Nigeria: Senate Summons Petroleum Minister Over Petrol Scarcity – The Senate yesterday summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, over the scarcity of petrol in the country. Kachikwu who is also the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is expected to appear before the committee on Petroleum (Downstream) today.

What is the nature of the youth strategy required to harness the youth in Nigeria? What is to be done is clear: We need youth development programmes and value proposition, as well as an execution framework, around which a paradigmatic value reorientation and platforms of engagement can be achieved

With the aim of meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, to eradicate malnutrition, Executive Director José Graziano da Silva said in his opening address to a meeting of the FAO Council executive, that thinking only in terms of those suffering weight loss, was outdated: “There is a steady growth in the levels of overweight (people) and obesity all around the world”.

New monetary policy pulls out N744bn from circulation – Due to its new monetary policy drive the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, may be pulling out up to N1.0 trillion from circulation in the economy through the banking system in the first month of its new monetary policy.

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM), or extremely low weight-for-height, is estimated to affect 500,000-1,000,000 children under age five in Nigeria every year, contributing to as many as 100,000 deaths per year. Community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM), a proven intervention for treating SAM, has been launched in 11 northern states of Nigeria, but the treatment is estimated to cover only 15-25% of the national burden of SAM each year

Most of the rejoinders I received on the two serials preceding this one have demanded that I provide a trajectory of “how to do reform guide” that would be a logical conclusion to my historical analysis of the civil service in Nigeria and tribute to its founding patriarchs. This is not difficult since, one, I have written four books and published many articles on the reform ecology and praxis in Nigeria and beyond; and two, I have equally been involved in reform strategy/ programmes design and implementation in the last two decades. What follows therefore will serve as an effort at popularising some of the ideas and thoughts in my previous scholarly and administrative outputs on the idea of reforming the Nigerian civil service.

Nigeria’s hope of overhauling its inefficient and corrupt public service is being frustrated by lack of a decisive political leadership, and resistance to change by officials benefiting from the current structure, a UK-funded assessment of a reform programme has said. Federal Public Administration Reform Programme, FEPAR, said its efforts at assisting with reforms across government ministries and departments in

Written by: Tunji Olaopa (Published in: See Source) THE title of this piece happens to be the title of my forthcoming publication, previewed in this piece. The publication is a synthesis of the outputs of my research in the last 20 years and therefore presents my ideas and proposals on what needs to be done to get the civil service capability ready to competently and effectively backstop the transformation of the national economy. The ideas and proposals are also targeting the transformation of the civil service as an institution so it could assume a world-class status. The book, with a befitting foreward written by the elder statesman, Dr. Christopher Kolade, is being published by Bookcraft.

The civil service in Nigeria has emerged over the years as the most critical and crucial part of national development and democratic stability. The Nigerian Civil Service consists of employees in Nigerian government agencies other than the military. Most employees are career civil servants in the Nigerian ministries, progressing based on qualifications and seniority. Recently the head of the service has been introducing measures to make the ministries more efficient and responsive to the public.

On the face of it, public administration is usually taken to mean “the planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling of government operations.” This conception would very often direct and tend to limit attention to the institutions of public administration vis-à-vis their design, structure, managers and their capacity to do what they are designed to do. But a much more robust view of the concept would also involve the context, or what could be variously described as the ecology, within which those activities referred to as public administration

The centenary of the founding of the Nigerian state is something to be celebrated. But more than that, it calls for deep and profound reflection for the simple reason that a hundred years is a life time. Whatever may be the shades of opinions on the preparation for the celebration of this event, no one will doubt its momentous nature. There is therefore the urgent need to insert reflective thought into the celebrations. James Baldwin gives us a critical insight: ‘There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.’

Saraki Urges Nigerians To Demand End To Corruption, Insecurity – The chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Dr Bukola Saraki has called on Nigerians to be steadfast and united in calling for an end to insecurity, corruption, and all other social ills currently plaguing the nation.