General
IFAD Provides $60m to Improve Income, Food Security in Niger Delta
By Adedapo Adesanya
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has contributed $60 million to the Federal Government/IFAD-Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises project in the Niger Delta (LIFE-ND).
This was disclosed by Mrs Dede Ekoue, IFAD Nigeria Country Director, on Tuesday at the Federal Government/IFAD LIFE-ND Mid Term Review Mission Inception workshop in Abuja.
This represented about 90 per cent of the $67.8 million budgeted for the project.
She identified LIFE ND as an important programme aimed at enhancing income, food security, and job creation for rural youths and women through sustainable agri-enterprise development in the region.
She said the mid-term review showed that the project had made significant progress, including an outreach of 14,155 smallholder farmers as against the targeted 25,500.
She noted that the figure represented 55.5 per cent.
According to her, no fewer than 2,500 community women and youths have been trained in the use and cultivation of bio-fortified planting materials.
They included Pro Vitamin A cassava, brown rice, fruits, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, and homestead establishment in more than 39 schools and 150 incubation centres.
She noted that the efforts were aimed at improving nutrition and income generation.
“The uniqueness of LIFE-ND lies in its innovative incubation approach to youths entrepreneurs, taking into account gender equality.
“The project has engaged 792 mature businesses (enterprise incubators), who are working with the project to create and coach 6,035 new enterprises, which represents gainful jobs for women and youths in Nigeria.
“It is worthy of note that a total of 6,500 hectares have been acquired to facilitate women and youth’s access to land, a critical asset for scaling up agricultural activities,” she said.
Mrs Ekoue further said that the MTR mission represented an opportunity to identify strategies, to scale up the results and the project’s impact.
“The mission is an important participatory exercise that calls for active contributions of all stakeholders in developing pathways to maximise the impact of LIFE ND, building on the best practices generated by the project and addressing challenges facing target groups and beneficiaries.
“The mission is leveraging opportunities that are yet to be fully harnessed, including digital solutions and the partnership with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to scale up support to youths and women, help enterprises development, job creation and foster the transformative growth of the agro-food sector.”
On his part, Mr Musa Bukar, the Director of Programme Coordinating Unit at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, commended the achievements of the project so far.
He appealed to IFAD to boost its funding to accommodate other Niger Delta states like Imo, Rivers, and Akwa-Ibom and assured IFAD of the ministry’s commitment to ensuring the full realisation of the project’s objectives.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The United States government gave some terrorists in Nigeria a Christmas gift that sent many of them to the great beyond.
On Thursday, December 25, 2025, the United States President, Mr Donald Trump, directed his country’s military to launch air strikes on camps of members of the dreaded Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Sokoto State.
According to Mr Trump, the military action, which he threatened to carry out a few weeks ago if the Nigerian government does not stop the killing of Christians in the country, occurred on Thursday night.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.
“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.
“Under my leadership, our country will not allow radical islamic terrorism to prosper. May God bless our military, and Merry Christmas to all, including the dead terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
In a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Department of War of the United States posted the below video of the air strikes;
https://twitter.com/DeptofWar/status/2004351717131903272
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The presidency has reacted to speculations that Mr Femi Gbajabiamila has been removed as the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu.
It was alleged that Mr Gbajabiamila has been replaced with the President’s Principal Private Secretary, Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola.
Mr Muri-Okunola went to Abuja to take up this role after leaving as the Head of Service of the Lagos State Civil Service.
Reacting to the reports on social media on the purported removal of Mr Gbajabiamila, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, the presidency said no such change has been made.
In a statement signed on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, members of the public were advised to disregard the report as “there is absolutely no truth to this story.”
“The Chief of Staff remains in his position. The Principal Private Secretary likewise remains in his role. Hakeem Muri-Okunola has not replaced Femi Gbajabiamila as Chief of Staff.
“The viral claim is a fabrication by mischievous purveyors of fake news whose sole aim is to create disharmony within the government.
“We reiterate that news media should always verify their information before publishing or sharing on social media,” the statement said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The new chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, has assumed office with a clear message to advance the country’s upstream oil and gas sector in line with the mandate of the commission as enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
According to a statement signed by Mr Eniola Akinkuotu, the Head of Media & Strategic Communications at the upstream regulator, the NUPRC boss made this assertation during her first town hall meeting with management and staff on Tuesday December 23, 2025.
She further disclosed plans to make the commission a business enabler and re-ignite investments in the upstream sector.
Recall that President Tinubu nominated Mrs Eyesan to take over the NUPRC after the abrupt resignation of her predecessor, Mr Gbenga Komolafe as well as his counterpart in the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Mr Farouk Ahmed.
In her new capacity, Mrs Eyesan also set a firm production ambition of growing Nigeria’s output and increasing gas production.
“The goal is that we must enable the industry, we are regulators. We must enable the industry from our interactions with the stakeholders, from our interactions with everybody.
“My main objective is to ensure that we make a difference. I believe the NUPRC is at the Center of the industry,” she said.
The commission boss who has served for over three decades in the oil and gas sector, promised to entrench digitisation, transparency and efficiency in operations.
The NUPRC head said with the support of staff and management, the NUPRC will become the gold-standard regulator in Africa. She also promised capacity development, stronger technical depth and sustained engagement with stakeholders, unions and professional teams.
On leadership style, Mrs Eyesan promised an open-door policy and frequent staff engagement, while also soliciting for support and cooperation as the industry embarks on the next phase of transformation.
“If we work together we can unleash opportunities, I don’t see impediments only opportunities,” she added.
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