A 5.4-magnitude earthquake on Thursday, January 4, 2018 hit Merowe area in north Sudan, some 350 km north of the capital Khartoum, according to the Public Authority for Geological Research of Sudan’s Minerals Ministry. “Earthquakes have occurred in Merowe area since Jan. 1 and continued intermittently in varying degrees thereafter. “Thursday’s quake registered 5.4 on the Richter scale,” said the ...

Some years ago, the then Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Mailafi, shook the country’s business landscape when she announced government’s preparedness to ban the use of plastics bags, a commodity which is used in high volumes across the country. The pronouncement by the Minister sent a shock wave across the country as people of various shields started reacting to the ...

Compared to other forms by which people decide and determine their political fortunes, democracy enjoys a greater approval and wider acceptance across the globe. Proponents of democracy as a preferred system of government boast about the potency of the system to strike the cord that energises the citizenry towards conscious and active participation in matters relating to self-preservation and government ...

The Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON) has urged practitioners to strive to provide quality service to clients to sustain the enviable position of town planning practice in the society. The President of the association, Mr Olaide Afolabi, gave the charge while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, January 4, 2018 in Lagos. Afolabi ...

Farmers, under the aegis of Zero Hunger Commodities, have called for increased support from the Federal Government to enable farmers to engage in massive food production across the country. They made the call in separate interviews with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of their recent meeting in Abuja. Dr Tunde Arosanyin, the National Coordinator of Zero Hunger ...

The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) initiated the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme to facilitate the provision of houses to Nigerians and bridge the housing deficit. NHF is a pool which mobilises long-term funds from Nigerian workers, banks, insurance companies and Federal Government to advance loans at a single-digit interest rate to its contributors. With the NHF scheme, workers ...

An Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeon, Prof. Titus Ibekwe, on Thursday, January 4, 2018 urged the general public to desist from using cotton buds, pen cover, car keys, among others to clean their ear. Ibekwe, who is with the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that such practices were harmful to the ...

Following nomination by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, the General Assembly on December 22, 2017 elected Maimunah Mohd Sharif of Malaysia as Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). She succeeds Joan Clos of Spain to whom the Secretary-General says he is grateful for his dedicated service to the organisation. Dr. Clos led UN-Habitat during the pivotal ...

Year 2017 was another important year to the environment sector. While there were several efforts at both national and global levels towards effectively managing the environment to prevent natural and human-induced environmental disasters that threaten human health, agriculture, water resources and other sectors of the economy, there were also scores of disasters recorded  that tried to undermine the efforts made ...

The European Union-sponsored (EU) measurement/monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) Project has helped Nigeria strengthen the foundation of her work in climate change MRV, and further prepare the country to measure, monitor, verify progress towards meeting international commitments. The initiative has likewise helped to show the government and people how Nigeria is progressing towards adapting to and mitigating climate change. Environment ...