certificate (WAEC) which he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the election.

The appellate court had dismissed the suit for want of merit and awarded the sum of 15 million naira against the plaintiff.

The judge ruled that Okon’s arguments were based on assumption and that he was unable to prove to the court that Eno’s certificates were forged.