Headlines
Allowance Increment: NYSC Pays Buhari Thank You Visit
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, praised the National National Youth Service Corps scheme as a strong uniting force among Nigerian youths.
He lauded the initiators of the scheme, especially former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, for introducing the NYSC as an avenue for people to know the country better.
Buhari cited an instance with Lagos, where he said there were people living on Victoria Island, who had never visited Ikeja.
But he noted that such people could travel all the way to Daura, in Katsina State, through posting to serve the country as corps members.
The President spoke in Abuja when he received a delegation of corps members at the Presidential Villa.
The corps members, who were led by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, and the Director-General of the NYSC, Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Shehu, came to thank the President for increasing their monthly allowance from N19,800 to N33,000.
Buhari said, “People come from far and wide; some from Victoria Island in Lagos have not even been to Ikeja. They now find themselves in Daura and other parts of the country.
“Whenever I go to my town, I get in touch with corps members; some of them from Lagos, some from Port Harcourt.”
A State House statement by Buhari’s media aide, Mr Femi Adesina, said four corps members represented their colleagues across the country on the delegation.
They expressed “deepest gratitude” to Buhari for raising their monthly allowance.
The Federal Government recently added N13,200 to the allowance of corps members and commenced payment in January this year.
The government had explained that the raise was to bring the allowance to be in the same threshold with the new National Minimum Wage of N30,000.
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
