Nigerian Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has stated that if Nigeria had maintained the old national anthem which was re-introduced earlier this year, the issue of insecurity would have been prevented.

According to Akpabio, if Nigeria had retained the anthem, it would have taught citizens patriotism and taking your neighbour as your brother would mean you would not want to kill such a person.

He further stated that those labelling the re-introduced anthem as an element of colonialism don’t understand Nigeria’s history because a panel made up of Nigerians was set up in 1959, which received inputs from all over the world regarding the anthem.

The Senate President made the submissions on Tuesday during his visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja.

He said: “The other impactful bill signed by the National Assembly is the reverting to our old national anthem.

“A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel set up and made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world in 1959.

“So when people are saying we’re bringing in colonial anthem, they need to look into the history of “Nigeria, we hail thee”.”

“If we had kept to that anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria because if you take your neighbour as your brother, you will not want to kill him.”

Recall that both the House of Representatives and the Senate speedily passed a bill to return to the old national anthem, “Nigeria, we hail thee”, that was abolished in 1978.

President Bola Tinubu also signed the bill in May, after it was passed by the National Assembly, making the old anthem the new anthem of the country.

Youngster Francisco Conceicao snatched Portugal a last-gasp 2-1 win over the Czech Republic in their Euro 2024 Group F opener on Tuesday just minutes after coming off the bench.

The 21-year-old Porto winger capitalised from close range after the Czechs were unable to clear a cross, completing his team’s comeback.

The Czechs went ahead against the run of play through Lukas Provod’s fine strike from the edge of the box after the hour mark.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal did not shine but dug just deep enough to claim victory, with Robin Hranac’s own goal pulling them level before Conceicao’s dramatic winner.

Ronaldo, 39, playing at a record-extending sixth European Championship, was denied by Stanek on three occasions as Portugal constantly looked to find the competition’s all-time top goalscorer.

The striker hit the post with the score tied and Diogo Jota nodded in the rebound but the goal was disallowed for offside against Ronaldo.

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez selected 41-year-old defender Pepe, who became the oldest player in Euros history, beating the record set by Hungary goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly aged 40 in 2016, as part of a three centre-back defence.

Portugal won that tournament in 2016 to claim the trophy for the first time and captain Ronaldo said they deserve another, although they got off to a stuttering start in Germany.

In coach Ivan Hasek’s first competitive game after taking over in January, the Czech Republic largely frustrated Martinez’s side, who qualified unbeaten while scoring more goals than any other team.

Ronaldo sent an effort wide with his shoulder after Rafael Leao cut inside with menace early on, as the Portuguese controlled the ball.

Bruno Fernandes’ deflected dipping effort had some Portugal fans out of their seats and Leao was inches away from connecting with a low cross from the Manchester United playmaker.

Czech goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek twice denied Ronaldo on a record 26th Euros appearance, but on both occasions the striker appeared marginally offside.

The Al Nassr hitman’s brightest moment came with a clever backheel which played in Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Vitinha, but the Czech defence swarmed around him quickly and blocked his shot.

Debate over whether Ronaldo should still be a starter or not has rumbled on since the 2022 World Cup and at times Portugal looked short on ideas beyond slinging crosses in towards him.

Stanek comfortably saved a Ronaldo free-kick from distance before the Czechs made their breakthrough.

Slavia Prague midfielder Provod whipped a superb strike past Diogo Costa from the edge of the box after Portugal failed to fully clear a cross just past the hour mark.

However Portugal were quickly level when Hranac unfortunately turned the ball into his own net, after Stanek palmed Nuno Mendes’ header straight at him from point-blank range.

Ronaldo and Czech Republic striker Patrik Schick finished as joint top scorers at Euro 2020 with five goals each but neither was at their lethal best in Leipzig.

Jota thought he had grabbed a last-gasp winner after Ronaldo’s header bounced off the woodwork into his path, but VAR showed the veteran forward was offside.

It didn’t matter for Martinez’s men though after Conceicao came on to fire them to the three points, putting Portugal level with Turkey at the top of Group F.

President Bola Tinubu has said a change of value system is imperative for Nigerians to progress.

He, however, declared that no matter the challenge the country faces, he will never turn his back on her.

Tinubu spoke in Lagos when he received a delegation from the National Assembly (NASS) on Monday evening, who came to felicitate with him on Eid-el-Kabir. 

The delegation, led by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, included the deputy Senate president, Jibrin Barau and the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, among others.

The president said, “Good economics at a harsh time is the challenge we must face. As I said in my speech, no matter how challenging it can be, I will not turn my back on Nigeria.” 

The president, in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, charged the citizens to change their mindset about Nigeria if the nation is to overcome its current challenges.

“The need (for some citizens) to change the rent-seeking mindset and become more productive to the economy is a challenge -the need to stop smuggling and all economic sabotage. 

“Why should we have people removing rail tracks, stealing electric cables and sabotaging the economy? We must embrace the campaign to change our value system. We must tell our people that our challenge is changing our mindset about our country,” Tinubu said.

The president commended the leadership of the National Assembly for the support extended to his administration, which has resulted in some of the important developments recorded by his administration. 

“It is great pride for me to have the best of partners in the National Assembly. We have to drill down and be all-inclusive in our bid to satisfy our people. It is daunting, but we cannot run away from the fact that this country must survive the hardship,” Tinubu said.

He acknowledged the challenges and the task ahead, assuring the nation of his unwavering determination to turn things around.

“Yes, there is poverty; there is suffering in the land. We are not the only people facing such a challenge, but we must face it ourselves. We must find a way to eliminate banditry and terrorism so that farmers can bring out food from the farmland. If you do not have good roads to bring the food to the population, even if you grow the food and lose 60-70 percent to damages, you will pay the price,” Tinubu said.

In an interaction with journalists after the meeting, Akpabio said he came with the leadership of the National Assembly to pay homage and felicitate the president on the occasion of Eid-el-Kabir and to thank him for the purposeful leadership in the first year of his administration.

On what Nigerians should expect from the legislature in the days ahead, Akpabio said, “Looking forward, the National Assembly will tinker with some existing legislations to improve on the nation’s ease of doing business.”

After meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly, the president proceeded to a meeting with the Oba of Lagos, His Royal Majesty Oba Rilwan Akiolu.

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed allegation of promoting insurgency raised against the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration by former.

former Governor of Kano State and 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

The party equally faulted claim that the federal government was meddling in the Kano Emirate tussle.

National Publicity Secretary of the APC,

Felix Morka, in a statement on Tuesday said it was uncharitable to accuse a government doing all its best to restore security of lives and property of goading insurgents.

The statement reads in part: “The attention of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been drawn to comments reportedly made by Senator Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State and 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), accusing the APC-led federal government of attempting to create a new breed of Boko Haram terrorists and insurgents in Northern Nigeria. Without any shred of evidence, he further alleged that certain individuals in APC fold were goading the federal government with the goal of reclaiming Kano State through a declaration of a state of emergency. Kwankwaso’s wild and unhinged comments were made with reference to the lingering Emirate tussle in Kano.

“We consider Kwankwaso’s comments to be disappointing, highly incendiary and unconscionable for an individual of his standing. As a former Governor and Minister of Defence, we expect Kwankwaso to demonstrate high grade discretion, and a better grip of the severe social, political and security implications of unguarded utterances capable of fueling tension and strife in the good state of Kano.

“It is disturbing that Kwankwaso would so casually accuse the federal government of attempting to create a new breed of Boko Haram terrorists and insurgents, the same Boko Haram that has inflicted unspeakable and despicable acts of terror that have destroyed the lives of innocent citizens and our heroic men and women in uniform. It is grossly insensitive, unwarranted, and unacceptable for Kwankwaso to bandy such a serious allegation in such a cavalier manner.

“In his unhinged bid to lash out, Senator Kwankwaso ignored the federal government’s glaring neutrality on the emirate crisis in Kano from the very outset. As a government that thrives on respect for the rule of law and constitutional liberties, the federal government has confidence in our courts to fairly adjudicate the matter that is already before them, and has no need or reason to side with any of parties in the emir-ship dispute.

“Unguarded accusations like these coming from the highest level of leadership of the NNPP such as that made by the Deputy Governor of the Kano state, Comrade Abdulsalam Gwarzo, against the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, which he has since retracted and apologized for, are utterly unhelpful in the delicate context of Kano, and must be avoided.

“The leader of our Party, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a pan-Nigeria bridge builder for peace, security and unity in our land, and will not, cannot, must not be directly or remotely tainted with flimsy and unjustifiable allegation of promoting violent crisis in any part of our dear country of which he is the President and Commander-in Chief-of the Armed Forces.

“As a statesman, Kwankwaso should busy himself with exploring and exhausting all avenues for political and peaceful solutions to the royal impasse rather than amplifying the drums of strife and upheaval.

“The situation in Kano State calls for calm as the nation awaits judicial or political resolution of all outstanding matters. The good people of Kano deserve to live in peace, unity and security.”

The Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed President Bola Tinubu, over his recent statement that Nigerians were not the only ones suffering from poverty.

The LP National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, in an interview with Vanguard, accused Tinubu of mocking Nigerians with the statement.

He said the President needed to be reminded that he was in office to reduce, if not eliminate, poverty and not exacerbate it.

Ifoh urged Tinubu to halt the mockery and consider security, including the welfare of the populace, a priority.

He said, “We are disappointed but not surprised by the comments made by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu about the excruciating poverty his administration’s policies have unleashed on Nigerians since he took office over a year ago.

“It was to say the least, disheartening to hear Mr. President mock his citizens by saying Nigerians are not the only ones facing poverty.

“Assuming but not conceding that what he said is true, Nigerians who are at the receiving end of his harsh economic policies don’t need to be reminded about the pain and hunger they have been forced to live with by the very people who put them in that situation in the first place.

“May be this administration needs to be reminded that it was elected to reduce if not eliminate poverty, hunger and disease but what we have seen is an obsession with opulence.

“We are yet to get over the billions appropriated for the renovation of the President and Vice President’s lodges, now we hear they want new jets to join the Presidential fleet.

“Our schools and health institutions are on their knees, the same government claims it cannot afford to pay public servants a living wage but has enough to make itself comfortable at the expense of the suffering masses.

“Mr. President, we implore you to uphold the constitution you swore to protect. The constitution says the security and welfare of the populace shall be the primary purpose of the existence of your government. Enough is this mockery.”

Similarly, Atiku, while speaking through his Special Adviser, Paul Ibe, accused Tinubu of deepening the poverty in the country.

He further said President Tinubu and his administration are insensitive to the plight of the masses.

He said, “There are little or no values nurtured and promoted by Tinubu and his administration. What Nigerians are seeing it manifest is insensitivity, bigotry, nepotism, corruption, and wastfulness.

“For the President to speak about us finding a way to eliminate banditry and terrorism is an acknowledgement of failure.

“ What we expect to hear from him are the measures and the strategy to deal with the menace and not to regale us with the problems that we are all well aware of.

“The poverty in Nigeria is multidimensional. It was exacerbated by the policies of the Tinubu administration that does not priotise production and cutting costs.

“Policies that were not well thought out and are only aimed at pauperizing the citizens. Tinubu’s trial-and-error policies have continued to dig the country deeper into economic degradation.

“ His government is characterised by a lack of transparency and accountability. For example, his administration is paying for subsidy, contrary to the claims that it is gone for good.

“According to his minister of finance, last year (the very same year they allegedly stopped payment of subsidy), Tinubu paid a subsidy of N3.6 trillion and this year, he is projected to pay a subsidy of N5.4 trillion.

“Why are they lying about this other than to divert money away from the Federation Account. Truth be told, Tinubu is the one causing the deepening poverty in the country.”

Former Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola said workers in Nigeria deserve reasonable adjustments to cope with the rising cost of living in the country.

Fashola stated this in a piece titled, ‘Minimum Wage Review – My Take Away’.

He stated, “When cost of living rises as they have now, the lowest and the highest income earners are impacted to varying degrees and therefore deserving of reasonable adjustments whether they earn wages or salaries.”

The former Lagos State governor faulted Section 4(1)(b) of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 which exempted “an establishment employing less than 25 persons” from being bound by the provisions of the Act to pay the minimum wage.

The former minister said the exemption of such establishments “raises serious doubts about whether we have enacted a minimum wage Act if small businesses who barely have 25 employees but who employ the largest number of the most vulnerable people are exempted from the law as currently legislated. Who then is the law protecting?

Fashola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said item 34 of the 1999 Constitution as amended in the Exclusive Legislative list confers power on the National Assembly to prescribe a national minimum wage for the Federation and not a monthly salary.

He said though wages and salaries are common methods of compensation open to the employer, the former is a fixed annual amount, payable at weekly, bi-weekly or monthly subject to agreement, while the latter refer to payment based on an hourly rate and the number of hours the employee works.

“Therefore, it seems obvious from this definition that by making a law in Section 3(1) of the Minimum Wage Act that the minimum wage of N30,000 shall be paid monthly, the NASS may have acted unconstitutionally by legislating on a SALARY (monthly payment) when they only have power to legislate on WAGES, an hourly payment.

“This is important while the conversation on minimum wage is being had in 2024 because in Section 3(4), the minimum wage “shall be reviewed in line with the provisions of this Act” which includes Section 3(1) that has prescribed a monthly amount instead of an hourly wage.”

“Of course, if and when we decide as a country on the implementation of a proper minimum wage, we must then design a formula to review salaries of those who do not earn wages in order to assist them deal with cost-of-living challenges.

“This may yet be the most fruitful outcome of the dilemma of appropriate employee compensation as it may lay the foundation for national productivity, wealth creation and prosperity. The opportunity is too big to miss or waste,” he said.

The former governor urged experts in labour law and compensation matters to put their thinking caps on and seek help from the best faculties around the world.

“As we do this, we must be mindful of the need for a possible amendment to item 34 of the Exclusive list in the constitution to include salaries because it currently does not.”

After weeks of failed talks on a new minimum wage for workers in the country, the Organised Labour declared an indefinite industrial action on Monday, June 3, 2024. Businesses were paralysed as labour shut down airports, hospitals, national grid, banks, National Assembly and state assemblies’ complexes.

The labour unions said the current minimum wage of ₦30,000 can no longer cater to the wellbeing of an average Nigerian worker, saying government should offer workers something economically realistic in tandem with current inflationary pressures, attendant effects of the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex windows of the current administration.

The labour unions also lamented that not all governors are paying the current wage award which expired in April 2024, five years after the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari. The Act should be reviewed every five years to meet up with contemporary economic demands of workers.

In January 2024, President Bola Tinubu inaugurated a tripartite committee to negotiate a new minimum wage for the country.

At the start of negotiations, Labour presented ₦615,000 as the new minimum wage but saw reasons to drop their demand to ₦497,000, and then to ₦494,000.

Also, in the beginning, the government and the Organised Private Sector proposed ₦48,000, ₦54,000, ₦57,000, and later ₦60,000, all four offers were rejected by Labour, prompting the strike.

In the heat of the impasse and the attendant consequences of the strike last Monday, June 3, 2024, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, said the President was committed to a wage above ₦60,000, and that the government side of the tripartite committee would meet with labour for one week to agree on a wage.

The organised abour “relaxed” its industrial action on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, some 24 hours after the strike.

Both leadership of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) subsequently resumed talks with the representatives of the Federal Government, states, Organised Private Sector.

The President also directed Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, to present a template for a new minimum wage. Before the directive, the minister described as “unaffordable, the demands of labour.

The 36 state governors said labour’s demands was not sustainable. Local government administrations also described the demands of the NLC and TUC as unrealistic.

However, on Friday, June 7, 2024, the two sides (labour and the government) failed to reach an agreement. While labour dropped again its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000, the government added ₦2,000 to its initial ₦60,000 and offered workers ₦62,000.

Both sides submitted their reports to the President who is expected to make a decision and send an executive bill to the National Assembly to pass a new minimum wage bill to be signed into law by the President.

In his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024, the President assured the Organised Labour that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers would soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.

Says Amaechi and Wike started Politics of Madness  in Rivers State

*** Reiterates that he has never met Fubara, he does not Know whether he is Black or not, he is only fighting against Injustice 

*** Says godfatherism must end in Nigeria Politics

***He wants to be remembered as a foremost Nigerian who believed in Nigeria, who believed in equality in this country, who believed that no one in Nigeria should be regarded as a superior person against the other

*** He asked those he offended to forgive him

FORMER Federal Commissioner for Information and South South Leader,  Chief Edwin Clark has asked the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration,  FCTA, Nyesom Wike to remain focused and concentrate in the nation’s Capital because he has a lot to do and leave Rivers State Governor,  Siminalayi Fubara and the people of the state alone.

The Elder statesman who stated this in an Interview with African Independent Television, AIT on Tuesday however accused the former Rivers State governor and the immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and his successor as the masterminds of what he described as politics of madness in Rivers State.

The Leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum,  PANDEF who noted that godfatherism must give way in the nation’s polity and the practice of politics for the development and growth of democracy in the country, said that he has never Fubara ad he cannot ascertain his complexion,  said that he is only out to fight against injustice and oppression.

The interview by the AIT with Clark was in  Commemorations of his  97th Birthday as well as a  Documentary on his Life and Achievements.

When asked why attempts have not been made to settle both Wike and Fubara,  the Leader of the Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders Forum,  SMBLF asked if they are quarrelling that would call for settlement,  stressing that what is playing out is egocentricism, the issue of I made you the governor of the state and you must worship me, but the other saying that he cannot worship man, but God, even though he agreed that he made the governor by the former governor.

Clark said, ” Who made you Governor of Rivers States,  today you don’t want to see the man? He wrote about Peter Odili but later now he said that if he does anything against Odili, God should kill him. Then, Amaechi made him Chief of Staff. When he quarreled with him, Ameachi now recommended  him to be appointed Minister, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo agreed.

“But what happened? One day, we had the approval of theresidency to tell the security people as  he got five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, I have their names here, to impeach the speaker, one Otelemaba Amachreee. Then to later impeach, the governor, Rotimi Ameachi. There was a free-for-all fight. The mace  was broken. One of the members called Chidi, not somebody with a part of the mace. That man had to be flown abroad for treatment. Amaechi then closed the House of Assembly for one year. So that’s Wike’s work.

“Politics of madness in Rivers State was started by Wike and Ameachi. They don’t care about other people. So, there is no way, Wike should stay, remain in Abuja to do his job. Let the young man rule his place.

“What are you going to settle them for? Where they quarreling. What are you settling them for? People said Wike made Fubara governor, yes, that is true. The man has acknowledged it. But he says, I can’t worship a human being that  I will worship God to show appreciation. But Wike said that worship God through me. The man said no. That is the problem they have.”

On the Rivers State House of Assembly members who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for the All Progressives Congress,  APC,  he said, “So, as far as I’m concerned, it will ease out. And this is tied to what you said about INEC. INEC is not doing its job. The constitution is clear. There’s a legal advisor in INEC office, Secretariat.

“When such vacancies are created like this, they have to take action to conduct election within 90 days to fill those vacant places, which they have not done. These are some of their failings.

When asked what he would like to be remembered for, Clark disclosed that he would want to be remembered as a foremost Nigerian who believed in Nigeria, who believed in equality in this country, who believed that no one in Nigeria should be regarded as a superior person against the other, just as  asked those he offended in the course of his sojourn and work to forgive him.

The South South leader said, “It must come from a home to be a Nigerian. So, as far as I remember, number one, I am one of the oldest states men in Nigeria. I was very happy when His Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, during my book launch, Brutally Frank asked everybody to stand up, with General Yakubu Gowon, former President Goodluck Jonathan, among others  were all there. He said, everybody should stand up. The Ooni said that Chief Clark is our Baba,  he is our nationalist, a national figure. So, what honour do would be more than that ? So, I want to be remembered for the role I played in Nigeria, and an appeal to those that during these 70 something  years of my service to my country, those that I do not know that I have  offended, to forgive me.

“But I want to be remembered to be a foremost Nigerian who believed in Nigeria, who believed in equality in this country, who believed that no one in Nigeria should be regarded as a superior person against the other. Everybody should be equal.

” That is the Nigerian I want to be remembered for that. I contributed to that, which I did, because during the civil war, all the teachers and other workers from the South West or South East, South-South, left the North. There were no teachers, there were nobody. I was then the Commissioner  for Education, i was appointed by Bridgadier General  Samuel Ogbemudia, we supplied Kano State, 250 teachers, free of charge, they don’t pay out. Audu Bako was the governor; . They got integrated in Kano.

We gave North West, Sokoto the headquarters, 200 teachers; when Alhaji  Shehu Shagari was Commissioner for Education in Sokoto, North Western State. They didn’t treat them well, then the people returned home.

“We gave science teachers to the rest of the states. We had exchange of students, with North East, in Maiduguri.

And the other day, during the COVID-19, I got a call that the Minister of Education Adamu Adamu was coming to visit me. So he came. And he sat down somewhere, because of the COVID. Then he was saying, have you forgotten your pension?  He said exchange of students? I said, yes, yes, I remember. One of my daughters said, he was one of those who finished up in Government College in Maiduguri.

He said, yes, myself, I was sent to Edo College, where I did my HSC. And he used to come and talk to us. I said, come and sit by me. That’s all I wanted.

“When the war was over, Gen. Yakubu Gowon said, I don’t need any congratulations, that there was no victor, no vanquished because it was a family war. Go and help them to reintegrate, to reconcile and we have a station, which we did. My eldest daughter, Rebecca, was in Class 2 in St. Theresa School Ughelli. I removed her from Ughelli and took her to Enugu to go and study with them and see and suffer with them, supplied them desk.Government supplied Queen’s School, Enugu, Okanagan Grammar School, Enugu, with furnished teacher’s quarters in Nsukka, 10.

“So what am I saying? I’ve been in Nigeria. And I challenge anybody who says, Chief Clark was such and such, no way.

I kicked against corruption because I know it’s one of those things eating Nigeria.  I will be remembered for my role in education. When I was 85, I asked myself, what do I do? I must leave a legacy behind.

Shouting  on top of my voice is not enough. I said I want to establish a private University where children from all over the country will come to my village, live together, study together, and grow up together to be good citizens of their country and already, that is happening.”

Not all primary and secondary schools in Lagos State may resume from the current mid-term cum Sallah break because of the outbreak of cholera in some parts of the state, the Commissioner for Primary and Basic Education, Hon. Jamiu Alli-Balogun, has said.

He stated this on Tuesday in a chat with Vanguard newspaper.

According to him, the Ministry would have to wait for an advisory from the Ministry of Health to know the next line of action to take.

“Our schools are fully prepared for resumption. The necessary steps have been taken and we are on top of the situation. However, we are going to wait for the needed advisory from the Ministry of Health that is mapping out the areas affected by the outbreak of the disease.

” We hope to get the advisory later today and if the Ministry of Health tells us that going by their assessment of the situation across the state, they have found out some endemic areas where it would not be appropriate for schools to resume, schools won’t resume in such places. We cannot endanger the lives of our children.

“Later today (Tuesday) we will come out with the position of the government on the issue. If schools everywhere in the state are free to resume, no problem. The state government is not resting on its oars and has been taking steps to curb the outbreak of the disease,” he stated.

Alli-Balogun added that the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been investing heavily on education and would not allow anything to rubbish the efforts.

Recall that students in public and private schools in the state have been on break for one and a half weeks.
The first week was for the mid term break and the first two days of this week were public holidays for the Sallah festivities.

However, the United Nations Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF, few days ago raised the alarm that the government should ensure that the current outbreak of Cholera is not allowed to spread to school environment.

On Lagos Island particularly, which is also a densely populated area, residents are complaining about the dearth of potable water to use for personal and household chores.

President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, admitted that there is poverty and suffering in Nigeria, however, he claimed that Nigerians are not the only ones facing poverty in the world.

Tinubu, while speaking on how to tackle the challenges, said, there has to be a move to eliminate banditry and terrorism so that farmers can return to the farm.

According to a statement released through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, the President said this when he received a delegation from the National Assembly who came to felicitate with him on the occasion of Eid-el-Kabir.

The delegation was led by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, alongside the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, among others.

According to him, it is imperative for Nigerians to have a change of value system for the nation to make progress.

He said, “Yes, there is poverty; there is suffering in the land. We are not the only people facing such, but we must face our challenges.

“We must find a way to eliminate banditry and terrorism so that farmers can bring out food from the farmland.

“If you do not have good roads to bring the food to the population, even if you grow the food and you are losing 60-70 per cent to damages, you will pay the price.”

He challenged citizens to have a change of mindset about Nigeria if the nation is to overcome its current challenges.

“The need (for some citizens) to change the rent-seeking mindset and become more productive to the economy is a challenge. The need to stop smuggling and all economic sabotage.

“Why should we have people removing rail tracks and all that, stealing electric cables and sabotaging the economy?

“We must embrace the campaign to change our value system. We must tell our people that the challenge we face is for all of us to change our mindset about our country,” Tinubu stressed.

The President also commended the leadership of the National Assembly for the support extended to his administration, which he said had resulted in some of the important developments recorded by his administration.

He stated, “It is a great pride for me to have the best of partners in the National Assembly. We have to drill down and be all-inclusive in our bid to satisfy our people.

“It is daunting, but we cannot run away from the fact that this country must survive the hardship.”

The President acknowledged the challenges and the task ahead, assuring the nation of his unwavering determination to turn things around.