Monday, November 27, 2017
Video - Fela Kuti - The father of Afrobeat
Fela Kuti, born as Olufela Ransome Kuti was a Nigerian music maestro and the pioneer of Afrobeat.
"Faces of Africa" brings you the story of one of Africa's music legends and his influence through music.
Friday, November 24, 2017
Video - Nigerians react to the ousting of President Mugabe in Zimbabwe
The change in leadership in Zimbabwe is sparking strong reaction across the continent. CGTN spoke to a some Nigerians and Ugandans.
Nigeria drops 50th in FIFA rankings
Instead of upward movement, the Super Eagles who were forced to a one-all draw by Algeria in the last Group B Russia 2018 qualifying game in Constantine and winner of the friendly with the two-time World Cup holders and the world’s number four ranked Albiceleste, slumped nine places to be ranked 50th globally.
Super Eagles midfielder Ogenyi Onazi yesterday described the ranking system as ridiculous and confusing.
Speaking from his base in Turkey, the former Lazio player said though the team isn’t bothered about it’s current ranking, it has done more than enough to rank better than teams that failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup like African champions Cameroon who are five places above the Eagles.
“Well, I don’t know how this FIFA ranking thing works but it doesn’t matter whatever position we are ranked. The current ranking is not a position of the way things are. it’s just not fair we dropped despite the performances we put up in the qualifiers and even in the friendly match against Argentina,” Onazi told AOIFootball.com from his base in Turkey.
In Africa, Eagles are now ranked 8th after Senegal (23), Tunisia (27), Egypt (31), Congo DR (36), Morocco (40) , Burkina Faso (44) Cameroon (45).
Only Ghana (51st) and Cote d’ Ivoire (61st) are below Nigeria in the Top Ten of the African rankings.
The Lions of Teranga were the heaviest mover in Africa in the November rankings. This was due largely to the home and away defeat of the Bafana Bafana in the rescheduled World Cup qualifier. The 23rd spot is Senegal’s highest-ever position on the global ladder Of the 32 teams that qualified for the Mundial next year, Eagles are better ranked than World Cup hosts Russia (65th) as well as Saudi Arabia (63rd) and Panama (56th).
Nigeria is in Pot 4 of the World Cup draw slated for December 1 in Moscow. FIFA rankings for the month of October were exclusively used for the seedings.
Meanwhile, there was no movement in the top five of the global rankings as Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Belgium maintained their positions from the October rankings. Spain’s La Roja leap-frogged France and Poland into the sixth place. Switzerland is 8th while Chile is tenth.
Toll gates will make a return to Nigeria
The federal government has concluded plans to re-introduce tolls on roads across the country, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said.
He said this at an interactive session with the Senate committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, on Thursday.
Mr. Fashola said the new toll regime will be an improved adaptation of the past toll points as the ministry will adopt similar toll regime throughout the country.
“Tolls will come,” Mr. Fashola said. “We have looked at the previous tolling regime, the inefficiencies raised we have tried to review. One of the things we have done is to try and standardise the toll designs for the entire country. We have finished with that. So that we’ll expand its width according to the size of the road but they will be built with the same kind of materials that we can control.”
Mr. Fashola said that the toll points will be managed by private organisations as part of the federal government’s job creation scheme.
He added that the tolls will first be re-introduced at moribund toll points previously used by the government.
“The existing law allows us to toll and we have gone back to pre-existing toll points where the previous tolls were dismantled and those are the places where it is easy to re-introduce them again for a start because they used to be there. So, its sensitisation that is necessary will not be expensive.
“We’ve identified 38 points across the country. What we are waiting to achieve now is completion of the construction work that is going on. We don’t think it is fair to ask people to pay tolls on roads that are not motorable. While that is going on, we are working on the design. We want to standardise it so that when we put out the advert for people to come and bid, we can control what they are going to construct.”
He said this at an interactive session with the Senate committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, FERMA, on Thursday.
Mr. Fashola said the new toll regime will be an improved adaptation of the past toll points as the ministry will adopt similar toll regime throughout the country.
“Tolls will come,” Mr. Fashola said. “We have looked at the previous tolling regime, the inefficiencies raised we have tried to review. One of the things we have done is to try and standardise the toll designs for the entire country. We have finished with that. So that we’ll expand its width according to the size of the road but they will be built with the same kind of materials that we can control.”
Mr. Fashola said that the toll points will be managed by private organisations as part of the federal government’s job creation scheme.
He added that the tolls will first be re-introduced at moribund toll points previously used by the government.
“The existing law allows us to toll and we have gone back to pre-existing toll points where the previous tolls were dismantled and those are the places where it is easy to re-introduce them again for a start because they used to be there. So, its sensitisation that is necessary will not be expensive.
“We’ve identified 38 points across the country. What we are waiting to achieve now is completion of the construction work that is going on. We don’t think it is fair to ask people to pay tolls on roads that are not motorable. While that is going on, we are working on the design. We want to standardise it so that when we put out the advert for people to come and bid, we can control what they are going to construct.”
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Video - Economists warn Nigeria against heavy reliance on external loans
Nigeria's government is being cautioned not to rely too heavily on external loans to finance its budget deficits. Economists are warning that borrowing from external sources could increase the vulnerability of the economy. The concerns follow the Senate's approval of 5.5 billion dollars in borrowing requests by the government.
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