Fiorentina's hops of getting back into Europe for next season have taken a huge hit in the past few months, and although a spot in the Europa Conference League is still on the cards from a mathematical point of view, fans will be disappointed to see the Europa League spot of sixth disappear after previously occupying a spot in the top six just a matter of months ago. 

The Florence side now sit down in ninth and 10 points adrift of Roma in sixth, with Fiorentina now winning only 14 of the 34 games so far. On the other hand, this does also mean one extra game to play, so there is still a glimmer of hope.

Fiorentina are coming into this one, however, with yet another spot in the Europa Conference League final after losing to West Ham United last season in the same competition's final.

This comes after a 1-1 draw with Club Brugge in Belgium where Lucas Beltran scored a penalty in the final 10 minutes of the game to hand the Serie A side a 4-3 on aggregate after winning 3-2 on home soil.

On the other hand, Fiorentina did lose to Hellas Verona last weekend in Serie A, which has put their hopes of another spot in Europe in serious doubt. Gaetano Castrovilli scored in the first half that day for his side.

The last win for Vincenzo Italiano’s men came in a 5-1 battering over Sassuolo, as Nicolas Gonzalez carried on his great form with a brave, alongside a finish each from Riccardo Sottil, Lucas Martinez Quarta and a goal from Antonin Barak.

As for Monza, they will be pleased to have survived another season, where they continue to battle to get into the top half of the Serie A table.

The club currently sit in 11th with a gap of two points on Torino up in 10th. As well as this, Monza have not had any fears of relegation for some time, but they will want to better their 11th-placed finish from last campaign.

SRC: FORBET

Several key political figures in the Andoni local government Area of Rivers State have expressed their admiration for the dedication shown by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, towards advancing the goals of President Bola Tinubu-led administration, Naija News reports.

The group includes former and current political leaders from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and Labour Party (LP), as well as respected Elder Statesmen, Community Leaders, Youth, and Women Leaders from the region. 

They emphasized their unwavering support for Wike as a token of gratitude for his backing of Erastus Awortu during the 2021 Local Government Chairmanship election.

The political bigwigs also commended Awortu’s administration for proffering solutions to insecurity and decayed infrastructure in the area.

During a recent visit to the council’s chairman at Ngo, the group expressed their admiration for his accomplishments as his tenure nears its conclusion. Additionally, they assured him of their unwavering support for his re-election campaign.

The National Women Leader of the GrassRoots Development Initiative (GDI), Mabel Ogolo, highlighted that with divine guidance and political vision, Wike appointed Erastus Awortu to bring relief to the people of Andoni during his time in office.

“Indeed, the choice was right because within weeks into his administration, Andoni became so peaceful and free from the challenges of insecurity and underdevelopment which bedevilled the area,” she said.

A prominent member of the APC and a candidate for governorship in the 2023 general election, Sampson Ngerebara, praised Awortu’s administration as a realization of his vision for Andoni.

He highlighted the administration’s focus on rebuilding infrastructure and enhancing human capacity by utilizing the resources of the people.

In response, Awortu, the Council Chairman, expressed gratitude to the leaders for their unwavering support despite the political crisis in the state and commended their loyalty to Wike, a former governor of the state.

Furthermore, the chairman emphasized his dedication to the progress and advancement of the area. He stated that he would rather forgo his second-term bid than collaborate with politicians whose past actions disrupted the peace and development of the region.

Super Eagles head coach, Finidi George, has picked two foreigners and his former international teammate, Daniel Amokachi, as his assistants.

The names of the two foreign assistants will be revealed before the Super Eagles 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying fixtures against Bafana Bafana of South Africa and Squirrels of Benin.

Finidi has also retained Olatunji Baruwa as the goalkeeper’ s trainer.

Baruwa occupied same position under the previous head coach, Jose Peseiro.

The 53-year-old was unveiled by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Monday.

The former Ajax star officially left his post as Enyimba head coach on Sunday to concentrate on his new job.

Finidi was in charge of the Nigeria Premier Football League champions for the next three years.

He guided the two-time African champions to their 10th NPFL title last season.

Rivers state Governor, Sim Fubara, has declared that intimidation has a time frame for its expiration.

Naija News reports that Fubara made the declaration amidst his continued face-off with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.

Recall that since October 30, 2023, Rivers State has been embroiled in a political crisis.

The crisis deeply divided the House of Assembly, with 27 lawmakers aligning with Wike while four others pledged allegiance with Fubara.

The crisis also became public knowledge following an explosion that shook the hallowed chamber of the State Assembly complex on the night of October 29, 2023.

Following the fire incident, the state lawmakers initiated an impeachment process against Fubara and suspended four lawmakers.

In an attempt to quell the crisis, President Bola Tinubu intervened in December 2023, leading to the formulation of an eight-point resolution signed by Fubara and Wike.

However, this peace pact had failed to quell the unrest in the state.

Last week, the crisis took a new turn as the All Progressive Congress (APC) leadership in the state urged the 27 lawmakers loyal to Wike to begin an impeachment process against Fubara.

Over the weekend, Wike and Fubara threw jabs at each other in the renewed cold war.

Speaking at the state’s Government House in Port Harcourt, Fubara said people should be less worried about him, stressing that intimidation has a time it expires.

He said, “Intimidation has a time, and when it expires, it’s over. Even in the bible, Pharaoh intimidated the children of Israel, but it got to a time; the intimidation did not work again.

“Every bad thing that has a beginning has an end. Don’t worry about me – we have kept that behind; we are looking at the future.”

The International Monetary Fund has advised the Nigerian government to halt what it referred to as implicit fuel and electricity subsidies.

The Washington-based bank disclosed this in its recently published report.

The organisation told Nigeria that the subsidies would guzzle three per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product in 2024, as opposed to one per cent in the year before.

IMF projected that the implicit fuel subsidy could gulp as high as N8.4 trillion in 2024 from N1.85 trillion in 2023, N4.4 trillion in 2022, N1.86 trillion in 2021 and N89 trillion in 2020.

“Costly and regressive energy subsidies”, it said, noting that this was critical “to creating fiscal space for development spending and strengthening social protection while maintaining debt sustainability.

“As inflation subsides and support for the vulnerable is ramped up, costly and untargeted fuel and electricity subsidies should be removed, while, e.g., retaining a lifeline tariff.”

Recall that in June last year, the Nigerian government announced the removal of fuel subsidy.

Similarly, in April 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission announced a 240 per cent electricity tariff increase for Band A customers, getting 20-24 hours of power supply.

Following the outcry from Nigerians, a recent minor reduction was announced.

The National Assembly and the 36 state assemblies of the federation as well as their agencies will spend about N724bn this year, an analysis of their 2024 budgets by The PUNCH has shown.

Further findings also showed that the salaries and allowances for federal and state lawmakers would cost the country about N50bn this year.

This means that the federal and state governments earmarked N673.94bn for the national and state assemblies as well as their related agencies in the 2024 budget.

The salaries and allowances are based on data collated from a document obtained from the website of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.

However, the overall allowances exceed the reported figure due to undisclosed amounts for several of the lawmakers.

An analysis shows that 109 members of the senate will get N8.67bn in salaries and allowances while 360 members in the green chamber will get N24.43bn in salaries and allowances.

A breakdown shows that the annual basic salary of the President of the Senate is N2.48m each year (about N9.92m in four years) while that of the Deputy President is N2.31m yearly (about N9.24m in four years).

Out of 19 allowances assigned to the Senate President and his deputy, only five allowances were assigned a specific figure.

The disclosed allowances include constituency allowance (250 per cent of the basic annual salary), duty tour allowance (N50,000 per night), Estacode ($1,300 per night), Recess (10 per cent of the basic annual salary) and severance gratuity (300 per cent of the basic annual salary).

The allowances of the Senate President will gulp about N33.29m, which includes a N6.21m annual constituency allowance, N248,424.25 annual recess allowance, and N7.45m for severance gratuity, which is paid at the end of the tenure.

The allowances of the Deputy Senate President are expected to cost the nation about N30.94m, which includes N5.77m annual constituency allowance, N230,916.70 annual recess allowance, and N6.93m for severance gratuity.

Other senators get N2.03m as basic annual salary (a total of N8.12m in four years) and a total allowance of N72,137,440 for each of them.

The salaries of the 107 senators will cost N868.3m, while their allowances will cost N7.72bn.

In the section for the salaries and allowances of other senators, out of the 20 allowances mentioned, only 15 were disclosed.

Similarly, the Speaker of the House gets an annual salary of N2.48m (about N9.92m in four years), while the deputy gets N2.29m (about N9.16m in four years).

The allowances of the Speaker are about N18.33m which includes N2.48m annually for constituency allowance, N247,711 annual recess allowance, and N7.43m severance gratuity.

The allowance of the deputy speaker was pegged at about N17.16m and this includes annual N2.29m for constituency allowance, N288,703 for recess, and N6.86m for severance gratuity.

Other members of the House of Representatives get N1.99m each as basic annual salary (a total of N7.94m in four years), while each got N58.76m as allowance.

The salaries of the 358 House of Representatives members will cost N2.84bn while their allowances are estimated at N21.04bn.

Also, the Speaker of a state assembly will be paid N1.64m (N6.56m in four years) as an annual basic salary while the deputy speaker gets N1.45m (N5.8m in four years).

In total, the 36 speakers will get about N59.04m as annual basic salary or N236.16m in four years while the 36 deputies will get about N52.1m as annual basic salary or N208.40m in four years.

The allowances of the speaker will gulp about N5.58m (N22.30m in four years) which includes N409,968 annual constituency allowance, N163,987.50  annual leave allowance, and N3.28m severance gratuity.

The deputy speaker will be paid about N4.92m (N19.67m in four years), and this includes N361,495 constituency allowance, N144,598 for annual leave, and N2.89m severance gratuity.

In total, the basic allowances for the 36 speakers and their deputies will cost the nation N1.51bn.

There are 784 members in the 36 state Houses of Assembly each of whom is entitled to N1.34m annual salary or N5.34m in four years and an allowance of N12.97m.

In total, the 784 members cost their states about N4.19bn in salary and N10.17bn in allowance.

Meanwhile, checks by The PUNCH indicated that the government approved a total sum of N294.7bn for the National Assembly, its affiliate bodies and infrastructure construction.

Details of the National Assembly’s 2024 budget showed that the assembly office got N36.73bn for its activities. The Senate got an envelope funding of N49.14bn while the Representatives got N78.63bn.

The political arm of the National Assembly has the Senate and the House of Representatives with 109 and 360 members, respectively, while the administrative/bureaucratic arm has the National Assembly Management headed by the Clerk of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Service Commission.

The federal parliament has affiliate bodies including the National Assembly Service Commission which got funding of N12.33bn, the National Assembly Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (the academic arm) got N9.1bn while the headquarters got N4.5bn.

Further checks showed that the legislative aides were given N20.34bn, the Public Account Committee of the Senate got N130m while N150m went to that of the green chamber.

Office of the retired clerks and permanent secretaries were allotted N1.2bn, the service-wide vote was N15.2bn; general services got N30.81bn, National Assembly Library building got N12.12bn while books procurement for the library got N3bn; Appropriation Committee Department – Senate (N200m); Appropriation Committee Department – House (N200m). The construction of the NASC will also gulp N10bn.

‘State Assembly’s budgets’

The statutory budgets of a state assembly and its agencies surged to N379.28bn in the 2024 budget.

An analysis of each state’s 2024 budget showed that Akwa-Ibom, Kaduna, Delta, Edo, Imo, Lagos, and Ogun governments gave the highest funding to their lawmakers.

This funding includes appropriation for the service commission, civil servants and capital expenditure.

Abia State assembly got N6.43bn, Akwa-Ibom (N5.84bn), Anambra (N7.23bn), Bauchi (5.45bn), Bayelsa (N2.04bn), Benue (N6.18bn), Borno (N8.1bn), Cross-Rivers (N10.82bn), Delta (N14.17bn), Ebonyi (N2.39bn), Edo (N26.17bn), Ekiti (N2.8bn), Enugu (N6.23bn), Gombe (N5.61bn), Imo (N26.85bn), Jigawa (N7.17bn), Kaduna (N17.11bn), Kano (N10.08bn).

Other states including Katsina (N4.83bn), Kebbi (N6.72bn), Kogi (N7.77bn), Kwara (N5.03bn), Lagos (N70.56bn), Nasarawa (N6.03bn), Niger (N4.15bn), Ogun (N14.41bn), Ondo (N11.34bn), Osun(N4.13bn), Oyo (N9.68bn), Plateau (N10.15bn), Rivers (N5.02bn), Sokoto (N10.16bn), Taraba (N9.5bn), Yobe (N3.99bn), and Zamfara (N3.83bn).

• Reactions

Meanwhile, some state parliaments have reacted.  The Ondo State House of Assembly said the amount earmarked for the budget of the assembly would not be enough to take care of all its expenses in 2024.

A check on the state’s website showed that a sum of N14.9bn was earmarked for the Ondo assembly for this year.

Speaking on the budget, the Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Orientation, Mr Olatunji Oshati, said the sum was not enough, calling for the implementation of the assembly autonomy which has been signed into law by the President.

Oshati said, “The money (budget) is not enough; even though we have been agitating for the release of our constituency allowances to carry out our constituency projects, it has not been granted. We would be happy if the money could be increased to enable the House to function well.

“It would be great if the assembly autonomy law that has been signed could be implemented, it would enable the house to address its financial challenges without any influence of the executive. The house would also function maximally”.

•  Edo

In Edo, the State House of Assembly was allotted the sum of N13bn in the state’s budget for 2024.

The Speaker of the House, Blessing Agbebaku, had disclosed this early this recently during a function.

However, efforts to get the breakdown of the budget at the weekend proved abortive as a principal officer told the PUNCH that the breakdown could only be obtained from the Ministry of Finance.

Also, the Minority Leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Lukman Adeleye, on Sunday, said the budgetary allocation for the legislature was around N12bn.

Adeleye, however, said that the figure was only on paper, as precedence has shown that the actual budget performance has hardly been 30 per cent.

He said, “In this case, the actual performance, I mean the money the assembly will be able to get for a whole year, may not be more than 30 per cent of the entire budget going by the past performance of the budget.

‘’The budgetary provision was designed to take into consideration the implementation of the autonomy of the state houses of assembly as enacted during the tenure of President Mohammadu Buhari.

“The budget is to take care of both the capital and recurrent expenditure like payment of salaries for the civil servants, the salaries for the lawmakers, the constituency projects, running of the assembly, training, oversight functions among other things to aid the effectiveness of the legislature.

“But as I have earlier pointed out, the budgetary allocation is on paper because I don’t know of any governor that has implemented the autonomy law, we are still at the mercy of the executive arm of the government”.

•  Groups react

Meanwhile, some anti-corruption groups have reacted to the issue.

The Deputy Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Kolawole Oludare, said the NASS lacked transparency and accountability, saying, “The transparency part is letting the people be aware of how much and the process of allocation. The accountability aspect is also for the actions and the procedures of the National Assembly.

“For context, the National Assembly was allocated just under N200bn in the 2024 budget in the appropriation, and they increased it on their own by say, more than 50 per cent in the 2024 appropriation before it was passed into law. So you will see that the NASS is lacking in the transparency and accountability mechanism in the way they handle their appropriation, both recurrent and capital. And perhaps that is why also the state legislature is taking a cue from the NASS”, he stated.

On his part, the Executive Director, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Musa Ibrahim, lamented the “discrimination and exploitation” in the unequal pay between the legislators and officials in the security agencies, describing it as unfair.

“Because the Nigerian government has created unequal pay, some Nigerians that are contributing immensely to the growth and development of this country are being neglected, and are not being given necessary support, especially those who are even giving their lives to save the country and save Nigerians.

“There’s no way you can continue to impoverish public officials, especially serving security officials with this peanut and then you expect them to go and put their lives, to protect you and the rest of the people. I think this is unfair, we cannot continue to do this exploitation and discrimination in pay. We cannot be pampering political appointees and politicians siphoning the public taxpayers’ money when there is not much to see in terms of the contribution they are making,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman, the Centre for Accountability and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, stated that the lawmakers’ bogus pay was insensitive.

“Ordinarily, any emolument that is not recommended by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission is against the law and anybody that earns such income has committed an offence that is supposed to be criminal in nature. But what we have in Nigeria is that our leaders behave as if they are above the law, and they behave as if they have been elected to enjoy on our behalf.

Basically, what they have done is insensitive, is actually wickedness, and it will get to a time where Nigerians will not be able to bear it anymore, and it will snowball into a conflagration that they will find difficult to douse,” he said.

An officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Abdulwahab Magaji, serving in the Federal Capital Territory, reportedly shot himself dead in his residence on Binta Street, Farm Estate area, Abuja.

PUNCH Metro gathered from a senior law enforcement officer that the incident happened last Monday.

According to the source, the family of the deceased had raised the alarm that Magaji had shot himself with a rifle, prompting police officers to visit the scene of the incident.

The source added that when the police arrived at the scene, the victim was reportedly rushed to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, where he was confirmed dead.

The source said, “A family of the deceased had raised the alarm that CSC Abdulahi Abdulwahab Magaji, a customs officer serving in Abuja, shot himself in his house at Farm Centre with a pump-action rifle.

“Police officers dashed to the scene of the incident and took the victim to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, where he was certified dead by the doctor on duty.”

The source added that the body of the deceased had been handed over to the family for burial, according to Islamic rites.

Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Josephine Adeh, proved abortive as calls made to her line were not answered as of the time of filing this report.

Similarly, the Customs National Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Maiwada, could not be reached for comments as his line was switched off, and messages sent to him were not responded to as of the time this report was filed.

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said Nigeria needs to continue diversifying to attract investment and boost trade surplus.

Okonjo-Iweala stated this while addressing newsmen after a meeting with the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and other women at the Nigerian Women in Leadership event in Abuja weekend.

Nigeria recorded N1.41 trillion trade deficit between October and December of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

Mr Olisa Agbakoba has reacted to the controversial cybersecurity levy imposed on Nigerians by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

Agbakoba described the imposition of the levy as unconstitutional and not a “good idea”.

Speaking with TheCable, the former NBA President said: “It is not a good idea at all. I believe it is a good idea to have a cybersecurity act so that we can deal with cybercrime. However, it is not a good idea to create a fund for which the national security adviser will be entitled to deploy when that is contrary to what the constitution prescribes,” he said.

“So, I am going to court to challenge the imposition by the CBN on levies on the banks which will amount to the banks paying about N3 trillion a year.

“That is unconstitutional because what the constitution says is that everything concerning revenue, whether it is tax or non-tax revenue such as the levy in the cybersecurity act, must pass through the federation account for it to now be appropriated by the National Assembly.

“So, if the same National Assembly makes a law bypassing the appropriation process and putting money in the hands of an agency, that is unconstitutional.”

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, has absolved President Bola Tinubu of any blame in the scenario which played out over the failure of the National Assembly to confirm former Kaduna State Governor as a Minister.

Speaking during an interview with Premium Times, Bagudu submitted that Tinubu played his role by nominating El-Rufai for appointment, but going ahead to lobby the National Assembly after the former Governor was rejected, would be an abuse of power and lack of respect for the separation of power between the executive and the legislative arms of government.

The Minister added that President Tinubu was constitutionally handicapped and had to respect the decision of the lawmakers not to confirm El-rufai.

Naija News recalls that President Tinubu nominated El-Rufai for a ministerial appointment, but the National Assembly failed to confirm him after screening, citing a lack of security clearance.

El-Rufai later withdrew his interest in working for the Tinubu government.

“Constitutional democracy is based on separation of powers. The Senate has been given a constitutional role in the confirmation process. If they decide to deny any one of us, they are approving their confirmation power.”

“The president is handicapped by our constitution to do everything. Is it fair? But that is how the laws have been set up,” he stated.

Bagudu added that the president did everything constitutionally possible to have Mr El Rufai in his cabinet.

“I wish the National Assembly had confirmed him,” the Minister said.

When asked why President Tinubu did not intervene or lobby the National Assembly to confirm El-Rufai, Bagudu said he would not want to speculate, but for Tinubu to have nominated El-Rufai, it shows he wanted him as part of his government.

“What was done objectively is that the president nominated him. We know that his name was read at the Senate. He went to the National Assembly for screening. He answered all the questions that were asked of him. Although some were stepped down.

“So that’s an objective way to look at it. That is what happened. I can’t answer speculatively, but I believe for the president to submit your name, for you at least to be taken to the National assembly, it’s the best measure of the president’s willingness and confidence in the person,” he said.