Bad News For Nigerians: Trump Introduces New Rule For African Tourists; Travelers Will Be Required To Pay $5,000 Refundable Bond

The outgoing administration of President Donald Trump has issued a new temporary rule that could require tourist and business travelers from two dozen countries, mostly in Africa, to pay a refundable bond of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 to visit the United States. The U.S. State Department said on Monday that the temporary final rule, which takes effect Dec. 24 and runs through June 24, targets countries whose nationals have higher rates of overstaying B-2 visas for tourists and B-1 visas for business travelers. The Trump administration said the six-month pilot program aims to test the 'feasibility of collecting such bonds and will serve as a diplomatic deterrence to overstaying the visas.' Trump, who lost his re-election bid earlier this month, made restrictions on visas a part of his

Nigerian Govt Falls Into Another Deep Hole As Ex-UK Minister Asks Government To Sanction Nigerian Officials Over #EndSARS Protest

Theresa Villiers Theresa Villiers, a former Environment Secretary in the UK has called on the country's government to impose sanctions against Nigerian officials over the 'suppression' of EndSars protesters. Speaking during a one-hour-twenty-minute debate held in British Parliament to debate possible sanctions against the Nigerian government, Villiers asked the UK Government to place travel ban and freeze assets of Nigerian officials found to be involved in suppression of the protests. The former Minister turned parliamentarian also disclosed that reports she gathered from some of her constituents who were of Nigerian descent and information from the Amnesty International, showed gross violation of peoples’ rights in the way the #EndSARS protests were suppressed. A few other parliamentarians supported her call and argued that the only way the UK government

CBN Sends Serious Warning To Those Using Parallel Market To Push For Naira Devaluation

CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Those using parallel market rates to put pressure on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to devalue the Naira won’t have their way. The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele gave this indication at the end of the last 2020 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, in Abuja, on Tuesday. He said “It is unfair that even analysts who should know are using parallel market rate to say that our currency is overvalued and therefore calling for devaluation. This is very unfortunate. “The parallel market is a shallow market of only about 5 per cent of the foreign exchange market which is patronized by people who go there for cash to offer bribes and corruption. Parallel market is the place where people

JUST IN: Buhari Has Failed, He is Power Drunk, Not Interested In Governance, Northern Elders Spits Fire

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of being a power-drunk, saying that the President is not the country’s messiah. Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Director of Publicity of the Forum, said the Nigerian leader is more interested in power than governance. Baba-Ahmed said the forum thought the President was coming to save the nation from insecurity, bad economy, and poor leadership, but to their surprise, the President has not done anything different from the Goodluck Jonathan administration. He disclosed that it has become very clear that the administration of President Buhari needed to approach governance with a sense of emergency, to do things differently from the way it was done. The NEF spokesman said the President has

Tension As Gombe Assembly Impeaches Speaker, Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim Kurba

The Gombe State House of Assembly has impeached the Speaker, Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim Kurba. Kurba was impeached on Tuesday, November 24, by 16 out of the 24 members of the assembly through voice votes during the plenary at the legislative chamber of the Assembly complex. The house proceedings leading to the impeachment of the embattled speaker was presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Siddi Buba, representing Kwami West constituency. 15 members of the Assembly unanimously elected Abubakar Luggerewol, of Akko Central constituecy, as the new Speaker. He was subsequently sworn in by the Deputy Speaker.

Elon Musk Overtakes Bill Gates To Become world’s Second-Richest Man A Week After He overtook Mark Zuckerberg

Elon Musk has passed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person, only a week after he overtook Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to become the third-richest as Tesla's share price continues to soar. The electric car company's value has risen following the announcement that it would join the S&P 500 index of leading US companies, driving its market value close to $500bn. Mr Musk, 49, is now worth more than $128 billion (£95bn) as he owns 20% of all of the company's shares, which have risen by more than 675% since 25 November last year, when they were valued at $67.27 (£50.33) each. Tesla’s share price is currently valued at $521.49 (£390.20) a share, and if the growth continues, Musk could net a

JUST IN: First African American New York Mayor, David Dinkins Dies At 93

David Dinkins, New York City’s first African American mayor, has died at the age of 93. Dinkins died on Monday evening, November 23, at his residence on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) told CNN. The department had received a call from Dinkins's residence regarding an unconscious person having difficulty breathing, according to the NYPD. Bill de Blasio, the current mayor of New York City confirmed Dinkins's death to The New York Times. It came less than two months after the death of Mr. Dinkins’s wife, Joyce, who died in October at the age of 89. Dinkins served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993, according to his bio on the city's

2023: PDP Already Commited Its Presidential Ticket To The North, Junaid Mohammed Reveals

Dr. Junaid Mohammed, elders statesman and Second Republic federal lawmaker on Monday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has already committed its presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections to the North. Prominent northern candidates likely to contest the 2023 presidential election on the PDP platform are Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the party’s candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, Ahmed Makarfi former Kaduna state governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, former governor of Jigawa and Dr Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, former Gombe state governor. Junaid, who also said President Buhari lacks the capacity to lead the APC to victory in 2023, said any politician who realises that his ambition cannot be realised in the political party he belongs to should seek

BREAKING: Buhari Writes Letter To Senate Seeking Yakubu Mahmood’s Confirmation As INEC Chairman

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to confirm the appointment of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, for a second term in office. Buhari’s official communication to the red chamber was read on the floor during plenary on Tuesday, by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan. He sought the lawmakers’ expeditious consideration of his request for another five-year tenure for Yakubu. Details later…

Safety Measure: Twitter Finally Restores NCC’s Official Account

The Twitter account of the Nigerian Communications Commission, @NgComCommission has been restored. This was made known to DGN on Tuesday in a statement signed by Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, Director, Public Affairs. According to the statement, the restoration followed a temporary suspension by Twitter, a decision taken to ensure the safety of the account owner, NCC and its thousands of followers. Twitter’s security features had interpreted the multiple Online staff Internet Protocol (IP) logins as a suspected attempt to hack the Commission’s Twitter account, hence the decision to immediately suspend the account to protect the account and its followers from any security breaches or compromises. However, in a swift response, the Commission filed an appeal with Twitter Support, explaining the circumstance and requesting it to