Gist Arena

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday became the world’s richest person, as a jump in the share price of the US tech giant enabled him to overtake Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Forbes magazine estimated. The magazine said its real-time tracking of personal fortunes showed Bezos with a net worth of $90.5 billion, ahead of $90 billion for Gates. Bezos owns around 17% of the equity of Amazon, which has been expanding from its original mission as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence. The company also recently announced plans to acquire US grocer Whole Foods, which could help Amazon expand in that sector. Amazon shares were up 1.7% at $1,070.72 and have risen some 24% over the past four months, adding some $17 billion to the net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos. According to Forbes, Gates has been the richest person in the magazine’s annual rankings for the past four years and...

Last week, there were reports on social media about a 70-year-old woman who was caught having sex with her 30-year-old lover inside her late husband's home in Amuzu Nkpogoro community in Ebonyi state. The elderly woman was later paraded alongside her lover and then banished from the community. Maria Ude Nwachi who is a member of the state House of Assembly intervened in the matter and here is an update which she gave via her Facebook page. She wrote  Parading of people unacceptable - Essa Ehugbo. The member representing Afikpo North East in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Mrs Maria Ude Nwachi (Afikpo Chic), on the 22nd July 2017, complained to Essa Traditional Council of Ehugho, the highest decision making body in Ehugbo (Afikpo), about a 70 year old widow, accused of sleeping with a man in her late husband’s home at Amuzu Nkpogoro, Afikpo, and paraded with the man round the villages; with youths chanting disgraceful songs behind them, thereby creating a s...

Dear members! The MMM Mutual Aid Community has been successfully operating all over the world. We will now make a brief weekly news digests for all countries wherein we will briefly touch upon various interesting events and will make a wrap-up of the past week. In general, MMM has seen an outstanding growth. We would like to note right away that as we have members from 118 countries we will not cover all the news in detail; otherwise, it will be an encyclopedia rather than a digest. :-)) Let's just touch upon the most interesting news. So, here we go! TO REGISTER IN MMM CLICK   https://goo.gl/qJFRad MMM has been gaining popularity — hence, our online consultants have been in high demand. The number of conversations is constantly growing, hence new online consultants have been hired in Columbia, Brazil and some other countries. Let's wish them good luck! MMM China is steadily gaining momentum. In the past week only the number of help provision cases rose two-fold...

The Senate has passed the bill establish to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency, thus implementing the first step in pulling the country’s financial intelligence unit out of the control of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. The bill was passed after it was read for the third time today, Thursday, just the fourth legislative day since it was first initiated last Thursday. The bill was referred to the committee on anti-corruption on Tuesday. But without the usual public hearing, organised to consider opinions of concerned parties on a subject, the report of the committee was presented on Wednesday and the bill passed on Thursday. The Senate said the bill was given accelerated consideration to help Nigeria avoid expulsion from the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units, which had suspended the country over absence of legal framework that guarantees independence of the Nigeria’s unit. For the bill to become law, it has to be passed by th...

The Senate has called for a review of Nigeria’s revenue sharing formula to give states and local government areas greater share than what they get in the current formula, which gives more to the federal government. The Senate said the current formula is “unconstitutional” and does not reflect the country’s present realities. The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional review proposal to devolve greater powers to the states, after complaints the proposal did not seek to give the federating units greater share of the national revenue and control over resources.

The house of representatives has approved the devolution of more power to states. Unlike the upper chamber, the lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber voted in favour of it while considering some amendments to the 1999 constitution. The amendment seeks to alter the “second schedule, part I & II to move certain items to the concurrent legislative list to give more legislative powers to states”. Devolution is the delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralisation. The approval of the house of representatives serves as a boost to the campaign for restructuring. Source: Nigeriabullentin

The Nigerian Senate voted to amend some key elements of the country’s Constitution Wednesday, amidst growing complaints by some citizens that the document has become increasingly unworkable . The chamber voted on financial autonomy to local government areas, independent candidacy, restriction of executive offices to one term, affirmative action for women, amongst others. Interestingly, the area of devolution of powers, which has become a subject of passionate debate across the country in recent years, was roundly rejected the lawmakers. Good governance advocates, and increasingly politicians, argue that the Constitution concentrates too much powers at the centre, at the expense of state authorities that are more closer to the citizens. Thirty-three bills were sponsored by senators for amendments to various sections of the Constitution. Here are some of the crucial decisions reached by the senators. 1. Members of the Council of States — adopted. This ame...

Former Nigeria's Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke Nollywood actor, Aremu Afolayan, has placed curses on the ex-Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, for allegedly stealing billions of Naira from Nigeria. The actor shared a video on Instagram on Wednesday where he blamed her “kind” for the reason Nigerians flee the country in search of greener pastures. Aremu, who is one of the sons of the late famous theatre and filmmaker, Ade Love, spared no words as he described the embattled ex-minister as a ‘mad person’ whose life won’t end well. He also alleged that she stole over N27 trillion which belonged to Nigeria. His rants come on the heels of ongoing revelations in a U.S. court case that Mrs. Alison-Madueke, and two of her business associates, Jide Omokore and Kola Aluko, spent about $144 million on property. Aremu’s curses, delivered in Yoruba language, when translated read, “It shall not be well with Deziani, I’m laughing yes but it...

The Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Caretaker Committee, Ahmed Makarfi, has disclosed how the party will recapture power in 2019. Makarfi said PDP will capture power once it was able to reconcile its aggrieved members, recruit news ones and build a vast war chest. The former Kaduna State governor made the disclosure while receiving members of the Forum of Former Presiding Officers of State Houses of Assembly and the PDP Women’s Forum at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday. He has also assured that the party would play a credible opposition role devoid of hate speeches from now till the next election. Makarfi noted that the party has a lot of work to do in reconciling its members. He said the pursuit for reconciliation was not just with those who where involved in the leadership crisis that engulfed the party but also those that had left the party. Makarfi said: “It’s a work in progress. This is the time to join hands a...

There seems to be no end in sight in the recent media war between the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, and a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, as the governor on Wednesday described the ex-minister as a man whose story began and ended with his father’s and grandfather’s names. Fani-Kayode had, on Tuesday, through his Special Adviser on Media, Jude Ndukwe, described Okorocha as a man who was academically unfit to be a governor and had run Imo State aground. Reacting on Wednesday through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, Okorocha described the former minister’s statement as an unintelligent, unprovoked and unwarranted media attack against him. He pointed out that Fani-Kayode would have responded to the issues he raised about the visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in London, United Kingdom, by some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress without going personal. The statement read, “And on our part, as responsible people, we had dela...

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday voted in support of altering sections 150, 174, 195, 211, 318 and the third schedule of the Constitution to separate the office of the Minister or Commissioner for Justice from that of the Attorney-General of the Federation or that of a state. This amendment is to create an independent office of the attorney-general to insulate it from partisanship. The amendment will also, among others, redefine the role of the attorney-general, provide a fixed tenure, provide age and qualification for appointment and also a stringent process for the removal of occupant of the office. At the moment, the Attorney-General of the Federation or of a state is also the minister or commissioner for Justice. The duties of the attorney-general will among others be to institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court of law in Nigeria, other than a court-martial, in respect of any offence created by or under any Act of the Nati...

Sex workers have called for the decriminalisation of commercial sex in Nigeria. They said the step will not only help to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country, but also stop violence against sex workers. Speaking at the Sexual Ethnography Dissemination Workshop in Abuja on Wednesday, the National Coordinator of Nigerian Sex Workers Association, Amaka Anemo, said hypocrisy was behind the continued criminalisation of the sex trade in Nigeria. Ms. Anemo noted that who go to worship centres to condemn sex workers also go back to patronise them in manners that eventually expose their wives, girlfriends and other people at risk. “Once a sex worker is infected with HIV, she can transmit it to as many people as possible by sleeping with just one man, who sleeps with his wife and probably his other girlfriend. “And the girlfriend has a boyfriend who also has another girlfriend and it keeps spreading that way. So, one sex worker can transmit the virus to a hundred...

Above is the new age qualification to run for a political office as approved by the Nigerian Senate during the constitution review exercise yesterday. Before now, a person must be at least 40 years of age to be elected President or Vice President, 35 to be a Senator or State Governor, and 30 to be a Representative in parliament.