President Bola Tinubu has approved N683,429,268 billion as the 2024 intervention fund for public tertiary schools in the country.

The Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Sonny Echono, made this disclosure on Friday at the Fund’s strategic planning meeting with heads of beneficiary institutions in Abuja.

According to him, from the total, 90.75 per cent is earmarked for direct disbursement, 8.94 per cent for some designated special projects, and 2.27 per cent is budgeted for response to emerging issues.

He also disclosed that each university shall get for the Year 2024 intervention cycle, the total sum of N1,906,944,930.00, polytechnic N1,165,355,235.00
while each College of Education has N1,398,426,282.00.

The intervention fund is expected to go a long way in addressing the long the decades-long calls for better funding of schools in Nigeria. Lecturers in the country’s public schools have often resorted to strikes to drum home their demands which also included better pay and improved facilities for learning institutions.

In late 2022, university lecturers suspended an eight-month strike over pay, welfare, and crumbling facilities, the latest industrial dispute to hit Africa’s most populous nation.

The strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had shut down federal government-owned universities since February 14 that year despite talks with the government to find a truce.

That strike was the second longest by ASUU, known for its work stoppages. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the university teachers went on strike for nine months.

The demands of the lecturers are the same as in previous strikes — higher pay, improved welfare, increased funding, and upgraded facilities.

Former Nigerian military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), has reiterated his long-standing proposal for a two-party system, arguing it would streamline governance and reduce financial burdens.

Babangida, who ruled Nigeria from 1985 to 1993, made the remarks during an interview on Channel TV’s Inside Sources.

Nigeria currently boasts 19 registered and operational political parties, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This multiplicity has sparked debate, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar alleging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) aims for a one-party state. However, the APC denies such claims.

During the interview, Babangida advocated for a system with just two dominant parties, alongside the possibility for independent candidates.

“Someone strong enough to gather support can contest independently,” he stated.

A former Edo State Governor, Senator Adams Oshiomole, has said President Bola Tinubu’s removal of the petrol subsidy has put an end to a regime of making ‘overnight billionaires” in the oil and gas sector.

The Edo North Senator said this on Friday while commissioning a tank farm owned by a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Chief Ayirimi Emami, in the Ifie community in Warri, Delta State.

He said the end of the fuel subsidy has effectively put an end to a system where having a connection in the oil sector could instantly transform someone into a billionaire.

He said: “Now, with the withdrawal of subsidy, you either work, sell and prosper, or you don’t, and you perish. This is the level playing field President Tinubu has created by the policy.”

Oshiomole commended Emami for the investment, noting that it would create jobs for people in the area, especially at a time when the petrol subsidy had been removed.

After touring the tank farm facility, Senator Oshiomole stated that a lot of courage and foresight went into the establishment in such a swampy area.

He enjoined young Nigerians to, rather than lament about not being given chances to thrive in the Nigerian economy, face the challenges by “turning obstacles into opportunities”.

“Nigerians have never sat down to ask themselves how come the Lebanese, the Indians are coming in droves to find jobs here. Nigerians are not seeing the opportunities in Nigeria. Let’s not cry; go for opportunities,” Oshiomole said.

The 2023 Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has reacted to the Supreme Court judgment which affirmed the victory of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Naija News reported that the apex court, on Friday, affirmed the election of Governor Sanwo-Olu as the Governor of Lagos State as earlier ruled by the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal in the state.

Justice Garba Lawal, who read the lead judgment of the apex court, dismissed the appeal filed by Rhodes-Vivour and his party for lacking in merit.

Reacting to the Supreme Court judgment in a post via his official X handle on Friday, Rhodes-Vivour described the ruling of the apex court as sad and shocking.

He said the apex court had set a shocking precedent where a governor or president could have multiple allegiances to countries other than Nigeria and still be the commander-in-chief of Lagos State.

Rhodes-Vivour stated that he is worried about what the precedent set by the apex court holds for future generations being led by leaders with conflict of interest and loyalty.

He wrote, “Today, the Supreme Court set a precedent: a governor or president can have multiple allegiances to states other than Nigeria and still be the chief security officer of Lagos or Nigeria.

“While I submit to this shocking decision of the Supreme Court, I worry about what this precedent holds for future generations being led by leaders with conflict of interest and loyalty.

“There is no Liberal Democracy that will accept to be led by an individual who has sworn an oath of allegiance to another country.

“Citizens should not have to contemplate the loyalty of their commander in chief or the chief security officer of their state. That said, as the court pleases.”a

Ahead of the 2024 African Cup of Nations tournament, bettors.co.za delved into the record books of the esteemed tournament to see which records could be broken over the next month. The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is esteemed for several key reasons. First, it holds great cultural significance in Africa, where football is deeply embedded in the cultural fabric. It showcases the best of African football who ply their trade across the world. Historically, AFCON is one of the oldest continental football championships, reflecting the continent's political and social evolution.

The details of the meeting President Bola Tinubu holds with Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the auspices of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) has emerged,

New Telegraph reports that the meeting which took place on Friday, January 12, at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja touched on areas including security, national cohesion, agriculture, and the welfare of citizens.

During the meeting, President Tinubu charged the Governors to develop and implement policies which would be beneficial to the people of Nigeria.

According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu also told the governors to work towards healing and unifying the country by ensuring a collective national vision and channelling energy and resources into nation-building.

“You can convert people. You can appeal to people to come to your side,’’ he stated.

The President added that Nigeria has no reason to be poor as the country is blessed with an abundance of human, natural, and material resources which makes it an aberration for it to be struggling with a dearth of quality infrastructure, quality education, and world-class health facilities.

He urged the Governors to join him in the task of re-engineering the country for inclusivity, effectiveness, and efficiency.

“We have no reason to be poor. Looking back on where we are coming from, where we have been, why we are facing infrastructural decay, a lack of quality and comprehensive education, as well as a lack of health facilities. We are not a cursed country, but blessed,’’ the President said.

President Tinubu asked the governors to come up with a framework that would make the school-feeding programme more comprehensive and successful across all states of the federation, taking into consideration the peculiarities of each locality, but working towards having all children in school.

He said: “We have children of school age who are out of school. The way to promote education is to get all governors, including the opposition governors, involved in the school feeding programme. Please, take it seriously.

“We should not measure the children as statistics. We should measure their return to classrooms as our achievement. We should see economic growth in terms of value and empowerment. We should set up a committee to look into the methods. I am ready to invest in school feeding.”

Tinubu disclosed that the implementation of the school-feeding programme would encourage more investments in agriculture, particularly in livestock farming and dairy, adding that the former Kano State Governor and APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, had already worked on a proposal that would be shared for input and implementation.

He equally congratulated the Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, for restoring irrigation systems that provide water for the year-long cultivation of crops.

On security, the President disclosed that the government was considering the deployment of forest guards, with better training, modern technological gadgets and weapons to strengthen security, and that the solid mineral and marine economic sectors will also be secured by special marine police.

“We have a big marine economy, and I do not see why we should not have the marine police. We will have the same in solid minerals to keep the scavengers away. I am ready to invest in security. We will buy our own minerals and keep them in reserves, especially gold, which will be effective in our foreign exchange reserve,’’ the President told the governors.

The Governor of Imo State and Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Hope Uzodinma, promised that the Governors would continue to support the policies of the President.

He also appreciated the President for providing financial intervention and support to the Governors.

We will continue to support you as your able ambassadors, willing ambassadors, and capable ambassadors,’’ Governor Uzodinma said.

The Dangote Refinery has started production. The largest single-train refinery in the world located in Nigeria’s commercial hub began operations in the early hours of Friday.

This followed the delivery of six million barrels of crude supply to the refinery.

Although it was supposed to begin operations in June 2023, the oil refinery built by Aliko Dangote received its first crude deliveries late last year in a step to starting up the delayed megaproject.

Billed as Africa’s largest of its type, the 650,000 barrel-per-day Dangote refinery could be a game changer for Nigeria’s economy when fully operational by helping end the country’s reliance on fuel imports.

The initial run will be for the production of diesel and aviation fuel before moving on to petrol output.

Though one of Africa’s largest oil producers and the continent’s top economy, Nigeria relies almost totally on imported fuel and diesel because of a lack of refining capacity.

Fuel imports and subsidies caused a huge drain on foreign exchange when Nigeria was struggling with dwindling oil revenues and foreign currency shortages.

“Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s requirement of all refined products, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and aviation jet, and also have surplus of each of these products for export,” the company said in a statement.

The facility sits on 2,635 hectares (6,500 acres) of land at the Lekki Free Zone on the edge of Lagos city and costs an estimated $19bn.

The refinery, first scheduled to open in 2021, was officially inaugurated by then-president Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

Since coming to office in May, President Bola Tinubu has ended the long-standing fuel subsidy and floated the naira currency in economic reforms he says will attract foreign investment and build long-term growth.

The former Lagos governor has called on Nigerians to be patient with his reform programme as the initial impact saw fuel prices soar, a sharp fall in the value of the naira, and an increase in the cost of living.

As the Dangote refinery begins production, the Port Harcourt refinery is also expected to start production.

Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State believes the incessant attacks on the state are acts of terrorism, claiming security agents know the masterminds.

Over 200 persons were killed in recent attacks in the North-Central state with many rendered homeless.

“What I can tell you is the killings in Plateau and the attacks in recent times are pure acts of terrorism,” he said on Friday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.

According to him, the earlier Nigeria deals with these attacks, the better as he claimed those sponsoring terrorism are known.

“I believe that the sponsors of the terrorists, the financiers of the terrorists, and those who arm the terrorists are known.

“And the security agencies know them or they have the capacity to know them. And that is why we are insisting that the security agencies must do their work, which is to protect lives and properties,” he maintained.

His comment came on the same day the Supreme Court reversed an appeal court verdict sacking him as governor, a feat he believes shows Nigerian can get better.

“It has brought out in me some positive energy that we can be able to change the Nigerian system. I have always been an incurable optimist that Nigeria can change,” he added.

“With what I saw in the Supreme Court, it raises that hope further that if the Supreme Court can get it right, the judicial system will get it right, the administration of justice will get right.

“It therefore means that we can cascade this into other spheres of our national development. I believe that with the lot of things that are happening now, some of the corrective measures Mr President is taking means that change is possible.”

President Bola Tinubu on Friday approved the appointment of eleven new Chief Executive Officers for agencies under the Ministry of Art, Culture, and Creative Economy.

Ajuri Ngelale, President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity made the disclosure in a statement made available to newsmen in the State House.

According to the statement, Tinubu mandated the appointees to discharge their duties in accordance with the highest standards of professionalism, diligence, and patriotism with a view to making the creative sector more vibrant and robust.

The new appointees in the Art, Culture, and Creative Economy sector are as follows.

(1) Tola Akerele — Director-General, National Theatre

(2) Dr Shaibu Husseini — Director-General, National Films and Censors Board

(3) Obi Asika — Director-General, National Council for Arts and Culture

4) Aisha Adamu Augie — Director-General, Centre for Black and African Arts and Culture

(5) Ekpolador-Ebi Koinyan — Chief Conservator, National War Museum

(6) Ahmed Sodangi — Director-General, National Gallery of Art

(7) Chaliya Shagaya — Director-General, National Institute of Archeology and Museums Studies

(8) Hajiya Khaltume Bulama Gana — Artistic Director, National Troupe of Nigeria

(9) Otunba Biodun Ajiboye — Director-General, National Institute for Cultural Orientation

(10) Ali Nuhu — Managing-Director, Nigerian Film Corporation

(11) Ramatu Abonbo Mohammed — Director-General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

…Says Humanitarian Ministry Purpose Vehicle for Looting

The outcome of the last general election has thrown up the Labour Party (LP) as the country’s third political force with its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi making appreciable showing in the race that polarized the country along its major fault lines. In this interview, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Obiora Ifoh talked about the poll, the aftermath as well as what the leadership is doing to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) come 2027. Excerpt:

Litigations relating to the outcome of the last rounds of elections are rounding up, your party is one of the major opposition parties in the country, going forward, what will now form the basis of political engagements in the build up to the 2027 poll?

As you stated, we just concluded the election and the legal processes that came up afterwards. The legal processes culminated at the Supreme Court. As you also know, we lost at the Supreme Court. Currently, we are trying to digest the import of that judgment, which we felt was not justiciable because every fact pointed to the reality that we actually scored the highest number of votes in that election. By the wisdom of the electoral body and the corroboration of the courts, they thought otherwise. As a party, we have moved on but we are looking at a situation of having a formal post mortem where we would get all the critical stakeholders across the nation including the party officials, including the Obidient Family both at home and in the Diaspora, including the youths who form a great number of our support base to x-ray what happened.

In the end, we will take the good and we will look at the bad as well as the ugly. Together, we would come up with a resolution on how we can go ahead in future elections. It is not an easy thing to just come up and tell you what we intend to do because we didn’t go into the election by ourselves alone. We are going to see all of us that participated in one way or the other in the election on how to carry us all along. Together, we will come up with a way we can work towards future elections as a united indivisible family.

You talk about the youth forming a large chunk of your party’s support base, how do you intend to wow them again to re-enact the feat that the Labour Party performed in the last election?

For us, the youths are our main catchment segment because Nigeria is all about the youth. It is unfortunate that the leaders of the country today are unwilling to yield space for the younger ones. Our party came into the scene with necessary programmes that are youths friendly. These are programmes that have been tailored towards giving the youths hope for a better country and better tomorrow. These were programmes that will midwife a new Nigeria. These are programmes for the possibility of Nigeria making recourse to its God giving abilities, programmes that would change the situation of Nigeria as the potential leader in the African continent.

Amongst the youths, you have personalities, I mean people with different back- grounds and orientation, who are exposed who are willing to return home to help develop the country. Unfortunately, the prevailing situation in the country has made everything impossible for the youth to contribute to the development of the country. We now find ourselves in a situation whereby many youths are leaving the country in droves. Many of these youths are doing beautiful things in different areas of human endeavours in the countries that they have found themselves. Many of these youths are in medicine, in technology, in IT, banking, financing doing wonders.

They are making Nigeria as a country proud in their various countries of residence and they are willing to come back home to replicate what they are doing in the countries that they reside in. the government has made it practically impossible for them to return. The government has made it impossible due to its inability to put in place the primary responsibility of providing security for them. Investment in the country has become a very difficult thing to do. The Labour Party has continued to tell them that a new Nigeria is possible. A Nigeria where things will work again, I mean a Nigeria where youths won’t be labeled as fraudsters or ritualists.

What is your party’s assessment of the current regime since it came into power eight months ago?

There is no gain saying the fact that the government of President Bola Tinubu has pushed the country and the citizens into serious pains and penury. Things are getting harder for the people on a daily basis. I was just reading a few minutes ago a story of a young banker who committed suicide leaving a note to say that he did what he did because the situation was getting harder for him. We have countless numbers of people who on a daily basis jump into the lagoon in Lagos. Armed robbery is now on the rise. A lot of children are currently out of school. The economic outlook is bad, as we speak inflation is now in the region of 30 per cent. Many Nigerians are so poor today that they cannot buy food to eat or to feed their family. Nigerians can’t move around for their daily business activities because they can no longer buy fuel to power their vehicles.

The Nigerian currency is doing badly today against major international currencies. As we speak today, the rate of exchange to the Dollar is N1,300 as against the rate that they met when they came which was below N500. So far, for Nigerians across board, their reality since the coming on board of this government has been a tale of woes. People are losing their jobs in droves. I can tell you that most of the people that travelled outside their bases this yuletide to their villages will not come back to the cities again. This is because they can’t even afford to stay in the cities again. This is what this government has pushed us into in the last few months since it came into power.

You are painting a gloomy outlook, are you accusing the government of being rudderless and clueless?

I can tell you that the situation will get worse in months to come. This is because all the economic policies that they’ve come up with have always somersaulted. Most of them have backfired and are not working at all. Is it not in this same country that a serving minister within three months has stolen N585m into a private account. Is it not in the same government that the minister has paid the sum for so-called consultancy services to a company allegedly belonging to another member of the Federal cabinet. I told you that the level of corruption in the country is spiraling under this current government.

It is unmatched by any previous government. We used to think that the last immediate regime was terrible in terms of corruption but now, I can say that we have jumped from frying pan to fire. So, that is the situation that we have found ourselves in.

How do you see the intervention of President Bola Tinubu who has suspended the minister and handed her over to the EFCC?

What the president has done is purely a political optics. It’s just to create the impression that the government is fighting corruption. Far from it, he (the president) did what he did because this one came into the open. A lot is going on in the various ministries and government establishments that have not been touched. We had to be waiting for the investigator or journalist to bring the fraud into the open before we could now do something about it. By now, the minister of the Interior ought to be fired because a company that he has interest in received a whooping over N400m as consultancy fee. The question is, what is the said company consulting?

With regards to the suffering of the people, the President once said that he felt the pains of the people and those things would get better?

The sufferings have come to stay and it will only get worse as time goes by. Up till this moment, the current government does not have a clear cut policy that it hopes to use to take the country out of the current economic woes that it is currently facing. Recall that when they came into government eight months ago, they came up with a series of intervention programmes and part of it was to use CNG to power vehicles for transportation, part of it was to pay students loans for their studies. They also talked about poverty alleviation. Everyone can see what is currently going on in the country as we speak. To us, this ministry of Humanitarian Affairs is a special purpose vehicle used by government officials to enrich themselves and prepare themselves for future elections.

That is what the ministry is all about. Sadly enough for everyone to see, the ministry is not intervening in any poverty alleviation. It is solely to enrich those in government only. I believe that we have not heard the last of the scandal because we believe that the minister did not act alone. I believe that there are some other people that connived with her in carrying out that fraud. If she should open up, a lot of heads will roll. We heard that some highly placed government officials in Aso Villa were actively involved in the scandal.

[NewTelegraph]