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President Muhammadu Buhari Kunle Aderinokun in Lagos and Tobi Soniyi in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria cannot afford to sell forex to parents seeking to fund their children education abroad. This president’s position on forex allocation for school fees of Nigerian students studying abroad was part of the interview Buhari granted to Aljazeera television during his trip to Qatar last weekend, which was posted on the TV’s website sunday. Buhari said his position on the forex allocation issue followed a discovery that the high demand for forex by parents of the students studying abroad to pay their wards’ tuition fees had been putting unnecessary pressure on the Naira, which in turn affects Nigerian economy. Convinced that the practice is responsible for the current free fall of the currency, Buhari said the country could no longer continue to sell dollars to parents to sponsor their wards in schools abroad. He, however, said any parent who could afford forex ou...

Reuters ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari discussed a possible new arms deal with U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone on Monday to help the West African nation fight terrorism, the Nigerian presidency said. Nigeria has been fighting since 2009 against an insurgency by Boko Haram militants trying to set up an Islamic state in the remote northeast. The unrest has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people. Abuja has been trying to persuade the U.S. to sell it military aircraft, a request being reviewed by Congress. "President Trump assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," the presidency said in a statement. Buhari is currently on medical leave in Britain. It gave no other details of the call, their first since Trump's inauguration, except that the U.S. president had invited Buhari to Washington. Under Buhari's predecessor Good...

Boko Haram Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state on Monday released the grim statistics of deaths and material losses suffered by the state due to the Boko Haram insurgency. Mr. Shettima gave the data at the annual Murtala Mohammed memorial lecture held at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja. The governor, who delivered a paper “Managing the Boko Haram Crisis in Borno State, Experiences and Lessons for a Multiparty, Multiethnic and Multireligious Nigeria”, said the insurgency has led to the deaths of almost 100,000 persons, based on estimates by community leaders in the state over the years. “The Boko Haram insurgency has led to deaths of almost 100,000 persons going by the estimates of our community leaders over the years,” he said. This casualty figure is the highest ever provided by any government official from a state where remote areas which witness attacks by the insurgents are difficult to reach. “Two million, one hundred and fourteen thousand (2,114,000) person...

“I had many slaves – they did everything for me,” the 25-year-old said, explaining how women and girls kidnapped by the Islamist militants washed, cooked and babysat for her during the three years she spent in their base in the vast Sambisa forest. “Even the men respected me because I was Mamman Nur’s wife. They could not look me in the eye,” Aisha said in a state safe house in Maiduguri, where she has lived for almost a year since being captured by the Nigerian army in a raid in Sambisa. Aisha is among around 70 women and children undergoing a deradicalisation programme – led by psychologists and Islamic teachers – designed to challenge the teachings they received and beliefs they adopted while under the control of Boko Haram. Thousands of girls and women have been abducted by the group since it began its insurgency in 2009 – most notably the more than 200 Chibok girls snatched from their school in April 2014 – with many used...

  The AIDS Health Care Foundation (AHF), an NGO, says it will distribute 1.5 million condoms in Nigeria as part of activities to commemorate the 2017 World Condom Day. The Country Director of AHF, Adetayo Towolawi, made this known during the commemoration of 2017 World Condom Day on Monday in Abuja. He said that the distribution of the condoms, with other activities lined up for this year’s occasion, would help increase awareness on the use of condom and its role in preventing HIV and AIDS. The director said that condom played an important role in the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. Mr. Towolawi said the day coincided with a prelude to the Valentine’s Day, noting that where people shares time with their love, HIV also found time to spread within the period. “In order to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS while expressing sexuality, we need you to take care of your sexual and reproductive health by using condom correctly,’...

The governor of Borno State, Mr. Kashim Shettima, has attributed the rise in the number of children used as suicide bombers in the Northeastern part of the country on  hard drugs given to them by the Boko Haram  sect. Mr. Shettima made this known at a press conference he addressed on Friday. The governor also warned that the celebrated capture of the infamous Sambisa Forest does not indicate an end to the insurgency that has troubled the zone since 2009. “In this criminal endeavor, they resort to the use of teenagers and children as young as seven years. “More recently, they even strap babies on the back of their recruits in order to slip through our security dragnets. “They also use hard drugs on these innocent children, who do not know what they are doing when they kill their own parents, relations, and fellow countrymen and women.  Many precious lives have been lost, hundreds of citizens, including school girls, were abducted. Many more people have suffered serious inj...

FORMER Vice President of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar privately owned University,  the  America University of Nigeria, AUN,  Yola has been described by Google as one of world’s leading centers of excellence. Also as part of moves to boost ICT infrastructure in the Institution, Google, an  Internet multilingual and social networking and identity service  has entered into a  major collaboration effort with the University, just as  the AUN gained a grant of USD 112,400 (about N17,000,000) from the internet giants. According to AUN, it has  been working on this collaboration for almost a year and under this agreement, the University will use funds from Google to purchase goods and services that will help support and expand its network. In a statement by the Chief Information Officer of AUN, Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe SUnday, the University announced that the collaboration will also boost its Internet availability on campus. Six other universities, Ghan...