Although President Goodluck Jonathan presided over the security meeting he summoned last Thursday to consider the merit or otherwise of granting amnesty to Boko Haram members, the brainstorming session was principally between his ministers and the security chiefs.

FROM the Federal Government, Tuesday, came a pledge to further raise the nation’s power generation capacity by 40 per cent, before the end of the year.

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Segun Aganga, made this disclosure in Ijebu Mushin, Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State during a facility tour of Tulip, a private cocoa processing factory located in the area.

While expressing the commitment of the Federal Government towards industrial revolution, the Minister urged Nigerians and the international community to focus less on those negative things about the country.

The Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, said in Abuja at the strategic meeting for performance and agenda setting for 2013 that the move would help the ministry deliver adequately on its mandate.

She said the meeting was convened early in the year in order to take practical steps to mitigate the impact of the flooding that affected major parts of the country last year.

According to Paul C Nwabuikwu “I can confirm that Professor Mrs Kamene Okonjo, wife of the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku, Professor Chukuka Okonjo and mother of the Coordinating Minister for the Economy/Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was released this morning, five days after her abduction”.

Nigeria is considering watering down proposed changes to the fiscal regime for international oil companies operating offshore after warnings that they will drive away investment and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Prospective home owners in Nigeria are to benefit, as the Federal Government plans to set up a Mortgage Refinance Corporation (MRC) next year, with an initial N5 billion in capitalisation and a further $250million in debt financing.

The drugged ex-minister was put in a crate and taken to an airport where a plane was waiting

In London in 1984, a team of Nigerians and Israelis attempted to kidnap and repatriate the exiled former Nigerian minister Umaru Dikko. Mr Dikko, who had fled Nigeria after a military coup, was accused of stealing $1bn (£625m) of government money.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, Thursday  dismissed the clamour for her removal by President Goodluck Jonathan, describing those behind the clamour as blackmailers 
Alison-Madueke said she would remain focused and committed to her job and embark on reforms in the oil and gas sector.

In an interview with Reuters, Diezani Alison-Madueke said: “We expect within the next couple of months a marginal bid round will be announced. We hope a major bid round will follow before the end of the year.

A major shake-up in the aviation sector is imminent as the Federal Government explores various strategies to upgrade airport infrastructure to international standard and entrench global best practices in the operations and management of the aviation agencies.