The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has threatened to boycott its meeting with the Federal Government on Monday, October 30, 2023, should the Minister of Labour Simon Lalong attend it.

The President of NLC Comrade Joe Ajaero issued the threat while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on Sunday after briefing them on the plights of workers in Imo State.

Ajaero criticised Lalong for not being able to establish a cordial relationship with organised labour.

“Hopefully, we may meet tomorrow (Monday) with the Federal Government to see whether the agreement with organised labour on the fuel subsidy removal palliatives was met or not,” he said.

“If that meeting is to hold, it will be without the Minister of Labour and Employment, because we will not be part of any meeting with the Federal Government that the Minister of Labour and Employment will attend.”

Labour unions and the government have been in negotiations over their planned industrial action owing to the removal of fuel subsidy.

During Sunday’s event, Ajaero also threatened to mobilise its members to storm Imo State on Wednesday, November 1.

The NLC chief accused the Imo State Government of violating the rights of the workers in the state.

Claiming Governor Hope Uzodimma neglected their welfare, Ajaero lamented that many of them have died because of the alleged lack of payment of their salaries.

He outlined some of the infractions against workers by the Imo State Governor including the alleged refusal to implement previous agreements especially the accord reached on January 9, 2021, outstanding salary arrears of about 20 months, unjust declaration of workers as ghost workers, declaration of pensioners as ghost workers and unsettled gratuity arrears among others.

According to him, approximately 10,000 pensioners have been wrongly labelled as ghost pensioners resulting in over 22 months of unpaid pensions while about 11,000 workers have been branded by the Imo State Government as ghost workers.

The NLC President also lamented the non-compliance with the national minimum wage by the state government, claiming that Governor Uzodinma has resisted the use of social dialogue and collective bargaining to resolve the issues

Nigerians seeking admissions to foreign universities spent $340.84m to fund their application between January and June 2023, findings by the PUNCH have shown.

This figure is according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s data on the amount spent on educational services under the sectoral utilisation for transactions valid for foreign exchange.

The apex bank said that in April 2023, a total of $40.54m was spent on foreign education, while noting that $48.81m was spent in May 2023.

However, in June 2023, there was a significant decrease as the bank stated that $32.61m was spent.

When compared with $218.88m recorded in the first quarter of 2023, which is a decrease of $96.92m or 44.28 per cent.

Also, the quarter performed poorly when compared with figures from the second quarter of 2022 with a performance decrease of $124.42m (50.5 per cent).

The PUNCH reported that the monies remitted to foreign academic institutions were without significant reciprocity in the form of inflows from foreign sources to the local education sector.

Experts however predicted that the poor supply on CBN part meant migrating students had been forced to source dollars from Bureau De Change operators, owing to delays by banks to process respective Form A.

Recent data (which was the last released document by the commission) released by the Home Office of the United Kingdom revealed that the number of study visas released to Nigerians increased by 222.8 per cent, with 65,929 issued as of June 2022 as against 20,427 during the same period in 2021.

The Central Bank has a backlog of accumulated forex demand on the official market, which effectively forces individuals and businesses to head to the black market if they need dollars.

But dollar flows to Nigeria had been falling in the last few years due to declining investment and lower exports of crude oil, which account for more than 90 per cent of the country’s export income.

Speaking in an earlier interview, the National President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Dr. Anderson Ezeibe, said the failure of the government to invest adequately in the education sector had negatively impacted the education sector.

“You go to tertiary institutions and you see dilapidated buildings, lecturers and students alike are not happy, students do not have access to good equipment for practicals, and at the end of the day, the system continues to churn out half-baked graduates.

“The only solution to this is for the government to invest fully in the sector. If we operate world-class schools in the country, there will be no need for people to go to other countries to obtain a good education.”

A Professor of Education at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Prof. Alabi Thomas, also blamed the migration on government policies which, according to him, have continued to cripple the education sector.

Importers have returned to the parallel market to source for their forex needs as liquidity challenges persist in the official market, analysts have said.

This is despite the lifting of forex ban on importers of 43 items by the Central Bank of Nigeria recently.

Naira had recorded gains at the parallel market after recent fall. According to figures obtained from Aboki Forex on Saturday, the naira was bought and sold for 1,140/$ and 1,150/$; It had earlier traded at 1,310/$ on Tuesday at the parallel market.

Analysts at Cordros Securities said, “Given the CBN’s unbanning of importers of all the 43 items previously restricted from the NAFEM in 2015, the market realised that FX supply is still minimal at the official market faster than we anticipated.

“Accordingly, importers have returned to the parallel market to fulfil their FX obligations.”

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, on Sunday, said talks were at an advanced stage between Nigeria and the United States of America on the resumption of direct flights from Houston.

Keyamo in a statement by the Minister’s Special Assistant, Media and Communications, Tunde Moshood, also said efforts were in top gear to attract foreign investment into the aviation industry.

The minister, who was on a working visit to the United States was a guest of honour at the Fidelity International Trade & Creative Connect that held at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las America, Houston, Texas, where he met with the Mayor of Houston, Texas, Sylvester Turner, and his team members.

He stated, “During my visit to Houston, I also took time to visit the fast-developing Aerospace of the city in Ellington. I met Mr Arturo Machuca, Director of EllingtonAirport and Houston Spacesport and his team who did a detailed presentation to us and conducted us round the Aerospace. We were well guided on the development of our own aerospace.”

“I spoke with the Mayor of Houston, Texas, and his team to advance talks regarding the resumption of direct flights from Houston to Nigeria. Another interesting diplomatic consideration the two envoys looked at is the opening of a Nigerian consulate in Houston.”

Former President Muhammadu Buhari, on Sunday, said the country would have paid $15 billion if it had lost the case against the international firm, Process & Industrial Development Limited.

He lamented that such monetary loss could be substituted to finance key infrastructural projects, among others.

Following a 2010 agreement between P$ID and the Federal Government, the firm pledged to build a gas processing plant in Nigeria.

However, the project never materialised, leading P&ID to sue for lost profits. The firm was granted the sizable award plus accumulated interest, which became a point of contention.

In a ruling on Monday, October 23, Justice Robert Knowles of the Business and Property Court in London held that the process through which P&ID secured the contract was fraudulent.

Reacting to the matter, Buhari recalled that during his administration in 2015, he asked his former Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and erstwhile Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to “get us a fair hearing.”

He noted that the firm, owned by Irish intermediaries who understood the systematics of the Nigerian market, won the contract to build a gas processing plant in Cross Rivers State.

Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, has been listed as the largest shareholder of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings Plc, despite the acquisition of 4.7 billion units of FBNH shares by the former chairman of the group, Oba Otudeko, in July.

This was revealed in the unaudited consolidated financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2023, of the financial institution filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

FBN Holdings stated in a statement issued on July 7 that “the company received a notification from Honeywell Group Limited that its affiliate, Barbican Capital Limited, has acquired an aggregate of 4,770,269,843 units of shares from the company’s issued share capital of 35,895,292,791, (35.89 billion) as at the above-referenced date.

“Based on the foregoing, the equity stake of Barbican Capital Limited in the company is 13.3 per cent.”

Both Honeywell Group and Barbican Capital are linked to Otudeko.

FBN Holdings, in its latest report, still listed Otedola as the largest shareholder with a stake above five per cent. Directly, Otedola holds 40,033,982 units of FBN Holdings shares, which is 0.11 per cent and indirectly, it holds 1,989,342,376 units which is 5.54 per cent of the lender’s shareholding as of September 2023.

Otudeko’s share acquisition elicited reactions from the stakeholders in the capital market with minority shareholders calling for a probe by the regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has said that it was investigating the deal.

The Central Bank of Nigeria removed Otudeko in April 2021 as FBNH’s non-executive director/chairman and sacked the board under him over noncompliance with regulatory control.

A fire has broken out at the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex. The fire was reported at about 10 p.m. on Sunday.

As of the time of filling in this report, the complex has been taken over by security agents from the nearby Command of the Rivers Police while a fire truck was also seen on the grounds of the facility.

This is coming amidst rumors of an impending impeachment procedure against the state Governor Sim Fubara.

Attempts to get information from members of the House have proven abortive as the lawmakers have remained tight-lipped on the rumoured plot.

It is unclear if the fire is connected with the political imbroglio, but rumours of a rift between Governor Fubara and his predecessor Nyesom Wike who is now FCT minister have been brewing for some time now.

Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South has defended the purchase of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for members of the National Assembly, arguing that such a move is not new.

Members of the National Assembly faced intense criticism recently when news filtered in that each of the 469 lawmakers would be getting an SUV valued at N160m.

But Ndume believes the development is not novel, maintaining that public servants have always had official vehicles.

“Buying vehicles for public or civil servants is not a new thing. It is only as you, said, ‘What are the implications? What is the cost and what are the alternatives?” Ndume, who spoke on Channels Television’s current affairs show Sunday Politics, said.

While he concurs that the public has a right to question the purchase of the vehicles especially given Nigeria’s current post-petrol subsidy era, the senator said the cars are needed for official work.

“But for me, I come to serve and in serving the people, my major constitutional rule is oversight and making laws,” Ndume added.

“If I have to do that effectively, then I need a vehicle that would enable me to do that effectively. That is what I think is the idea behind buying the vehicles.”

“But it is not new that public servants, especially in the rank of ministers, and heads of parastatals get vehicles,” he said.

Senator Ndume, however, said over the years, the cost of buying such vehicles has continued to rise.

Away from this, he is calling on President Bola Tinubu to sign an executive order on unexplained wealth.

“I have tried several times [to introduce a bill on unexplained wealth] but you know, there were excuses here and there,” Ndume, the Senate Chief Whip said.

“I think the best way to get this across is when the bill comes from the executive or in the interim, the current president should sign an executive bill on unexplained wealth.”

Is life a freak accident, with no explanation, no reason, and no one to blame? Is it random?

Reminds me of an elderly couple, who were childless, but fond of their neighbor’s daughter and used to take her to the beach every Sunday to have fun. December, 26th 2004. A tsunami occurred, it was the last they were seen of. The young girl was sick that Sunday and couldn’t go. Was it her fortune or misfortune that she got ill that day?

One can only realize the outcome of a situation in the future. Is everything part of the design, are there coincidences and consequences?

The concluded polls, at various levels, have been contested the Supreme Court has put the Almighty presidential polls to rest. We will be dealt another dessert as there will also in some weeks some half a hand guber polls, namely Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa states. Each poll presents another moment to take steps…, while I have refused to discuss the elections, not as an act of cowardice, but truly, who am I, to discuss, an election many thoughts were a function of “go and verify”, and many others see as their “mandate” has further divided the nation or one that has realigned the nation.

Who am I, especially when I am not on a praise-singing mission like many want to do…

Who am I to discuss elections when in the next few weeks, 40,000 policemen will be deployed for a civil-related exercise?

However with each passing day, I know that I am compelled to make my opinion known, and it’s not just my opinion but that of many Nigerians. And I make these comments so that someday in the future when I am asked what I say or do, these words would hold me liable. I will not sit on the fence and watch, I will talk, I will write and let my words stand for posterity.

Very quickly, let me say, with these elections, we may have made a comparative tangible responsive, and responsible movement in the democratic field, even though at great expense.

To Mr. Tinubu and the renewed hope agents—The questions are not far-fetched: will Mr. Tinubu, be far from being a ‘yes man’ and be far from the business-as-usual set of leaders that have plagued this nation?

To the Tinubu praise singers that have simply caught the messiah bug. I am surprised some people have not called him a ‘god’. The expectations are high, and for a nation that has for decades lived below its potential we have a right to expect much but sadly we are again (saddled with our permission) a government that ‘prays’ seriously will not be largely a deceptive one.

With a wry smile, it is at this point that I make a detour and say but…this essay is not about Mr. Tinubu. This is about the governors, those men who collect billions in security votes, those men who always blame their predecessors even when they are succeeding themselves. The men that have all kinds of excuses…

How many of the ‘new’ governors have not just by their will but by powers granted them constitutionally, the guts to tread a new path–or are we still going to tow the known path? It is the only road we know for now…road contracts that will be abandoned, and commissioning of hospitals without facilities. Schools that would be neglected, strike within various sectors of the economy amongst many shortfalls and long falls that characterize the state level, with a couple of its fair share of ‘elephant and hippo’ projects.

There may be little Mr. Tinubu can do about the National Assembly and their outrageous million naira salaries for doing nothing, but hopefully, he can do more than negotiate more than 35,000 for another set called civil servants that do at least a ‘small thing’.

However, a big question would be, does anyone think that there is one state that would do things differently, the answer is, that we need a re-think. We do not need a soothsayer to tell us that the best that we have now is a conglomeration of deceit…re-congregated elite in many states and at best many that have been out of power and are coming with vengeance to chop.

A cursory look at the first few statements, interviews, and campaign promises of the Tinubu-led APC, raises both hope and fear, but the reality is tough, very tough!

Already there is a call for time and patience, how much of it, we have; only time will tell, and while I have argued that a change in government, if free, fair, and credible does not mean that government should restart its engine. On the contrary, it calls for a re-fuelling and moving ahead. Our experience is that across many states, the government has had to start all over again and the same old music is remixed, and a few months after we notice the same old thread in action.

And fearfully, the same issues that the last administration sought to solve or made comics of, are the same ones we are facing again.

However, like Mr. Tinubu, many governors are blessed as Nigerians are so divided on the real issues by religion, ethnicity, nepotism, chopism, and other selfish modules.

Tinubu and his team must not just have the plan, the will; it simply must pay more than lip service to hope…not just like a laborer changes his shirt day by day without choice to the same work wear he is used in more than 60 long years.

At the state level governors must urgently and comprehensively address the job issue, and improve the business of government and governance. There must be workable plans that will translate to the provision of housing, water, and education for all Nigerian children to the Senior Secondary School grade at least.

With more billions spent, electricity domesticated to all levels, will governors use their state structures to make energy available, reliable, and affordable?

I beg to re-echo again that there is an honest search for understanding, education, organization, and action that raises the cost of state and casual violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change. There would be no answers; rather we would continually be plagued by the same questions and problems I highlighted in the paragraphs above.

Because while we want to blame the federal government and are quick to lay out how the bulk is at the president’s table, we forget that the governors must effectively manage or halt social disruptions that threaten the mutual co-existence of a people or we will watch almost helplessly as human inequality increases, social justice decays and poverty increases.

Mr. Tinubu is not going to solve our problems, like Mr. Buhari before him, he will not disappoint failure. However if the administration can join the speed train age and stop the government from celebrating borehole water in communities that deserve more…then not only will I eat my words, but threaten governors to do even better.

Finally Mr. President and particularly your excellencies across some 30 states, you are not under obligation to read or listen to me. Besides you are not the root cause of why after 16 years of democracy, we are still a nation of potential and little in achievement. You cannot do anything about it…but certainly, you can do something…You cannot surprise many of us who do not believe in you. But you can shut us up by performing. May Nigeria Win!