Ghana - The Super Eagles of Nigeria booked a ticket in the ongoing 2008 African Nations Cup quarterfinals after struggling to a 2-0 victory over Benin in their final Group B match in Sekondi, Ghana.But Nigeria should be grateful to Cote d’Ivoire, for the 3-0 pounding of Mali in the clash in Accra.

The victory helped Nigeria to the second position in the table with four points behind Cote d’Ivoire who won its three games in the group to bag nine points.

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Ghana - MALIANS threw away their chance to reach the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations after they were comprehensively beaten by Group B winners Cote d’Ivoire.

The defeat meant Nigeria edged into the last eight despite being third in the group before Tuesday’s crucial games.

Didier Drogba opened the scoring with a smart finish on 10 minutes when he shot across goal from a Yaya Toure’s pass.

The Elephants made it 2-0 from a corner when Marc Zoro nodded in and sealed it with a Boubacar Sanogo rebound.

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Abuja - Senator Nuhu Aliyu has expressed his resolve to stop further comments on his allegations concerning 419ers, in both the nation’s upper and lower legislative houses.

Aliyu, who spoke in a brief interview with our correspondent at Kontagora, Niger State on Saturday, stated that his resolve not to comment further on the matter was sequel to the fact that the issue had already been put before the Ethics and Privileges Committee of the upper legislative House.

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ThisDay - Nigeria’s external reserves increased from US$51.33 billion during the week ended January 4 to US$54.79 billion by January 18, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.This represents a 6.74 per cent or $3.46 billion increase, following the rise in crude oil production and the high oil prices in the international market. But Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), the Governor of Lagos State, has expressed reservation at the non-utilization of the nation’s huge foreign reserves.

The banking watchdog, which made the latest figures known in the latest edition of its Economic Indicators Report, explained that the current level of reserves could support 23 months of foreign exchange disbursements.

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Vanguard - Nigerians  spend about N16.408  trillion annually on fueling generators in the country.

The break down shows that in the telecom sector, N6.7 trillion is spent per annum to purchase diesel while filling stations spend N43.98 billion; factories N191.08 billion; banks N11.7 billion; insurance companies N80 billion; residential N7.812 trillion; and commercial enterprises, N1.57 trillion giving a total of N16.408,760 trillion or $140 billion expended on fuelling generators in the country annually.

This weakness imposes significant costs on economic activities and productivity in the country resulting in a prohibitive high cost of doing business which has made the country less attractive to local and foreign investors.

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