TODAY
February 10, 2021
The Senate has ordered a probe into the petition written against the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Mrs. Muheeba Dankaka, over allegations of abuse of office.
To this end, its Committee on Federal Character and Inter-governmental Affairs yesterday began investigative hearing into the allegation against the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the FCC who was appointed in April, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Some Commissioners of the Federal Character Commission had in the petition to the Senate accused the Chairman of the Commission of abuse of office.
At the resumption of the investigative hearing on Tuesday, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Danjuma La’ah asked the FCC Chairman to defend the allegations raised against her by the Commissioners.
The government is following a four-pronged approach to reduce the compliance burden on businesses and promote ease of living, said DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra. These are decriminalising minor offences in all central government laws, removing redundant laws, introducing citizen governance, and easing license requirements for businesses, Mohapatra told journalists. Ministries have asked to identify outdated laws, rules and regulations that “do not promote ease of living living or ease of doing business”, Mohapatra said. About 1,400 such Acts have already been removed since the government came to power, he said. Citing an example of recent reforms, he said the government relaxed the norm for attestation of documents. “In times of adversity it has helped everyone. Simple initiatives have removed irritants,” he said. A number of state legislation like Shops and Establishment Act, Labour Act, Civil Supplies Act are being reviewed.
Vanguard News
Interrogating leadership direction of Federal Character Commission
On
By Bola Bakare
NIGERIA, since attainment of independence in 1960, has experienced recurrent tensions due to severe horizontal inequities that exist between different regions and ethnic groups where one divide of the country appears to be better placed than the other.
The Nigerian civil war was fought and ended with a declaration of ‘no winner, no vanquished’, so consecutive regimes embarked on a reform process intended to address the sensitive issues of inequality and ethnic domination. This included the adoption of the federal character principle to ensure the equitable representation of different groups in all tiers of government, and the formation of the Federal Character Commission, FCC, to monitor and enforce its implementation.
Nigeria’s Biosafety Agency Funding Challenge
Nigeria’s Biosafety Agency Funding Challenge
The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), an agency under the Federal Ministry of Environment, was established in 2015 with the mandate to provide regulatory framework, institutional and administrative mechanism for safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology in Nigeria, thereby preventing any adverse effect on human health, animals, plants, and environment.
According to the Act establishing NBMA, the objectives of the Agency are to: (a) establish and strengthen the institutional arrangement on biosafety matters in Nigeria; (b) safeguard human health, biodiversity and the environment from any potential adverse effect of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) including food safety; (c) ensure safety in the use of modern biotechnology and provide holistic approach to the regulation of genetically modified organisms; (d) provide measures for the case-by-case assessment o
At last, the lawmakers have done the right thing
With her confirmation last week by the Cross River House of Assembly, Justice Akon Ikpeme is now set to become the Chief Judge of the state. We are delighted that this unfortunate saga has finally come to an end and that reason ultimately prevailed. But it should never have happened and the assembly members recognise that. “It was a unanimous decision. We didn’t give room for voting,” said Hon. Efa Esua, who explained the process leading to the confirmation. “The first time we didn’t do it right and having seen that there was an error, we needed to correct it.”