The nation’s federally collected revenue recorded an appreciation, occasioned by rise in oil earnings and other sources in August, leading to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, sharing N637. 7 billion, among the three tiers of government, yesterday. This amount was made up of a statutory distributable revenue of N550.992 billion and Value Added Tax, VAT, revenue of N86.712 billion. The breakdown of the allocations showed that Federal Government received N273.095 billion; state governments, N173.806 billion, and local governments got N131.044 billion. Oil producing states received N41.977 billion as 13 per cent derivation revenue, while revenue generating agencies were given…

More than half schools in the state at the epicentre of Nigeria's conflict with Boko Haram are still closed, United Nations' children agency said on Friday, as the insurgency drags into its ninth year. The lack of schools could continue to fuel Boko Haram or similar movements in the future. Poor education for Nigeria's restive northeastern youth left them with few prospects, driving them to join the Islamist insurgency, experts say. The conflict has killed more than 20,000 people since 2009 and embroiled the region in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with at least 10.7 million people in…

America's top military officer, Gen. Joseph Dunford, told Congress Tuesday China is likely to be the "greatest threat" of any foe to the US within a decade. "I think China probably poses the greatest threat to our nation by about 2025," Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on his re-appointment as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dunford was responding to a question from Hawaii Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono, who noted that the general had previously identified Russia, followed by China and North Korea, as representing the greatest military threats to US national security during…

National Judicial Council (NJC) under the chairmanship of Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr Walter Onnoghen, has established a Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trial Monitoring Committee (COTRIMCO) to monitor judges and courts handling corruption and financial crimes cases in the country. The council also appointed a former President of the Court of Appeal, Mr Ayo Salami, as chairman of the committee. Salami retired under controversial circumstances, following the refusal by former President Goodluck Jonathan to reinstate him after he had been cleared by NJC over his alleged links to chieftains of defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Prior to…