The Senate on Wednesday confirmed the appointments of 21 federal commissioners for the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

The upper legislative chamber confirmed the nominees after Yahaya Abdullahi, senator representing Kebbi north, presented a report.

President Bola Tinubu appointed the nominees in August and therefater sought the senate’s confirmation.

Abdullahi, chair of joint committee on national planning and economic affairs and finance, said all the nominees are fit to hold public office.

The former majority leader said with these appointments, every state in the country is represented on the RMAFC board.

“That the senate do confirmation of the 21 nominees that makes the commission to be of its full complement,” he said.

“That means every state now has a represenation at the board.”

The new commissioners are:

Linda Oti (Abia)

Akpan Effiong (Akwa Ibom)

Enefe Ekene (Anambra)

Prof. Steve Ugba (Benue)

Chief Eyonsa (Cross-River)

Aruviere Egharhevwe (Delta)

Nduka Awuregu (Ebonyi)

Victor Eboigbe (Edo)

Wumi Ogunlola (Ekiti)

Ozo Obodougo (Enugu)

Kabir Mashi (Katsina).

Adamu Fanda (Kano)

Dr. Kunle Wright (Lagos)

Aliyu Abdulkadir (Nasarawa)

Bako Shetima (Niger)

Samuel Durojaye (Ogun)

Nathaniel Adejutelegan (Ondo)

Saad Ibrahim (Plateau)

Modu-Aji Juluri (Yobe)

Bello Garba (Zamfara)

Mohammed Usman (Gombe).

Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. In the United States, these states are called the “swing states”, the 7 states that could change everything.

As Ekwutosblog points out, the American election is not played by direct universal suffrage. The candidate who obtains the most votes is not necessarily the one who will be elected. In order to be elected president, a candidate must have a plebiscite of at least 270 electors. Each state has a number of electors corresponding to the number of its representatives in Congress. The “swing states” are often those that change everything, they are the states where the elections are really played out.

With less than 4 weeks to go before the election, French media Le Parisien has taken into consideration the situation in which Donald Trump and Kamala Harris find themselves within these 7 states. Based on data from the FiveThirtyEight site, here is what emerges:

The two candidates are side by side. While Donald Trump was leading in most swing states until the end of July, the arrival of Kamala Harris in the presidential race has reshuffled the cards. According to Le Parisien, the Democratic candidate is ahead of her opponent in voting intentions in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin. In Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia, the polls show a real to-and-fro between the two candidates.

At this stage, while the gap is only two points (barely) between Trump and Harris, the results are impossible to predict. The election could be decided by a handful of votes.

The Rivers State House of Assembly has declared the seats of Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff to Governor Siminalayi Fubara, and three other pro-Fubara lawmakers vacant in the wake of their absence from sittings for 152 days.

While making the declaration on Tuesday during plenary, the Speaker Rt Hon. Martin Amaewhule explained that Ehie did not properly write to inform the House of his new office, and as such his seat has been declared vacant.

Regarding Victor Oko-Jumbo and the two others, the House held three separate votes to declare their seats vacant for absenteeism from sitting for 152 days consecutively without notification or permission, in violation of the 1999 Constitution.

Ekwutosblog gathered that the House  further agreed to write to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct elections to replace the now vacant seats within 90 days to provide representation for their people.

Also, the Assembly agreed to give Fubara another opportunity to present the 2024 Appropriations Bill following the Appeal Court’s nullification of the N800 billion budget which he had presented to a parallel House led by Edison Ehie.