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For about three decades ace gospel singer, Funmi Aragbaye, has entertained Nigerians across the world with her sonorous voice and good music. Unknown to many, it comes with a price tag and it is at the expense of her family. In an exclusive chat, the iconic singer said that because the demand for her services is always at its peak during festive seasons, she has not been able to spend quality time with her family ever since her ministry started. Simply put, during festivities like Christmas and Easter, when most people would be in the warm embrace of their loved ones, she does not have such luxury and her children often complain. She said, “I hardly have time to take my family out because I have a very tight schedule due to the nature of my job. I cannot decline my clients’ request whenever they want to book me for a show because it is a festive season and I want to take my family out. For me, the festive period is usually the most demanding. In fact, the last time I...

Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has debunked speculations  that he allegedly engaged his Deputy,  Barnabas Bala Bantex, in a fisticuffs over alleged argument on state matters. The cause of the alleged fisticuffs between El-Rufai and Bantex, according to reports was that, the Governor and the deputy have been having a cold war over alleged plans by the governor to sack top civil servants in the state. However, speaking at an interactive session with journalists on  Tuesday night, El-Rufai laughed over the rumour, and described the rumour mongers as, “Not quite intelligent enough”. He said if the alleged fisticuffs took place in the executive meeting as portrayed by the rumour mongers, there would have been video evident of the fight by some executive members of the State councils, “because nobody is prevented from entering the meeting with his or her phone” He said if there is anybody he so much trusted and respected, it is Bantex who he said...

There was tension in Arepo, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State on Wednesday after some naval officers allegedly killed three residents. The victims, identified as Biodun Mohammed, Chicago and Body, were said to have been rounded up on Sunday at a beer parlour in the area. The men were said to have been taken away and shot dead. Family members and friends of the victims, who found their corpses on Wednesday, blocked the only entrance into the Arepo community, preventing vehicular movements in and out. The situation created traffic jam on the road, which spilled onto the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. It was observed that the corpses had become bloated just as stench pervaded the air. While two of the men were taken across a wooden bridge into the creek where they were shot, the last corpse was found inside a bush where flies were feasting on it. As of 4pm on Wednesday, policemen from the Ibafo division had surrounded the place and stopped p...

While property prices in top-tier Chinese cities are booming, prices in smaller cities, where most of China's urban population lives, are still sinking, complicating government efforts to spread wealth more evenly and arrest slowing economic growth. Property has a special place in the psyche of Chinese investors, far outstripping stocks and bonds as a vehicle for their savings, so sliding property prices have a big impact on individual wealth and domestic consumption. "As the real estate market is tied to many comprehensive industry lines and consumption, it is one of the key industries to support the Chinese economy," said Albert Lau, CEO of property firm Savills China. The weakness in property and related sectors, accounting for an estimated 20 percent of GDP, has been a big drag on Chinese growth, which hit a 25-year low in 2015 and is set to slow again this year. A property revival could also play an important role in China's recent pledge to ...

• ‘N75m worth of productive hours wasted in fuel queues daily’ • Chamber puts MSMEs’ loss at over N30 billion As the nation looks up to next week to end the perennial fuel scarcity, as promised by the Federal Government, indications have emerged that the International Oil Companies (IOC) are set to support the downstream sector through a way of foreign exchange ( forex) provision. The IOCs are major upstream oil and gas operators. But reports showed that they are now indicating interest in the downstream fuel supply crisis and are ready to help the marketers secure forex for fuel importation. The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Garbadeen Muhammed, who also confirmed this development said, the major international upstream oil companies had indicated their willingness to support major oil marketing companies with some of the required forex. According to him, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu is also working with the Ce...

The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) on Tuesday said that it had launched the `Operation Produce More and Eat Nigerian Rice’ as part of efforts to boost local production and consumption. The South-West Zonal Coordinator, Mr Segun Athoh, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that rice farmers had the dedication and ability to improve production. Athoh said that the association was already clearing and preparing the lands in the Badagry area of the state, to grow rice. “We are presently on the farm now doing land preparations to grow rice in Badagry, Lagos. What I will advise Nigerians, according to my slogan, is: Operation produce more and eat Nigerian rice. “We have the dedication, ability and discipline to achieve this, so that we can match other nations, shoulder to shoulder. “It is high time Nigerians changed their pattern of feeding; if we can grow rice, wheat, guinea corn and many others, there is nothing bad to eat our own. “Nobody will query us...

Mr Richard Aisuebeogun, Chairman, Airport Business Summit and Expo, has called on the Federal Government to privatise the country’s airports to make them more viable for business. Aisuebeogun, a former Managing Director of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), made the call during the 2016 Airport Business Summit and Expo on Tuesday in Abuja. He said that management of airports by the government was no longer fashionable globally, adding that airport business all over the world has become private sector driven. According to him, airports are transformed into private enterprises in such a way that their operational efficiency and financial accountability will increase because there will be balance sheet to be checked. “More so is the fact that government is limited by the available funds for expenditures today, airports will probably be in the middle scale. “What we are saying is that now is the time therefore for government to begin to look at ways to priv...

• Corporation loses N57.71b to vandalism • 2,832 vandalised points recorded in 13 months, 400 in 2016 • Ghana may dump Nigeria, looks elsewhere for gas supply It may be virtually impossible for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to operate its refineries, crude oil and products pipelines nationwide profitably, unless government takes drastic measures to eliminate all acts of pipeline vandalism, according to an investigation by The Guardian. This is coming in the light of a report titled “Report on Improving Local Refining Capacity in Nigeria”, prepared by the Managing Director, Matwims Consult Limited, Mark Tubotein, which reveals that the repeated repairs by Petroleum Pipelines and Marketing Company (PPMC) after each act of vandalism for several years calls to question the integrity of existing pipelines that are over 35 years in operation without adequate maintenance on them. Before this report, there were revelations by the NNPC that the huge spendin...

Over the years, the trouble in the Power ministry has been one of the reasons slowing down the growth in electricity generation and supply across the country, the Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Mustapha Shehuri, has said. Shehuri also announced the Federal Government’s new power generation target of 25,000 megawatts by the year 2020. This, however, is despite the fact that power firms in the country are struggling to generate and sustain 4,000MW of electricity after the sector was privatised in November 2013. Shehuri, who spoke at the 5th induction ceremony of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria’s Graduate Skills Development Programme in Abuja on Monday, stated that the present administration was determined to transform the power sector in four years. Buttressing comments made by the keynote speaker at the event, Dr. Abdullahi Aliyu, the minister stated that improvement in the power sector had been frustratingly slow, considering the fact that t...

Few days after 34 construction workers were killed in a building collapse in the Lekki area of Lagos metropolis, another occurred yesterday at the Mile 12 area, killing at least one person. The collapse of the one-storey building comes on the heels of gradual return of economic activities in the area, as a result of the reopening of the popular Mile 12 market. The market had been shut for almost a month following a clash that led to the death of about eight persons. The incident generated panic, as the balcony of the building, located at No. 9, Alli Close, came down in the early hours.According to eyewitnesses, the victim, a 47-year-old woman was on the balcony when it crashed and left her with severe injuries. She died on the way to the hospital. The Guardian gathered that the 16-room building had shown signs of distress before the incident.General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Michael Akindele, confirmed the collapse. Akindele said while ...