A member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof Usman Yusuf, has accused former President Muhammadu Buhari of neglecting his home state, Katsina, throughout his eight-year tenure.

Yusuf, who spoke while appearing on a Channels Television programme on Sunday, noted that Buhari’s administration executed legacy projects in different parts of the country but failed to do any meaningful projects in the North West zone.

The former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) said even though the northern region had a “good representation” in Buhari’s government, there was nothing to show for it.

Yusuf insisted that Buhari did not do much to develop in his home state, Katsina and North generally, stating that he couldn’t even complete the Abuja-Kano highway for eight years.

He said, “The chief of staff was the one who pushed for the creation of the NEDC. Now, there is a Vice President, National Security Adviser and others from the north. What are they doing to address this issue? But we complain in the North West that we had a president that we never got anything from.

“Go to Katsina today where I come from, there is nothing to show we had a president for eight years. In the North West, let him tell us what he has done.”

Yusuf also blamed the governors of the northern region for the poor level of development of the region.

Former lawmaker, Senator Daniel Bwala, has claimed that Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the 2023 election, only stands the chance to become Nigerian president from 2039.

Bwala said President Bola Tinubu will have to finish his two terms, with power returning to the north for another eight years.

The former lawmaker, in a post on his Social media handle on Monday, said power will only return to the south in 2039.

He wrote: “@PeterObi only stands the chance to be Nigerias president from 2039 when he will clock 79, or above 79 years. By then his message would no longer be “vote me because I am the younger of the candidates” but it will be “vote me because age doesn’t matter but capacity”

“The reason is @officialABAT will finish his two terms, then power would come to the north for another 8 years, before it goes to the south. The e-rodents who keep shouting “we are the youth” by then would be saying “we are the elders”. Blessed week ahead.”

The Federal Government has announced plans to commence a nationwide official groundbreaking for phase 1 of the Renewed Hope Cities and Estates project across the country.

In a statement on Sunday, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa said the project will begin with 1,250 housing units in four states in northern Nigeria.

He said the groundbreaking event is scheduled to begin on May 22 in Katsina State and conclude on May 25 in Gombe State.

Dangiwa said the completion of the contracting process and the mobilisation of reputable developers marked the commencement of this significant development.

The minister said the exercise follows the programme’s official launch by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, with a 3,112-housing unit project in Karsana, Abuja, in February 2024.

He emphasised the commitment of the current administration to turning the country into a huge construction site and unlocking the potential of the housing sector to create jobs, catalyse economic growth and contribute to the economy.

The statement read in part, “The minister will officially flag off construction activities at the project sites as follows: 250 housing units at Renewed Hope Estate in Katsina on Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 500 housing units at Renewed Hope City in Kano on Thursday, May 23, 2024, 250 housing units at Renewed Hope Estate in Yobe on Friday, May 24, 2024, 250 housing units at Renewed Hope Estate in Gombe on Saturday, May 25, 2024

“We are committed to our promise to His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to turn the country into a huge construction site and unlock the potential of the housing sector to create jobs, catalyse economic growth, and contribute to the $1 trillion economy while boosting national development. The 1,250 units that we are breaking ground for in Katsina, Kano, Yobe, and Gombe are only a start. After this, we shall be proceeding to other parts of the country.”

The minister noted that under the 2023 supplementary budget, the ministry awarded contracts for 3,500 housing units in 13 states since December 2023.

This includes 500 housing units in Kano, and 250 housing units in 12 other states including Katsina, Sokoto, Yobe, Gombe, Nasarawa, Benue, Osun, Oyo, Abia, Ebonyi, Delta and Akwa Ibom.

It added: “The Renewed Hope City in Kano comprises 100 units of 1-bedroom (semi-detached bungalows), 300 units of 2-bedrooms (semi-detached bungalows), 100 units of 3-bedrooms (semi-detached bungalows)

“The Renewed Hope Estates in Katsina, Yobe, and Gombe each comprises 50 units of 1-bedroom (semi-detached bungalows), 100 units of 2-bedrooms (semi-detached bungalows), 50 units of 3-bedrooms (semi-detached bungalows).

“To enhance affordability and ease of offtake, we used organic designs where one bedroom can be expanded to two bedrooms and three bedrooms as the income of beneficiaries increases over time.”

The minister said the housing projects also seek to address social inequality by providing a broad range of affordable ownership options.

He said this includes single-digit and up to 30-year mortgage loans to be provided by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Rent-to-Own options where beneficiaries can move in and pay towards homeownership monthly, quarterly, or annual instalments and Outright Purchases for high-income earners.

Dangiwa added that the 1,250 housing units are being funded under the N50bn 2023 Supplementary Budget of the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is scheduled to receive the performance evaluations of his cabinet members this week.

As the Administration approaches its one-year anniversary next week, the ministers will have served nine months in office by tomorrow, having taken their oaths on August 21, 2023. 

The performance evaluations of special advisers and heads of key departments and agencies are also expected to be presented to the President.

The President initially inaugurated 48 ministers, but the count has dropped to 46.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong resigned on December 20 after winning his Court of Appeal case to take his Senate seat.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr. Betta Edu, has been suspended since March 6 to facilitate an investigation into allegations of misconduct within her ministry.

The cabinet is on edge, fearing that the assessment report could result in a reshuffle or the removal of specific ministers.

The report, compiled by Hajiya Hadiza Bala-Usman, who serves as the Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination and the Head of the CDCU, is subject to the President’s final approval.

The criteria for assessing the ministers’ performance were outlined following the retreat that took place after their inauguration.

This assessment is based on the deliverables of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) members across the administration’s eight priority areas, which include:

• Reforming the economy to deliver sustained and inclusive growth;

• Strengthening national security for peace and prosperity;

• Boosting agriculture to achieve food security;

• Unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development;

• Enhancing infrastructure and transportation as enablers for growth;

• Focusing on education, health, and social investment as essential pillars of development;

• Accelerating diversification through industrialisation, digitisation, creative arts, manufacturing, and innovation; and

• Improving governance for effective service delivery.

The CDCU has been conducting quarterly performance evaluations of the ministers. While an interim report has been submitted, the first-year assessment is deemed “critical” in determining the trajectory for the remaining 36 months of the President’s first term.

At the commencement of the evaluation process, Hajiya Bala-Usman said: “For each of these priority areas, we agreed on specific deliverables and developed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which formed the basis for the Performance Bond which all ministers and permanent secretaries signed with the President in November 2023.

“These parameters will guide the Quarterly Assessments and Annual Scorecards, which the CDCU is mandated to present to the President.”

A top source, who spoke in confidence to The Nation, said: “The President may receive the first year performance evaluation of the ministers, advisers and even strategic departments/agencies.

“The CDCU has subjected the ministers and others to a quarterly assessment.

“From the outset, the ministers signed a performance bond. And the bond will determine their fate.

“There was also a Citizens’ Delivery Tracker App used to monitor the performance of the ministers and their portfolios. Nigerians’ verdict may also count too.

“But whatever is the eventual decision on the ministers, it is the prerogative of the President.”

The source revealed that the ministers’ ratings will align with the President’s eight priority areas, with the relevant key indicators already communicated to them.

The launch of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is anticipated to drastically reduce Nigeria’s fuel import costs, which currently stand at about ₦6.2 trillion annually.

Recall that Aliko Dangote, the chairman of the Dangote Group, confirmed at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, that the refinery will start distributing premium motor spirit next month.

This marks a significant shift towards self-sufficiency in fuel supply for Nigeria and potentially West Africa.

The Dangote Refinery, representing a $20 billion investment, aims to fulfil domestic demands and possibly extend its supply across the West African region, covering petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel needs.

Dangote expressed confidence in the refinery’s capacity, stating, “By sometime in June, Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one drop of a litre.”

This development aligns with the Nigerian government’s strategy to reduce dependency on imported fuel, especially following the removal of fuel subsidies by President Bola Tinubu, which significantly cut the country’s petrol import to an average of one billion litres monthly.

The operation of the refinery is expected to offer considerable economic relief by slashing the hefty sum spent on importing fuel.

With Nigeria currently spending an average of about ₦520 billion on petrol imports, the commencement of local production could save the nation billions of naira annually.

The difference between the landing cost and pump price of petrol highlights the financial inefficiencies associated with importation.

Local refining is projected to eliminate these costs, providing cheaper fuel to Nigerian consumers and stabilizing market prices.

The reduction in fuel imports is likely to bolster Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves and strengthen the naira.

A source from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told Punch Newspaper that this shift would decrease the demand for foreign currency, improving the country’s economic position and potentially leading to a stronger national currency.

“As the dollar demand reduces, the naira will rebound and that is good for the economy,” the CBN source said.

As the Dangote Refinery gears up for operation, the potential impacts on the Nigerian economy are profound.

This move could significantly reduce the national import bill and transform Nigeria into a key energy supplier in the region, promising economic benefits that extend beyond mere cost savings.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has said the congress was not aware of merger talks involving the Labour Party with some political parties in the country.

The LP, which is a socio-democratic political party, was founded by the organised labour.

There have been speculations about the possibility of a merger between the LP and the Peoples Democratic Party, following the meeting between the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the presidential candidate of the PDP in the election, Atiku Abubakar.

Obi also reportedly met with some PDP stalwarts in Abuja, including a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and a former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido.

In 2019, both Atiku and Obi ran on the PDP joint ticket but were defeated by former President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress.

However, due to internal conflict within the PDP, Obi left the party in 2022 and contested the 2023 presidential election as the candidate of the Labour Party.

Speaking after the meeting with Obi on Monday, May 13, 2024, Atiku said party members would decide their fate in the 2027 general elections, adding that if the PDP decided in 2027 that it was the turn of the South-East to field the presidential candidate and selected Obi, he would readily offer his support.

The former vice president mentioned that his recent meeting with Obi might indicate a possible alliance leading up to the 2027 general elections.

When asked if the NLC would support merger talks that would make the LP cease to exist or if the organised labour would be involved in any merger talks involving the party, Ajaero said, “We are not aware of such talks.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria has retracted its directive asking banks and payment service providers to collect and remit the cybersecurity levy as outlined in the Cybercrime Prevention and Prohibition Amendment Act of 2024.

The apex bank announced this in a revised circular dated May 17, 2024.

The circular, signed by the Director of Payment Systems Management, Chibuzor Efobi, and the Director of Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa, was addressed to commercial banks, payment service providers (PSPs), non-interest banks, and others.

The circular obtained by PUNCH Online on Sunday was titled, “Re: Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) (Amendment) Act 2024 – Implementation Guidance on the Collection and Remittance of the National Cybersecurity Levy.”

It read, “The Central Bank of Nigeria circular dated May 6, 2024 (Ref: PSMD/DIR/PUB/LAB/017/004) on the above subject refers.

“Further to this, please be advised that the above-referenced circular is hereby withdrawn.”

The directive for the collection of the levy was met with nationwide backlash which prompted the Presidency to suspend the implementation.

The Federal Executive Council suspended the implementation of the provisions of the law, citing the need to conduct further reviews.

A member of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Prof Usman Yusuf said the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu has turned to hopelessness.

Yusuf, a former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) stated this in an interview Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

According to him, rather than inject the Nigerian people with some hope capsules, the Tinubu administration has made Nigerians more hopeless in the last one year.

He said, “People have lost hope. It pains me to see our people lining up to collect cups of palliatives. Renewed Hope has turned into hopelessness. People have lost hope.

“The last one year has been a year of nothing but deception, destitution and hopelessness.

“From next week, they will start telling us their propaganda. What have they done to benefit the ordinary people? In a span of one year, they have brought millions of people back into multidimensional poverty, they have pushed millions more children out of school because their parents cannot pay their school fees.”

Yusuf described the economic management team of the President as “tax collectors” rather than “economists”.

“The economic team, to me, looks more like tax collectors than economists. Taxation does not grow economy; only production does,” he said.

Recall that President Tinubu campaigned on the mantra of the ‘Renewed Hope.’

The President was sworn-in on May 29, 2023 after a keenly contest election in the February 2023.

Since inception, the President Tinubu administration has introduced some reforms such as petrol subsidy removal and the unification of the foreign exchange windows.

The labour has also told the government to be serious with the negotiations on the issue of workers wages, insisting that it used the lowest minimum in arriving at the N615,000 as new minimum wage.

Recall that the organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, pulled out of the negotiation meeting last week Wednesday when the government offered N48,000 as the new minimum wage. 

However, Chairman of the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum wage, Alhaji Bukar Goni in a letter to the organized labour for a meeting tomorrow indicated interest that the government will shift ground and asked the organised labour to also shift ground.

Speaking to Vanguard in Abuja, the NLC Head of Information and Public Affairs, Benson Upah, said that the organised labour would honour the invitation tomorrow but he advised the government to be serious.

He said, “Our expectations are that the government should be serious this time around. We expect them to take more seriously the issue of wages of workers.”

On whether labour would accept N100,000 as being insinuated, he said, “Well, it will not be fair and these are the reasons. The first reason is that when we demanded for N615,000, we broke that down. In fact, we used the barest minimum.,

“For instance we put accommodation for N40,000, we also use for feeding N500, tell me where you are going to get food for N500 with a family of six. As I said, we used barest estimate but beyond that, government hiked electricity tariff by two hundred and fifty percent after we made our demand and that has introduced new cost and expenses. So if government is serious, it should not be thinking about a hundred thousand naira.

“You know that when you create poor citizens, you create a poorer county.” On his part, a member of the NLC delegation on the Tripartite Committee, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, said it would not be kind of the government to offer N100,000.

He said, “I don’t think one hundred thousand naira is a kind of thing we want because it’s far below expectation, we will accept something that can at least keep somebody alive. I don’t think a hundred thousand naira will keep a worker alive in this country a man with a family of six because our computation is based on the size of family.

“So, if they come up with that kind of amount, I don’t think we will appreciate it. In the private sector even artisans are not taking one hundred thousand a month. Whatever we accept we will look what is the income, what are they collecting, what is available to government because if government is collecting one trillion naira, we cannot ask them to pay two trillion.

“We are responsible people but the same government should know that people are suffering they will have to agree with us that there is crisis, that something needs to be done to create wealth, that something needs to be done for Nigeria to be a producing country and not a consuming nation.

Something needs to be done to reduce the cost of governance. We are supposed to be partners in governance, after all we are the labourers.”

Asked to give reason why labour may not accept one hundred thousand, he said, “If we see that that hundred thousand is affordable, if we see that they can afford more, we will reject it. They have to tell us why they cannot pay N615,000, the onus is on them to tell us why, then we will sit down and say okay you don’t have the money but we will also know why you don’t have the money because Nigeria is a country that is naturally endowed but something is wrong, how do you make sure you get the money so that when we come again in two years time, you won’t tell us the same story?

“What are you doing to create wealth, how are you going to partner with us to create wealth instead of being wasteful, how are you going to partner with us to reduce cost of governance. If a father comes home and says the only money he has is one thousand naira and you know that the father is not wasting the money, you will manage but if it is when the father comes and he is eating food bought from the fast food joint and it cost N10,000 and he gives one thousand to the entire family to go and look for food and cook for themselves, he may be beaten up, the family may refuse it. 

“The letter they wrote to us they said that both parties should shift ground, that means they will shift ground and they are expecting us to shift ground but the question is, what ground are they shifting, are they going to shift ground by two naira or two thousand naira to make it N50,000 or are they going to shift ground by N62,000 to make it N100,000 or by N150,000 or N200,000 to make it N300,000 plus.

“The point here is, this thing we are doing is not rocket science, the government should sit down and calculate how much it will cost, what is a befitting wage for an average Nigeria? They should breakdown what they are giving us because even in salaries, you break everything down. So when you break it down, they will tell us whether they are going to put one thousand naira per month for transport and two thousand naira per month for food.

“That N48,000 they are offering, they should have broken it down so if there are certain things they don’t want to make provision for, for instance health, if they say if any worker is sick they person should go and die or they don’t want to make provision for food, let them just put standard things.

“The problem here is that, you asked someone to tighten his belt, you said there is no money but you removed subsidy. Since they removed subsidy, FAAC has been collecting almost three times of what they were collecting before subsidy. That money you are collecting, what are you doing with it?

“You now said you want to build coastal highway when the existing roads to the same location are not passable, you are budgeting trillions of naira, you want to build Lagos-Sokoto brand new Highway, you want to put billions for hajj subsidy, you bought 200 vehicles for Customs and this is somebody that is complaining that naira is having issues but you now want to spend hundreds billions to import Toyota cars for Customs, why can’t you buy made-in Nigeria vehicles?

“This whole thing doesn’t make any meaning, we don’t even understand it. They are behaving as if they have money but they don’t know what to do with it like General Yakubu Gowon said in the 70s. You bought 200 Toyota Jeeps for Customs, it means you really do have the money but you don’t know what to do with it. But one thing you don’t want to do with the money is to feed Nigerians, feed your workers, make your workers comfortable.

“And as you can see, they are not even giving anybody hope. There is no programme for agriculture, government is not declaring emergency on power, food security, transportation.

“So what we are expecting is that, if they tell us they cannot pay N625,000, they should tell us why they cannot pay, this is negotiation. If we have told them to pay N615,000, what we expect government to calculate how many workers that are expected to receive this minimum wage.

“We did our research, you now say each state has this workforce, this is what they are now getting as revenue forget the fact that some of them are not doing anything to increase their IGR. Whatever they are getting now from the money coming from the federal revenue account, the federal government should say, this is the number of workers that we have, this is how much that you are asking, at the end of the day, this is how much we are expected to spend as salary and this is how much we have.

“So, NLC please look at it, we don’t want to spend this percent on salary, we will then sit down and ask, if you don’t want to spend it on salary, you want to spend it by importing vehicles for Customs when you have locally manufactured vehicles that won’t cost capital flight.”

He, however said that if the government comes out with something”relevant “, the organised labour will shift ground as asked.

“We must discuss with them that the figure presented is realistic and based on facts and statistics as the organised labour has done,” he said.

He said, “For provision of food for one person, we put N500 but there is a survey carried out by the National Bureau for Statistics covering all parts of the country, NBS is the custodian of statistics and it came out with that in today Nigeria, the average you can spend for a meal is N900.

“But we went low, we took the minimum. Their average is N900 but we took the minimum of N500, that is you cannot go below the N500. So you can see how realistic we are. So we will insist that government breakdown every item. Food, hospital, accommodation, transportation etc.

“We don’t want anyone to come and say that the NLC and the TUC presented arbitrary figure.”

Erling Haaland has finished as the English Premier League (EPL) top goal scorer for a second consecutive season as Manchester City beat West Ham 3-1 to win a fourth consecutive title.

The Norwegian striker was absent for two months of the season through injury and struggled to match the heights of his debut campaign at City when he struck 52 times in all competitions, including a Premier League record 36.

The 23-year-old failed to add to his 27 Premier League goals on the final day but still proved decisive in the run-in to help City secure an unprecedented fourth consecutive English top-flight crown.

Haaland scored nine times in his final seven Premier League appearances of the season to help City edge Arsenal to the title by two points.

Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, who himself started the season at City, was second in the top scorer standings with 22 goals, one ahead of Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.

EPL Top Goal Scorer Chart

27: Haaland (Man City)

22: Palmer (Chelsea)

21: Isak (Newcastle)

19: Foden (Man City), Solanke (Bournemouth), Watkins (Aston Villa)

18: Salah (Liverpool) 

17: Son Heung-min (Tottenham)

16: Bowen (West Ham), Mateta (Crystal Palace), Saka (Arsenal) 

14: Jackson (Chelsea), Wood (Nottm Forest)

13: Havertz (Arsenal)

12: Cunha (Wolves), Hwang (Wolves), Trossard (Arsenal), Wissa (Brentford) 

11: Alvarez (Man City), Eze (Crystal Palace), Gordon (Newcastle), Morris (Luton), Nunez (Liverpool), Richarlison (Tottenham)

10: Adebayo (Luton), Bailey (Aston Villa), Fernandes (Man Utd), Hojlund (Man Utd), Jota (Liverpool), Olise (Crystal Palace)