Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has congratulated six distinguished Diaspora Nigerians named by President Joe Biden among the 400 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in the United States.

This was contained in a statehouse statement in Abuja, on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy) Bayo Onanuga.

Biztellers reports that the prestigious recognition was established by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, and remains the highest honour bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers at the early stages of their careers.

This year’s awardees, announced by President Biden on January 14, 2025, are employed or funded by 14 participating United States government agencies.

The Nigerian honorees include Azeez Butali, Gilbert Lilly Endowed Professor of Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa; Ijeoma Opara, Associate Professor of Public Health (Social and Behavioral Sciences), Yale School of Public Health, Yale University; and Oluwatomi Akindele, Postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Others are Eno Ebong, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biology at Northeastern University; Oluwasanmi Koyejo, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University; and Abidemi Ajiboye, Executive Vice Chair of the Case School of Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University.

President Tinubu commends these trailblazing Nigerians for their remarkable achievements in medical sciences, technology and engineering.

President Tinubu maintained that recognising these exceptional talents underscores Nigerians’ vast potential to excel both at home and on the global stage.

He looks forward to the honorees sharing their multidisciplinary expertise to benefit Nigeria’s development efforts under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reported a sharp rise in the retail prices of petrol and diesel across Nigeria.

In its Petrol Price Watch for November 2024, released in Abuja on Thursday, the NBS revealed that the average retail price of a litre of petrol rose to N1,214.17, an 87.10% increase from N648.93 recorded in November 2023.

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The report also noted that the price increase between October and November 2024 was 2.48%, with the average retail price in October standing at N1,184.83.

Petrol Prices Across States

According to the NBS, Benue recorded the highest average petrol price in November 2024 at N1,365.16 per litre, followed by Borno (N1,331.94) and Adamawa (N1,319.85).

On the other hand, the states with the lowest prices were Lagos (N1,092.79), Katsina (N1,121.25), and Kano (N1,152.86).

Regionally, the South-East Zone recorded the highest average price of petrol at N1,257.72, while the South-West Zone had the lowest at N1,153.94 per litre.

Diesel Prices Rise by 37% Year-on-Year

In its Diesel Price Watch for November 2024, the NBS reported that the average retail price of diesel also increased significantly.

The price climbed to N1,446.83 per litre in November 2024, a 37.07% increase compared to N1,055.57 per litre in November 2023.

Month-on-month, diesel prices rose slightly by 0.38% from N1,441.28 recorded in October 2024.

State-by-State Diesel Prices

The highest diesel prices in November were recorded in Bauchi (N2,232.04), Taraba (N1,770.59), and Borno (N1,751.15). Meanwhile, the lowest prices were observed in Oyo (N1,250.71), Ogun (N1,258.08), and Lagos (N1,262.38).

The report also showed that the North-East Zone recorded the highest average diesel price at N1,676.11, while the South-West Zone had the lowest average price at N1,303.61 per litre.

The continued rise in fuel prices highlights the growing burden on households and businesses as they grapple with higher transportation and energy costs.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has invited his United Arab Emirates counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to visit Nigeria this year.

The revelation was made in a statehouse statement on Thursday by Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), Bayo Onanuga, in which he also confirmed that Sheikh Nahyan accepted the invitation.

It was gathered that President Tinubu offered him the invited on Wednesday night during their bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2025.

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President Tinubu arrived in Abu Dhabi on Sunday as a guest of the UAE President to participate in the Sustainability Week, a forum for exchanging ideas to support sustainable development worldwide and encourage collective action to address global challenges, such as climate change, water and energy crises.

He delivered Nigeria’s position on climate and other challenges earlier on Wednesday and congratulated the UAE leader for the successful event.

During the discussions, Sheikh Nahyan thanked the Nigerian leader for accepting his invitation and expressed the UAE’s determination to strengthen economic cooperation between Nigeria and his country.

The two leaders also explored attracting investment into Nigeria.

President Tinubu told his UAE counterpart that his government’s economic reforms were yielding fruits and called on the UAE to partner with Nigeria to develop the economy.

He said the reforms had stabilised and grown the economy, encouraging foreign investors, including international oil companies, to announce billion-dollar investments, signalling renewed confidence in doing business with Africa’s most populous nation.

President Tinubu thanked Sheikh Nahyan for the warm reception he and his aides received since their arrival over the weekend.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar, Minister of Finance Wale Edun, and the National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu accompanied President Tinubu to the meeting at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental in Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Court for Special Affairs; and H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan accompanied the UAE President.

Other UAE officials at the meeting were: Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation; Dr Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Salem Saeed Al Shamsi, UAE Ambassador to Nigeria.