Lightup Concepts

President Goodluck Jonathan The Federal Government on Sunday finally released the result of the rebased Gross Domestic Product for the country, which showed that the Nigerian economy had overtaken South Africa’s as the biggest on the continent. The Statistician General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Dr. Yemi Kale, who presented the outcome of the preliminary estimates of the GDP in Abuja, said that following the rebasing exercise, the country’s real GDP for 2011 and 2012 now stood at 5.09 per cent and 6.66 per cent, while the economy grew by 7.41 per cent in real terms last year. He stated that the numbers were still going through a final refinement and that by June this year; the final estimates of the nominal GDP would be released. Rebasing of the national account series, which includes the GDP, is the process of replacing an old base year with a new and more recent one. The base year provides the r

    Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Kenneth Minimah A soldier has claimed that he witnessed incidents that suggested some military   chiefs work  with Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East. The soldier told the  Voice of America Hausa Service   how his military unit in Borno State was ambushed by Boko Haram members. He  said the commander of a nearby military unit in Bama recently sought assistance from his unit in carrying out a raid. The soldier, who did not give his  name, said when the two military units joined up, they were given different uniforms. The Bama unit commander, according to him, gave his own troops green uniforms while his   unit received tan “desert camouflage” uniforms. When the troops reached the battle area, the soldier said the commander of the better-equipped Bama unit suddenly withdrew his forces, leaving the remaining troops to fend for themselves against Boko Haram fighters. Speaking in Hausa, he said, “We had only light arms and our men were be