As politicians begin to re-strategize following the release of a tentative schedule for next year’s elections by the new Electoral Act, indications emerged at the weekend that arrangements are almost concluded for President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration for 2011 presidency. A formal campaign rally has been scheduled to kick off in his home state of Bayelsa, [...]

NORTHERN leaders, yesterday, gave President Goodluck Jonathan the green light to contest the 2011 elections saying that he became the President under a joint ticket with late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. They said that Yar’Adua’s death should not deprive Jonathan the rights and privileges of the joint ticket. Rising from a one-day summit at the [...]

President Goodluck Jonathan has extended the new salary package to the military, para-military, police and intelligence community, who were not always covered by similar salary reviews in the past. The extension of the jumbo increase to other public servants as opposed to the core civil servants, has shot the entire wage bill to N267. 4 [...]

Senators yesterday lambasted the presidency’s plan to spend about ₦10 billion on the celebration of Nigeria’s 50th anniversary as an unnecessary extravagance. The lawmakers who were debating the supplementary budget bill submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan, which included the sum of ₦10 billion for the celebration, described the plan as bogus and out of place. [...]

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday urged member countries of the G8 Summit to consider 100 per cent cancellation of debts owed them by African countries. Jonathan, while addressing the G8 Summit in Muskoda Canada, also urged the developed countries to consider the establishment of joint funds for MDG 4 and 5 as priority actions to help [...]

President Goodluck Jonathan has formed the nucleus of the campaign team that is expected to deliver him the presidency in 2011. NEXT can exclusively reveal that the group of 15 members, which includes 9 serving ministers, is being bankrolled by Femi Otedola, the billionaire oil magnate and Abdusamat Rabiu, the sugar merchant . A source [...]

BARRING any last minute change of mind by President Goodluck Jonathan, there are very strong indications that Bukhari Bello would replace out-going National Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Maurice Iwu and this is authoritative. In addition, the National Council of State, NCS, a body made up of past heads of state [...]

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is set to change the face of the Niger Delta with the construction of floating cities in the oil-rich region. According to sources at the Presidency, the cities are being designed to uplift the area and its people. Said the source: “The President is determined to provide basic amenities of life, jobs, [...]

Two days after the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, tendered his resignation letter, intense lobbying has commenced among members of the party for his successor. Saturday Punch learnt that the top hierarchy of the party is divided over who should be propped up to succeed Ogbulafor, who served a 30-day notice [...]

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday did the unexpected by selecting Namadi Sambo, the Governor of Kaduna State as the Vice President. Sources have revealed that Goodluck Jonathan’s choice of Sambo over the long list of nominees was because he felt he could work with Sambo. Sambo, a relatively new entrant into the Nigerian political scene became [...]