FocalPoint Reports

ABUJA — Nigeria and the United States have signed a framework agreement aimed at deepening American investment in Nigeria’s mining sector and developing the country’s mineral resources, estimated by the Federal Government at about $700 billion. The agreement was signed and exchanged on Wednesday at the Nigeria Mission House in New York by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, and US Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly. The framework is designed to use the Nigeria-US government relationship as a foundation for business-to-business transactions and greater investment across the country’s mineral value chain. It covers geological data and exploration, mineral development and processing, infrastructure and technical capacity building. Speaking at the signing ceremony, Alake said the agreement marked a new phase in Nigeria’s efforts to attract investment into the mining sector and move beyo...

Former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, has challenged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to explain why it declared him wanted.  Maina made the challenge in a statement on Thursday by his Senior Media and Legal Assistant, Emmanuel Umahi Ekwe. It would be recalled that the EFCC on Wednesday declared Maina wanted over an alleged case of receiving stolen property. The notice by the anti-graft agency on Wednesday identified 61-year-old Maina as an indigene of Biu, Borno State and asked members of the public with useful information about his whereabouts to contact the EFCC or the nearest police station and other security agencies. However, his legal team said the notice did not disclose the nature or description of the alleged stolen property, the transaction involved, the person or persons from whom it was allegedly received, or the date and circumstances of the alleged offence. It therefore urged the EFCC to mak...

ABUJA — The Federal Government has declared child labour intolerable in Nigeria, describing it as a criminal offence and directing relevant agencies to immediately report cases involving children engaged in hazardous work, including mining, agriculture and construction. Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Dr Kamil Shoretire, gave the directive at a training workshop for labour reporters organised by the Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria, LACAN, in Abuja. Shoretire also clarified the responsibilities of ministries, departments and agencies in monitoring and enforcing regulations against child labour, stressing that specialised sectors such as mining must be monitored by the agencies regulating them. He said although the ministry had a clear policy on the elimination of child labour, monitoring activities in specialised sectors remained primarily the responsibility of the relevant regulatory authorities. According to him, legal mining op...

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, on Tuesday questioned who is exercising Nigeria’s presidential powers as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima remain outside the country. The opposition party said Tinubu’s absence had crossed the 21-day period referenced in Section 145 of the Constitution, raising questions over whether the constitutional procedure for transferring presidential functions had been followed. In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC asked whether Tinubu had transmitted the required written declaration to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. “President Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August and has now been away for more than 21 days. We therefore demand to know whether the required declaration was transmitted by the President. If he did not, we would like to know why the National Assembly has ignored Section 145 of the Constitution,” the ADC said. The party...

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Nigeria to tap its agricultural potential instead of relying heavily on imports. According to him, part of the reason Nigeria is poor is because it has failed to properly harness agricultural production. The former president spoke during an interview on C-Suite Cafe, hosted by Ikem Okuhu. He said Nigeria has the land, water, rainfall and human resources needed to produce enough to meet its needs and create wealth. “Give me one reason why Nigeria should be poor. Is it the land that we don’t have or the desert that we are in or the people that we don’t have or the water that we don’t have or the rain that we don’t have?” he said. Obasanjo cited his experience during his tenure as chairman of the African Union, when he travelled to Guinea-Bissau with John Kufuor, then chairman of the Economic Community of West African States. According to him, the two leaders observed that the country had abundant agricultural resources but relied o...

Former Kogi West Senator Dino Melaye has warned the Federal Government against inviting, arresting or interrogating African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar over a corruption petition before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Melaye said the ADC and its supporters would mobilise against any attempt to use the petition to target Atiku, insisting that Nigerians were far more numerous than those in government. “This is our note of warning, if due to this frivolous petitions you invite, arrest, or interview Atiku Abubakar, and we are not saying it with fear or favour, we will prove to you that those in government are less than one percent of the population of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We will prove to you that the people own government,” Melaye said in a video shared on his X account on Friday. Melaye’s warning followed a petition submitted to the EFCC by former House of Representatives member Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, urging the agency to...