The House of Representatives passed the Nigeria Audit Service Bill, thereby repealing the Audit Ordinance of 1956 established along with it Federal Audit Board. According to the NewTelegraph, the approved bill also provides additional powers and functions to the Auditor-General of the Federation. The bill is titled “An act to repeal the Audit Ordinance of 1956, and enact the Federal Audit Service Act, 2023 to establish the Federal Audit Service, provide additional powers and functions of the Audito-General for the Federation, establish the Federal Audit Board; and for related matters”. While presenting the bill for deliberation, House leader, Hon. Julius Ihonvbere said the bill was part of efforts to erase colonial inheritance and make it in compliance with relevant sections of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. According to Ihonvbere, who re-presented the bill which was rolled over from the 9th Assembly, the need to effect the changes has become expedient to give the board the independence, and impartiality and create an enabling environment needed for it to effectively discharge its statutory responsibilities. Nigeria before now, was the only country in Africa out of the 54 countries without audit law. Supporting the bill, Hon. Bamidele Salam enjoined his colleagues to note that the bill underwent all the legislative processes but only suffered non-assent to it by the president that it was caught up with want of time emphasizing that all the stakeholders have harmonized their positions on it. The service is to operate as a Board and not a Commission. Section 4 (a) in the new law provides that a chairman of the Board shall have at least 15 years cognate in accounting and auditing either in the public or private practice. Under Section 4 (2) of the law, “The Auditor-General for the Federation shall be the chief executive officer; six members representing each of the geo-political zones; representative from the Head of Service of the Federation, Federal Civil Service Commission not below the rank of a Director; two persons who retired from the Service; one person to represent the Institute of the Chartered Accountants of Nigeria as well as one person to represent the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria while the Legal Adviser of the Service shall be the Secretary” Section 6 (a) proposed that the members of the board serve for a term of four years and may be re-appointed for another term of four years and no more was upheld. In section 22, the years of the occupant of such office were stated to remain in consonance with what obtains in the Civil Service Rule in which the retirement age is put at 60 years and 35 years of service depending on which comes earlier. It could be noted that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) scrutinizes and reviews the annual report sent to it by the Auditor-General of the Federation and can invite the affected Ministries, Departments or Agency (MDA) or any person so connected to the same to appear before it. The findings of the Committee are also considered at plenary and where necessary, forwarded to the President for proper implementation of resolutions on the report.

  Following the release of Yoruba agitator,Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho by the Federal Government, Igbo youths,leaders in the South East have renewed the call for the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu. Spokesman of the Coalition of United Political Parties(CUPP) Chief Ikenga Ugochinyere in his on view believed the Federal government should have reasoned with the popular views of the people on his release by political solution. He also blamed the former administration of Muhammadu Buhari for the continuous detention of Kanu . However, he has called for calm urging the people to wait for the outcome of the supreme court judgment next mmonth . “There is no problem again,his case would be decided in few weeks by the supreme court ,let’s wait for its decision ,we lknow that a court has already ordered that he should be released ,his release is long overdue ,this is a problem caused by the former administration of Muhammadu Buhari “. Ugochinyere said. However, in its own reaction, the Igbo National Council(INC) led by Chilos Godsent described the release of Igboho and the continued detention of Kanu as a lopsided justice. He said “The Igbo National Council INC was pleased when we received the news of the Release of Sunday Igboho from solitary confinement, also we have expected that the gesture will be extended to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who has been incarcerated for more than three years in DSS Cell in Abuja against the order of the Court of Appeal to Release him. “In view of the above, the Igbo National Council INC will see the release of Sunday Igboho as lopesided Justice motivated by Ethnic Sentiment and bias. “Without prejudice, the Igbo National Council INC Worldwide is calling on the federal government of Nigeria to respect the order of Court of Appeal by the immediate and unconditional Release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu”. Godsent stated. Godsent also believe that his release will douse the insecurity in the South East. ” INC also believe that the unconditional Release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will impact positively in addressing the Insecurity Ravaging the South East Region of Nigeria. Similarly, Igbo youths under the aegis of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has attributed the release of Igboho to one of the marginalisation of the people of the South East. President General of COSEYL,Goodluck Ibem said “It amounts to selective justice to release Igboho leaving Nnamdi Kanu in detention. “FG marginalization and maltreatment of Igbo is the reason for the call for a referendum by IPOB. “We are very aware that the Federal Government played a significant role to secure the release of Sunday Igboho from detention in Benin republic. “It’s amounts to selective justice for the federal government to facilitate and secure the release of Sunday Ighoho from detention leaving Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who is an agitator like Sunday Igboho. “Agitation is not a crime under the law. It is the rights of any citizen who feels shortchanged or aggrieved to agitate for his or her rights. “The insecurity in the South East geopolitical zone is because of the unlawful incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu and the marginalization of the people of South East in the scheme of things. “We call on President Tinubu to as a matter of urgency release the leader of the Indigenous people Of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu the same way the FG facilitated the release of the President Tinubu’s brother and tribesman Sunday Ighoho from Beninese authorities. “What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. The people of South East are earnestly waiting to receive their son Nnamdi Kanu in their alms. “His release is paramount to restore the peace and security which has eluded the South East zone for this long years”. Ibem said.

  Burkina Faso’s military junta has signed a deal with Russia to build a nuclear power plant to bolster electricity supply. The deal followed talks between Ibrahim Traore, leader of the junta, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in July during the Russia-Africa summit. Traore requested Putin’s support in setting up a nuclear power plant in Burkina Faso, which he said would help meet the country’s energy demands. “We have a critical need for energy. This is an important point for me because we need, if possible, to build a nuclear power station in Burkina Faso to produce electricity,” he said. “Our position is rather strategic because we are in the heart of West Africa and we have an energy deficit in the sub-region.” Burkina Faso’s military seized power on September 30, 2022, triggered in part by discontent at failures to stem a raging jihadist insurgency which swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015. The junta has turned to Russia for economic and military support since the coup. Burkina Faso is one of the countries with the least access to electricity globally, with only 21 percent of people connected to the grid. The deal is part of the country’s target to achieve 95 percent electricity access for urban areas and 50 percent for rural areas by 2030. In 2017, Russia had also signed a deal to build two nuclear power plants in Nigeria but the project is yet to begin. The deal was reported to have been worth $20 billion. South Africa is currently the only African country that produces nuclear power on a commercial scale.

  The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has spoken more on its plan to regulate social media. In a chat with Trust Radio, Mrs. Francisca Aiyetan, Director, Broadcast Monitoring of the NBC, said without regulation, young people could be misguided. “Every country is making efforts to regulate social media, and Nigeria also is making efforts because we know that there are a lot of things to harness from it. But if not regulated, it can also be a platform that will misguide our young people.” “The level we are now is discussing with stakeholders so to agree that, yes, we need to regulate social media and at that level, there should be legislation; there should be strengthening of the law to factor in all the things that are new on the broadcasting and content sharing space. And then, when you have the power and the enablement by law to do such things, then we can now look at, do we have the way to do it technology wise? Nevertheless, presently what we do is that we engage the platform owners as a regulator, we engage Google or YouTube, TikTok, so we know the faces behind these platforms. “What we do is that, we escalate whatever we think is threatening, is injurious to our people, we escalate to them that we don’t think it’s right, take it down, and so far so good we’ve been working well. Other countries are doing the same, other countries are doing more,” she said. The issue of regulating social media has generated interests across platforms since Director-General of the NBC, Balarabe Ilelah, announced that the regulation bill had been sent to the National Assembly. Ilelah disclosed this when he hosted Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja earlier in the week. Describing the ills of social media as a “monster”, Ilelah said the bill is seeking to repeal and reenact the NBC Act, CAP L11 laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. The NBC boss lamented that the current law does not give NBC the right to control social media. While speaking on Daily Trust X spaces on Thursday evening, Nigerians expressed divergent views on the issue.

  President Bola Tinubu has pulled the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, out of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, effectively paving way for the Nyesom Wike-led FCTA to utilize the territory’s Internally Generated Revenue IGR for the development of the nation’s capital. At a news conference Friday in Abuja, Wike also disclosed that the President has approved the creation of the FCT Civil Service Commission to allow for staff career progression.

  The Pew Research Center has ranked Nigeria as the second most prayerful country on earth. Meet Our Big Winners – Win ₦500,000 Weekly With MSport MSport Online Betting | SponsoredMeet Our Big Winners – Win ₦500,000 Weekly With MSportJubna Ads Choice Afghanistan was ranked first with 96% prayer rate while Nigeria had 95% prayer rate. The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. The report says: “compared with weekly worship attendance, daily prayer is somewhat more common around the world. “In the average country across 105 surveyed, about half of adults (49%) say they pray every day, including majorities in sub-Saharan Africa (75%), the Middle East and North Africa (70%) and Latin America (62%). “Prayer frequency varies widely across Asia. Fully 96% of Afghans and 87% of Iranians – both overwhelmingly Muslim populations – report praying daily, reflecting a global pattern of high levels of prayer in Muslim-majority countries (prayer is one of the Five Pillars of Islam). “Daily prayer is also very common in Hindu-majority India, where 75% pray daily, but it is much less common in some other parts of Asia, such as Vietnam (14%) and China (1%).” Here is a list of the most prayerful countries on earth. 1. Afghanistan: 96% 2. Nigeria: 95% 3. Algeria: 88% 4. Senegal: 88% 5. Djibouti: 87% 6. Iran: 87% 7. Iraq: 87% 8. Niger: 87% 9. Indonesia: 84% List of the less prayerful countries on earth. 1. China: 1% 2. UK: 6% 3. Switzerland: 8% 4. Austria: 8% 5. Czechia: 9% 6. Germany: 9% 7. Estonia: 9% 8. France: 10% 9 . Denmark: 10%

  Phrank Shaibu, a Special Assistant on Public Communication to the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar, has said that they have petitioned the BBC over a report on Tinubu’s certificate. In a report titled “Bola Tinubu diploma: No evidence Nigeria’s president forged college record”, BBC analyzed the controversy surrounding the certificate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying there is no evidence that the president forged the certificate. But during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Shaibu said the matter had been taken up with the BBC top management. When they said a report by the BBC, I laughed at the level of pedestrianism. The three young people who wrote that report are not even in the employment of the BBC. They are just like a fact-checking team. Let me take one of the authors of that report, Olaronke Alo. As of 2019, he was a reporter and presenter at TVC owned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “We don’t need the services of a clairvoyant to know how the stories were put together. The first paragraph will tell you they got the true certified copy of the position from Frank Shaibu. One of the reporters asked me for it and I sent it to her. “The same report claims that when they tried to reach the Atiku media team, we did not respond. This we have taken up with the top management and we have written a petition to the BBC because they allowed their platform to be used for a hatched job like this.”

  Former minister of Interior, Bello Yusuf Maitama Yusuf, Sardaunan Dutse, is dead. Aged 76, Maitama served as a senator from 1999-2007. A family friend of the deceased, Alhaji Hussaini Dalhatu, confirmed to Daily Trust that he died in the early hours of Friday. His funeral prayer is scheduled to take place after Jumu’at prayer at the Kano Emir’s palace on Friday. Maitama was born in Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa State in 1947. He was minister of interior in 1981 and minister of commerce in 1982.